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!!!