Aven's First Fireworks

Aven got to see and enjoy her very first fireworks last night. It might seem weird since she's three, but I'm a pretty big stickler about bedtime and keeping to a schedule. So, for our slightly early Pioneer Day celebration we did sparklers, smoke bombs, ground blooms, and a handful of fountains. Aven had a super fun time, especially since we were joined by Auntie Em.

First sparkler! 

Old Ian-No-Arms works some sparkler magic.

I wish those skinny legs belonged to me, but alas they are my sister's.

1 Week

Our little Etta is officially one week old. She's doing typical baby stuff- eating, pooping, sleeping , and being cute . Big sister Aven is adjusting pretty well- just a little more whiny and prone to melt-downs than usual. Overall we're doing well and enjoying our new addition. Hopefully a new blog name will be coming soon!

Etta May

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our new little girl. Etta May Bailey was born July 10th at 3:03 p.m. after a grueling two hour labor and about five minutes of pushing. Not that I'm bragging or anything. She didn't want to start breathing and her heart rate dropped right after birth which prompted a call to the NICU. It was scary to watch ten people rush into the room to attend to her as I sat helplessly in the bed. It was even scarier when they took her away from me to the NICU for observation. Luckily Ian was able to go with her and they only kept her for about an hour since she recovered so quickly. When she was weighed in the NICU she weighed in at 6 lbs. 3 oz. Later, in the nursery, her weight was 6 lbs. 11 oz. Since babies don't usually gain 8 oz. within a few hours of birth this discrepancy prompted and intense investigation into which scale was wrong. Etta was wheeled around in her bassinet and weighed on different scales until they were satisfied that she was indeed 6 lbs. 11 oz. The rest of our hospital stay was pretty uneventful, just lots of great visitors. Here's more than a few photos of our hospital stay:

Etta under observation in the NICU

Ian holding Etta for the first time.

My mom and Etta.

Oh, how I "love" those hospital gowns.

Aven and her new baby doll and baby doll blanket. She was quite stunned the first time she saw Etta.

Etta has one dimple on the right side of her face that matches my sister's one right side dimple. Pretty dang cute!

Mt wonderful doctor, Sam Ponder, with our beautiful girl.

My grandparents.

My dad.

My friend Nique. I was hoping some of that lovely dark complexion would rub off, but so far Etta is just as pale as the rest of us.

Amber holding Etta, Natalie in the background.

Get me out of this place!
Ready to go home. I just can't get over how tiny she is.

*Edit: Dear Christine and Dennis, There are no pictures of you in this post because your son, who was in charge of taking pictures, didn't take any of you. Sorry- I think he was just a little overwhelmed with everything

The Fence

When we moved into this house about a year ago Ian started making a long list of eventual projects. At the top of the list was a new fence along the north side of the property. The fence that was there was a badly installed chain link that was overgrown with bushes and trash trees. Luckily, our neighbors (Nate and Lloyd a.k.a. The Brothers) are in the process of remodeling their house and were excited to do away with the old fence as well. On a side note, while working on demolishing the old fence and digging up stumps Ian discovered that he and Nate went to high school together- small world.

Before. Looking from the front of the house toward the garage.

Looking from back to front. We hired Discount Tree to take out a couple big trees along the fence line. Ian and The Brothers took care of all the small ones.

Demolished fence and tree line.

Posts are in!

The finished product, looking from front to back. Ian and The Brothers finished this project in record time.  I was pleasantly surprised with the speed at which they worked. 

Looking from back to front. There is obviously a lot of landscaping to be done, but that's on the list for next year.

Look at that lovely gate that Ian spent hours building and perfecting. Now we can let Grace out the side door in addition to the back door. We can park there if we wish to and Aven has a nice big (safe) area to ride her bike.