Deanna's Blessing

We blessed Deanna on Sunday. Grandpa Munk flew to Atlanta to be here for the blessing. Among other things, Peter blessed her to follow her Grandma, Deanne Fielding, example of faithfulness and dilligence. Annie cried through the whole blessing. She was so loud that when Peter got done blessing her, the congregation started laughing.

Halloween

I love Halloween. There is nothing better than little kids in costumes. And since I love sewing clothes for my girls, there is nothing better than designing some fun, crazy costume. This year, Laura was too old to pick her costume for her and she insisted on choosing for herself. For a while, I couldn't convice her to be anything that was worth sewing. Finally I convinced her to be something that would make both of us happy: Cruella DeVille. I loved that I would get to dress her up in something girly and she loved that she was "the bad guy who steals all the puppies and puts them in cages."

We dressed Annie up as a dalmation puppy.

Some family pics:

Is it just me, or does Annie look just like her daddy? Seriously, she is like a mini Peter.

Three weeks old tomorrow

I can't believe how fast three weeks has flown by. It makes me sad because I don't want Annie to grow up so fast. I love this sleepy newborn stage where I can snuggle up to her and we can take a nap on the couch while Laura watches cartoons for an hour. She sleeps pretty well at night too. We have a hard time getting her to sleep some nights, but once she is asleep she will sleep for 4-5 hours before waking up and needing to be fed. Laura loves having a baby sister and is constantly showering her with kisses and hugs.

Last weekend we also had a fun visit with Peter's sister Cyndie and her family. It was so fun to have some family come visit. Laura had a great time with her older cousins and loves her new train set they brought her. Hooray for having family closer by!

Deanna Munk

Deanna (Annie) Munk was born Monday, August 20 at 3:11. After waiting and waiting for the last 9 months, I finally convinced our doctor to let us be induced at 40 weeks and 3 days. I have never gone into labor on my own and am doubtful that my body can actually do that. I don't mind being induced, in fact I like that I can pack my bags, clean my house and vacuum my floor and leave for the hospital with out feeling any pain. Here I am with my "humongous" belly right before we left.(Laura loved to tell me I was humongous.)

They started me with cervadil at about 10 pm. At 9am the next morning I was dialated to a 2 and they broke my water. The contractions started to get closer and stronger and I got an epidural. By 3 pm, we were ready to push the baby out and after 3 very quick pushes, she was here! It always surprises us how fast it goes at the end. She was 6 lbs 14 oz, 18 1/2 inches long. I think she is beautiful and when she opens her eyes she looks just like her daddy.

Ready and Waiting

We told Laura several months ago that the baby comes in August. She has been asking constantly since then "Is it August yet?" Now that it is August, she is a little confused and impatient. I am feeling the same way! The due date is not until this Thursday, but it seems that everyone keeps telling me that the baby will probably come early and for some reason I believed them. I don't know why I would believe the random lady at the grocery store or gym who tells me that it looks like I am ready, but I guess you believe what you want to hear. Anyways, they are all wrong. This baby is apparently waiting for her due date. I used to go to bed every night with a clean house and all my laundry done, just in case the baby came. Now I am saving my laundry up for a normal size load instead of mini daily loads since I obviously am not having this baby anytime soon. With my past 2 pregnancies I was induced. I am not even sure my body knows how to go into labor by myself. I am hoping to convince my doctor at my appt tomorrow to schedule an induction for Thursday, my due date. I have been spending the time getting everything ready for the baby. I finished her crib bedding.

I made this bird mobile to hang above her crib. Peter isn't so sure he wants sticks hanging above our little baby's head, but I think it turned out really cute.

I am not a quilter, but I had so much fun making this little baby quilt. Laura loves it and sleeps with it every night. She is going to be mad when the baby comes and she has to share it. (Sorry about the big belly in the picture. It was hard to hold the camera far enough out that it didn't catch any belly.)

I found this awesome wood doll house at a yard sale for FREE! It was covered in marker and crayon marks and needed some love. I painted it up and modge podged some cool paper to the inside walls and I love it. Now I need to get some cute furniture and dolls to put in it. I think I did it more for me than Laura since Laura could care less about dolls. But, I'm sure my next little girl is going to be my girly girl.

Laura got a new bed spread and some pillows as well. That bed spread just about killed my fingers because I had to sew each of those silly knots by hand. The bed also got a coat of some bright red paint and I painted and reupholstered my thrifted rocking chair to match.

I have also been sewing some clothes for the baby and I couldn't resist sewing a few matching outfits for my two girls.

On another topic, we recently returned from a visit to WA where I got to see all my siblings and Laura got to spend time with all her Fielding cousins. In spite of the fact that I was 34-36 weeks pregnant, we had so much fun. I love spending time with my family. We also got to go visit Angelica's grave. It has been over a year since we said goodbye to her and it was a very sweet and emotional experience to be back in that cemetary that now holds so many memories. Laura was excited to put a flower on her little sister's grave.

We buried her in the same plot as my sister who passed away in a car accident when I was 4. It makes me very happy to have them together here as I hope they are in heaven right now.

Father's Day Pictures

Happy Father's Day to Peter, the best Daddy ever! And for those of you who are wanting to see me at my largest, here I am at 31 weeks pregnant. I am officially at the huge stage. I can't wear any of my favorite maternity cloths because I've grown out of them and am down to a few outfits left that I fit in. Here is Laura, at age 3 and still working on growing in a full head of hair.

Birthday Girls

Now that we are settled in Atlanta, I thought I should share some pics from last month. Laura's birthday was on May 1st and we celebrated with a safari themed party. I made little safari vests, binoculars and clipboards for each of the kids. We played some fun games, including looking for hidden animals check off their clipboad list. Laura's favorite TV show right now is Go Diego Go and so she loved this part. I also served animal themed food: Monkey, Zebra and Tiger Cupcakes Snake Sandwich African Bird Fruit Kabobs and fish "bowls" Laura had a blast and I think it was worth all the work trying to plan a party 2 weeks before we moved. Peter took a couple of hours off of studying for finals to be there for the party. This is Laura with her best friend Giana whose mother, my friend Heidi, took all the birthday pics for me with her awesome camera and photography skills! We are happy that they also moved to Atlanta! We celebrated Angelica's birthday on May 4th. We started the day by going to breakfast. The morning that Angelica passed away we decided to wanted to spend the day celebrating her life and not feeling sad, so we went to a popular breakfast place in Nashville called the Pancake Pantry. We decided it would be fun tradition to continue each year on her birthday to remind us to celebrate her short life and the time we got to spend with her instead of feeling sad that we lost her so soon. Afterwards we went to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to drop off 10 preemie sleep gowns that I made using the same pattern I used to sew Angelica's few outfits that I made for her not knowing if she would be alive long enough to wear them. They fit her so perfectly and I was happy to have something small and cute to put her in. It is hard to find clothing small enough for preemie babies and the hospital said they would appreciate having the preeemie gowns on hand to give to other preemie babies. I spent a lot of time sewing those gowns and I enjoyed every minute of it thinking about the special babies that might wear them. Now we are getting anxious for our next Munk birthday- our baby due in August. It feels like I have been pregnant forever. Oh wait, I have been. Pretty much for the last 2 years straight. We can't wait to finally have a baby in our home! Laura is getting so big now and I want so badly to have some little, chubby, baby cheeks to kiss again. 10 more weeks!