Our New Baby Girl-Emersen Brooke

Well, once again, I can't believe it has been so long since our last post.  I would like to introduce you to our new baby girl, Emersen Brooke.  She is so absolutely adorable and we are in love with her every second of every day.  We call her Emee for short and she is almost six months and full of so much spunk.  She is nearly crawling, but in the meantime she rolls and scoots everywhere she wants to go. 
I thought I would reverse a little bit and describe our last six months.  Emersen was born promptly on her due date of July 30th.  Because I was three weeks early with Raegen, I was convinced that Emee would be early also.  I thought she may even be a 4th of July baby, but she certainly had other plans.  I had quite a bit of contractions and it seemed as though every morning I would wake up questioning if that was the day.  I would then hop in the bath and decide whether or not it was real labor.  On the morning of the 30th, I woke up with quite a few contractions and they increased in frequency and strength as soon as I was in the bath so I knew that it was the real thing.  We called my midwife to let her know and she said she would get everything ready at the hospital for our arrival.  We arrived at the hospital a little before 9 and Emee was born at 10:14am.  It was very fast, and that was such a blessing.  Raegen did so great staying with Grandma Roseann and was so excited to come to the hospital to meet her new baby sister.  She came to the hospital with her baby doll, Favorite, all buckled in her doll car seat and with her new diaper bag.  It was so cute!
I feel like we lost August and September because I had some postpartum healing issues and had to travel to Boise for a few specialist appointments.  Raegen started preschool in September and absolutely loves it.  She in one of 7 children in a coop preschool that we do and so we get to teach and have preschool at our house every other month.  Along with the preschool group, we take a field trip once a month as well.  In September, they went and toured Glanbia(milk and cheese processing plant) and then in October we went to the pumpkin patch.  Raegen loved the pumpkin patch and wishes we could visit and partake of the Harvest activities year round.
The holidays were so great but seemed to go by way too fast.  For Thanksgiving, we were all together at my parent's house.  We got to meet baby Timothy for the first time and they met Emee as well.  We snuggled the cute babies(Owen, Timothy, and Emersen) and loved seeing Aiden, Treb, and Raegen play together.  We at a delicious dinner, visited with the extended family, and enjoyed our time together.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we had quite a scare with Emersen and ended up at the ER.  She woke up one night suddenly with a fever of 104 and was gasping for her breath.  We were quite concerned and so we rushed her to the ER.  They did a test for RSV, chest xray to check for pneumonia, and several breathing treatments along with a dose of steroids.  Her breathing and oxygen levels were so scary as well as her heart rate.  We spent several hours in the ER until they felt better about her breathing and heart rate.  They sent us home with an antibiotic for ear infections and potential bacterial pneumonia and diagnosed her with croup.  It was so scary to us.  I guess our baby girls like to scare us since Emee ended up in the ER at 4 months and Raegen at 4 days:) 
For Christmas, we travelled to Shelley and spent a week with The Gray's.  It was so fun because Rebecca, Jordan, and Annabeth made a surprise appearance and so all of the granddaughters were able to spend Christmas together.  We ate delicious food and treats and of course were spoiled by so many amazing gifts.
New Years Eve we celebrated with our little family and we had a special dinner of coconut shrimp, tri tip steak, salad, and other snacks.  Then we had dinner at my parents on New Year's Day.  We are excited for all that 2013 has in store for our family.  We are working on selling our home and potentially starting to build a new home on our lot that we own in Kimberly.  Yikes, so many changes, but so exciting!
That brings us to Raegen's upcoming 3rd birthday.  She requested a princess party so we have a royal party set for this Saturday.  We are going to bbq hamburgers and hot dogs with french fries per Raegen's request.  Hopefully, I will post party pics soon.  Happy 2013!