11 Days Old!

Snapped some cute photos of my new sweetie this morning!



And this is another sweetie who has quite reluctantly had to keep her distance because of a stuffy nose and cough! She is waiting by Emily's bedroom door watching my every move!

And Just Like That... God Makes Something So Beautiful! Announcing The Birth of Emily Jane Hansen!

Some things are just worth being pulled out of blog retirement! This little girl definitely is! Emily Jane Hansen was born on January 19th at 2:39 am. She weighed 7lbs. 3oz. and was 20 inches long. She is so precious! As all of our girls have dramatic birth stories, this one tops them all! We were expecting her early, since both Abby and Kate came 3 weeks early. But nope, she was 2 days late. She made up some time on the way out though! I woke up to my first contraction (first real contraction that is :) ) at 1:15am. I timed one at 12 minutes apart. But these felt different and we know from experience to head to the hospital right away. So we called Haley, my niece and our beloved babysitter. We were in the car heading for the hospital by 2:10 ish. At this point things were still under control, contractions 5 minutes apart and breathing through them. My doctor delivers at a hospital kind of far from here, about 25 minutes. In the next 20 minutes, things went from in control to out of control really fast! I am not even really sure what happened, but I transitioned really fast and before we knew it my contractions were right on top of each other and I was doing everything I could to NOT push! Since some information is just too intimate to share with the blogosphere :), I will leave out most of the details. We finally got to the hospital, it is all kind of a blur. Jason put me in a wheelchair and ran to the maternity wing. By the time we got there, the nurses were running towards me. I am not sure how they knew, they probably just heard me! Ah, slightly embarrassing. We ran to the delivery room and she was brutally close to being delivered in the wheelchair! Trust me, I wish I was kidding. Somehow they lifted me on the bed and poof!, she was here! Birth recorded at 2:39am. Unbelievable!
As for the rest of the week, everyone is doing well! Emily is doing fabulous! Abby and Katie LOVE their little sister! We have received tons of help and meals from family and friends! And mom and dad are taking one day at a time!
PRAISE GOD for the safe arrival of our healthy baby girl!

Abby is 4 years old!

I can't believe it! My baby had her fourth birthday this summer, June 30th. As usual, we just had a big family pool party and loved on the little princess. We are so blessed to have so much family here and we had a great time! Abby was so happy to be home to celebrate with all of her cousins!

Uncle De and Aunt Sharon gave us this great candle they had got. It was a big flower that you lit and it bloomed, then turned and sang "Happy Birthday." As you can see on Justin's face, the kids thought it was great!

Abby's big present! Her first bike!

I love this picture of Kate! A tribute to her personality!
My sweet princess! Happy Birthday!

Okay so I have promised myself...

and that is never a good idea! But I have promised myself that I will get caught up on this blog before October hits. You know how it goes. Sometimes you get so far behind that it just seems way to daunting to even try and get caught up. But I really do want to do those fancy blog books, so I will do my best to hit the highlights from the last 4 months!

Road Trip Home: The Last Stretch

From Jefferson City, the rest was a lot of driving. I don't even totally remember where we stopped. But it was so good just to be with Jason, to talk about our year in MD and to talk about our year ahead of us. We listened to Chris's send-off sermon and reminisced over so many memories. Our one big joke from the trip was when we passed the billboard for the restaurant for "throwed rolls" in MO right after we had already stopped for lunch. This restaurant, I don't remember the name, was voted the best place to pig out on that one TV show! We talked about it the rest of the day! We missed our chance to eat at "throwed rolls"! Otherwise it was pretty uneventful, thankfully!
But I had to get the camera out for this one...

We made it!

Road Trip Home: Fourth Stop

We were able to stop in Jeff City, Mo for our next stop and spend the night at my Grandparents house! I love my Grandparent's and cherish each visit we have together. Although I am bummed the visit was so short, it was so good to see them! Thanks for dinner and donuts! We love you!

Road Trip Home: Third Stop

After Michigan we drove a couple of hours to a suburb outside of Chicago to visit another lovely part of my family! My dad's sister Kathy and my Uncle Chris and my cousins Ben and Maggie. Again, we had a great time! They took us to this great local children's museum the first day and to Zoo the next. The girls had a blast! We had a great time making and sharing meals together and talking till late at night. My Aunt Kathy is another self-made historian in the family and has kept great tabs on my Grandpa's side of the family. We spent hours talking about our history and scouring photo journals. My sweet grandmother died when I was a toddler and it was so good to hear stories about her and look at some of her beautiful photographs. Thank you so much Uncle Chris and Aunt Kathy for such a WONDERFUL time! I hope it is not to long till we can come again soon!
From Chicago, my parents flew the girls home with 10 suitcases, a BIG carseat, and a Ginormous double stroller! Talk about servants! This allowed Jason and I to drive the rest of the way home by ourselves!

The Children's Museum:









The Zoo: