Our Dream House

Mike and I decided to build our dream houses for EACH OTHER this past week. It took some glue, graham crackers, frosting, candy, and a lot of creativity but they turned out pretty darn good if I may say so, (literally).

Mike's House: A-Frame Log Cabin, built by yours truely...

Fully equipped with 2 stories, a marshmallow chimney, and its very own Christmas lights along the front of the house and porch.

Also included... Mike's own personal pond for fishing (see Mike and fishing pole below)

Lisa's House: built by Mike

A 2-story home with a big porch, big yard, and even a little dormer window upstairs

Mine also comes with Christmas lights (much bigger and brighter than Mike's), a smart roof, peppermint walkway, marshmallow tree and a bench in the front yard to sit and enjoy the sunsets...

Merry Christmas!

Bathtime

Just wanted to say how nice it is to be able to make it through an ENTIRE bath without a single teardrop! (although he does look a little bit traumatized don't you think?)

Either way, its a big improvement from what we were dealing with!

one week old

Bittersweet

Yesterday I was released from being YW president. I was only in for 19 months, which is about 1/2 way through what I was expecting when I got the calling. I guess I just have to thank my husband, and my baby. Mike for being called to the bishopric 4 months ago, and Emmett for needing me more than the YW do. That combo resulted in me being released. I loved this calling, and I learned SO much about being a leader, and an example. And although I don't think I ever got over my inadequacy, I definately feel like the next time I have an opportunity to be a leader I'll feel so much more prepared!

Taken this summer at girls camp. Can you find me?

red shirt, front row

Our Week

Well, its taken me till now, being Wednesday to catch up and finally be able to blog again. We had a whirlwind of a week last week. We had somewhat of a Winterton family reunion, and our house was the host. We figured its been since Eric and Carrie got married that we've all been together- 5 years. All the family arrived last Monday-ish and stayed a whole week. Before everyone arrived my mom was afraid that I was going to lose it and couldn't handle a big crowd considering I just had a baby 3 weeks ago (at the time). But really, I was fine and I was happy to have my family stay with us, and would even do it again. :) The only downer was when everyone started getting sick, and then I got sick, thats when I started to stress a little bit because I didn't want to pass it to Emmett. But Emmett made it through unscathed and is still his healthy little self, so its all good. We spent a lot of time just hanging out, watching movies, eating, doing crafts, chasing little kids around, having Thanksgiving with my mom's extended family, getting professional family photos done (its been since I was in about 8th grade), and topping it off with Emmetts blessing. I really wanted to do Black Friday shopping this year cause its been SO long since I've done it, and I finally had my mom with me, who is basically a professional shopper, but thats the morning I woke up feeling that awful burning in my throat and could no longer breathe out of my nose. So I had to forfeit. Anyways, here's the pics!

Tyler, Mom

Eric, Carrie, and Lillie

Thanksgiving Dinner:

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's family. There were at least 50+ people there.

Sam, Kacey, Eric

Unfortunately my dinner got interrupted 1/2 way through by a baby who was a little more hungry than me. And when I got back to my place, my plate of food was gone! I did get plenty of pie though.

Wearing his '1st Thanksgiving' bib, not a single drop of food on it!

Krista and Ella

Winterton Grandkids: Isaac, Lillie, Ella, Emmett (minus Daniel, how did I miss taking a picture of that kid?)

Emmetts Blessing:

What a stud

Mike's mom made his outfit, it was originally worn by Mike when he was a baby, she just had to make a new button-up shirt for Emmett. It BARELY fit Emmett so it was a good thing we blessed him that week. (Turns out Emmett was a good 3+ lbs bigger than Mike was.) He looked adorable! Thanks Grandma G!

4 Generations

Grandma/pa Winterton

Winterton Family

Gleue Family

We were so glad we got to have every member of both of our family's there for Emmetts blessing. Its been a crazy week! But we've loved having everyone over to share the holiday and memories with us. Its almost a little too quiet now?!

Pictures

Well, as my brother Tyler pointed out to me, my blog is turning into a 'baby blog'. Sorry folks for those of you who used to be interested in my blog. But this is my life now, I'll try and post other interesting things that happen to me and Mike as they occur but for now, all my devoted attention pretty much goes to Emmett. At least I know the grandparents will enjoy it. :)

Mike and I decided to touch base with our inner creativity and take our own pictures of Emmett instead of paying for a photographer. I was really picky about how these were going to turn out because a newborn is only a newborn for so long, and they grow up so fast. I really wanted to capture him while he's still little and have the pictures be good. Well, I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. And we had a lot of fun in the process.

I'm not going to post all of them cause we took a bunch, but these are my favorites.

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Melts My Heart

This makes all the poopy diapers at 3 am totally worth it.

Home

Well we made it home and are adjusting well. Emmett is such a good baby. He loves to be held and cuddled, and is easy to lay down and have him stay asleep in his crib. He doesn't cry much, and when he does its only for one of his basic needs and he's his happy self again. My mom is here helping and is being a life saver. We love having her here. Mike has to go back to work on Monday. It was kind of a bummer he had to spend his week off of work in the hospital. But the hospital stay was nice, and I was treated so well, but there's nothing like your own bed and we were ready to come home! My recovery is a little better every day. I didn't realize how painful a c-section would be. Good news is I can now get out of bed on my own without needing a hand! We love Emmett so much, and its been so fun starting out being parents. Well, here's a few new pictures.

All dressed and ready to go home!

Checking out of the hospital

I don't know why I'm posting this picture, as its almost embarrassing. But so many people have asked how someone like me pulled off having such a big baby and well....this is why:

Me at 39 weeks: I was huge!

A Very Happy Birthday

He's here! Emmett Michael Gleue decided to be his mothers favorite birthday present and was born on November 3, at 5:48am. He was 8lbs 10oz, 21 1/2 inches long!

I started having contractions early Sunday morning around 3am. They continued all day until we decided it was time to go to the hospital around 6pm Sunday night. When we arrived I was barely dilated to 1+. Which was really disapointing since I had been laboring for about 15 hours. They decided to monitor me to see if I would keep progressing and thankfully 2 hours later I was dilated to a 3 so they admitted me. By 2am I was complete and we started pushing. The baby was still really high, so they warned me pushing wasn't going to be easy. Well, long story short 1 hour 1/2 later the checked to see where the baby was and he was still really high, and wasn't moving. They told me he was too big and wasn't fitting through my pelvis. So we decided it was time to settle for a c-section. I was pretty disapointed after going through all that I did, but by 4 in the morning going on 25 hours of no sleep and hard long labor I was exhausted and didn't think I could keep pushing even if they thought he would fit through. At 5:48am we heard that little cry and he was born.

We will be in the hospital until probably Friday. He's healthy and beautiful and we are so in love with him. We couldn't be more thankful for this little miracle.