Lillie's 1st Christmas

It is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone. I used to sit and think to myself, "when Christmas is here our baby will be too!". We really enjoyed our holiday and it was so nice to not have to travel this year! No plane rides for us! Our family was able to come to us and we had a wonderful Christmas in our own home. Here are some pictures of our Christmas fun with the family.

Lillie and Grammy Grace

Cooter dog and Miss Lillie taking a nap.

Hanging out in our new Cracker Barrel rocking chair.

Lillie Mae Robinson and her new great grand-daughter, Lillie Mae Smith.

Proud Uncle Blaine

Mommy

I am amazed at the gift I have been given. I am the mommy of a beautiful baby girl. So many times during my pregnancy thoughts flooded my mind about this child, my unknown child. I often wondered how it would look and if it would be perfectly healthy. All I can say is wow, she has been beautifully created by our Father God and now has been entrusted to me. I am starting to learn her sounds and her cries and what she does if she is hungry or needs a diaper change. Mark says that as he looks at her he is reminded even more of the dependence that we have to have on God, because she is so dependent on us. A life lesson here in true form. I didn't picture myself a mother of a daughter as many of you know, but now as she is here I am so excited for the girlie things we will do together. A couple of my ya ya friends came to visit with their daughters and I felt so proud, I had a daughter to hold now too. As I sit feeding her in the den with my own mother in my kitchen taking care of us, I think one day I will be the mother in the kitchen and my own daughter, Lord willing, will be taking care of hers! Crazy! Pink doesn't bother me so much and when I don't dress her in it that feels weird. I love when I hold her and she calms down because I am the mommy and that is who she wanted. I am so thankful for this gift, I pray I honor God with it in every way.

Home Sweet Home

Well both of the girls saw their doctors on Friday morning and we were able to come home that afternoon. It was just in time for us to enjoy all of Saturday snowed in. Of course with storm on Saturday our internet wasn't working and I couldn't post any new pictures to the blog. Well we are all home and safe, settling in and doing well. Emily is recovering well and even got to have her staples taken out this morning. She is getting lots of rest and enjoying time with her sweet little girl. Lillie is also loving her new home and has now slept in every room in the house, with the exception of the basement of course. She is starting to figure out the difference between night and day and is letting us get a little sleep at night. Currently all the girls are sleeping, Emily on the couch in the den, Lillie in her bouncer next to me, and Grammy Grace in the living room, so I have plenty of time to sit here and upload all of these photos so you can see just how cute this little girlie is. Enjoy the pictures.

Mark

More Pictures

We thought that you all would like to see more pictures of this little girl, so here you go.

A busy day

Well world here I am. It has been a busy day for me, not only have I been figuring out all this new stuff around me but I have been busy meeting all sorts of new and interesting people. I figured out that if I bury my face in my hands everyone thinks I look cute and let me sleep as much as I want.
This little trick has come in handy with all the new visitors coming by, I can just sleep and then they end up talking to my parents. My parents seem to enjoy all the talking but I would much rather be sleeping. I have to say that my Grammy Grace and Pop sure are great, I think I really am going to like them.
Oh and then there is my Uncle Blaine and let me just say he is hilarious It is hard to sleep when he is around cause he is always laughing, but man does he love me.
And Monique, she is so0000oo nice.
Here are a couple pictures of me with my new friends who stopped by



I did find a little down time to snuggle up and take a nap with my Mommy.


Well, this typing stuff is kinda tough with these little fingers, so I think I am going to end here. Until next time.

Lillie Mae

Lillie Mae!!!!!

Well let us first begin to say, We love our sweet baby girl... she is absolutely perfect!

The road to getting here was far from what we expected. Well what started as a good labor faded out as we waited in the hospital. Emily's contractions stopped coming so they put her on medicine to restart them. She labored for 12 hours and had only dialated to 5cm. The problem it turns out was that little Lillie had her face up and wasn't in the right position. But after another 2 hours Emily was finally able to push. Due to Lillie's size and her positioning Emily's cervix wasn't able to fully dilate even after 2 hours of pushing, and there were concerns about how the baby was handling the labor. So 24 hours after the water broke, our midwife and the doctors suggested that we needed to have an emergency c-section. So quick change of plans and scenery and at 7:25 am Lillie Mae Smith was born. She weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz, and measured 22 inches long. Both Emily and Lillie are doing well, and after the crazy labor the c-section turned out to be quite a relief. Definitely not what we planed, but God seams to work all these things out. We must say that Lillie is a very content child and loves to be held, so far we haven't had any problems with that. We will be in the hospital resting until Friday, we think Emily and Lillie will up for visitors on Wednesday and Thursday so give us a call. We will add more pictures soon.

In the Hospital and Waiting....

Well here we are.... waiting.... The baby is on it's way.

Em is feeling fine, even though all she can eat is jello. (you might have guessed that from her red mouth) Baby pictures are on the way!!!

We're Havin' A Baby!

This morning at 6 am my water broke so we are finally in the ballpark! We are still at home waiting for the contractions to get 5 minutes apart then our midwife said to call her. We called the parents and they are excited, of course! My parents are flying into Chicago and will be driving over to Dubuque so they will be here by 4! That is pretty great considering you just can't plan these things! Keep watching....tonight, Lord willing and the creeks don't rise, we will have a baby!! Keep us in your prayers :)

Life as we know it

So quick little review to get everybody caught up with what has been happening in our little lives... Mark got a new job in may working at the University of Dubuque as the Coordinator of Service Learning, a brand new position. He really enjoys his job and is thankful for the opportunity to continue working at the University. Along with the job change came the need to find a place to live.....so we bought a house! We have been spending a lot of time making it our home, needless to say we love it!! Oh and to top it off we are waiting for the arrival of our little smitty any day, after all if you are going to make a little change in your life why not do everything at once! Emily has enjoyed the ability to stay at home where she has been busy getting everything ready for the baby. Oh, and did we mention we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl? We have concluded that we are having a modest child and our abstinence speaking is already paying off. They say the due date is December 8th, we will see!!! We have continued to be involved with Lighthouse College Fellowship where Emily speaks occasionally. Mark is playing Rugby for the Gentlemen of Dubuque, a city team, in the Spring and Fall. We are still attending Great Adventure Church and enjoy having the family when ours is so far away.