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charlie day two
the wright family
another Parker update
Posted on April 24, 2010
Keep praying! She has woken up, but is spiking a fever again and has a really high heart rate. She’s currently in the PICU and will be there for a few days at least. I know Jodie appreciates all the good thoughts and prayers!
Just came up myself from the basement after being in the line of fire of tornado warnings… and reports around the hospital area got some damage from the weather, including power outages and trees down.
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my sister. the rockstar.
Posted on January 6, 2010
I was getting ready to run to the post office and pick up the kids from my mom’s yesterday afternoon when she called and screamed, “PACK YOUR BAGS! WE’RE GOING TO WISCONSIN!”
Why?
Because Abbie’s water broke and ONE HOUR later I had a sitter with my kids and my parents and I were FLYING down the highway from St. Louis Missouri to Madison Wisconsin… and ONE HOUR before Avery was born we got there!
And I captured the whole thing!
Ab’s last belly photo! It was a perfect belly!
And THIS is right after the doctor said…
“Abbie, you are nine and a half centimeters dilated. There is no time for an epidural. You’ll have to do this naturally.”
OMG I thought Abbie was going to hit him! HA!
But DUUUUUUDE. She ROCKED it. There were a few screams, which is when we closed her door to the hallway (the worst thing a first-time mom can hear is another woman in agony!), but it went SO fast and you would NOT believe her today, twelve hours after natural child birth and she’s practically skipping around her room! She feels GREAT! Her exact words… “Jod! You need to have a FOURTH just so you can try natural child birth!”
HA! I just gave Chris a heart attack!
I want to let Abbie tell her story and once she does I will link her blog here… so for now… I’ll let the photos tell the story. Of Avery. My sweet new niece.
Avery Lee Enlund. 7 lbs. 12 oz. 20 inches. And totally perfect. And perfectly beautiful!
Welcome Avery. We love every little ounce of you already! And congratulations to my TOUGH AS NAILS sister and brother-in-law! Two little girls! It’s so so awesome and you’re going to love every minute!
Filed Under allen family, birth photography, newborn | 20 Comments
our Christmas in happy+grainy photos.
Posted on December 27, 2009
We had a marvelous Christmas. It was everything Christmas is supposed to be. Filled with happy children, incredible gifts, fun surprises, lots of family, late nights, good food and magic.
Things I want to remember, in no particular order…
- The kids coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.
- Bailey’s HUGE eyes when she opened a gift she loved.
- Parker hugging me and saying, “you my bet fend mommy!”
- Holding hands with Bailey on a winter walk and jumping over all the cracks in the sidewalk… laughing the whole time!
- C surprising me with a present when we agreed NO gifts this year.
- Spending a quiet day with my parents.
- Loving and hating my new Nikon.
- Grayson randomly hugging his sisters, for no particular reason.
- Pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve
- Gray yelling SANTA every time we came home (we have an antique lighted Santa on our porch)… it was nearly his first word!
- Cozy nights with C
- Listening to Parker make up songs like: “I maaaaaaaade a picture for Saaaaaaaanta and heeeeeeee’s going to looooooooove it!”
- Doing puppet shows in their new puppet theater that always has Santa puppet rescuing the princess from the pirate!
- Losing sheep (it’s been 4 days and I am literally heart broken for Parker but we can’t find that damn sheep anywhere!)
- Wagon rides
- Watching season 3 of 24 every night while wrapping gifts
- Being unplugged (almost) for a few days
- Caroling. Best night ever.
- Missing my sister (who had to stay in WI b/c she’s due with baby Avery in mid-Jan)
- Jammie days
- and the list goes on…
It was a great few days. And just for my own memory, which is fading year by year I swear, I’m going to bore you with a million grainy photos of the random moments I thought to grab the camera to capture!
Christmas Eve “kid” service… LOVED seeing Bailey sing in the cherub choir this year!
Great Aunt Linda painting the girl’s nails.
Great Uncle Tim blowing on Bail’s nails to help them dry… so cute!
Gray climbing up in Bubba’s chair to read the paper! That’s “big” Bubba watching!
Bailey painting my nails and C taking a totally out of focus photo (ALL photos of me are out of focus!)
Listening to Great Grandpa Allen read Twas’ the Night Before Christmas (a long time Allen tradition).
Christmas morning (6am)… the kids playing their new instruments (all from Plan Toys).
Christmas morning (7am… done with gift opening!)… playing with their new Melissa and Doug wooden castle… the favorite toy for sure!
Today… a jammies day (jammies from Grandma)… dancing with their princess jewelry on (gift from Uncle Jack).
We stayed in pjs ALL day today and it was awesome! We played and cleaned and organized and played and cooked and slept and played. It was a great day and the perfect close to our three days off for Christmas!
Tomorrow life starts back up again as Kim and I have a newborn session in the morning with a maternity session immediately afterwards… which means it’s a Daddy day around here… which means it’ll most likely be another jammie day!
I hope you all had an incredible Christmas! I might have to threaten her but I’m going to make Kim blog HER Christmas morning as well! I’m DYING to see what a house with SEVEN kids all opening gifts at the same time looks like! HA! Do you hear that Kim? It’s a challenge! Show us photos!
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my first gray, er, white hair and other random stuff.
Posted on December 15, 2009
The other day at Target we were waiting for our usual snack of soft pretzels to be done and Bailey, reading the door of the trash can, said: “T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U… trash can! Right Mommy?” I didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wrong as she’s totally into spelling and reading right now.
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I got my hair cut Saturday and while she was blow drying it I noticed this crazy hair sticking up. Um yeah. It was white. And coarse. And straw-like. And attached to my head.
30 sucks.
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Kim and I just booked a wedding for January 2nd and we couldn’t be more excited! Thanks for trusting us with your big day Stephanie!
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Have you heard of Elf on a Shelf? My friend Lyndsay has the funniest photos of her elf, Bob. And the stories of him and his friend Twink have had me laughing so hard I went and bought one for our kids! The girls named him Mr. Elfkin and he’s been the most fun this season! They RACE downstairs to find him each morning!
Totally stealing Lyndsay’s idea and photographing Elfkin’s time in our home this year! Thanks for the idea Lynds! Or for letting me STEAL your idea! HA!
The girls found he’d written them a note Sunday night after they had a sleepover at Grandma’s house! Monday when we got home for lunch after school they were DYING that he’d written them something! I saved the note and will put a little book together we can add to each year with Elfkin’s adventures!
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Just finished designing my BIL’s Christmas card and since most of the people he’ll be sending it to DO NOT read this blog I just had to share!
Front:
Back:
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The overlays I used on the card are AWESOME! Messing around with a few more got me here:
A full post on these awesome PS overlays coming soon!
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And I think that’s all I’ve got today! Maybe another post or two later! I’m in a bloggityblogblog mood today!
Filed Under allen family, Uncategorized | 9 Comments
today.
Posted on November 17, 2009
Today Grayson said “Hi Mama.”
Clear as day. On the phone with me while at my parent’s house.
They heard it, I heard it, the girls heard it and we all cheered.
Because he’s never even really said Mama before. He doesn’t really talk at all. But I know that’s my fault b/c I let him keep his paci in his mouth 24-7. Because you know, it’s just plain old quieter that way.
But hearing his sweet (and kind of deep) voice say “Hi Mama” literally melted me into a puddle.
And it was exactly what I needed tonight, as I was calling to say goodnight to the kids. Because MAN what a day we’ve had.
A day that is ending with me asking for prayers for Chris. Lots and lots of prayers as he is in the hospital with viral meningitis.
Or what they think is viral meningitis as we won’t get the spinal tap results until tomorrow night.
No matter what it is, he is one sick guy and I would love to ask for prayers on his behalf. Or on my behalf because frankly, I could use them too.
I’m exhausted but wanted to get this prayer request sent out to all our amazing blog readers before going to bed. I will update you as we learn more.
Oh, and tomorrow is Parker’s birthday. My little girl is turning 3 and we barely get to celebrate. Luckily she’ll be happy with a pancake breakfast at Grandma’s and my hastily wrapped packages in the morning before I head back to the hospital! And we can celebrate next week when C is better.
Thanks in advance for the prayers… I wouldn’t write this if I didn’t appreciate what these prayers can do!
Filed Under allen family | 15 Comments