The last week....

before we become a family of four.


The last week of Elias being our only boy.

The last week before we sleep all night (although not very comfortably now).

The last week with only one carseat in the car.

The last week before we call Elias...BIG BROTHER.


On Thursday morning, Christopher and I go to the hospital for the scheduled Cesearean birth of our son, Ethan. We are so excited and looking forward to a birth experience with much less trauma than Elias, who was born by emergency cesearean, while I as intubated and under general anesthesia. It was important to me and to us as a family to start things differently this time and have been talking a lot over the last few months on how to do that. My wonderful team of doctors had given me total control over the choice and I have struggled to decide what is best for me and what would be best for Ethan. And in the end, what would be best for us all. I have gone back and forth and thought about trying various things, but it came down to several key conversations with some dear friends (one of whom is soon-to-be nurse midwife) who talked with me about how much your confidence as a mother stems from your birth experience. This really hit home with me, as I recall not only feeling like a failure after Elias' emergent birth, but like I had no idea what I was doing and struggled with breastfeeding as well. A lot of moms do, but I had no faith in my ability to be his mom and that I was the best mom for him.
So, for Ethan, I decided to take back some of the control and start things out in peace instead of fear. Christopher has supported me all the way and would have been ready for anything I decided. But the closer we get to this Thursday, February 18, the more confident I feel like we made the right decision and I am free to be excited to meet my new son. He will be 39 weeks old and ready to meet his Daddy and big brother. Mommy, he knows quite well, with her constant bouncing him around and leaving him no choice but to bounce on her bladder, kick her in the ribs and take her breath away!
We spent our last weekend as a family of three enjoying the snowfall on Saturday and cleaning and organizing the rest of the weekend. Hope Ethan doesn't mind a few boxes lying around. We at least got his room clean!

We can't wait...the countdown is on to Ethan's birthday, 2/18/10.

one...two...three...FOUR!

FOUR beautiful birthdays with our beautiful boy!



2/6/06




2/6/07



2/6/08



2/6/09



We look forward to what year-number-FOUR holds for our firstborn. How BLESSED we are!

first post from the NEW HOUSE

Okay, here is the first post from our new house! We moved in on January 23 and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped us get here...

the other Ammon family, who finished our painting
Nana, who lit a fire under my prego, tired you-know-what and packed up Elias' room and the kitchen
Grandma, who kept Elias an innumerable amount of times since we bought this house so we could work on it AND kept Elias on moving day (and loaned us some containers for packing)
Grandpa and Granny K, who spent all moving weekend with us, doing whatever we needed!
Katie and Tim, who drove up here kid-less and moved us in
our local friends, Steve and Ralph, who showed up to help LIFT and LOAD!

We were and ARE so blessed!

It's been great to be here, though admittedly overwhelming with all that needs to be done as far as organization and unpacking. And stairs! I have never lived in a two story house before and I am not sure I will enjoy it anytime soon while I am pregnant. I do a lot of making piles at the bottom or top and take things up and down in clusters.

Click HERE to see an album of our house, if you are interested to see where it's been. I started this post and realized I have NO super-up-to-date pics of the house with grass in the front yard, color on the walls or furniture in the rooms! I will work on that this week! Maybe I'll even be ambitious enough to post a video tour.

This week Christopher spends his last days as a park ranger and Elias spends his last week as a 3 year old (birthday 2/6). So far, no sign of Ethan's arrival (unless increasing discomfort and irritability are any indicator). We have a 37-week appointment tomorrow, as long as my OB office opens in spite of the winter blizzard we have experienced here this weekend.
We got over 6 inches of snow and have enjoyed playing and spending some outdoor time with our new neighbors!
Here are a few pictures of our snow fun...


Elias gets a taste of winter...



getting some use out of one of our Christmas presents from Grandma



Sledding is a spectator sport (if you are 9 months pregnant)



Playing in one of the lots of an unsold house (hence the porta-john).



Not much of a snowman...but Elias and our neighbor, Garrin, do their worst!