She's adorable!

She melts our hearts!

Hello everyone...

It's Jason again. Amber still doesn't have internet for her job yet, thus the reason for the delay in having her make posts...but soon...

Amber and I are just enjoying the heck out of our little princess! Everyday she does something new, and is just a bit bigger. We've recently realized that her favorite song is "Singing in the Rain"....probably because mommy sings it to her all the time and she has a little ducky that sings it too. It lately has been the only thing that calms her at times. She also has grown very fond of the baby b'jorn. She loves cooking with mommy and watching mommy do daily activities. She's fighting off a cold she's had for the last week, so she's a little cranky at times...but we still love her! It's just amazing that God has blessed us with such a bundle of joy. It makes us tear up when we get to see her smile and talk to us in her "booos, and goos" language. Here are some more pics...

Adjustment time!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their kind words and congrats on welcoming Evelyn into the world. Amber and Evelyn are doing well, although the last few days it seems Evelyn is quite fussy/restless. We're trying to figure out if it's a growth spurt, or Amber's diet, or possibly something else. Sleep is something we cherish from the past, but one look into Evelyn's eyes, and we forget all that.

We've been adjusting fairly well. We're taking lots of pictures, and when I get a chance I will post some more for everyone. For those of you who have Amber's phone number, you're more than welcome to call her...and I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing a voice. I know she misses all her blogging friends, and looks forward to the day when she can communicate with all of you again.

Until next time....

Announcing Evelyn Elizabeth!!

Evelyn Elizabeth was born Wednesday, August 29th at 11:16 pm. She weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 18 inches long-she's a little peanut!!
Labor story and more details to come. We're all doing great. Thanks for all your prayers, and support. Enjoy the pictures of our little bundle of joy!!

Parenthood...here we come!!!

Just wanted to keep all of our blog readers up to date...by the minute....

Amber will no longer be able to post for a few weeks because she is about to deliver our little girl.

Without getting too much into the details, as of last night Amber has been experiencing some "new" things. This morning she went in, and she is 90% efaced, 1.5cm dialated, and the baby's head has dropped significantly...and the midwife said we should be seeing our little one between now and 3 days from now! Just waiting for the contractions to start becoming more consistent and closer together....and then we're off to the hospital....

I promise I'll post pics of our precious baby when she arrives, but until then....keep Amber and I in your prayers!

Baby Girl's Room

We were hoping to have it COMPLETELY ready before the "reveal." But, time is running short, so I might as well show off what we have done so far!


Jason did a great job painting this dresser! It was a great find at a local church garage sale. God had it ready just for us - I saw it on the church lawn on my way to work. We also bought the matching twin bed frame that Jason will eventually paint for her. I think we paid a total of $20 for both the dresser and bed frame!

The Goodwill lamp base and shade we found stopping there on a whim. With two dance teacher moms, I had to add my own spice to the lamp with some rhinestones! I love bling and anything that glitters! I also sewed the runner with leftover fabric from her quilt.





The quilt I made is large enough for a toddler bed, so it doesn't quite fit in the crib. I had some extra blanket binding and fabric, so I made her a little blankie that she can have as her "special" blanket if she so chooses to have one! Also, this pic shows the beautiful way that the crib skirt turned out - my Mom and sister Autumn made it over their July 4th stay! I helped pin!


This is a pretty good shot of the curtains - they match the crib skirt. Also courtesy of Mom and Autumn! I have to point out the wicker hamper - $3 garage sale find! And, the changing table, $15 garage sale find! Oh, and if you don't remember, the crib was Craig's list. I love to see all of my deals and steals in there!

We want to paint pink, purple, yellow, and orange daisies on the walls. We have the paint and home-made stencils (made from enlarging the scanned daisies from the curtain and crib skirt fabric) ready to go. Maybe this will be a Labor Day labor-inducing activity! :-)

Hope you like it! We sure do! We also purchased a rocker/glider with ottoman off of Walmart.com. We are very happy with it. It is in our living room for now, but it will eventually find a home in her room. I figure I might want it out in the living area for when we first come home from the hospital for all of those feedings!

Jason's Family Baby Shower

The following weekend, July 29th, Jason's sister Andrea, Mom Sharon, and sister Sarah threw us another splendid shower! Andrea did a great job decorating her home. We had been there the previous evening for Elliot's 6th birthday party - a pirate theme (see pics above - I blogged out of order). So, it was quite the transformation as we arrived the next afternoon for the shower!

Lots of delicious food - as always!

Some of our guests: (Great to the baby) Grandma Diane at bottom left, Pat, Auntie Rita, Auntie Elaine, Roxanne, Auntie Loni.

Andrea, the goregeous hostess with the mostess! I will never live up to her parties!

Hannah (baby's oldest cousin) was a great helper during gift time! She kept all of the gifts together! Hannah also did a great job with the fun games we played - baby BINGO, guess the baby food in the jar, and a memory game of a basket full of baby goodies.

The shower was so wonderful and once again filled with so many blessings! Our baby has everything she needs due to everyone's generosity. Most importantly, she has so many people that already love her!!!

Baby Shower #2

Okay, okay... We have not fallen off of the face of the earth! I am going to attempt to make several posts this afternoon and get y'all caught up! First off, these are pics from our shower 7.21.07 with my families. This is adorable preggers Alix on the left and rock star Anne on my right (she is a reader, but I am still working on getting her to become a blogger! They are both friends that live back in my home state - great to see them!


Pictures of all of the guests! What a great crowd!

We were blessed with many wonderful gifts! Here is Mom and her girls - L to R: Trinity, Moriah, Brittany, Autumn, me, Summer. We usually try to get one of us in age order - didn't happen this time!

My Mom on the left and the main hostess, her sister, My Auntie Johnna on the right.

Generations for the baby: Great-Great Grammy Jean, Great-Grandma Jane, Grandma Jeanne, (mommy) and miss Auntie Hannah!



It was a success and we were very blessed by all that attended. I was a little hot and wiped out by the end, but it was SO great to have so many family and friends there!

We love you all!

Bible Study Baby Shower - 7/11/07

A post has been a long time coming. It seems as though many bloggers are a little "sluggish" in the heat of the summer... My friend from church, Alicia, planned us a fabulous baby shower last month! I wanted to share some pictures from the event! It was held at our "Young Married Couples" Bible study leaders' home. We are very thankful for the many blessings we received there! Not only were people from church there, but my friend from college, Meghan, her sister, mom, fiance and his daughter were all there, too! We have had two more showers since then - one with each family.
This is Mary Jo and me with the beautiful "diaper cake" that she made for me! She is so talented! I really appreciate the hard work that she put into the cake! I was so thrilled to be receiving one - as I have admired the many that she has made for many of the gals at church. It was finally my turn!

A close-up of the cake. It is sitting in baby's room right now. I can't bear to disassemble it!

One view of the room during present opening!

Me and Meghan. She gets married on Sunday! Woo hoo!

Me elated after opening our "shopping cart cover." I am such a germ freak that I was thrilled when we received this off of the registry!


Our beautiful and tasty cake! Also see the delicious banana cake that is next to it - courtesy of Meg's mom, Colleen!




Me and Alicia. Doesn't she look great!?! Just had baby boy #2, Blake!

Overall, it was really an awesome shower and we felt very blessed by all of the generous gifts! Thank you!!!

Intelligent Design!

Amber and I were at our last childbirth class last night and they showed a video of several babies being born and handed to their mothers and fathers. Each time they showed it, Amber started to tear up, and I admit that even I had to hold back a few.

What an amazing miracle it is that God created! Amber and I discuss frequently at how amazing it is how the female body changes and re-positions itself to carry the baby and ultimately to deliver. What's even more amazing are the little details that a lot of times go unmentioned...like how the baby's head takes on cone shape to deliver, how before they are born they recognize their mother's smell, how taking their first breath opens up their heart valves to start pumping blood their bodies...and the list is endless! Talk about intelligent design!

Isaiah 43:7 -"Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them."

Psalm 127:3-5 - "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!..

Isaiah 45:18 - "For this is what the LORD says, he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: "I am the LORD, and there is no other."

We are so excited for our little girl to arrive, and although we know it will be a life changing event, we are ready for it!

So fellow bloggers...please share some of your memories that you had immediately following the birth of your babies!

Thoughts from the mind of Jason...

Preggers Poses #2

Here I am last week - Thursday, May 30th - 26 weeks pregnant!

She thumps a lot in my tummy and I think has recently started to get the hiccups a lot...that is the only thing I can imagine for the somewhat strange rhythmic movements I feel sometimes. Any comments from the mommies out there - what do in-utero hiccups feel like?

Preggers Poses

We took these a couple of weeks ago. I don't think I have grown too much since! We better take some more soon just in case!

Update

Sorry it has been a while!

As you can see from the pic, my work trip was to Disney World. Yeah, it sounds great, but it was not like I was there to have fun or anything. I went with a colleague of mine who has two daughters my age. So, we had fun talking about her grandkids and the like. She is easy to talk to. Overall, the trip was uneventful, which I consider a good thing as I was a little nervous about traveling preggers.

We stayed on Disney property at the Polynesian Resort. The resort was very nice and was the closest I know I will get to Hawaii for quite some time! We arrived early Wednesday afternoon (I was up around 4 to leave for the airport - not fun if you know me and know that I like to SLEEP). Between the actual conference and the conference events that took place Wednesday and Thursday evenings, we didn't really have any free-time. No, I did not sit by any pools or beaches. We were barely outside most days!

I would have to say that the best part of the trip was seeing the adorable kids running around (we rode the monorail that connects to Magic Kingdom each day to get to the Contemporary Resort where the conference was). The little girls in their princess dresses just melted me! I started to tear up many, many times just to see the kids so excited to be at Disney (thank-you pregnancy hormones!)

I also loved seeing the Cinderella castle from the monorail (yeah, no luck - we never were able to enter the park) and enjoyed the fireworks on Thursday night as we were walking back from the monorail. Disney is a happy place, but is indeed much happier when you are there with your family. I hope we can take our kiddos there some day!

I did buy Baby Girl some cute little pink mouse ears! I will take a pic and post. And I will definitely have to post a pic of them on her some day!
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We saw the play "Fiddler on the Roof" last Saturday - it was a wonderful performance. The food was also delish! Thanks again Mom and Dad B! We really enjoyed the opportunity to see some live theatre. Baby loved the music and moved quite a bit during the show. The format of the theater allowed us to be very close to the stage and actors. Watching the show also made me tear up as I remembered how much I love to sing, dance, and perform. Baby and I will just have to start putting on shows in our living room!
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It was a hectic week at work last week recovering from missing several days and preparing to miss last Friday. We left for MN Thursday after work to see MomA's dance recital. She did such a great job coreographing and costuming her students! I also loved that Brittany, Moriah, Autumn, Summer, and Trinity were featured in many dances - solos, duets, and even the whole group of sisters in a number! And, I couldn't help but yell "Go Grandma Dawn" as my Mom did a tap dance with her adult dancers! Baby is proud that her Grandma has such great moves!

We took pics on the "film camera" (I tried to finish a roll of film that was in the camera for over a year in FL. But, I put another roll in while I was there, hence we used the rest during our visit. We also learned that the digital camera would have been much better for the recital. Can't wait to post all of the pics of my sisters' backs...) So, hopefully we can scan some pics and post when they are in.

Baby is nice and active - Jason felt her for the first time on Friday - YAY! And, my Mom and sisters took turns getting some "feels" on Saturday. She really was active while at their house - there is a lot more noise and energy than she is used to! I could tell she loved it, though!

Oh, and I couldn't help but laugh that she was not only active through most of the recital, but particularily active during the BARNEY songs that the little kids danced to! Oh no, we have another Barney lover in the family already!

This week will fly by again, I am sure, as we both are taking Friday off again to head back to MN for MomJ and Hannah's recital. This is MomJ's first recital as the owner of her own studio! We will be on hand to lend lots of help and enjoy the show (we get to help with 2 and watch 1!) I have a cold (I think I caught it on the airplane) which made last-minute rhinestoning and hair-piece-making fun on Friday (I managed not to get snot on any of them, I think...) Anywho, hopefully I will be in full health by this weekend's recitals.

Hopefully pics to come in the near future...depends on when I can drop the film off! How did we live up until a year ago without a digital camera?!?!

Ultrasound Results...

Here is a picture of our BABY GIRL's feet! :-) Aren't they adorable!?

Her whole body - the Technician commented on her nice long legs (for dancing, of course!)

I thought she was kicking me when I felt this certain sensation. I came to find out that she is doing this when I feel those really strong movements - sitting on her knees, head-butting me!

And, she must have sensed our excitement and slight anxiety, as she told us "peace!" Can you beleive this!?! I have been told that we should sumbit this pic to a magazine or something as it is SO cute!

We got about 9 pictures in all - our Technician was very sweet and generous. Baby Girl was not too cooperative at all, though. We looked for her "gender" many, many times for over an hour. She did not want to open her legs up! But, with many "peeks" from the Technician and a peek to the Radiologist, we were told with about an 80% chance that she is a girl! We are very excited and already purchased her a few items of clothing at garage sales!

It has been so fun to imagine and dream about our little baby girl! We can only assume she'll have curly hair and big eyes!

We love her so much already and were so thrilled to get this "sneak peek" at her! We haven't decided on a name yet, and will most likely not share her name until we meet her in person!

Like a kid 3 days before Christmas

That is how I feel. I am SO excited for our ultrasound on Friday - the time won't fly by fast enough. I feel like I am going to get to open the biggest present that I have been staring at under the tree in anticipation! I stare down and see my tummy and get the wonderful and occasional kick - I want to open the present so badly - the ultrasound is like getting a glorious peek!

Easter 2007

Sarah getting those carrots out of the roast with determination!



Dale and Dad/Rich carving that ham!



The traditional Sankey Easter picture! This was my fourth Easter with them - it is crazy to look back at the pictures from the first Easter and see how little the kiddos are!


Here I am - I was 18 weeks pregnant! I swear I have gotten bigger this week already!


Here we are - I think this would technically be the first picture of our "family!" I haven't been in front of the camera for a while I guess!

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!