Pictures

Yippee!! Here are some pictures for everyone. =o)

Dandylions in December



Emmaline Rose (almost 4 months)


Merry Christmas to All!!

(Many thanks to Jenna for the use of her wonderful photography skills)

A Merry Christmas To All

Well, despite my best efforts, blogger just doesn't want to upload my pictures right now. =( Anyway, Merry Christmas to all. We're doing well here. Emmie is now 25 inches long and 15 pounds 13 ounces. She's still not sleeping through the night but we're working on that one. =o) She likes to grab for everything and can roll over. Her favorite new pastime is sucking on her toes or chewing on Mom thumb (which she is doing right now). We hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas and a blessed new year and hopefully I will be able to get some more pictures up sometime in the near future. =o)

Just a quick note...

Yes, we're still alive. =o) Emmie is trying to adjust to the time change. So that's our biggest challenge right now. Chad had his wisdom teeth out a week ago and recovered very quickly. We're both very thankful for that. I'll try and get some pictures up soon. It takes awhile on our computer to shrink the images and then finding time to post is a whole other issue. Since we have dial-up and are using Chad's parents phone line, we don't want our computer usage to tie up their ability to use their phone. So as much as I would like to be on the computer all day surfing and posting, it would be very inconsiderate of me to do such a thing. So in the meantime, I will try and post as often as I can and get pictures up soon. =o)

More Pictures from the Fair

We had fun with all our friends at the fair. The picture below is of Chad and Emmie (6 weeks), David and Abby (6 months), and Brad with Kaylah (8 weeks). Even from the time we all found out we were expecting, the guys were excited about being able to take their daughters to the fair together.



Watching the dog show and waiting for Emmie to burp. =o)


Chad holding the cousins. Emmie had just spit out her pacifier and wasn't too happy.

Finally some more pictures

Here are the promised pictures from the fair. Granted it was almost a month ago...I'll get caught up sometime soon....I think =o)

You can't really see her in the stroller, but this was the first day we went to the fair. It was bright and sunny out.


Here's Chad holding his little country darlin'. We had her all dressed up in her shortalls.


The tractors were so big you could sit in the wheels. =o)

A Weekend of Friends

This past weekend we were able to go down to school for homecoming weekend. It was wonderful to see friends and fellow former PHCers. We had fun showing Emmie off at work on Friday and I had fun cheering while watching the Alumni vs. Students football game on Saturday. Alumni won 18-12 (no goal posts for extra point attempts). Go Kneppers!! Emmie stayed home with her daddy on Saturday because I had a bridal shower to go to in the evening down by school. The shower was filled with laughter and joking and more chances for to catch up with friends whom I haven't seen in a couple of months. Oh, and Jeanette makes a mean pan of lasagna. So if you ever have the chance to eat some, I would highly recommend it. =o)

Sunday we went over to Chad's grandmother's house to watch the Redskin's football game with her to help celebrate her 86th birthday that was yesterday. I hope I'm that alert to football when I'm her age. She knows the numbers of the big players. Like when Clinton Portis made a big run she said, "That was number 26, wasn't it?" Too fun.

Monday brought more company as one of my bride's maids who was in town for the week stopped by to meet Emmie. We had a good time catching up and doing some shopping for a baby present for Emmie. Unfortunately, my daughter does not have a mother who will spend $15 on a pair of baby blue jeans so we had to forgo the cute little jeans with flowers on them. But we found a couple of cute outfits and an even cuter jumper outfit for chuch so all was well. I am very thankful for garage sales and baby fairs. I'm able to let other people buy the cute, expensive stuff and then have their child wear it twice before they outgrow it and then I can buy it from them for 10 percent, if not less, of what they paid for it. =o) Life is good.
I'll try and get some pictures up in the next post.

Sitting and Swinging

I've been trying for the past two weeks to get these pictures to load and they finally cooperated today. Yippee!!

We've had Emmie out every day this week and she handles it really well. We've been to the Great Frederick Fair twice so I'll be posting pictures from that hopefully sooner than I got these up. =o)

"I think I got the hang of this sitting up thing."

"Mom and Dad make it look so easy."

"I think I'll stick with my swing."

One Month Old

Emmaline is 1 month old today. We had our one month check-up and she is now 22 inches long and weighs 10 lbs, 3 ozs. She's in the 75th percentile for both her height and weight. (That means if you lined up 100 children her age by height/weight from smallest (1) to biggest (100) she would be number 75). Here are a few more pictures of her.

Emmie with Rebekah. Rebekah was the flower girl in our wedding.

Emmie holding onto Daddy's hands.

Who me? Pacifier? I don't know what you're talking about....

Emmie watching her first Orioles game with her Dad.

Ok, I caved, this naked baby picture was too cute not to put up.

Our Moving Crew

Many thanks to our wonderful friends

for all their help on moving day.

Sarah put on her maid outfit and scrubbed

our bathrooms until they sparkled.

David (right) and John taking a breather in our new place.

John came all the way from Ohio to visit Dave and Hil and ended up spending all day Saturday helping us move. What a guy!

Resting after a long day.

Vanessa (left) and Hilary getting their stairmaster workout in.

We lived on the third floor so everyone got a great workout.

Danny did a great job supervising...and he did an even better job running up and down the stairs all day.

Settling In

Well, we have been in our new home a week and the boxes are getting unpacked and stuff is getting organized. Emmie is adjusting but still working on sleeping through the night. I haven't been really good about keeping her on a schedule so that's probably why. =o/ We'll be posting more pictures soon once things get a little more organized and I have some more time. =o)

Moving

A quick update for all you out there in cyberland. Sorry for the lack of posts, Chad and I are getting ready to move this weekend so things have been a little crazy with that. I'll try and e-mail out our new contact information to everyone. Give me a call or post a comment if you don't hear from me by the end of next week and you want our address.
Emmie is doing well. We're still working on the whole night sleep schedule but for the most part we're all getting enough sleep. Please pray that the move is not too disruptive and we're able to get settled quickly. Thanks!

Baby Pictures

Cute little toes















Our happy family

Emmie is about 12 hours old in this picture.

Gotta love the designer gown....=o)







I think she had a headache from all the pictures...









Baby blues....

Chad's list (continued)

Idea #2

Create a "Take Your Overdue Wife to Work Day" and let her take pictures of you working. This works especially well if you work in the construction industry.



























Chad in his element....ok sorry, I couldn't resist...=o)








Don't forget to take a picture of the big belly!


(Chad went to work on the saturday before Emmie was born and I decided to tag along. Even after some light lifting and climbing stairs she still didn't want to come.)

Chad's list of things to do....

when your wife is overdue.

These posts are dedicated to the expectant fathers who need to distract their wives from the fact that there are still two little feet kicking them in the ribs.

Idea #1

Have a pillow stacking contest.....











And let your wife win.....

Weighty Issues

Disclaimer: Chad is at work right now and therefore, even though it says written by Chad, Joanna, and Emmie down below, this post is solely the work of Joanna. =o)

Have you ever noticed how vain women are about their weight? I know I am. If you ever want to know exactly how vain you are about your weight, you should get pregnant (as long as other circumstances (i.e. you're married) are conducive to pregnancy). I promised Chad I wouldn't complain or cry about my weight during my pregnancy until I reached a certain point and then I was allow to be upset about it even though to him I still looked beautiful and he didn't care how much I weighed. Well, God in His wisdom and with His wonderful sense of humor kept my weight below that point my entire pregnancy. Although the last two months I was hovering a pound or two directly below my limit but never surpassed even with the help of my Taco Bell/Ice Cream/Fried Food cravings (no, those cravings were not all at the same time, and just for the record, I never sent Chad to the store at 2 am for pickles and ice cream).
Now that I've had the baby, I find myself amazed at the joy that comes from losing weight even if the number staring up at me from the scale is nowhere near my before baby weight. I mean its like "Yes! I'm only 350 lbs today!" (Exorbitant number used to prove my vain point. You know if I had put my real weight in there you would have either wished you weighed that much or you would have thought whew, I'm glad I don't weigh that much) It would seem that if we can be happy about weighing 350 lbs, we could be happy about weighing our normal weight. But alas, we are vain creatures.

Sleep is a wonderful thing

Well, Emmie is on her way to making it through the night without alot of crying. She did really well last night and both Chad and I were offering prayers of thanksgiving this morning. =o)

Everyone can say a big thank you to Chad who spent the time yesterday figuring out how to use Adobe to shrink the picture files small enough so that we can post them. He wanted everyone to be able to see his little girl. Now that we've got that process figured out I'm going to try and get a few more pictures posted before Emmie wakes up again this morning.

Snug as a bug on a rug

Here is our little bundle of joy :-)

Just for the Record

I have been trying to post pictures on here for people to see but the pictures are large and we only have dial-up. Thus causing the computer to freeze and/or time out when I'm trying to download them. =o)

On another note, people like to give you free samples and coupons when you have a baby. To date we have been given: 2 large diaper bags, 3 containers of formula, 10 newborn diapers, 2 pasifiers, 2 bottles (good playtex ones), and countless other lotion, cream, shampoo, etc. samples. Not to mention all the coupons for free pictures at different photo studios. I don't think I'm going to have to pay for formal pictures for Emmie for at least two years.

Right now Emmie is asleep on the guest bed in our office so I can keep an eye on her while I'm on here. She's a strong little girl. She likes being on her stomach and from birth was very capable of lifting her head and turning it from side to side. She also can pull her legs up so that her little bottom is sticking up in the air while she is sleeping. Too cute. =o) We're still working with her to get her days and nights figured out. Please pray that we all get enough rest until that happens. In the meantime, I'm going to try and post another picture. =o)

Beautiful Arrival

Emmaline "Emmie" Rose arrived at 6:48am on Tuesday, August 8th. She was 7 lbs 14.5 oz and 20 inches long (but according to daddy she didn't streach out all the way so that could be short by half an inch =o)) She has some dark hair and dark blue gray eyes (which will probably stay that way since both Chad and I have blue eyes.)

We went into the hospital around 8:30am on the 7th so that I could be induced. Things progressed very slowly throughout the day but I was comfortable so it was more or less a dull day but tiring none the less. Around 9:30pm the doctor decided to get things moving a little bit and took the necessary steps at which point I decided I was too tired from the day to really deal with the pain so I took the necessary step and got an epidural around 11:30pm. After that I was really only in active labor for 4 hours but thanks to the epidural I was able to sleep through pretty much all of it. Which ended up being a good thing because it took close to 3 hours of pushing before Emmie decided it was time to come.

Chad and I are very thankful for all your prayers and support during this time. There were a couple of times when Emmie's heartrate dropped during my labor (I had to go on oxygen and they had to quickly adjust medication levels) and towards the end both Chad and I were quickly becoming physically exhausted (him from being awake for 24 hours and me from pushing). However, we both felt the peace and strength of God during those times and knew we were being lifted up before our Father.

We are now all home and doing well. Please continue to pray for us during this time of adjustment for us and for Emmie. I'll be posting pictures just as soon as I can. =o)

Update

Well, we're still waiting but if she decides not to come this weekend, we are scheduled to induce on Monday morning. Keep praying. =o)

Officially Late

Well, baby decided not to make a showing yesterday and so far today is not looking too promising either. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see, after all it is only 11 am.
In the meantime I might try and mess around with the template on this blog a little bit. Chad voted for Orioles colors (diehard fan that he is), so I might see if I can do something about that. I prefer the pink though. =o) Anything to stay inside out of the heat. Chad's been working outside and inside unfinished houses all week. With the heat index it was 115 degrees yesterday. Needless to say, our gatorade supply is quickly being depleted. Thank goodness for nalgene bottles and powder mix from costco.

Still Waiting

Well, today is our baby's due date. She still has 11 hours and 31 minutes to arrive on time. I've been having braxton-hicks contractions (aka the kind that don't hurt) consistantly for the past week so it's making it a little bit harder to be patient and wait for the real ones to start. In the meantime I figured it was about time I started a blog so we had somewhere to post the pictures after she arrives. We'll keep everyone updated as the week goes by. Please keep us in your prayers.