Our trip to WA

We finally made the trip to a little piece of heaven- Chelan, WA.

So it's only 4 months later!

Brinley is now 8 months old. She is pretty much crawling and has 3 teeth, going on 4. She is 29 inches long and 21 pounds. She sleeps through the night and loves to eat. She is officially my angel baby--being happy and cute all day long! She only cries when she wants to eat. I really think that my life is perfect!

15 weeks; Bright, Blue Eyed & Beautiful

Good old B-Ball

Duke has been playing church ball and loving it! We are into tournaments and we won the first game....MOVIN' UP! Duke has been polishing up on his 3's and doing great. We'll keep you posted.

Duke and his biggest fan, Brinley Bumpkin

March--full of Birthdays!

Keith, Lora and Adeline ready for cake

Starting with March 1 we have family Birthdays to CELEBRATE! Keith's and Bill's birthday in the first week give us lots of reason to get together with family and eat cake. We wish all family could live a half hour a way to celebrate constantly--cake would become a main dish at our house.

We had Keith and his family over for his birthday and had cake and played games. There is never enough time to spend with our growing families.

Keith blowing out his not quite 33 candles!


Adeline and Henry snuggling on the rocker

For Bill's birthday we went bowling. We had a great time with the Jaynes and Grandma and Grandpa.

Funny Grandpa and Colten

Brinley thrilled to be Grandpa's Birthday present

Jade, Brinley and Grandma

Russ and Duke

Wonderful Day

Duke and his Princess

Today was Brinley's blessing day and we were able to share it with lots of family! She is 3 months old now and us just a hoot! We had Richelle and her family and Mom come and stay with us for the weekend. The weekend was full of festivities, inlcuding the Discovery Center Museum, games and hanging out with family, and the blessing today in church with a great lunch at Duke's parents.

Morgan, Mike, Richelle, Brinley and Garrett after there long journey

Cousins!

Brinley loves kisses from Grandpa! xoxoxo

Brinley is always making us laugh

GramE and her little balleria--playing dress up

Grownug, Growing, GROWING!

12 weeks

My baby Brinley is 12 1/2 pounds...not a baby anymore! She is so fun and I swear even just through a nap, like 3 hours, she will be a whole new person when she wakes up. She is a wonderful baby and is staying awake more and more, at the good times too.

Now, a month later, she isn't growing as much every moment, but more fun! She loves to talk and sing!

I have an Excuse!

I promise I would be posting more about Brinley and her ever growing moments, I have pictures to prove it, but our internet hardly works...when it does, I post.

Already 6 weeks!

So Brinley has passed the 6 week mark and has grown a ton! She has cute cheeks and is healthy as ever!

December 4, 2009

6:55 am... thought I was peeing my pants... actually my water broke, it only took me 40 min. to figure it out. Duke had an interview for an internship and I was not ready to have a baby on December 4, although it was my prediction. If it weren't for Bill and Debbie, I wouldn't have been out of the house by 10:30.

On the way to the hospital, Debbie came along. We named her our "Shadow" which she gratefully accepted. We passed McDonalds, and I knew I wouldn't be getting any more food, so I wanted to stop for an ice-cream cone. After we pulled into the drive-thru and ordered my vanilla cone, we were informed the ice-cream machine could be broken. Shadow said, "God is watching over you Nicole, you don't want to be puking that up." Two seconds later, we were informed that I would be getting my $1 value vanilla cone, and I exclaimed "God is watching out for me!"

Then I asked "does the Shadow want anything?" as Duke drove off. She replied "I guess not." and I said "I guess the Lord is watching out for you too." it was so funny!

Now for the seriousness...

After checking in, and getting situated in the room, I was dialated to a 3, and was still enjoying myself. Then came the patossin... slowly and surely those contractions came. When I was at a 7.5 I went to the bathroom and decided it was time to get an epidural, so I could relax and enjoy a game of rummy. It was a good thing I did, because I was dialated to a 10 an hour later. It was 5:00 and time to push. As it turns out, I'm not made to have babies the right way, and after 2 hours of pushing, was wheeled to the operating room.

Back to the pushing, after 45 minutes, Duke looked at me and said "she hasn't moved for a while" I was determined that she was coming out. The doctor was also determined and so we tried a few different things, one of which was the vacuum. He told me we'd try it through 6 contractions. After 4, my mother-in-law (Shadow) said "nothing is happening", and in came a bunch of nurses, and I was shipped off to the OR. It was kind of emotional, especially because I could feel the contractions that I couldn't push through, and the anethsesiologist was taking his dang time (15 minutes to be exact) and it hurt. Duke thought both me and the Brinley were both going to die, thinking it was an emergency C-section. So he was emotional which then made his mother emotional. The rest was a breeze, even the recovery (especially since its been a month).

Now it's Duke's turn to the rest of the story since I was a wee bit loopy...

Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving was spent in the mountains. Duke, myself, and my in-laws went to their cabin for a few days. It was a very relaxing Thanksgiving, which was very much needed.

Wednesday night, Duke and I signed on our house. On the way back home to pack , Duke started to have chest pains. We were about 10 minutes from home and his arm went numb. It kinda freaked us out, so the next hospital we passed, we pulled into the ER. The good news is, it was a quick clinic and they were able to get us in right away. He had an EKG and all turned out fine. The doctor just laughed and said "the top two reasons for stress/anxiety are buying a house and having a baby", and they were both our first.

My in-laws weren't expecting that night at the cabin, especially because it was so late. We scared them to death. They thought we were fellow woodsback men with guns ready to blow thier heads off. haha