Aubrey and her best friend

Aubrey loves Elmo. She usually watches Sesame Street while I get dinner ready and she gets so excited when she hears that "la la la la" for Elmo's World. I'm so sad they stopped making it!

Sisters

I put Beth down in this chair almost every morning and Aubrey usually climbs right up beside her to check her out while I make a bottle. It is the sweetest.

Happy Halloween

From Beth

and Aubrey

What Aubrey Has Been Up To

Aubrey hasn't just been learning how to be a great big sister. 

She has been discovering all kinds of things. Like...

Playing with cardboard boxes.

 Wearing a vintage dress that belonged to Mommy.

 Playing Horsey with Grandma.

Putting on her own glasses.

Playing with friends.

Coloring.

 Playing with pipe cleaners - which is surprisingly engaging.

Sitting on Daddy's shoulders.

Cooking.

Helping with dishes.

Sister Videos

This is the first meeting of the sisters. 

I think it went pretty well! That was in the hospital. 

This is one of the first time I let Aubrey hold Beth.

I think the novelty wore off a little...

Aubrey actually really like Beth. She greets her every time one of them gets up and is working on helping her with her soother. She love to check out her hands and feet and is really good at being gentle with her. 

Introducing Bethany

Bethany Katherine Harrison was born at 8:20 PM on August 30th. She was 5lbs 12oz and 19 inches long.

Apparently she wasn't aware of the schedule! We had a c-section all set for Sept. 13, so we thought we had 2 weeks. But the morning of her birth my water broke. It was so little that I wasn't really sure. After all, this was my first time doing this part! So I called my doctor and they wanted me to go in to the hospital. More and more fluid was coming out so I was becoming pretty sure we were going to have a baby that day. I called John and couldn't get a hold of him. So I called someone to watch Aubrey. And I called my mom. I packed a bag for Aubs and for me. Oh, and I ate the fateful bowl of cereal. I was still waiting for John to call me back and getting kind of stressed. I didn't think it was a good idea for me to drive myself, so I really needed John. Finally I decided to go drop Aubrey off. I knew John would eat lunch soon, so I figured I would hear from him by the time I got back, but I did not leave him a message telling him where I was going. When I got back I saw that John had called but he didn't leave a message. I was silly and thought that he had just gone back to work. So I kept waiting to get a hold of him. Finally I decided I couldn't wait any longer to go to the hospital so I had my neighbor drive me after leaving a tearful message for John to please hurry to the hospital.

My lovely neighbor drove me and dropped me off. I walked up to Labor and Delivery and there was my John. He went straight to the hospital when I didn't answer. He figured I had already left. He had been waiting there for almost an hour. So, we learned a very valuable lesson: Always leave a message!

So there we were. They checked me and said that it was my water breaking. I wasn't having contractions or dilating. So we were getting ready for the c-section when they asked me when I last ate. I told them about the bowl of cereal and they said we had to wait 8 hours. My doctor had said 5 hours after eating so we were confused. After clearing that up (we did have to wait until it was 8 hours. Bummer.) it turned out my doctor had a plane to catch and was passing the surgery off to the on-duty doctor.

So we were supposed to have the delivery at 7. At about 6 I started asking them to get me ready. I was starting to have some pretty painful contractions and they wouldn't let me go to the bathroom, so I was anxious to get started. They were taking a long time and I was getting really uncomfortable. Finally they took me back for the anesthesia. I have to say that going back into an OR and getting that spinal took me back to a pretty bad place. I kept thinking about last time and how hard that delivery was. It seemed like everything was taking forever. Finally they got me all numb and John got to come in. I felt much better after that. Then we heard a sweet little baby cry. And she kept crying. And she sounded strong and healthy. After a minute or two John got to hold her and bring her right over to me. I kissed her and said hello. After a few minutes John carried her to the nursery and they closed me back up.

John met me in recovery and we stayed there until I could move my legs. Then we went to our room and they brought Bethany in. I started trying to nurse her right away. John left to get Aubrey from our friends. It was a long day and a long night, trying to help Bethany learn to nurse. But we all made it through pretty well.

Bethany was born at 36 weeks and 6 days, which is technically one day premature. So she is pretty small and she is definitely struggling with nursing. But she's getting better and stronger each time.

John brought Aubrey to meet her little sister on Saturday morning. She was very sweet with her. Then we got to come home that afternoon, a little sooner than we thought. So that was nice.

All ready to go home.

Safe at home. 

The Long Awaited House Post

So, we bought a house and moved into it.

This was right after we closed on the house. It's a little bland in the front, but we have some time to work on that. We recently discovered that the bushes in the front have purple flowers from time to time, which is lovely.

The house was a mess when we took possession. Luckily, we were already planning to paint, so we had a few weeks before we had to move all our things. Here are some before shots.

The living room starting to be prepped for painting. You'll see a very beige theme in the  next few pictures.

The Kitchen. The cabinets are in great shape. The stove and dishwasher came with and are old, but work  pretty well.

The dining area. Here you can see the beige vinyl. It has since been covered with laminate.

The Pantry. This was a big selling point for us, since TX apparently doesn't believe in basements. This room is definitely not ready for its after picture, but I will proudly post it when it is. I just wanted to show how great the storage is!

So as we were cleaning and painting we discovered that, in addition to a bunch of household items, the previous owners had left us some fleas in the carpet. The carpet was in pretty rough shape anyway, especially on the lower floor. We were going to clean it and save our pennies to replace it. But the fleas moved up our timetable, as did a contribution to the cause from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!). Here are some close up shots of the carpet.

They don't really do justice to how yucky it was. But this definitely does justice to my flea-bitten legs.

Here are pictures from when the carpet got ripped out.

I'm sure it was a long day for them, but the floors look great. it made such a huge difference in the house. You can also see a little preview of the new wall color in these pictures. 

So we packed up all our stuff, with help from our new ward.

And these are the after pictures.

The room still needs some color. In our last house we had color on the walls, so all of our stuff is pretty neutral. All the blinds in the house were busted, so we took them down and put up leftover curtains to cover. But they are navy blue so they add to the greyness of the room. We have some plans for brighter curtains and warmer accessories, but its current state is a lot better than the beige theme that was going on before. And aren't the floors amazing?

I have a lot more projects in mind. And as time and money permit, we'll do them. And those pictures will follow. But for now we are really enjoying spreading out in this place and taking a lot of pride in putting work into it.