Off The Charts

Last week we took Eleana to the Dr. for her 2 month check up and shots. One of the ladies took Eleana and put her on the scale to measured her weight and turned around to put her on the table and measured her length. The lady then wrote the numbers on the table and said, "Welp, she's off the charts!".

At 2 months she is "off the charts" at 14lbs 7oz and 25 inches long.
When she was born she was 7lbs 14.9oz. and 21 inchs long.
She is in the HIGH 98% ht and wt.

After she called my baby fat she put Eleana on the table and got her ready for her shots. I was not ready to see my daughter cry from someone hurting her. She needed shots, one in one leg and 2 in the other.

As soon as the 1st needle touched her skin Eleana made a face I never want to see again. She opened her mouth as wide as she could but no sounds were coming out. As the 2nd needle went into the other leg she screamed as loud as her little lungs would let her. The 3rd shot was quickly after the 2nd and the nurse quickly told me to pick her up. All I could do was hold her as tight as I could as her high pitch scream instantly sent me into tears.

We all cried for a while and then tried to calm each other down. Going to the Dr. for her shots is not something I am going to get used to.

onenineimages

This is an amazing video done by Stuart Atkins to show the skill of my friend Andy Brophy.

onenineimages from stuart atkins on Vimeo.

Little Talker

Eleana is becoming a little talker and it is awesome. She starts in the morning with smiles and stories.

Which reminds me that the other amazing thing is she is doing is smiling like crazy. She will smile back at you if you smile at her. Sometimes I feel like she is trying to get us to smile at her. She just will look right at us and just smile ear to ear (I think she has my big smile).

Once she is nice and awake she will start talking away. She will tell us about what she dreamed about, what she wants to do that day, and about how much she loves us. Even if we walk away for a little bit she will still talk to make sure we hear every thing she is saying.

I can't wait to hear her 1st words and find out what her little voice will sound like when she starts putting words together and forming sentences.

I love my little talker.

Parker Fam

The Parker Family have become good friends of ours. Andrew actually was the RD of Myers Hall before I got here. He has taught me everything I know about Myers :) and now he is teaching me how to raise a baby girl.

The Parkers are wonderful people and I am so glad I was able to capture these great moments for them.

Update

Eleana is doing awesome. We are loving the new life as parents and learning a lot. Our daughter has grown so much and we can't believe how quickly she is growing out of clothes.

I really want her to grow up, but I love having her be so small.

Just got done with a birdbath.

Napping with mom

Napping with dad

Pumpkin Butt

This is an outfit Leanne wore when she was a little girl.

God Has Answered

Eleana Marie Torres

Sept 15th. 7lb 14.9 oz 21 inch 10:39 pm.

Pronounced el-ee-AH-nah.

It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is

"God has answered"

It's amazing to think of how God Has Answered so many of our prayers. Some big and some small, but nonetheless He has answered them all.

The most recent miracle in our life is our new baby girl, Eleana! She is AWESOME!

Every time I hold her I am in awe of how amazing she is... she is so tiny, so soft, so fragile and so beautiful. Even though she doesn't do much I could stare at her all day. I can't believe she is my daughter, but I am so happy that she is.

God Thank you for hearing and answering our prayers

I'm a DAD!

I am offically a dad!

Moving Along

It's about the middle of September and things are moving along just fine. Leanne is still with baby, soccer season is fun and crazy, my RA's are still excited, and the residents are pumped about the school year starting.

The due date for the baby is the 19th of this month, so we are heading into the home stretch. Leanne would like the baby to come now or like yesterday. She is really starting to feel uncomfortable, but I think she is handling it like a champ... plus she still looks amazing!

We are off to a rough start for the soccer season. We have had 5 games and we (the girls team) just got our 1st goal yesterday. We also got our 1st non-lost yesterday... we tied 1-1. There are a few girls that are on the injured list that need to get healthy and a few other girls who just have to adjust to college ball. Conference starts in a few weeks so we are hoping everyone is ready by then.

My RA's and residents are all stoked about campus life. There have been a lot of activities to do on campus, we have had some fun dorm events, and everyone seems to love making new friends. I am excited to how the rest of the year goes.

5 Years

It has been 5 years since we stood in front of the church, holding hands, exchanged vows and agreed to be with each other for the rest of our lives. Yesterday we celebrated our 5th year of marriage. The past 5 years have been awesome and I can't wait for the next 5. I have no clue what is in store, but it doesn't matter if I have Leanne next to me every step of the way.

I love you Leanne!We're going to have a baby soon!!!

Int'l Students

Once again we have a great group of Freshman International students. I can't wait to get to know them better.

New Staff

I took my new staff out to eat and we all agreed to get all dressed up for the special occasion. The funny thing is we went to a Pizza King, a pizza place that wouldn't think twice if you came in with no shirt on... it's not that bad, but we were way over dressed. Since we were all dressed up we took some pictures too. We had a blast.

Myers Hall Staff 2009-2010

Kellee 1st floor

D.K. 2nd Floor

Lu Kang 1st floor

T-Ko 3rd Floor

S-Bo 3rd floor

Caleb 2nd Floor

Youth miniStarZ

One of the greatest Youth Pastor videos ever made...

Dog Tired

I am so dog tired. As I said before the month of August is so crazy for me with all kinds of RD/RA training and retreats. On top of that soccer started last week which takes up most of my day. Since I am the assistant coach for the women's team I have to be at EVERYTHING they do.

I am running back and forth from the soccer field, to RA training, to lunch, to soccer, to RA stuff, home to say hi and bye to the wife, to dinner, and then back to soccer.

To make things even more ridiculous, in my spare time I am putting together brochures for the CRC office that I also work in.

I am going to bed late and getting up super early. I can't wait until the month of August is over. Please pray for me :)

Retreats...

August is here which means retreats, retreats, and more retreats. So far I have been on two retreats and I still have one more that I know of (I might have 2 more). My job starts August 1 and other than retreats I have meetings upon meetings to go to so that I know what we RD's know what we are doing and so that our RA's know what they are doing. It is a fun and crazy time.

RD RETREAT

Taking some time away from cards for a photo op

Playing some real golf

eating eating and eating some more

RD group shot

DEPARTMENT OF STUDENT LIFE RETREAT

working the camera

Pastor Todd (campus pastor) telling us a great story

DOSL Group Shot

Baby Showers

Baby showers are great. You get to spend time with your awesome friends and family plus they shower you with gift for your new child. So far we have had two showers. The girls here at AU and my family both have thrown shower parties for us. We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl so we are getting really great practical gifts.

Thanks Rachelle, Mom, AU girls, and everyone else.

Leanne is having her shower with her family tomorrow, so baby Torres will be getting even more great gifts.

Thanks again!

Rocker

We just got our new rocker and it is AWESOME! As soon as I set it up Leanne decided to jump right in it and put it to good use. Now we are just waiting for out new crib to come in that people bought for us at our last baby shower. Once the crib gets here the room will really start to feel like a baby room.

10 Years

It has been 10 years since I graduated from Moline High School and I don't feel any older, SIKE(or PSYCHE)! I just got back from my 10 year reunion and many has time changed. People are married, have kids, gotten fat, lost weight, grown facial hair, etc.

It was great seeing people I have not seen and a long time, some have changed a lot and others look just like they did in high school. I fit into the "look the same" category. The worst part about the reunion is talking to people you "knew" in high school, but never really "knew". This causes awkward moments where people don't know what to say and then hover when you are not sure what else to talk about because you already asked the 3 token questions.

1. Where are you know? / Do you still live in town?
2. What do you do? / Where do you work?
3. Do you have any kids?

Thankfully I actually knew people there so not all our conversations where awkward and I got to catch up with people who I haven't seen in along while.

10 years... WOW!

Biker Boy

I can almost call myself a biker boy. I officially have my motorcycle license. It has only taken me a year, but I now can ride a bike whenever I want. The only problem is that I don't have a bike and probably wont for a long time. Either way I am just super excited to almost be a biker boy.

90 minutes

Some of the AU soccer guys got together to play some guys from Indiana Wesleyn University in a full on 90 minute soccer game. The AU soccer guys were short a few guys so they asked me to play with them. I haven't played a real outdoor soccer game since I was in college. When we got to the field we realized we would have no subs so that meant I would be playing the full 90 minutes against younger, faster, younger, stronger, younger, and taller college guys.

At half time Leanne told me I looked like I was not giving it my all and that I was not playing hard enough (even if I am 29 and they are 19). So, 2nd half me and number 13 from the other team started to get really physical. The 1st thing that happened was I threw down the 6 foot monster when we were fighting to win a ball. When he was down on the grown the grabbed grass, got up, and threw it right in my face. The 2nd thing that happened was I slid tackled him hard and once again he got pretty mad. The 3rd thing that happen was he took me out with only 30 seconds left... he slid tackled me from behind.

In the end we lost 5 - 2. I don't know that I want to play a full 90 minutes with no subs against young college soccer guys again anytime soon (or ever). I am sore and I have all kinds of marks up and down my ankle, leg, hips, and ribs.

I hate getting old.

Soccer Camp 2

Soccer Camp was a blast. I coached 19 girls who were in 5th-8th grade. I had one AU soccer girl and one AU soccer guy who helped me throughout the week. We would go over the basics of dribbling, shooting, passing, running, etc. Okay, running was not part of our list, but I made them run anyway. My group of girls ran the more than any other group at camp and they loved it. Manly because the other campers were telling my girls that we where the hardest working group.

What I didn't realize when camp started was that I would only change my underwear, I would get about 4 hours of sleep a night, and the dorm would smell like foot all week long.

It was a great weekend and I can't wait to do it again next year.

Soccer Camp

Another week of soccer camp starts today at AU. This will be my first week of coaching because I had to work at the golf course during the other weeks of camp. I am very excited about doing anything with soccer and since I have never really "coached" soccer this should be a fun experience for me. The only bad thing is I think I have to sleep in the dorm with the kids and away from my wife.

Biking Fun

My buddy Shawn and I went out biking the other day and decided to dedicate the video to Michael Jackson.

Here is the video.

Deer Blog

This summer I have been doing a lot of mountain biking, which means I have been seeing a lot of deer in the woods. The 1st time I saw deer on my ride there were two of them. One ran off and the other just looked as us. Kind of like he was saying, "I'm not moving... I was here first".

The 2nd time I saw a deer I turned a corner and there he was just standing in middle of the path. I quickly stopped and it moved off to the side to let me pass. So I just took my time and took video of it on my cell phone.

This last time I was biking I freak out when I almost ran into the deer on my bike. I was looking down because I thought I heard another animal in the brush. When I looked up there was a deer once again chilling on the path. I slammed on my breaks and yell like a little girl because by the time I looked up he was 5 feet in front of me. It was like this guy is not even scared of people. but, he did run after I yelled when I was stopping.

I need to get a deer whistle or something when I go riding.

The M.O.B. (men on bikes)

The M.O.B. stands for Men On Bikes. The "men" are mostly made up of RD's and RD's husbands. But we accept all other men and even other women.

Justin Dean posted a video of him biking which was the first reason why I wanted to make the video. The 2nd reason is because we are watching Long Way Down. A documentary of people riding motorcycles.

Here is a video to show how much fun we have biking.

Week 28

I can't believe it, but we are at week 28! We only have a few more months to go and then we will be welcoming our 1st kid into this world!

The baby loves to kick and if you look close enough you can even see little Cash moving around in Leanne's belly. It is both gross and cool at the same time. It is amazing to think there is something living inside another living person. I am just very thankful it is my wife and not me carrying the baby around in her belly.

Leanne you are a beautiful and amazing!

This past weekend we hung out at Victory Field in Indy to watch the H.S. State baseball game. Leanne's brother, Ryan, is the head baseball coach for Westfield High School which played in the state game.

The game was amazing. We had perfect weather and a great crowd of supporters. We flooded the first base line with a sea of green to show who we were cheering for.

Not only were we cheering for the team, but we rooted for the batboy who is Ryan's son, A.J.

Ryan is #9 and A.J. is the little kid with the bat.

The family

In the end we lost by one run in extra innings, but is was an great game. Way to go Westfield High baseball team!

Shoe Oops

The other day I got asked to come into work (at my summer job at a golf course) on a short notice. After getting dressed I grabbed my shoes and ran out the door. As I started tying my shoes I realized I had two different pairs on. Since I was half way to work and needed to be there soon, I decided to suck it up and rock Puma and Adidas at the same time. Lucky for me I work behind a counter so no one really noticed.

Amazing Belly

My wife's belly is AMAZING! She is so beautiful besides the fact that she is carrying a baby.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MY WIFE'S BELLY:

Naming The Kid

So far we call our kid CASH. It is short for cashew because that is what it looked like when it was super small. If it is a boy we are going to name it after my Dad and I; Jose. We still don't have a girl name, she might just keep the name Cash or Jose.

Unknown Sex

We are waiting until birth to find out the sex Cash. But, I know we are having a girl. The other day I was talking to Cash and asked if he is a he to kick once, but if she is a she to kick twice. She kicked 2 times!

Late Night Snacks

Leanne has random cravings for ice cream, hot dogs, sour patch kids, donuts, and a lot more of really good food we both can enjoy late at night or anytime of the day.

New Clothes

I love seeing my wife in clothes that show her belly. I bought her 2 dresses that look amazing on her (including the green one in the pictures).

Kicking Baby

I am sure I like this more than Leanne because I am not the one getting kicked all the time. I love feeling and watching Cash kick. It just shows Cash is ready to get out of the belly and on to a soccer field.

I can't wait to experience all the joys that come with being a Dad

Terminator Salvation

What an amazing movie! If you have not gone and seen Terminator Salvation you need to! But before you do, watch all the previous movies for both reason of knowledge of the movies and to laugh at the "special effects" in the original Terminator movie.

Pros: LOTS OF ACTION, non-stop action

Cons: kind of Transformerish

Almost A Biker

I am almost a biker. Last year for my birthday Leanne signed me up at Indiana Motorcycle Operator Safety Education Program so I could learn how to ride a motorcycle. It was awesome. I went from knowing nothing about bikes or how to ride one to Motorcycle Rider Course Graduate in one weekend!

Thank you for my birthday gift.

This Paper showed I passed the course!

These are the cool patches I can put on my motorcycle jacket (if I had a cool motorcycle jacket)

This paper is my permit to ride a bike!

Maybe this year Leanne will get me a motorcycle when I get my license in 30 days from now!

My brother Mario is also going to take the class and is already looking at bikes. I can't wait for the day I can ride a motorcycle next to my big bro!

Peeling

peeling sucks and it is gross. It really doesn't make me feel good when my wife says "gross, get away from me". Maybe I should really start thinking about using sunblock.

Palmers

Trent and Becca are amazing people. They are two of the most fun loving people you will ever meet. I had a great time taking their pictures around Anderson, IN and Anderson University. There is never a dull moment when you have the Palmers around.

Sunburn and blisters

Last week I was out helping with the soccer field. We are expanding it by removing the old track that used to go around it. We are moving out old dirt, putting down new dirt, making it level and then adding grass seed to it. This has been going on for a month now, but last week was the worst.

It was so hot and we were using rakes to smooth out the ground for the seed to be put down. I could feel the sun beating down on me as I was working with my shirt off. Now my skin is peeling off because I got a really bad sunburn. I could also feel the skin on my hands blistering up as I push and pull the dirt around using a rake with no gloves.

Leanne thinks it funny because she told me to put sunblock on before I work. oh well.

Riding the Trails

I am super excited about biking.  I have always like biking, but now I am addicted to the trails here in Anderson.  They are dirt trails in the woods.  What makes them so great is that they have 3 levels; beginner, intermediate and expert.

It is about a 15 minute ride from AU to the trails which is a good warm up.  Once you are one the trials it is about a 30 minute ride on the intermediate trails and about 1 hour on the expert trails.

 

A group of us guys go on the intermediate trails because this is their first time ever really riding “off road”.  They mostly stick to walking/running paths, so these trails have been a big change of pace for them.  I ride with Trent, Andrew, Adam, Joe and/or any one else that wants to go with me.  Not everyone goes all the time or at the same time which is unfortunate because it is so much more fun with a large group of people riding together.

 

The best part about riding might have to be when someone crashes (and thankfully is okay).  One guy did a Superman over the front of his handlebars coming down a hill, another crashed right into a tree, and one guy even fell off a (little) bridge into a creek.  I have yet the privilege to have a cool crash story.

 

If you are in town are come to visit I would love to go biking with ya, just bring a helmet.

QC Time 2

I love going to the Quad Cities. I enjoying seeing family, friends, babies, eating moms food and eating at places that only exist in the QC. I only hate that I have such little time to be there because I want to go see everyone and I have no time to fit everyone/thing in.

Since it was Memorial weekend we did get to say until Monday which was awesome. We got to see my dad, mom, grandparents, aunts, cousins, friends and their 6 month old babies. We got to eat at Hungry Hobo, Happy Joe's, and Whitey's Ice Cream (twice).

Also, we got to see our friends play some music at a lot hot spot in the QC.

One of the most exciting things I did while in the QC was take pictures of my niece Lexys. It was fun watching her have a big smile on her face to quickly switch and pose as if she is on America's Next Top Model. It was SOOO fun.

I love the Quad Cities!

QC Time

Leanne and I made it safely to the got Quad Cities last night.  We are staying at my brothers house with his amazing family.  I am super excited about being here, seeing all my family, the KDB Crew and all their babies.  Today I went on a bike ride with my niece Lexys and she got me lost :)  Not really, we just took the long way around to get back home.  When we came back home from our bike ride Leanne and Rachelle (my SIL) were chilling outside sun bathing.  So far it has been a fun chill day and I am excited about the rest of the weekend.

Growing and Growing

I love seeing Leanne's belly grow!!!

23 weeks

My friend Jon (Tito) Shaft lives in Chicago and I finally got to go see him, his wife and the nice place where they live.  I stopped by their place because, on our way back from Des Moines, I had to take Leanne to Chicago for a conference for work.  It hit me on our way to Chicago to call him and see if they where home; they were!  It was great to see more friends that I haven't seen in a while.

This picture was taken from his apartment window.

Is was great seeing you Jon Shaft family.

Off 2 A Wedding

Leanne and I are off 2 a wedding to see Ashley (a friend from Des Moines, IA) get married in Marshalltown, IA (a town out side of DSM). We had a few hours before the wedding starts so Leanne and I stopped by PANCHERO'S to eat lunch with friends. We stopped by their house to say hello and see their little 1 year old baby boy. We love seeing friends expecially when they live so far away. We only wish we had a few more days to actually go to DSM and see all our old friends we left a year ago.

Here are some pictures from our trip so far.

School Is Out

Last week was finals week at AU which also meant students were moving out of the dorms. All week it was like a zoo in the dorm. You have students staying up super late because they had just a few finals. Then you had other students staying up super late because they had 5 finals and not enough time to study.

I had no clue what finals/move out week was like so I did not know what to expect. Some stuff was easy and other stuff made me want to punch someone... I mean something. Now that I have a year under my belt I can prepare ahead of time to make thing go smoothly.

I am so ready for summer to be here so I can spend more time with my wife!

ONE YEAR DOWN!

Growing Belly

This Is Leanne's Belly Growing!!! I'm So Excited!

Spring Pictures

Spring Is here. I took these pictures a few weeks ago.

Just A Few More Weeks

The year is coming to an end and everyone keeps saying, "Just a few more weeks". The students are ready to be done with school, facilty/staff are ready to be done with students, and I'm just ready for nice weather.

The students get out at the beginning of May, I work until the end of the month. We have to make sure the dorms are in good shape and have a lot of end of the year meetings. I will then try and find a job that will hire me for 2 months to make extra money before the baby gets here in Sept. One of my friends thinks he can get me a job at a golf course cleaning golf carts (I am game for anything).

Just a few more weeks and the campus will be completely different. Students will be gone, no more chapel, Smalls (our dog) will have no one to bark at, and Leanne's belly will be a little bit bigger.

It's been a good year.

Show Time

It is that time of the pregnancy where Leanne is starting to show!!!

Hoosier Daddy

It is official, I am now a HOOSIER.  And I am going to be a daddy in Sept.

True of False: In Indiana one can no longer smile for the pictures of your driver license? 

This is a TRUE!  They can now scan your face and your picture to tell if it is really you or not; CRAZY!  That sounds like movie stuff to me.  Leanne had to take her picture 2 or 3 times because the computer did not record her face correctly.  Everything has to be just right when you take the picture.  No teeth can show, hair has to be out of the way, your chin has to be down, shirt tucked in.... okay, they don't care about your shirt, but they have a lot of rule before you can walk out with a picture on your license.   I got my picture taken in one try, cameras love me.  Is it like this for you too?

Baby Canfield

Congrats to the Canfields on their new baby!

Family Picture.  Mom, Dad, Baby, and Dog.

Dad's Finger

Baby C with Great Grandma

Canfields

These are some pictures I took of our good friends.  These are taken 2-3 weeks before they were due.  They are fun people who love to laugh which made the shoot incredibly exciting to do.  Took these pictures downtown Anderson.

Going To Be A Soccer Player

I am going to be a DAD!!!

Leanne is due in Sept!

We had been trying to have a baby for almost 2 years with no luck, which ended up being a great thing. If we had a baby on "our" time schedule we would be up a creek without a paddle. Why? Because we would have been in Des Moines, Iowa with out jobs and a baby on the way.  That would have been messed up.

God knew to wait until we both had steady jobs and we could take care of a baby.

We are SUPER excited about welcoming our child into the world come the next school year.

Alcohol

Check out the web site below to find out what has been happening on the Campus of Anderson University (we made the news).

http://www.fox59.com/pages/video/?clipId=3584244&topVideoCatNo=96918&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv

A few weeks ago we had elections for next years new Student Body President and VP. It came down to two groups. One of which truly wants their "voice to be heard". They did not win the position for next year, but they did get the attention of people on campus because they wanted the alcohol policy to change.

SGA (student government association) decide to have an Alcohol Forum for the students voice to be heard (Which happen last night). This was a time to ask questions about why our policy is how it is.

This was not enough for the students who still wanted their voice to be heard. So on Tuesday the day before the Alcohol Forum they protested in front of the chapel (as students were walking to chapel). Once chapel started the group of students walked downtown to a bar and purposely broke an AU policy to make their voice be heard.

There is still a lot going on, but now you know what has been happening at Anderson University.

Also check out...

http://indianabrew.com/blog/?p=28

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-andersonalcohol,0,738343.story

http://www.anderson.edu/w/news/2009/au-students-and-administrators-discuss-alcohol-policy

http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_083222841.html

http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_083152326.html

DC Trip

DC was amazing!  It was so cool to be in a place where there is so much history.  I GOT TO SEE THE WHITE HOUSE and so much more.  Our group stayed at a church, we road the metro train into DC and then walked everywhere.  I loved it.

We got to see both the front and the back of the the White House but we never got to see the President.

The metro train

Leanne loving her ride on the metro

We went to an art museum 

We ate at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl!

umm... 

we ate street hot dogs... very good!

we got to see a lot of the memorials and landmarks

The Capital Building

The Washington Memorial 

The Lincoln Memorial

THe Vietnam Memorial

THe Tomb of the unknown solders and the changing of the guards

The best part probably had to be that Leanne got her Caribou Coffee!