Welcome Paige Ellyson!

We are officially a family of four now!! Paige Ellyson was born on January 8th - 8 days early. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Everthing went very well and everyone is healthy so far, so we feel very blessed. Quite different from Autumn, Paige didn't waste much time once she decided she was ready to join the world. We got to the hospital at 2:30pm and she was born at 5:40pm. It took us a while that morning to decide whether it was the real deal, and looking back we're sure glad we went to the hospital when we did. Things progressed very quickly once we got there. Nick had to leave the room while I got my epidural and by the time it was done I was fully dilated. I actually had to call him to get back so he didn't miss anything. At that point we were basically waiting for the doctor to get to the hospital to deliver her, so it was a pretty interesting 30 minutes.

It was a wonderful experience and now we're home and adjusting to the balancing act of having two kids. Autumn has been a great big sister so far which has been a big help. Of course we've had our moments, but overall our biggest issue is helping her understand what she can help with and what Mom and Dad need to take care of.

Getting warm after her first bath at home...

Christmas 2010

Happy 2011 everyone!!! This will likely be our last update as a family of three...kind of crazy to think about the fact that next Christmas the baby that we haven't even met yet will be almost one year old. We had a wonderful and relaxing week between Christmas and New Years, which is exactly what we all needed. Autumn was in need of some quality time with Mommy and Daddy and she definitely got it. We had such an awesome week hanging out with her and we felt like the old Autumn was back. We know things will get busy again soon, which made the time with her even more special.

Our families were great about traveling our way this year since we weren't able to leave town. Nick's family came down the weekend before Christmas, and we celebrated Christmas with my family New Years weekend. As always Autumn was totally spoiled by both families with lots of cool gifts! Christmas weekend was just the three of us. It was a little weird to not be with family for the first time ever, but it was nice to spend the weekend in our pajamas. Autumn was more into Santa this year and was excited to see that he ate the cookies and drank the milk that we left for him. At first she was concerned that someone else had eaten them and she thought we should leave more out for him Christmas morning, but once she saw that he had left gifts she realized he was the one who ate them :).

New Years was pretty low key too. We had a crazy night at home making chocolate fondue and drinking sparkling grape juice at midnight. I know, you're all jealous.

Enjoy the pics and hopefully next time you hear from us we will be introducing a new member to the family!

Here's Autumn in her Christmas dress. It was a pretty hilarious scene at my sisters house trying to get the kids dressed. Autumn was crying because she didn't want to wear a dress, Maddie was crying because Shannon had her try Autumn's dress on as an attempt to get Autumn to wear it and then Maddie did NOT want to take it off, and Brian was dressing Jacob and hiked his pants up so high he looked like Urkel! Eventually we got the dress on by telling Autumn that we were going to Jesus' birthday party and you had to wear a dress to get in.

I can't believe how grown up she looks in it!!


...checking out her new ornament for this year

Autumn and Nick have read through her "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book every night for the past few weeks. She thinks it's the coolest thing ever because Grandma and Grandpa Church and Latta all recorded themselves reading it, so it's like they are there to read her a book every night. I have a feeling we'll be reading it well into February.

Okay, a few things about this picture:

1. We are all wearing handbands as demanded by Autumn. There was no taking them off that day. Lucky for Nick he got the blue one, but Rog doesn't look too shabby in yellow either!

2. Please note my parents' sweatshirts...that's right, they pulled out the ol' puffy painted Christmas sweatshirts that my sister and I made for them...in 1990!! Personally I'm impressed that they still fit!

Santa brought Autumn a pack-n-play, stroller, bouncer, etc for her baby dolls. She then discovered that she fits into it too and spent most of Christmas weekend eating snacks and watching tv in it. Autumn and Macy became pretty good buddies over Christmas break too.


Decorating Christmas cookies...a two year old with a container of sprinkles is a recipe for disaster!

Hanging out with cousin Brady on their new snowboogie boards from G&G Church!

Amazing how pulling out the Mickey Mouse chairs can get three kids to sit down and smile all together!

Halloween and Thanksgiving 2010

Yep, it's December 27th and I'm just doing our Halloween update. I guess I know what my New Years Resolution should be for 2011...

We aren't quite done celebrating Christmas yet so I'm hoping that baby Young gives us another week or two before she arrives so I can do another update going into the new year. As most of you know 2010 was a very eventful year for us from beginning to end, and we are very much looking forward to beginning 2011 with such a wonderful (and planned) change for our family.

Since my last update was while Autumn was still in her cast, I'll start with a progress report on that. The cast came off after 6 weeks, which we were thrilled about! That was on September 29th, so by Halloween she had been a free woman for about a month. The process of taking off the cast was quite an ordeal, and not something she enjoyed, but as soon as it was done she was totally giddy and didn't stop smiling and laughing for days. It was pretty weird watching her legs move around involuntarily for a while - she had no strength or muscle control and they wiggled like jello. The best way to describe the rehab process is like having an infant all over again and watching them go through all the normal stages, but at an excellerated pace. First she could only scoot or army crawl, then a few days later she started crawling on her knees. The next week she began pulling herself up on furniture and eventually walking along side of things. Overall it took about a month before she could stand on her own and take some steps by herself. (Most of our trick-or-treating was done in the wagon). After about 6 weeks she was walking and running a little bit, but it probably took 8-10 weeks to really feel like she was back to normal. We are very thankful to have that experience behind us :)

With Autumn's new found freedom we were all looking forward to the holidays. For Halloween we did the usual pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, etc. We were also able to spend some time with both families including going to pumpkin patches with both sets of grandparents and cousins. For Thanksgiving we spent time both in Napoleon and Toledo eating way too much as usual. We also had a special weekend in November at Great Wolf Lodge with my parents and my sister and her family to celebrate my parents 35th anniversary and my dad's 60th birthday.

Here are some pictures, mainly from Halloween. I guess I didn't do such a great job of capturing Thanksgiving this year...oops!

We went to Boo at the Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Latta and the Howmans. It was fitting since all the kids were wild animals this year. Who are we kidding though - regardless of their costumes they fit right in at the zoo :)


Happy girl with her chocolate!

After we were done trick-or-treating, Autumn did a great job of helping daddy pass out candy to all the other kids.

We weren't able to trick-or-treat with Brady this year, but that didn't stop the kids from wearing their costumes for half a day.

The first weekend in November Autumn graduated to her big girl bed! We were just getting ready to make the transition before she broke her leg, and then had to delay it for a few months, so she was more than ready by the time we felt comfortable doing it. It was a big weekend because the way she earned her big girl bed was to give up her pacifiers. We sat down and wrote a letter to Santa telling him that she was a big girl now and she was mailing her pacifiers to him so he could give them to a baby girl or boy who needed them for Christmas. It went much better than we could have imagined and two months in she still won't get out of her bed until we come get her. Gotta love that!

Autumn's Big Pink Bandaid

I think most of you know the story, but for those who don't let me catch you up. On Tuesday, August 17th Autumn was playing in our living room. It was close to bed time and she wasn't in the best mood. In somewhat of a fit, she turned around quickly and accidentally stepped into a small toy wagon that was sitting on the floor. Her left leg went into the wagon and it started rolling forward. To try and balance, she turned to her right and twisted her right leg at a funny angle - then she fell down. The wagon literally sits two inches off the ground, but between the twist and the fall it ended up breaking her right femur.

Right when it happened she was crying so I picked her up and set her on my lap. I tried to see if she would stand up but she wouldn't put weight on the leg. However, she calmed down within about 10-15 minutes and even fell asleep in my arms shortly after. We certainly weren't thinking we had a broken leg on our hands, so we decided to put her to bed at 8:30 and check on her throughout the night. I went up at 9:30 and 10:30 and she was resting fine. At 1:00am she moaned a little and asked for me, so I went up and she had rolled over her right leg onto her belly. Even with that though, she said she was fine and fell right back asleep. That was the last we heard from her until 9:30 in the morning. When I went up to get her out of bed, however, she immediately started crying when I tried to move her. Needless to say off we went to the Dr. Our pediatrician took her pants off and without even touching her leg could tell it was broken. She sent us immediately to Children's Hospital in Columbus. The next 5 hours were spent in the ER getting x-rays and explaining what happened to about 15 different nurses and doctors. Many of them also couldn't believe that an accident like that resulted in a broken femur, and they were even more astonished at how well she had tolerated the pain through the night. According to them, Autumn was somewhat of an anomoly. They said when this type of fracture occurs in a child they are usually in overwhelming pain to the point where you're in the ER within 15 minutes and there's no doubt that something is seriously wrong. As each nurse and doctor came in to evaluate her, they were amazed at how content she was. (In a way it ended up back-firing because we had to fight pretty hard to get pain meds for her later that day and through the night.)

Anyway, we spent Wednesday night in the hospital and first thing Thursday morning Autumn went under anesthesia to have the bone reset and casted. Because it was the femur that broke, they had to do a 2/3 body cast called a spica cast. As you can see from the pics below, both legs are fully casted and, other than an open area for changing diapers, the cast goes all the way up her waist to about an inch below her chest. She will have to have the cast on for 6-8 weeks and at this point we aren't quite sure what to expect when it comes off. We keep hearing that she shouldn't need any PT or rehab, but niether of us are totally believing that at this point.

It has been quite an ordeal and nothing that Nick and I ever imagined happening. We are about 2.5 weeks in at this point and can gladly say there has been vast improvement from week one. Those first 5-6 days were very difficult for everyone, her especially. Having a 2.5 yr old immobilized from the chest down has required a level of patience we weren't sure we had, and we are amazed every day at her spirit and how well she's handling this. Of course she (and we) have our moments, but we are grateful that this is temporary and she should make a full recovery.

First full day home with the cast, and first of many many wagon rides.


We don't know how we would have managed up to this point without our amazing parents. Yesterday was literally the first day since this happened that either my mom or Nick's mom were not here, and both have agreed to spend additional full weeks with us to help since I am limited with carrying and lifting her due to my pregnancy. The Grandpas have also made multiple trips down to check on her and help out, and have also been in charge of Macy (our dog) since we aren't comfortable with her being here for the time being.

Autumn insisted that Grandma Church put her glasses on too for the pic. Autumn looks like Stevie Wonder, but with a pacifier....


Day 3 in the cast....this pretty much sums up everyone's state of being.


Maddie and Autumn with their matching itouches. It's insane to me that my two year old has an itouch but it has been a huge help these past few weeks, especially in the car.


Autumn and Daddy bonding over some finger painting


Two weeks down, 4-6 to go. It's so good to see smiles from her :)

Summer 2010

Oh, where to begin. I'm certainly not going to win any blogger of the year awards this year considering our last post was in April. It's been a fast and fun summer. Our summer began with some exciting news that baby #2 is on the way and due January 16th!!! Shortly after that the fun of first trimester sickness began so June and July were spent swimming and playing with Autumn and promising Nick that I would laugh again come August :). He decided he doesn't particularly like "first trimester Jen".

In July, Nick and Grandpa Latta built Autumn her very own swingset. She was thrilled and kept clapping as they were working, saying "yeah Grandpa, yeah Daddy!"


This summer was SO HOT!!! The only way to survive was to spend lots of time in the water. Here's Autumn in our blow up pool going down the slide head first. She certainly discovered her love of water this year...to the point where Nick and I didn't know whether to be happy or scared at how fearless she is.


Maddie, Jacob and Autumn cooling off in the pool at the Latta Family Gathering at Indian Bear Lodge.


Starting to see a trend here? The next few pics are from 4th of July at Grandma and Grandpa Church's lakehouse. More fun in the sun and pool!

Autumn discovered the Slip-N-Slide!! Nick's cousin Tina had a cookout 4th of July weekend and this kept her entertained for hours. Duke (the dog) had lots of fun chasing her down the slide and jumping over it too.

Cutie pie :)

Can't believe our niece Maddie is already three! Going along with the theme of the summer, she had a pool party. Lots of fun - she's growing up so fast!

Two going on 25....who's ready for some shopping?!?!?

Autumn had her first fair experience this year when we took her to the Ohio State Fair. She loved it, and got to feed goats, llamas and a deer. We were so surprised at how quickly she took to the animals and feeding them. I think she would have slept in that barn with them if she could have.

...And let's not forget the other reason to go to the fair - the food! A proud moment - Autumn's first elephant ear :)

These last two pics are from our Girls weekend with my friends from high school. Getting all of us together in the same place is no easy task, and it was so much fun hanging out with everyone and seeing all the kids. Kind of crazy looking at this picture at all of the kids together (and there's one missing - where's Taylor?)

Autumn Turns 2!

Well Autumn is officially a toddler! We had so much fun celebrating her birthday and Easter over the last few weeks. Unfortunately Autumn was actually sick on her birthday (which fell on Easter) so that day was pretty low key as she wasn't quite herself. For a few days starting on her birthday, we were afraid that a little toddler fairy had come into her room and gave her a crash course in "how to act like a 2 year old", but we were relieved that once she started feeling better she went back to her normal self. We had her party on the 10th and by then she was good to go so we had lots of fun and were so thankful that she was happy and healthy for that.

Here are some pics from March and April so far, including her birthday and Easter.

We went to Toledo in March to spend some time with Nick's family. Autumn saw Brady's underwear and thought they were a hat, so for the next 8 hours this was what she looked like :) Here's a picture of Grandma Church helping her wash her hands.

On April 3rd we went to an Easter egg hunt at the park by our house. Even though Autumn wasn't 100% she still had a great time. I think she makes a pretty cute snail :)

These next three pictures are on Autumn's birthday. We thought it would be fun to let her help bake and decorate her own birthday cake. We really did have fun watching her decorate it and eating it wasn't so bad either - it was very crunchy!

Autumn's masterpiece

One of her birthday gifts from Mom and Dad...a new slide!


...and these are pics from her E-I-E-I-O birthday party on the 10th. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! Autumn had a great time playing with everyone!

Autumn has spent a lot of time since her party pushing her new Ernie around in her new stroller! She is a little partial to Ernie these days.


The three most important people in our house right now...the pig and cow balloons from her party and Ernie. She said Ernie wanted to have his picture taken with them so she could see it in the camera.