Category: Christine & John

Posted on by John

Halloween came and went this year, and it was Jack’s second halloween, and Grayson and Maly’s first.

They were all so cute.

Jack was a race car driver and Maly was a Purple Dinosaur:

Grayson was a baby frankenstein:

Maly and Grayson were really just along for the ride, but I think Jack sort of got what we were doing by the second or third house. Here’s a photo of Jack getting his first piece of candy on his own during Halloween:

The funny thing is that after getting a piece of candy from the neighbors, he actually went inside their house almost like he thought we were just going over for a visit. And since they don’t have kids, I think he figured out we weren’t there to visit when he realized they didn’t have any toys out 😉

Like I said, Jack really seemed to have fun:

And Josh, Elise, Christine and I also had fun taking the kids out for Halloween.

Here’s the rest of the photos from the night.

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Posted on by John

I took my laptop into the shop this week, and forgot to get all the photos I took between when Grayson was born and Monday off of it, so I haven’t posted a lot of photos from the hospital and the ride home, and the first week at home, so here are some photos from this past week:

  • Christine and Jack playing outside – These came out pretty good… Jack was crying because I took something away from him he should haven’t, so Christine got down and started playing with him. That tear wouldn’t drop off his cheek, but I thought it was cute.
  • Jack’s Train – look through the series… Jack loves his train, but you can see that it only takes him about 5 minutes of playing with it to want to tear the track apart, only to rebuild it. This kid’s going to go into demolition, I think.
  • Heidi and Phyllis come to visit – Our good friends Heidi and Phyllis, who I’ve worked with in at least two different companies, came to visit us this week on Thursday. Grayson got along well with both of them 😉
  • Kids Playing – Heidi’s kids, Norah and Mason, and Jack were playing in the neighbor’s front Yard. They played chase, with each falling on their own, and then the next one falling and finally the third, just to get up and do it all again!
  • Grayson and Wesley on the couch. We have some of Jack like this when Jack was tiny.
  • Jack, my little Cub – I bought this hat for Jack last summer when I worked for 24/7 Real Media and my boss, Robert Hess, took us all out to a Cubs game as a team building thing. Great game, and great hat… Jack can just now get away with wearing it. I think I’ll buy Jack a St. Louis Cardinals hat next time I go visit them.
  • Jack taking photos of his little brother. Jack shared his truck with Grayson, and then started taking photos. It was the cutest thing. If you look closely, you’ll notice that when Jack takes a photo of someone, he’s actually taking a photo of his nose (he holds the camera so that it faces him, not his subject, but we’re not picky around here 😉 ).

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Posted on by John

This week has been really great for Christine, Jack, Grayson and I. Especially for me.

I’ve gotten to bond with Grayson and Jack and I’m really thankful that I work for a company that’s supportive of family and understands how important family is to me.

Ok, that out of the way.

I thought you might want to hear how Jack says “baby brother” so here it is:

Click to download the MP3 of Jack saying “Baby Brother”.

Heh, who do you think he sounds like?

And since I had a few minutes, here’s a video of Jack and Grayson on the dining room table:

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Posted on by John

Last week was heaven. Thanks in large part to Nana and Papa.

Christine and Grayson came home from the hospital on Monday, October 16th around 3:00. Michael, Christine brother that flew in from New Orleans on Saturday after Grayson was born, drove our car up to the hospital for us, came up to the room and helped us pack ourselves out, and then drove the other car home.

Grayson was soooo small in the car seat, but he was too cute too. Christine sat in the back seat with him and sang to him as we drove the 10 or 12 blocks from the hospital to the house.

When we got home, Frank and Mary were there to greet us with Wesley and Patton.

Once we were home, we quickly settled into a routine. The routine with Grayson is a little different than it was with Jack. Mainly because we now get to play with Jack where we used to take naps 😉

Actually, Mary was a huge help with the baby the first week. Christine remarked on Sunday how she realized as Mary and Frank were leaving that she didn’t even really change a diaper for that first week. Mary pretty much took over taking care of Grayson and Jack while Christine healed, and I went to work for that first week.

Frank was in charge of helping out around the house with little handywork projects, and cooking. He also was in charge of helping me smoke the cigars we got to celebrate Grayson’s arrival.

Jack was in charge of being cute, and helping take care of his “baby brother”. He’s doing pretty good at it too.

Grayson was responsible for telling us when he was hungry, wet, poopy or tired. He was also respondible for sleeping as long as possible between being hungry, wet, poopy or tired. We gave him his first bath, and had his first doctor’s appointment.

I got to sleep a full night of sleep every night that first week, and Christine got plenty of sleep too. All thanks to Mary.

Then, on Sunday Mary and Frank went home to Dallas.

On Sunday night, Christine and I had to finally start learning how to be real parents to two kids at the same time.

Sunday night and Monday weren’t too bad. Christine and I took turns sleeping through the night, though, I think I got plenty of sleep. Christine woke me up at 8 or so, saying she’d been up since 5 a.m. So, I took Jack outside around 9 a.m. to play while Christine and Grayson slept.

At 10:00, Heidi, our neighbor, brought her twins Mason and Norah over to play in the sandbox. I realized I’d locked myself out of the house, so we all went over to their house to play. Jack had a blast playing with the kids, and we let Christine get some good rest.

Around noon, Christine and Grayson joined us all for lunch at Heidi’s (Heidi cooked us all some mean grilled cheese sandwiches and apple slices).

Then Jack took a nap. I took a phone call for work, and then took the MacBookPro into the Apple Store for repairs. When I got home, Jack was waking up, and we headed back out in the front yard to play. Norah and Mason joined us again, and the kids played chase in another neighbor’s front yard, until it was dinner time.

Marc and Rowan came over for dinner on Monday night, because Marc had to pick Cyndi and their baby daughter up at the airport. I cooked a hearty pot of Macaroni and Cheese and some hotdogs and broccoli. Ummmm… so healthy!

Last night, Jack went down a little late at 8:45 p.m. (he was a little wound up after playing with Rowan) and then Grayson woke up around 10:30 to eat. Then the poor guy ate a little, pooped a little, burped a little, and then did it all again… until 1:30 in the morning. I finally got him to sleep around 2:30 a.m. after walking around the house with him for an hour on my shoulder. Once I had him asleep I was worried that he’d wake up again if I put him in the basinet, so we fell asleep on the couch, and the whole house slept until 6 a.m. this morning.

Christine got up and took over for me for a couple of hours, and then I helped her get Jack out to door to school.

I’m going to take another nap now.

It’s funny… we’ve done this before, but now we’re learning how to do it again, differently.

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Posted on by John

On Saturday morning, at 5:57 a.m. Christine gave birth to our newest son:


Grayson Garman Engler

Grayson weighed 9 pounds at birth and was 21 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair and dark dark blue eyes.

Christine was awesome during the labor and delivery. She really did a great job, and I’m very proud of her.

We spent Saturday resting and visiting with family and friends, and Saturday night resting. We got upgraded to the suite at St. David’s. If you ever have a baby there, and get the chance to get into the suite… totally take advantage of it.

I got to sleep on a full sized pull-out couch, and we have plenty of room for visiting friends and family.

On Sunday, we rested more, and visited more family and friends…

Grayson is adorable (no, I’m not biased) and we all think that at first he didn’t look anything like Jack when Jack was born, but I’m starting to see resemblances as Grayson turns a day old, and now a day and a half.

He’s also got a very healthy appetite and is a much better eater than Jack was right at birth. Within 30 minutes of being born, the kid was already on mom’s breast trying to eat something. I think it too Jack a few hours to get around to trying to eat.


Thanks everyone for the well wishes. We’re all doing great.

More photos here.

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Posted on by John

So… Things haven’t changed all that much.

We’re still waiting on a baby at this point. But the location has changed. We’re at the hospital now and have been since midnight. (It’s 4 am as I type this)

Will post an update when we know something.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 182 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I took some family photos last night. You can see them here.

I had no idea how hard it is to take photos with a good camera on a timer. Ugh… we’ll have to practice that more.

The good thing was that Jack really enjoyed taking the photos.

We made it a game.

I had the camera on a tripod, and we (Jack and I) would get the camera ready to shoot, then we’d push the button, run to Christine, sit, and then all say “Cheeeeeese” until the flash went off… then run back to the back of the camera, look at the photo, move something here, tweak something there, then push the button again… and run back to Christine.

He thought it was hilarious, and was a great sport about the photos.

All said, we spent about 2 hours taking photos in the living room on Monday night.

(And yes, we’re still waiting on Jack’s little brother to come along.)

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Posted on by John

It’s Sunday night, and Christine and I are still waiting on a baby.

Jack’s little brother isn’t due until next Monday (10/16) but we were both pretty sure that he was going to make an appearance last weekend… nope, we’re still waiting. I think now that I’ve decided to stop traveling, the little guy has decided to hunker down for a few more weeks and stay cozy…

So, let’s see.

Since our last post, a lot has happened. A lot.

I flew to Santa Barabara, CA, again, for work. I was out there for three days. It wasn’t nearly as pretty this time due to the fact that there was a blazing fire a few miles east of us. The westerly winds kept us covered in soot for the entire three days I was out there. But it was good for business.

Then that weekend, it was Peggy’s birthday. She came to visit the lakehouse with Debbie and Raymond, and then stopped by the house to visit Jack on her way home. They had a blast playing in Jack’s room and reading books. Here are some photos from her trip up.

I went to New York City for two days for work. I attended some advertising conferences and trade shows, and spent some time in the New York office. Good trip, but sad too. While I was in New York, Christine called me to tell me Josh’s Dad was in the hospital and it didn’t look good. I spoke to Josh for maybe 5 minutes. We didn’t say many words to each other, but we communicated what needed to be said.

Then, when I got home from New York, I’d learned that David had passed away. Their loss is our loss. I can’t bring myself to write more about David passing right now… it’s still too painful for me. I still don’t know what to say about the event, because I want to say it all, but there are too many raw emotions behind my totally inadequate words. I attended the funeral that weekend. Alan Hillboldt and I drove down to Bellville together. Josh wrote about his loss here. David was a great man and we’ll miss him dearly.

This week was pretty mundane, but not. On Sunday night around 7 p.m., I came down with a fever… that lasted until Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Ugh. I haven’t been laid up in bed sick like that for a long time. I still have a sore-throat. Christine thought she might be in early labor on two days this week. I took Jack to school and picked him up from school on Thursday, because we thought that might be the day. It was nice to see Jack’s teacher and the other parents, but it wasn’t the day. I did get a nice yellow parking ticket though for my troubles.

This weekend, we played with the neighbors a lot, and finished our power-nesting kick. The baby’s nursery is finally ready. The bedding is set, the walls are decorated with appropriate baby stuff. There’s a new shelf on the wall with stuffed animals. Christine has probably washed 50 loads of baby clothes in the past two weeks, and well, I sort of helped.

Like I said, we’re just waiting on a baby.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the past couple of weeks for you:

  • Jack and Wesley – playing in the backyard. Yes, I know the grass is very long. You should see it today!
  • Jack and Peggy – Playing and reading books.
  • NYC – a few photos from the drive to the airport… I really didn’t have time to go out taking photos like I wanted to.
  • Raymond, Debbie and the kids – from an evening out for dinner with the Munks.
  • Water in the Yard – Jack playing with the water hose in the front yard.
  • Fingerpainting – kind of says it all doesn’t it?
  • Nora and Mason – Nora and Mason came over this morning to play.
  • Walking Faces – Faces of Jack and one of him walking with his hands in his pockets (a recent discovery)
  • Neighbors – Jack, Dylan, Nora and Mason playing at Dylan’s house. Jack took a ride in the bike carrier with Dylan too, thanks to Herbert.

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Posted on by John

So, I’ve postd a video every day this week, and I figured I should treat you all to something really special today.

Here are five photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:

  • Jack Playing – photos from this week, of Jack and his mom playing (they were “camping” in Jack’s room in a home-made fort, and then Jack was “taking photos” with his camera, and then playing with cars).
  • Furniture by Stan – Cyndi’s uncle refinished some antique furniture that my mom gave us a while ago. The furniture looks awesome now, and all the drawers work perfectly now mom! Now our guests (and the new baby) will have a place to put their clothes when they come visit.
  • Aggie Jack – the photos from our weekend Aggieland trip.
  • Jack by Erin – Erin took some photos of Jack with her mom, sister, Chrstine and I after church on 8/27. Too fun!
  • In the Sandbox – just some photos of Jack in the sandbox one afternoon.
  • Ben and Jack at Serranos – After church one day, we met Murphy and Amanda at Serranos by accident. We ate inside while Murphy and Amanda (and their guests) watched Jack and Ben, then we came outside and watched the boys while they ate. The boys had sooo much fun playing together.
  • Levy Party – Lori and Herbert threw a party for the kids one weekend afternoon. Lots of water splashing and playing outside.
  • Lakehouse Swimming – We went to visit Debbie and Raymond on August 19th, and I took these photos outside around the pool. Jack just loved swimming this summer!

And, here’s the double whammy… another video for today:

Have a good weekend folks! (We’ll be nesting!)

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 213 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Jack and I play “Get You” at least once a week. Once day last month, I held the camera while chasing him. Gotta love it:

(No animals or children were seriously harmed in the filming of this movie.)

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Posted on by John

It was hotternhell™ this summer. What’s a boy and his dad to do when it’s 100 degrees outside (and has been for three weeks straight)?

Wash the car, or course:

I don’t know that we got the car clean that day, but we did get pretty wet, and had a good time doing it!

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Posted on by John

Jack’s teacher at pre-school, Mrs. Terry, sent Christine two videos via email. I’ve combined them into this movie for you:

Terry told Christine that Jack likes to play a lot at school, and that when he does, it’s usually doing his own thing. He’ll go find something that’s fun to him, and then he’ll try to talk a few of the other kids into doing it with him… yes, I realize he can’t talk yet, but that doesn’t stop him from talking them into doing it.

He’s enjoying school, and that’s what’s important.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 283 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I drove down to College Station on Saturday, to take Jack to his first Aggie game!

Long story short: The Ags won, and Jack had a GREAT time!!!

We got to town around 4:00, picked up Bussy at the mall, and drove to the reserved parking that Bussy has (he didn’t want Christine to have to walk too far, since she’s 8 months pregnant). After parking, we walked over to the quad, saw a few old BQ buddies, and waited for the band to step off.

He didn’t quite know what to do when the band marched by, but he loved every minute of it, even if the drums were a little loud for his taste. (He’ll get used to that).

Then we walked over to the Corps Center to watch the band march by again. Then on to the MSC to get Jack a good Aggie shirt (they’re hard to find in Austin folks). We ended up buying him a regulation 12th man jersey for $40. Why we spent $40 on a size 2T jersey when the shirt I was wearing probably cost $5, I can’t explain…

After cooling off a bit, we went to the car to change diapers and put away the stroller, then on to the game.

After huffing and puffing up two levels, we climbed about twenty steps to get to our seats in row 27 on the second deck on the parents side of Kyle Field. The seats are great! They’re on about the north 35 yard line, two rows down from the sky boxes, and look like they’re always in the shade.

We said “Hi” to Norma and Jake, and then Andy Kollman and one of the Luedke boys showed up to sit in front of us (they’re all from Bellville).

I could just tell Jack was impressed with everything that was going on. About 10 minutes before the game started, I went and bought us all hotdogs and water, and a pretzel. Jack ate a whole hotdog (sans bun) before the game really got started.

We sang “Spirit of Aggieland” with the band, and the National Anthem, and Texas Our Texas, and watched four F-16’s fly over before the game… then it was time for kickoff.

About half-way through the 2nd half, we said our good-byes, and headed towards the car, but we met Mike Elmquist (one of my buddies from the band) at the Reveille graves on the way out. Man it was good to see Mike!

Jack passed out once we got on the road, before we even got out of Bryan. The trip home was uneventful, but, we did get to hear the last few minutes of the Ohio State v. Texas game on the radio once we found the station. In lieu of the radio, Mike Kamp (Chrsitine’s brother) was giving us the play-by-play of the game via text messages on my cell phone (thanks Mike!).

There’s a video from the day if you want to see how much fun Jack had. It’s a big file (about 60MB, so it might take a while to download, but it’s worth it if you want to see his face when the drums marched by, heh!):

Gig ‘Em!

(oh, and by the way, since Texas lost to Ohio State, I’m thinking Thanksgiving will be a fun game this year)

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Posted on by John

You gotta love it when your kid has this much fun brushing his teeth:

More photos here: Brushing Teeth.

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Posted on by John

Christine and I were looking through old photos today. This is one of our favorites:


Kissing Cousins, March 2006.

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