Merry Christmas!!

All ready to go!!

All clean and ready for bed!!


Christmas bloomers with "Annaliese" embroidered under the tree.
Thanks Corey!!

Merry Christmas from snowy Texas!!

Annaliese is 2 months old!!

I'm two months old today!!
Cookie day at Angela's aunt Vicki's house.
Before...

After!!

My "ABC" stocking cookie

Colorado Christmas Cousins

George's Niece had a baby girl three weeks before Annaliese was born. This is Ashanti and Annaliese posing under the Christmas tree.

Annaliese and Ashanti cuddling (sort of)

Merry Christmas!!

Cold Colorful Colorado!!

God's creation is AMAZING!! I'm so thankful for the beautiful landscape that He provides for us!! We experienced a huge blizzard while we were in Colorado, most everything was shut down for a day. We got about a foot of snow. It was fun, but we were glad to come back to Texas!!

Christmas Time!!

We had family picutures taken while we were in Colorado. These are my two favorite!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

All worn out from all the fun and excitement of Thanksgiving!!

Annaliese's first plane ride

Mindy, Annaliese and Kristy (Mindy's sister) flew to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with our families. George will meet us in Colorado the day after Thanksgiving (he had to work the day after Thanksgiving). Annaliese did super on the plane. She slept, ate and slept some more. I'm so thankful the Kristy was there to help me through security and onto the plane.

View of the Colorado Rockies from the plane

Thanks Angela for the cool sunglasses!!

Week 4

Cute "horse" bib and slippers from Aunt Megan
All worn out!!

Play time on the activity center.

Pretty in pink (and pink swing)!!

Three Weeks Old

Tummy Time...she actually feel asleep while she was supposed to be exercising!
Daddy helping out with feeding.

Born to be wild!!

We call this..."Tucked and Fluffed"

Happy Halloween

Look what we found on our front porch. Is it a trick or a treat. Baby Reese is definitely a treat!!
Happy Halloween!!

Reese and Annaliese all dressed up.

Bath Time

Annaliese's first "real bath".

She actually kind of liked it.
All wrapped up.

Too cute in her robe and slippers!!

Cuddle time with Gramgee (Mindy's mom) and time for smiles!!

New Adventure!!

Daddy all ready for the big moment!!

My first glimpe of our little (big) girl. 9lbs, 21 inches.

All swaddled

Heading home!! Yea!!

New arrival

Annaliese Brylee Coates was due October 18th. This was my last day to work before she was born.

I was scheduled for an induction on October 20th. We got to the hospital at 5am and they started me on Pitocin.

Guess where I'm hiding a pumpkin?

There's my little pumpkin!!!

Ready, Set...Not Yet!!!

We thought that Annaliese's birthday was finally here. I started having regular contractions this past Monday morning at 1:09AM. They were five minutes apart and lasting about a minute, but they weren't super painful. So I got up and checked email, facebook and wrote out some 'Thank you' cards. I woke George up at about 3:30 to tell him that I was in labor (George will share his side of the story in a later post). My bags were packed and I was ready to go, but we wanted to be sure so we stayed at the house until 6:27 (George took a picture of the clock on the way out the door).

We arrived at the hospital and got checked into Labor Triage. They hooked me up to a baby heart monitor and a contraction monitor. My contractions were indeed 5 minutes apart and pretty big (on the monitor).

But I wasn't progressing so they sent us home to rest and see what happened. We were both tired and took a couple hour nap and then decided to try and speed things up, so we went and power walked at the Grapevine Mills Mall. We walked four miles and by then I was having serious contractions!! We went back to the hospital and still no progression, so they sent us back home around 9pm. I decided that the one thing that probably would put me into labor was working, so I got up at 4:30 on Tuesday and went to work for my 12 hours. I was having contractions consistently all day long, but when I got into my car to drive home they completely stopped.

So then we decided to go the the Texas State Fair on Wednedsay and walk and eat to get labor started. So we ate Fried Butter (actually pretty good), Chicken Fried Bacon, Jalapeno Cheddar corn dog, Deep Fried Pecan Pie, Fried Peaches and Cream, Funnel Cake, Fried Tator Twists. (A doctor told me that eating trans-fats will put you into labor--if that's true I should have had Annaliese at the State Fair!!) I did start having contractions that afternoon and into the evening, but the nurse at the hospital told me not to come back unless my water broke or I couldn't walk or talk through a contraction. They weren't that bad, so we didn't go back to hospital. Thursday I went to church for our International Friends of Countryside ministry and then to the doctor. We decided to induce on Tuesday if Annaliese hasn't made an appearance yet. So tomorrow (Sunday--Annaliese's actuall due date) is my last day to work and then I will be induced at 5am on Tuesday morning.

Getting Ready

The Nursery

"ABC" is for Annaliese Brylee Coates

Well, we are just waiting for the arrival of Annaliese Brylee Coates. She is actually due October 18th. Her room is ready and we have a car seat, diapers and wipes so I think we are good to go.