Erin's Birthday

Erin turned 4 on last Wednesday! I can't believe how much she is growing up and how time flies! She said she wanted three things: pancakes for breakfast (easy enough), cupcakes (which she helped me make), and to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. I'm not sure how she knew about Chuck-E-Cheese because we've never been there, but it was a pretty easy request considering that it's about a half mile from our house.

The three kids. After we got home we had the cupcakes and opened her presents.

Here's Erin on one of the "rides" at Chuck-E-Cheese

Their first air hockey game. This one made me laugh because Alex is so short but he thinks he is a big kid and can do whatever Erin does.

Alex also learned how to play skee-ball (hmm, we may have to work on this one).

Baby Pictures

Here are some pictures of Marissa the first two weeks. Like a good little newborn she is sleeping and eating really well. She does great at night because she usually only wakes up once to eat and sleeps in her own bed (which my other two never really liked). The kids like the baby and Erin does a great job holding her. Alex always asks to "hold it, hold it" and pretty much treats her like one of the dolls. So far she's lived...

This was the first day meeting the kids.

Which one is the baby?

Sleepy in her swing. We love the new swing!

A "sort of" smile. She's been trying to smile lately.

I love how babies sleep with their arms like this.

Meet Marissa Daniels !!!

Marissa Daniels is the newest member of the Daniels Family. She was born at 8:10 pm on June 6th, 2008. She came in weighing 7lb 5oz and is 19 3/4 in long.

So....here is the story. It begins on Friday morning. We had no idea that the baby would be born this day, but for whatever reason we had a picture taken of us as a family.

Later on, Laura called me at work (4:00 pm) just to talk...she forgets to mention that she has been having regular contractions for the last hour. These contractions didn't yet hurt, but were regular. She calls me back at 5:00 asking when I was going to be coming home because "oh..by the way I'm having regular contractions." I left work within 10 min at that point :)

After getting home, she is still not in pain, so we go ahead and continue getting ready to go, including having dinner. The contractions start getting painful at about 6:15, but not so bad that she couldn't function (at least fairly normally) in-between contractions. We leave the house at 6:45 to go to the Miami Maternity Center and got there at about 7:15.

This picture was taken shortly after getting to the Maternity Center...you can see the bathtub in the background where she would actually deliver the baby. Laura looks really good here, but it is at this point that she begins to have nearly constant and the most painful of the contractions.

Here she is working through one of her contractions, shortly before changing to get into the tub.

So....not too many pictures of the actual delivery, but Emily (Laura's sister) was there taking notes and getting the whole thing on video (not included here :) I will tell you though that at about 8:07 Laura actually started pushing...and 3 min later Marissa was handed to her. I did my part by cutting the umbilical cord shortly after that.

Marissa (I'm still getting used to the name) is quite a little cutie. I don't think that she looks like either of our other kids. She seems to have a mellow personality and is seemingly content just looking around.

A Daddy Daughter Moment

Mom and Dad with new Baby Marissa

Mommy Daughter Moment...isn't Laura radiant :)

Aunt Emily getting a chance to hold the baby

Grandma Mary...with Marissa of course

We left the Maternity Center at about 12:30 pm...just over 5 hours after actually getting there. The Mid-wives and staff there are very professional and know exactly what they are doing. They perform a complete checkup and as long as the mother and child are doing well there is no need to keep them there. We also would much rather simply come home...and so we did.

This is Laura shortly after we got home just sitting on the couch watching Grandma hold the baby. She doesn't look at all like she just delivered a baby :)

Marissa has been an angel baby today...sleep, sleep, sleep, eat, and sleep some more. Hopefully this will continue tonight as well.

We are certainly very excited to welcome her into our home.