more Van

Thanks for all of your comments! We really appreciate everyone's love and support this week - in Cedar City and via our blog. :)

We got home Wednesday and are loving life as a family of 4. Van is a good eater and is a great sleeper during the day and is learning to be a good one at night. He'll figure it out. I'm feeling great - his exit from his warm, watery wonderland (my tummy) was much less traumatic than Emery's was, so it's hard for me to believe I even had a baby. (I'll save the masses the labor and delivery details - call me if you're dying to hear!) He's a sweet, beautiful baby and we're soooo excited he's finally here. Emery loves him too and is being a good helper! Here are some more pictures since we shorted you the first time.

just minutes old, holding mommy's finger

big, mad boy before his bath

first family picture (emery missing of course)

all clean and studly

emery meeting him through the nursery window (they have lots of restrictions at the hospital because of swine flu concerns, so she didn't really meet him until we got home)

squished, ready to go home face

loves for mommy

emery meeting her little bro

she likes to lay next to him on the couch and give him extra blankets

1st picture smile (click picture to see his cute smile better) with Grandpa Wilkinson. either he really likes Grandpa Wilkinson or he was pooping his pants! :)

save the best for last - we love that little man face

Proclamation to the World

Joy to the world, Van Aaron Wilkinson is born!

Here are the details about Van:
Born 11:02 am
Weight: 8lbs 3oz
Height: 21.5in
Hair: Light brown hair (lots)
Problems: Too cute!!!!!

Here are the details about Britt:
Status: Hot
How she did in labor: She was a champ! Pushed the baby out within 3 contractions
How she is now: Ready to run a marathon.

Here are the details about Emery:
Status: Full of sugar from hanging out with Gram and Pa
Reaction to baby: More concerned about Pa being behind the glass in the nursery than the baby or Mom

Here are the details about Aaron:
Status: One happy Dad!!!

We are in the hospital

It's 3:30 in the morning and I (Aaron) am posting for the first time since Emery was born. Why? Because we are in the hospital waiting for baby Wilk #2 to come out. Of course, it takes Britt being incapacitated for me to post something. More updates to come....

4 years

4 years ago today, this is what we were doing:

no, not looking like little kids dressing up in wedding attire - getting married, silly! we look so young, huh? (and our hair is lots cooler!)

4 years, 1.99999999 kids later we're at least 4 times happier than we were that day.


i'm thankful for my "small town orem man" - my simple, family-loving, God-fearing, hard-working, fun-loving husband. thanks for being my best friend. let's make it at least for more. forever more, that is.

it wouldn't let me embed the video, but here's the link! (alan jackson's "small town southern man")
http://www.cmt.com/videos/alan-jackson/197568/small-town-southern-man.jhtml?id=505846

overdue

while trying to pull some files, specifically some old pictures, off of my old computer and onto a flash drive yesterday, the computer gave me this message.

aaron and i almost peed our pants laughing. hilarious. i didn't think my belly was that big, but if even the computer is noticing we're running out of space i may have been wrong. i'm still feeling good and pretty comfortable (most of the time) so i guess baby boy is okay to stay for a while longer. here's the finish line shot!

a fabulous shopping week

1st - no baby. :(

2nd - look how many pairs of shoes i bought emery today.

yes, that's 7 pairs. and what would possess me to do such a thing? all 7 pairs (sizes 6-8 - her current and next 2 sizes) were $1 each. $1!!!! have i mentioned i live less than 1 block from DI?? have i mentioned they have BRAND NEW stuff sometimes (from Wal-Mart usually)? love it.

another reason i love Cedar City - the lack of couponing frenzy. i've had a struggle with the food prices coming from the land of cheap food (Provo) and not getting newspaper coupons anymore, but yesterday morning made up for it. i got 18 boxes of pasta (mostly whole wheat even) for $0.20 each and 18 boxes of quaker granola bars for $0.50 each. best part - i was the only one in the store at 8:30am. everything i wanted was there. there were no lines. no one else even seemed to want my cheap pasta and granola bars. thank goodness for internet coupons and ignorance. :) not that i don't want to share the beautiful deals... but it was pretty nice to seem to be the only one in the know.

Happy October!!!

It's October! Reasons we're excited for October around our house:

• baby Bloop will be born this month! - if i go tonight or if I go 2 weeks over, he'll still be an October baby! and yes, he'll have a name other than Bloop, though I'm pretty sure Emery will always call him Bloop.
• our 4th Anniversary! - on the 14th! we're getting old!
• General Conference - always a reason to be excited. i love hearing from our Prophet and the other Church leaders. Emery knows the Prophet by his picture now so she'll be excited too (and she gave Elder Cook a high five at a recent regional meeting we had here so maybe she'll recognize him too - probably not. :) )
• Halloween - never my favorite holiday, but holidays are so much more fun with kids! we're hoping to carve/draw on a pumpkin and eat some festive orange treats. and emery learned what a pumpkin is and thinks they are pretty cool. now she seems to find them everywhere! (not an "orange" like she first told me as we walked into smiths a few days ago) here's emery in one of her very cute and festive shirts from auntie mel. thanks again auntie mel, power shopper!
• we'll get to see lots of family this month since baby is coming. i love any excuse to see family.
• cooler weather - currently at 11:11am, we are at a lovely 45 degrees this morning! yikes!
  
• changing colors! beautiful.
  
• fall clothes! i love wearing long sleeves, leggings, jackets, hats, etc.
• hot chocolate - i drank my first cup of the season last night. loved it.

In other Wilkinson family news:

• Emery found a katydid on our basil. we named it "Katy" and she was our pet for a few days until she started pooping in her jar. we let her go in the canyon. emery loved having her around and now when she and i go on our morning walks she always talks about katy when we pull up to the canyon. here's a picture of em and her 1st pet and her saying goodbye!
• we got to go to the Burr's cabin last week for a night to spend some time with my friend Cynthia and her husband and their cute kids. it was so much fun to see her, to catch up and to get away for a day (probably our last little getaway before baby's here and we're hanging at home for a while). thanks, Burrs, for inviting us!!!
• Emery loves bike rides with dad. It's her favorite thing in the whole world. So, we got her a helmet so she'd be extra safe. She loves her hungry caterpillar helmet.