Andrew's Vintage Ride

If there's anybody out there reading this blog, you're probably expecting to see more baby photos of Emily, but life hasn't stopped for the other three kids in our home. In fact, earlier this month Andrew celebrated his 8th birthday and we found him a very special birthday present. It took some work and we had to special order some replacement parts, but Adam was able to get this 1969 Schwinn Stingray up and running for Andrew!



He really needed a new bike, but it's virtually impossible to find a simple bike. Everything in stores today is either boy (with flames and skulls and Spiderman) or girl (pink, princess, pixies). I guess that's a slick way to get American's to buy twice as many bikes as they actually need, but we weren't fallin' for it. We also figured that if a bicycle can last 40 years then it'll last another 10-20 for our kids. Anyway, Andrew is pretty stoked about his new ride, complete with banana seat!

And for those of you who just want to see baby pix, we have those too...

Emily sleeping peacefully:



Katie loves her baby sister!

Five-Day Photos

Little Emily is already five days old and I had a bit of time this morning to snap some shots of Cindy and Emily together. We had to give Josh a bowl of animal crackers to keep him busy, but it gave me a few minutes to grab these shots. Hopefully we'll have time for a few more photo shoots before I go back to work next week.

Checking out of the hospital

We've been home for a few days now from the hospital, but wanted to share a family shot and a hospital photo tip. First, the shot...

Here's our entire gang at the hospital just before leaving on early Sunday afternoon. I took the older three to the 9:30am worship service at College Church and then headed over to pick up mom and Emily at the hospital. We wrapped up the remaining paperwork and of we went, right after taking this shot.



And now...the photo tip. In case you're wondering how I captured this photo of all of us, I've gotten in the habit of finding creative "tripods" to use. In this case, it's the bedside table tray on wheels. Because it adjusts up and down and has wheels on it, it makes for an excellent tripod. Just set up the camera, adjust the position, and starting firing off shots with the timer.

Out of the mouths of babes...

With the arrival of baby Emily, we've had some pretty good laughs around here. Some of them have just been sleep-deprived giggles but some of them have been gut-busting laughs. Here's some of the stuff that's kept us going...

1. When I brought the kids to the hospital on Friday evening to see mom and meet Emily, Cindy asked the kids what they did all day and they recalled how they had colored, played soccer, had mac-and-cheese for lunch, and so on. Then Andrew, obviously working on his conversation skills, looked at Cindy and innocently asked, "What did you do today?"

2. Later that evening the kids were fawning over their little sister when Josh jumped in the fray and asked "Can I pet her?"

3. After a nice visit at the hospital I brought the three older kids home and put them to bed. I had a nice chat with Katie about the day and asked if she had any questions about mom or the new baby. She paused thoughtfully and asked "So is there a force field in mommy's stomach or what?" I was pretty confused by her question but took a few minutes to tease out what she was thinking. With a bit of patience I learned she was thinking that if food goes in mommy's belly and the baby is also in mommy's belly, then there must be a force field in mommy's stomach that keeps the food off the baby. I did my best to explain the difference and I think she got it. No force field required, but anybody who has witnessed birth knows there is something supernatural going on! :-)

Announcing the arrival of Emily Grace Pratt!

On Friday, July 10, 2009 at 1:43pm CDT we welcomed baby #4, Emily Grace Pratt into our family! She weights 7lbs 10oz and measures 20" long. Cindy and Emily are doing great and everybody is thrilled. We plan to have the whole gang home by Sunday afternoon and will hopefully post more pictures soon.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy these shots from yesterday!









Blessings,
Adam, Cindy, Andrew, Katie, Joshua, and Emily

**Had we known our baby would have been born the day after posting a pregnancy picture of Cindy on the family blog, Cindy would have made me do that weeks ago!

Any day now...

So we're at that 39-week point and hoping this little baby arrives soon and safely! We'll keep you posted...