Little Miss Emily

Want to see the cutest little girl on the planet? Okay, here you go.

Absolutely love her little newborn smiles. She is such a sweet, calm, beautiful little girl. I am just absolutely smitten with her.

And so is her big brother Andrew. It took a week for him to realize she was staying and to acknowledge her existence, but now he's pretty fond of his little "Bebe Em-a-me."

Giving her a kiss on the head.

Em looks kind of weird in this one, but I love it still.

Hugs. Makes me want to freeze this moment in time forever.

He wanted me to let go so he could do it on his own. No way, bub.

Relaxing with Daddy.

Tiny princess with her favorite daddy.

This outfit had me squealing with happiness all day. I am in love with her little slippers.

My precious girl.

No more pictures. Seriously, Mommy.

But how can I resist?!

First Doctor's Appointment and Little Picasso

Last week my mom and I took Andrew and Emily to their doctor's appointment. Emily was not happy to not be eating. Andrew was really tired, and tried to escape the whole time while Em was calm until she realized that she should be eating. All the time. They're both healthy, Emily's back up to her birth weight, and Andrew is doing great as well.

I think I can actually hear her saying "QUIT IT!" here.

In a calmer moment.

Andrew was ALL over the place....

Drop and give me 20.

Okay, so he wasn't actually doing pushups, but I love that it came out that way.

Andrew was very serious about his painting. He got it ALL over the place. Cute little guy.

Serious little artist.

Room for Everyone

Right now I'm in a weird transition period where I no longer just have one baby to take care of. Not to mention the fact that Andrew hasn't been a baby for a while now... I had a big fear ever since I became pregnant with Emily that I wouldn't love her like I love Andrew. I just couldn't imagine having that same relationship with another kid. Deep down, I knew it wouldn't really be that way. And it's not. I realize now that I DON'T love Emily just like I love Andrew. I love them the same amount, but I love them differently because they ARE different. I don't know if I'm explaining this correctly, because I'm not entirely sure how to put it. I'm learning every day of my life that my heart has room for everyone I will let in. And nothing will open your heart more than family. I feel so happy and grateful for my husband, for my new sweet little girl, and for my little Andrew - my very first little baby.

Big guy all ready for church. Please ignore all the junk in the background.

"Cheese!" What a handsome little guy!!!!!
Tromping around in his boots and diaper. He is just so hilarious.

I will always love this little face.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggitty Jig

We got home yesterday, and there seriously IS no place like home. Especially when you have Andrew in the house. I mean, Happy Meal hats? Doesn't get funnier than that. Jeanette and Andrew made this little sign for the door. It was really sweet, and made the homecoming that much more fun for us. Andrew was very happy to see us, which made me in turn so very happy. He gave us lots and lots of hugs, and even acknowledged Emily's existence once or twice. Amazing. :) We set her down and he proceeded to bring her all the fruit in the house he could find, setting it on her legs and saying "Der go." The first piece of fruit was a lemon. Mike said, "Wow. Life's already dealt her a lemon." It was pretty funny.
My mom left me a sweet surprise, too. I've been meaning to plant some flowers in the planter in the front of the house for a really long time now, and haven't done it. So, being the nice lady she is, she did it for me. It looks so bright and cheery and made the day even brighter.

And, because I can never figure out what order these pictures will go in, here we are in the hospital getting ready to go home. She looks so tiny in that seat. We have a little headrest halo thingie for it so her head is better supported, but we forgot to bring it.

Here is Emmie with Daddy. I love how she looks like the jig is up. "I swear, I didn't know that waking you up 15 times in the night was a crime. I've been set up!"

We are so happy to be home, so happy to be a little family, and so happy to have family to help out and enjoy this special time with us.

It Must Be Difficult...

...to be this adorable.

Showing her muscles.

Showing off her Mad Skillz - she pulled out her pacifier and held it! What a girl.

Baby Updates

May we introduce Emily Amelia Jacobs. I know you are all shocked by her extreme beauty and general adorableness. Please hold your applause.

The nurse was super close to us in this shot. Oh well. :) Emily was 6 pounds, 9 1/2 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. She looks amazingly like Mike's sisters, which is a blessing since they are also gorgeous. I can't wait for them to meet their little look-alike.

Here's the proud papa.

On the scale. She was not happy. Poor little Em.

These are so backwards. Here I am before Emily made her appearance.

Little Emma and her grandpa.

"I didn't do it! I swear!" Check out my IV bruise. I'm like a stinking banana, seriously. Actually that was where they tried to get an IV in and burst a vein. It hurt. A lot.

Aunt Laura and Baby Emily.

Aunt Amy and Baby Emily.

Aunt Jeanette, Cousin Noah (who wasn't too happy with this arrangement) and sleeping Em

Aunt Jeanette with a little less on her hands.

My little baby.............. He begged to go in her little crib thingie.

Andrew wasn't that impressed with his little sister. I think he's too little to understand what's going on. Here he is breaking his neck to look at the t.v. And yes, he normally has two legs. Not sure where the other one went to.

Proud Grandma Barnard holding our beautiful Emily girl.

I've missed my little Andrew. Here he is with ice. He was a happy guy.

We are so blessed, I can't even begin to comprehend how amazing our life is. A healthy mommy, baby, big boy, and daddy. I'm going to hold onto these memories for quite a while.

Guess Who's Here?

I'll post more tomorrow with details (no name yet), but I wanted my dad, Mike's mom and dad, etc to be able to see a picture. :)

Welcome little girl! Here she is with her daddy wrapped around her little fingers.

Hey. Nice to meet you.

Waiting on Baby

I'm in the hospital, waiting for this little girl to arrive. I'm getting so excited and so nervous.

A Tale of a Hospital Gown

Okay, maybe the tale is more of a long night in the hospital, but still. Don't you think they could make hospital gowns functional, yet more comfortable/attractive/not so "moony"?
All day yesterday I was having contractions and they were getting closer together. By 8:00, they were pretty painful with lots of back labor and coming every 4-5 minutes or so. I called the hospital and they said to come in. We grabbed the bag and away we went. I was still just dialated to a 3 and 75% effaced so they said they would check me in an hour or so. After that hour I as dialated to a 4 and there was one weird time with the baby's heartrate, so they decided to keep me overnight for observation.
This morning my doctor came by and gave me the option of breaking my water to further my progress or I could go home and go into labor on my own. Well, I'd been in the hospital for almost 12 hours, in pain, uncomfortable, wearing my oh-so-lovely gown, with no sleep........but I wanted my baby. :)
Mike and I decided to pray about what decision we should make. After praying, we talked to my OB and I got the feeling that we should go home and wait it out. I can't begin to explain how grateful I am to know that when I have a choice to make, I can always rely on my Heavenly Father to guide me. Having the Holy Ghost is a blessing that is so easy to take for granted, but is so instrumental and incredible. I'm sure either way would have been okay for me and for my little girl, but it was nice to have the reassurance that we were doing the right thing.
So now I'm home, I've showered, napped (how nice was that??), seen my little boy, seen my mom (who drove down to help - thanks Mom!) and am not-so-patiently hoping and praying that my contractions start coming harder and more frequently.
Isn't it weird that when you're 9 months pregnant, you're actually HOPING to be in intense pain? So...say a little prayer that I get into major pain, please. :)

Sunset Point Resort

I know you're going to be saying, "ENOUGH with the pictures already...." but... it was hard to narrow them down! :) Last week, we went to Sunset Point Resort, a little place we went to as kids. It was so nice to be able to see any one of my brothers and sisters anytime I wanted, get a little sun (I am now a mother-of-pearl rather than just blazing white), and spend some time in the pool.

Here I am with my cutie-pie little nephew Noah. He was such a cute little smiley guy.

Andrew liked the tennis court. Here he is throwing the ball. Most of the time it lands behind him, but he's a very proud little guy.

His favorite part of the whole trip was all the rocks. Every time we came outside, he would find at least one rock.

We celebrated my awesome nephew Dominic's 16th birthday, as well as my sister Amy and Andrew's birthdays which were the week before. I made a couple cakes, and here's my messy faced little 2 year old blowing out the candles on his turtle cake. (He got a little help.)

Here we are. I still can't believe how grown up he's getting.

Andrew fell asleep at the table while eating dinner one night and there was absolutely no waking that kid. Mike picked him up and tried to get him to sit up. Here was the result, with Mike imitating him. Also please note the drool stains on Mike's shirt from holding that tired little guy.

And here he is asleep. What a little angel boy!

Snuggling sleepy Andrew.

Andrew was so sweet to all the babies this weekend. Here he was tickling Noah. Later when he was crying, Andrew threw his arms around him to comfort him. It was so sweet. Love the matching overalls.

Andrew and Grandma reading a story.

Sierra was reading out loud, and Andrew thought that he should get in on that! That kid sure loves books. I'm so glad!

Enjoying the great outdoors with Daddy. And yes, those are computers. And yes, he was watching Shaun the Sheep. Funny little guy.

Zach and Danny lived in their swim goggles. To them, any moment not in the pool was a moment wasted.

Speaking of the pool.... can you tell they're related? Andrew had the best time swimming all week. I was afraid he wouldn't like it because he hates to have water on his face or head at all. But after 5 minutes with Daddy in the pool, he was jumping in, going underwater, and cracking up when everyone was splashing around. Go figure. :)

Andrew with his daddy Mike and his Uncle Mikes. :)

He was really digging that little boat we got him. Here he is with my brother Michael.

Watching as Mike wrestles on of the nephews.

One of the cabins we stayed in.

Dominic, Sierra, and Danny having fun in the shallow end.

My cutie pie husband who did more than his share of chasing after Andrew all week. He is sure nice to his (very) pregnant wife. Thanks, sweetie.