Halloween

Our Halloween celebrations began on Friday night with a costume party with some of Michael's classmates and their families. I had been looking forward to it for a while and before the baby arrived I occupied myself with making her lady bug costume. I'm not very crafty or experienced at sewing, but in my search to find and a costume I had convinced myself that the ones I found to buy weren't right--I couldn't find the right combination of price, size, & cuteness. All of the outfits in newborn size said they would fit 0-9 months and I figured there was no way a costume that could fit a 9 month old would fit a 1 week old. So I found a cute ladybug costume for Riley and set out to make one to match for Emma. Easier said than done. I didn't get a pattern to follow, I just guessed the size thinking newborns are very tiny. Well, I made it too tiny! Can you see how uncomfortable she looks?!? After the hassel and pain of forcing her into the thing I couldn't bring myself to wrestle her out of it so I grabbed the scissors and cut her out of the costume I was so proud of. Luckily my mom was around to help me fix it fast and sew in a big panel in the back to make it bigger All the other pictures are of her in the expanded one. Even the 2 attempts at hats I made were too small. Oh well... I guess I'm not supermom--not even for Halloween. Since it was a family costume party Michael and I decided to be a spider and a web. We had a great time!




On Halloween night we took the girls trick-or-treating at the University Village mall which is right by our house and it was packed! We went with our friends the Gardners (their daughter is the other ladybug) and the Robecks (their daughter is the unicorn) and we ran into the Wilsons (who used to watch Riley while Jessica was at work and their daughter is a ballerina). After we had enough candy and enough of the crowds we headed home to receive our own trick-or-treaters. Last year we didn't get any so we were excited to have a dozen or so kids come to our door. Some little girls even rang our doorbell and said they were 'reverse trick-or-treating' and handed me 3 KitKats. I was so dumbfounded to have someone hand me candy instead of them reaching in and grabbing a handful I just stammered, "Thanks, Happy Halloween."

So one thing we did to simplify Halloween this year is that we did not attempt pumpkin carving. When my in-laws came to town for Emma's baby shower in the end of September, they brought Riley some big sister gifts and one of them was Mr./Mrs. Pumpkin Head sets. (Like Mr. Potato Head --which Riley loves to play with--but made for real pumpkins.) So during the shower, Riley and grandpa assembled Pirate and Princess Pumpkin Heads. They're pretty cute --can you see the pirate behind Michael's shoulder and the couch in this picture? But if you want to see cool pumpkins check out my sister's blog http://egdoll.blogspot.com/. My sisters and brother-in-law did an amazing job!
So Riley really got into the spirit of scariness this Halloween. Everything was 'scary' and she would always say it in funny voice and make a funny face. So the past few days she kept wanting to watch Bakyardigans 'the scary one' referring to the Halloween episode. Now when she plays peek-a-boo she exclaims, "I scared you!!" And anything relating to Halloween, "oooh...scary!" Luckily, she doesn't actually seem afraid of much. Still sleeping through the night in her pitch dark room without a problem.

Since I just started blogging, there is some catching up to do and since this post is already super long, here are some pictures from Halloweens past.

2005 - Riley's 1st Halloween. She's a duck!
2007- at the pumpkin patch

2006- Riley is Piglet and Jessica is Winnie the Pooh (Michael was sick).

She's here!!!!

Emma has finally arrived! She came on Sunday at 2:05pm. Weighing in at a whole 9 pounds! (my doctors had estimated she would only be 7-8lbs) and she was 20 inches long. She is perfect. Here's the photos you've been awaiting! Scroll down for details--don't worry nothing gross.


4 minutes old


10 minutes old


17 hours old




Everything went according to plan once my water broke at 4am on Sunday morning.

But Saturday was a whole different story. I woke up with a cold, exhausted and super emotional. My sisters saved the day and cheered me up. We had lunch, shopped, and tried to walk this baby out. Then I went home and did more shopping and walking. Finally contractions started to pick up and luckily my mom was already planning to come in town that evening. By the time my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart, she was here.
So off we went to the hospital... more complicated than we thought...it was during the UW football game so our usual routes were blocked but I was comfortable so it was OK. After Michael struggled through the post game traffic to park the car after getting me to the hospital, the doctor said I wasn't progressing so they made us walk for an hour but still no change so they sent us home. How disappointing! But only about 6 hours later my water broke -- this time we headed to the hospital knowing they couldn't send us home.


Labor went smoothly -- lots of walking to help things along and Michael was wonderful husband and supporter! The epidural kept me comfortable for the last few hours of labor and then we got ready to push. Don't I look happy?! Finally about to meet her!!

A few contractions and pushes later, Emma was born! It was wonderful to finally meet her. She was healthy from the start and has been an angel ever since.
I am so lucky!

Two beautiful daughters

one fabulous husband and daddy

equals one happy momma!

Today is D day!

So today is Thursday, October 18 and it is Jessica's due date. But so far nothing is happening! How frustrating! But I feel good and energetic for 40 weeks pregnant, despite not sleeping well. I was planning on being busy with a newborn or at least in the hospital today so that gives me plenty of time to start our family's blog. I've been wanting to start one for a long time being inspired by wonderful, fun blogs written by friends and family. Now that I'm done working I have little more time to figure out how my new computer works, edit/organize photos, email and now blog!

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Do you want to know what else is frustrating? Trying all day to make that slide show work! It was so easy to organize in my iPhoto on my computer but to make one online--not so easy. Maybe the idea in my head was too elaborate. But I tried a couple of websites and one you couldn't add your own music, only ones they provided and this song feels so fitting to my current state I couldn't change it. So this website I could upload my own music but only horizontal/landscape shots would work. All of my portrait/vertical photos I added were cropped all wrong by the website so I took them out. If anyone knows how to fix it, let me know. Anyways, you get the idea and hopefully you enjoy it.

So here I venture into the world of blogging--not the perfect, original layout I dreamed or even one post almost perfect, but at least I've got a start. Keep checking and I'll try not to be so negative. My attitude in general even about being pregnant has been pretty good until now---I wonder why.....

We'll try to keep you all posted when Emma finally arrives!

P.S. 11/10/07 I figured it out! Here is what I wanted it to be like:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So she did finally come out 3 days late and we're elated!
I finally learned how to do the slide show how I wanted to with some help from a friend. So for those of you interested. It works better to create a montage instead of slide show--it gives you more control of size, shape, motion, etc. of your photos.