Comin' Right Along!

Over the last couple weeks, there has been a fury of construction on our new house. My parents and I went over to see what the house looked like during the half-time break of the BYU - Florida State game. They had put on the 2nd story for the most part and had the trusses for the roof stacked and ready to go.



By the following Tuesday, this is how it looked:



It was a very good week in terms of weather -- it was sunny and warm every day -- and the workers put in long days. I stopped by at 6 pm and they were still there and had just finished up. One thing that I love about the lot/cul-de-sac is the view of Mt Rainier. We would have a pretty good view of the mountain from the house if the trees were 200 ft to the left :)



This past Saturday (the 26th), they put the shingles on... WAAAHOOO!! This is a really good thing because the weather is forecast to be rainy this week. At least I won't have to worry too much about all the framing and plywood inside getting wet!



So now, it appears that the plumbing, vents, heat ducts, and fireplace have all been installed. I think next up is the electrical work!

A Cake to Remember

Nate and his mom made this lovely cake for me for my birthday and it truly is a cake to remember. Nate decorated it himself so it was a labor of love. I don't think I've ever had such a unique-looking cake. I loved it though because he made it just for me and it tasted great! The finishing touch, however, was the large emergency preparedness candle that was used in place of regular birthday candles because we didn't have any...lol. At least I got it easy this year when it came to blowing out the candle! I love my husband!




Nate also took me out to Applebee's for my birthday and it was so fun to get all dressed up and go out. We hadn't done that in a LONG time. After that, we came home and watched a movie together and relaxed. So it was a really great birthday!

Changes Overnight!

Though this title may sound like it applies to Emma (which it probably does), it actually applies to our house, literally. On Sunday night Craig and Valerie went to our lot to see what it looked like and saw that it looked the same as the last picture we had of it's progress. Nothing had really changed in a couple of days. Then yesterday one of our friends in the ward who lives right by it saw that they were already working on the second floor that afternoon! She told Valerie about it yesterday so we went to look at it and sure enough it was already looking like our house! How awesome is that!

Here is our front door:

This is looking into the kitchen area from the back of the house. That short little wall there is the beginnings of the bar.

This is looking into our living room from the back of the house:

And this is the beginnings of our second floor!

We're so happy it's actually getting done!

Emma's Blessing Weekend

This last weekend Emma was given her baby blessing. Grandma and Grandpa Hoggan and my sister Julia and her family all came out for it and we had a great time with them here! Saturday we did some shopping while Julia and the kids went to Forks and then that evening we headed over to the place James and Julia were renting for the weekend to watch the first BYU football game of the season. Such a great game! It was Emma's first game too and she was all decked out like a true blue Cougar in her BYU onesie. We had waited to put it on her until right before the game so she wouldn't dirty it with a blowout or something. Then of course less than an hour after we put it on she had a MASSIVE blowout...lol. Oh the irony of it all. But at least we got one picture of her in it.

Then of course Sunday was the blessing day and Emma looked so precious in her blessing outfit. Julia, the talented woman that she is, made this dress. She did an amazing job and it fit perfectly! Nate gave her a beautiful blessing and I cannot describe the emotions I felt as he gave it to her. Now I finally know how mothers feel and why they always tear up at things like this. I feel so blessed to be a mother and I love my baby girl so much!!! It's by far the most joyful feeling I've ever felt besides being married to the love of my life. Emma is an angel and so very special. She will be an amazing woman as we discovered in her blessing!


After church, we headed over to Grammy Jean's house to have a luncheon with the family. We were originally going to have it outside at a gazebo near Grandma Donna's house, but the rain put a damper on that idea. It all worked out though and it was great to have so many family members from both mine and Nate's sides there. After that, we went back home and played games with my parents and my sister and her family.


Then they all held Emma before leaving and we took lots of pictures. It was so sweet to see them all hold her!






James and Julia went home Monday but my parents stayed until Tuesday so we went to Snoqualmie Falls to do a little sight seeing. It was a great weekend!




Lastly, I just had to add this picture of Emma saying hi! :)

House Progress!!

During the past few weeks, Nate and I have been following the progress of our new house. We are just getting so excited and antsy to have our own place! It's been really fun to see it getting built right before our eyes! This is what it looked like the end of August just before they put the foundation in:


Just this past week they put the foundation in. That made it feel very real:

Then this week they have been putting the framing in:


I can't believe it's really going to be our house! Can you tell I'm giddy? Our very own house! Woohoo!!

Three Weeks Old!

Emma is three weeks old today! I can't believe how fast time is going. I feel so bad too because I haven't been keeping up the blog with things about her. It's been a hard but rewarding past 3 weeks. The first week we were just trying to get used to the whole lack of sleep thing...lol. Emma definitely had her days and nights mixed up. She would have cluster feedings at night, wanting to eat practically every hour and not really sleeping in between. Then she would sleep most of the day and I would have to wake her up to eat. By the second week she was a little bit better and had some good nights when she and I would get a good 3 hour stretch of sleep at a time. Those nights were very nice to have! But with the good comes the bad. She started to cry a lot the second week and is still having problems with that. We think she might be somewhat colicky because she just seems unhappy a LOT! Poor baby! It's so hard to hear them cry and not know what's wrong with them. Thankfully she does take a pacifier, but sometimes she won't even take that. She's also had some problems eating. Unless I get her on right away before she starts wailing, it takes forever to get her to calm down enough to latch on. She also gets so excited when she eats that she hyperventilates, swallows tons of bubbles, and sometimes gets the milk down the wrong pipe. I end up having to get her back on 3 or 4 times on each side because of those things. The second week I also got a breast infection. I had started feeling very achy and kept getting fevers. I was so worried I was sick with something that I was going to give to Emma and so I was relieved when I found out it was something I couldn't give to her. The doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and things got better after that. Although I must say that breastfeeding is very painful, even still. But we just keep going knowing that it is for the best and that it won't always be this way. Emma also had her first real photo shoot her second week of life! We had our friend Ashley from our ward take pictures of her for us. She did a fantastic job! We are really happy with the results. Emma did a great job too! She only cried a little and gave the camera some really cute poses and faces. I've posted a lot of those pictures on Facebook so I'll only post a few favorites here.




Then her third week she had another photo shoot by our friend Jocelyn, also from the ward. She offered to take a few pictures so she could get some practice and they turned out so cute as well! Jocelyn is definitely talented! Emma is also so photogenic. We love it! I'll post some of those when we get them back. Emma has also had a chance to go a few places and really likes car rides and stroller rides. Her first week we went to the doctor for her first check up and all was well with her. Then later in the week we had to go back to the hospital for her second hearing screening since her right ear had failed the first one after birth. Thankfully she passed this time! I'm glad she can hear because it seems like she's been enjoying listening to Mom and Dad play the piano and sing to her. Her second week we took her to another doctor's appointment and she checked out healthy again! We are so happy to have a healthy baby! So blessed! The next day we went to our options selection appointment for our new house that we are building! That's also some new news. The Friday before she was born we signed the papers to buy and build a new home! It was a great deal that we couldn't pass up so we did it. It's so much fun too to choose the things we want inside. It's going to be so nice to have our own home! It should be done by the end of November so we're looking forward to it! We can't wait!! After choosing our upgrades, we stopped by the bank where I used to work so my old co-workers could all see Emma. It was nice to see them again and they all loved her. Emma's also had a chance to go out for a stroll around the neighborhood, go to Costco, and go on an outing for lunch to Jocelyn's house. Slowly we're getting her used to going out and to life in general on this earth :). She's also growing a lot! Her newborn size clothes are starting to get pretty tight on her and she's looking more like an infant than a newborn. She's just such a cutie and I can't get enough of her! Here are some random pictures of her during the past 3 weeks.

After her first bath at home:


All snug in her big crib:


Chillin' on our bed:
Nate and Emma fell asleep like this after Nate finally got her to stop crying. I love it!!


Being cute during floor time:

Emma Beth Jackson

Our beautiful baby girl was born July 29th, 2009 at 7:43am, sharing a birthday (and a name) with Grandma Hoggan. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long. We are both so happy and can't believe the amount of love we have for her! She is our precious little angel and our cute little squeaker! She has a squeaky little voice that just melts your heart. Here she is just 7 minutes after birth:

Here she is with Grandma and Grandpa Hoggan:

Mommy and Emma:

Aunt Stacey and Grandma Jackson with her:

Emma being held by cousin Kaiya with cousin Ella and Aunt Heidi looking on:

Making a cute little face for the camera!

The labor and delivery went well, although it wasn't very fun...lol. The story actually starts back on Saturday the 25th. We had our big stake celebration for it's 25th anniversay that day. There were lots of fun family games and Nate and I decided to join in on some. We were just crossing the finish line for the 3 legged race when we noticed my parents standing right there cheering us on. We were completely shocked!! It took me a second to realize my parents were really here and I just thought "How the heck did you find us and why are you here??" They had driven up the day before and decided to surprise us. And they certainly did. At that point I was really excited and really worried all at the same time because I knew they were here hoping that Emma would come really soon and I hadn't felt any contractions and was sure labor was forever away (even though I was dilated to a 4 and a half). They came for the week and so we were all hoping she would come while they were here! We did a lot of walking, went to Seattle to sight see, and just did things to keep ourselves busy so that labor would possibly get started. I had my routine check up on Tuesday so we thought that if nothing had progressed by then we would possibly ask about induction so that my parents didn't come up here for nothing. Well it turned out that we didn't even have to ask. The doctor saw that I was dilated to a 7 and completely effaced and sent me straight to the hospital. I felt totally normal until I got dressed and laid down in the hospital bed. It was then that I felt my first real contraction...weird huh? I had a few more but they didn't get closer or more intense so they decided that later they would break my water. They had to put me on antibiotics for at least 4 hours before baby came out because I was GBS positive, but after that they finally broke my water. It was about 1:30 in the morning when this happened and the contractions came on really strong after that! I decided not to take any meds for the pain so Nate and I worked through the contractions until about 5:15 am. (Nate was an amazing coach, by the way. I couldn't have done it without him. He's the best husband in the whole world!!!!!!!) That's when I was finally at a 10 and started pushing. After 2 and half hours of pushing, getting a tear and then an episiotomy, and having the vacuum extractor used (poor baby!), Emma came into the world, eyes wide open and everything!! It was the most amazing feeling I've ever felt to hold that baby for the first time. Nate and I were both so emotional and happy about this miracle of ours. It was like we were in a dream world for those first few hours and even the first day or two. We were also very tired...lol. It is an amazing feeling being a parent. We absolutely love it!! This beautiful little girl is our baby and we are so incredibly happy to have her here!! We can already tell she'll be a quick developer too. She is already doing very well at moving her neck and head, she latches and eats just wonderfully, and she also loves to roll to her side when we lay her down to sleep. She is a very special spirit and we are so blessed to have been given this beautiful girl!