Christmas morning

Ella w/ her new doll and bow

Riley w/ her chef outfit

Riley's new hat and doll

This morning brought lots of presents for Riley & even Ella. The morning started out good until Ella decided to stay up for more than 5 hours before completely exhausting her parents and herself. Oh well, just a couple more months and hopefully she'll be a better sleeper. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Snow in Gig Harbor

Technically this is the most snow Seattle has seen in a decade and let's just say this area is definitely not equipped to handle any of it. Everything is shut down around here, I went to the grocery store yesterday and you would've thought it was the end of the world. The lines were insane and the traffic around the harbor was crazy. Anyway, here's some pics of Riley and Ella (who is now 4 weeks already).

Ella...oh Ella, please sleep

Well, Ella is now a little over three weeks old and I can't remember the last time I slept more than 4 hours at a time. Everyday is completely different, which drives me crazy since I like schedules. I can't wait for the day when she can sleep at night and not decide to be wide eyed and crazy from 1-3am!! It's like another little Riley all wrapped up just in time for Christmas ;)

It's Christmas time

Here is Riley and Ella with Santa, Riley is finally phobia free from Santa and gladly went to sit on his lap (of course, he also had a huge candy cane to give her).

Birthdays & Pledge of Allegiance

For my birthday yesterday we were all finishing dinner when out of nowhere Riley started saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Jarom got her to do it again so we could record it, it was so cute! It was a good b-day (despite the blur of it all through sleepless eyes), especially when my little girl sang to me.

Meet Ella Lucia Eberhard

Ella is finally here!! She was born Sunday, November 23rd at 12:54pm. She weighs 6lbs, 13oz and was 19 inches long. Tons of long dark wavy hair and possibly blue eyes, (hard to tell). The labor story is it's own insane story, so I'll spare the details. Let's just say I went from 4cm to 10cm an hour and a half! Anyway we are finally home and trying to get adjusted to having a family of four. Riley is somewhat excited, we're not sure since she hasn't had a nap in three days! I'm sure she'll get used to her soon. More to come...

Makeup 101

Hopefully this picture doesn't predict what kind of makeup she'll be wearing as a teenager ;) Riley did it all by herself, she was very proud. She's on her way to being a big girl...

Bronco Fans

So you would probably never guess that I live with a crazy Bronco fan ;) Well, unfortunately Jarom's influence has persuaded Riley to also join the crowd. Here are some cute pics of Riley & Jarom getting pumped up for the Broncos game today.

Not yet...

Wow, I got lots of phone calls & emails today, thank you. Today was big decision day and I am happy to say that I'm not having a baby today. We went and had our ultrasound and it turns out that our little girl gained an entire pound in just 1 week! She weighs 7 lbs already, her stomach is still really skinny (I was never surprised by that), her legs and arms are really long, and she's all cramped up in there somehow. Everything looks great and the Dr. predicted she may weigh about 7lbs 12oz by birth if she waits till Thanksgiving. Riley was 7lbs, 8oz so she may be even bigger. So luckily for us we still have two more weeks to prepare for our little Thanksgiving baby. Thank you all again for thinking and praying for us.

This is only her face you're looking at, it was fun to get one last look.

Riley's 3rd birthday

This year Riley had a little joint party with her friend Allie (who is 4 days younger). My gracious friend, Rebecca had it at her house so I wouldn't have to pick up the disaster that comes with having lots of 3 yr. olds at your house ;) It was a princess theme as you'll see from the pictures and Riley loved the attention. She got adorable gifts from everyone and even a homemade tutu and crown from our resident stylist of the stars, JoDee. Guess we'll sing Happy Birthday to her tomorrow too since it's her b-day on Veteran's Day, she's gonna start thinking birthdays are celebrated all week long!

Baby now or later

So I had another ultrasound this morning, I just hit 37 weeks. Looks like little girl is falling off the growth charts with her skinny stomach and little head, so we'll be heading to Tacoma for a Doppler flow study with a specialist next week. She measured in at 5 lbs. 13 oz, but since she's still pretty small in some measurements they want to make sure the placenta is still functioning the way it should. So the specialist may either say, induce now or everything's fine. Hopefully it's the latter because I'm still not quite ready for baby, especially during the week of Riley's b-day!!
So cross your fingers that she can wait a little longer than next week...

Halloween

Daddy & Riley in the fog

Two little girls unaffected by the scary mask

Riley's best friend Allie

Riley had been looking forward to Halloween since the beginning of October and couldn't wait to trick-or-treat. The weather was perfect, not too cool and the fog was really thick. We walked around a friends neighborhood with lots of Riley's friends. Riley was on a mission, leading the pack and running up to everyone's house to ring the doorbell. Even the scary "Scream" mask at someone's house didn't deter her from getting her candy. It was a great time, somehow I have a feeling that Halloween may be her favorite holiday ;)

I love fall

So it's that time of year to go in search of some good pumpkin farms for hot apple cider, corn on the cob, and of course, a pumpkin! Mollie came to visit us before she went into Seattle for some business meetings. I think Mollie was ever more excited than Riley at going to a pumpkin farm. Luckily it didn't rain, but the sun didn't show up either. Riley went diving into a barn full of corn, rode the cow train, saw some goats, and even made it through a corn maze. I'm sure we'll be looking for another farm next weekend with Jarom since we didn't get the pumpkin ;)

33 weeks and counting

So this was my last ultrasound until our little girl is born. She weighed in at 4lbs 5 oz and had lots of hair. All of her measurements have her precisely due on November 28th, so she's very healthy. I've been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions, which I never felt with Riley. I can't believe it's almost time to meet her.

Baby update

Today I went in for my 30th week appointment. The baby had been measuring small when they measured my belly so they did an ultrasound. Her legs, arms, and head were all in the 75th%, BUT her little abdomen was only in the 7th%. So they mostly think she's just going to be a lean tall baby, but to make sure she's getting enough to eat they'll do another ultrasound in two weeks. I think she'll look just like Riley, so hopefully she keeps on growing like she has been. Here's my belly shot finally. I don't know why I haven't documented the growing belly lately, I guess it's just a bad habit.

Enjoying the last days of summer

Here are just a few pics of Riley enjoying the sun. We were at Jarom's company picnic, she loved eating sno-cones all day and sliding down the slide.

New Tile Floors

So the exciting news for the week is that our tile floors are finally finished. We got the 3 bathrooms and the kitchen done. It looks ten times better than before. All of the major projects on the house so far have been the floors all throughout and of course the deck. Now I think I want my living room to finally be painted... stay tuned.

Riley's 1st day of preschool

It's amazing how fast kids really do grow up. I can't believe I was taking Riley to school, yes, just preschool, but she seems so big now! I was worried that she would be really clingy and throw a fit when I took her in. But to my surprise she held my hand with her lunchbox in the other, went inside, hung her lunchbox up, and when the teacher asked her to see what they were doing... off she went. She didn't even look back. Erin says of course the real test is next week, since now she knows where she's going and what will happen. The teacher said she did really good and seemed to enjoy the math section the most, especially tracing geometric shapes. Guess she won't be taking after me since I hated math. So I think she'll really enjoy it, especially when her little sister appears in three months.

Erin's wedding

We made it back from Rockport for Erin's wedding and we're trying to all get over jet lag. Riley was up at 5:00 this morning, apparently she's still on east coast time. Everything turned out beautiful, including the weather (it downpoured for about an hour during Erin's lobster bake for the rehearsal dinner the night before). The day of the wedding was blue skies and in the 80s. Despite Erin's worries about everything, it all went perfect. Riley's role as flower girl was the entertainment portion of the ceremony. When we told her to drop her flower petals she did exactly that, but poured them out in one step. Everyone laughed and clapped for her, so she was pretty excited and told me when she got to the end of the aisle, "Mama, I dropped my flowers down there!" Poor Jarom had to watch over her most of the time and missed the vows, sand ceremony, and a few other moments since Riley needed a potty break right in the middle. Riley danced the night away... I have no idea where she got the energy, but she was up until the band stopped playing. Anyway, we had a great time out on Erin and Sean's boat, going to the beach, and watching Jarom go tubing. CONGRATULATIONS little sister!!

Riding her first bike

We were at Babies R' Us the other day looking around at things we might have to get for the new baby. Meanwhile, Riley found a bike in one of the aisles and just started whizzing around the store. It was fun to see her finally learning how to pedal, but it was a nightmare trying to get her out of that store. So here she is with the bike Aunt Erin & Uncle Sean got her last fall out on our deck.

Riley's Big Girl Bed

So I was completely bored yesterday and thought, "Let's convert Riley's crib into a bed finally." So I did and she was so excited to sleep in her new bed that night. I was afraid that this might lead to countless nights of fighting with her to stay in bed, but when Jarom put her down she fell fast asleep. And as I'm writing she's taking a nice long nap! I should've thought of this sooner ;)