2 weeks down . . .

I forgot to rotate this first picture . . . but this was her dress for her first day of church last Sunday. The bldg was freezing, so she was wrapped in a blanket the whole time. So no one really got to see her darling dress. And as you can see, she is quite upset that no one saw it. :) Chubby little cheeks and a cute bow . . . that only lasted about 10 minutes before Ethan ripped it off her head. I guess he doesn't like bows.

Ethan likes to climb up in the bouncer with her to kiss her head - and in this picture, he climbed up and layed next to her to cuddle. He is not a cuddler himself. His first "kiss" that he gave anyone was to Emeree. And he will only really cuddle with me when he's sick. So I secretly enjoy when he's sick because he will cuddle with me.

Santa Photos

Debbie and I went to the mall yesterday to get a Santa photo. The line was long, but it just seemed like adults and strollers were taking up all the space and we thought we would get through quite fast . . . boy were we wrong. Two and a half hours later, we were finally next in line. And when we pulled Ethan out of the stroller, he had wet his pants really bad! So we had him sit on Debbie's scarf so he didn't soil Santa's suit. Ethan and Emeree did really well waiting in line that long. We just had to take Ethan on a few walks around the food court in the stroller and I had to run out to the car to feed Emeree - but other than feeding and distracting them, they didn't seem to mind being in line that long.

Here's Ethan's picture from last year (2008) when he was 9 months old. He didn't like the experience that much.

*Our scanner is in storage at the moment, so I had to take a picture of the pictures. Here's the photo for this year. Ethan was acting a little scared and nervous. But that made for a cute picture where he is crossing his hands and ankles. Emeree just stared off to the side - oblivious to the fact that Santa was holding her. Her dress was adorable, but she blended in with Santa's suit too well.

Emeree Jane Gerke

Emeree was born at 12:07am on Dec. 2nd. She decided to come earlier than her scheduled c-section that was supposed to be around noon instead. So she made me go into labor and experience the "joy" of contractions.

Here she is with the hat that Becky knit for her. And it's fun to see her in normal clothes instead of the boring white shirt that the hospital has her in. So we had a photo shoot in cute clothes today.

Becky and Emma came up yesterday to see us in the hospital - it was fun to see her excited and holding her hand.

Ethan liked to pet her face and the hat. He also "honked" her nose, but we didn't catch that in the pictures. He's wearing his "big brother" shirt that I made for him since he's a proud big brother. And we didn't even have to tell him the be gentle with her. On his own he was softly petting her and smiling at her.

Here's our new little family of 4. I'm normally the tannest one in the family, but I look like a pale, white ghost. Ethan looks a lot bigger; he just seems so much older now that we have a newborn too.

Here she was as they were pulling her out. We have a similar picture of Ethan when he was born as well, so it's kinda fun to have these pictures.

Wearing her Christmas hat from the hospital instead of the standard blue and pink hat.