Little Meg

Here is Meg at a week and a half. I thought she might be a thumbsucker, but she is a total binky-baby!

Meg is just over three weeks old here...she got that baby rash worse than my other kids but she still looks cute!
Here is Meg at 6 1/2 weeks. This is when she became really colicky..(is that a word) I felt pretty fortunate to get this picture of her looking halfway pleasant. She actually flashed her first smile while we were at Emerald Isle, but I have yet to capture it on film. I thought this was pretty cute of both of my babies.

Here is my second attempt at documenting her smile. I promise she was smiling right before I pulled out the camera.

We discovered that Gabe really has the touch, she screams and screams unless someone is rocking her and Gabe did a great job!!

Father's Day 2008

Hey good lookin'...Happy (or otherwise) Father's Day!!

This year Father's Day was a bust...It will go down in history as one of the longest days of our lives. That it happen to fall on Fathers day just makes it that much worse.

I would like to point out that it was not me who made the decision to travel home from Emerald Isle on this particlar day, but that doesn't make the day any better.



We got up in the morning and left at 7am east coast time and arrived at our home at 11pm west coast time, making 19 hours of travel.

Eric and the boys raced each other on the DS to pass the time during our layover at the airport. Emma was watching them play or holding Meg. Elijah loved walking around the airport instead of being strapped in his carseat or otherwise unable to roam.



















Eric was the one stuck with Elijah for both plane rides. We were the last to board for the first Southwest flight which was completely full. So Eric was seated by Emma with Elijah on his lap (the entire time) at the very back of the plane. I sat by Isaac and held Meg near the front of the plane and Gabe was a couple of rows behind me.









On the second flight we flew over McCall ID...Eric's family goes there every summer so it was kind of cool to see it out the airplane window.

Eric spotted it and barely got the camera in time to take a picture.

We also flew by these beautiful Mountain peaks telling us that we were almost home...the closest Mountain is Mt. Rainier, the one in the middle is Mt. St. Helens, the one on the left is Mt. Adams. There is a peak in the distance that you can barely see to the right of Mt. Adams, that is Mt. Hood.







We finally got to the Seattle airport!! There is a stream of fish that zig zags through the terminal and then starts spiraling at the end. The kids (particularly Isaac) love to follow the stream of fish. Isaac tried to step on each one. We had to keep reminding him to look out for other people.

After we got our car we finished the last leg of our trip...driving from Seattle to our home. We finally made it!! What a day...the worst Father's Day ever!!!

Emerald Isle

When Eric and I were out in Philly for school, we spent time down in Myrtle beach both summers. We loved it both times. The ocean is shallow, gentle waves and warm. A kids paradise. We missed last summer because of the move and all so we were bound and determined to get out there this summer...not even a five week old or a recent surgery could stop us!! Instead of going clear down to Myrtle beach though, we decided to try out the outer banks of North Carolina. A lot of Eric's side of the family came and we had a nice house right on the beach. Sterling, Jess, Rachel, Josh, Lydia, Amy, Mom, Dad, Parker Jr., and Bentley all came.

We had a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work with 2 babies. I think the next time we attempt a cross country trip we will wait until our youngest is 3-4ish or leave the babies with someone.

May Madness

This month was crazy beginning with the birth of Meg and ending with getting my appendix out.

2 1/2 weeks after Meg was born I was in the hospital again for another visit...this time to the E.R. Jessica came to visit and see/help with the new baby. She arrived Wednesday night, I woke up on Thursday morning feeling ill. I felt like I had indigestion and it just got progressively worse during the day. By night time it was a really severe pain in my right side. I was quite miserable. I called my OB thursday afternoon because I assumed it was something to due with the fact that I just delivered a baby a couple of weeks ago. She said to monitor my symptoms and call tomorrow if it was the same or worse. Well friday it was definately not any better so I called and she got me in at 10am. She was going to send me home with a couple perscriptions and Eric asked if she thought it might be appendicitis. She said that they couldn't tell that at her office but a trip to the E.R. might be a good idea.

I had a blessing on thursday night and Eric felt that he should bless me that I would get the medical attention I needed. And that is what I got. We went to the E.R. and I got a CT scan. One radiologist said my appendix was not inflamed, and the E.R. doc sounded like he thought I should go home but he said that my family doctor happen to be here checking on another patient so he would send her in to talk to me. She thought it was appendicitis and said that she was going to get a surgeon down to talk to me. She had another radiologist look at the scan and he thought the appendix did look inflamed. So after we talked to the surgeon we decided to get the surgery. I got to the hospital at 12p and was in surgery at about 6p.

Every thing went just fine and it was really a life saver that Jess was here the whole time (even though it kind of put a damper on the fun factor of the trip). She even extended her trip a few days to help out. Thank you Jess.

We flew Eric's little sister Amy out to help out the next week and the week after that we were with family visiting the Outer Banks. It has been 3 1/2 weeks since the surgery. and I was told to not lift anything over 15 pounds for 6 weeks. (nearly impossible with a 23 pound 16 month old) I did really well the first 3 weeks because there was always someone around to help. I am on my own now but I think I am well enough to handle it. I am choosing to follow the second suggestion the surgeon told me "if it hurts, don't do it".

Gone Fishing!

They have a little fishing day for kids here in Yakima. It costs five dollars and they give the kids fishing poles (to keep) and T-shirts and they get to catch 2 fish from the pond that is stocked a few days before. Eric took the three older kids and they had a great time. They also have all these volunteers there to gut the fish. When Isaac was getting his fish gutted the guy removed the heart and it was still beating!! They all thought that was really cool--especially Isaac!

When they got home we cooked their fish and steamed some asparagus and heated up some left over rice for a full yummy lunch. The fish was good but we all ate slowly (except for Isaac) trying to avoid the bones.

Bringing Meg Home

We went home the day after Meg was born. Just over 24 hours in the hospital. That was my shortest stay. I could have stayed another night but that hospital bed was really uncomfortable. I was almost going to have to stay another night because of little Meg's absolute non interest in eating. She nursed really well about an hour after she was born. 10-15 min. on both sides but then she utterly refused to eat until about 14 hours later. The nurse insisted I just wasn't getting her awake enough and tried to give her formula and she was shut down as well. Meg just blocked anything being put in her mouth with her tongue. But then she ate well a few times the next day and I felt fine about going home so at about 6 pm Eric came to pick me up with our little Lij. I don't think he knows quite what to think about everything.

Our First Visitors

Meg was just hours old and we knew visiting hours would be ending soon so Eric left to go gather the kids from their various locations so they could all meet her.

Eric went to get the boys from their baseball game first (Danette had picked them up from the Hales). He grabbed Emma and Elijah who were still at the Hales and then he came to the hospital and they were all able to see our new little addition.

Isaac LOVES babies. He is always the first one to wash his hands and want to hold the baby. It is so funny that our crazy little Isaac has such a sweet, cuddly disposition.

Our cute little girls. Emma was really excited to be getting a sister!

Gabe loves his sister, but I think he is looking forward to her walking and not being so "newborn".

Elijah isn't really into babies and I think he is wondering when she is going to be gone. He has been a little more fussy than normal, but I think he will be back to his normal happy-go-lucky self once he gets used to the idea of another baby being around.

Our five kids what a good lookin' bunch!!

Thanks for the visit guys. Short but very sweet!

What a happy day!