Julia's Blessing

Last Sunday we blessed Julia. It was a wonderful day. She was all smiles. Shawn said that she had a big, opened mouth grin on her face the entire time that she was being given the blessing. It was almost like she knew what was going on and was so excited about it. Here are a few pictures of her in her blessing dress.

Julia Louise Sharp

We have a new addition to our family! Julia Louise Sharp arrived on Monday July 27th at 5:21pm. She was 6 lbs. 7.7oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She is a healthy and absolutely beautiful (no bias there) baby girl. She is tall, but very skinny. So skinny, in fact, that the new born diapers kept slipping off of her little rear, so we had to put her in preemies. She has really long fingers and toes, black hair, and her daddy's nose.

The delivery went really well. Actually, we had one scare. I had a really big contraction at exactly the same time that my water broke, which I guess tripped out the uterus because the contraction just would stop. Julia's heart beat dropped to 35 beats per minute, which is about a third of what it should be. They had to give me a shot of medicine to stop the contractions. Her heart beat came back up, but it took her a little while to stabilize. The doctor decided to give me an epidural right away in case she didn't stabilize and they had to do an emergency c-section. It was really strange to be getting an epidural when I wasn't even having any contractions. Anyway, they watched her for about an hour and a half and then decided she was stable enough and started me on pitocin to get the contractions to start up again. Labor was pretty easy after that since I couldn't feel any contractions. I did have feeling in my legs still so they actually let me use different labor positions to help the baby drop faster. When it came time to push, the doctor told me I was actually pushing too hard and was going to tear. He told me to just laugh really hard and what do you know, I laughed her right out. Through it all I only ended up having to get two stitches, which is way better than last time. The epidural was mostly worn off by the time Julia was born so I could feel everything as she was born. It was a very interesting experience. With Ethan I never really got the urge to push or anything else for that matter. This time I could feel everything, although I suspect that I had enough of the medicine still left in my system that I still didn't feel the full amount of pain that I would have without anything. They gave the baby to me right away so she was able to nurse within 15 minutes of being born and she ate for nearly an hour that first feeding. Overall it was a really great experience.

Working in the Yard

We had a big hole in our backyard where the previous owners had a big pool. Shawn and my Dad (with a little "help" from Ethan, filled it in with dirt (It took 17 yards, which is a lot. It took them 5 trailer loads full, with each load carrying an average of about 3-4 tons of dirt.) Ethan thought it was a lot of fun playing in the dirt, especially since Grandma and Grandpa brought a wheel barrow and a rake that was just his size. After all the dirt was in, they planted grass seed and it it really coming in nicely now. Shawn will even be able to mow the new grass soon; probably this weekend.

Taking a break with Grandma

Ethan helping Dad and Grandpa level the dirt before they could plant the grass.

Aren't these tools just the perfect size! Ethan had so much fun with them.

Our little boy is such a boy! He loves to play in the dirt and tries to eat it.

Memorial Day Picnic

We went to Mt. Rainier on Memorial Day. Here are just a few of the pictures we took.

Ethan had a lot of fun when Shawn started throwing him up in the air.

Here is Grandma, goofing off with Ethan.

Ethan found this great little walking stick along our little hike and used it as he walked along. Doesn't he just look so cute!!

Here is a fun chair that we found while we were on our hike. Seeing Ethan in this big chair makes me thing of Goldilocks in Papa bear's chair.

Father's & Sons Outing

Here are some cute pictures from Ethan's first Father's and Son's outing. Sorry about the one picture that is sideways and the underlined text. I'm not sure how it happened, but I can't figure out how to rotate the picture or get rid of the underline. If anyone is more blog savy than me and knows how to fix it, please, let me know.

Another Ultrasound

Here are the pictures from our latest ultrasound, taken on May 18th.

Top Left: profile

Top Right: Face (I think that it is easier to see if you tip your head to the right and look at it from a distance. It looks a little ghostly to me.)

Bottom Left: It's still a girl! There are the two legs and then the three lines that the arrow is pointing to is what they say indicates that it is a girl.

Bottom Right: Another profile, but with her up to her forehead as if to say, "life is so hard". Looks like she's a drama queen already.

Fun with Grandpa

Ethan always likes to be right in the middle of things and he absolutely loves working with his Grandpa. He especially likes to play with the watering can, so when Grandma saw this little toy watering can at the store, she just couldn't resist. After the Easter Egg Hunt on 4/11/09, Grandpa started doing some watering and as soon as Ethan saw him, he high-tailed it over to him, his easter basket totally forgotten. Anyway, Grandma ran and got this little watering can and Ethan had a blast watering the sidewalk. We tried to get him to water the flowers in the pots, but apparently he thought the sidewalk needed it more.



























This entertained him for a really long time as long as we kept his watering can filled with water. The first time he ran out, he just started to cry, not understanding why his toy all of a sudden stopped working. It wasn't long, however, until he figured out that if he brought it back to the hose, someone would fill it up for him. Needless to say, he was soaked by the time he was done, but it was totally worth it. It's amazing how much fun something so small can be.