Where is the S-N-O-W?

Elliott was so excited to buy a snow blower!!! He spent literally DAYS researching and looking at them, finally bought one, to take it back and get another! The next day, after considering taking it back and getting yet a third, her said, he had to stop, it was getting out of control:) BUT we do now have one... now we need the snow. I think it is the first time I have ever heard him ask day after day, where is the snow:) Emma was so excited to get out and help him (pushing her three wheeler).

Emma and her "babies" the other morning... which is the real baby???

Elliott suggested Emma and I spend some special one on one time together, so I bought us tickets to go see the Nutcracker. We spent a good portion of the day at Cabella's, getting matching snow boots for the family ) El's idea! And the sweet girl did not get the two hour nap I was hoping she would... Basically the 45 minute nap in the car was not enough to prepare her for the night:( We went to Panera for dinner and she could barely concentrate on eating she was already exhausted. When Emma is tired she can barely sit still, so I knew we were in for it at the performance! She enjoyed the first half, but I knew we could go at intermission and we'd both be happier in the long run, but I didn't want her to miss the show, and I didn't want to miss it either! Long story short, after a small breakdown in the bathroom about 15 minutes before the end of the show I called it a night (poor girl was heartbroken) - and she was asleep about 5 minutes after we got into the truck! That all said, I can't wait for the two of us to do something special again, I miss our time together so much.

Olive has really become active in the past week! She has started coo-ing and ooh-ing, gurgling and gug-ing! She loves the lights on the ceiling and best of all the ceiling fan! Here she is getting so exciting looking up at the one in the family room.

"Cheeks" here had her two month check-up yesterday and it is official - she is a roley-poley Buddha baby! She is 97th percentile for weight (13lb) and 90th percentile for height (23 1/2 inches). The doctor asked, "are these rolls all from nursing?" - "yes, yes they are"!!!! She seriously has two sets of inner thighs and I have to work hard to get all the nooks and crannies clean all over her body - especially her arm pits and neck. She has been such an easy baby, sleeping a few hours at a time if she is in her car seat, and at least a couple of hours at a time at night, sometimes us to four hours! And honestly, she does not nurse as much as Emma did, so I feel I have a bit of a break there.

Emma continues to love her big sister, and loves being a big sister (she mentions often how much likes both!). She wants to hold her and talks to her just like I do - she is such a care taker in training!!!

That's all for now... Much love

Big Sister

Emma has been dying to give Olive a bottle! She'll run over to the freezer and pull out the milk, begging to do it. Finally, when Grandma Patterson was here, Emma got her chance. First, El's mom offered to watch Olive so we could have some desperately needed one on one time with Emma. So we took Emma to see Happy Feet 2 (she loves her sister but was thrilled to have us to herself!). When we got home Olive still hadn't eaten yet - perfect opportunity for Emma! You can see the proud look and elated smile she has on her face. We are so proud of Emma! She has been so sweet, and often says "I love being a big sister!"

Now, this doesn't mean she doesn't have her moments when she is mad at me!! But, we are getting there and continuing to all work on our new family of four!

We had the first snowfall a couple of weeks ago. The picture is Emma outside at 8am because she just couldn't wait!

Old Tom - he's found a new favorite place to sleep!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving this year... and boy was it crazy!!! Grandma Patterson (El's mom) was here to visit, and then we had my Grandma Hinrichs and Aunt Judy, my mom and Denny, Bec, Chris and Landon, and Peter and his caretaker Clement, all over. And of course, Emma was CRAZY tired - which equals CRAZY energetic!

While Emma looks adorable in the picture below, you can see on Papa Denny's face that she was about at her wits end trying to get this picture taken, and I believe she went down for a nap right after this. She was so exhausted because Elliott and I (without sweet Olive who stayed home with a very happy Grandma Patterson) took her to see a 7:00 show of Happy Feet 2 the night before. She was so excited to be with out Olive for a change:)

Grandma Patterson loving Olive!

Emma's look of the night! While she was kidding in this picture, it is not far off! I swear I thought she was going to fall asleep at Turkey Dinner!!!!!

Big girl Emma with the "baby" grandkids - we were all actually so impressed with her! she held on tight to them and was just full of proud smiles and fun as she held them tight - such a good big sister! And cousin Landon, well he is just about as easy going as they come!

Great Grandma Dorothy was able to come as well, and she had a special treat holding Olive.

I can't think of much more now, as I am desperately just trying to stay awake to finish this posting!!! Love to all....

Em's frist day back at preschool!

Notice the baby... sleeping... on the floor... all by herself!!! This is big - she really likes to be cuddled - which is sweet, just not all the time!

Emma's monster hands - she LOVES to get the feeling of things on her hands! She was done immediately after this of course, because what fun would it be to paint????

Big Girl Emma picked out her own clothes this morning, for her first day back at pre-school - she has her princess back pack on, which has literally not left her side since we gave it to her! She takes the bus today from Carol's and then I pick her up... so excited to hear what she thinks!

Last night she AND Olive came with me to teach, and I was dreading it - but Emma is growing up! She did so good, drawing and dancing around, of course I did tell her is she behaved (and we talked about what that meant) then she could choose somewhere for us to go out to dinner tonight! I am sure you can't guess where she wants to go - McDonald's!!! I should have given her some choices:) Oh well, I was VERY proud of her last night!

Love to all...

Santa arrived at the Mall of America Thursday evening, and my mom and I took Emma. Santa arrived on his sleigh with his reindeer - and Emma got to hold Santa's hand! She was so thrilled and giggled with joy - I had tears in my eyes! Here she is holding her baby with a dress that had snowflakes like the coat she wore, and was almost purple, just like her (her favorite color - which was also mine when I was little!).

Below - another picture she will kill me for when she gets older!!! On the way to the mall, at 4:30 pm, she must have been wiped out. I went to pick up my mom, and Emma looked at me when we pulled in to her driveway, and the she closed her eyes. Poor girl...

Yesterday, Sunday, we celebrated Papa Denny's birthday! It was fun to finally have three grandchildren running around the house! Becca's little one, Landon, is 7 months old and crawling up a storm. You can see they are trying to get him in to soccer early (they both played in college!).

In other new Ms. Olive turned One Month Old yesterday! In some ones I can;t believe it has already been a month, and in others I can believe it has only been a month:) She is sweet, and loves to be held and snuggled. Last night she slept in her crib, on her back, for about an hour and a half - that is a huge accomplishment!!! Her cheeks and rolls are filling out, so we know she is eating well. Ms. Emma loves her sister more than we ever could have imagined, and often wants to hold, hug and kiss her.

Emma and Papa Denny - of course she had to help him open all of his presents!!!

Emma starts back at her speech pre-school tomorrow, and is excited to take the bus! I will be interested to see how it goes - she is sweet and full of joy - but if told her the sky was blue she would say "no, I am certain it is purple" :)

Love to all...

Papa Jim and Nana Visit!

One last Halloween picture - Emma as Bolt, Elliott as Ken (can't you tell?), and me as a Kangaroo !

Me and Emma, Olive and Em's baby.... Can you guess what sweet Emma is doing?? She'll despise me for this picture in 10 years:) But, really it is so sweet how they emulate all you do.

My Dad and Jackie came to visit after Elliott's mom, from last Thursday to Sunday. They were such a huge help, we certainly appreciate all they did for us! Plus, Jackie is the Baby Whisperer and always has good advice, besides the ability to make Olive fall asleep!!!

Papa Jim and Olive

Olive Nana and Emma

I am typing with one hand so that is all for now. oh yes! When papa and nana got here i asked Emma what she would like to do special. She replied that she would like to get some fake nails! I said that i meant would she like to go somewhere special. To which she replied, how about Target?

Love her!!!!!

has it been this long????

I can't believe it has taken me this long to post... life has been a bit crazy this past month!

After Florida we put an offer in on a house and we had to close by Oct. 1 to get the financing we were hoping for. It was a race to say the least!! We did get the house and are slowly putting the finishing touches on it. It is open and spacious, and there are 11 kids on the block, with on;y half of the houses built!!! And we have lovely friendly neighbors!

Sept. 23 Emma had surgery to correct her submucous cleft palate - she came through with flying colors, up running around with her IV cart the following morning. We did not have the relaxing snuggly weekend we were looking forward to:)

A week later with much thanks to my mom and dad for packing help, we moved in to our new house!

Sweet Olive Grace arrived 13 days later... the story below.... And then we spent the weekend in childrens hospital with her, 9 days following that. SO, life has been good, but certainly crazy and stressful.

Forgive me, the pictures below are in no order what so ever!!!

The back of Emma's costume - Bolt, the dog from the Disney ,movie. Much thanks to my mom for helping sew it!!!!

How dang cute is she??? She informed that that she would have to wear pants, not a skirt, because she would be crawling around like a dog. She told me last week, that I would need to be a Kangaroo, because they have pouches where they carry their babies!!! I tried, but she was not impressed with me costume:) We all went out last night, and had such a blast, but Emma ran the WHOLE time, and wore herself out! Besides, her bag was about 10 lbs!!! She is a riot, had to ask about every one's pet, if she could hold or pet it, where was the dad at, how did their gate work, on and on...

Carving pumpkins Sunday evening when Grandma Patterson got here... This is never as much fun as we imagine, and Emma literally GAGGED when trying to take the guts out!!!!!! So, that was the end of her involvement:)

Grandma Patterson and Olive - 2 1/2 weeks old

Papa Denny and Olive, 2 weeks

Olive, Emma, and Mommy - 1 day old (tired mommy!!!)

Emma, Olive and Grandma Loerch - Olive 1 week old

Olive and Mommy - a few minutes old..... And the story goes...

I woke up Thursday morning, Oct. 13, with a few contractions, a good 45 minutes apart. I had a feeling that might be it, so I took my time getting Emma to Carol's because I thought it might be her last morning as an only child:( We took a bath and played with big foam letters, and it was almost and hour later than usual when I dropped her off. Then I headed to Target to get Elliott an anniversary card (our 11 year anniversary was on the 14ht), and while there the contractions got a bit more intense, a good 15 minutes apart, but I thought, "I better go home"! When I got home about 11am I told Elliott I thought he better get up and get any thing packed that he might want to take to the hospital! I don't think he believed me because he slept for another 45 minutes:) I called my midwife to describe what was happening, and at that time I could still talk through the contractions and they were about 10 minutes apart. That was about 11:30. She suggested we might wait until they were about 5 minutes apart, however we could come in whenever we wanted to and she would check me. Mind you, with Emma, my water broke, so I went through ALL of labor in the hospital, I knew what was going on. Basically, I am an idiot:) By 12 I called my mom to ask if she could go pick up Emma from Carol's, and bring her here, and then we would decided if I needed to go in and if it was indeed labor (again, DENIAL!). By the time she got to our house about 1pm, the contractions were about 7-10 minutes apart, but I had to breath through them and could not talk. Finally, at 2:15 pm I said, "Let's go", like I just knew it was time when I was starting to feel quite a bit of pressure! We packed Emma up and took her to my mom's, and I told Elliott he better drive fast. Once we got on the freeway they started coming fast and it was not fun:) We decided on a girls name on the way to the hospital (I was CERTAIN it was going to be a boy!!!) just in case. By the time we got downtown the contractions were coming every few minutes. we got in the parking ramp (after driving around three times because we couldn't find the entrance!!!) and I called Megan, my midwife and dancer friend, saying "the baby is coming I cannot walk I am going to need a wheel chair..." I got out of the truck and had another contraction, and I desperately wanted to lay down on the cement!!!! I honestly thought I was going to have the baby in the parking garage. We got in to the sky way, and I DID sit on the floor!!! Eyes closed, Elliott found some lady who got me a wheel chair - it was like a movie - I heard he walking fast fast saying "coming through we have a lady in labor here", she had a special key for a special elevator that got me to the midwife unit faster (my eyes were closed the whole time!). We got to the room at 3:15, I stood up, stripped, got on the bed, Megan said you are at a 9 1/2!!! I had the urge to push and Olive was born 20 minutes later!!!!! Elliott was so supportive the whole time and literally pulled Olive out!!! I asked What is it! He and Megan told me to look... Elliott said the look on my face was priceless - I was shocked as could be that it was a girl!!!!

Least to say, labor was fast and I was not prepared and it was not fun:) I have two beautiful healthy girls and an amazing husband - and I don't ever want to have a baby again:)

Emma meeting her little sister Olive for the first time. I cannot tell you how amazing Emma has been! She loves her little sister SO much (thank God it was a girl, for her sake!). I really thought we were going to have a tough transition but she has been a real trooper, and an amazing help. It is sweet to watch. She did ask me this morning if I would always make her breakfast first:)

Olive Grace, couple of days old

Big Sister and little sister (Emma has taken to calling Olive "sister", so we pretty much all call her that!)

Emma's boots for Halloween...

On her way to Carol's to celebrate Halloween... goodness I love her so!

I guess that is it for now. I am sure there are a million other things I could write, but there are a million things I should get done now!! I will work hard to post more regularly... Love to all...

First Timers!

Emma has been such a joy lately - watching her grow and learn and think and respond is such a treat. It all reminds me of how fortunate we are to have Emma in our lives! Below is her "first day of school" picture. Actually, her first day back at Carol's for the fall. She goes for about three hours in the morning, gets the pre-K curriculum that Carol does with the kids, and play time and social interaction with the kids as well. She has really formed a sweet relationship with two of the younger girls, both three, who come running to her every time we step in the door. It is very endearing and also reminds me of how lucky we are to have Carol and Tuffy in our lives and as a part of Emma's life.

Emma had her first ballet class of the season last week, and I could not have been prouder!!! Ballet was quite a struggle last year - all she wanted to do was run around, boss the other kids around, do her own thing, and basically be silly the whole class. What a difference a year makes!!!! After class I told her how proud I was of her (over and over again to be honest!), and she said, "I know, did you see how the other kids weren't listening, and how they were running all around? I only looked over once to make sure you were there." Oh, my heart melts!

AND Emma has started soccer at the Y this fall. It is only about 7 games, but again, what a difference a year makes!!!! Elliott and couple other dads are "coaching" and there is such a great group of 4/5 year olds on her team. We also decided to do Saturday mornings, so Elliott wouldn't miss any. I think that was a wise choice for Emma, as by 6pm she is pretty wiped out from her day! Here she is in goalie, however most of her time in goalie was spent playing in the net, getting her hair caught. One time the other team scored a goal because she had gotten her shoe caught in the net and couldn't move:)

Emma is also progressing her in "reading" skills. The other day we were driving in the car and she said, "Look mom, this guys name is Tim!" She was looking at the cover of TIME magazine and had sounded out "Tim".... Bursting buttons of course:)

What else? Well, this morning she had her first cavity filled (hopefully the next will be many moons away!), Friday morning she has surgery on her cleft palate and will spend the night in the hospital for recovery, and then next Friday the 30th we MOVE into our new home!!!!

We are very thankful for all of the wonderful fruits of life headed our way lately. I am especially thankful Elliott is willing to work so hard at his new job, to provide for us as a family in so many ways!!! Thanks honey....

Love to all....

Sarasota, Fl - Day I and 2

Here we are! We arrived in Orlando about 1pm on Thursday after an amazingly easy flight with Ms. Emma. She slept for about an hour and a half of our two hour drive to Sarasota. We headed straight for the beach when we got here and ate dinner about 8pm in our hotel that night! Our hotel is an older Holiday Inn, not that great, however we have a beach view, and just walk across the little path to the beach. AND the hotel food is AMAZING!!!! We were very surprised.... Emma and I have enjoyed room service for breakfast each morning so far, and lunch out yesterday. We plan on at least one really nice fish dinner while we are here, probably on St. Armands circle, or we may drive down to Siesta Key or Santa Maria Island. Emma has loved every moment in the water, and we have seen huge pelicans diving for fish, a coule of dolphins have a us a great show jumping high in the air just a few yards off shore yesterday morning, funny little hermit crabs, and a type of mollusk and tiny clams.... It has been fantastic so far, even with a little bit of rain! Today we will be off to the beach after breakfast, to fly the kite El and Em got, and just to play in the water and search for even MORE shells!!! This afternoon we will drive down to Siesta Key, or maybe to the Aquarium or Jungle Gardens...

Proof that I was indeed on the trip, because it may be the only picture I get in!

Emma searching the millions of little shells all over the beach - just as I remember it!

First step into the water Thursday evening - so warm!

For Father's Day Emma and I got Elliott a fishing trip for the first morning we were here (that was Friday morning). He was at the boat ramp by 7am and was back home, exhausted from the sun by 11:45. I guess the fishing wasn't so great, and he'd like to come back in May for Tarpon fishing. He did however catch a puffer fish, an endangered catfish, have his biggest fish taken by a shark, see dolphins and a manatee... So, not too bad!

There is a beautiful historic shopping circle, called St. Armands Circle about two blocks from our hotel (I remember it well from when I was a child!). Emma thought she saw a toy store so we had planned to head out there yesterday afternoon. Well, we couldn't find one, but the Starbucks girl suggested a great one "downtown" Sarasota. Elliott told Emma she could pick something out..... Can you imagine she chose the most expensive baby in the store??? I told them however,t hat she was going to have to give away most of the other babies she has at home!! She asid OK! We'll see how that goes, but her baby obsession has to stop somewhere:) Least to say it snuggled up next to her in bed right now.

Our goofy girl!!!

Emma's late night Sandcastle

Flying a new kite on the beach - not so much wind so we will try again this morning!

Elliott wouldn't pose in a picture for me, so Emma kindly volunteered:) Our sleep schedules have been WAY off, a nap from 3:30-5:30, to bed at 10:30, yet still awake at 7am!!!!! Oh well.... we have a much happier Emma AND Daddy when they get sleep:)

On a side note many thanks to my mom, Denny, and Carol and Tuffy (Em's daycare and out realtor).... We have been house hunting (yippie!!!) and there has been a change in the rules for FHA loans in the past week - we have to be almost closed by Oct. 1st or the amount we qualify for goes way down!!!! So my Mom, Denny, Carol and Tuffy have been scouting houses for us for hours!!!! The hope is that we get back Thursday, and will put an offer on something Thursday evening... Who would have thought our first vacation in 11 years, without any other family, would coincide with the housing decision???? Oh well... Thanks to them is the least we can say!!!