Emma's Second Birthday Party

Though Emma’s second birthday is not actually for another week, we celebrated yesterday with some of our family and friends. The theme was Candyland. Knowing that we would be busy with a new baby, Emma and I have been planning this party since the first week of January! Emma was excited when she woke up from her nap and it was finally her birthday! She was in awe of all the decorations and had a great time. We cannot believe that she is already two years old!

Some photos of the decorations and all of the guests…..


Apparently Audrey did not find the party to interesting. She slept the entire time! Probably because she was up the ENTIRE night before :)

Opening presents…..

When everyone was singing happy birthday to her, Emma was all smiles! It was so cute! She was just looking around the room at everyone taking it all in and smiling! Adam and I were going to bed last night talking about the party and I was mentioning how excited she was during the happy birthday singing and Adam said “I know she was so sweet and so happy it almost made me cry!” (He was in charge of the photos at this time so I guess this is why we only have two that are not so good! Oh well at least he had a special daddy moment!) Parties can be tons of work and preparation but when you see how excited your child is it makes it all worth it!

Emma wanted to let all of the balloons go outside after the party was over. I was very thankful because I am not one to keep junk like that around though I know it would be very entertaining for Emma.

It was a great day of celebrating that led to two tired kids and two exhausted parents! Happy Birthday Emma! We love you!

A Much Needed Update

This is an extremely long blog update but I have been way behind. Audrey is four weeks old today and this past month has been crazy so there is a lot to post! To start things off, I spent week three of Audrey’s life in the hospital with a horrible case of Mastitis. If you don’t know what this is I will spare you the details (you can look it up on your own if you really wish!), I will just tell you that I have never been that sick in my life. My temperature was as high as 104.6 and on the second trip to the ER in a six hour period they admitted me for IV antibiotics. I was in the hospital for five days and needless to say it was horrible for everyone involved. My mom who had arrived in the middle of the night so Adam could take me to the ER ended up taking the girls home with her for the week. Between my parents, my grandma (who temporarily moved in with my parents to help out) and Adam’s mom and dad they took great care of the girls. It is nice that our parents live in the same town and even the same neighborhood so we have lots of help. The only problem is they all live an hour from us! Adam might not agree, but I would love for all of them to move into our neighborhood! I grew up with all of my family in the same little town so when they are not right there you appreciate them even more. Anyway, we are all home now as of last Friday and doing well. Adam was really glad to have his family back! The poor guy was so busy with work that he was not able to help with the girls (which is why we sent them to our parents) and really couldn’t even be with me. He would come by the hospital around 7 am and 10 pm each night for a quick visit!

So after that long description of why I am behind on my blog, here is what all has been going on! First, some pictures from week #1. My mom spent our first week home from the hospital with us. I of course cried when she left and so did she. Little did we know that she would get more than her fill of us in the weeks ahead! My dad came up on the last night to see the girls and my mom made Adam some tacos which is his favorite. He kept telling me how good they were and how they didn’t taste like the tacos we usually have. This is probably because my mom actually puts some time into making her tacos. I don’t see any point in making tacos unless it is quick and easy with all precut and premade ingredients. That is the reason I make tacos anyway, because they are easy, not because I love them!


Pictures from week #2 of Audrey’s life…..

Pictures from week #2 of Emma and Audrey and the baby doll whose diaper I think I change more than Audrey’s! Emma is very into dressing, undressing, and changing diapers on her dolls but unfortunately still needs assistance! Also, the pictures with the book are from when Audrey was crying and Emma took the book to her and said “here, read this!”

When at my grandma’s one day, Emma had her first ice cream cone. I would not go for this usually because I don’t care for messes but grandmas and especially great grandmas are all about this kind of thing (probably because they don’t have to scrub the clothes!). Emma is teary eyed because she had just had a melt down over Hunt’s (the dairy barn restaurant we were at) not serving milk. She settled for the vanilla cone though!

I have been meaning to document these next photos for a while because it just amazes me. From the time I knew I was pregnant with Emma I prayed for her to be healthy, to have a heart for Jesus, to be compassionate toward others, and to have a tidy way about her. So far all of the prayers are being answered except for the tidy part. Emma has a sweet personality and is kind to people for the most part. She has always been healthy which I know is something to really be thankful for. Also, she is showing signs of loving Jesus. Her favorite song is “Jesus loves me”. She sings it when she is both happy and sad. The other night she was having a melt down and I picked her up just to hug her and snuggle and she said in a tearful voice “Mommy sing Jesus loves me to Emma!” It made me smile and tear up! However, all that being said, and I know of the things I pray for that this is by far the least important, Emma is not tidy. She destroys. Here are some photos of her play area after she is done. Thank goodness the Fisher Price dollhouse is so sturdy because it ALWAYS ends up on the floor and the minivan is always minus one or two doors (thankfully, they also are sturdy and snap right back on!)

While the girls were at my parents, Audrey had a chance to meet her great-grandpa Jarvis (who will be 98 in a few months!) He is so cute with the girls and thinks Emma is just the funniest little thing. Emma calls him “Papa Buck” and is really fascinated with his cane!

One of the biggest changes with two kids has been the confinement to our house. Emma and I were always on the go doing errands and just running around. I have chosen to stay at home for the most part out of fear of how to chase a two year-old and also take care of a newborn. However, I know this can’t go on forever so we started out in our own neighborhood. We have this new double stroller which Emma and I call “the bus”. It is like pushing a bus or maybe even a semi. Our neighborhood is very hilly so the walks have been short. Emma is usually yelling “keep walking” when I am pulling the bus into the garage. I try to explain to her that Mommy is out of shape and that is all we can do for the day! So here are some pictures of our first walk with the bus. (We had taken an earlier walk with daddy but were split into two separate strollers). Now that we have mastered figuring out how the bus works we may venture out to the mall next week. That terrain would be much easier to walk on anyway!

Emma had her first dentist appointment. I was really nervous about how this would go but it went great. We were actually early for a change so we had to wait in the waiting room for a little bit. Emma had been watching all of the other kids get their name called and go back so she knew how things worked. When the hygienist called her name, she went sprinting past the lady back into the room! The hygienist said “well someone is excited!” She asked Emma to sit in the big blue chair and Emma jumped right up there. She became very quiet taking everything in but was extremely cooperative. Dr. Tom came in and Emma opened her mouth wide just like he asked! They told me that they usually don’t start cleaning teeth at this age but since she did so well they will start at her next appointment in six months! I hope it goes as well as this one did! She was all talkative again as soon as we got in the car telling me about her new tooth brush and the bracelet she picked out of the treasure chest!

Finally, Mamaw Mary and Aunt Joanie came by our house for lunch and a visit on their shopping day. We wished they could have stayed all day but it was nice to see them for the short time they were there. It was cold and rainy outside that day but their visit and the nice lunch and snacks they brought were perfect. I vote to spend every rainy day that way!

Hospital Photo Shoot

Just a few photos from Audrey's hospital photo shoot.....

Sisters

For the most part, Emma has been ignoring her little sister since we have been home. This is pretty much what we expected from her. However, yesterday Emma asked me if she could hold Audrey and then asked for me to take her picture! I got my camera out and quickly snapped away. It may be weeks before she asks to do that again!




After the photo shoot, Emma stripped herself down to her onesie, put on her shoes, and told me bye. I asked her where she was going and she said “Emma going shopping”. I am glad one of us got to go.

This is what you look like after a nice trip to the mall!

First Days At Home

We came home from the hospital on Sunday afternoon. So far things are going well with the exception that we have our second baby with jaundice who is also under the lights! Our doctor said since we are already two for two we can pretty much count on all future children to have jaundice as well! Great! Just what we were hoping for a cute little baby that we can’t even snuggle! We have been going to the lab everyday to have her levels checked and are praying to be off the lights tomorrow. Since this is our second time around, we are a little bit more familiar and more comfortable with the lights. I have her set up on the ottoman next to the couch so I can semi cuddle her all night! Here are a few shots of the first few days at home. You can really tell how jaundice she is in the photo with Emma!

Stretching

Big Yawn

Audrey looks very similar to Emma with the exception of her platinum blonde highlights in her dark hair! It is the weirdest thing! I did get my hair done three days before I had her so I guess maybe she got a little bit of my hair dye! :) You can see the blonde patch in the back of her hair in this picture of her and Adam.

Hospital Time

Our time at the hospital went by very quickly. We opted for a scheduled induction to fit our hectic tax season schedule a little better! Adam dropped me off at the hospital on his way to work on Friday morning around 8. I felt so weird walking through the hallway with my suitcase by myself. I called Adam and said “I feel like I just got dropped off at the airport instead of the hospital!” Adam came back to the hospital around one that afternoon and little Audrey was here at 2:25 p.m.! It was all very quick and I am almost embarrassed to say but all very painless! Thanks to those epidurals, which I asked for mine before I was even in pain and therefore never felt any! My grandma told me that it is impossible to have a baby without pain but I can now say it is not! Just about five minutes of intenseness when we were waiting on the doctor to come catch the baby (literally, he didn’t even have time to change his clothes!) and our little girl was here!

So now that you know the delivery story, here are more photos of our time in the hospital. Adam and I were the only ones at the hospital for the delivery and the rest of that day so we do not have near as many photos as we did with Emma. I know that is the story for every child that is born second! I am going to try hard to keep up on Audrey's photos though in the future! I am also a second child and there is no record of my life until I am about 6 days old!

Here is our sad attempt at a family photo. Emma is really into coloring, drawing, and using stickers right now and was more interested in her artwork than our family photo session! Audrey is starting to show her jaundice and I am looking very swollen. Adam actually looks pretty decent though!



Here is Emma decorating the nursery crib with stickers for Audrey. We didn't even bother to peel them off. I am sure the nursery workers loved us!

A shot of my mom and grandma with the girls…..

And our visitors……
Grandma Jarvis

Papa Jack

Grammy and Pops

Uncle Eric

Great-Grandma Hull

Cousin Catherine

Aunt Caren and Cousin Catherine

And finally, a special photo for my friend Peggy from work to prove that I was actually pregnant with this child! Since I would never raise my shirt up for her at work, she said she needed some hard evidence that I wasn’t pretending so Adam took this one on our way to the hospital. I decided for everyone’s sake to keep my shirt down and not show any skin!