Welcome Emery Grace!

We just got home from the hospital visiting my new little cousin! My Aunt Angela and Uncle Mikel had their second baby girl today.

Emery Grace Ash was born today at 2:46pm

and weighed 7lbs and is 20 inches long

She's a beauty and is healthy and she and mom are doing great! I was in the room when Ainsley was born a year and a half ago and Angela wanted me to be there again this time, so Aunt Brenda was keeping me posted about the progress. At one point I got a text that said she is dilated to a 4, so I thought I had a tad bit more of time before leaving work. Next thing I know 20 or 30 minutes later I get a text that she was to an 8 and then 5 minutes later she was a 9.5! I knew that I wouldn't make it in time....but I did get there an hour or so after she was born and got to hold her and see her before they took her back to the nursery. I am so happy Angela had a smooth delivery that went by so quickly. Then, Aunt Brenda went to pick up Ainsley, and we got to see Ainsley's reaction to meeting her baby sister for the first time. It was so cute! She kept pointing and saying Baby! She wanted to touch her and give her kisses. Absolutely adorable! Congrats to Angela and Mikel! You are wonderful parents to Ainsley and I know that your family is truly complete now with the addition of Emery and you will continue to be amazing parents. We are so happy for you guys!

The first time Ainsley saw Emery

Checking out her new baby sister

Giving her new sister some kisses

Look at that hair!

Jon's 1/2 Marathon

This Sunday, February 14th, Jon ran the Austin 1/2 marathon with our friends Seth, Dave and Steven. They have been training together for the past few months, and I am sooo proud of them for doing this! Taryn, Christina and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to go down there with them and I'm so glad we did. We got to hang with them before they started and then after the race started, we walked a few blocks and got to see them run by at mile 6.5. Then we walked to the finish line and got to see them finish. They have been training at a 9 minute mile pace and really wanted to complete the race in under 2 hours and they all did! The four of the them came in within 5 minutes of each other. Afterward, Jon and I stuck around to watch our friend Jake from San Antonio finish his first full marathon. Go Jake! It was so fun to be down there around all these hard working and happy runners. And the weather started to warm up and ended up being gorgeous. We had lunch at Shady Grove and enjoyed the sunshine. Congrats to Jon and the boys for running your first 1/2 marathon!! I'm so proud of you all.

Ponder, Seth, Jon and Dave

Jon and Jake

The two hands you see up in the air are Jon and Dave's. Dave has the glove on and Jon has a hat on. Go Boys!!

Look at all those runners coming across the 1st Street bridge!

A picture of the finish line when we started looking for our guys to finish

Jon right after he finished...you can see his hands up on his head and hat

Catching up!

I definitely have some catching up to....haven't been in the blogging mood lately. I think all this cold winter weather just makes me want to snuggle up on the couch when I get home from work lately. I am soooo happy that the sun is shining this week and it's been getting up into the 60's. I am so READY for Spring to get here. Can't wait!

Here are some of the things we had going on in January:
Taryn, Laura and I hosted a diaper shower for Kristen at my house to help them get ready for Kynlee Grace. Kynlee was born on Sunday, January 24th and she and mom are great! She weighed 7lbs I think. Here are a few pics from the diaper shower and of Kynlee.

 

Kynlee Grace Campbell

Then, the following Sunday my cousin Scarlett had her baby shower. I wasn't sure if I would be able to go or not, but I last minute ended up taking the day off work and went. I am so glad I did! Stella was supposed to arrive on March 4th, but she decided to come early! Scarlett had an emergency C-Section on Friday, February 4th. All is well and Stella and Scarlett are both home now. Stella weighed 5 lbs and had to spend one week in the NICU, but last Saturday she got to go home. I am so happy for Scarlett and Jordan that their sweet bundle of joy is here! Here are some pics from Scarlett and Jordan's baby shower.

I've mentioned before how tall my mom's side of the family is...these are cousins and the only shorty other than me is Rachel, my cousin's wife :)  (And I have heels on!)

Me with my sweet cousins Stephanie and Scarlett

With Uncle Brian and Aunt Mary

Scarlett with Jordan's mom and her mom, my Aunt Retta

Also this month, we celebrated my 29th birthday. Jon took the day off with me and we had a great time. We have a silly tradition from growing up where on our birthday, mom would let us pick out a box of sweet cereal since normally honey nut cheerios was as sweet as we were allowed :) What's funny is that my sister and I both still buy a box of sweet cereal for ourselves on our birthday, so you can see in the pic below Jon had it all set out and ready to go when I woke up!

We walked the dog, played some Wii, had lunch at Hula Hut, got me some new running shoes at RunTex, went to a movie and then had dinner at Olive Garden. It was a great birthday!! And THEN when we got home from dinner I was SHOCKED to find my mother parked in front of our house! She had driven in to surprise me and spend the night and hang with me the next day! It was such a fun surprise and I had absolutely no clue she was coming. Thanks Mom!

A few of our other friends also have January birthdays, so we all got together the next night for Pizza and Double Dave's. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are a few.

Phew....that was a lot of catching up!