Emmy Claire~ 1 Month

How is it possible that our youngest princess is already a month old?  I cannot believe it!  She actually turned a month old on the 19th, but we didn’t get into the pediatrician until yesterday.  So here are her stats:

• 9 lbs, 4 oz
• 21 1/2” long
• Eats 4 oz every 3-4 hours
• Has slept through the night twice.  Every other night we are only up once!!!

Emmy~

We are so thankful to God for the gift He has given us in you!!!  You have brought so much joy to our lives after a season of sorrow.  Your brother and sister adore you.  We couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present!!!  You are our precious “E-Claire!”

The Reason for the Season

This time of year is so busy with all of the activities that come with this season.  I personally have found myself complaining about having something to do every night of the week.  Last week was no exception.

Both kids had Christmas concerts at their school.  SaraGrace’s was Tuesday night and Cade’s was Thursday.  Add that to a birthday party Monday, church on Wednesday, Christmas and grocery shopping on Saturday and church on Sunday.  While each of those things is a blessing to us, it gets to be a full plate very quickly.  But back to the concerts.

SaraGrace was so excited about her very first school concert.  We heard all about it for weeks, and memorized every word to every Christmas carol there is.

She looked so cute and Christmasy:)

Cade was a handsome little man on Thursday night.

He did such a good job.  His sisters had a good time at the big concert, too.

 

Cade was in a hurry to strip that bow tie and cummerbund off, but luckily I was able to stop him in time to get one of my favorite pictures ever.

While they sang beautiful Christmas songs, their leader shared some amazing thoughts.    This season is all about the birth of the Savior.  However, His story did not end there.  He had a purpose for coming here.  He was born to die.  The rest of the story is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who offers us the hope of Heaven and eternal life.  The last song they sang was “Oh the Blood” which blessed the heck out of me.  To hear all of those kids sing about the blood of Jesus just took my breath away. 

This Christmas, don’t forget the rest of the story.  If it wasn’t for the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, we would have nothing to live for. 

Happy Birthday, Emmy!

I apologize for my extended absence from my blog these last few weeks.  We have had quite the whirlwind of events take place, but we are glad to be back in the saddle.  I appreciate all of the messages, cards, prayers and words of encouragement.  They have all meant so much. 

I am so happy to finally blog about Emmy’s birthday.  So here goes a marathon post with lots of pictures.

Monday, November 19th was a special day in several ways.  We found ourselves once again at a crossroad of emotions as we walked back through those doors of Labor and Delivery.  It was 18 months to the day that we said goodbye to our precious angel Faith.  It was also the day that our hearts would explode with joy as we would welcome our newest princess, Emmy into this world.

I was so excited and for once my nerves were somewhat calm.  We got checked in and waited our turn.  As you know, I am deathly afraid of needles, so I was extremely blessed to have Dr. E and Dr. A as our anesthesia team.  If you will remember, Dr. A is the one who has the magic spinal touch!!!  We adore him!! 

Our family patiently waited in the waiting room with tons of anticipation.  Cade and SaraGrace had asked tons of questions and wanted to know a play-by-play of what would happen. 

I am not sure how they missed out on the picture taking, but we were so blessed to have our very best friends with us too!  Aunt Amy, Bryan and Christina were all there to help us celebrate Emmy’s birth.  I don’t know what we would do without them!!!!!

Before the birth of any of our children, all of the sisters take a picture!  Here we are-

They rolled us back and got started. 

Emmy Claire Vaughn was born at 9:24 am weighing 8 lbs., 9.6 oz.  She was 20 3/4” long.

Sweet girl!  Look at those cheeks!!! 

One of the harder aspects of a c-section is that usually you only see your baby  for a few minutes, then they are whisked off to the nursery until after you are out of recovery.  Shands has a longer recovery period than we had experienced before so I was very anxious about not having my girl with me.  But, thankfully the Lord worked out that detail.  Once Emmy was evaluated, they brought her to me and laid her on my chest.  She stayed there for the remainder of my surgery.  Then I got to hold her as they wheeled us to recovery where she stayed with us the entire time.  I LOVED this!!!  It made my day.

Rob was one proud daddy.  These two have a special bond for sure!

I had waited for this moment for 9 months! 

There was no one more excited to meet Emmy than Cade.  Here he is meeting his baby sister for the very first time.  He looks so proud!

SaraGrace was a proud big sister!

Gamma and Emmy-

 

Beas and Emmy-

 

What a blessing and so much joy the Lord has granted us with this precious child.  Rob and I will never again take for granted how precious life is. 

Emmy is a precious reminder that God is so faithful to fulfill His promises.  An extra added blessing is that as Emmy’s looks have changed, she looks exactly like Faith.  Rob has a picture on his phone of Faith and when put side by side, it is unbelievable.  It blesses my heart just to watch her sleep and see a little of her sister in her.   We are so thankful for the joy she has brought to our lives.  Our cup runneth over!!!

One Last Appointment

Today we had our last OB appointment as we prepare for Emmy’s arrival.   It’s so hard to believe that we are only 6 days away from meeting her.  It feels as though it has flown by.

Here are a few statistics of this pregnancy:

• Weight Gain: 21 pounds (Not bad.)
• Emmy’s Estimated Birth Weight: 7.5 lbs
• Swelling: Very Little (Only if I drink a gallon of Diet Pepsi.)
• Cravings: Random.  Yesterday it was corny corn bread.

I got a sweet, sweet gift from my honey.  He had a little help from my best girl, Amy.  Remember this gift?

This is probably one of my most favorite gifts EVER!!! Until I got this…

I absolutely love it!!!!  Some would call it a “push present.”  Rob says since there’s no pushing involved (c-sections are great!!!) it’s just an “I Love You” present. 

I’ll take that any day of the week:)

The First Hunting Report of Fall 2012

It seems like it has been FOREVER since I was able to blog about our hunting.  I don’t think I have shot my gun in almost 10 months. 

This  weekend, after the FL/GA game, we packed up for a fast and furious trip to the Hun-Tin House.  We arrived just after 12:30am, only to rise and shine at 5:30am . 

I hunted by myself that morning.  Although I didn’t shoot anything, here is what I saw:

• 5 does
• a 4 point
• a spike
• a 8 point

None of those were the trophy bucks I was looking to score, so I enjoyed watching them play.  Emmy really enjoyed her first hunting trip too.  She isn’t the most active in the mornings, but she was rolling around like nobody’s business.  I think she was probably grateful her mommy had a somewhat relaxing morning for a change:)

After lunch, we decided to shoot our guns, just to make sure they were good.  I am proud to say that I hit 1” directly above the bulls eye at 100 yards on my first shot.  Yep…..mine was good:)

I took a nap, and we got ready to go out again. 

Rob and I hunted together, and had a really great time just spending some alone time.  Although our entire conversation for 3 1/2 hours was at whisper-level, it was good.

Can you tell how tired we are?  We look like death warmed over, but we had a great time.  Again, we didn’t shoot anything (no trophies), but here is what we saw:

• 8 does
• 2 spikes
• a 6 point
• a 7 point
• a HUGE boar hog
• a 4 point

If I wasn’t so close to meeting sweet Emmy, I might would have to go back next weekend.  However, I think we better stay close to home just in case.

Pumpkin Carving 2012

It is an annual tradition that we take the kids to Nanny’s to carve pumpkins.  This year was no exception.  As a matter of fact, we went all out with a total of 4 pumpkins.

We printed a couple of ideas and had the kids choose which one they wanted to do.  There were essentially 3 teams: me and SaraGrace, Rob and Cade, and Beas, Jah and Brinley.

After devouring a feast from Bev’s, we setup in Nanny’s driveway and went to work.

The adults took care of cutting off the top, while the kids watched impatiently wanting to get their hands on all of the cool little tools we had.

Brinley supervised, and guarded the diet coke.

Cade and SaraGrace took their job of scooping the guts very seriously.

 

Cade even put some elbow into it:)

He was so sad to see us waste those seeds.  He wanted to plant a pumpkin patch.  After I convinced him we had enough on our plate, he finally let them go.

As it got dark, we carved by headlight.

I have not had to carve a pumpkin in years.  Usually, Rob and Cade take care of it, but SG was insistent that she do one too.  Here is our kitty cat…

Cade and Rob did a scary phantom.

And because no pumpkin should go to waste, Rob whipped this one up at the end of the night.

The kids were so proud of their pumpkins.

All four of the pumpkins complete!!!

As my Nanny would say, “We made memories.”

Baby Eli

Eli John Pleiman made me an aunt for the second time at 8:32am, Saturday morning.

We had planned on a long day with an induction, but we got a call at 6:00am that we better hurry…she was close.

I ran out to meet Beas at the gate and hitched a ride.

We didn’t have to wait very long.  Eli made his appearance just 2 short hours after we got there.

He weighed 6 lbs and 15 oz, and was 20” long.  We were all so excited that he was finally here.  What an amazing day!!!

Once Kiss got settled, we all left and made it to the Gator game, including my best girl, Amy.  We had the best day together.  After the game, we went to get the kids and took them to see Eli.

I don’t think anyone was as excited as Cade and SaraGrace!!!

 

Lord help us.  They fought over turns holding him.  They kept close count second for second to make sure they were getting equal time.  If this is any indication of how it will be when their baby sister gets here, I just may go a little crazy!!!

We were able to get a picture with all of the cousins together.  This just may be my favorite picture of the day!!!

Waiting….

We just got news that they have decided to keep Kiss (my sister) and get ready to induce labor tonight.  I am so super excited about being an aunt again, especially to a little boy named Eli!!!

Seeing that NO ONE in my family has been through a normal labor (everyone has had c-sections), this is a whole new experience for us.  This waiting and waiting and waiting is for the birds:)

Please keep Christen, Jacob and Eli in your prayers.  It’s going to be such a special day!!!

Mid-Week Randoms

For some reason, I have only managed to blog once a week the past couple of weeks.   I hate that!!!  Maybe our lives can slow down a little and I will be able to do a better job at keeping up.  Here are a few updates on the Vaughn Family…

• Cade- Football has kept us busy to say the least.  He has played his last game, so we are hoping to get in a little hunting before Baby Emmy comes.  He is studying for 9 week exams, and it’s about to kill us all!!!  He’s such a sweet boy, but he has a severe aversion to studying!  He and SaraGrace fight like cats and dogs, but occasionally we will find them playing sweet with one another.  A couple of weeks ago, we were getting ready for the football game, and this is what we found…

He was trying to make SG laugh, but he didn’t want to laugh at me taking his picture.  He is such a good big brother.  He talks to my belly every day, and tells Emmy how much he loves her and can’t wait to see her.  I think I am most looking forward to his reaction to his new baby sister.

• SaraGrace- SG is still full of life!  She keeps us on her toes.  She is still adjusting to school, but loves the socializing.  Just last week, she got her color moved to yellow.  Apparently she was in the bathroom and turned off the lights on the little girls that were still in there.  The note said, “She left them screaming.”  She is her mother’s child!

She got to cheer some this year, and she would cheer until she got “sweaty.”  But she loved showing off her gymnastic skills.

• Emmy- Emmy is growing like a weed, and just may prove to be our biggest baby yet!  We went to the dr. yesterday, and got a great report.  I have gained 17 1/2 pounds (hallelujah!) and am in perfect health.  We are still scheduled for November 19th. Just in time for Thanksgiving at the Hun-Tin House.

• Rob and Me- We are plugging along in this busy web of life.  We are loving teaching the high school Sunday School class, and working with our youth.  They have been such a blessing to us.  Cade and SaraGrace have kept us busy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything.  We talk about the upcoming arrival of Emmy every night before we go to bed, and we thank God for giving us another child. 

We are so blessed!

Emmy’s Sweet Day

I was so blessed to have a baby shower last Sunday at our church.  Some of my sweetest friends planned such a sweet baby shower to welcome Baby Emmy.  Every detail was absolutely precious. 

We had an ice cream parlor…

A sweets table… 

A precious cake…

And a lollipop tree!!!

We were so blessed with many amazing things for our baby, but most importantly, we are so blessed with the best friends and family a girl could ask for!!!!

 

Here I am in all my pregnant glory!!!  I am so grateful to have this opportunity to be a Momma again.  

What a sweet special day it was.  I am so thankful for my dear friends and church family who made it a day I will never forget!

Blessed

I am more than aware of how blessed I am, but sometimes it is easy to take it for granted.  The Lord reminded me of my blessings in a special way this week.

Rob and I had to take a little field trip to Labor and Delivery Wednesday morning.  I had overdone it the weekend before, and I noticed Emmy wasn’t as active as she typically was.  After no sleep Tuesday night, I decided to email Dr. D.  He got me right in to L & D to be monitored.

Nervous doesn’t even begin to explain how I felt driving over there.  I was so thankful for my dear husband, Rob who offered to meet me there.  We met in the lobby and headed upstairs.

As nervous as I was, I was NOT prepared for the emotions that would hit once I walked through those doors on the third floor.  It was the first time we had been there since Faith was born.  All of a sudden, I could recount each and every step we took the morning of May 19th, 2011, down to each person that was sitting at the check-in desk.

Tears began to roll down my face, and I forgot all about my nerves.  I was a little surprised that I was so caught off guard, but I was so thankful to be reminded of all God had done for us these past two years.

My feelings of nervousness turned to gratitude when I had time to think of how blessed I was to be carrying this new life He has given us in Emmy.  I laid in the bed with the monitor strapped to my burgeoning belly and just thanked my Heavenly Father for answered prayers. 

I was also reminded of another blessing He has given me.  As I laid in the bed, trying to get my tears under control, Rob was so attentive and comforting to me.  He rubbed my legs and my feet, and we reminisced about the births of each of our children.  I was reminded how incredibly strong he was for me and our family the last time we sat in that hospital bed.  He was no different on Wednesday.  I am so thankful that the Lord chose me to be his wife!!!

Miss Emmy was just fine, and the doctor told me I probably needed to slow down a little.  I’m sure that as the days dwindle down to her delivery, there will be more than a few moments that are met with a lot of emotion.  A lot of firsts, a lot of memories, and most importantly a lot of joy.  I am so thankful that God has blessed me more than I deserve!!!

Christmas in October

I posted on facebook this morning that I have officially purchased my second Christmas gift of the season.  I am so proud of myself for doing something early for a change.

As a mother of a 9 year old boy and a 5 year old girl, Christmas requests have become different over the years.  Long gone are the days of Spider Man, Dora, and some of the more easier things to find.  I have vowed to try to stick to a list like this: something they want, something they need, and something to read.  We’ll see how it goes.

SaraGrace had some pretty easy requests.  She asked for an Easy Bake Oven,

some clothes, and a cheetah pillow for her bed because “I love cheetahs!” (those were her words.)

Cade is a little harder because he has outgrown a lot of toy-type gifts.  He is really into video games and electronics.  So, he has asked for Skylanders video game for his Xbox 360, a wrestling game, and some kind of duck game that you throw the duck into the air and shoot it.

So here is the story on the duck….

As he was telling me and Rob about this duck, I asked him where he had seen it.  He replied, “I saw it on tv two years ago.  I told you I wanted it two years ago.”  Neither Rob nor I remember the duck conversation, but nonetheless, I put it on the list.  After he got out of the car, Rob said, “He must be crazy.  There is no such thing as a duck that flies and you shoot it.”

Well, I am here to tell you that my PI skills have come in handy again.  I googled “duck you throw in the air and shoot,” and low and behold, this came up…

Y’all, my boy wasn’t crazy, his daddy was!!!  I am so excited!  Rob couldn’t believe I found it, but I am so glad I did. 

I just hope I can stick to my budget and my plan and have Christmas all taken care of before Emmy gets here.