Post Continued

So here are more pictures for my previous post.
Y'know, I have a hard time catching Jared with a sincere smile in pictures, but put his beautiful baby girl in his arms and suddenly, that sincerity is undeniable. These girls have the best daddy ever!



The dress was amazing; I loved the simple elegance that it held. Emily looked so sweet in it. Thank you Mom for having such amazing talents and sharing them with my family!



Here are the four generations that were in my house at once! I just wish Grandpa Eddie could have made it, too! He is one spunky guy (see the post where he is feeding Anna about a year ago.) So, this is Jared's Dad and Grandma. Grandpa Eddie is Grandma Gardner's Father.



I just love that Anna is slowly becoming more photogenic! She is beginning to understand that poses are appropriate! :)



Check out that massive pony tail! It's like it needs 80 rubber bands just to keep it in place!

Blessing, Family and More

We were able to bless Emily while Jared's family was in town last week. It was such a great experience. The dress was handmade by my mother and was extremely beautiful. I will do two posts in order to fit all the pictures I wanted. Anyway, Here is the first family picture the Gardners have been able to do for probably a year. I am so pitiful when it comes to setting up family pictures; they just never seem to work out, but here is at least one that shows that we all do exist...


Anna has been having so much fun lately with the house, but sometimes still finds ways to get herself into trouble. I had a candy dish on this small ledge that Anna has never had anything out of before, but lo and behold, she seemed to find a way to get a hold of a treat.



Emily continues to be an amazing baby and seems to fit in with our family perfectly. She still sleeps at least eight hours in a row at night, with another four after a feeding. She has spoiled this mother completely! I still feel like a nap in the afternoon is needed while the girls sleep! One of her little quirks is that she never is silent during her sleep. She always makes a noise with each breath; most often it sounds like a purr, or moan, but the other day she was making almost the exact noise of a squeaky swing set. It was funny. Anyway, this must have been a pleasant dream...



Jared's dad, or Grandpa as he's more commonly known, completely spoiled Emily while they were here. I don't think she ever was put down if he was in the room! Those two were just two peas in a pod. I can't wait until she can ride a snowmobile - oh, the places they'll go!



Then, as the family left, so did the sunshine. Here is Anna's poor little car stuck in the middle of our yard lake. I guess she just didn't see all the road signs saying the area was flooded. Luckily, she was able to get a helicopter in the area to pick her up because that night, the wind blew so hard that the car ran into the wall. We had some dirty dogs that week. I should have taken a picture of the caked mud in our washroom. Yum.



Well, that's about it for now. I'll post more as I can! Thanks again Gardner family for visiting!

Everyday Joys

Upon recommendation from my in-laws, I got Anna a bunch of little cheap toys to play with during her "Mommy's-currently-attached-to-baby-and-can't-play-right-now" time. They worked for about the first two days, and then she found something significantly more entertaining to do during that time. She reorganizes the pantry! As you can see, she stands on one of the cans so she can reach the second shelf. That is why almost everything is shoved onto the third shelf... I'm just waiting to see when she'll learn to stack two cans on top of each other to get even higher. At least she puts it all back when she's done throwing it out into the kitchen. I love that little kid. She has been so great.


I also love little baby butts. They truly must be the cutest thing on earth (when they are neatly packaged, of course...) Here is the one I get to enjoy each day!




Here is what the front looks like...since some of you may want to see that too...
Different day, similar position. She loves to stare out our bright bedroom window and dream of who knows what. Doesn't she just look like she's contemplating something pretty spectacular? :)



P.S. The bloodshot part of her eye is supposed to go away within another week. She was born with quite a few broken vessels on her face too, but they are pretty much gone now. Apparently delivery can be stressful. (Ya think?)

She's He-e-e-ere!

Well, first off, this post is a week late. I've felt naked all week without internet and we finally got it set up today. Enough about that, here are all the wonderful and exciting things regarding our newest addition to the Gardner family!



Emily Irish Gardner was born 01/01/10 (cool b-day, huh) at 10:21 am. We were even on the morning news because she was a New Year baby! I won't go into detail about the labor, just because not everyone wants to know that info...but everything went very fast and smoothly! She was 8lbs 3oz, 21 and 1/2 inches long, and was feeding within the first two minutes of birth.



Since then, she has proven to be the easiest baby on earth! She is already on a four-hour schedule, sleeps through the night, and gives us little smiles all the time (probably because she tooted, but still...)

Anna is doing so well with the transition, and loves to give Emily kisses. She's very gentle and likes to also point out all her body parts. :)



Our house finalized just before Christmas, so we were able to have a home for a week before Emily arrived. Thank goodness - everything has worked out beautifully!!

Anyway, now that we have internet, I'm sure you'll hear from us more often! We're no longer off the grid!