Embry David is here!!

Introducing Embry David York!

Embry came a few days earler than planned! I had a C-section sceduled for the 5th but went into labor Feb 29 after working a busy last day and meeting my friend Kate for coffee until 11:30! On the way home I was talking to my brother andf said, " I gotta go. These contractions are getting painful!" Since I had been with him the day that the other two were born I thought it just might be because I was talking to him and he has some kind of magic about him-haha! I was not ready to go into labor! I was exhausted after a day that started at 5 am and I still had office notes to finish from work. Plus both boys were asleep... and I had my surgery scheduled with a hernia repair at the same time and I knew it wouldn't happen if I went into labor early! I got hom and kept telling Wes, "I don't wanna do this tonight!" But, they got stronger so we packed up all 4 of us very quickly and took the boys to our sitter's house to spend the night. We walked in at 1 am and Collin said, "Waffle" and headed to her kitchen because that's his usual morning routine at her house! Anyways, Wes and I drove  to the hospital where they held off my contractions until morning with IV fluids. The doctor came around the next day about 9 and said I had progressed enough that she could do the seciton early. She tried to get my other surgeon on board for the hernia but he couldn't do it so I was disappointed but so excited ot have Embry here early!!! After a not so easy C-section (my epidural took awhile to work so they had to give me more and then my BP and pulse were erratic and freaked me out), he was born at 11 am exactly and weighed 7 pounds 2 oz and was 19 3/4 long...almost exactly Collin's weight and height! He looks exactly like his brothers on their first few days!!!We are trying to adjust now at home with three boys but loving every minute of having Embry with us. How blessed we are for this little guy and so undeserving of him and his good health. Praise God for such a sweet surprise!!!... and I did finish all my notes right up until the surgery working on my laptop-haha!

The Sweetest Daddy of Three Ever

Proud Papa

Grandma

Mimi

Denny

Big Brother Ashton immediately kissed Embry and just loves to kiss him!

Three Generations of York Males!

Our first family of 5 photo!

love this one!!!

I missed my older boys!

Uncle P came in the next day just in time for tornados and escaped the bad weather in Nashville!!

Headed Home!

The boys ran out to meet us!

Favorite Things Ashton Has said lately...

On the way to the OB this week, "Mommy, when I get big, I'm gonna pee in a cup...Do you poop in a cup too?"

Then as they are both squatting down watching me aim for the cup, "I wanna see. I wanna see!!!" So I hold the cup for them both to oooh and aaaah over my successful aim. I wish I had a picture of them watching and cheering me on. OB visits are priceless!!

In the car, "mommy I have to tee tee."
me-"we're almost there Ashton. Please hold it and we'll go straight to the bathroom."
"But if I hold it, I can't hold my cars."

me before bed the other night, "Phew. I am TIRED!"
A-"Yeah, Collin wore me out. He said so many things today!"

"I am really impressed that it's not raining today."

"Can I have dessert if I eat all my pancakes?"

"When Mimi stays with me when Embry's born, I want pasta for supper."

And here are some photos over the past month. The first is Collin at dinner folding his hands the other night. It was so sweet. He is offically now 18 months old and talking like crazy!

Ashton with chocolate milk after successful potty time this week! He also got to go with me to see a play of "If you Give a mouse a cookie" yesterday!

Me with Embry David at 33 weeks

Thomas has them in a trance. Today Collin called him Tom which cracked me up!

This boy loves to hold his shirt up and shout" Belly Button!!!"

Boys playing with all the baby stuff I unpacked. Good thing Embry will be getting new nipples because they both had a ball sucking on them!

With a third boy coming, it's time Ashton really earned his keep around here! I only wish he'd always think cleaning was fun!

And another quote..."Is Embry's head gonna be like Collin's?"

And a great story...Last night Wes and I were headed to dinner and the symphony and my parents were babysitting. Showing my mom how to use Ashton's epipen, I accidentally stuck myself because I thought it was the tester! We called 911 and gthe paramedics monitored me. Turned out it only got into my hand but nothing else thank God because I backed my hand away so quickly. But, we still went to the ER to have the baby's heart monitored and all was fine. Anyway tonight Ashton says, "That was funny when you took my medicine and it made you sick and the firemen came."

Christmas Morning

Christmas Pictures 2011...finally!!

Add caption

Checking out Santa's gifts

Unfortunately you can't see my tummy in this picture but it is quite large even a month ago!

Christmas was great for us because we could spend it in our new home and our parents came to us! My parents and brother hung out Christmas Eve and Wes' parents came up Christmas day. Here are some photos starting with Christmas morning.  The boys had so much fun and Ashton especially was excited this year more than in years past.

Collin's First Thomas-just his size!

Ashton's new car transporter

Collin got a little sleepy

Our sweet boys

New train table from Grandma and Papa

Santa eats vegan at our house. We left him some gingerbread and a reindeer cookie Ashton and I made for Rudolph. He also had some hemp milk to wash it down!

This is Christmas Eve. Ashton looks so old in this photo!

This was definitely a Thomas Christmas

The best gift I've given in years...A cookbook called Cookin With Coolio!

Collin loves carrying around a little New Testament. Bible. He's about to preach to us here!

Lightning McQueen Tent from Uncle Patrick!

Eating a snack on the way to church Christmas Eve. I can't reach Collin so I always get Ashton to feed him in the car. It's so sweet but this night he says, "Mommy, I'm getting tired of doing this." I love seeing Collin's little hand poke out from his car seat!

Santa left three pairs of PJs for the boys this year. Can't wait to see them all three in them!

Thanksgiving 2011

This boy loves the stairs

Telling Pop a story

The great Grandmothers

watching Thomas with his Great Grandaddy

Dedication of Our New Home

Almost 4 years ago we were pregnant with Ashton and put our condo on the market. A long 2 years after that with a little boy over a year old, we moved out ready to close on a sale and buy a house we had a contract on. All of you know that the sale fell through and we dealt with a great deal of frustration and tears and questions to God as to why. Everyone had advice for us and we struggled to decide if we should rent the condo, fight legally what was going on in our complex, or move back. God spoke very clearly to Wes and me both through David Platt and his book Radical that we wanted to go against what our culture would think was pursuing happiness in trying to do everything we could to get our house. God wanted us to move back with our little family and not only that but wanted to add another child to our small home as we found out we were pregnant with Collin at the same time. We did not know why or how, but we chose to follow Him. We admit now that we feel we could have done more over the past 2 years for our neighbors here and although we were able to help in a few cases, we still feel like we could have done more, but we definitely learned about what it means to truly live in plenty which we feel like we do here in the states. We recognized how grateful we should be for this place and every single small blessing God has given to us which we do not deserve. After almost two more years of waiting for this place to sell and taking it on and off the market and lowering the price, we began to ask God if He wanted us to use the money we had for a house for a different purpose. We felt he may be leading us to adopt another child and we told Him we would and that we would live here with three children if that was His will. We took the month of June to seriously pray about this. At the beginning of July, we found out I was pregnant. We don't know why God closed the door for us to adopt but we decided to try to find a house again and asked our condo association if we could rent our place and they granted us permission. We quickly found a house we fell in love with and prayed for a renter which He faithfully brought and today we close on our house almost 4 years later and with three young boys. It is a very emotional day for us and we want to publically say that it is by nothing we have done that God has granted us this opportunity but all we have is from Him and we dedicate our new home to His glory and ask that we could use it for His purposes.  

Through the years, God has brought me time and time again to the passage where he tells David that he is not to build the temple at this time and to wait for His son Solomon to build it. David's response was not anger, but this praise which has also been my prayer even though I admit there were MANY times and tears on my long commute I found it difficult to have this attitude.

" Who am I O Lord, and what is my family, that You have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in Your sight, O God, You have spoke about the future of the house of Your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O Lord God…And now, Lord, let the promise You have made concerning Your servant and his house be established forever. Do as You promised, so that it will be established that Your name will be great forever. Then men will say, ‘The Lord Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel’s God!” And the house of Your servant David will be established before You. You, my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build a house for him.” 1 Chronicles 17:18-25

And today my prayers is this- in dedication of our home- which is taken from the passage after David and his people have brought all the materials to build the temple before the Lord,

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand…O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building You a temple for Your Holy Name, it comes from Your hand, and all of it belongs to You…O Lord, God of our fathers…keep this desire in the hearts of Your people forever, and keep [our] hearts loyal to You. And give [our sons] the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands…” 1 Chronicles 29:14-19

Disney Day 1!

Disneyworld Day #1!!! It's been a month and I am just now blogging about our Disney trip because I knew it would take some time. We had a blast!! We went with Wes' band since they were marching in the Magic Kingdom parade and my parents drove down with the boys and me to help and have fun! I could never have done it without them since Wes had a lot of resposibility with the band. It was CRAZY taking a one and three year old and one with allergies who couldn't eat most park food and who is still not fully potty trained. Plus, I was pregnant and it was so HOT! we weren't expecting it to still be in the 90's but at least the weather was beautiful every day and the park was decorated for fall to make us think it was autumn weather. haha Here's a mickey pumpkin to start with.

 Our first ride was the teacups and Ashton LOVED them! I was thrilled because I wasn't quite sure how he would take everything but he and I had really studied all the rides together online and we had been talking about the trip for months so he was psyched...although he wasn't quite sure what he was psyched about! He and my dad had fun spinning while the rest of us got off feeling tipsy. Thankfully my nausea was completely gone since the week before. What a blessing becuase I could not have done this trip 2 weeks earlier. This boy brought me the worst nausea for about 17 weeks but  now I am feeling the best I have felt with any of them so I can't complain!

 Next we rode Dumbo which Ashton didn't really care for too much. The height scared him a little. Collin's expression was how we felt. Sweaty and HOT!

 My mom will be upset for putting this one online but I love it! She and Collin are having fun while waiting in line for the Pooh ride. They had some great stuff for the kids to do and this is a "honey wall" that Collin loved. He loves anything you can touch!

 Collin fell in love with a stuffed Pooh in the gift shop afterwards so we had to get it. Ashton got a Roo.

 Our first character shot was with Pluto! Someone had given me a heads up to buy an autograph book so we had fun getting the characters' signatures too. Ashton loved Pluto and the line for him wasn't too long!

 Meeting Mickey and Minnie was a highlight. They are inside a building and are there all day long so you only have to wait about 5 minutes! Ashton was a little shy at first but so excited. I love how shy he looks in this one. But they took so much time with him that he warmed up and at the end was blowing them kisses!

 He really liked Minnie too. He told me her bow was really pretty and I think he has a crush on her ever since.

We loved watching all the parades. The boys loved the music and floats! Disney really does seem magical when you watch it through their eyes!!