Elle's Newborn Photos

 

My sweet Michael took these photos last week.  He did a great job of capturing our Elle Louise and her tender personality. Birth story and Cannon's 2-year letter to come!  

And if you were looking to compare and contrast our two newborn munchkins, HERE are Cannon's newborn photos.

And as a test... Can you identify which is which??  I'm hoping it will become more apparent in their teenage years.

Baby A:

 

Baby B:

m+b+c+??=love

On April 10th, 2014, we added a new member to the family!!! She is beautiful, sweet and just the most perfect little blessing a parent could ask for. She didn't come easily. After staying in her mommies tummy for an extra week she finally decided she wanted to come out. Cannon didn't come out naturally resulting in a c-section. Brit wanted to do her best for a natural birth with this one regardless of her previous surgery. We did everything we could for a successful VBAC. However this little one wanted to be just like her brother, and despite over 2 hours of intense pushing she didn't want to budge. Brit was seriously amazing. I couldn't be more proud of her. Words could never express the love I have for my wife. She is my hero. She went with no drugs all the way to an 8 1/2 which took several hours of very intense labor. Then once she reached a 10, she had 2+ hours of the most intense pushing I've ever seen (seriously, she could have popped out 10 babies with how hard and long she worked). Thank you Brit for being so incredible.

The end result was the most precious little girl you have ever seen. I can't wait to hear what Brit writes cause it will certainly be better than what I can muster... We don't have a name yet but that will be coming very soon. In the meantime, here are some pics...

Isn't she just the cutest!

Here is mom, after 12 hours of labor

And after 2+ hours of pushing we finally decided it was time for a c-section

Look at my lovely wife, she is so amazing!

This is our little girl taking her first breath!

She is perfect and healthy!

Mom's first kiss!

Dad's first kiss (don't worry, I went home and shaved, she doesn't like daddy's whiskers)

Some quiet daddy time

8lbs 11ozs, 22 inches long. 

2ozs lighter and .5 inches longer than her brother

Look at that beautiful dark hair!

Isn't she just precious!

Mommy time

ohh those rolls!

Cannon got to meet his little sister today. He has been a perfect brother so far. He just loves her already. He's so nice to her. His "Th-Ith-Ster"

He was more than happy to help giver her her "bobber"

"Geemaw" (as Cannon calls her) has been such a support for Brit. So glad she could be here for her and to help with Cannon. Grandparents are the best!!

To maximize our chances of a vaginal birth, we hired a doula to help us. Though we weren't successful in a natural birth, Angel was the best thing we could have done. Her moral support and her efforts to help the baby come really gave Brit and I the confidence that we had done everything we could. In the end, this little one never rotated her head properly, so she could not get through Brit's hip bones (which is exactly what had happened with Cannon). During this c-section, doctor's had to spend extra time reconstructing Brit's uterus because she had been pushing so hard it had stretched and lacerated. I'm so grateful for all the support we had and for modern science to allow for both of our babies (and my wife) to be happy and healthy.

Our very first family photo.

Brit will be in the hospital with our little girl for the next few days recovering. She seems to be doing well. Please keep her in your prayers. Thank you all for your wonderful support.

The New Place: Laundry Chute and Closet Organizer

So it's been a while since this blog has seen the light of day...  Until now I have used my husband's (now raw) ears to soak it all up instead of taking to the computer, but the time has come.

We bought a new house last month!!  Here she is:

When we moved to Connecticut we said that it was very temporary.  Three-five years MAX.  I'm not sure exactly what this purchase means but that's the mystery!  Basically, we love New England and are hoping that all of our family and friends move here instead of moving back.

This photo was taken in the spring and has since been camouflaged in massive amounts of snow.  And before you ask, yes.  We do have a little bit of left over smurf-blue paint if you are interested.  I just need to save enough in case I have one of those spur of the moment WHY-DIDN'T-THEY PAINT-THE TRIM-THIS-COLOR-TOO!?! moments.  Everything else is the same.  It doesn't show that we have several well-established trees and an acre of property, most of it in the front yard and side lot.  The side lot is actually considered 'swamp land' by the city so we can't do any residential building on it... but they didn't say anything about a chicken coop!!  If you're lucky I'll post photos of our feathery friends after we purchase them this spring.  The husband wants a goat too but I think I'll just buy him a lawn mower and an app for his phone that bleets for hours instead.

And on to the real reason I started this post.  We have done two big projects since we moved in: a laundry chute and a closet organizer.

The Laundry Chute:
Our (only) bathroom is conveniently located directly over the laundry room but in order to direct clothes to drop from the location of the hole in the upper floor to the basket (instead of the middle of the room), Michael built a slide.  Here is the progression:

marking out the 12x12 hole

initial framing

figuring out the angle of the slide.  lots of trajectory testing.

securing the slide

what it looks like from the bathroom

the view into the chute from the laundry room

tested and tried

oh the potential...

It works like a charm and allows me to do a little bit of sorting every time I find myself in that room, rather than a complete overhaul on laundry day.  Beautiful!  Not to mention the convenience of never having to go up and down the stairs with baskets of dirty laundry!  I have yet to convince Michael to build me a levy to get the clean clothes back up the stairs.


And then for my birthday I requested a custom closet organizer.  When you see what we were working with, you will understand how and why this was such a priority:

closet during the initial home inspection (that is not my stuff)

after ripping out the existing shelf that was barely hanging on

this is supposed to be some sort of 'I'm tough enough to hold a saw' face... yikes! next time I'll smile.

it is exactly like sewing... just a lot louder... and with a lot more blood-spilling potential

after I painted.  it's not all dry in this pic.  the color was really even after it dried.  this is going to be the color we use on the entire room.  Gray squirrel by Martha Stewart.

and it's in!

fully loaded!  everything fits PERFECTLY!!!

I am LOOOOVING the extra space and organization it provides.  Overall, Micheal's getting ready time has cut in half with the efficiency of it all.  Mine has doubled since I can see all of my options.  The entire project took us about 15 hours.  4-5 hours of one-man painting (including prep) and 6ish hours of two-man construction.  It was worth every minute and every penny.  It should be noted that a good friend watched Cannon for most of the construction (which was SO FUN!) and that helped with our productivity.

And just so you can see them next to each other:

 BEFORE and AFTER