It's Been Awhile

Hi again. I know it's been awhile since our last post. It's amazing how time works during this phase. An hour can seem like an eternity, yet you blink and a month has gone by.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the last week or so. Enjoy. I'd put captions to each picture, but Taylor is crying which signals that my break is over!

More and more

I couldn't fit these on the last post because of size. Enjoy.

I never pictured myself as a father of 2 girls, especially growing up with all brothers, but I couldn't be more thrilled with the 2 beautiful girls God has blessed us with.

Grace really seems love the new addition to the family. She constantly wants to hold her and says "She's so cute!!"

Our friend Annika visited us in the hospital and called ahead to take our order from Wendy's. Jen got really excited when she realized she could have a frosty.

Taylor all set for the trip home.

Uncle Nick came home from college for a quick visit.

More Pictures of Taylor

Sorry for not posting over the last couple days, but I've been a little busy, haha.

We came home on Friday and Grace joined us on Saturday from her stay with the Grandparents. Many thanks to Grandma, Grandpa and Oma for taking care of Grace while we were in the hospital. Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the last couple days.



Our friend Kristi came to visit.


Jen looking amazingly beautiful. She just had major surgery, but still looks wonderful.


Jen and her sisters fawning over Taylor.

Uncle Dustin looking like an old pro. Of course he has many nieces and nephews so I guess he's had some practice holding a new born.

Aunt Janelle and Taylor getting acquainted for the first time.

Taylor with the Family

Here are some pictures of our first visitors at the hospital.

Boni "Oma" was our first visitor.

My brother, Mitch, stopped by after work.

Grace came with Grandpa and Grandma (Vitto) to say hi. You can tell she already loves her little sister. Her first words when she saw us was "Where's the little baby?" Glad to know she missed us.

Jen's parents enjoying their first moments with Taylor. The graciously brought me a sub from Wawa which I devoured in 30 seconds. Poor Jen, she was still on ice chips at this time.

The new family of 4. Wow, life is starting to move so fast. I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful family.

We will have more friends and family visiting tonight. More pics to come.

First Pics of Taylor

Another full head of hair. She reminds me a lot of Grace.
More to come.

It's A Girl !!!!

I am so happy to announce that Jen and I welcomed Taylor Rose Phipps into the
world today at 8:39am. She weighs 8 lbs 1 oz and is 21 inches long.
Baby and Mommy are doing great.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Pics to come soon. Right now, we're just soaking in the moment.

Checking in...

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am after getting about 3 hours sleep. Its our standard operating procedure for anything important (hospital stays, vacations, etc). We procrastinate, then rush around the last day getting things ready and going to bed way too late.
Anyway, we're all checked in and Jen is resting before the doctor comes in for final preps. I think we're scheduled for 7:45am to start the C-section.
Jen has already checked out the room service menu eventhough she can't eat until tomorrow morning. She can order breakfast all day every day so I think she's pretty pumped, especially after being on a low carb diet for the last 3 months.
We're really excited and a little nervous. The next time I write, it'll probably be with our new baby in the room. Wish us luck and keep praying.

The Night Before...

We're getting excited now. It's the night before we welcome our 2nd child into the world and become a family of 4. I know Jen has been looking forward to this for the last several weeks. She's such a trooper. We'll be heading to the hospital bright and early and the C-section should begin around 8am.
I'll keep everyone posted as much as I can. Hopefully I'll be able to have pictures up by late tomorrow or early Tuesday.
Please pray for Jen and the baby's safety and an uneventful C-section.
Look for updates tomorrow.

Winter Recap, or, the Procrastinator Posts finally.

So, it's been awhile. I seem to start all my posts out this way. I just can't seem to get into a routine of posting on this blog, and you know what? That's okay. I'm okay with it. Although the other day, my mother stated that she's sick of looking at my granola (she said this in nicer words, but I can always read between the lines). :-)

Anyway, here are some pictures of these past winter weeks. Not the best group of shots in the world, but a little peek into our world recently.

We are soon welcoming our new little one. Boy or girl? We can hardly stand the wait!!! I have about 2 1/2 weeks left, so we have been frantically preparing for baby to join us. Including turning our guest room/ironing/laundry/place for weird Christmas gifts into a nursery. James has been working so hard, painting, spackling, hauling boxes, cleaning, basically doing everything, and not having much time to himself these past months. He worked all last weekend to transform this room (wish I had a before picture) into this peaceful nursery with green walls & soft white curtains. I'll girl it up or boy it up after the baby comes.

James and Grace have had a special winter. Mainly because I have been the "unfun" parent during this 3rd trimester. I think I took her outside to play in the snow twice for 15 minutes each. Throwing a pidly little snow plop at her to seem festive, ignoring her pleas to build a snow fort. However, Daddy & Grace have had many fun outings in the snow this winter, with my job to provide hot chocolate afterwards. Deal.

Lots of fires with S'mores. Grace seems to be asking the S'more - "where have you been all my life?"January also held a special trip for just James & I. One of my Christmas presents from him was a weekend away at the Hotel Hershey. Pure bliss!
However, when we arrived, did we stroll the beautiful corridors of this historic hotel? Dine at one of their award winning restaurants? Relax and look longingly into eachother's eyes? No.A Steelers play-off game was on. So as you can see below, the minute we walked in the door, the TV went on, and my husband stood and paced, coached the players, and shouted at the screen for 3 hours. All for the good I guess, they won!

Actually, it was more than fine with me. I just laid down, read, and indulged in these strawberries!Finding out you have Gestational Diabetes a few days

before you get to Chocolatetown is quite depressing.I'm even bigger now if you can believe it!

It was an awesome weekend, and we had a blast.

It was so relaxing to just do nothing for 2 1/2 days! Thank you sweet husband!!

Below, Grace and I are making some bread. My little helper was so..."helpful". I'm pretty sure this baking session ended with a massive amount of flour on the floor, a tantrum because she couldn't put the bread in the oven herself, and ultimately on the timeout step. Thanks Aunt Janelle for our matching aprons though! So cute!

PS: That thing that landed on my head are my bangs. Ahh. morning hair.

Gracie jumping on her big girl bed as soon as it was put together. How thrilling!

Happy Stinkin' Valentine's Day.

Seriously, do you think I could get her to hold up her valentine card, and smile at me, just once? Nope.

Valentine's Day Ice Cream Cone and super duper cool cup from Aunt Mary!

I'd love to say - check my blog for more interesting and insightful posts in a few days....but if I'm realistic, the next post will probably be from James announcing the birth of our little one. Enough typing, going to go out and enjoy this weather! Spring is just around the corner....