Baby Abigail is here!

Here I am on July 18th -- 38 weeks pregnant:


During the middle of the night, Jim and I went to the hospital after several hours of contractions. After a wonderful epidural and 4 minutes of pushing, Abigail Louise was born!



Abigail was 18.5" long and weighed in at 7 pounds and 12.3 ounces. She has a head of dark, stick-up hair, except in the front, where it looks like she has already started to lose some of her hair. We were very lucky that she was so healthy and that the delivery was so easy. She actually had a double cord, wrapped once around her neck and another time around her shoulders. Luckily, she never went into distress, so we had no idea it was wrapped around her until she was born.

Such a sweet face :o)


Mommy and Daddy with Abby

My parents brought Logan to visit. He was sporting his "Big Brother" t-shirt, and Abby had her "Little Sister" t-shirt. He was more interested in watching TV than seeing his baby sister!

Ready to go home from the hospital in her beautiful dress :o)

She was born on July 19th and we were able to go home on July 21st. We are so glad to be home!

Mr. Bookworm

Logan is a champion sleeper. He loves his blankie (seen here behind his head) and won't sleep without it. To be honest, I don't know what time Logan wakes up in the morning. He gets up silently and plays in his crib. I've watched him on our video monitor several times. First, he plays around with his blankie, sea horse, and prayer boy doll.

Then, Logan reaches out and grabs books off of his bookshelf. He reads them to himself for quite a long time. He never fusses in his crib in the morning. I usually come and get him after half an hour or so, but there have been some days I've gotten busy and have left him in there to read for an hour! He just loves his books!

4th of July

At 9 months pregnant, the 4th of July is an exhausting holiday! It's no fun to be so big when it's so hot out. My internal furnace makes me so warm to begin with, and add to it 90-degree weather, and it's a lethal combination.

Regardless, we had a great time with Logan! On the 3rd, we stopped by the festivities and met my parents to hang out. Jim decided to take Logan on his first ride. Jim and I were trying to figure out which ride would be best for him. Mommy thought the swings would be good. Daddy was feeling brave and wanted to go on the little dragon roller coaster. Since Daddy was the one going on the ride with Logan, the roller coaster won!

Logan whimpered a little on the second time around, but for the rest of the ride, was just wide-eyed and confused. Guess he's not a roller coaster type of kid!

On the 4th, we went to the parade, where Logan collected a whole bunch of Tootsie Rolls. He had to hold them ALL in his hands during the parade. Logan loved dancing around with his little flags!

After the parade, we stopped by a baptism party to see my best friend, Amanda, who was in town visiting from Florida. Logan got to spend some time with his Godmother and her newest Godson, Benjamin.

During the fireworks, Logan was only afraid for the first few seconds. He had his daddy there to protect him :o)

Just Another Day in Paradise

The title of this blog is "Just Another Day in Paradise." You may recognize this from one of Phil Vassar's songs. I think it describes our lives perfectly! Everything may not go right, but every night, I think about how lucky I am to live in "Paradise." It really is "two hearts, one dream" and I wouldn't trade it for anything. :o)

The kids screaming, phone ringing
Dog barking at the mailman bringing
That stack of bills - overdue
Good morning baby, how are you?
Got a half hour, quick shower
Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour
My funny face makes you laugh
Twist the top on and I put it back
There goes the washing machine
Baby, don't kick it.
I promise I'll fix it
Long about a million other things

Well, it's ok. It's so nice
It's just another day in paradise
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise

Friday, you're late
Guess we'll never make our dinner date
At the restaurant. You start to cry
Baby, we'll just improvise
Well, plan B looks like
Domino's pizza in the candlelight
Then we'll tippy toe to our room
Make a little love that's overdue
But somebody had a bad dream
"Mama and daddy,
Can me and my teddy
Come in to sleep in between?"

Yeah it's ok. It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place thatI'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise

As you follow our journey through this blog, we will show you a bit of what our Paradise is like!

Introduction

We are just your typical family, trying to make ends meet and enjoy life as much as possible.

This is me -- I'm Ashley, a 24-year-old teacher. I have been teaching 2nd grade for three years now. I really love working with kids, as hard as some days can be! A hobby of mine is scrapbooking.

This is Jim. He is 26 years old and works as an electrical engineer. You can always find him tinkering around, especially in our basement, which he is working on finishing.

Jim and I started dating on June 28, 2000, got engaged on July 12, 2005, and got married on July 7, 2007.

On April 9, 2009, we were blessed with a little boy -- Logan James. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz at birth. He is an absolutely adorable little boy. He's a Daddy's boy for sure and always wants to do what Daddy is doing. This kid is going to be an engineer like Daddy!

We are expecting our second baby, a girl, on July 29, 2010! Logan will be a big brother very soon!