Baptism

Another Ryan & Karina exclusive picture, Samuel was baptised when he was about 15 hours old.

Welcome!

Stats

I know there's a real good chance I'm the only one who cares, but I'll proceed with this post anyway.
I'll post another picture to make up for it.

So, here is a graph (thanks to Google) of the visits to the blog. Of interest is the small spike on February 1st.



Here is another interesting graphic from Google Analytics - this represents where the visits to this blog are coming from. Nothing outside of the U.S. yet. Don't know who that is up in Alaska (Who are you?).

Ok, here's the interesting part. See that huge dot right over Houston, TX? That one dot alone makes up 66% of all the traffic to this site (cumulative). It could be that for some reason over half of the traffic in the US is being routed through Houston on its way to this blog. Or it could be some good friends of ours have busy fingers. Hmmm.

Anyway, thanks for coming, and for the comments and emails. It's been good to hear from you - some that we see everyday, some that we haven't seen in years. The Lord blesses not only us with your presence, but Samuel as well.

Samuel and Daddy

Working tirelessly to bring you the pictures you want. Samuel helps with clever caption ideas.

Impromptu bath

Samuel got a little bath earlier this morning. He didn't think it was that great.

Sleeping at home

Samuel likes his new crib.

Ryan, Marcos & Samuel

Thank you to Ryan & Karina for adding this and 16 other pictures to our collection (on our computer). In the interests of avoiding diarrhea of the blog, I'll forego posting them all (although something tells me no one would mind).

5-8 lbs my tiny butt.

Beware the outfit's stated weight.

At 30 hours

Yawn...We were very tired last night as we really didn't sleep much at all Wednesday night. Hannah hadn't really slept at all for about 36 hrs and I only had about 3-4hrs of naps during that time. So we sent Samuel to network with his peers in the nursery last night. We felt it was a good business experience for him, and while not really based in reality in terms of our life in the next 2 months (2 years?), it gave us a chance to catch up on some sleep before we go home today. And we did just that, feeling much better this morning.

The Family Machado

It took us a while last night to realize that we didn't yet have a picture of the 3 of us.

The Grandmas

The Grandmas. Samuel like.

Aunt Karina & Uncle Ryan

Grandma Irene, Ryan, and Karina stopped by yesterday and visited for a while. Look at the technique Ryan uses to hold the baby - fantastic.

Grandson Samuel

Sleeping Samuel

For Aunt Bethany, here is a more recent picture - about 11 hours old.

Hannah & Samuel

First meeting.

Samuel Eduardo Machado

Born February 1, 2007 at 1:30am. 6 lbs, 14 oz. 19in. Mother & child doing well!

In the hospital...

Well, we're in the hospital and its only a matter of time. Updates as news becomes available.

Last month update

Well, its been almost a month since I've posted anything. I say this is because of lack of content (I know, I know...that hasn't stopped me before), but really a lot has gone on, baby-related and otherwise. I've had a pretty lite rotation for the last 4 weeks and if there was anytime I was going to put up mad blog posts, it was then. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get busy....

In good blogging etiquette (thus saith Liz), I will try to stick to news for which I have a picture.

Well, as you may know, Christmas came and went and we were blessed enough to spend our first Christmas in our new house with a genuine artificial Christmas tree. See the difference:

Christmas 2005:

Christmas 2006:

It's like we're real people.

And as if that wasn't enough, take a look at our Winter Wonderland, right in our own front yard:

A tear to my eye...








Meanwhile, my String of Pearls plant has decided to put for some blooms this year. Like you care.














We got the chance to spend some time on both sides of Michigan. We had Christmas with both Chad and Bethany














...as well as with Ryan and Karina.














We also were fortunate enough to spend some time with the Kings from St. Louis..

...and the Popovits' all the way up from Texas.

Hannah had two showers, one in Flushing and one in Hudsonville (not shown).

Apparently due to a crafting accident during the shower, we will have no shortage of ornaments for the tree next year.

Finally, I end with some pictures I took today of the nursery. We're pretty much ready to go. Of note in the pictures is the window shade (whats that? no cords?), the window (whats that? condensation?), the room light (thanks to our resident electrician), and book on the rocker (from our St. Louis baby shower).

So, that's us. Sorry for the psycho formatting of this post - too many pictures. I'm not even going to try to fix it.

The new Crib

Big thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Spatz for the gift of our new crib!  It arrived yesterday and we set it up last night.  Our matching dresser came a couple days ago and you can see it in the left hand corner.
We're finally getting to the point where the "baby things" in the nursery outweigh the "extra crap" we've been keeping in there.

Marcos: Mechanic guy

Yea, thats me.  Just replacing the thermostat thingie on my car.  Yup.  Look I even had to take off that big plastic thingie.  And  the car still works, and gets better mileage now.  So there.

Tree Huggers

Well this post has nothing to do with the baby, but I haven't posted anything in a while (due to my medicine rotation). Ryan and Karina have a new tree in their yard, thanks to a local forest and a precarious trip in a small Mitsubishi.

Yes, I'm jealous. I transplanted a fairly well established tree from behind our shed to the middle of the back yard, and I'm fairly certain its not going to make it. It might already be dead, but I still hold on to the hope that it will return in the spring.

(insert insightful commentary here about hope/spring/trees)

Pack and Play in the wild

The Pack and Play given to us a week ago has now been assembled (and subsequently disassembled) in our living room. Heavy bugger...

St. Louis Trip - 4

The happy couple.

St. Louis Trip - 3

Brother Marcos holds one of the native's braves.

St. Louis Trip - 2

One little, two little indians. 

St. Louis Trip - 1

Our previous small group in St. Louis threw us a baby shower, in the theme of Thanksgiving.  So we had a big turkey dinner complete with costumes and turkey related crafts.  More pics to follow.

Vacation!

Praise the Lord, tonight Hannah and I leave for a short vacation. We're spending the night at Jared and Kristen VanNoord's house near Chicago and then heading down to St. Louis to visit family and friends as well as go to a show, and I have a conference to go to on Friday. Then Saturday we head to my (Marcos) mom's house for a wedding (my best friend from high school). And back home on Sunday.
We're excited....

New car, painted nursery

Well, most of the nursery got a second coat yesterday (one wall got its first coat). We painted quick before we headed over to Hudsonville to pick up our new (to us) 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix SE. Thats right: SE. Thats Special Edition for those not in the know. Whats special? Well the inside is kinda dirty, thats pretty special. There are huge, made in 2000 buttons on the steering wheel - thats pretty special. Power seats even. Special. A far cry from the Mazda.

So now to sell the van (see previous posting).

Picture of the new car to come. The outside only - the body looks really good.

Painting the Nursery

Masks donned, we paint.

Readying the Nursery

We've begun the process of painting the nursery.  We've chosen a lovely sage green to accurately reflect our baby's sex.  First step is a lot of taping.  Oh, and we need to buy some brushes.

And era comes to an end...

Wanna buy a van?

Yes, the 1991 Astro van that we all know and love is up on the chopping block, as we are soon to be the proud owners of a much smaller and more fuel efficient vehicle, a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix.

I've posted on Google Base as well as Craigslist. So tell your (low income) friends. Or high income friends who need a car for the winter - AWD baby! and Heat!