Happy Halloween

This marks Trinity's 3rd Halloween and her 3rd time Trick-or-Treating. When we asked her if she remembered what T&T was, she quickly replied, "get LOTS of candy!" That is exactly what she did. We went to the burbs to visit my parents and Eddie's parents. She was running as fast as she could house to house. I could not even get a picture in focus since she was moving so fast.

She would say Trick-or-Treat and then once she got the candy in her basket she would just stand there waiting for them to put more in. Most were overwhelmed by her cuteness that she would get 3 to 4 pieces at every house. I know that is a lot of candy for a 2 year old but we plan on eating some. We have used it as leverage to get her off her pacifier as well. We are on hour 24 and doing okay.
Check out some pictures of our super kids, Wonder Woman and Superman.

Linda Carter watch out!

Speed Trick-or-Treating

Playdate

"Hey Elynor, You grab the diaper bags, I'll grab the stroller. Meet me outside!"

Elynor came over for a visit and showed off her newly discovered smile. Trinity and Elynor cuddled while Everett focused on his next meal. Me and Sarah got some good girly mom time in. Definitely a must-do-more-often!

The Burglar and Jesus

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables; and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, 'Jesus is watching you.' He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, promised himself a vacation after the next big score, then clicked the light on and began searching for more valuables.Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, Clear as a bell he heard, 'Jesus is watching you.' Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.'Yep,' the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you.'The burglar relaxed 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?''Moses,' replied the bird'Moses?' the burglar laughed . 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?''The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

Packing on the Pounds...

Everett had his 4 week appointment today. He has felt like he has gained some weight to me so I figured he would be about 10lbs. which would be a lot considering just 2 weeks ago he weighed in at 9lb. 2oz. I was shocked when the scale said 11lb. 1oz. That puts him in the 90th percentile for weight. Apparently, he is eating well. He also grew another inch and a half and is now 22in. in length (80th percentile).He is catching up to his friend Elynor. Stay tuned for pictures from her recent visit...

Pumpkin Patch

We braved the chilly temperatures and got the kids bungled up to go to the pumpkin patch. Everett slept the entire time while Trinity went in the fun house, fed carrots to kangaroos, horses, sheep and camels. In addition, she went on her first pony ride. She has never sat on a pony or even a saddle. However, the second Eddie placed her on the pony she said. "Give me the rope!" She is hilarious!

Baby Dedication

We dedicated Everett to the Lord today. It was a ceremony that allowed us to share with our church our spiritual hopes and prayers for our baby boy. Our church and body gifted us with many blessings upon him. The verse we choose to represent Everett was:

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4

We choose this verse for several reasons. We can only imagine the joy that God experiences in seeing His creation following Him and knowing His truth. We are honored and humbled to be able to share in furthering God's kingdom and bring glory to Him. As parents, there is nothing we hope for more than having our children walking beside the Lord and walking in His truth. We pray we can share in the joy that God experiences through the faith of Trinity and Everett.

Eddie's sister Jessica and brother-in-law Jason are Everett prayer partners and godparents. They have committed to pray for Everett every day and be a big influence in his spiritual walk.

They are also obligated to hug, kiss and cuddle him often.



We had the honor of being prayer partners with our dear friends Ryan and Sarah. Elynor is just 2 weeks older than Everett. It has been a great blessing sharing in the ups and downs of pregnancy with them. We look forward to many years together on this journey of parenthood.

No Sibling Rivalry..yet!

Trinity has been a complete dream when it comes to being a big sister. Thus far, she has not shown any jealous tendencies or the need for any special attention. She is totally fascinated with Everett and is even willing to share her toys with him. It has definitely helped in our transition to taking care of 2 small children.

Snowboarding?

We love this hat on Trinity. It looks like she is ready to hit the slopes.

It's A Boy...Finally

After 13 years of female dominance in my family, and 10 years in Eddie's, a baby boy is finally born. I thought it was a boy, as did most of our family members as well as the 7-11 clerk on Armitage/Sheffield and the homeless guy who holds the door for customers at Blockbuster on Milwaukee.

Everett Asher weighed in at 8lb., 3 oz. and 19-3/4 inches long. He was born on September 26th at 3:42PM. Of course, nothing is without excitement in this family. After weeks of an accelerated heart rate, there was the threat of a c-section. After hours of worrying and 3 non-working epidurals, he cruised into this world with little effort.

We are so excited to finally meet the little man.

Everett's Birth Story:

I was scheduled to be induced with Everett on September 26th. It was an elective induction. I was physically at the end of my rope and having a birthday for him in sight seemed like a great idea. I was supposed to be at the hospital at 7AM for the induction. Around 6PM the night before, during dinner, I started to feel contractions. They gradually became worse and by 11PM I was ready to head to the hospital. Thankfully my mom was staying the night with us in preparation to watch Trinity in the morning while we were having the baby.
When we arrived at the hospital I was dilated 3cm. They got me comfortable with an epidural and let me labor while trying to get some sleep. Although my contractions were not consistent, they wanted to let me labor naturally, without Pitocin, at least until the sun came up.
Around 3AM, Everett’s heart rate started to climb over 200 which had happened often during the last weeks of pregnancy. The doctor started to get concerned and thought that getting the Pitocin started was a good idea in order to get the labor progressing and get him out sooner. Over the next several hours, there was a delicate balance of pitocin amounts and heart rate issues. Any time they turned up the pitocin, his heart rate would climb. They would shut off the medication and start over. The threat of a c-section started to climb as did my anxiety. Finally, at some point in the morning, after the sun rose (and we have had no sleep) the medication and his heart rate were both steady and stable.
Shortly thereafter, the contractions started to become a little more painful than they should have with an epidural. One side of my body was less numb than the other. We called the anesthesiologist to figure out what was going on. They assessed the situation and thought it would be a good idea to pull the epidural out a bit to help the medication flow to all areas. At first it worked and then after a couple hours, and me moving from side to side, the contractions started to get worse. At 1PM, the anesthesiologist came back to check my epidural shortly after my doctor checked my cervix and found I was close to 8cm dilated. The anesthesiologist found the epidural had completely fallen out of my back and I was therefore no longer receiving any pain medication during the worst part of labor. The pain intensified quickly and my teeth started to chatter from the intense pain- - especially since moments before I was still at least somewhat comfortable.
Between 1:20 and 3:20PM, the anesthesiologist replaced my epidural 3 times. It was finally a success as they discovered that a slight curvature of my spine was causing a problem to the flow of medication. After I was comfortable for 2 minutes, by doctor checked me and found I was fully dilated and ready to push. I had the option of resting a bit since the pain, epidural fiasco and physical exhaustion would all play a factor in my ability to push effectively. I decided to push and see what happened hoping to get it over with soon.
Everett was born at 3:42PM after about 20 minutes of pretty easy pushing. I was so grateful he entered the world healthy and mostly happy.
We discovered with the first 24 hours of his birth that he does not like to sleep on his back. He is 19 months as I write this and has yet to sleep on anything other than his tummy.
He was a very easy baby and still is a good, well-mannered child but things become more difficult with age. He is a lot of fun and such a sweet, sweet boy.

Flowergirl Princess

Trinity had the honor to be the flowergirl in my cousin Marcus' marriage to the beautiful Jonna. After a meltdown in the wedding of her Auntie Jessica last summer, we were pessimistic about her making it down the aisle here. However, she did fantastic and smiled to whole way down. It helped that Peyton, the other flowergirl was such a doll and Trinity's best friend for the day.

Beauty