Lily

So, we decided to make another addition to the Hemphill household. Her name is Lily and she is an 8 week old white boxer. We are very excited to have a playmate for Harley. It has been quite an adjustment for all of us to have another puppy in the house lately. I wouldn't trade her for the world though! She is the sweetest thing ever! She loves to cuddle, but my oh my she has a fiesty bone in her too!! She is definitely gonna give Harley a run for his money. She does have to get a little bit bigger before she can take him down, but she isn't afraid of him at all.

She is all white with just a few black spots on her face and ears. Sooo Cute!!

She seems to be adjusting well to her new surroundings. Now we just gotta get the potty training thing down as soon as possible. I think it helps to have big brother to show her the ways.

She already thinks she is as big as Harley!

It's so fun to have a tiny puppy around again!

Hopefully soon we will have a tiny baby too! All in God's timing I guess!!

You gotta admit they are pretty cute next to each other!!

I think Harley wishes she was bigger so he could really play with her. He is being very gentle though for now!

What a week!!

We had a VERY busy week this last week. It was sooo much fun though! My younger brother Kevin, his wife Chel'ea, and 1 month old Calvin were in town all week. It is so much fun to finally have a new family member that is sooo tiny! We had a baby shower for the new family last Saturday. They were blessed with many wonderful things, and of course we all enjoyed holding Calvin. They stayed in town for the week to help with our basement project, along with my oldest brother Eric.

So Adorable!!
Saturday night and all day Sunday my oldest brother Eric and I were installing wires for our future theatre system in our new family room. I definitely learned a lot!! Who knew there were so many different types of wires, and electrical boxes, and panels... Well, we got it done. We really wanted to do it before putting on the sheet rock. It made it so much easier.

Then on Monday the fun started. We decided to finish half the basement at a time, so we started with the 2 bedrooms for now. Kevin and Jesse worked for three days straight to insulate, sheet rock, mud and tape the rooms. I couldn't believe how much they got done in three days!

Kevin decided to take a break from our house on Thursday and Friday and went over to my other brothers house to help them. It was definitely a week of hard work. He did the same stuff over at their house in their basement.

Then on Saturday I learned how to pull mud! It is actually not too terribly bad. We will have to try and do a few top coats of the mud before Kevin comes back again. We are hoping to have this project done by the end of the summer, so we have our work cut out for us.

The beginning of the family room

A New Addition to the Family!!

Last Friday night at about 11:30pm we got "the" phone call. My sister-in-law Chel'ea was one week overdue and her time had finally come. She was having contractions about 2 weeks ago but it never progressed, so we think it was just braxton hicks. She didn't really know the difference at the time. Well, this time it was for real. Her midwife had come to their house and confirmed that she was in labor. She was only dilated to about 2 centimeters, but was definitely feeling the contractions. I actually hadn't really thought about making the trip to Winthrop, but it happened to be Friday night and I had the weekend off. My other sister-in-law Julie and I decided we wanted to make the trip up there to support them. I talked to my little brother and he said to just wait till morning because the midwife said it would be a slow process. Well, I talked to my mom and she was WIDE awake. This was her first grandchild and all, so she was not about to go to sleep. Julie and I decided we were gonna make the drive that night cause we were already awake and ready to go. We called my mom to see if she wanted to come with us, and obviously she said yes!!

So, the three of us girls left Spokane at about 2:30 AM (yes, you read that right!). It is about a four hour trip and since we were in my new car I was the designated driver. It's kinda crazy but we stayed awake the whole trip up there. I think there was a little bit of excitement in that car. I also had a few caffeinated beverages to keep me going for the trip. We made it into town at about 6:30 am and stopped for coffee and bagels before heading to Kevin and Chel'ea's house. We got there and Chel'ea was upstairs with her midwife and her mom. She was having a little bit of a difficult time, so we all just hung out downstairs. By this time she was about 4 centimeters, I think. We decided to lie down for a little nap, so we weren't quite so cross-eyed. Julie and I slept in the guest room for just about 2 1/2 hours. My mom couldn't really sleep, so she might have gotten about an hour of rest.

At about 2pm we decided to take a little walk to get some fresh air and wake ourselves up a bit. We didn't know how far along she was because she wasn't really letting the midwife check her. We got a call in the middle of our walk that the babies head was crowning... Oh no!! We come all this way and wait for hours on end and now we are going to miss the big moment! We all started running back to the house. We got there and she had just started pushing. She was not as far along as her sister had said in the phone call. Oh well, at least we were back now. She had been laboring in a warm pool most of the time because she had a lot of back labor. She said it helped to be in the warm water. About two hours later is when she actually had the baby.

You have to admit he's pretty darn cute!!

At 4:40 pm Calvin James Drozdov was born. He was 8 pounds even and 20 1/2 inches long. Both mom and baby did wonderfully. I was very proud of her. The midwife had two assistants to help her and they stayed for a few hours to monitor both Chel'ea and Calvin to make sure they stayed stable.

The happy new family!!

Ater we had all eaten dinner and met and held Calvin, Julie and I decided we needed to head back home. My dad was on his way up there, and he and my mom would be staying with the new family, so we decided it best to come home. We left Winthrop at about 8:00pm and got into Spokane at about 12:15. On the way out of town I picked up about 3 more caffeinated beverages. By this time I had only had about 2 1/2 hours of sleep in the last 40 some odd hours, so I was wiped. But I had Julie to keep me awake as I drove back home. Overall, it turned out to be a very good weekend! I am very glad that I was able to be there and meet my first nephew on his birth day! I have to say I think my mom is loving her new role as Nana!!

The two happy new aunties!!