John and Amber

Saturday was Emma’s 2nd Birthday!  I can’t believe she’s two!!  It has been a great 2 years getting to know her and her personality.  We planned a water party with friends…unfortunately only one showed up but she didn’t know any difference.  She had a lot of fun with her friend Sophia as well as family that came.  Afterward we had a little BBQ and visited during the afternoon. Our Realtor and friend made Emma her cake.  She just loves Emma and thinks she is the cutest so she willingly made her her cake.  Isn’t it amazing!  Emma loves Nemo and Dory and so we did the water theme and had everything orange and blue.  She juts loved the cake and would look at it and say “Nemo” “Dory” “Emma” “Turtle”, needless to say it was a HUGE success…THANKS Colleen!!

In the evening we went over to John’s parents and went swimming.  Emma loved it!  She kept saying “self”, so we put the arm floats on her in addition to the body float and she had so much fun.  I think she’s going to be quite the swimmer!  So I took a TON of pictures and I only included a small handful here but there are still a lot because I know some of my family are wanting pictures…so hopefully you’ll enjoy!  Thanks to all that came and helped us celebrate Emma’s birthday.

So we had a really special 4th of July this year.  We were able to bless little miss Ashleigh Anne.  It was a very special day full of friends and family.  Amber’s parents and grandma were able to come out and John had his parents, sister & brother-in-law, and brother came as well.  It turned out to be a perfect day!  Thanks to all who came.

While Amber’s family was here we went up to Harper’s Ferry and spent a day doing some sight seeing and just relaxing.  It turned out to be the perfect day to go up there and we all enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. Enjoy the pictures!

Also here is a link to look at the birth announcement that we sent out.  Sorry if you didn’t get one!…but you can enjoy it here (Just copy and paste it in a new window)

http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectId=1353120&productId=67&projectSponsor=237705

So I was looking for a good excuse to update out blog and now I have one!  After two weeks of anticipation we welcomed Ashleigh Anne Sabin into our family!!  She was born June 19th at 6:44 a.m.  She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long.  She is very healthy and the cutest thing.  Luckily the labor was quick.  I was only in labor for about 4 1/2 hours and with that I was only at the hospital for 2 hours before she was born.  Everyone was a bit shocked that I progressed so quickly but I have to say I can’t complain, granted my Dr. said next time I better get to hospital at the first sign of contractions or the next one could come at home….so needless to say we won’t be taking any trips close to the birth of our next child.    Because I progressed so quickly little Ashleigh did have some bruising around her face but after 24 hours it has mostly disappeared and she looks better and better.  She just over a pound more than Emma and it’s amazing how much difference that pound makes.  She’s more filled out than I remember Emma being and noticeably not as small.  Emma loves her little sister.  She is getting better at saying “Ashleigh” but prefers to just say “baby.”  She tries to be soft, as soft as a 2 year old can be.  She wants to be wherever the baby is and is so captured by everything Ashleigh does.  I’m so happy that she loves her baby sister as I’ve had friends whose child doesn’t like the new baby.  It’s been hard being away from Emma for so long and only seeing her for a few hours at a time but I’m loving the time I have with this new little miracle.  John and I are excited to explore the world of having multiple children and to learn everything that comes with that.  We where able to come home tonight and everyone is doing well!

So now that we are just about moved in and the major projects finished I’m wanting to get into a routine with Emma.  I’m curious as to what other “stay at home moms” do with their kids all day.  Now that she’s getting older and more curious and learning more I really want to take advantage of how smart she is and how fast she catches onto things but I’m struggling to find the right thing for us.  So I’m looking for any ideas as far as good websites to find activities, or a detailed list of what you do from sun up to sun down.  I just feel like I’m missing something with this whole Mom thing and with the second one on the way I want to set up a good routine and get into the habit before baby number two comes so that it will be easy to follow a routine with the second one.  Anyway I’m just blabbering now but if you have  ANY ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them as I’m really struggling to get somethings going!  Either leave a comment here or email me (amber924@gmail.com)  THANKS!!!!

So we had a snow fall that started Friday afternoon and didn’t stop snowing until Saturday at about 5 pm.  It was an amazing storm, made me feel like I was in Idaho again.  The airport that is about 10 miles from our house registered just over 32” of snow fall in about 30 hours.  Anyway here are some fun pictures of the storm and of course how cute Emma is in her snow outfit.  She kept saying”now” and pointing I think she’s adorable!

So as most of you don’t know and as some of you do we’re having a baby in June!  We went in today for our ultrasound and found out that we are having a baby….GIRL!!  We’re really excited for Emma to get a baby sister and for the new adventure it will bring to our family.  As far as they could tell the baby looks healthy but we have to go back in 4 weeks because they couldn’t quite see everything that they wanted to because the baby is measuring about 10 days small.  Sorry if you feel left out about not getting told but we had a crazy month of December with all my illnesses and before we knew it, it was about time to find out what we where having so we thought we would wait till we found out as it might be the only time we could wait that long .

Hope all is well with everyone and be looking for more updates this week as I get caught up on the holiday happenings!

So between being in Idaho for 10 days for Thanksgiving and coming home sick and being sick for 2 1/2 weeks our Christmas Card got put on the back burner when it came to preparing for Christmas.  So I’m posting it here if you want to look at it.  The first picture is the front and back cover and the next is the inside fold.  Those of you that I had address for I’ve ordered it and you hopefully will be getting it before New Years….maybe…So instead of Merry Christmas we decided to wish you all a Happy Holiday Season as we’re a little late.  I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and know that we are thinking of you all!  Love YOU!!

So John has a conference in the Philedelphia area this week and Emma and I drove up yesterday to visit and spend the last day with him.  Since I’m sitting in the hotel room waiting for him I thought I would past a few pictures of our adventures yesterday and fun pictures I took with my new camera that I got for my birthday.  We had a lot of fun driving around Valley Forge yesterday and seeing the fall colors. It’s been fun and I LOVE my new camera I’m having SO much fun with it and learning how to use it!  Hope you enjoy the pictures and if I do say so myself Emma is adorable in these pics.

So I think I’ve finally gotten to the point of posting a few pics of the house…I think I pretty much got the Nursery all finished, I’m sure I’ll end up changing it a little bit but for the most part I believe it’s how I want it.  The next room is our guest room….so yes you’ll have a bed when you come visit .  We haven’t done much besides the basics but we don’t have much else to do with it besides updating the closet but that might be a little longer.  The other pictures of course are the front of the house and the back of the house.  We actually have a large yard considering the area we live in, which is one reason we wanted this house.  Well I hope you enjoy the before and after pictures so far and hopefully I’ll have more rooms done here soon to post more pictures

Since I’m coming down with the cold that Emma’s had for the past couple of days I decided to be lazy today and get caught up on a few other things.  So I’m getting to the point where I feel like I can post pictures of the house, but for now you’ll have to settle for some of our July events which include more pictures of Emma .  July was a fun month.  We enjoyed the 4 th of July, we spent the day working on the house and the evening at my cousin’s house with their family.  We decided not going downtown because we didn’t know how Emma would react to the fireworks. At first she was with John and a little frightened and wanted me and when she came to me and realized that I thought it was okay and encouraged it she got excited and liked all the bright lights and loud noises.  We had a great 4th of July and really enjoyed being with family!  Thanks Mark and Heather!! (Oh and yes Emma was already walking by the 4th of July…she started walking a few weeks earlier, around 11 months)