Big News!

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting another sweet baby girl in September!  We are thrilled and very grateful to God!

Emma is going to be an amazing big sister, and we are thankful that we are surrounded by our family so our girls can get to know them well.  We absolutely can't wait to meet our new little one!

Surgeries, Recoveries, and Birthday Parties

We were reeling a bit after Emma's surgery last month, but are pretty much back to normal again.  The first week after her surgery was particularly tough while she still had a catheter and felt pain from her incisions, but after we removed her catheter, she quickly returned to her playful, energetic self.  Her surgeon instructed us to have her soak in the tub 3 times every day for 6 weeks.  We put some thought into it and set her up in a toddler tub (with lots of towels underneath!) in front of the TV, which helped her look forward to her frequent baths instead of fighting them every day.  We had to bathe her for 15-30 minutes before we left for work/preschool in the morning and then squeeze in two more baths in the afternoon or evening.  She loved all the extra TV time, but Dan and I were super happy when we passed that 6 week milestone! Emma hasn't had any infections since her surgery, praise God!

Emma's 3rd birthday was on April 14th, about a week after her surgery. We didn't celebrate or even mention it on her actual birthday, since she still wasn't feeling great.  But by that Saturday, she was ready to party with the family members who were able to come over for her celebration!  April is full of birthdays in our family.  Dan's mom and dad, my dad, and our niece Miriam also have April birthdays, so there were lots of fun celebrations!

Dan, Emma, and I have been house hunting during most of our free time since our lease ends soon and we'd prefer to buy a house instead of renting for another year.  Many of our Saturdays have been spent touring homes for sale with a realtor, but we did take a Saturday off to visit Busch Gardens with Dan's sister, Robin, our brother-in-law, Rob, their son, Nate, and their daughters Naomi and Miriam.  We had great weather most of the day and had a blast together.

Here are some photos from the past month and a half:

About 4 days after her surgery, Emma began to prop herself up and walk a little bit.  We just let her move at her own pace since her doctor didn't encourage us to push her.

This was a daily sight several times a day. It was really nice to be done with 3 baths a day!

She's excited about the new play dough toys I bought for her to play with during her recovery. Her diaper looked big because she had to wear two while her catheter was in. Instead of having a bag for it to drip into, she wore one diaper against her body, then we put the open end of her catheter into a 2nd diaper that was wrapped over the 1st one. Diaper changes were a big ordeal for her since it was painful when we shifted the catheter to get her diaper off and on.

After a week, we got to remove her catheter! She was as scared about it as she looks in the photo, but we knew she'd feel tons better afterwards!

Sure enough, within two days, she was feeling well enough to play outside on a playground.  By that point, her incisions had stopped bothering her, too.

We had a fun party for Emma's 3rd birthday at our house. My parents, Dan's parents, and Dan's sister, Robin, and her two girls came over to celebrate with us.

Emma and her cousin, Naomi, loved playing together 

Silly girls!

After lunch, it was finally time to open her presents! She was so excited by everything, and we enjoyed every moment of her energy after getting through those tough weeks.

 Our beautiful 3 year old princess.

We celebrated my dad's birthday the next week with dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yum!

And our littlest niece, Miriam, celebrated her 1st birthday later in the month. That night, we also celebrated Dan's dad's birthday.

All the cousins wanted to help Miriam open her birthday presents.

Early this month, Dan's dad had rotator cuff surgery, so we visited him in the hospital. He had a rough couple of days afterwards, but is doing better now and trying to rest so he can heal.

Good times at Busch Gardens with Dan's sister, Robin, and her family

Emma and Naomi rode their first big ride with their dads that day. They looked ridiculously small in those harnesses. :) We had tons of fun that day!