Tomorrow marks Anya’s 2-week birthday…hard to believe she has been here for 2 weeks already. I can’t believe how fast those days went by.

All is well here. My mom was here all last week helping us make the transition and was a huge help not only with Anya, but with doing odd jobs around the house and going to appointments with me. I was nervous about her going home on Sunday, but things have continued to go smoothly, so we are thankful for that.

Jason, Jill, Zachary & Noah came this last weekend to meet the newest member of the family. I couldn’t believe how much the boys enjoyed holding Anya and how well they responded to her. It was fun watching them hold her and kiss her…pretty cute. Click here to see a few more pictures of Anya.

Well, that is about all that is going on around here. Glad for the rain we got today and the cool temp outside was a nice change from the heat and humidity.

Just thought I would let everyone know that Anya’s picture is finally up on the hospital website. You can view her “going home” picture here.
Her portrait ID is 1003141.

All is going well…she has been such a good little girl. Still sleeping through the night (knock on wood) and eating well. Her jaundice is much better and she is now off the bili-blanket. Grandma Barb has been here all week helping me get adjusted and we are all very thankful for her help. Papa Jim is coming down tonight and then Jason, Jill & the boys are heading here tomorrow, so she is have lots of company this weekend!!

Will post more pictures soon…..

Brandy and I are both a little tired , but we’re happy to be home with our new baby girl Anya. She has been doing great, hardly any fussing. She’s had a little bit of jaundice, so if you’re wondering what the green glow in the photos is, it’s a blanket that is getting rid of the condition. We hope to have that behind us in the next couple days. Thanks for all the good wishes from everyone.

You can see some more Anya photos here.

Anya Kay McArtor is finally here!! She was born yesterday (7/13/05) at 1:10pm at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and she is absolutely perfect!! She weighed in at 7lbs 15 oz and is 19 inches long. I went into labor around 2:30AM Wednesday, arrived at the hospital around 5:30AM and she made her debut at 1:10PM. It was a lot of hard work, but Jason was an awesome labor coach and the nurses and doctors were great, so they pulled me through it. She has already had quite a few visitors (including Grandma & Grandpa McArtor and aunt Joni, Chad, Fuzzy & Steph) and has even more coming in the next few days (Grandma & Grandpa Miller)—so she will be quite busy entertaining!!

We are so blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy little girl and even though she is less than 24 hours old, she already has us wrapped around her tiny finger (I think she is definitely working on being a “daddy’s girl”). We have taken a ton of pictures of Anya, so click here to see a few of our favorites!!

We are in the hospital until tomorrow, so we will post more info and pictures once we get home and settled.

Despite a full day of work (again), my twice-a-month lunchclub at noon, and my drop at UPS, I was able to swing over to the video game store for my annual trek to acquire the new EA Sports NCAA Football 06 game for Xbox. I nearly forgot about picking it up until tonight when I found out another member of my extended family also made his way to the store to get the game on its first day of release. The bad news is that my Xbox is in the shop again for the 3rd time in about a year—yes, the folks at Xbox got an earful from me over the phone, no more than I get to play it, it shouldn’t break down like it has and I think they may replace it with a new one (knock on wood). Oh…Iowa ranks #3 in the game—which I would assume is their highest ever since the game debuted in 1996.

Waiting for Jason to come up from the office so we can have our BLT’s for supper tonight. They are one of my favorite summer meals, so we have them quite often around here.

Nothing too new going on…still no baby, but any day now. Have still been feeling pretty good (other than huge and HOT most of the time), but not sleeping all that well. Oh well….don’t think that will change once the baby gets here!!

This last weekend Jason and I ventured down to the Science Center of Iowa to check it out as we hadn’t been there before. We looked at all the exhibits and then watched “The Living Sea” in the IMAX theater—it was pretty cool. Never been in an IMAX before and we both really enjoyed it…it is kindof weird to get use to because the seats recline (sortof) so that you are basically watching the movie on the ceiling.

Otherwise, pretty quiet around here. Off to start the BLT’s….

Well, Jason is a happy boy today. He has been bugging me for atleast a month about getting a Dyson vacuum (ever since he found out Jason and Jill got one)….he just HAD to have one. After talking to a few people we know who have one, he was convinced our house just wouldn’t be clean enough for the baby without one. So, I told him when he found a good deal on one he could get it…and today was that day. We went and picked it up and immediately came home and vacuumed every floor surface in the house (well, he is currently working on the basement)..and I will admit that it does seem to pick up alot of “junk”. It does have alot of handy features and is so simple to empty. So I guess he sold me on it once we got home and I saw it in action. It just kills me the things he gets excited over!!! See the pictures of the new Dyson here.

Otherwise, haven’t done anything else too exciting today. Jason has his volleyball league tonight, so he is looking forward to that. Think I will stay at home and get a few more things done around here.

Hi Everyone!! Been a few days since I posted, so thought I would let everyone know I survived working the long weekend (and holiday) and am awful glad tomorrow is Wednesday and my day off!!! Didn’t do anything too exciting yesterday for the 4th. Jason grilled hamburgers when I got off work and then we went and watched fireworks from Raccoon River Park–they were really good and we had excellent seats. It was a beautiful night to be outside and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky…couldn’t have had it any better!

Otherwise, things are pretty quiet around here. Patiently waiting for baby McArtor to make his/her appearance and over-analyzing every pinch, cramp or pain I feel anywhere in my body to try to figure out if it means labor is approaching!! I could possibly drive myself insane doing that, so I have decided to try and not obsess as much (ya right)!!

Off to bed….goodnight!!

There were ominous skies leading up to our Wednesday, 8:45pm volleyball game and the local TV stations were waging Radar-wars to see who had the champion Super-Mega-Ultra-Doppler system. Rain and wind was all around us, but it hadn’t hit Des Moines, so The Sands recreation complex was open for volleyball. The team we played was pretty good, and we split the first 2 games and were leading 11-4 (or something like that) when the wind picked up—and boy did it. I’m not a meterologist, but it must have been blowing 30+ MPH, maybe more, all I know is that every time they served, the ball would literally blow from one side of the court to the other. Once we finally got a serve back, we were behind by a couple and weren’t able to recover. We all sprayed the sand off our feet and got to our cars in time to beat the storm—come to think of it, I’m not sure it really rained much at all.