Esther is a camera magnet

 

Adeline loves her little sister, Essie!

 

Bryan is a great Daddy!!!

 

So cute

 

Can you see our little ones shiner under her left eye? She is a tough one.

So excited that I just emailed Amy Barry at Capturingreallife.com about an appointment next week for a newborn session. Hopefully she will fit in Adeline too. I have practically been stalking her by reading her twitter and her blog. Can you belive she is 10 weeks along with her 5th baby and she works full time. She is a special person, mom, and photographer. Check it out... she is GREAT! Now I don't know what to do with myself with this scheduled. I guess it will be back to lovin on my bebe! Who is soooo lovable.

Did I mention - God is so good. He has given us so very much. We have a wonderful network of Jesus lovers that are showing His love to us through food, errands, time (for sleep) and just about anything I think we need they would do. We have excellent family taking care of us. We have a great set of friends from Westside feeding us well and emailing support. God has given us so much more than we could even imagine. We have 2 very healthy girls. I have a wonderful husband that works wonderfully well with me to have a wonderful family. He has been an amazing support, reading my mind and adjusting to the ebs and flows of hormones without being offended. Again, God is good.

It seems that a second child is a ton less stressful. I'm sure that is God's doing as well. But I just wanted to encourage folks that a second child does have many positives that you may not expect. Again, we are only a little over a week into this and no where near experts. Martha stayed later than planned on Wed b/c Bryan was out and it was obvious I didn't have a plan on how to keep Esther happy and get Adeline bathed and into bed. Thanks Martha! I now have a plan for whan that happens again. Sling her, or find her a great view in the bouncy chair.

Did I mention God has blessed us with a tender hearted Adeline. She is so sweet and loves her lil sis. She is adapting well. Praise God. Now just to keep protecting her tender heart, encouraging her and letting her know she has not lost one ounce of our love. She had a water day today, which she loves at school. When she tells you about her day she is quick to lie down on the floor and start kicking showing you her swimming moves. She also went to the park and out for coffee/milk with her Daddy. Something just for big girls to do. I'm planning on some one on one Adeline time. I just can't decide what to do. So many options. Though I have been limited by this odd pain in my hip/back that twinges a bit with EVERY step. At first Motrin covered it just fine. I'm now noticing that the Motrin isn't helping near as much. We shall see. I was taking it twice a day. Now I'm getting serious and plan to go 3 times a day. I don't like being limited by something silly like pain. Plus b/c of all the rain we have been having the weather has been pretty cool and I really want to be out walking.

Pictures for the post below

 

 

 

 

A few days have past and we still LOVE Essie!

Here are some fun pictures. Essie is a cutie of course and so is Adeline. She loves her lil sis... she was beaming from ear to ear when she held her for the first time. Essie, like Adeline lost a good amount of weight while waiting for my milk. And as with Adeline once the milk came in all were amazed at how quickly she gained it back. She got down to 7lb 10 oz and today was 8lb 1oz. Go Essie go. We got to see her name sake today for the first time. So Esther, Great Grand mother of 96 years held her at 6 days old. There is a picture of 4 generations :) Essie's cutest isms is she sighs a lot, after you move her, after she gulps down her meal in a flash, just sitting there on her own. She has a lot more hair than Adeline... probably even than at one year. I'm going to get to do bows a lot earlier. Maybe Essie will leave them in longer than Addy as Addy was already at the take out stage when her hair was long enough for bows.
Bryan is home with me, family has headed back and we are adjusting again. This time to it being just us. Adeline sure is energetic. Such a good girl though. We loved having Uncle Andy and his friend Barrott. Of course it was a treat to have Grandpa and Sassy too, who by the end of the stay were getting "I luv U's" from Adeline and she could say Grand pa too.
So much has happened and she is not even a week old! We are blessed. We walk around sockless b/c our socks have been blessed off (to me this makes sense, but I have a feeling it is a saying I made up... my coworkers are use to that sort of thing, but the rest of you might just think I'm crazy. That could be true too though). Why poor little Esther's won't stay on I haven't figured out!

Sassy introduces Essie

Having fun with Essie

As you can tell we are having a blast! Esther is doing great. We hope to go today. Adeline seems to be adjusting just fine. Many have called. My folks arrived yesterday around 4ish and all are amazed by her beauty :) We think she has close resemblance to Adeline. She had a good night... she just keeps getting choked up on mucus. Hopefully we will be past that today.

Esther has arrived!!!

Well... Esther arrived this morning at 8:46. 8lb 9oz. They are currently measuring her and bathing her now. Hence the blog :)
Labor started this morning at approx 7:30ish with the first contractions. We had Aunt Annie come over to keep Adeline until Martha arrived to take Adeline to school for "water days". She was so excited to go to water days. Back to Esther... we got to the hospital valet at 8:20 and checked it, water broke in the hospital bathroom, next thing you know they are calling doctors from anywhere to come deliver my baby. So a few pushes and here she is. Bryan will have to blog his version. So I went natural though I would have to say once I knew that was where we were headed I wanted at least a pill. No time for that an IV or a blood pressure. Dr. Sophia Melendy delivered Esther, with nurses Jessica and Mary Anne. It happened so fast we left the car full of all our stuff. You know magazines and books to read that I was thinking I would have time to read with my little epidural in waiting. Fast worked pretty well though. I'm doing great and so is Esther. More to come...

A fun Weekend in July in Florida

 

What fun with Legos and Daddy

 

Young family reunion and Adeline had a blast playing with cousins Evan and Elizabeth (We had a blast at Otter springs too).

 

Our first experience with finger painting and Adeline

 

Daddy and Addy got a little wild and it turned into some body painting!

What a fun weekend :)

Pregnancy update

 

Earlier this week at 38 weeks (of 40) pregnancy with Esther.

 

Holding my sweetie!
These were taken Thursday.... however it is now Sunday and Esther has not made her appearance as of yet. We are anxiously awaiting her arrival!

Recent photos.... before Essie comes

 

 

 

 

Here are some photos to keep you updated. I'm trying to be good now b/c after Essie's arrival I may not be very good for a long time :)
River fun! Suzanne's pregnancy profile at 37 weeks. Well wishes for Sassy who had knee surgery - and is healing like a real trooper.

catch up with pictures

 

 

 

 

As you can tell! Adeline is a cutie... 22 months in the top picture. Adeline helping Daddy install some more "baby proofing measures". Some projects I have been working on. A picture of me at 36 weeks/9months :)