Merry Christmas!!

Hello to all, we hope this finds you well and prepared for the holidays. We decided to try a different type of Christmas card this year, an electronic one on our web page, so...here goes.

This has sure been a whirlwind year for our family as I am sure it has been for a lot of you. We have moved 3 times this year, welcomed our baby boy Max into our lives, Winton is now in the 5th grade, Julie has a new position with Johnson & Johnson, and Lee has been busy working also. We will be spending the holidays in Michigan at our cottage on Lake Michigan. We are expecting a white Christmas, and lots of family for the holidays.

Julie was promoted in February to a Division Manager in charge of 7 employees covering Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, part of Indiana, and part of the U.P. of Michigan. Although her job does require her to travel a bit, we a very glad she is able to spend the majority of her time in Chicago. Julie is an awesome team leader, and is passionate about having a positive impact on the lives of women and the quality of their health care. As far as being a mom, Julie loves being a mom, and is absolutely smitten with Max.

Lee has been working in the executive protection field now for over 2 years. He works with mostly corporate clients, and escorts them throughout their day to ensure that they arrive safely. Lee loves his job also, even though it occasionally takes him away from home for 2 weeks or more. One of the nice things about Lee being a private contractor is that he is able to choose the jobs he takes, which allows him the flexibility of being able to care for Max when Julie may be traveling out of town.

Winton is now in the 5th grade and enjoying school very much. He is attending a charter school in Colorado Springs, and is doing very well. His favorite things to do are: anything outside, especially riding his bike. He still does karate twice per week, and is enjoying the skills and discipline he learns from that instruction.

Max is now 6 ½ months old, and is growing so fast. We can hardly believe it has been that long already since we brought him home from the hospital. He is already starting to stand on his own if you holdout your hand for to pull himself up. He loves his new solid foods, even the green beans. Max also is fascinated and amused by the little person he sees in the mirror. He loves to talk and smile to anyone that will listen to him. He sleeps through the night very well and has been a huge blessing in our lives. We are very thankful for the healthy, happy baby that God has blessed us with.

We will be adding some pictures from the holidays after we are back home and all settled in.

From our family to yours; we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!

Even more Max!!!

Pictures: 1) Max having a good laugh with mom 2) Downtown Chicago with Chad & Michelle 3)Max's puppy dog slippers 4) Mac & Max, friends for life 5) Time to do the laundry.

More of Max!!

Pictures: 1) Uncle Kyle with Max 2) Poppy with Max 3) Hanging out at the beach 4) Looking cool with Uncle Chad's sunglasses

Here's........Max!!

Pictures: 1) After a hard of work 2) What happens when you let kids play with the camera 3) All of us at GPA & GMA Horning's 4) At Lake Michigan this summer

6-27-07 Update

We just wanted to update everyone on how Max is doing. Today he had his 2 week check up and the doctor said he is doing great. He has gained 11ounces and 3/4 of an inch over his birth size in 2 weeks. He now weighs 7lbs 2ounces and is 20 1/4 inches long. The other BIG news of the day is that his cord fel off of his belly button this morning. Lee was changing his diaper early this morning and hadn't noticed that the cord was gone, but in the dim light he saw something in Max's diaper. As he bent down to see what was in his sons diaper he jumped and almost threw Max (not really) because he thought the cord in Max's diaper was a bug. Good thing dad didn't scream. Dont worry Max, he will protect you.

Julie is still doing well, and is getting stronger everyday. She isn't training for any marathons yet but she is doing awesome. She is a great mom with great instincts and much love.

Can't wait to see all of you soon.

Lee, Julie, Winton, and Max

Mister Big Shoes

This picture shows Max wearing his favorite shoes which fit him perfectly, on his way to his first doctors appointment. He has pretty big feet and hands, and his toes and fingers are very long.

Update 6-25-07

Hello all- Lee, Julie, Winton, and Max are all doing great. Max has passed his doctors appointments with flying colors. He is now eating like a champ and keeping mom busy with his viracious appetite. Dad helps where he can by changing diapers and being on burping duty. Max now loves to lay on his back in the family room and look around while his big brother Winton plays.

Max has pretty much initiated everyone by either peeing, pooping, or throwing up on them (in some cases, all three at the same time). We have been very thankful that Max is such a good baby. His sleep schedule has been pretty good. When we first came home from the hospital, he was awake more during the night and sleeping during the day. He has now figured out that he was on the wrong schedule and is now sleeping well at night.

We are most thankful for a healthy baby and the love of our family. Winton is a great big brother, and loves to talk to Max when Max starts to get fussy. The sound of his big brothers voice usually calms Max down. We are also very glad to have Julie's parents and Lee's parents helping out so much during this crazy busy time. We are getting less sleep (like everyone promised) but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

We wish all of you much love, health, and happiness, and we can not wait to see you soon.

Recent pics of Max's first walk and other pictures

We are all home-

We were able to bring Max home from the hospital today Saturday 6-16-07 around 3:30PM. Max loved his first car ride. Figures Julie's company car is now a small compact car. She had a minivan before when we did not have kids. Well we will keep the pictres coming.

Some more pics

And More Pics-

More Pictures

Maxwell Kenneth Horning

Well, we almost felt like choosing a name for this guy was harder than giving birth (easy for Lee to say). We chose Maxwell because we just liked the name (no family history) and we chose Kenneth because that is Lee's first name. We call him Max, and it definitely fits him well.

It's a Boy!!!!!

Well Pnut as he is still known, came flying (almost literally) into this world at 7:26PM on 6-14-07. He weighs 6lbs 13ozs and is 19 1/2 inches long. He currently has reddish/blond hair, and blue eyes. Julie and and Pnut are doing great. Labor lasted about 9 hours and she had 10-15 minutes of pushing, and shazam, there he was. Everything else was normal and other than being slightly low on the weight the doctors are very pleased at how well he is doing.

We will be announcing the name tomorrow.

Still in labor!!

Here is what is going on: They started the Petosin at 9:30AM, and then the contractions started. Man, when they started, they came hard. They decided to break Julie's water at 10:45AM, and then the contractions really got strong. Julie has been doing great and worked through the contractions as long as she could and then at about 12:30PM she asked for and got her epidural. She is able to rest now, and has been at 4 CM for about 3 hours now. The contractions are about 1-2 minutes apart, and Pnut is handling everything great. His heart rate started slowing down so they put Julie on oxygen and he has responded very well to the oxygen and his heart rate is back to normal. We cant wait to see this little guy. It wont be long now we think. If she keeps progressing at this rate, we shoukd have our little Pnut by tonight. Love to all.

Name, we have to have name now?????

We can't wait until we get home to name. We actually have to have name ready for him when he decides to come out?!? Well, we have narrowed it down to one of the OVER 100,000 names in our baby book. We like George, Eli, Rasputin, and Adinanabbedin, but we have not decided for sure. We really dont have a name yet, but we have decided to not sure it until the baby is born, even if we did.
Nite-nite and more to come tomorrow.

Settled In

Well we are at the hospital, it is 10:32 approximately, and Julie is doing well. She has been administered the medicine to get things moving. She is having some contraction sand they are getting slightly stronger, but nothing big yet. The picture is of Julie in the hospital bed sending emails on her Blackberry. Like the Energizer Rabbit. Well, we are going to try to sleep, because tomorrow will be a long day.

Off to the hospital we go!!

25 minutes and we are off to the hospital. We are planning an hour drive, with the unpredictable Chicago traffic. Well, ready or not here we go. This picture is of Julie working right up until 30 minutes before we are leaving for the hospital. We will be there tonight, and then they will induce us tomorrow/Thursday morning at 8AM if labor has not started yet. Love to all.

Not yet........

Well.....the ultrasound went well today . The baby has gained some weight, and he now weighs 6lbs1oz. That now puts him in the 11th percentile (down from the 23rd percentile three weeks ago), so they have scheduled for us to be admitted to the hospital on Wednesday (6-13-07) at 7PM. They will then give Julie some medicine to thin the cervix and they will start the Patosin on Thursday (6-14-07) morning at 8AM if labor has not begun yet. The baby is still healthy as far as they can tell. All test show that he is still moving well, good blood flow, and they saw on the ultrasound that he was doing his practicing breathing so everything appears normal, he is just a small guy.

Julie is still feeling great and getting around very well. We went for a walk tonight, and are really enjoying our time together before the baby comes, but we can't wait to hold this little guy, and welcome him into our lives. His big brother Winton is also very excited, although his biggest concern is that he hopes the doctors aren't wrong about it being a boy.

Love to all!!

Pictres of Winton from summer 2006

Thought everyone might enjoy seeing some pictures of Winton. These are from this past Thanksgiving in Kansas City and summer of 2006.

Birthday Update!!

Well, we are still waiting. Peanut has not decided when his brthday will be yet. We do have an ultrasound tomorrow on 6-11-07 at 2:45, and they may decide to induce labor if they feel he has not gained enough weight. So his birthday may be very soon. We will keep this website updated for sure so keep checking back.

Julie is still feeling great. Yesterday we went to an art festival in Lincoln Park (close to downtown Chicago), and did a lot of walking. Julie was a real trooper. Everyone kept saying she looked great and they could not believe she was as far along as she is. Lee has been making timed speed runs to the hospital testing different routes, and making friends with the local police just in case we need a police escort. In addition to everything else going on, we are loving having Winton here for the summer. He will be here for 6 weeks (until July 15th). He is looking forward to being a big brother and we are having fun riding the trains and seeing the sites here in Chicago.

I will give the answers to our interesting trivia questions on the 15th of June. You can check the questions out on our blog. I found an error on my computer that was not allowing some of my emails to go through and I also forgot to attach our website to the last email as a reminder.

TAG

Well we only know of one other person with a Blog (Kyle & Abby Warmington) so we are going to list our 5 random things about us and when you read them you can try to guess whether it applies to Lee or Julie. We would also love to hear random things about you guys, so after you read ours and guess, feel free to leave a comment with your five random things. We will tell you the answers for our random items on June 5th, so check back often to read everyone elses interesting/random facts. The winner will win much love and the opportunity to babysit and possibly pay for a college fund (LOL).

1) Loves to jump out of airplanes
2) Had tonsils removed at age 25
3) Allergic to cat's
4) Had Gallbladder removed on their birthday
5) Has traveled to over 35 states in the USA and has traveled to over 12 countries
outside of the USA

B R E A T H E!!

He He He....Whooooo. Well, we are officially trained on how to breathe. Having this baby will be a peace of cake, all you have to do is breathe right?!?. HaHa. We just completed last night, the last of our three Lamaze classes. It was definitely good to learn what to expect and a good place to have our questions answered. We did have another ultrasound this past Monday to check on the baby's size and weight. The doctors were concerned that our projected due date did not match the size of the baby. After the ultrasound on Monday, they estimated that the baby weighed approximately 5 1/2 pounds. Everything else appears to be normal, so they are just keeping a close eye on us. We keep thinking, maybe the baby is just being nice to Julie since she is so small. We have an OB appointment later today and we will know better after talking with our doctor what the game plan will be. They had previously said they would not let us go more than 1 week past our due date. The day will be here soon, so we are taking every advantage that we can to sleep in. We love and miss you all and we will update with more information soon.

Way Past Due Pics

Well, an update for everyone has been way overdue. We moved to the Chicago area on the 1st of May. We are renting until we get some issues resolved with the previous contract we are trying to cancel. Julie is feeling very well and we are very thankful for a healthy pregnancy so far. We are about 4 weeks away from our projected due date of June 15th. We hope you are all doing well. Stay tuned for more updates, and let us know if you will be in the Chicago area.