Busy Times

Lets do something fun. Make sense using four. Or maybe less.

• Went to the doctor. Got a good report. Said incision's healing well. Poor Noah was hungry. And screaming. Fed him in lobby. Then he slept.

• Baby's been gassy. Poor thing. Going to change formula. Again. Maybe milk allergy? Just like dad.

• Kindergarten's going well. Emily was line leader. And brought snacks. And suckers from Disney. Teacher got a bracelet. Show-n-Tell was Stephanie. (Was that four? Or five?)

• Been hot outside. Some leaves are changing. Fall's coming next week.

Some Pics For You

My sweet children. One a little cross eyed. Bless his heart. She loves him though.

Watching the mobile. Elephants and Hippos. Lasted 5 minutes. Or less. Oh well.

This face I love. He's got big eyes. Waiting for first smile. Working toward it daily.

One sentence with five. Did you see it? Spellcheck made me do it. Oops another five. Ha!

Good night!

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Kindergarten Love Part 2

This is Part 2 of the Kindergarten Love post. If you missed the first part, you can CLICK HERE.

So Jaydon's mom told me that Emily had written him the sweetest note at school the day before. She said it was a picture of Jaydon and Emily holding hands. And she had written I LOVE YOU JAYDON on it. Jaydon's mom said she was going to put it in his Kindergarten scrapbook.

Emily has such a sweet heart. One of her favorite things to do at home is write notes to everyone. She knows how to spell the names of everyone in our family, except mine. She does not know how to spell many words, but she knows how to spell I Love You. She puts that on just about every note she writes.

Emily is all the time asking us how to spell words that she doesn't know. Sometimes it's the name of a family member and sometimes it's another word. One day I got smart and spelled out all the names of our extended family members on a piece of paper. But that didn't last long. I think she lost the paper. I guess it's back to spelling words.

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Where's the Love?

Clearly, the post I wrote on m phone at 3am did not come through completely. I'll have to work on Part 2 later.

Sorry!

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Kindergarten Love

One day this week, Emily drew her teacher a picture on the way to school. She said she loves Mrs. B!

When we got to school, she showed me the picture. She had drawn a picture of herself and her teacher and wrote I LOVE YOU. She can't spell many words, but she can spell I love you!

The next day as I was dropping Emily off at her classroom, her friend Jaydon's mom told me that Emily has written him the sweetest note the day before

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Teddy Bear Picnic

This morning was Grandparents Day at Emily's school. Poppa, Grandmother, Noah and I went to school with Emily for breakfast. They served cinnamon rolls and milk or juice. I didn't get any pictures on my camera so I will have to get some from Grandmother for another night.

This afternoon, I went back to the school to help out in Emily's class with the Teddy Bear Picnic. For the last two weeks, the class has been learning about bears. Emily knows about different kinds of bears, where they live, what they eat, all about hibernation and that baby bears are born in the winter.

So today, the kids got to bring their favorite teddy bear to class for a picnic. Mrs. B asked parents to come early to help put together the snack plates for the picnic. So I got there at the assigned time and there were no other parents.

Mrs. B gave me a general idea of my assignment and sent me to the other kindergarten class to get the supplies. Well, the other teacher apparently went home sick and that class had a substitute who barely knew what was going on.

So Emily and I went into the cafeteria and started putting 30 plates of food together as fast as we could. About 10 minutes later, another mother came to help but she had two little boys running around her and didn't get to help much.

We got some blankets laid out under a big catalpa tree in front of the school and then the kids came out to the picnic. Then we brought the plates of "bear food" out - teddy grahams, goldfish crackers, peanuts and mixed nuts, honey sandwiches, blueberry muffins, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.

After the kids finished their snack, they were all talking and giggling. It was so cute. Then some of the boys got up and started running around the tree and picking up sticks and throwing them. The teachers told them to sit back down on the blankets, but then got distracted with other things. So I told a couple of the boys to go sit down on the blankets. And they looked at me like I was nuts and went back to what they were doing. Guess they showed me!

Here are some pictures from the Teddy Bear Picnic. Hope you enjoy!

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Grandmother is Here!

Grandmother came to visit us today. She got here early afternoon and went with me to pick up Emily from school. She waited in the car with Noah while I went into the school to get Emily. And when Emily saw Grandmother at the car, she just said "Hi" like it was very normal to see Grandmother at her school.

Emily's school is having a Grandparents Day breakfast in the morning. Grandmother is going and Poppa is going. The school is serving cinnamon rolls, milk, juice, and coffee.

I would write more, but Noah is a bit fussy tonight and needs his Mama.

Look for some pictures tomorrow night!

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360

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Noah was content and took a couple good naps during the day. Today he was unsettled and took a few little naps of 20 minutes or less. It's like a complete 360 degree change.

He did take a pretty good nap this evening and then went to bed at about 8:00pm. I hope this does not mess up his nighttime sleep schedule. We have been doing pretty good at night, only getting up once at about 1am. Except for the daily poop at around 5am. This wakes him up every time and it's hard to get him back to sleep.

We have been getting a lot of rain today from the remnants of tropical storm Hermine. The rain makes it soooo difficult to get Emily into the school while carrying Noah in his carseat. And today, of all days, I needed to stop and get gas really bad. Perfect timing, right?

Hopefully Hermine will be out of here by tomorrow morning because we're having company. Grandmother is coming up for Grandparents Day at Emily's school on Friday. I think she's coming to see Noah too.

Poppa has been out the last few nights to work on our dryer. The dryer works, but the timer was not working right. After dealing with a (new) bad part, Poppa finally got the dryer working tonight. I say new bad part because the store said the part tested good, but it didnt work. So Poppa had to get creative to get it all to work!

Well, sorry about any misspellings tonight. I'm attempting to post from my phone since our internet connection is spotty due to all the rain tonight. Hopefully I'll have some new pics tomorrow.

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What a Way to Wake Up

Smiles all around. That's what I like to see.

Noah went to bed last night at about 8pm and slept until 1am. Then he went back down until about 6:45am when these pictures were taken. He went back to sleep when I took Emily to school at 8:00am so I put him (still in his carseat) in his bed and he slept until about 10:30am.

While he was sleeping, I cut out pieces for some learning games for Emily's class. Last week, her teacher sent home a note asking for volunteers to cut out some game pieces and I said I would help. The next afternoon, she sent home some laminated pieces that I cut out and returned the next day.

Then a couple days later, the teacher sent home another 6 pages of stuff that needed to be cut out. Knowing my luck, she'll have all that stuff laminated and then I'll get to cut them out all over again. I guess I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I signed up.

Printer, but does it print?

Our replacement printer was delivered this morning. I got it out of the box and got it all set up, but then I realized I was going to have to configure the wireless networking again before I can print anything. And it would help if I could find the cord. Apparently, I have more work to do.

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The Eyes Have It

Today we celebrated Labor Day. Mike and his dad worked in the yard most of the day. The battery was bad on the lawn mower so they had to go to the store to get a new battery. That delayed their start to the yard work, but they ended up getting almost all of it done.

Emily, Noah and I played inside most of the day. Emily really enjoyed having Poppa come out to play with her at her house today. She always wants him to play Barbies with her.

Noah spent some time in his swing this afternoon. He is really looking around a lot more and checking things out. I took a few pictures of him with his eyes open really wide.

Noah also loves listening to music. In his swing and bouncy seat, he always likes to have the music playing. With the swing, the music only plays for a few minutes. And Noah gets mad when it goes off! I have to constantly get up and re-start the music to keep him happy.

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Clean and Shiny

Tonight, our baby boy got clean and shiny. Emily, Mike, and I gave Noah his first bath in the baby bathtub. He did really good and I even think he liked it a tiny bit.

My job was to use the washcloth to clean the baby. Mike's job was to take pictures and to look out for danger. (I will admit that I did almost knock his head on the cabinet when I was getting him out of the tub.) Emily's job was to use her hands to touch baby as many places as possible as quickly as possible.




I covered him up with a towel while he was in the tub so that he would not get cold. The towel got soaking wet, but that was okay.




Now, I will admit that there was a little fussing on Noah's part. But it really didn't last long.

(Look at all that chub!!!)

After we were done with the bath, Emily and I put baby lotion allll over Noah and then put a clean sleeper on him. And then he was clean and shiny and satisfied. He sat with me for almost an hour before it was time for his nighttime bottle.

The Nights

Last night, Noah took his nighttime bottle at about 8:00pm and then slept until 12:30. Then I fixed him his cereal bottle and he slept until 5:30am. I still had to get up twice during the night, but I got to sleep longer between feedings.

We'll have to keep working out the kinks in our schedule until we all get some more sleep. It seemed like the extra sleep benefited Noah today. He was not as fussy today as he had been the last few days.

Sunday Lunch

We went to lunch with Poppa at Charleston's today. He's leading a bachelor life this week since Nanny is on vacation. Emily was all excited that she got to sit by Poppa. Noah got to sit with Poppa for a few minutes too. I took my camera and meant to get some pictures, but my hands were pretty full and I just plain forgot.

And Tomorrow

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating Labor Day by laboring. Mike has the day off so we have planned a day of working around the house and in the yard.

I hope you all have a great holiday!

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Noah - 4 Weeks

Noah was born 4 weeks ago yesterday. We don't go back to the doctor until next month so I don't know his current weight and height.

He still wears newborn sized clothes. His favorite thing to eat is milk - and lots of it! He gets about 75% breastmilk and 25% Enfamil Gentlease formula. Last night, we added a little bit of rice cereal to his nighttime bottle. He seemed to like the cereal and slept for 4.5 hours after that bottle. We'll try it again tonight.

Just last night his umbilical cord stump fell off. I went to change his diaper and noticed that it was off. His belly button was a little bloody, but not too bad. It's looking much better today. Now Emily and I can give him a tub bath!

I'm sad that I will have to go back to work in just a few short weeks. The last month of my maternity leave has already started. I try to think of each week in terms of how much Noah is growing, but I have to admit that the number of weeks until I go back to work sneaks into my mind too.

Tonight, Poppa came out to watch the OU football game with us. He's feeding Noah a bottle, which is the reason I get to write this blog post!

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Game Day

Now you didn't think I was really going to write about football, did you? If you know me, you know that I have no interest in football.

We have not done much today. We went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then went to the grocery store. We have to go there just about every week and "make our deposit." That's what it feels like anyway.

Other than that, we just cleaned around the house and worked on catching up on our chores. There is always SO much to do and it all has to be done between Noah's feedings every three hours.

I wanted to share a few pictures from last night. Emily wanted to hold Noah, but she was a little distracted watching the Brady Bunch on TV.

And then it normally ends up like this.

And Emily wanted to take a picture of me and Noah. But she cut off my head. And she cut off Noah's head too. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

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Special Delivery

This morning I got a call from a local florist. The lady said that they had a delivery for me and were checking to make sure someone was home.

My first instinct was to say that they must have the wrong house. I don't think I've had a florist deliver anything to my house since I lived here. But I didn't say anything. If they want to bring me something, who am I to stop them?

Luckily, they got the right house and the right person.

Aren't they lovely?

The other preschool Sunday School teachers at our church sent them as a "congratulations on the birth of your baby and see you soon".

And to tell you the truth, I can't wait to get back to our Sunday School class. We got a new batch of three-year-olds since we have been out and I have not even gotten to see them yet. I've heard there is a whole lot of bathroom issues going on. Ha! I could skip that part. I have enough of that at my own house right now!

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Suited for Success

Okay so I have tried several times to take pictures of Noah in his new outfits. But he always does weird things with his eyes. These are the best ones I could get.

"Mommy's Little Tough Guy" - His first overalls!


This one says "Feed me or I'll snap!" and that was very fitting for today.

I tried out the Bumbo baby seat today too. This was the first picture and it just went down hill from there. I don't think he's old enough to appreciate it yet.

Noah has the baby sniffles today. His nose is just kinda stuffy and I have used the nasal aspirator on him several times. Fortunately, he has not figured out that he's supposed to hate that thing. Or maybe he just appreciates being able to breathe better.

This morning, we very much overslept. Noah woke up to eat at 2am and it took him a while to get soundly back to sleep. (See comment about sniffles above.) When I woke up at 6:30am, Emily was in our bed and I have no idea when she got there.

Printer That Won't Print

We've been having a problem with our printer for the last few months. When we turn it on, it gives an error message "An Error Has Occurred" and will not do anything else. I've been meaning to call about it since I have not been able to print a single picture of my new baby. Seriously, I do not have one single print of Noah. Not one.

So this afternoon after doing a bit of internet research, I called up the company's technical support line. I calmly explained the problem and all the steps I went through to try to diagnose the problem myself (with the help of the company's online FAQ). And the lady just offered to send me a replacement printer free of charge. And some new ink cartridges. Free of charge. Me thinks they have seen this problem at least a thousand times before.

She said they would send my replacement and I should receive it in 5-7 business days. But I said that I couldn't wait that long. (Thanks to my internet research, I learned that someone else tried this and the company shipped their printer overnight.)

So the representative offered to send my replacement printer overnight. Except that I'd already missed the cutoff today so it will be shipped tomorrow. Except that tomorrow is Friday and they don't delivery on the weekends. And except that Monday is a holiday so I should receive it on Tuesday. Okay fine. And my free ink cartridges will not be shipped overnight. Okay fine.

I have to ship the old printer back to them within 7 business days of receiving the replacement. That's fine. Saves me from having to dispose of a big old piece of worthless junk.

So by next Tuesday night, I'll be printing lots of pictures. And I can't wait!

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A Few More Pictures

Last night before Noah went to bed, I was able to get some pictures of him with his eyes open. He really is awake more and more during the day, but I'm usually holding him and talking to him during those times. It's hard to take pictures with him in my arms. But these were some pictures after he got his diaper changed.

One of these days, I am going to have to start putting him in all his newborn sized outfits and taking his picture on them. We have quite a few sleeveless or shorts outfits in newborn, but I feel like it's too cool in the house for him to wear some of those all day. Maybe I can just put him in them for short trips - like picking up Emily from school in the afternoons.

Speaking of Emily's school, she is selling Blue and Gold Sausage as a school fundraiser. This year, we're selling sausage, bacon, and chicken strips. If you want to order some, please let me know. Orders have to be turned in by September 10th and I think the products will be back I think on September 20th.

Still Connected

Noah's umbilical cord stump is still hanging on. The last time we went to the doctor, he said that it will fall off when it's good and ready to fall out. He said he has seen some babies that don't lose their cord stump until they are about 6 weeks of age. I am ready for Noah to lose the stump so that Emily and I can give him a bath in the baby bath tub. I am sure he will love it. (Love it so much that he'll scream and cry the whole time, I am sure.)

Clothes

I am going to have to start looking at Noah's clothes to see what outfits are newborn sized. We have a lot of sleeveless and shorts outfits in newborn size that he has not even worn yet. I think it is too cool in the house to wear an outfit like that all day. We might have to pull some out and wear them on quick outings - like when we go pick up Emily from school. I definitely need to get his picture in some of the cute summer outfits that he has before summer is gone.

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Mama's Day Away

Let me just start by saying that this post is most definitely mis-labeled. It was not a day away, but it was a few glorious hours away.

This morning, I dropped Emily off at school and then Noah and I came home for a quick nap before getting ready to head over to Nanny and Poppa's house to drop Noah off. All was well except that Noah woke up hungry. And while I was feeding him, he had a blowout. And it got all over my shirt. Not a fun way to start out my day away.

But better than nothing so we'll take it. I dropped Noah off and made it to my hair appointment on time (thankfully).

My hair stylist normally uses a straight iron when she styles my hair. But I asked her to style it without using it this time because I have literally NO time to fix my hair in the mornings. Most mornings, it's all I can do to get Noah fed and Emily to school on time.

She did a good job. When she was done, my hair looked smooth and shiny like she had used the flat iron. I don't know she did it, but I hope I can fix it half as good in the morning. Sorry, no before and after pics of the hair.

After I got out of my appointment, I had to drop back by the house before I went to pick up Noah. It felt great to be out and about by myself. I stopped by Sonic and got a diet coke on my way home. And after my cup was empty, I ate all the ice! And I listened to the radio really loud. And I drove fast - well, within the speed limit but I was on the interstate for a change so it was fast to me.

Here is a picture of Noah sleeping in his bouncer.

And Grandmother requested a picture of Noah when he was awake so I took a picture in his swing this evening. Look at his hair!

It was hard to get a good picture of him in his swing. Every time I would try to take a picture, his eyes would kinda bug out like this picture.

Emily took a picture of herself for you, but it was a shot straight up her nose so I thought I should keep that one to myself. We will try again tomorrow.

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Tidbits

Sorry about the lack of post last night. I was working on the Shirley Sherbert post, but Noah was having a fussy night. I even tried to type one handed, but then my laptop battery died. So I gave up! Ha!

I'm not sure if tonight will be much better. Noah has been eating about every two hours during the day today. He's been drinking bigger bottles and eating more often. I guess that means he's growing.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment to get my hair cut. So Noah gets to spend a little time with Nanny and Poppa. I am sure he will have a lot of fun and it will be nice to do something for myself for a change.

I wanted to share some pictures with you from our lunch on Sunday. I took a picture of Emily and a picture of Noah.

Here's the picture of Emily. She always gives me that fake smile.

Here's the picture of Noah. Check out those little arms!!! He had on a short sleeved shirt, but it looks like a muscle shirt the way it's pulled up to his shoulders.

And here's the picture of me and Noah. Don't see Noah? Me either. :)

Emily picked out this shirt for me to wear because it matched the one she picked out for herself. I think she did a good job matching us.

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Shirley Sherbert

This is Shirley Sherbert. She was a gift to Emily from her little brother on the day that he was born. Shirley is one of Build-A-Bear Workshop's new ice cream bears. If you recall, we took Emily to Build-A-Bear to pick out a pet for Noah before he was born. And he surprised her by picking out something too.

In case you were wondering, Mama and Daddy chose the name Shirley Sherbert.

Emily also got new curtains for her room last week. She had a pair of beige blackout curtains over her window. They were not too pleasing to the eye, but they did block a lot of light. I found these purple blackout curtains at Target last week and knew they would be perfect for Emily's room. During the day, they create sort of a purple glow in her room. But they work well at night. And they look much better than the beige curtains I would say.

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Another Day and Some Updates

Today, Mike was gone to an all day class. So I got to enjoy a day at home all to myself. With two kids, of course. Mike helped me with Noah's 5:30am feeding. Then we put Noah back to bed, Emily woke up and Mike let me sleep in until almost 8am. It was almost like a dream come true. I could have stayed in that bed much longer except that I wanted to get a shower before Mike left for his class.

The kids and I just hung around the house all day. Emily and I watched a little Brady Bunch, did some laundry, colored, and tended to baby. Then after a delicious lunch of peanut butter and jelly (you know, kids eat their food better if the parents are eating the same thing), Emily settled in for her nap. Noah was napping in his swing so I did the only reasonable thing to do - log in to work for a bit. I know - shame on me. But it's hard not knowing how things are going while I'm away.

Mike got home at around 5:15pm and he wanted to take me out to dinner as sort of a thank you for letting him go to the class today. We went to a local BBQ place and had a nice time. I LOVE asking for a table for four. While we were there, Mike's mom called and invited Emily to spend the night and go to Sunday School with them in the morning. But Emily didn't want to go. I think she has been missing spending time with her dad.

New, New, New

I mentioned the other day that Noah has been having some fussy evenings. On Friday, he was fussy between feedings all day and I noticed that he had not pooped that day. So when Mike got home from work, we went into town and picked up a new kind of formula. I had done some research online to find a formula that was lower in lactose and easier for babies to digest. I thought a lower lactose formula might be better because Mike apparently had some sort of milk sensitivity based on how much he sneezes after drinking milk or eating ice cream or cheese.

We settled on Enfamil Gentlease. It's supposed to have 1/5th the lactose of their regular formula. And it's formulated to be gentler on baby's tummy and help with gas and fussiness. I mixed a bottle for Noah last night when we got home and I immediately noticed that I had to shake it pretty vigorously to get the formula to mix well and not form clumps in the bottle. Even with the hard shaking, the bottle didn't get the foamy bubbles in it like the regular formula does. The bubbles just sort of dissolved.

During the night last night, Noah had two big poops. And today, he had about 5 large poops within one hour. It was a fun day on that front, but Noah does seem to be feeling much better. I have my happy, easy going baby back.

I also wanted to try a new pacifier. Noah does not normally take a pacifier very well and I was wondering if he didn't like the ones we had since they were not the same shape as the nipples he's accustomed to. So I bought a package of those Soothies pacifiers - the big round blue-green ones. He does seem to like those better, but he still does not seem to need a pacifier to be satisfied.

Mike also did some research and found a new kind of gas medicine. It's called Colic Care. It's supposed to be all natural, FDA regulated and taste great to babies. The package said that it helps with gas and fussiness in babies. It even helps cure hiccups. We did not end up using the Colic Care last night since the new formula seemed to be helping so much.

But this afternoon when Noah had he hiccups for the 4th time today, I thought I would try a little bit to see it if helped. So I opened the bottle and it was this thin black liquid. The directions said to use a dropper and put the medicine between baby's cheek and gums very slowly. I did this and the black liquid immediately came back out of his mouth and all over him. So I squeezed a tiny bit more. And again it came back out. And even though Noah swallowed virtually none of it, his hiccups immediately disappeared. Ha!

More Milk

On Thursday, I received my order of Motherlove More Milk herbal product that the lactation consultant recommended to increase my milk supply. I immediately went into the kitchen to take the first dose. I opened the bottle and poured the dose into a medicine cup and the smell was just horrible. The liquid was a dark brown, sorta like a cola color. And it smelled like funky maple syrup. So I drank it and GAG ME!!!!!! It was SO bad. I made Mike smell it later and he said it smelled like licorice. Yep, maple syrup and licorice and herbs. I have figured out that it's not so bad if I add some Pepsi (which I don't like) to it. At least it's a little fizzy going down.

And the verdict? So far, I have noticed no increase in my milk supply. Bummer. As bad as it tastes, I was hoping it would at least work. And if you happen to run into me and think I reek of maple syrup and licorice, then I apologize in advance. I guess it could be worse. I guess. If I don't see an increase by next week, I'll call my ob/gyn and see if she can call in a prescription for me - something that really works. And doesn't make me smell funny.

Perfect Lips And a Dimpled Chin?

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Three Then Four

Five years ago, we were very fortunate to become a family of three. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember being anxious about how things were going to go. I remember feeling sick and disoriented (thanks to some of the drugs I was given during my induction). I remember being so scared when they said I would have an emergency cesarean section. I remember feeling so emotional (and crying) and excited and blessed when Miss Emily was born. I remember the doctor saying "She's so tiny!" and being surprised by this.

Here's a picture of our family of three from five years ago. Mike put this very picture on our refrigerator a couple years ago and it's still there today. Even though the picture is terrible (actually, the picture is fine - I just really looked like that), I still love my family.

And this year we grew to be a family of four. Even though Noah was born a short three weeks ago, I also remember this day like it was yesterday. I remember being SO nervous although I pretty much knew how things would go. I remember feeling emotional the entire time I was at the hospital before my surgery and worrying about being strong for Emily so that she would not be scared. I remember willing myself not to cry as they were wheeling me down the hall to the operating room.

I remember the trouble with the spinal anesthesia (ouch!). I remember crying as soon as I saw Mike in the operating room. And crying when Noah was born and the doctor said "He's so little!" I remember seeing the look on Emily's face when she first saw her brother when the nurses stopped my bed beside the family on the way back to the recovery room. I remember feeling so thrilled and blessed and thankful when I finally had my family of four that I had been praying for so long.

And here's our first picture as a family of four.

We ARE blessed.

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