Cora LeeAnn Kissel

We are so happy to show you our newest blessing.  Cora was born on  October 18th at 8:41am.  It's so exciting to have our family completed with another little girl.  I was surprised to have another girl, even though I would've been just as surprised if she would've been a boy.  She is so cute and looks like her big sister.  So far she is a little... high maintenance.    We've been there before with her brother and I can now finally understand that it is only for a short while.  I know with Jojo it drove me crazy when good hearted people said that.  Anyway, God has been so good to us and we definitely are blessed.

 I woke up with Lillian at 2am and realized labor had started.  We arrived at the hospital around 4am.  I was still extremely comfortable and surprised when the nurse said I was 6cm.  I continued to walk with the doula and was hoping that I would make it until 7 am when my Dr. was back on call.  

 Dr. T came in around 8 and checked me and I had only progressed to almost an 8. So she went ahead and broke my water.  I was determined to get the show on the road.  I was getting frustrated for still not having any labor pains, but only pressure.  So I started lunging on a chair and stuff of that sort.  Then the baby dropped. I had about 3 contractions I had to breathe and concentrate through then I let them know I was ready to push.  I got up on the table and then with 1 or 2 contractions our beautiful little girl was here.  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around not having pain with labor.  It was a very weird feeling, but I should be very grateful.  When ever some one new would come in the room I would tell them to "come join the party" and they would look at me like I was crazy.

 Getting to hold Cora for the first few seconds.  The took her to her table fast and had to get the fluid out of her lungs.

 Starting on the nursing already.  

Another great thing is I've literally had zero recovery.  My hips were sore for a few hours after, but other than that I got up and took a shower as soon as possible.  It was wonderful that I was able to make breakfast for the kids the first morning home and take care of them as always without being in discomfort. Of course, by the second day home I was ready to get out. So GG and I went shopping for some essentials.  

 Proud daddy as always

 Getting her hair washed before visitors arrive.

 They were both soooo excited to meet Cora.

 First family photo

 The second day the kids were there for about 4 hours and they were so cute just chillin.

 Cora finishing up her sleep with Daddy while I showered.

 Getting ready to head on home.

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes.  I can't wait until everyone gets the chance to meet her.  I'll try to update as often as possible.  Golly though, this one took me a whole week to get the chance to sit down and actually work on one post.   

Word to your cuz

Since I've been off of work I've been trying to get around to a few things that we don't normally get to do that are fun for the kids.  So we headed down to Brown County on a perfect fall day.  The kids and I had lunch with Danny.  Then we headed over to Michael and Jenni's.  Josiah loves playing with Eli.  It's fun because he doesn't have really many boys to play with and they play well together.  Erin and Eddy were able to come over and hang out too.  I was able to hold the little cutester for a while.

 Cody, Lillian, Josiah, Eddy, Eli

 watching Tom and Jerry

 Giving good bye hugs

It was a beautiful fall day.  As the rain front rolled in the leaves were blowing like crazy and the way they were coming off the trees were magical.  The light specks are all the leaves. 

In the next 3 sets of pictures I took mom's card and uploaded some of the 777 pictures off of her camera. Anna and I call her Paparazzi because she takes such an obscene amount of pictures.  Only to never do anything with them.  She takes wonderful pictures!  Someday I'm going to go and get the 2000 pictures of my kids and print off  some shots.

My only cousin on the Reilly side, Mark, married Bren this July.  They had an absolutely gorgeous wedding!  So now there's one more cousin and hopefully more little cousins will follow :)

 Daniel & Nicole, Grant, Jessica, Mark, Bren, Anna, Jeff, Darby & David

(Daniel and David are Mark's 2 other cousins)

Beautiful! 

Mark and Christine

Such a cute picture of Mark and Grandpa George.

At the end of July the Collier family came to visit from Colorado.  It was so fun to have family around.  I did blog about this back in July, but here's the picture that Paparazzi was able to capture.

Congratulations to the Collier family as they just welcomed a little brother, Enoch, on Oct. 12th.

Lillian, Josiah, Dove, Sophia, Jensen, Hope

Weewa watched the kids while Anna took me to get my car the other day and, once again, she took some super cute pictures.  I was lucky to get my hands on this set the day they were taken.

It seems like in no time they will all be the same size

Work or play

 I had the kids dressed up for pictures at the salon.  They weren't cooperating there so I just told the photographer not to worry about it and then I brought them to Weewa's.  We had a super fun day taking some pictures and then literally playing and "working".

 I was sooo bummed.  My camera settings were wrong and so I think what could've been the best pictures they've had together didn't quite turn out.

 making pouty bubbles

 My lovies!

One of the best feelings in the whole world!

 I love this silly girl.  She was pushing on my face and just being rotten.

 I saw this pink chair in mom's barn and had to take advantage.

 No, that isn't Crocodile Dundee... it's Pawpa!

 Lillian loved the skid steer.  She rode for quite a while.

It took Jojo a long time to warm up to the thought of even getting on the thing.

He thinks everything is cooler from a distance.

walking through the "Jungle" as Josiah calls it.

She mimicked every move Pawpa made.  So cute.  Have I ever mentioned how much she loves him?  Some how she missed the full blown "Weewa Effect"  and is under "Pawpa's spell"