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Family and Friends!
We would like to introduce you to our new baby Girl, Marley Caroline. Marley was born at 8:16 am on August 31st, 2006 (today of course)! She weighed 5 lbs. 14 oz. and was 19 inches long! Her big sister MaKieley is so excited to finally have her OUT where she can hold her! Everyone is doing great and should be going home in a couple of days! Thank you all for your prayers! Make sure you check back because we will post more pictures later (probably after we get home - Sunday or Mondayish)! Have a great holiday weekend!

MaKieley's Exciting Week!

MaKieley Started Her Week by bringing home her first 100! She was so excited! Later in the week on Thursday I went to pick her up and she grinned at me! Her tooth was missing! She informed me that it had fallen out at lunch and landed somewhere on the floor! She could not find it anywhere! Being in the hormonal state that I am right now I started to tear up! THIS TOOTH, THAT WAS LOST ON THE CAFETERIA FLOOR, WAS MY BABY'S FIRST TOOTH TO COME OUT!! AND NOW WE WOULD NEVER HAVE IT FOR A KEEPSAKE!! So her momma told her the one next to it, which was just as loose as the other one, had to come out before she went back to school the next day. Was that momma mean? I don't think so! So after several hours of crying and discussing it and trying to get it done she decided she wanted to try dental floss! On the second try it popped right out! Neither one of us really knew that it had come out but I thought it had felt different that time. So I said show me. She did and it was gone! Oh no! Had we lost the second one too? I was looking around and then all the sudden I remembered there was blood in her mouth! I stuffed in the paper towel we had waiting and went back to looking for that tiny baby tooth! Then ------ there it was! Sitting right on the front of her shirt! So we put it in a baggy so it could not get lost!
When John got home and MaKieley showed him that she had lost 2 teeth he fell over in the floor! MaKieley thought that was GREAT! She put her tooth under her pillow and this morning when she got up the Tooth Fairy had brought her $4 ($2 for each tooth she lost!) She was so very excited and ready to go to school and show everyone!
What a week! We hope to have a calm weekend before we have another WILD week next week!

Fun Day!

MaKieley had a great day today! Today was the shower for the baby. Several friends from church gave us a great party!
There were yummy cookies, fruit and dip, cake, nuts, jellybeans, and punch! MaKieley thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
There were three of MaKieley's little friends there and I felt as though I were in a snow globe! The four of them were opening the presents at an absolutely crazy speed!! There was tissue paper flying everywhere! They had so much fun! So many cute things!
WE are now on the count down! 9 days left!

The News!

At our Dr.'s appointment yesterday we found out more news. Nothing to definitive though!! Here are the details:
1. On the 29th we will have an amniocentesis done first thing that morning. We will know by mid morning if the baby's lungs are mature enough to join us out in the world. If they are mature...
2a. We will have the baby the evening of the 30th. We are scheduled after the 5pm c-section. So that means somewhere between 5:30 and 6pm. Of course there is the possibility they are not mature, and in that case...
2b. I will receive steroid shots to help mature the baby's lungs. Depending on what the levels are we might have another amniocentesis a week later. If the levels are borderline the baby will be born on the 6th without another amniocentesis.
I hope that is not all too confusing! Please keep this all in your prayers!

MaKieley is finishing up her first week of 1st grade right now! She loves it and has been bringing home lots of things to read to us! I think however that we are all ready for the weekend!

Love to all!

The FIRST day of FIRST GRADE!!

The First day of FIRST GRADE was yesterday! MaKieley is in Ms. Gooch's class! She was very excited to get there! It was a very different first day of school this year! MaKieley was out of bed at 6:15 and dressed by 6:16! She wanted to make sure I had a picture of the back of her head to show everyone! (Hmmm----I wonder why!)
When we got to the school we walked around and delivered the 4 apples she bought for "Special People". First we gave one to Grammie, then Ms. McDaniel (the principal), then Mrs. Wuensche (her Kindergarten teacher from last year) and finally Ms. Gooch (her First Grade Teacher). We then took her to the library where all the first graders go if they get to school before the 8 o'clock bell. They were watching a movie so she hugged and kissed the three of us (4 including the baby) and went to watch it! That was it! No tears or clinging like last year! She is growing up, I guess!
When I picked her up the school was a mad house with all the other parents trying to pick up their kiddos too! She told me she had a great day ---- They talked about the rules, colored, went to PE, and learned a poem called Marshmallow Toes.
She was very excited to go back this morning! She was ready to go back to her routine of meeting Grammie out in front of the building so that she could help pick up the 5th graders before running off to her class. So that is exactly what we did! I dropped her off at the front of the building where Grammie was waiting and off they went for an awesome 2nd day of school!

The FINAL Pictures!

Well these are the final pictures before we see the person in person! Our Dr. wanted to move our delivery date back one week because she was concerned that the baby was so small. Only in the 24th percentile. We still do not know if we will have to push back delivery but at the sonogram today they were happy with how the baby had grown. We will find out next Thursday what our Dr. wants. In the first picture the baby's eyes are closed and it's arm is up across the bottom of the face (covering the mouth and chin). The second picture shows the baby's profile with eyes and mouth open. The baby is now in the 30th percentile, heart beat is great and moves all the time. My blood pressure is great and we are so thankful! Please keep our family in your prayers as we add this little one.

The Building of the Stroller!

Today we took one step closer to being ready for the baby! Thanks to Pudden and Pap, MaKieley and John had a stroller and car seat to put together this afternoon! It kept them busy for a little while and they did such a great job!

Only one more week of summer for MaKieley! This time next week we will be making sure everything is ready for the FIRST DAY of FIRST GRADE! Can you believe it? Because I cannot! My big first grader Cooper Pirate! She told me today she was ready to go back because that meant the baby was about to come!

This week will be a busy one as we will be involved in Vacation Bible School this week and we have our final sonogram on Friday morning! If we are able to get any pictures we will post them then. We are so far along at this point I am not sure any of the pictures will have much to see.

Please keep our friends Keith and Stephanie McCord in your prayers! Especially on Tuesday! Tuesday he will have another round of CT scans. This is a very definitive time in the course of his treatment. He has had very little pain in the last week or so and he feels good about what is happening with this disease. Please pray for their peace to continue!

Playing Catch Up

Wow! Only about 4 weeks left! The baby will be here before we know it! We are trying to play catch up...you know...the room, picking out a name and so forth. The room is coming along...we finished painting and got the bed together. I am working on the bedding and other finishing touches. WE have really got to sit down and decide on a name for this baby! The way we are going we are going to be in the hospital deciding! That may be the easiest way to go! WE will definitely both be there! John is going to take a month off when the baby comes! We are all very excited about this!
MaKieley has a week and a half before school starts again! She is really excited (most days) about going to first grade! She has three loose teeth on the bottom and has been eating a couple of apples a day trying to lose them! Nothing yet! We will keep everyone updated though!