Summer wrap up

I believe she was enjoying some carrots.

Our friends (Jared and Cathy Froese) were in town and the kids were in Emerson's room getting EVERYTHING out of her closet. Since my shoes still take up the majority of it, Will was having some fun.

Can you spot the four kids in the picture? (Bailey and Cooper Froese and Will and Emerson...)

I'm trying to get Easton "attached" to this dog blanket whether she likes it or not. Emerson doesn't have a "lovey" so I'm trying to get Easton one. I'm not sure if that's how it works but we'll see!

This is what my husband did on a random Tuesday night. It's normal, right?

I met up with an old high school girlfriend, Jayme, and her two adorable boys Luke and Evan. Luke and Emerson are about a month apart Evan is 18 months old (ish) and she's having a little girl in a month! Whew! We went to the Bass Pro park and Emerson insisted on holding Jayme's hand...

Ryan gives Emerson some of his shave cream when he's shaving and she's in the bath. He called me in one night to take a look. How she didn't get any in her eyes and have a meltdown is beyond me. Wow.

Getting ready to see Dora Live with Grandma Margaret. It was awesome- she's still talking about it.

Easton is in her big girl seat in the bathtub and absolutely loves it.

The girls and I are going up to Graceland Homecoming this weekend (Ryan would rather stay home and work around the house- wierd) so hopefully it'll be fun and not too stressful. Pizza Shack- here we come!

7 Months

Another month gone by! She's getting more and more fun by the day, playing with toys and scooting around on her belly. She's figured out how to get up on all fours-I think she'll be crawling in no time. She is a marvelous eater- LOVES everything we've given her except rice cereal. I've been a bit more adventureous in the purees I'm making this time around- she really likes the apples and blueberries mix. I've been adding prunes to a few things (carrots and peaches) and she seems to really like those as well. She's such a smiley happy baby and Emerson is quite the good big sister.

1 Week
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months

4 Months

5 Months 6 Months

7 Months!

I've been waiting for this day...

And... she started dance class. Getting ready was half the fun...

Her friend Court-a-ney is in the class with her. What fun they'll have.

This is the first organized activity away from me she's been to. Away from Ryan. Away from Grandma. Just her, her teachers, and her friends. I had to just let go.

I only cried a little bit.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend was a success again this year. It's become a tradition to go up to Red Oak to see Ryan's family and a lot of his extended family made the trip as well. Saturday night Nebraska had their season opener so there was a packed house for that.

Emerson still rocking her Blackshirts shirt from last year. The pink cowboy boots complete the look, I think. The only thing cuter than those boots are the size 2 ones my mom bought for Easton to match.
Easton wearing Emerson's old cheerleading outfit with her Great Aunt Linda.

I'm not sure...

On Sunday we headed to Villisca for the Wood Family Homerun Derby. I was a bit nervous about having Easton outside for so long but she fell asleep for her nap. I was going to leave her at Ryan's aunt and uncle's house and just check on her a lot. (It's about 100 yards from the baseball field.) Ryan's aunt came down to the field from the house and said her neighbor came over to the house to read and sit while Easton slept so we could relax at the field. I love small town Iowa...

Emerson got to "hit" with dad just like the big boys.

Aunt Linda holding a cuddly Easton after her nap- such a good baby.

The Wood clan- Ryan successfully defended his title.

Ryan's cousin, Ben, is getting married in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March. Ryan is a groomsman and we're making the trip so we're looking forward to that.

I took the girls back to the farm while everyone stayed and had a campfire in Villisca. Emerson usually talks my ear off in the car and all of a sudden it got quiet. This is how the girls were when we got home. Emerson always holds Easton's hand when she falls asleep and I guess Emerson followed suit. So sweet...

Looking at her book with Great Aunt Patti.

On our way out of town we saw this sign for Emerson Days with the water tower in the background. We always tell her, "it's your town!" when we're going to the farm. As we were leaving she said, "is that my town, mom?" Soon it'll turn into, "I KNOW MOM! You tell me that every time!"

Easton's Story

I've been putting off writing Easton's birth story but I really wanted to get it down since I never got Emerson's written down and I'm sure I've forgotten details. This is really more for Easton and her baby book but if you're interested, enjoy!

Easton Claire, who I was convinced was a boy by the way, was due on February 15th, 2010. Emerson was 2 weeks early so I was spoiled in that I never was really, truly miserable and pregnant. With Easton I was pretty miserable I think the last 8 weeks. I was just ready. I couldn't get on the ground and play with Emerson like I wanted to and I wasn't sleeping well at all so I was just over it. As my due date came and went I was more bitter by the day. I didn't want to be induced (for some reason it freaked me out) so I was willing to go over by a week. On Wednesday morning, 2 days overdue, at 6 am I was woken up by some sharp pain. I waited 10 or 15 minutes before I woke up Ryan because we had had a false alarm a couple of weeks earlier and I didn't want a repeat performance. I could tell very quickly that these pains were different and woke Ryan up around 6:15. He hopped in the shower and I called my mom to come over to watch Emerson. I was pretty relaxed and told my mom to take her time and Ryan wasn't all that concerned. I'm not sure what happened in those 10 minutes but before I knew it I was doubled over with pain and wanting to be at the hospital pretty quickly. I'll never forget- while Ryan was in the shower, Emerson woke up like she sometimes does and I went into her room to lay her back down. I picked her up and just held her, knowing that life as we all knew it was about to change forever and it was nice to just have a quiet moment with my first baby before giving birth to my second.

I called my mom to see if she had left yet and when she answered her house phone I was sort of panicked and said, "please leave now!" We had had our bags packed for weeks because Emerson came early and we were not prepared and we swore that wouldn't happen again so on that front we were ready to go. We met my mom at the door and were on our way to St. Mary's in no time. I think Ryan made it there in about 3 minutes. He dropped me off at the emergency room entrance because the maternity entrance wasn't open yet (it was just before 7 am at this point.) I walked in and said in tears to the poor woman, "I'm having a baby...!" She got a wheelchair for me and I was taken to a room to be checked out. Ryan came in with all of our stuff and at this point I was VERY uncomfortable with contractions. It was in the middle of shift change for the nurses so things were a bit chaotic. They determined I was in labor and admitted us. I got my epidural at 9am and from then on it was smooth sailing. Ryan got my Dave Matthews mix going on our IPod and the environment was very soothing from then on. Dr. Dowd came in shortly thereafter and said I was at a 10, fully effaced and that he just needed to break my water and that things would move pretty quickly after that. I was terrifed for him to break my water- I just pictured it being painful and I didn't need it to be done with Emerson so I didn't know what to expect. He said he could come back to check on me and I agreed. He came back a bit later and asked if I was ready and I said no! He told me I was in denial and that I was having a baby today! My mom and Amber were in the room (Jonathan was at my mom's house with Emerson) and they encouraged me to have him break my water. He did it with them in the room which they thought was pretty cool- it was completely painless by the way. After he broke my water at about 11:45 he could see a full head of black hair and said I was ready to push. With Emerson my epidural(s) didn't work and her labor was very painful so I was terrified. I had procrastinated long enough so Amber and my mom went out into the waiting room and literally 2 (pain free!) pushes later at 12:17 pm, we met our Easton Claire. What a difference an effective epidural makes! I was certain we were having a baby boy so I was just shocked (and thrilled!) we had another little girl.

Pure. Joy.