Thanksgiving & Baptism

We had a great holiday!  Patti’s Mom & Dad came out from California for Thanksgiving and, of course, shopping.  It seems as though we always make time for shopping!  Anyway, Thanksgiving day was so beautiful, we found time to play some cornhole at Brian’s parent’s house.

And we were able to get some pictures with most of the cousins…Camden was sleeping. 

And we had to get one picture of her in her Gobble bib!

And I just had to share my FAVORITE sleeper with everyone on here, since she is almost too tall for it :(

Our Turkey day weekend was rounded out by Nyla’s baptism.  Mike was able to make it out for the service!  We missed Denise & Jennie!!!  But we tried to get some family pictures but, anyone with kids, knows how hard THAT can be!  Ethan does like to pose for some pictures by himself though.

Anyhow, Ethan is growing up too!  He just fell off of Dad’s lap and said “opsy daisy.”  Immediately followed by, “try it again!”   He also helped dad decorate the Christmas tree yesterday!  Don’t have pictures of that yet, though. 

Well, we are truly thankful for all the blessings in our lives and look forward to a blessed Holiday season!

Thanks for reading my recap in pictures!!

Halloween…

We have been having beautiful weather after those 2 feet of snow that fell.  But Ethan really enjoyed playing in the “no” (snow for those that don’t speak Ethan). 

And just to show you, this was our backyard last Thursday (10/29) at around noon. 

Anyway, for Halloween we went to the church’s children’s party and had the 2 youngest there.  Unfortunately, Ethan wouldn’t let go of my hand and Dad was holding Nyla so I didn’t get too many pictures.  I did get this one of Ethan with his Bat hat that he made:

And I have so many other pictures I want to share, but you can go to the picassa site and check those out right here.

Anyway, here is a picture of the kids in their costumes:

Ethan loves to hold his sister, and for those who didn’t think I would put her in pink, here you go:

So, compare last Thursday, to yesterday.  We were at the park with some friends:

We have been keeping busy and trying to take pictures.  So check out our pictures at the link above.

Thanks for reading!

From Leaves to Blizzard

So, I know I promised to try to post more using Blog and I haven’t done so well.  But today is a perfect day to give you all updates.

We enjoyed having my (Patti's) parents here through October 15th or so when they headed back to California.  They were here for her first bath:

To watch Baseball games with Grandma Betty & Papa Bob (while mom & dad went out for dinner!):

Bake Cookies:

And of course, play with Aunt Theresa as well!

Ethan is being a great older brother and helping us with changing Nyla’s diapers and making sure she is happy.  Also, he wants to make sure she doesn’t have 2nd child syndrome and at least once a day says “picture, picture.”  Sometimes at inopportune moments (i.e.. while I am feeding Nyla). 

The other day is was beautiful outside, so we decided it was time to play in the leaves.  Ethan had fun, but we aren’t sure if Dad and Belikan had more fin or not!

Mom did get in on the fun a little bit

Nyla even came out to enjoy it!

Dad & Ethan carved pumpkins yesterday.  Ethan didn’t have as much fun as we hoped, but it was still a good time!

And of course, today proves the true Colorado!

So, we are sitting inside enjoying the fireplace and will likely head back out again after Ethan’s nap.

Welcome Nyla!

After much waiting, Nyla decided to join this world on Sunday October 4th at 12:48 in the morning. She weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Everyone is doing great!
Due to the swine flu concerns, no body under age 18 is allowed on the newborn floor. So, unfortunately Ethan did not get to meet her until we came home last night.

But here is our first family picture since Nyla joined us. Ethan has been doing great and being incredibly helpful with Baby Nyla. Grandma Betty has been here helping out with Ethan since Nyla was born. Also, Grandma and Papa from Colorado (Brian's parents) and Aunt Theresa have been helping as well! We greatly appreciate all the help we have!

We will be posting more pictures on our picassa site shortly and will update here.

Now, if you want to read the full story, please continue. (warning...there may be some details not for those with a faint stomach)

On Friday morning I went to the doctor and there was no progress at all. I was sure we were in for the long haul! She was due on October 1 and I was sure she was going to stay inside as long as possible!
So, on Saturday morning, we decided to go and get some walking in. We started at the Farmer's Market in Highlands Ranch (same place we went the day before Ethan was born) and walked there. Then did some general shopping at Kohl's but we still wanted to walk some more and entertain Ethan. We decided the Wildlife Experience would be perfect!!

We went to their new Globology exhibit. Ethan was not thrilled with the animatronics, especially not the howling monkey at the beginning. At this time, I has still felt NO contractions and was getting frustrated. So, we came home for lunch and for Ethan's nap.

After Ethan was down (about 4ish), I decided to head to Sprouts to pick up some Red Rasberry Leaf Tea (it is supposed to help with inducing labor). I was chatting with my Mom on the phone and told her "Don't worry, nothing is happening anytime soon." Famous last words! As I was just walking around the store I felt a sudden splash of something. I thought to myself...this can't be it! I haven't had any contractions!! But then it came again. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough, my water had broken and came gushing out!

Not fully knowing what to do next, I grabbed the reuseable bag I brought in, abandoned my cart and called Brian. I told him I was headed to the hospital because my water broke. Of course, at that moment, he had the front wheel completely off the Suburban and was about to take the brake off. So as he is frantically trying to put the truck back together I called my ob and she calmed me down. So, I ended up driving home to grab Brian and my hospital suitcase (and some clean pants!). Our neighbor Bob stayed at the house (Ethan was napping) until Brian's dad made it here.

We headed to the hospital and got checked in as Brian's mom arrived and my mom was busy in California trying to arrange for a flight in as soon as possible. At this time, I still hadn't felt ANY contractions. However, once they hooked me up to the machines, it was clear they were coming, I just wasn't feeling them and was dilated to about 3cm. So they checked me into the hospital and hooked me up to the full gammut of machines.
At this time, I was the only one in labor in the hospital and my sister arrived at the hospital as well. Mom got on a plane flight to arrive in Denver at 11ish. Even though we were distracted by the baseball game, I got the heavenly epidural around 10 or so but was still not progressing so they gave me some pitocin.

Mom arrived at the hospital just as she was crowning. So, to welcome Nyla into the world was Mom, Dad, Grandma Daleen, Grandma Betty and Aunt Theresa. Once Nyla crowned it didn't take long for her to come all the way out screaming! It was beautiful and she was as healthy as can be!

Thanks for making it this far! We are all doing great!

You look like a Monkey

Yesterday some friends and us decided that after a long week of clouds, it was the perfect day to go to the Zoo! So we all met at the Denver Zoo! We had a great time and the weather was wonderful!!
The best way to get Ethan to smile for photos is to say "Cheers", which is why his hand is always up like this.
The kids enjoyed the fishes, the giraffes, elephants and all the birds.

BUT, I think the Monkey's were the favorite of the day (at least for Ethan). He kept asking for "more monkeys." Unfortunately,


Monkeys are not easy to get pictures of!













All in all we had a great time!!

Baby Nyla's Room

Okay, so if you got here, THANKS! That means you got my email or checked out our webpage. I am hoping that with the way this Blog system works, I will be more apt to provide updates on Ethan and Nyla (upon her arrival of course).

In the meantime, I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of Nyla's Room. I want to thank my Sister, Mom, Dad, and Husband for ALL the awesome work they did to get it transformed in just 1 week.
Okay, so it was all decorating/painting etc, but I really appreciate all the hard work they put into it.

Welcome!

Welcome to Patti & Brian's new Blogspot! We hope to keep this one up to date more easily. As I am online with work all day, I am hoping this is quicker and easier than what we had tried before. So many friends and family seem to be using this, I figured I would give it a try.

Let's start with a picture of Ethan & Dad!

Stay tuned for more to come!