Well it has been a VERY exciting week. As you saw we welcomed our 2nd baby, a happy healthy little girl, into the world. And Ryan has accepted a job offer (as of earlier today)!!!!

Here's a little more about Emily Elaine Dalton's birth.
On Wednesday the 18th I went in for my last ob appointment, hoping they'd start me on the 19th. Well the doctor checked me at 5:30 and I was a 2-3, which was a little bit of progress. The hospital was backed up so we set a time up to hopefully come in on Friday morning. Well we went home and I started having contractions. Around dinner time Mom started timing them. I wasn't to concerned because they were minor, not a big deal. Well from about 6-10 I had contractions every 5-6 min. So we decided to go into the hospital. It was a good thing too, because on the way they got a lot closer together and more intense. Probably had something to do with we drove in Ryan's car and he has no shocks. (He is NOT driving me home from the hospital in that car!!!) Well we got here and checked in about 10:30 and I was a 4, so that was exciting. Both Ryan and I were starting to realize she was coming. At 11:30 they checked me again and broke my water. I was at a 5. The aniseziologist (sp?) came and gave me an epidural (thank you!!). It was just in time too. The next time the nurse came in to check me she was pretty surprised and said well your complete, you can start pushing. That was crazy. The nurses were very quickly trying to get things all the way set up for delivery. After 3-4 sets of pushing Emily Elaine Dalton came into the world. It was 2:28 am and she was 8lbs and 4oz! Also she did not have a small head! She was in a hurry to get here. From the time they broke my water to the time of birth was just under 3 hours! After I had her I still felt like I was pregnant. There was no way I had already had her. It went so fast it took me a while mentally to realize she was here. Anyway. After she was born I got to hold her really quickly, and then they had to check her out. Unfortunately she had a hard time breathing because she swallowed a lot of fluid. They gave her oxygen and took her to the nursery. They told me she was doing well and they just needed to monitor her for a while. It was hard because I didn't get to see her again until about 7am. But Ryan would go back and forth so he told me she was doing well, and she was. I was so excited to finally have her back! She is so beautiful and very mellow. I hope that stays, he sister is far from mellow.
Well we thought she had curly hair, but after her bath we found out it wasn't curly. But it is still very thick long and dark. She is so beautiful and I love her so much!
Random facts:
this has been a VERY busy couple of days at this hospital. They had so many birthing mothers they had to turn some away to go to another hospital. We were on a waiting list to move from the delivery room to the recovery room. One of the nurses also told me that most of the vaginal births were girls too. Pretty crazy. There were around 40 babies in the nursery.
also, some of you already knew, but Emily has only 1 kidney. So they checked it out after she was born, and everything is great. Her kidney is functioning very well. I'm not worried about it. The doctor just said he would suggest staying away from contact sports. But that's no biggie.

Well this afternoon was the day we needed to decided if Ryan was going to accept the job offer. We were waiting to hear back from 1 more firm before deciding. Well after lots of prayer and thinking and talking about it we decided to accept. We will be moving to Lancaster Wisconsin in June or July. Crazy. Scary. Exciting. Well Em's hungry. Gotta go

Emily Elaine Has Arrived

We would like to introduce you to our newest arrival in the Dalton family, Emily Elaine. Emily was born on April 19, 2007 at 2:00 a.m. She weighed a heft 8 pounds 4 ounzes and was 20.25 inches long. She is a very content baby, rarely cries, and loves to eat long and hard. She was also born with a beautiful head of long, dark brown, curly, hair. Both Christi and Emily are doing very well. We are thrilled that she is here. Thank you all so much for your prayers.

GUESS WHAT!!!!

Ryan got his fist job offer on Monday!!!! We are so excited. It is for Lancaster Wisconsin. Ryan has one more firm that will let him know by Friday, and then we will know where we are going. It is SO nice not to have to worry anymore! The other place we are waiting on hearing from is Waterloo Iowa, so for sure it'll be one of the two.
The next good news is that Emily will be here VERY soon! I might go into labor tonight or tomorrow, if not I have an appointment set up at the hospital for Friday morning. I'm getting very excited! I've been really nervous about the whole labor thing again, but right now I'm just excited that she's comming soon.
Well that is our news for now. Hopefully I'm in the hospital very soon!!!
Love you all!

Kaitlyn Easter Dress

Here's a video of Kaitlyn in her new Easter dress. I couldn't wait any longer, so we tried it on. She couldn't wait any longer to play, I thought it was cute. Hope you like it.
http://s150.photobucket.com/albums/s99/rdstxy/?action=view&current=2007EasterDressfromGrandmaDalton.flv

Soul Man Jr.

Nothing will come close to topping the real Soul Man, Daddy Dalton, but in honor of him we did our own version. Hope you like it. Follow the link. http://s150.photobucket.com/albums/s99/rdstxy/?action=view&current=SoulMan.flv

It's been forever!

Hey Everyone! Sorry it's been SO long. Here are some cute pictures since the last time:

Ryan, Kaitlyn, and I went with a friend to the pumpkin patch. We had a lot of fun. Kaitlyn got to go on her first hayride and see a field of pumpkins. Afterward there were marshmellows to roast. I think that was Kaitlyn's favorite part. She loved the pumpkins and had fun exploring.

We decided to go to a Drake Football game because they were having a $1 night. Tickets, popcorn, and hot dog were a dollar each. We got all bundled up and went early so we could get good parking and seats. LOL, well we were an HOUR early. When we got there Ryan parked 5 blocks east and then 3 blocks north so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. When we got to the field there was tons of free parking there, oh well. We sat down and watched the boys warm up (Kaitlyn loved this) and ate our hot dogs. Just as the game was about to start (we'd already been there for an hour) we decided we'd been there long enough, we were frozen! It was a lot of fun, even though we didn't see any of the game. I think Kaitlyn looked adorable all bundled up!

This is Kaitlyn dressed up for Halloween. She was adorable. We didn't actually go out on Halloween becasue it was FREEZING outside, so we stayed home and passed out candy to the brave kids. Also the day before we went to a trunk or treat. It was nice outside. Kaitlyn didn't really get what was going on, but she did grab a piece of candy and eat through the wrapper to get it! I was helping her trick or treat and didn't realize she was eating along the way. lol, I should have known.

I just like this picture! Ryan says she got junk in the trunk or he says she's got badonkadonk. LOL, I agree! I love that little tush. We're gonna have to teach her to cover it up before she gets to old.

Well obviously it's way past halloween, but I don't know how to get the other pictures on here. So here's the news on us for now.

We went to Texas for Christmas and got to stay until the middle of Jan. I love school breaks! We had so much fun in Texas, it was really hard to leave. Kaitlyn got spoiled rotten and loved every second of it! It was so nice to be able to go on dates with my husband or just get out by my self. This time we got a lot of time with our siblings. It was so nice, we hung out with Julia and Cody, and Mindy and Chris the most (Aaron and Katrina moved to Austin). We had lots of hang out time. Ryan and I were really enjoying bonding with everyone. Ryan and I got to know Cody a lot better, he's still kinda new, and Aaron to. Aaron and Katrina came and played games with us one night, I really got to know Aaron better and bond with him, it was cool. It was so hard when we got back, I just wanted to hang out with my family still.

The grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins had so much fun with Kaitlyn. She still looks at other adults like, Why aren't you paying attention to me? when we go out. She misses being center of the world.

When it was time to come home, Texas had an ice storm. It was pretty bad. We were VERY blessed to get home safely. I know Heaveny Father watched over and protected us. The really weird part is that the worst part was in Texas, the further north we went, the better the roads were. Also in some parts of Oklahoma all the power was out. I was glad we were just passing through.

Well if you haven't heard I'm pregnant! We found out we are having another little girl. We are so excited. They will be the same months apart as Julia and I. I think that is really cool. We are naming her Emily Elaine after my grandmother who past away last year. She was a very charitable person, and I hope Emily will inherit some of her love, service, and devotion to the Savior and her family.

Ryan will be graduating law school in May, about 2-3 weeks after Emily is due. He will then be taking the Iowa State Bar at the end of July. We aren't sure yet were he will be working, but trust in the lord to lead us to the right place. He is still interviewing and we are hoping to have an offer soon. He is currently working for an atterney her in Des Moines for the semester. We are hoping to get an offer from there, but he dosen't know if he wants to expand his firm yet.

We are happy and doing well. Back into the swing of things. We love Des Moines, just hate the cold. Oh well, it will eventually end, right? Well I love you all!

until next time

Christi