Saturday, September 29, 2007

Olivia Mae McCown - September, 24, 2007





Olivia is here! Although I'm exhausted and have all kinds of interesting things happening to my body, I can't stop smiling. Brian and I are so thankful to have this healthy and happy beautiful girl. She is five days old and is already changing! I find myself just staring at her and studying her every detail. She is the image of her dad who has already embraced his new role with such ease! Even the messy diapers and middle of the night wake up calls (thank goodness for DVRs and NBCs premiere week - Olivia's already a fan of The Office!).

We have transitioned pretty easily, thanks to the help and support of our parents and our neighbor Jill who has provided all of our yummy meals this week! We're looking forward to upcoming visits - Aunt Jen from California and Aunt Shannon from Florida!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, calls, emails, flowers and visits. It's hard that most of you are far away so we'll do our best to update with lots of pictures and stories of her growth!

Ok...off to sleep while I can!!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

It's hard to believe...

that tomorrow I'll be holding my daughter! These past 9 months have gone by so fast. This is a day I have been waiting for what seems like a lifetime. I pictured going into labor unexpectedly and rushing to the hospital, ancticipating hours of labor, etc etc. Funny how life happens. Here I sit, the night before my scheduled C-Section...i know we will have a daughter, her name, her birthday, the time she will be born - everything is so planned! Ironic since the last year of our lives has been nothing but planned - bought a house we hadn't planned on, got pregnant without planning on it happening so soon, maybe a plan for once is good for us!

Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers and funny comments! We'll keep you posted over the next few days!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Just About There...





There are no words...just a HUGE sigh of relief!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Congrats Tricia and Koby!



I'm so beyond happy for one of my best friends and old roommate Tricia and her FIANCE Koby! They got engaged this weekend! What a great week this is starting off to be. I can't wait to see her married as she has waited 30 PLUS years for this! I love you Tricia...your patience and faithfulness has paid off! Enjoy every minute of this time, it goes by so fast!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Happy Birthdays!














Today is my dad's 60th birthday...a big milestone that I'm not there to celebrate with him, but I'm so excited to see him and my mom next week when they come to see us, and of course the birth of their grandaughter!



Happy Birthday Dad! We love you so much!



It's also my best friend (and sister in law's) birthday and her daughter, my niece, Kendall! It's a popular day for our family! The above picture is of Jen competing in a mud run recently...she'll probably kill me for posting that pic, but I love it and am so proud of her! It was quite a race!


Kendall is six and is our family's comic relief for sure! I love to talk to her on the phone and hear from Jen all the funny things she says and does. She is defintely her mother's daughter, a little edge but all heart and a huge smile to brighten your day!



Happy Birthday Jen and Kendall! We miss you and love you!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Our Memorable Anniversary

Yesterday was our one year anniversary...definitely a milestone for most, it'll be one we'll never forget!

To make a longer story short last weekend our neighbors hired some workers to remove these really old juniper shrubs that divide our house. If you don't know what those are, they're really thick shrubs with needles kind of like Christmas trees. They grow like crazy here in Washington and aren't the prettiest plants. Anyway, the guys had been struggling all weekend to remove them because the roots were so deep and have probably been in the ground for almost 50 years. To make matters worse, they found a yellow jackets nest with some pretty stubborn creatures that wouldn't die even after bottles of bee killer and gasoline had been dumped on them. (um, where's the exterminator this Californian asks? washintonians are way too experienced to hire those I guess!). Anyway, around 11 am I am waddling around town trying not to go into labor, running errands and I get a call from my neighbor Jill asking if I was home because these workers were lighting the bushes on fire, which had started an even bigger fire, with huge flames getting really close to our house! The fire department was on their way, I couldn't even imagine why they were lighting the bushes on fire and I rushed home. Brian was working an hour away so he couldn't make it in time.

I pull up to my house to every law enforcement office in town - Fire Dept, Sheriff, US Marshall, City of Yakima, even Animal Control! My neighbors were all outside and as soon as they saw me rushed to the car trying to look really calm for the pregnant lady. The fire was already out and all the fireman were in the house checking for any damage. All the officers were trying to make sure I stayed calm, it was pretty funny. Funnier, I was very calm! Next thing I know, they're showing me that there is no permanent smoke damage in our house, just smelled a little, but we were really fortunate that it wasn't worse!

Later when an inspector came to assess for any damage he said to count our blessings because he had never seen flames come so close to a house and not cause any damage. We are really thankful, especially at this point of our lives, with Olivia coming in less than 2 weeks now. I just couldn't imagine...God was really watching over our house and our family! So, needless to say, it was a memorable first anniversary for sure! Hopefully things will get cleaned up today, the smells downstairs will go away, and we'll move on. It definitely made for an interesting day in the neighborhood!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Cabinets, Glorious Cabinets!

















There is a light at the end of this tunnel...

Happy Birthday Carson!!!


Today is my nephew's 2nd Birthday! It's hard to believe that two years have gone by since I saw him come into the world, an experience I will never forget. He is 100 % boy and loves to keep his parents on their toes. He is a fearless, curious and busy kid, who's spunk will take him somewhere someday, I just know it! And he's got the cutest face too!
We love you Carson! Live it up today as you do everyday!

Sunday, September 2, 2007

It's Floorin' Day Folks!







Sunday is usually Sabbath in our house, but not today! Yesterday Brian spent the entire day and into the wee hours ripping up our carpet to prepare to install the hardwood (well, laminate really, but you can't even tell!) floors. I'm really excited but I must admit I am on an emotional roller coaster, gotta love the hormones...it'll all be worth it in the end though, right? Keep telling me that....




Anyway, here are the befores. I'll post the afters tomorrow! Also one of our laundry room that is doubling as our kitchen...don't tell me I never roughed it!