Hope's Morning

Trampoline hair.

Fall flowers.

Tramp Love

On Saturday we set up an early Christmas present for the girls - oh yes - a trampoline. It seems all summer as we have been trying to get them to play outside, that they just didn't know what to do with themselves. The tramp, we hope, will get them loving the backyard and having a great time.

Just as the tramp was set up and ready to go on Saturday, it started to rain. The girls enjoyed a little slip and slide for a few minutes, but then gave it up and came inside. Sunday was a beautiful day, but we have decided keeping the Sabbath day holy doesn't include jumping on the trampoline with all the neighbor kids wanting to join in. Monday the rain returned with a vengeance.

Emma was moaning in complaint that every day but Sunday will bring rain, so they will never get a chance to play. Fortunately for everyone we had a clear but cool afternoon after school today, so they got a good few jumps in. We hope winter will hold off for a couple months so they can have some great full fun outdoors before we get frozen over.

beadboard

When my dad arrived a week ago, nearly the first words he said were, "What projects should we do?" My answer was ready: Beadboard.

Dad and Jon worked all week and got the beadboard all up. Last night Jon got the crown moulding up. Now it's my job to putty and caulk the seams, and then the painting can resume again! Thank you, dad, for all your hard work. I am so excited to see the job progress.

Amelia's Blessing Day

Amelia was blessed at church today. She looked beautiful in her little white dress.

I love all the little lacey details.

And the shoes! Emma couldn't believe they would fit Amelia. She was sure they were for her dolls.

This is the crew that made it to Michigan for the occasion.

Oh - and a side note - in 2 weeks we have gone through approximately 200 diapers. YAH.

Us this week (narrative shortened due to fatigue)

Markers make life more interesting.

Oh, Hope.

This baby likes to party at 3 a.m. every morning. For hours.

Last weekend Jon and my mom took the girls to the Henry Ford for the Old Fashioned Car Show. They had a great time.

Amelia's Baby Book

I got another great deal on a photobook from Shutterfly, and just had to do another book! We took a bunch more pictures today, and I got everything loaded and put into a premade album by Becky Higgins. These are a few of my favorite photos from today. If you'd like to see the baby book I made for Amelia, click here.

Violet Balloons

We took a few more photos this afternoon. This is Amelia giving us "the eye". She can't understand why we won't just let her sleep.

I couldn't quite make my vision work with this shot. This is the best one we got, but she's looking a bit too "George Costanza" for me.

We'll try taking balloon pictures another day. It was fun to play a little, anyway.

Emma enjoyed as well.

Jon took about 50 pictures of her doing things like this. They're pretty funny.

Amelia's home

Day 2 with our little Amelia has been a busy one. We came home yesterday from the hospital, but had to return this morning for another pediatric check-up. She was officially released with a clean bill of health, just a little bit of yellow showing up on her nose, so we spent a few minutes outside to try and keep jaundice at bay.

And to take advantage of a the warm, pretty day for some photo ops. I surprised myself by being able to creep around on the grass and lay on my tummy to take pictures. I'm feeling pretty good, and hope recovery will be fast.

See Amelia's little dimple on her right cheek? It reminds me of her cousin, Jack, and his cutey-pie dimps.

Jack and Shawn and Marti drove from Ann Arbor to visit us in the hospital. He was one busy little guy - mopping the floors clean with his all-natural cleaning supplies - drool and his tummy.

The girls loved seeing their new sister, but were just as excited to get a little Disney-channel in.

Hope says, "baby!baby!baby!cuuue." (cute) She loves holding baby, but gets very concerned whenever she cries.

Emma drew a new family portrait this morning, including Grandma, who is here for another month to help out!

Finally, here we have the girls this morning as they left for their first day of school. 

So excited to be back with friends and new teachers!

Amelia Violet Arrives

Amelia Violet was born on Sunday September 6, 2009 at 4:55pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. and measured 19 inches long. As you can see, she has mixed feelings about her delivery today.

The nurse allowed Amelia to walk all over her mom. Something I am sure will continue.

Day of Labor

Tomorrow we go in to have a baby. I talked to my doctor about being induced on my due date, since I always go over, and he suggested that we do it this weekend, since he was on call. Jon has Monday off, and it is labor day weekend after all. Might as well have a little labor. Sunday morning at 7 it all begins. Please keep us in your prayers!