Introducing Miss Grace Elaine

Sorry for the delay! We welcomed Grace Elaine on Friday, January 29th at 12:27 pm. She weighed 6lbs 12.2oz and was 19in long. Everyone is doing well, just tired. We are very thankful to have been given this gift, a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and are counting our many blessings.


The last belly picture moments before we left for the hospital.


Dressed and ready for the OR.


Out of recovery and FINALLY I get to hold her!


Our precious baby girl! She looks a lot like her daddy, but when compared to Kate's baby pictures, there is definitely a resemblance there too.


Big sister Kate, who has been sick ever since we got home, so she hasn't been able to hold her again.


We love all the faces she makes when she is sleeping.


A family picture on discharge day. Day 5, we were ready to go home!


Getting ready to leave the hospital. Grace in her beautiful outfit Aunt Boo sent her!


Home at last, hanging out on daddy's chest. She loves sleeping on mine & Andrew's chest. In fact, she prefers this to her co-sleeper (we are working on retraining).


Our sweet baby girl will sometimes sleep in her bouncer. This bouncy seat is a life saver!


Nana Laurie & Papa Homer came to visit from Kansas City.


Our 1st bath, mom did not get the water warm enough, now we love it!


All done!

Now you are caught up to where we are now. I will work on posting more frequently, as Miss Grace seems to be changing and growing daily. Thank you all for your many thoughts and continued prayers. -SR

The Nursery

Okay, so before I introduce Miss Grace, I feel it is necessary to show you where she will be living. Since I wouldn't even know how to post a video or "virtual tour", I tried to align the pictures so that you could see the flow of the room. The only thing I left out was the closet... real exciting; however, I will say that it is nice to have a laundry chute in the closet that is directly to the left of the changing table. Very convenient! Don't forget you can click on each picture as you go for an enlarged image. The completed nursery:


The changing station, complete with lovely mirrors that Laurie & Homer sent us. The light bulb from the ceiling fan reflecting in them really messes with their facets, in other words, the picture does not do them justice. Then the diaper pail, which is made for short people, is not my favorite piece, but an obvious necessity. The crib with beautiful bedding, also given to us by Andrew's parents, is a decoration piece at the moment, as Grace is sleeping with us (yes, not in her expensive co-sleeper, but in our bed).


More of the nursery, as we make our way around.


The chair (glider/recliner), our big splurge, where we hope to enjoy many nights of story time, rocking, & nursing our sweet baby girl. Andrew said it was "very important I have a comfortable place to nurse the baby"; I think he left out the part about he really likes chairs and has always wanted a lazy boy. It is very comfortable, so it's a win, win!


I must give recognition to my wonderful husband, who spent many hours making this stripe wall exactly how I wanted it. As I had said previously, it was the product of an engineer's mind utilizing exact measurements. There were many supplies, including tape, caulk, a level, a pencil, measuring tape, and countless hours before bed. Thanks again honey!



My mom came in December to paint Grace's wall letters and to shoot maternity pictures. They look just perfect above the crib! Kate has a bear that Andrew gave her when we moved here, that she still sleeps with every night. She wanted her little sister to have a special bear also, so as you can see "Oatmeal" bear is sitting in Grace's crib, a gift from her big sister. Another special thing about the location of the crib is that I can see it from my side of the bed in my room. That means that Grace will be able to see me when she gets older; whether or not that is a good thing will remain to be seen.

Next post, welcome Grace! -SR

Catching Up

So I went on hiatus for a little while from blogging, but now that our newest addition has arrived, I feel the need to catch everyone up. We will start where we left off, November...



We celebrated Thanksgiving in Smith Center, Kansas with Andrew's family. This is where his mother was raised and his grandparents still live. I was 30 weeks pregnant here and it was my last weekend to travel before the baby was to come. The family surprised us Thanksgiving morning with a toast and a diaper bag surprise! Both Andrew and I received a diaper bag of our own and everyone brought items to fill them up. It was a wonderful & unexpected surprise!



Kate had lots of fun! She played Mexican train (a family domino game); went to the park & made friends with other visiting families; helped entertain little cousins (getting practice in for little sister); had a sleep over with Aunt Justina, who flew & drove all the way from southern Texas to see us for Thanksgiving; played bocce ball in Aunt Eliese's backyard; and anything else she could find to do. Here we are pretending we know how to play the piano.



And of course some time on the Wii!



Here we are Christmas Eve in front of our tree prior to going to the noon service at church. We celebrated Christmas this year just the three of us on Christmas Eve, as I had to work Christmas Day. Doesn't Kate look lovely in her Cinderella dress? The tag actually says "Cinderella".



A family tradition, we exchange new pajamas on Christmas Eve every year and take a picture Christmas morning on our couch. Kate was a good sport and got up at 5 am so that we could celebrate Christmas morning before I left for work. I am sure she went back to bed after I was gone.



Santa Claus brought us a Nintendo DS, which mom & dad were totally shocked by, considering we are not huge fans of video games. Luckily, most of the games he brought were of some educational value. Imagine that!



In January, the week before Grace arrived, Kate and I went on a shopping spree just the two of us. We had a wonderful day! One of the items we were looking for was a new dress for her school dance performance later that week. We tried many shops, until we found the dress she wanted. Very cute Miss Kathryn!



Kate did a great job dancing and was really good at posing for the camera at the most picture perfect moments; of course our old camera could not keep up and this was the final straw. We decided it was time to buy a new camera before the birth of our second daughter. Out of all of Kate's poses while dancing, I caught two. A few days before Grace arrived we purchased a new camera, and I will post those pictures next, which I am sure everyone is anxiously awaiting. -SR