I know, it's surprising that I am already posting again... Many of you probably won't even check my blog for another month, based on my past record. :)

After her bath today, Evi wore her bathrobe for the first time. I took pictures, and they were just too cute not to post! I even got a smiling one!

Here's my youngest 3, just hanging out...
That's all for now!

Finally... More Photos!

Okay, I won't even start off with the usual apologies and excuses... You all know them, and know that I've been a little busy. ;) It is sad, though, that this first picture is from way back when Evi was only a week old. Here she is on her bili-bed. (She was on it for one day for her high bilirubin count.) She looked like a little alien... you can't really tell, but the lights glowed through the blanket, and it looked really strange. August 9th we went with the teens to the Zoo. I think Kezzi was with Josh when these pictures were taken.


It was Evi's first zoo trip. She slept through most of it, and we spent a lot of time in the air conditioning! It was over 100 degrees out!!!

Evi helps me wake up her sisters sometimes. Then she laughs at their wild hairdos.We started school on August 24th. It sure is wild, trying to entertain 1, feed & diaper 1 and teach 3 all at the same time. (Interesting 2 year "stairsteps," don't you think?)

 

Nice white tounge in this one:
These are the most recent pictures I have of Evi right now. These were taken Saturday after her bath. In this one, I think she's trying to hypnotize Queequeg....

See her wild after-bath hair? She had lost patience with me and my camera by this shot... :)
 

I'm proud of these two....

Here's Josh and Evi last night at Josh's ordination. Doesn't Josh look good in a suit?

Evin Lilian

Well, she's here! I'm sorry it has taken me all week to get the photos up. Our 5th daughter, Evin Lilian was born Tuesday, July 18th at 3:26 pm. She was 7lbs, 10oz (our middle child for weight), and 20 1/2 inches long. She looks very much like her sisters did at birth, except for the deep crease in her nose, and she's less jaundiced than they were.

If you have no interest in reading the little birth story, my feelings won't be hurt, but please scroll down, because there are lots of pictures.

The birth went well, but not as quickly as we've come to expect from our girls. :) I was induced, so we got to the hospital at 6:00am. Dr. Brown was supposed to come break my water at 10:00, but he got held up in surgery until noon. He then came and broke my water, and we all thought it would be over soon, but it didn't work quite that way...

Right after he broke my water, I had trouble breathing. It felt like a giant man was sitting on my chest, and I couldn't get any air. They gave me an oxygen mask (which I then wore the rest of the afternoon, until she was born). During all of this, Evi's heart rate dropped. Way down. It was pretty scary. They had to put a monitor on her head to monitor her heart rate for the rest of labor. We could hear it beeping in the room, and every time I had a contraction, her heart rate would drop from the 150's to about the 50's. Josh was watching a movie on the TV, and paused it during almost every contraction, to make sure the rate bounced back up.

When it finally came time to push (about 3 hours after breaking the water), things again did not go as smoothly as my previous easy labors. I still only pushed about 3 times, but Evi had her head turned and tilted the wrong way. She ended up with a huge bump on her head for a little while because of it. Her umbilical cord was also wrapped around her neck and her ankle.

So... it was a labor and delivery with a little more story to it than the previous 4, but still, a fairly easy one (and pain-free... thank God for epidurals!), and of course a very happy ending.


Evi has been taking calls from well-wishers all week... She looks a little tired out. :)




For those of you wondering how big I finally ended up... Hard to see because of the blanket, but I think the term is gi-normous.


 

Evi's first photo... She's being weighed and measured by the nurses. Evi's first photo with proud Daddy.
And here's her first photo with Mommy. My watch says 3:41, so she's 15 minutes old. Do I look a little zoned out in the picture? :)This is Kezzi's first peek at her new baby sister.
 

Here are the proud big sisters, the first time they got to hold baby Evi...
Kezzi & Evi

Abbi & Evi

Emmi & Evi

Tori & Evi

Which is the biggest tounge-twister?

 

The baby is coming, the baby is coming!!! Last minute photo frenzy!

Okay, so I have been really behind on my blogging... I've had tons of pictures I wanted to share before the baby comes, but no time to get them up. So I thought I'd get at least a couple up now, before she comes next week.

Yip, I said next week. Unless she decides to come on her own in the next 5 days (which just might happen), the doctor is going to induce me on Tuesday, July 18th. (And we're still working on that name! :)

So, I thought I'd share some pictures of our last 3 or 4 months, to clear way for baby pictures next week. I do want to point out that on our way back from our IL trip in May, we went to the Exotic Animal Paradise outside Springfield, MO, and I will not be including any of those pictures today. That deserves an entire photo essay of its own!

In June, we all went with Josh to Jr. High Church Camp. He was the director. It was a great camp, and we all enjoyed ourselves...

Kezzi in the pool

Abbi at the creek
Emmi in the creek

In May, we went to IL to visit Grandmother and Pop while Josh took another Masters course at Bethel College in IN. We loved our time ther, and got to see all our family... lots of boy cousins! I'd love to post all the pictures from that week... there are some funny ones! Maybe another time...

Kezzi and Great-Grandma in IL

Now we'll jump all the way back to April... Here are the girls in their Easter dresses...

And here's Kezzi's 3rd birthday, April 10th, 2006.

Here's all the girls at the zoo back in April.

And finally, Tori's 9th (!) birthday, April 24th, 2006.

Well, I've got plenty more I'd like to share, but I've got to dig some baby clothes out of the attic! Come back next week to see baby pictures!

Love to all!

Holli

Baby!!

We went for another ultrasound yesterday. The placenta has moved out of the way, so no c-section for me! Yippeee!! The ultrasound technician was really sweet, and she did a little 3-D ultrasound for us (free). It was amazing! Unfortunately, the baby slept through it, so we only got to see her stretching a little. You can see in the second picture, though, that she did move her arm and rub her eye. They said that she was a pretty big baby... already about 6 lbs. 6 oz. I technically have just under 5 weeks left, but we'll see how long I go! Baby Judi says "Happy Birthday, Uncle Jesse!"

Happy Birthday to Abbi (awhile back!)

Well, I just realized that Kezzi's birthday is Monday, and I never got around to posting any birthday pictures of our big 5 year old Abbi...

Here's a banner Josh made for the big occasion...

Abbi with the apron, muffin mix and mini muffin tin that she got from Grandmother. She's very excited about these, but we haven't had a chance to make them yet. She asks me about it almost daily.


Abbi opening gifts... She looks a little surprised at this hair bow!

Abbi's birthday was a little hectic. It was a Sunday, which is always busy around here, and that one was particularly busy. The day before, we and about 494 other people went to Chuck E Cheese. (The restaurant has a 500 person capacity, and we had to wait for people to leave so we could go in.) It was quite crazy!

The three older girls are all playing soccer right now. This is Abbi's first year to play. Here's a picture of her on her first game day. Her team name is the Koalas. Tori and Emmi play on the same team (which Josh coaches). Their team is the Rams, and their uniforms are teal & black.

Well, I guess I'll be posting more pictures shortly... Kezzi turns 3 on Monday, and two weeks from Monday, Tori will be 9!