July 2011 ~ 4th of July Fun!!

We have developed the tradition over the past few years to spend all of our "major/small" holidays with a group of great friends and neighbors. These friends live in a great cul de sac and our holidays are filled with friends, great food, and lots of fun!! The kids ride their bikes, we play football, we gather around the fire pit and we enjoy amazing company! This 4th of July was as good as we expected. With all of that said, I just have to say how cute my kids looked in their 4th of July outfits. :)

July 2011 ~ We Are Complete! Introducing Emi Grace!

Our beautiful final addition arrived healthy and happy on July 15, 2011 at 8:22 a.m. We are so happy to introduce Emi Grace, who weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. Considering she was born at 36 weeks ~ 4 weeks early ~ she is a very big and healthy "preemie". Emi has been the long awaited caboose for our family, joining her older siblings to complete our family.

Due to complications with me, not the pregnancy, the delivery was quite difficult and my recovery was not the easiest. Despite the complications and the fact that she was born early, Emi proved to be the strong girl we suspected she was and came out calm and happy. As a matter of fact, almost a little too calm. :) As usual, when Emi was born, the nurse took her over to the warming table to clean her up, wrap her up and give her an overall check. Most babies are not too happy about this, as they are suddenly yanked into a cold and bight environment and then are manhandled. Emi seemed to care less! She cried for a minute after being born, but then calmed right down and didn't make a peep when being examined. At our hospital, the standard procedure for babies born earlier than 37 weeks is to allow them to spend an hour with their parents after birth and then they are taken to the NICU for 6 hours to be watched - do ensure that they don't need any medical assistance or intervention due to their early arrival. Since Emi was so quiet, the nurse was very confused and a little concerned. The nurse told us that Emi looked good - her color was good, her breathing was good, her reflexes were good, but she was just too quiet. For that reason, they let me see her for a minute or so, and then whisked her directly down to the NICU for her observation. After her 6 hour stint there, Emi was given to us with a clean bill of health! Silly girl! I am just going to believe that she was being extra cooperative since I had to have such a difficult surgery following her birth. I'll keep my fingers crossed that she continues to be this thoughtful. :)

It is needless to say that her sisters and brother were immediately in love when they first saw her! The fighting to hold her started right at the start ~ but I'm not complaining! :) We are definitely in love with this sweet girl! We thought we were done after Mylie, but something just didn't seem right to me about that decision. I'm happy to say that our family is officially ~ and happily ~ complete!

July 2011 ~ Loose Tooth

Poor Katie ~ she takes after her mom on so many levels. :) One of our shared traits is that we do not loose teeth early or easily. Where most kids start loosing their teeth in Kindergarten, Katie didn't loose her first one until 1st grade. Finally tooth #4, her top left tooth, finally decided to get loose this Summer and decided to come out during our dinner - much to Katie's great surprise!! We were having a great Summer dinner ~ BBQ steak, fresh fruit, corn on the cob, etc. Throughout the whole dinner, Katie had been so careful of her loose tooth - choosing to eat her corn after it had been removed from the cob. She almost made it through dinner hazard free, but then she got a little greedy (LOL) and decided she needed one last bite of corn. Since there wasn't any left that had been cut off, she decided to go test her luck. She had a good laugh when she didn't quite get the bite she expected. :)

July 2011 ~ Mariners Game Fun!

We love sporting events in our family, and going to local games is something that Eric and I are always wanting to do. Unfortunately, cramped little seats and long games make attending very many games a little difficult. Not this time! We were spoiled when a date night out with some friends to a Mariners baseball game ended up being a family night out with friends. Our good friends were able to secure the Microsoft suite for the game, which gave everyone (aka: the kids) plenty of room to run and stretch their little legs without bugging anyone around us. :) A big hit of the night was that the Mariners Moose came to our suite to visit. That was a big hit for the whole group!