Welcome Amelia!!

Hi everyone! What a day! Greetings from UT Hospital. Danielle was induced yesterday morning and after an all day battle, delivered our second daughter, Amelia Catherine. The little turkey weighed in at 8lbs 4oz and is 20" long. Danielle did an awesome job! I'm SO proud of her!! It was a long day, but a good one.

Amelia let us get a little rest last night. She's doing great. Eating and pooing like a champ (too bad that's not an Olympic sport). She's actually been pretty quiet so far. I hope that's a good sign of things to come. So here's a few photos from our big day yesterday. I'm a little sleep deprived so pardon the typos and sorry for the lack of my usual witty banter (who am I kidding, I'll still be a wise acre).

We were told to get at the hospital at 5:30am. We got there and then had to wait, so we broke the iPhone and surfed the net.


I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure it was hilarious.


Just a couple of dorks in love.


When Maddie got the hospital to wait, she had to check on Mommy and give her a kiss where the first IV attempt was.


The smart grandparents gave Maddie a goodie back (RescuePack from Diego) full of stuff to entertain her during the wait.


The calm before the storm. We had just found out that D was at 8cm and it would be soon.


And the storm. For the record, Danielle was okay with me taking this and I only did it early on in the pushing phase.


Okay, just to warn you... the next two photos are a little, well... gooey for a lack of a better word. I barely had the presence of mind to shoot these, but I'm so glad I did (and wish I had when Maddie was born three years ago). So if you're a little squeamish, just scroll real fast through the next two pictures (though really it's just a little 'cheese' and blood). Here goes...

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Keep scrolling if you want to see them... go fast if you don't. ;)

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The first cry.


Amazing.



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All's clear!

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Getting checked out.




"Pull my finger." -Flatulent Nurse


"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!! What the crap happened to my nice warm water bed!!!"


It's crazy how much she looks like Maddie when she was a newborn.


Mommy gets a good look at her new baby girl.


What a beauty!!!


Proud papa.


Maddie going nuts in the waiting room. I don't have any photos of Maddie meeting Millie for the first time (yet). Instead of me trying to tote the camera around all day (hard to tell I know) we asked our good friend Steven Bridges to document Maddie waiting and seeing her little sister for the first time. Steven did an amazing job and we can't wait to see all the great moments he captured. Thanks Steven!


Here he is in action.


And getting some lovins' from Maddie before he left. I think he made a new friend.


Lather. Rinse. Repeat.


TIny grip.


My beautiful, amazing, wife.




Here's Maddie getting a little more personal with her little sis this morning as D-Paw (Danielle's dad Danny) hold her.


Okay. That's about all I have in me right now. I'm about pass out. We'll update again after we get back home and settled in.

Zzzzzzzzz....

Wes

ps: A BIG thanks again to Steven, our good friend Katelyn Liles (former bride turned awesome friend), who helped during delivery, and all the staff of Womens Care Group and UT Hospital for the wonderful job they all did!!

Video Lights, Van 2.0, and a BIG Baby Update

Alright, be prepared. I'm cramming several things in this post because tomorrow is THE BIG DAY!! The docs are going to induce Danielle Tuesday morning at 5:30 so we should have us a brand new shiny baby by Tuesday afternoon. YEAH! So before I go any further, please keep Danielle and little Amelia in your prayers. Long days and nights are ahead for us all, but the two of them are doing the grunt work.

There are several things I've been meaning to share lately, but I've wanted to get some business stuff up first. Well, no time like the present because, let's face it, after tomorrow I'm going to be a zombie for the next week or so. First I wanted to share some fun photos of little Maddie. Our good friend Tara (aka Dixie Pixel) gave Maddie a video light for her birthday. Well, being the responsible adult I am I quickly realized that such a gift has no place in a 3-year-old's toy chest and quickly placed it in my camera bag. ;) It's a fun little toy that makes for a some cool images. So who's the best test subject in the world? Maddie of course!

Playing with a hat we had left over from the bridal show.


And in her princess ballerina thing (what? I'm a guy. I don't know what this stuff is called) striking a cute pose.


I know, she'll hate me someday for taking pictures of her on the potty. But come on, this was too cute to pass up.






If you think the look is mean, you shoulda heard the growl coming from her.


And then she took the light from me and decided to play herself.


Moving on... In other big news, we made some changes in the transportation department in the Hope household. Since leaving the daily grind last year, my beloved truck has been sitting in the driveway gathering dust (and pollen, and bird crap, and grass clippings). And the Dodge Caravan we got after Maddie was born just wasn't cutting the mustard as far as convenience goes. So we decided to talk to some good friends out at Rice Chrysler Dodge about trading in both vehicles and getting a new van. Yes, I'm at that point in my life where I get excited about buying a van. Trust me, I was checking out some cool BMWs, but Captain Sensible quickly persuaded me that two car seats, strollers, etc. wouldn't really fit in a sweet looking 5 Series as well as a minivan. Stinkin' women. Always using their brains. So financially it made sense (two payments into one lower payment). Environmentally it made sense (the Hemi got -4 mpg just sitting in the driveway). And family wise it made sense (the new van is bigger and has ever important rear air... something Maddie and Amelia will need). So we went as cool as we could and got one with all the bells and whistles and went with a color that was pretty rare, sunburst orange (I know, but it looks really good in person). Here are some pics.

First, my truck. This Hemi ties with my old Jeep Wrangler as my favorite ride I've ever owned.


The old van.


And the new van. Van 2.0.


The first night we had it, I parked it in the street and did a little lightpainting with the video light (see, it all ties together).


Yeah, I'm a dork. At least that's what Danielle called me tonight when she saw me piecing together these four frames.


Check it out... there's a 20gb hard drive onto which we can store photos and have a custom wallpaper. Sweet!


Maddie hanging in her car seat while I tested out the DVD players. Oh yeah, we're big pimpin'.


But the only thing these screens will be showing will be kiddie movies.


Maddie getting snappy.


Car seats. And no, we didn't purposefully get an orange van because Amelia's car seat is orange. It's coincidence. I swear!


So if you see an orange van cruising around town, give a wave. Chances are it's us. Of course, this just means I need to watch my road rage!

Two more pictures and I'll shut up and head to bed (t-minus 7 hours as of this typing). Yesterday I came into the living room and found Maddie buck naked playing on the couch. She's 3. I guess if she wants to strip down to her nudie booty, she can. But that crap stops when she hits high school.

A word on the baby dolls. She's named them all Millie and has been carrying them around everywhere for the last couple of weeks. Think she's excited about being a big sister?

And lastly, here's probably the last photo of Maddie, Mommy and in utero Amelia together. My beautiful girls!


So again, keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. Crazy as I am, I'm thinking of taking the Mac to the hospital with us. Hey, they have wifi! I can update the blog from the room!

Until then,
love,
Wes

ps: Obviously this means that old orders, emails, and phone calls are going to be on a delay for the next week... so bear with us as we get caught up!

We were shot!

Okay, we were photographed. But I come from a newspaper background and you have to grab attention with a bold headline.

Last month our good friend Jason Davis (check him out at J Davis Photography) offered to do some photos of the three of us since it's a little hard sometimes for me to get in the photos when I'm pushing the shutter. I have to admit, it's an odd sensation being on the other side of the lens for once. Jason did a great job and I hate that it's taken me so long to get these posted. But you know, work comes first. I hope you enjoy them and make sure to leave J some love in the comments section.

Meet the Hopes!


Maddie is going to be such a great big sister.


We did the session at Jason's house and Maddie was having a ball playing with all of Jason's boys' (Ryan and Cooper) toys. She found this toy tape measure (Bob the Builder?) and I joked that we should put it around Danielle's belly. I say joked because I'd be a fool to offer we actually measure a preggie woman's belly. But Danielle and Jason loved the idea and it was one of the best photos J got. And it helps that Maddie is such a ham.


"It's HUGE!!"


All three of my girls.


Yep, she's a big sister!


Isn't this how we got in this mess? ;)


Still goofing.


A couple of my beautiful wife (well her belly in this one) and I.


I think the look D is giving me shows how much this crazy woman really loves me (though I don't know why).


In baby news, we go back to the doc on Monday and we get to talk about possibly inducing. That means... we're gonna have a baby soon!!! (And that's a great thing because Danielle is MISERABLE right now.)

-Wes