Introducing Josiah William

At 3:30 a.m., it began.

At 4:00, Jed was awakened.

At 5:30, we waited.

At 6:00, the bags were checked one last time.

At 6:30, the journey began.

At 7:00, we arrived at the hospital.

At 9:00, the waters gushed forth.

At 11:00 Jed took off his wedding ring because Anna hurt his hand from squeezing.

At 1:30 p.m., Anna did not know if she could take the pain any longer.

At 1:50, the pushing began.

At 2:00, Josiah began to peek.

At 2:07, Josiah emerged into the world, all 21 inches and 10 pounds of him. Here's what he looked like:
At 3:30, Sy had calmed down. Here's what he looked like then:


At 6:46, Ali met her baby brother Sy for the first time. Here's how they look together.


At 6:51, we took the first picture of the rest of our life. Here's our family:


Thanks to all of you for your prayers! We especially thank God for a healthy delivery for both mother and child.

Pumpkins and Pictures

Yesterday Ali and I went on a trip to the Pumpkin patch. Ali picked out her own pumpkin and even carried it around a bit. I'm glad that she's not like me...when I was in kindergarten I went to the pumpkin patch and picked out a pumpkin so big I couldn't pick it up and so I had to roll it, which doesn't work so well when you have to get it back to your kindergarten classroom, which is downstairs. It's a miracle that the pumpkin survived that journey.

So when we were at the pumpkin patch, we did other things than get pumpkins. I talked to the other dads who were there with their preschoolers, and we gloated in the fact that we beat all the moms there. Ali sang some songs like "Old MacDonald" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" with some guy who played the banjo, and we saw some pigs, turkeys, peacocks, chickens, and roosters. There was also a hay maze.

Hey Gramma, here's a picture of Ali on her new trike. Notice that there is no fence or anything in the background.
Ali was walking around today putting herself in time-out. "I love time out," she said. Apparently we need a new form of punishment. I've heard that bamboo shoots under the fingernails is effective.

Speaking of torture, Anna is ready to have a baby. Really, really ready. Never mind that the due date was Sunday. We'll just keep waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

And besides field trips, I'm staying busy with work stuff including hiring a music director and planning a memorial service and stewardship program and the holiday schedule. I'm happy to not be preaching for the next couple of weeks, though. I took the time off so that I could be around when the baby came...and now I'm waiting and blogging. Well, if Sy turns out to be anywhere near as cute as Ali is, we'll be just fine. We'll be in trouble, but it'll be good.

Here's one more picture illustrating how cute Ali is.

Place your guesses...

Because I need to have some fun while waiting for Josiah (or else I might go crazy), I've decided to make it a game. I've set it up so anyone can leave a comment, even if you could not before. Guess the birthday, weight and length of this little boy. We'll see who comes closest. Maybe I'll even come up with a prize; we'll just have to see.

To put everyone on equal ground, his "official" due date is October 5th, but at one point I was also told October 9th.

Guess away!

From the Paparazzi

Some of you have wondered what it would be like to be in Anna's shoes right now. First of all, you need to know that Anna doesn't wear shoes as often as she can. The second thing you need to know is that Anna can't really tell whether or not she is wearing shoes because this is what she sees when she looks down. She feels really big, and requested once that I take this picture off the blog on account of her tummy resembling Mt. Vesuvius. I still think that she's beautiful, and I'm sure there is a beautiful baby boy swimming around in there somewhere. Michael Phelps, watch out. Josiah has been practicing...


Even though we were offered millions of dollars from People (R) magazine, we decided to turn it down and post Anna's late pregnancy pix on our blog. Here's a picture of her standing in front of our door, which Ali says is "reb," even though she is perfectly capable of saying "red."

In our next picture, Ali would like to welcome you to her house. It is in our backyard, which is curiously enough where Jed's imaginary friend lived when he was Ali's age. By the way, our backyard looks totally different now because there is no makeshift totally flammable barbeque cover, no red fence, and no dog cage made from mattress frames. That has all been dismantled and is sitting on the side of our house now, along with the yellow slide that we really will put up sometime this decade. Really.

In our last picture, you will notice that Anna is not really pregnant. At least not from the back. I've heard that this runs in her family, that they're never pregnant from the back, going back at least as far as Granny. You also have a nice view of the front of our house and some plants that get watered by our sprinklers, which is the only reason they are still alive.

Enjoy!

Joys of Parenting...

Just a few notes to let you know what we've been up to...

It brings me great joy to know that Ali thinks the play eyeshadow she got in her birthday purse is a phone...she has no idea what other purpose it could serve. Of course, she uses just about anything as a phone, including her hand if nothing else is available. Considering how much I love the phone, I find this all rather amusing.

Ali is officially over whatever sickness she had. We are glad to not have to wash sheets and clothes daily because of the "icky" on them. She was sick for almost a week, and I was starting to wonder if I would ever be able to leave the house, or if I would forever be trapped with this evil sickness.

We might just be starting potty training soon. She is acting interested. That will be a exciting adventure, I'm sure.

Yesterday was a less that great moment in my parenting life. Ali wakes up from her nap and for reasons I still don't understand, decides to scream for the next hour and twenty minutes. Not cry, mind you, scream. Why? I still don't know. She would ask for something, and then tell me no. I tried everything; Elmo, fruit snacks, milk...all things that usually make the world a better place. I even resorted to offering marshmallows. All were a no go. I wanted to scream as well, but I didn't. I called Jed instead, so he could hear what our house sounded like. When she stopped (for no real reason, just stopped) and said "Sorry for crying, Mommy" I sat there and thought "Wow, and we have another one joining this fun very soon."

There you go, everyday life at the Maschke house. I have promised several people that I would post at least one picture of my Sy bump, so be on the lookout. Josiah should also make his appearance in the next few weeks. The sooner, the better.

Take care all, and more stories to come.

Friends, Fun and Firsts

Hey, it's me, Ali. I've been busy this last week, and I wanted to share some pictures with you. On Friday, we all went to Sacramento to visit our friends, the Walton's. I got to play with my good friend, Cassidy, which was super fun, and Mommy and Daddy got to talk to Matt and Agatha, which they loved!


Sunday was my Birthday Party. The day went like this: church, lunch, swim, Elmo cake. My friends, Bill and Diane, let me use their pool, and my friends Ava and Brayden, went swimming with me. Then we all ate purple Elmo cake. It was yummy.Monday was family day. Mommy, Daddy, and I went to the park and I got to swing. Then for lunch we went to McDonalds and I got to play on the Playplace with Daddy. Mommy said she couldn't play because baby Sy was in the way. After we got home, we all took naps, and then I opened my presents. That was pretty cool. I wanted a ring like Mommy's for my birthday, but Daddy got me some pretty pink and purple ones instead. I really like them.

Today was my first day of school. I went to work with Daddy, but I didn't go to his office, I went to my school instead. Miss Tiffany is my teacher. She's nice. I painted, played, and ate lunch there and then Mommy picked me up. I go back on Thursday. I think I'll like it!

That's about it for right now. Mommy and Daddy say hello!

We finally found the camera...

"Moving is hard work!"

We were tempted to put all 98 pictures of Ali on this blog, but we thought you might get bored scrolling through all of them. So we just posted the most embarrassing ones of Ali in hopes that she will learn to deal with suffering when she hits middle school. Here's our lives, in a nutshell:

Jed works all the time.

Anna's big and pregnant (AND BEAUTIFUL!!!)

Ali's almost 2. And a big girl. She wants a ring for her birthday, like Mommy's. But I don't know where the nearest Helzberg Diamonds is, so she'll have to be okay with Toys R Us.

Here's a couple pictures of our new house and Ali's GREEEEEEN room!