Welcome Baby Emma!

We are so thrilled to announce the arrival of our first niece and cousin!

Emma Bentley Close
7:40 am November 3, 2009
3 lb. 6 oz. 14 inches

I just think this picture is so cute!!! You can see what a cute little girl she is and you can see her blond hair!

It's so hard to see her in this picture, but it's the best I have. Cade got some really cute ones that I'm sure they will post soon.

The proud Daddy!

She just fits right into the palm of Cade's hand!

The Entourage waiting to catch a glimpse of Emma

It was so cool to be there! I got to wait outside of the operating room where Kellie was having a c-section with Kristen and Grandma Bleak. We heard the bell go off to signal for the Newborn ICU team to come to the operating room for a delivery. We saw 2 nurses and a respiratory therapist rush by us into the little room. A few minutes later we heard a baby crying!! It was so neat to be just outside. We couldn't see anything, but we could hear everything. About 15 minutes later they wheeled the baby down the hall, past us into the NICU. Unfortunately, they didn't even stop for us to take a picture. We were just walking quickly trying to catch a look and a picture.

So far, mom and baby are doing well. When I left the hospital Emma was on CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) to help her breathe. She was going to get surfactant which is a substance that goes into her lungs to help lubricate them so she can breathe easier. Other than that, she looked great! Kellie is understandably exhausted and hoping to get a nap in before her spinal epidural completely wears off. Hopefully she will be able to hold Emma tonight or tomorrow.

Congratulations to the happy family!! We are praying for a speedy recovery for mom and baby!

Happy Halloween!

William was a monkey for Halloween this year. He loved it!

Nathan's work always does an afternoon where all of the children can come and go trick-or-treating. We had lots of fun, but I couldn't get a really good picture of Wills smiling.

Hanging out with Uncle Cade

Playing with Uncle Bryan

Nader and Cater
Nathan and Cade decided to dress up together. They looked really good!

Trick or Treating with Uncle Bryan
William had so much fun with Bryan. He just wanted to walk around with him the entire time.

A sucker for each hand! What more could a little boy want?

Looking cool with Dada and enjoying the candy together.

Cousin Emma Update

It looks like we will be meeting Emma on Tuesday, November 3rd, if not sooner! Kellie had an ultrasound today and baby Emma weighed in at 3 lb. 2 oz. She has gained very little if any weight over the last 3 weeks. So, she will most likely be delivered by c-section on Tuesday because she is so small. We are excited to see her! We wish that she could stay in longer, but at this point it seems that it is better for mom and baby for her to be out. We are praying for them! We hope everything goes as planned. We will keep you updated if anything changes.

William's H1N1 Vaccine Adventure

First, let me just say that I am a proponent of vaccinations. If you can't tell by this post, I will go to great lengths to protect my family by having them vaccinated. I am so grateful for them! Last season Wills was lucky enough to receive the Synagis shot (the shot to protect him from RSV) and that afforded us much peace and comfort. This season we have been concerned about the flu, especially H1N1. Last week I started calling places to see if they had any flu vaccines. To my surprise, every place I called was out and did not know when they would be getting any more of the seasonal flu shot or the H1N1 shot. I heard later in the week that the Health Department received a shipment and was scheduled to hold a clinic on Tuesday to give it to a select group of people (William was included). So, William and I went to get him vaccinated. Nathan woke him up 2 hours earlier than usual and told him he was going to "Shot-land" not Disneyland. We got to the Health Department a little while before they were scheduled to open and found hundreds, maybe even thousands of people camped out and already in line! We had to park several blocks away. It was crazy!!

This is William waiting in line while eating his breakfast.

He was such a good sport!! I was so proud of him. He even slept for about an hour. The high for today was 42 degrees! It was freezing and we were outside for so long!

A small glimpse of the crowds

There were so many people there. This is the second level of the parking garage. The line went from the first level down to the second and then back up and down again before it finally went down the sidewalk and into the building.

A visit from Daddy at hour #4 in line!!

After we had been in line for 4 hours Nathan came to lift our spirits. He brought us warm lunch and hot chocolate. I don't think I have ever been more happy to have a hot meal and hot chocolate. He was a lifesaver!

After 4 1/2 hours we finally made it to the front of the line and William got his shot! He didn't even cry. I couldn't believe it. To call this experience an adventure is optimistic. It was pretty miserable, but well worth it for Wills to be protected. After 2 weeks the vaccine takes its full effect. Hopefully the rest of the world will be able to get their chance to be vaccinated soon. When we finally got back to the car it started snowing pretty hard. I was so glad we were done!!! (You may think I'm crazy, but keeping him healthy is a big deal to us. We have spent way too much time in the hospital.)

Animal Sounds

These are some of the animal sounds that William likes to make. As you will notice they are not the traditional animal sounds. He has pictures of these animals in his room and Nathan has made up sounds for them. My favorite is the alligator and he wouldn't do that one! I guess I ask him to do it too often. I also forgot to ask him to do the fishy. We are still working on the monkey. I hope he gets it down before Halloween because that is what he's going to dress up as.

Fun Birthday Weekend!

We had such a fun weekend! We celebrated my birthday and played with family. Wednesday was my actual birthday. Nathan, Wills and I had a great time celebrating together. We went out to lunch in the day. Then, when Nathan came home from work we opened presents and Nathan took me to Park City for the evening while Wills played with Auntie Amanda.

William was a big help with opening presents.

Kayla, Tara, and Heidi

Then, on Thursday my mom came to visit with 3 of my cousins! They stayed for the weekend and we had a blast.
Kayla, Tara, and I made some delicious and beautiful sugar cookies. My favorite cookies were the spider webs. We swirled chocolate syrup over the frosting and then dragged a toothpick through it.

Friday we had a big party with all of our family. We had cake and ice cream.

Uncle Bryan decided to give William an entire scoop of ice cream. He wasn't so sure about it at first...

After he got a spoon, it quickly disappeared...

Some of the girl cousins

Wills with his Uncle Bri(y)ans

After dinner and cake we all went to our clubhouse to watch a movie in the theater. It's a really cool theater. It was the first time that Nathan and I have watched a movie there since we have lived here! It was really fun. We need to do it more often.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out and played games. Thanks for coming to visit! We'll see you all soon!

Videos for Auntie Kellie

Auntie Kellie is still in the hospital. She is still pregnant and hanging in there. The doctors have set an induction date for 34 weeks which is the week of November 3. We hope she can hang in there a little longer! She has started her own blog if you would like to check in on her. It's cadeandkellie.blogspot.com. She has been missing little Wills. He is too young to come into the hospital to see her, so I promised I would put some videos up so she could see him!

The Nod

William's favorite thing to do these days is to nod. It's pretty funny. He wasn't really cooperating for this, but at least you can see him nod.

Playing with Daddy