Counting My Blessings: 2017

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

~Just for giggles~

Be sure to scroll down for photos of the double baby shower.

October 15th was a very special day! My mom and Paula Moch (and I helped with a lot of the preparations) threw Marie & Timothy and Elsie & I and baby shower at the Steele Senior Citizens Center. About 50 friends and family members came to help us celebrate and showered us with gifts!

Kathy and Rachael came Saturday afternoon....

Heather C. and Anna U. came early to help out. :) We had a full house Saturday night!

My parents made both Elsie and Timothy a diaper cake. :D

Mom bought some real cakes too. I ended up digging out my cake decorating supplies as the one cake had a typo (Andraw instead of Andrew)...

Our family of 3. :)

Michael left shortly after this and he and several other guys went over the

seed-cleaning plant to visit and play Ping-Pong.

Paula brought coloring supplies for any littles who wanted to color. There ended up being a LOT of babies and little children. The balloons were pretty POPular.

Paula also made this super cute fruit cradle...

We had a great kitchen crew (Anna U, Josephine L, and Heather C are pictured here).

Jenny, Everett, and Rachael helping get ready...

Lauretta helping by babysitting for me and Sarena. :)

The daddies--trying to help "Grandma" get a good photo...

Yeah. Elsie wasn't enjoying the picture taking....

Marie visiting with our dear neighbor, Shirley S.... (Shirley made us quilts for our babies!)

Hannah and Christy D. signing the guestbook sheets while Julia and Ivy N. look on...

Paula, holding Lauretta's little guy, Curtis...

Amanda B. and a couple of her kiddos...

Friends from our church: Betty Jo G, MaryEllen I, and our Pastor's wife, Vangie K...

It was wonderful having many of my MN family members come to help us celebrate (and help us with the work!) :)

Grandma Kathy with little Elsie....

The proud grandmothers...

Rachael (Michael's sister), Kathy, Elsie and I....

My mom did a great job as MC... (see the balloons falling down?)

What a great day with so many friends! Too bad there wasn't time to visit much with any of them.

I had found a pretty tough word scramble online and printed it out for everyone to attempt to do.

There's my Vonn boy (with the balloon) and Amelia M....and so many others. :)

Balloon fight!

We were all very happy that Marie's parents and youngest siblings were able to come be a part of the shower too. They don't want their photos posted online but there are pictures of Marie with them for their own viewing.

The diaper-changing relay!

Awwww....so sweet!

~Marie and Timothy~

Glad I don't have to change Elsie's diapers this way!

Awwww....so sweet!

Kathy and Marie's mom ran the diaper relay game. It was pretty humorous!

The lady in blue at the far end of the table was our midwife, Luci. :)

Rachael wrote a Mad-lib and, after going around the room and asking people questions to fill in the blanks, she read the end result and it was SO funny!

YES! Lauretta was there too! :) She welcomed everyone as they came and had them sign the guestbook pages. It was so special to see each other again, this time with both of us being mothers. :)

My dear friends, Heather and Rachel C....and our friend, Denice M.

As I said, we were showered with gifts!!

After most folks had left, our guys returned for supper and Michael helped me open our gifts. :)

Andrew and Marie didn't open their gifts until the next day,

but invited all the family to come watch. Elsie and I did just that.

Grandma Marly and her 2 newest great-grandchildren. :D

It was a wonderful weekend!

~We are so blessed.~

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

Meet our darling daughter:

ELSIE JOYCE DALQUIST

But, let me back up a little bit...

On Wednesday, August 23rd @ 1:30am, my water broke and I knew things were happening. :)

No more sleep for me!

Michael took this one last pregnancy picture of me later that morning (between contractions, of course). We had hoped and prayed that we could have our baby at home. After laboring through the day and into the night, I wasn't progressing with the labor as I should have been and we decided it was time to head for Bismarck. Thankfully, my parents were willing to drive us and our midwife there, as we were all very tired by this point.

Long story short, the Dr. at the emergency room let me have a few contractions to see what was going on, then announced that I needed to have a C-section. ;( Not what we wanted to hear but we know God knows best and has a reason for everything.

Michael was in the operating room with me. He was SUCH a blessing throughout the whole labor! He was my coach and my comfort the whole time. Our midwife was awesome too. And the Lord saw us safely through it all. PTL!

Name: Elsie Joyce Dalquist

Namesake: I knew a really neat elderly lady from our church whose name was Elsie

and Joyce is Michael's sweet grandma's name

Date of birth: August 24th, 2017

Weight: There was a mixup on her weight when she was born, but she was about 7lbs

Length: 20 1/2"

Time: 6:04am

We're just so thankful that our daughter is healthy and was born, safe and sound. As my arms shook uncontrollably as the surgeon finished sewing me up, I was thanking God for our little girl (and couldn't wait for them to finish up so I could get a better look at her). Michael got to watch her be "born". I still remember when I heard them say the word "GIRL". I had been so sure we were having a son. HA!