Wow. It’s been awhile. The Barrett Three are going strong and having loads of fun. Kyle and I have been taking it easy this summer keeping up with normal stuff and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little niece Lydia Grace. After four months of badgering and heckling being given to us (by “us” I mean Kyle) I am making the move to get us back into the blog world. Our last post was on the arrival of Emma. Well I just want to clarify she is here and doing well and has not graduated high school or gotten married yet. As we approach her 4 month birthday we wanted to put some of our favorite pics up for all of her dearly loved family and friends to see. We hope you enjoy them.
Little Miss Emma Jean is getting big. It has been such a sweet time with her over the past few months. She has accomplished many of things 4-month-olds are supposed to accomplish. :> I must say though that as much as I would love to report that our little girl is so much like her mom, I am realizing more and more how much she is her papa made over. She even sleeps like him. It is scary.
I promise that the whole story is coming soon and you will not be disappointed! Emma came 10 days early which means daddy has spent the wee hours of his evenings (mornings?) finishing assignments, getting reading done, oh and making sure that Emma has clean diapers. Yes…I change diapers. It’s traumatic.
I created a Picasa page. It’s great. It’s a free site that allows you to post pictures so that others can see them. Needless to say with all the pictures we have taken (I feel like a stinkin’ tourist) we will be posting all of our pics of Emma there. You can access it by clicking here or by clicking on the link in the sidebar.
Here are a couple of videos I took the day Emma was born. The first is Emma getting a cold bath. Very entertaining (in a twisted sort of way!). The second is Emma meeting Ashley’s parents and grandparents. There are four generations of woman in that room. Very cool stuff.
Well. We are nearing the end of the pregnancy. Ashley was 38 weeks on Wednesday. “They” say that she weighs approximately 6 or 7 lbs. and measures about 19 or 20″. In layman’s terms that means she could take Chuck Norris in a bar fight except she wouldn’t be in a bar so make it a cage match in which case she would be vying for some kind of title which means she would be up for some kind of prize money which means…bingo…daddy can get himself a Taylor! Man it’s great being a dad.
The last minute preparations are being made. The car seat has been installed…I just hope we did it correctly. It doesn’t slide back and forth. It’s on lock down. The only problem is that cold leather makes for a nice side-to-side motion especially when Ashley Barrett aka “Jr.” is at the wheel. I’m not sure Emma will be able to appreciate negative G’s her first trip home. The hospital bag has been packed. Speaking of which, Ashley informed me today that my favorite shorts and long sleeve T-shirt had been “packed” which means that I won’t be seeing them again until Emma comes on the scene. We went to visit the Maternity Wing at Baptist Hospital East last week. The delivery rooms are teched out. You’ve got your standard baby monitors, heated crib, etc. But the most amazing piece of equipment - a flat screen TV mounted in front of the bed! That means that I can wipe Ashley’s forehead and give affirming touches while at the same time catch every minute of March Madness! We’re (okay I’m) hoping that Emma comes the same day that my Gators repeat as National Champs. That would make for a great story one of these days.
Please continue to pray for us as we get to the end. Emma is healthy. Mom is healthy. We just hope that holds true for the next 2 weeks.
My very good friend Barry Joslin lost his mother to cancer a little over two years ago. He has posted some reflections about that season of his life on his blog. Please go check it out.
We are officially one month away from meeting our daughter. Not much has changed with her inside the womb except she’s adding about an ounce per day at this point in the pregnancy.
It’s pretty stinkin’ exciting. Both of us are surprised at just how fast its gone by. I still remember finding out we were pregnant like it was yesterday. There was a scream from the foyer of the church when we got married and there was a scream from the bathroom when we found out we were pregnant!
As far all the preparations - they are steadily coming along. Ashley got a little overwhelmed on Monday with everything that we still need to get done but we’re in pretty good shape. The nursery is basically done. We need to get some things to decorate the walls with but other than that all the major pieces are in place. The crib is up with linens and everything. You can definitely tell Emma is her father’s daughter.
We had our first shower on Sunday. Two ladies from our college group put it on and they did an amazing job. Our church has blessed us so much. Aside from the dozens of gifts they brought and the beautiful decorations, our church has shown us genuine love and concern as we’ve walked down this road. They truly believe that to give is really better than to receive.
Here are a few pictures of the shower and some of the gifts:
By now most of you have heard about the tornadoes that struck Enterprise High School last week. My family was stationed at Ft. Rucker, AL which is just outside of Enterprise, AL. My dad came to Christ because of the faithful witness of Charles Jeter at the First United Methodist Church in Enterprise. My family still has family and several close friends including the Jeters who still live in Enterprise and actually live within blocks of the high school. Several of the students killed came from military families. I can’t imagine moving to an area of the country expecting to stay 2 maybe 3 years and then pack up and do it all over again somewhere else only this time you won’t be doing it with all your kids.
Please continue to pray for the families affected and for the churches who are ministering during this time.
I am a huge football fan - especially college football. My dad and uncle spent time at Texas A&M. My mom went to Auburn. My aunt went to Georgia for a masters degree. I went to The University of Florida. I hate Florida State (just as every good Gator fan does) even though many of my friends from high school ended up there and one of my very best friends from Southern is a big fan. I married into a family that bleeds UK blue and UoL red. If all this isn’t a recipe for dysfunction then I don’t know what is.
I have grown up on college football. I spent many Saturdays in The Swamp. I have been to some great games. I was at Peyton Manning’s last game against Florida in the Swamp in 1997 which made him winless against the Gators. I was at the UF-FSU game later that year when we beat FSU and kept them out of the National Championship game. I remember losing to Alabama on a missed extra point in overtime and sitting in the Swamp with 85,000 of my closest friends in stunned silence. I stood in the pouring down rain in Knoxville, TN and watched my Gators trounce Tennessee in 2002.
I’ve seen some great games on television too. I remember Raghib “The Rocket” Ismail returning a kickoff for a touchdown with only seconds left to lift Notre Dame over Colorado in the Orange Bowl only to have it called back because of a needless block in the back from a teammate. I remember curling up in between my parents to listen to the 1989 Auburn-FSU game at 2am because Armed Forces radio was doing a live broadcast of the game in Holland. Just a few short weeks ago I watched a certain orange and blue clad team beat up on a highly favored (overrated?) scarlet clad team.
I have played in great games. I have been to great games. I have watched great games on TV. But I have never seen anything like this:
Well. Emma is 35 weeks in utero today (Can you say in utero on a blog?…I think I just did). The funny part is that Ashley and I have only been married about 39 weeks. So much for that “getting to know each other” phase!!
A few interesting things about babies at 35 weeks. They are now head down which means they are in position to be born. Most babies at this stage weigh approximately 5 lbs. and measure about 18″ long. They are more or less completely developed. That means she could come tomorrow and probably be just fine after a brief stay in the hospital. The whole process has been amazing to watch. We’re so grateful that Emma appears to be completely healthy. No complications whatsoever.
The next few weeks will also mean Emma will be putting on a lot of weight. Emma will nearly double in size over these last 5 weeks. I feel like I’ve nearly doubled in size and I’m not even pregnant!
This is a video I took one night when Emma was especially active. She’s swimming laps now but then she was just learning to use her floaties. Most of the kicks you can see happen on Ashley’s left side (towards the right of the screen). Enjoy!!
