Welcome Sammi!

For the past few days I have been in the basement of the library at UNL (Univ of Nebraska) working with a special collection of archives for a research class. Down in the "dungeon" I have no cell signal so when I walked out of the library yesterday afternoon I got the message that Samantha Nicole Plas was born! She is 6 tiny pounds (what's that like???) and is doing really well. Kelly had her at 1 pm yesterday after 14 hours of labor with NO help from drugs. Superwoman for sure!

After talking to Kelly, I headed straight to the hospital. It's so special because Kelly was my nurse at the same hosital last year when I had EJ. Now we get to celebrate her precious miracle. I've prayed for this baby a lot so meeting her brought great joy! She is precious and sweet as you can tell from her picture. EJ gets to meet her tonight. I can't wait!

11 months and WALKING!!

EJ is now officially walking! We went to St. Paul, Minnesota this weekend where E.J. decided to start motoring around. As a proud mom, I can say that he is the cutest thing ever! It's hard to believe that he will be a year old next month. I'll reflect more on E.J.'s first year later but for now some pictures of him at 11 months.

The pictures include EJ and Eric in the hotel before bed, going for a stroll at the Mall of America, raiding the fridge, riding the carosel with Grandma, and with Judy and Marian's families at my cousin Barb's house celebrating their birthdays.

Summer Fun

The weather here in Lincoln has been wonderful which has afforded us some fun bike rides and pool time. On Sunday, we took EJ in his trailer for a bike ride. He did pretty well...if we were moving. Otherwise he didn't like the trailer...probably the part about being strapped in and he didn't like his helmet either which is evident when you see him in the trailer without it on.

The bike ride was great until Eric's right pedal fell off halfway through th ride. He had to pedal with his left leg for the 35 mintues it took to get home! While a bummer at the time, I laugh everytime I think about him pedaling with one foot! :-)

Today we had our first swim class called Baby Bobbers. EJ did really good learning how to float and enjoyed playing the fun games, like the hokey-pokey. The class gave me a lot of good ideas for things to do when we are playing in the pool to get him more comfortable in the water.

Lincoln Children's Zoo

Lincoln has a precious zoo for little ones right in the middle of town! It's a great zoo where you can feed goats and ride ponies. We went for the first time this weekend and EJ was mesmerized by all the animals and the huge sandbox for kids to play in. He loved it!!

Hello Holders!

Last weekend, Drew and Courtney came to Lincoln for Drew's baseball team to play the Lincoln Salt Dogs. It was a great weekend for Drew with 3 homeruns! Courtney and I had lots of fun and EJ fell in love with Courtney!!

Baby Shower for Kelly & Sammi

Last weekend we celebrated the upcoming birth of Samantha! It was a fun celebration! Since we have had a lot of "blue" in our house with EJ being a boy, it was fun to do pink decorations...everywhere! :-) All of Kelly's family and friends were so nice and it was so fun to celebrate this new chapter in Kelly's life. EJ even sported a shirt saying "Sammi's Boy."

I met Kelly when I had EJ last summer. She was my nurse every night during my hospital stay. One night she even went with me to the continuous care nursery to hang out with EJ under the jaundice lights. God simply blessed me with a wonderful friend right upon moving to Lincoln. I will never take that for granted and I'm so glad EJ will have a little buddy to grow up with!

Rachel comes to visit!

Last weekend included a visit from Rachel and Katie from North Platte. Rachel has been EJ's babysitter since he was a few weeks old. We met at Nebraska Wesleyan, where she is a student.

Rachel and Katie got to do bath time with EJ, which is super fun these days. All on his own, EJ started drinking from the water spout. We finally caught it on camera. I have no idea what prompted him to do this or where he learned it. Crazy.

It was great having them in town for the weekend!

Fresno State Wins CWS!

As you may know, Eric played college baseball for two years at Fresno State. In that time he made many wonderful friends. One of those special relationships was with Mitch and Jamie Ribera and their family. Mitch Ribera was Eric's pastor during college. Mitch and Jamie's son, Jordan, now plays baseball for Fresno State and they were in town for the College World Series, which they WON! YAY!!!

While in Omaha for the series, Mitch, Jamie and their daughter Jenna drove to Lincoln to see us and meet EJ for the first time! They have prayed for us to have a baby for many years so it was so sweet to be able to introduce them to Eric's "mini-me"!!!! It was a wonderful time of fellowship and celebration!

Meeting Lynette

Our friend, Lynette, was in town for a family reunion and we finally got to introduce her to Baby E.J.!! It was so special because Lynette and Gary have prayed for years that God would bless us with a baby. It was a sweet moment to introduce Lynnette to God's answer to her prayers!!

Their son, Garrett, played for Eric at DBU and is now in the San Francisco Giants organization. We also got to meet Lynette's cousin, Carol, who lives here in Lincoln. Carol had us all over for dinner and EJ decided to take five unassited steps on his own in her living room! He will be running soon!

The Sheltons Visit!

Kaye and Nate Shelton were in town for Nate's baseball tournament in June. It was a fun week as we celebrated Nate's high school graduation and Kaye's birthday. We toured the UNL campus and feasted at all my favorite restaurants in town. Kaye was wonderful with EJ and taught him how to say "uh-oh." EJ took a sweet liking to Nate and wanted Nate to hold him whenever he was around.

Kaye blessed me by helping me add flowers and plants to my front yard and she did mornings with EJ so I could sleep in. She also found a corn head for EJ which he gladly played with!

Their trip ended with a visit to Butler Junior College where Nate was signed to play college baseball! Congrats to Nate on his achievement!