Church as a Family of Four

Norah, at 5-days old, made her first appearance in church yesterday. I took a few shots once we got home...

Noah loves holding his sister, as long as we don't take too long.

Headed Home

Burrrrp

bright eyes...

Noah & Norah Meet...

Although it was thrilling to meet our new lil'one - I had dreaded for days leaving Noah. There's something about being away from home - my husband & son that I didn't really want to experience. I was eagerly anticipating Jeff bringing Noah over early Tuesday morning to meet his new sister. I love these pictures...

July 15th - Norah Marie's Arrival...

Wow, life changes quickly. I am going to write "the story" down - more so for myself & Norah. If you aren't interested in all the fun details - just look at the pictures.

Monday, July 14th - I went to work as I typically do. I went in early, 6:45am, not knowing if I was going to "save" my extra hours up for later in the week OR just work a typical 8-hour day & be done at 2:45pm. My job is flexible in the summer - so as long as I have 40 hours in during the week - it doesn't matter how I accumulate them.

I felt pretty decent during the day, just really tired - and I was still having quite amount of pressure on my hip-bones/pelvis area, that just made it very uncomfortable to walk. I opted for leaving at 2:45 that afternoon & came home - told Jeff I was tired & I took about an hour nap, since Noah had already been down napping.

The evening was going by as usual - and my cousin Laura happened to stop by around 7pm. I just didn't feel quite right & had told Jeff a little bit earlier that if I felt how I currently did that I wouldn't be going into work in the morning. We all just sat on the back patio & I had mentioned that it was all I could do to walk. Laura later told me that I looked "horrible."

Laura had left & around 8:30pm I told Jeff "Maybe these are Braxton Hicks" - and he said "No, you wouldn't have THOSE this close to your due date!" I started timing my contractions & wrote the first one down: 9:15pm.

I called my parents & told them that I may need them tonight to come watch Noah - so be prepared.

9:28pm. Hmm...this is interesting. With Noah, I started having contractions at 8AM and went into the hospital at 4:30PM - so I thought I had PLENTY of time.

9:40, 9:50, 9:57, 10:06...at which I called my parents told them to get down here & that "HOLY COW THESE HURT!!"

I jumped in the shower - I told Jeff I had to shave my legs!

10:14, 10:22, 10:26, 10:32, 10:37, 10:41, 10:51...got to the hospital at 10:55pm.

(Thankfully, we're an entire 2 miles from the hospital).

Dr. Kaye, my Dr., was already there - she came in to check me - I was at 6 cm already!

I won't share the rest of the lovely details - but there was no time for drugs. I begged & pleaded for an epidural, which they finally agreed to - but there was no time for it to take. Dr. Kaye told me "It's all natural... start pushing!" ...7 minutes & voila! (Yes, I really DO think I deserve a trophy - I'm the girl that thinks a PAPER CUT hurts!!!)

Norah Marie Joslyn

July 15th, 2008

1:14am

7 lbs 13 oz.

20 inches

She is perfect.
We love her - and stand amazed, again, at God's handy work.

Welcome to our home, most beautiful lil'one...

My view

This was taken about 2 weeks ago - so ...week #37. This is what I see, as I sit in my chair on our back patio. Oh- I long to see my legs & feet again...
As I type this, I'm 6-days away from my due date - we'll see if I "allow" Jeff to take a picture of me THIS pregnant or not...

Pests

Jeff bought some "Have-a-Heart" traps to try to catch all the little critters who THINK we want them to eat from our garden.
Noah's been quite fascinated with all the wildlife in the cages.
To the date: 1 rabbit and 8 squirrels...
please tell your friends to stay away or they TOO are going to find a new home!

Noah - keeping an eye on the black squirrel & rabbit...

Garden fresh...

We've had our first picking of green beans from the garden - they are SO good!

Swimming Lessons

Last Tuesday, July 8th, began "Parent & Me" swim time at our local pool. Noah LOVES swimming. Every Tuesday & Thursday he gets to get in the pool with daddy for a 1/2 hour!
On Tuesday, he was also the only one crying when he had to get OUT of the pool... kick kick kick

how fun!

Time to get out!

2

Where did the last 2 years go? Today is Noah's 2 birthday...

There is no possible way that Jeff & I could love this kid more...what a joy, a blessing, and a true gift he has been.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

The Big 3-0

Happy Birthday to my best friend and Noah's best friend. Thanks for being the greatest -for making me laugh & being Noah's favorite buddy... here's to many more birthdays, hun!

Love you.

Money-saver

Back in March, during one of the more "powerful" storms we had - one of our trees fell down. This was such a blessing in so many ways: the estimated cost to fall this tree was close to $1000. Sure, we have that in the savings account, but - who wants to spend that kind of money to take a tree DOWN? It also fell exactly where we'd want it to. The only real "problem" we saw was that it was a mess & it had to be taken care of.

I'm sometimes amazed at how much work Jeff does on top of working all day as a teacher - he began to rake up all the sticks & debris and had a fire. My cousin, Jesse, brought over my uncle's chainsaw & Jeff & Jesse had a fun time cutting the tree up. We now have a ton of wood to use for campfires this summer!

The yard looks so neat & clean, although the boys decided to fall another tree as well, so there are still some scraps waiting their turn for their fate...

What it took

I should have posted these prior to yesterday's post - but here's a few pictures of all the hard work Jeff has been doing. Below - the plot we decided to put in a larger garden...

Breaking the ground...Noah, being the foreman that he is - Jeff rota tilling - And this is just phase one of the 'tilling - he doubled this in the next few days. He also dug up my rhubarb & replanted it further up the hill for me.