From 3 to 4...

We welcomed Emmitt Matthew at 1:03 a.m. on Wednesday, August 24th. He caught us by surprise (Surprise, really? How could we be surprised when I was 11 days overdue, right?). I was sort of in denial that my body can actually go into labor and I was scheduled to be induced on the 26th, but thankfully Emmitt had other plans!

My water broke around 9:20 on Tuesday night, much to my surprise. Matt was at a friend's house playing darts, Madi was sound asleep and I was cleaning like a mad lady. I sent Matt a text and told him that I thought my water had broke and he came home rather quickly. I wasn't in any pain (contractions started pretty quick and were happening every 3 minutes, but weren't painful) and I still had a lot of things I wanted to get done... including pack my bags. We called my mom and she came over to stay with Madi and we were off to the hospital by 10:30!

It took us a while to get all checked in. Apparently dripping on the floor doesn't constitute a sure thing that your water had broken, so instead I spent an hour in the triage room to convince the nurse that I was truly in labor. We were escorted to Room 8 a little before midnight and I was starting to get rather uncomfortable (and sort of whiny, I suppose). I remember making comments like, "I don't really want to do this. I just want to go to sleep. It's past my bedtime." I was reassured that I didn't really have a choice and right when I decided an epidural would be well worthy of all of its negative drawbacks my midwife checked me and told me I was going to have a baby. Duh, right? Then she told me what she was actually trying to convey was that I wouldn't be getting my epidural, which is when I got sort of annoyed. Ten minutes later, if even that, Emmitt graced this world with his high-pitched screaming and I breathed a giant sigh of relief! I was SO glad it was over!

And we were SO excited to meet him!

Madi was very sweet when she came to meet her brother. She was gentle and loving and had all sorts of questions about him.

Our little family (with only the back of Emmitt's head). I swear it's him though. I didn't trade babies for this picture.

One of my favorites...

And in case anybody is questioning it, he looks just. like. Matt.

Here's Matt's baby picture to prove it:

Emmitt is a sweet, snuggly little boy that has the world's worst gas EVER, but we sure love him!

Still Here...

No. My absence of blogging does not mean I have had a baby.

Still pregnant.

And evidently I'm just getting lazier... we've done a pretty good job of keeping ourselves "busy". We had a garage sale at my brother's house last weekend (while Madi went camping for the night with her cousins)! We then continued to clean out and re-organize the garage the rest of the week, along with random other things (picking & freezing broccoli, dr's apts., etc.). Matt started heading back into school to get ready for the year and we spent this weekend in the sun at a splash park and then celebrating Matt's birthday with a BBQ on Sunday!

I'm sure I left out a couple things, but all-in-all, just the typical "summer stuff"...

Madi loves going to the park and she seems to enjoy splash parks, but she has been funny about how "wet" she actually likes to get this year. It sort of surprises me because she was awfully brave last summer (and obviously much younger), but this year she just prefers to circle the water and observe other kids.

What can I say, she's pretty good at people watching.

I'm not sure where she gets it...

On her defense, when a grown adult decides to wear a white tank top (without a bra) to a splash park and then proceeds to get drenched with her children, it is sort of intriguing.

And we weren't even in Westown!

Okay, sorry about the tangent - and no, I didn't take her picture!

We had lots of fun! But the fun really began when Nana and Papa surprised us and showed up as well!

Lets just say she was sort of forced to get wet with Papa! =)

We're glad the sunshine has finally decided to stay for a while! We've enjoyed the heat, even if we only dance around the water! =)

**On a baby note: I have another "non-stress" test tomorrow and then they'll schedule the induction date... evidently our babies seem to think they need a little longer "germination" period than most! Here's to being 10 months preggo in the middle of August!!!**

Waverly Park

Sunday was a beautiful day and we couldn't resist finding somewhere to go to spend it in the sun. On our way home from church we agreed that we'd pack a picnic that evening and head back down to Albany to try and catch a couple fish at Waverly Park.

Madi was pretty excited to use her fishing pole again, but I think she was even more excited that she got to wear a hat like Daddy...

This was the result of Matt trying to teach her to keep her "tip-up".

The pink and orange power bait proved to be the next favorite part about fishing this time. I mean who doesn't want to play with something that resembles playdough and comes in a little jar?!?!

A couple small fish were finally caught on Matt's pole and as you can see Madi wasn't about to let her eyes leave that thing, even for a picture...

We had to take a picture of all of us in our "baseball hats" because Madi couldn't stop talking about them. Unfortunately the timer shot focused on our arms instead of our faces. Oh well, such is life!

Our picnic was delicious and we treated ourselves to 50 cent ice cream cones and free baby cones on the drive home. Quite perfect, if I may say so myself. ;)

Just Peachy!

For all of you who are dying to know if I got my peaches canned - I did!

My mom and I spent all of Thursday (from about 9 to 6:30) peeling, slicing, and boiling until we had finally contained well over 140 pounds of peaches into 98 pints worth of jars! It was a fabulous time! There's something about storing food away for the winter that makes me feel just a little bit like Laura Ingalls Wilder and I LOVE it! I realize she probably put a little more work into canning her peaches, but I think she'd still be impressed with my efforts.

And in case you were wondering, I did not pick these peaches myself. They were ordered through Zaycon Foods, (which I'm sort of obsessed with right now) and they were amazing!!! I'm happy to report they did not disappoint. Between my mom and myself we ordered three units, which was a total of 6 boxes. All of the peaches came straight from orchards in Washington and were tree ripened. They were large, delicious and very juicy!

Madelyn can attest to it, as she has been quarantined outside every time she has eaten one!

I don't think she really minds though... She stands by the window with a steady stream of juice dripping off her elbows and enjoys every bite!

Back to my Zaycon soap box: if you're interested in purchasing bulk amounts of fresh meats or fruits, I can not recommend them enough! I have only ordered chicken breast through them so far (and peaches), but I am about to place an order for ground beef and I am confident that I will be happy with any of their products! The first time I ordered through them I purchased two units of chicken and my brother picked it up for me. He didn't realize (and I hadn't specified) that he was supposed to be getting 80 pounds, so he only came home with one unit. When I e-mailed Zaycon about the problem they got back to me within a few hours and then followed up with a phone call the next day to make sure the problem had gotten solved. They offered to reimburse me my money or gave me another date and time to pick the rest of the order up! They were super friendly and helpful and I could not have been more impressed! It's a family owned company that has grown (out of obvious popularity) and I'm happy to support them whenever possible! The chicken breasts are GIANT, fresh (never frozen) and are grown hormone free. We are almost out of our last order and I'm anxious to stock up the freezer again this fall!

Alright, thanks for listening! ;)

I'm going to go enjoy a bite of peaches n' cream pie that was inspired from this recipe post.

Don't be jealous.

Daycation...

It's not everyday you head to the Oregon Coast and find it looking like this...

In fact, it probably only happens a few times a year. Then again, I may be sort of a pessimist. Either way, we lucked out! We packed our flip flops and "the" princess towel early this morning, hit Starbucks on our way through Salem and ended up here just in time to enjoy the view and beat the crowd to lunch!

Madi is known for having a serious side, or two - coloring was on the top of her list when we got to Mo's.

This girl could NOT have been happier to be at the beach watching the sea lions!

I bought the Oregon Coast Aquarium Groupon way back when (and a gift certificate to Mo's throgh Portland Perks...) and we had until October to use it so we've been trying to nail down a day to head to the beach this summer and enjoy ourselves! I'm so glad we were patient because there could not have been a more perfect day!

After all the sea creatures had been seen, we found a secluded beach between Newport and Depot Bay and threw out the towels! It was beautiful (my only complaint was the annoying sand fleas, but we left them all back on the beach - or so I hope)!!

Emmitt can finally come now. Well, actually, I should probably clean this house first and I have 60 pounds of peaches to can that I'm picking up tomorrow night (although, I'm just fine with letting my mom finish that chore for me should this baby come sooner ;)! Our daycation to the beach was perfect. It was a wonderful way to top off a very busy weekend!

3 on 3...

*Sigh*

Sometimes that's all you feel like doing when busy weekends like ours finally come to an end! It was a lot of fun and it is a wonderful feeling of relief that it is finally over.

This was the first year that Matt has been involved with any 3 on 3 events (other than just playing or watching) and it was definitely a first to organize the whole event! It was good practice to have helped last weekend at Hoopla and thankfully our little town doesn't have quite the same turn-out. ;)

The event started bright and early Saturday morning, as most people just show up to register the day of. We had a total of 33 teams participate in 5 different division brackets. It would have been nice to have had enough teams to have brackets for all age divisions, but unfortunately there just wasn't enough (especially in the girls' brackets). People were very understanding though and everyone had a great time, even if their team ended up playing up or down.

Summer Fest is an annual event that is held on the streets of downtown Stayton every summer. It brings out local businesses, churches and organizations from all over town as they set up booths to advertise and share services. I think the 3 on 3 tournament has been a part of the street fair for the last 14 or so years. It's a pretty awesome event that allows people to relax, have fun, and get sunburnt...

This cute guy showed up too, so I just followed him around all day.

Just kidding.

He followed me around all day... as such, I got a little suspicious of him...

(Why do I do this to myself?)

It was the only picture proving that I showed up for the whole day! He must have been messing with my brackets and I was a little suspicious of him...

These little boys were so cute. I sort of wanted to pinch their cheeks. I think 6th grade is a little old for that though, so I just used my zoom lens instead...

And finally, the winners of the whole event...

Eight teams participated in the "open division" which has a grand prize of $400! The tournament is double elimination so if you lose one game you can still go undefeated from then on and make it to the championship game (which is what these guys did).

It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Like just how confusing brackets really are! I also learned that I can do a pretty good job of staying in the shade for most if not all of the day when I'm 9 months preggo... Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky!

(Sorry about your luck, Jess)

I'll try and get some after pictures of sunburns next year!

The baskets were all down by 4:00 and the streets were close to naked again. Enough sun had been soaked up and we were all exhausted! Thanks to all of the volunteer help it went off with very minor glitches! Matt already has ideas of how to make it even better next year and I have even more plans for a larger "shady" area. (Maybe even a giant fan or a sprinkler tent?!?! ;)

But, most of all I kept thinking about how thankful I was that this year at Summer Fest I wasn't pushing my husband down the bumpy streets of Stayton in a bright red wheel chair. He may have felt like he needed a wheelchair that night and especially when he rolled out of bed the next morning, but all in all it was quite the improvement! I'm sure ending the weekend with a nice massage from the one and only Haley Jo was an added bonus! Today he's off at another golf tournament thanking sponsors at one of the tees, but tomorrow we're headed to the beach, just the three of us and we. can't. wait.