Gianna Elise

If you haven't heard yet, we have our new baby!!
Gianna Elise arrived December 26th at 3:30 am. We decided to go to the hospital when contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart (Christmas Eve I stayed up with contractions hitting about 5 minutes apart, so I didn't want to get sent home from the hospital w/o a baby). We got checked in at midnight and she came 3.5 hours later! Quick and smooth delivery. No problems.
She weighed in at 6 lbs 12.3 oz and measured 19 3/4 inches long at birth. She has a round face with small little ears and a head full of blonde hair.
We're very happy to have her already and let Eric spend some time with her before he goes back to work.

 
 
 

Cameron reminded me that I haven't posted any prego pics. So, here's me at 9 months...any day now and we'll welcome this little one into our home. Emily is very excited and keeps asking when she's going to come out.
This other picture is of Emily in her "Erella Dress" that Mema Lasley sent to her. She was quite the poser even though she didn't even have her hair brushed!

I Got Your Nose!

One of Emily's favorite games is playing "I Got Your Nose!" She thinks it's hilarious and we all get involved in the chase of getting back whatever body part was "stolen". I about died this morning as she "stole" the baby out of my belly and put it in hers. I was laughing too hard to chase her.
Another funny thing she has said multiple times this weekend is also about the baby. She will randomly ask me, "Mommy have baby?" I'll tell her no and then she'll say, "Aw, man!" and sound really disappointed. This big sister is going to adore having a younger sister around. She visits with the baby a lot and hugs and kisses my belly and talks to her. It's really adorable, though I would like to have my belly back and private from these two girls!!

Impromptu Photo Shoot

A friend up the street called yesterday for an impromptu photo shoot. She wanted to get pictures done really quick for her Christmas card (I'm not the only one in disbelief that Christmas is next week). Anyway, I really love doing pictures for people. I love how pleased people are and that I can help in some small way to preserve a memory for them. This is one of my favs. We turned their swing set pole (for the teeter-totter swing) into a Christmas decoration. =)

Wishful Thinking

So, we're 37 weeks and barely dilated at all (a "fingertip"). With Em, I was already at a 1, so I'm thinking we're in for the long-haul. However, it doesn't stop us from wishful thinking. There would be so many benefits (aside from that tax break) for having this baby before the New Year.
1. Eric is home and no matter what time I went into labor, could drive me to the hospital (he'll have to take the van to work for awhile after he returns to work b/c his shoulder won't be completely healed nor have we taken time/money to repair the bike yet).
2. We have adopted some girls as sisters and they are currently on Christmas break, so they could come at a moment's notice to keep Emily for us as our logical help people are not going to be able (yes, Stef, that means you running away to spend the holiday with your families =) but also my in-laws since Mama is laid up with her newly finished surgery).
3. Eric won't have to use up vacation time since he's already out.
4. I'm selfish and want to breathe and eat again...not to mention sleep comfortably (although I realize it may be interrupted the same amount).
5. I can keep my shirt down over my belly b/c Emily won't want to "see the baby" as she'll already be visible to her.
6. Yes, the tax break would be great.
SO, anyone who knows some extra tricks to help get things going, feel free to volunteer information.

Buckle Up for Safety!

Things have gotten a little, shall we say, confused at times with getting us into the car with the wheelchair and whatnot. Well, I must say that I am extremely glad that Emily is a creature of habit. When we put her in the car last night, we had the wheelchair, her bag, her potty chair (she was going to her g-rents while Eric and I got to go on our date and since they are both a little less mobile at the moment, we figured we'd help them out), Emily, and of course, us. We opened the door and she climbed in while we loaded up everything else. Eric and I got in and buckled up and then we heard a little voice say, "buckle please". No, it wasn't the "still small voice" of the Spirit...it was Emily asking for help with her seat belts. She was really trying hard to do it, but knew she couldn't and made sure she was buckled up for safety before we started moving. THANK YOU, EMILY!!

Classic Liz

I've been known to accidentally switch the first letters of words to make strange phrases. Sarah-beth may remember when I visited her one Thanksgiving in Idaho and I asked her if she had a jar of "cry pust" instead of "pie crust". Well, tonight I added a new one to the list.
Eric and I went to a celtic guitar concert tonight. Afterwards we were talking about one gentleman who laughed incredibly loud after each joke the performers told. Now, the jokes were funny, but weren't "butt gusting" (er, uh, "gut busting"). The funniest part was that Eric agreed with me and didn't even realize what I had actually said until I started busting up about it. So, watch out for some butt gusting comedy coming your way!

My Parents Are the Best

I know everyone thinks they have great parents, but mine are great, too. After Eric's accident, we attempted to go shopping for some more winter-type clothes (especially a dress) for Emily. It was quite the event for us...a toddler who is independent and strong-willed (whoops, just defined "toddler"), a broken husband who didn't even have a brace on his ankle yet (just some crazy "shoe" that didn't do much of anything), and an 8 month prego lady trying to push the wheel chair along with both of them in it. Just so you get a good picture in your head.
My mom called as I was pushing them up a ramp and I told her what we were doing (with no success). She took it upon herself to find some clothes for Emily and shipped them to us. It was definitely an early Christmas yesterday for Emily. Her eyes got as big as saucers when I handed her one of the packages and told her it was for her. Opening them and finding such adorable (or, in Emily terms "'rella clothes" which means they are pretty and she greatly approves) clothes...including two dresses was awesome.
My parents also sent us a check which more than covered our heater repair. How do you spell "gratitude"?...I..L-O-V-E...M-Y...P-A-R-E-N-T-S!

I Love Heat!

We were without heat for a couple of weeks but now we're back on!! We had several different people with different companies give us estimates on the repair or their ability to repair the damage. Thankfully, one of Eric's friends has a brother who does this work as a living. He came out and fixed it for us for WAAAAY cheaper than other quotes...and we threw in a batch of our infamous E Boyd Peanut Butter Cookies. He was my favorite person a couple days ago!! It is so nice to be warm in every room as we walk through the house instead of using the space heater to warm up the bathroom while we shower and dress and then move it to the next area we'll be in.
I also have to give shout-outs to those who tried their best to help us but were willing to acknowledge that it was a bigger job than they felt comfortable handling. First up, Ethan Dooley who diagnosed the problem originally. Secondly, Jim Grigsby who came out on his own time to attempt to fix it himself.

A Belated Update

I realized today that I hadn't updated Eric's status here on our blog.
Eric went to see the orthopedic doctor Tuesday morning. They did more x-rays and came back with a slightly worse scenario than we thought...but he's still okay.
Left foot: dislocated the fourth toe which stayed in socket from the night they reset it to the appointment. Now it has to be buddy wrapped to prevent it from slipping out again. He broke (I'm not sure if these are fractures or BREAKS) the bones on his foot leading to the 3rd and 5th toes. They gave him a walking boot to wear but is restricted in standing on it. As the pain becomes more bearable, he'll be able to start walking on it.
Left shoulder: fractured clavicle but lets add in a separated ac. This is the doctor's greatest concern. He feels the bones will heal just fine, but the separation on the joint is in the moderate zone. We are hoping that when he goes back at the end of the month, it will be healing appropriately and we can skip surgery. His arm is in a sling and he is to do some light exercises to keep the arm from getting stiff. He is also prohibited from lifting anything more than one pound.