Sweet BellaRose!!!!!!!

Here are a ton more pictures sorry I didn't post sooner I have been at the hospital all day I just could not get enough. BellaRose is just perfect! Worth and Sunday could not be happier.
You can just see how much this mother and daughter love eachother.Aunt Angela is sooo happy to have a sweet new niece!! (Sunday has a ton more pictures of BellaRose with Worth's family and her Mom and Sister and her kids who I didn't get to see since I was there a day later that she promised to post when she gets home so check in later for those.)

Niki and BellaRose already BFF!

Don't you just want to kiss this precious little face!
Roses for BellaRose from Worth's Parents who just adore their new grandaughter.

I pulled up her sleeve to see these sweet tiny little fingers...so delicate.
She is really good at sleeping
and posing, she is such a little beauty!
Oh Rylie Jayne BellaRose got the balloons you sent she can't wait to meet you too!

Here I am just so happy to be holding this beautiful child. She really is sooooo beautiful just like her Mommy! And tan too!!!
Angela and I made her look like a little Eskimo.
Sleepy sleep.

Good thing my flash didn't wake her up!

AWWWWWWEEEEE!!!!!
Sunday is such a wonderful mom. I am soooo proud of her.
She loves her Mommy sooooooo much


AND WE ALL LOVE HER SOOOOOOOO MUCH

This is trying to wake her up to feed her...it is hard because the girl loves some sleep, she has come such a long way to get here she seems pretty wiped out.


She has such a sweet squeaky little cry, she kinda squeaks like Sunday! It's amazing.
Thank you God for BellaRose. Thank you for bringing such joy and love into the lives of those that meet her. Thank you for Sunday and Worth and their new little family!!!

ONE DAY OLD

(JUST ADDED!!) Here is one where you can see her hair!! Also Sunday's Room# at Mission is 594

HERE IS THE LATEST PICTURE SUNDAY SENT ME THIS MORNING. WHAT A SWEETHEART!!!!

THIS JUST IN

Here is another picture of our favorite girl. Sunday just sent me this one from her phone. I love Worth's mom's face in the background.

I think in this shot she is totally looking like Sunday, ready to laugh and talk and hang out with the girls!

As for the word on visiting Sunday felt it best to get her rest tonight so if you can take it please try to wait and visit tomorrow. I will let you know the room # soon.

Jessica I totally am with you on wanting to go to the hospital and take loads of pictures but I must make myself wait until tomorrow!

-----Becky

SHE'S HERE!!!!

BELLAROSE IS HERE 8lb 10oz 20inches and a quarter long

Sunday's words "Can you believe how big? isn't she perfect!"

Everyone is healthy and happy Thank you God for our little BellaRose.

----Becky

SHE'S COMING TONIGHT!!!!!

WELL THE TIME HAS FINALLY ARRIVED AT 12:15 EARLY TUES MORNING MORE EXCITED THAN I HAVE EVER HEARD HIM SOUND, WORTH CALLED TO TELL ME THAT SUNDAY IS IN THE HOSPITAL AND BELLA ROSE IS ON HER WAY SHE IS IN LABOR AS I TYPE AND I AM SO EXCITED I KEEP MESSING UP! I WILL LET YOU KNOW AS SOON AS I HEAR ANYTHING MORE!
KEEP PRAYING FOR THE GRANTS!!!!
-BECKY

THE WORD IS.......

no baby, not much progress. we are still 1-2 cm diliated and 75% effaced, belly measuring at 37 cms, but i was having a contraction then too so probably not real accurate. the doctor feels like BellaRose is doing well and she has enough fluid around her. her heartbeat is good, we are having contractions, but no labor! we were at the doctor for 2 hours this morning having an ultra sound and the non stress test, which i thought was a little stressful b/c everytime you don't hear the heartbeat you get nervous. so we go to the hospital at 6 am on thursday the 24th to be induced. my doctor will deliver us and that makes me feel really good. we are in a bit of a shock right now, we have been preparing for this and now we know we will have a baby this weekend. it is all very surreal to us. so that will be a fun birthday for her the 24th, near memorial day. talk about trips to the lake and the beach. sounds fun!

on saturday and sunday we went to the lake at camp and let the yellow dogs go swim and rainy jumped off the diving boards. there is nothing she won't do for a tennis ball. you can see sadie, annie and dan's dog, treading water below rainy. she really liked to tread water. we also had worth's mom's dog, elly, out there on sunday. there were so many yellow dogs it was hard to keep track, but rainy was the only one to go off the diving board. you can see her commitment.

Still No Baby

so what do you do when you are waiting for a baby do come? well, we, the grants, as in Worth and Sunday, replant our garden for the 3rd time. i dare those birds to come back again. we are armed and we are ready. of course now there are frost warnings and that may take us out now! worth also likes to chop wood. i asked him if he was angry about anything but he said "no" he just likes to chop wood. to each his own. the tree he is chopping is the one that we cut down a couple of post ago. we also bought more plants and are trying to find places for them. such as this beautiful yellow hibiscus we could not pass up. let me tell you all these were taken with the camera phone so they are not really the actual colors. this flower is such a bright yellow. so pretty! also when we are waiting for a baby to come we time contractions and think that we are getting really close, but in actuality it was nothing and i sit her still pregnant. you know this being pregnant has not been bad. i can't complain, but they just gave us a date to look forward to and it has come and gone and we are still in the same place. it gives me more time to get stretch marks and get bigger (think about the bigger picture sunday!).

i have to show you these letters that we got for BellaRose's room. aren't they wonderful. thank you shelley for helping to contribute to the letters. i had been waiting for them and now we have them. i really like them a lot. worth had a real fun time putting them up too. i went out for a bagel and left him to it. i also wanted to share this sweet little dress i bought from gymboree. it was only $12 and of course with shipping and tax and all that it came up to $20, but it was normally $32. i mean who could pass this up. it has pink bloomers too. now we just need a little person to fill it. please be praying this baby comes soon. people who i was ahead of in the pregnancy are starting and have been having their babies. i think it is time!

IT IS WAR!!!

no matter what you feel about the war in Iraq, it is war here in the Grant household. this war is waged over a garden. who has the rights to it, the robins, or us? this is serious folks. on monday we went and bought cucumbers, pickles, squash, more basil. the garden was filled, and we were thrilled. tuesday morning we went off on our walk (by the way walking DOES NOT work to get babies out) by the time we got home the whole right side of the garden was gone. "they" got them. "they" decided that squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and pepper would be good for their nest in our neighbors grill. this is war. i am not going to say that we went to walmart that night and bought a BB gun, or that we put a scarecrow up, or as Becky likes to call it a scarerobin. we will see how these tactics work. we really need to ask ourselves "what would jack bauer do?". I feel like he would be really okay with what we are doing here.

on the baby front we really have no news. there is still no baby and yes we are walking, yes i have had spicy food. this girl is stubborn. i can't imagine where she gets this trait from. she will come when she is ready or when she is forced by the doctor. monday we go back and have a non stress test, and an ultrasound to check my fluids. i sound like a car. hopefully we will not make that appointment. we will let you know. the pink gerber daisy above is BellaRose's (Bella Rose's) gerber daisy from her Mimi (is that what we are going to call you mom). here is the belly at 40 weeks and 3 days!

STILL PREGNANT

as of 3:04 on sunday afternoon, mother's day, i am still pregnant. so i guess this won't be my first mother's day. i promise to keep you posted. i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 8:15. cross your fingers, be praying!!!
thanks for all the love.

so we wait and we bake

So i have no choice but to bake and try to take fun pictures with my cell phone since worth took the camera. worth wanted cherry turnovers. well they did not have frozen cherries at the store so i am making blueberry turnovers with cream cheese. he was not excited about this option so i will share with friends! i think that i will bring one to my favorite administrative professional.

they are actually pretty good if i do say so myself. let me know if you, too, would like one. you can come over and sit on my back deck and get a tan with me and eat blueberry turnovers and wait for Bella Rose, BellaRose (which way, i just can't decide).

39 weeks and.......

NOTHING! well i guess i can't say nothing, i am still 1 cm diliated and 50% effaced and belly is measuring at 37cm. the doctor said that she is at negative one position. not sure what that means. so we wait. i am not a very patient person. i know i am not to my due date yet, but i am READY! sorry if you talk to me and i sound irritated. i am a little. i have been getting a headache the past couple days and today all i want to do is go to bed. i am still working though. well part time, but i am still here. you know this pregnancy has been very easy. i have no room to complain. i can still do a lot of things, maybe not sleep, but still lots of other things. Worth and i were getting a bagel this morning after the doctor and we were talking to this lady that was having twins and she was over it. she is 38 weeks and her belly is measuring 50cm!!! can you believe that. i feel bad wanting to have this baby so bad and here is this poor girl carrying twins. we are in good shape here. i will keep you posted. i promise.

38 weeks

oh my word!!!!!!! so i am sitting in our "office" trying to figure out quickbooks and i look at the calendar. i see the power bill is due at the end of the week, we have a doctor's appointment and then the phone bill is due, and then..... and then..... (do you see where i am going with this?) i see BellaRose's due date!!!!!!!! it is in the same month that we are in now. it is really happening. oh.....my......goodness!!!!!!!! i have so much to do i feel, but am so ready. i need to get the room ready for my mom, pack our bags even better, figure out if i need another nightgown, make sure i have the baby book for foot prints, make sure we have snacks. oh.....my....goodness!!!!!!! have i said that already?

Yellow Dog

How does your garden grow? I will let you know how ours grows in about "T" minus a month or so. On Saturday we made a garden. We are going to be sustainable. Well maybe not susatinable, but we will have A LOT of basil and herbs. We like our pesto around these parts. It did not occur to me to take a picture of this project until we were almost done. Worth got to use the neighbors tiller, and now he has less grass to mow so we are all very happy. I enjoyed working out there with Worth. This will be my project this summer. Well BellaRose's and my project. Okay BellaRose will sit there in her swing while I work but at least I have someone to talk to now.

Sunday (the day not me) was made for yellow dogs. As you can tell this yellow dog had a good day! We went walking at Warren Wilson College and found a little beach spot. The Rain Dog had a great afternoon swimming. She did not stop. She lept like that ALL afternoon after that stick. You would never know that she is getting up there in age. I think that this swimming is really good for her. Makes her bones not creak so much. We love the Rainy Dog! I would have a picture of Atticus, but seeing as he really did not like the afternoon as much as Rainy and could care less about water the pictures would be pretty boring.

Rainy got a bath when she got home and the grass felt oh so good!

37 weeks

On Monday we had some maternity pictures taken by Visio Photography as I have mentioned they are amazing photographers! We felt so honored that they wanted to take our picture. They just came in with all their cameras and just started shooting away. They are so fun and loving. If you ever need a portrait or fine art wedding photographer these are your people. They will have more pictures to come but these are some that they posted on their blog.

We go to the doctor this morning. We will see if there is any progress. My stomach keeps tightening up a lot and it just feels like things are getting harder and harder. Like I have said I am ready, but I guess that does not matter much, it is more when BellaRose is ready. We are anxious to meet her. We have so many questions for her. Maybe she is going to be a soccer player because she really likes to kick. I will ask her questions about that for sure. I can't wait to meet that heel! I will give an update when we get back form the doctor if anything exciting is happening. I can tell you I am really looking forward to not getting on a scale for a really LONG time. I would say until we have our next baby. Talk at you soon.

Hello all! We had hurricane force winds here over the past couple of days and we were not spared. Well I should not say that, we were spared, but not a pine tree. As you can see it is leaning a little bit over our neighbor's driveway. Worth had to take it down. I was his helper. I was the one who needed to stop traffic if need be, we did not have any traffic so I was the photographer. So here is our tree coming down. I helped move some brush, but Worth did all the heavy lifting as his back can attest to today! I wonder if he should enter in the lumber jack competitions that they have on the outdoor network? I think that he would win. As you can tell he is really happy to have to take down the tree.

On the baby front we had a doctors appointment this morning. No dialation. Nothing! I was hoping for something, but we got nothing. My stomach is measuring 35 inches. She said that hopefully means BellaRose will be smaller. Cross your fingers on that one as well. Everything else is looking good. We go back in a week so I will keep you posted of course. Here is another present that we got in the mail yesterday. This one is from wonderful Jessica and the Carr Family. Thank you so much. We love it. We know BellaRose will love it as well. It is so precious. It can be a little step too right? It looks like it folds and could be a step. So sweet. We love it, we love you! Also on Monday

Visio Photography will be taking some maternity pictures of the belly. We are so excited because they one of THE most talented photographers I know. They take the most beautiful images and it will be such an honor to have them take some belly shots. Check out their pictures. You will be awestruck!!! I am on a constant basis.

Well that is it for me for right now. Enjoy the tree, enjoy the chair, and enjoy the photographers.

the time has come!

no not time for a baby. although i do have someone lined up to inform the world that we are in labor. thank you becky! the time has come for me to be part time!!! as of monday i will be a part time girl. i am thrilled and nervous. we have to wean ourselves off a second paycheck and i believe this will be the way to do it. pray for us! i know this is a good thing though. i have heard from many moms to take this time off, take care of myself, pamper myself, SLEEP. so i take your advice ladies! thank you.

ps- this picture was taken awhile ago, not while i am pregnant. just to let you know i am not pounding the beer!

Question?

So my question is, how important is it to get a pack-n-play? This is a very serious issue. One that I was thinking about at about 3:30 am. Yes 3:30 am. Sleep is not coming very natural right now. I have a belly that won't allow me to do much sleeping so I think about Pack-n-plays and high chairs, among MANY other things, and I wonder if that is something we need to have before the baby comes. Is it?

I leave you with Rainy. When we were having spring, Rainy got a bath. Her first since 1994. No kidding, she was not alive in 1994!

One final note if you want to laugh really hard and have your day completely made for you please go to Annie, Dan, and Will's blog (just click on their name) and look at the video of him laughing. I promise you he will make your day!

34 weeks

Thank you Shanna for this very special sweet gift. Shanna, who I meet through Jessica and now know her better then ever thanks to the blog world sent us this bulletin filled with fun pictures from my blog and my friend's blogs. Thank you so much! I love it! It is perfect! Now I need your address :).

The house is almost complete, but to the unknowing person it is complete and I could not be happier. Some people say it feels like a beach house inside and I would have to agree. We love the beach, we love the mountains, now we have both, well sort of I know Worth wishes he could surf right out our door.

At 34 weeks:

~i can still see my feet (some books tell me that i might not be able to)

~i can't wait to sleep on my stomach!

~sleeping is getting more uncomfortable

~i can still work out and walk, but it is getting harder

~rainy is getting used to life

~i am ready for BellaRose to be here to get this started, but want her to stay in a little longer

~i have 6 weeks to go but the longest i will be pregnant is 8 weeks-yikes!

~the car seat is in my car ready to go (we have no where else to put it)

~i have to go to a meeting at the Agency Field office to learn something about Homeowners insurance even though i won't be here that much longer (oh well)

~my boss gave me the morning off yesterday and it was WONDERFUL!

~my trunk is filled with size 2 diapers (thanks Annie)

~the nursery is done, the closet is filled

~the diaper bag is packed, and my bag is getting closer

~i can't eat a whole lot b/c there is no room, she is so high up she kicks my ribs ALL the time

~i have read 2 books on discipline and we are now reading a book on sleeping and eating called On Becoming BabyWise (i expect to be an expert soon)

~i forget things a lot, like words, and things like that, hopefully that comes back :)

~i CAN'T WAIT to have a cold beer!

~life is pretty darn good!!!!