Hail Storm!

So tomorrow is the first official day of summer and Marquette gets hit with this HUGE hail storm! Hail up to the size of baseballs fell on Marquette today. There were several cars with cracked windshields and houses with dented siding, luckily we were not one of them. It took only a couple minutes, but left Marquette with a white blanket of hail balls. Streets were getting flooded and leaves were everywhere! Here are a couple of pictures of the aftermath...

Happy Fathers Day!

Today Jim celebrated his first fathers day with Ethan and they had a great time together. This morning we all got dressed up for church and finally took a real family picture:) Jim is a great father to Ethan and is so wonderful with him! He would do anything and everything for his son. We love you daddy!!! Happy fathers day to all the dad's out there...you are special people!

Ethan and Dad Time!

ETHAN SMILING!!!!

Today was an extremely HOT day in Marquette, so Ethan decided that he was most comfortable in a diaper. Daddy and him were having so much fun playing with each other! Daddy even got Ethan to smile for the first time!! Okay, it might have been on accident, but he smiled!

"I LOVE MY DADDY!!"

Mom Having Fun With the Camera!

Ethan looked so cute in his outfit today (Thanks Mindy!!) that I had fun taking pictures of the little guy. In some of the pictures, he was not having as much fun as I was:)

Do you like my giraffe? Nope, not going to smile!

"Okay mom....enough pictures!!"

One Month Old!

Our precious little man!

Our little guy is already a month old....Jim and I can hardly believe it! We love watching him grow. He isn't doing any tricks yet, but we are working on it:)

Ethan loves tummy time!!Dad with sleepy Ethan....awwwww!! "We're tight" as Jim would say.

Mom and Ethan:)

Ethan meets LOTS of Family!!

This past weekend Ethan headed down state for the first time and was able to meet LOTS of new family members!! We started the weekend off by surprising grandma Helms at work on Thursday, then it was off to great-grandma and grandpa Bieners to meet the entire Biener side (my dads side) including grandpa Biener, then on Friday night he met all of the Jastifer side (Jim's dad), on Saturday he met the majority of the Jousma side (Jim's mom) at a graduation party (congrates Lindsey!), on Sunday he had another baby shower put on by the Jousma side in which he was spoiled (Thanks everyone so much!!), then we ended the weekend at grandma and grandpa Helms (my mom & step-dad) for a cookout where he met his uncle Mark and grandpa Helms for the first time and enjoyed spending lots of time with them. Needless to say, we all were pooped by the end of the weekend, but it was fun visiting family!!

(I couldn't put pictures of everyone with Ethan & I forgot my camera for the Biener side- grandma could you send me pictures!!)

Spending time with grandpa Jastifer!!Meeting great-grandma Jousma:)Hanging out with Uncle Mark (first time holding a baby)!

Grandpa Helms with Ethan!

Bath Time!!

Ethan FINALLY lost his cord, so mom and dad gave Ethan his first real bath this morning. We were going to wait until tonight, but after he peed, pooped, and spit upon himself, we thought that he needed one a little bit sooner:) He LOVED it and had a great time! Here are a few picks of the little guy in the tub....

Visiting My Students...

I promised my students that I would bring Ethan in for a visit before the end of the year and I try not to break promises, so Ethan and I headed to school today to visit my kindergartners. It was so much fun to see them and for them to see Ethan. I was pregnant the entire time I was teaching them, so it was neat for them to see who was growing in my tummy the whole time. One kid even said, "Wow Mrs. Jastifer you look less fat!" I died laughing, they are so honest at that age....gotta love them!

Grandma Jastifer Is Here!!!

Grandma Jastifer is here! She arrived Tuesday afternoon and is having so much fun playing with Ethan, and Ethan loves playing with grandma! She is a big help and we enjoy having her here:) We are heading home next week for a graduation party and baby shower for Ethan, so we have lots of things planned for grandma while she is here. Grandma Jastifer snuggling with Ethan!

Our Little Guy....

It has been so fun to watch Ethan grow! He had his 2 week check up yesterday and he weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long. We are so proud of our little man!! Here are a few pictures that we have taken throughout the week....ENJOY! Ahhhh....life is SO hard being a baby!! Hmmmm....let me think about that??
"Dear God, please look after all the children of the world. Amen"

Ethan Loves Walks!

Ethan just LOVES walks! He mostly sleeps right now, but on Saturday he was awake for part of the time and I caught this photo. Yes, the hat is kind of geeky (says Jim) but Ethan doesn't seem to mind. The smile just proves it!!

Ethan Pee's on Dad!!

It was the funniest thing, Ethan was cuddling with dad on the couch and was beginning to wake up. Jim picked him up and to his surprise, Ethan had peed all over him!! Ethan could have cared less, but Jim and I thought it was funny!:)

Our Precious Sleeping Ethan

On Wednesday my mom was watching Ethan while Jim and I took a walk. He fell asleep and she snapped this precious photo of Ethan!! We love our son and he is already growing up before our eyes.

KISSES!!

Dad and Mom absolutely LOVE giving Ethan kisses and Ethan loves giving them back:) We love our precious boy (If you can't tell!).Mom giving kisses!!Dad giving kisses!

Double Duty!!

The "Feet Picture"

Jim loves taking pictures of feet, so we thought that it would be fun to have a "feet picture" with dad and Ethan. Grandma Helms gave us a card with feet that sparked the idea. It was fun trying to get the perfect one and Ethan was so good about it. These were the best ones that mom took!

Grandma Helms Visits!!!

On Monday Grandma Helms came to visit! We are so excited to have her here, especially Ethan! Grandma is definitely getting her "Ethan Fix" and LOVES spending as much time with him as possible:) Lets just say that we have been taking lots of pictures....she is one proud grandma!! I love having her here as well, it is great to get some "mom time" for me. We love you grandma Helms...come back and visit soon!!

So Blessed!

Today was one of our first days out as a family. We went to church with our little Ethan and he did a wonderful job!! We feel so blessed to have Ethan in our lives!! I even got to actually put on some real clothes as well as Ethan:) Here are some photos right before we left for church.

Pictures of Ethan!!

Jim and I have been having so much fun with Ethan. We can not stop staring at him, knowing that he is ours....we are overwhelmed with joy and love for him:) Here are some pictures that we have been taking while we are home....

Sleeping so cozy on daddy's chest .

Yes, I have socks on my hands...I keep scratching my face!!

"Just chillin like a villian", that is what dad said I looked like anyway.

I love having my hands anywhere on my face!

HOME!!!

We came home with Ethan from the hospital on Monday May 14th in the evening. They were going to have me stay until Tuesday but with the overflow of patients laboring, we were able to go home a day early since we both were doing so well. Here are some picture of him coming home and with some pretty important visitors. Both Jim's parents and my mom came on Sunday and were able to meet their grandson. They were all thrilled and excited to finally meet him. Ethan also was able to meet his Aunt Keri as well:) We love visitors!

Family picture right before leaving the hospital.

Ethan in his car seat coming home...looks like he has some growing to do!!

Meeting Grandpa Bob

Ethan and Grandma Chris

Grandma Nancy with Ethan

Aunt Keri came to visit and gave me some really cool skydiving shirts.

Ethan's Birth Story

I have had a lot of people ask me about my birth story...so here we go!

I went to bed on Saturday May 12th with a crampy stomach ache. I decided that I should just go to bed and that it will disappear in the morning. Well it was still there at 2:30am when I woke up to use the bathroom. It kept me up, along with the contractions that I was beginning to have about every 7-10 minutes or so. I tried to sleep but it was not going to happen. I woke Jim up about an hour later when they were 5 minutes apart and really beginning to hurt. We were going to try and wait until 5am to go to the hospital, but after beginning to bleed and not being able to rest anymore because of the pain of the contractions, off to the hospital we went at about 4:30am. When we arrived, I was already 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced and my contractions were now every 3 minutes. To try and help relieve them, I sat in the bathtub for about 45 minutes and that really help ease the pain, but it was still there. At about 7am, the resident on call (who delivered Ethan because my OB was out of town) checked me and I was 4-5 cm dilated. At about 9:30am when the pain was too much for me to handle, I received an interthecal (which is like and epidural but only numbs the pain, not the pressure or feeling that you have and it only lasts 6-8 hours). I rested and watched Plant Earth for the next couple of hours while I continued to dilate. At about 12:00pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push!! This part of my birthing story was the hardest and toughest thing I have ever done, but also the most beautiful thing that I have ever done. After changing multiple positions and pushing hard for three and a half hours, on May 13, 2007 (Mothers Day!!!) @ 3:31 pm Ethan James Jastifer was brought into the world. With a blubbering mother and a proud and happy father, we were able to meet our little guy. After secretly telling myself he looks like an Ethan (and his father!) and Jim saying the same thing, there was no question as to what his name will be. He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was perfect and we are so excited to have him in our life!!