Our Christmas

My favorite GIFT

Today is my husband's 30th Birthday! Happy Birthday Josh! :)

Even though his knees and back will inevitably fail this year due to his age (ha ha) I am very lucky to get to spoil him on the anniversary of his birth! I'm making him a birthday cake, and I will not once tell him when he's had enough. He can eat as much of it as he wants tonight! :) Ha ha.

This is also a perfect moment to publicly thank Josh for being wonderful. I so enjoy life with him, he's an incredible blend of funny, goofy, humorous, professionalism, kindness, gentleness, and lots of manliness. I love watching him love others. Especially Renae. It's beautiful! And, he has never ceased taking care of me...in all my fun medical journeys I've brought to our relationship, he has made me feel loved, cared for, and a top priority in his life. I hope I can return the favor! I'm spoiled to be married to this man! :)

Love you Josh- Happy Birthday (from BOTH your girls!)

Can she get any sweeter?!

We're home!

We got home last night around 8:00pm. Our first night home was a little chaotic, but overall a success!

AND, here are some much anticipated pictures. Enjoy!

still here

Well, in case you were wondering, we didn't forget you! We are still at the hospital...waiting to be released. Renae lost too much weight the first two days for the pediatrician to be comfortable letting her go on Friday, so we've been feeding her every two hours and trying to make her gain some weight back! Last night we finally got a weigh in where she hadn't lost....she gained 10 grams. WHOOOHOO! So...now we're waiting till her 4:00 weigh in to see if she continues to go up. Then hopefully we can go home today. If not, then hopefully tomorrow. God is in control, so we know this is best for Renae. We have so many pictures we want to share with you, so when we get home, we'll put them up! Sorry for the delay! Pray for a big appetite! :)

Welcome to the World!!

Good morning!! Josh here. Well, it is official: Erin and I are the new parents of a beautiful and healthy baby girl!!

Name: Renae Abigail Barricklow
DOB: December 15, 2009 at 8:38am
Weight: 6 lb. 9 oz.
Length: 18 in.

Renae was not even thinking about turning over, so we went in expecting the c-section. Erin is doing well. Renae is doing well. I am loving being along for the ride. =)

Enjoy the pics!!!!!

Just Around the Corner!

Yesterday Josh and I went to see the movie The Blindside at the recommendation of our BIL Ryan. It was awesome! We now also highly recommend it. Very good.

Saturday also marked 37 weeks...which means we are within 48 of having our daughter! :) WHOO HOO! We are still on track for Tuesday morning, so stay tuned for updates and pictures!

Today is Ethan and Garrett's 2nd Birthday! :) Happy Birthday boys!!!

The Christmas Parade

Saturday we went to our community Christmas parade- it was super fun! And it was even winter-y weather! Mid-to-high 40s. :) I have a feeling we won't do too much better here in the South. I'm glad for all the blizzard pictures people have been posting on facebook, to help us remember what we're missing!

Here's some pictures of the parade!

The Army Band (well some of it) started the whole thing off. Sweet!

The Step Team (maybe that's what they're called, I don't know) from a local High School

Some of Josh's soldiers, 2 bike patrol guys and a cruiser...throwin out candy. :)

Awwww.

No parade is complete without this guy:

And Josh was THRILLED with this float. The Son's of the Confederate were dressed up as Civil War soldiers firing muskets and everything. :) Maybe the 'great great great great great grand daughters of the confederate' were the golf cart drivers.

9 Months!

Tomorrow marks 36 weeks. Woah. :) And since my magic number is 37...we're down to a week. WOAH!

I had my weekly appointment yesterday and as usual, baby is healthy, I'm doing great, and the baby is still breech. Come on girl....all you gotta do is flip around. The Doctor says she's either really stubborn, really comfortable, or smarter than us and won't turn around for some reason only she knows that is for her own good.

So this week we scheduled the date: December 15th. (Yeah Liz and Lyndsey- we'll add another birthday to the mix!) We'll go in, if she's still breech the Doctor will try a ECV (you can click on that for more info if you want). If that works, they will induce labor and see how I do. If it doesn't, C-section it is!

Quite the update! Josh usually gets to go with me to my appointments, but he had Equal Opportunity training yesterday...super fun huh. Kinda funny- well to me I guess. The Doctor thought it was, too. He just had to complete Hospital Compliance training online for the 27th time. (Required once a year). He says it's just like death. I sort of know what he's talking about because I had to do that working for St. Luke's. Yeah for online tests you have to pass.

The biggest thing we have going on happens tomorrow: The Huskers are playing Texas in the Big XII Championship Game! WHOO HOO!!!

So Much FUN!

35 weeks down, less than 2 to go! It's hard to really realize how quick this is coming up! We are getting more and more excited as the days pass, and now that it's December, the day is soon approaching! I have an appointment on Thursday where we should get our hospital visit scheduled and get all that information nailed down. !!!



On Sunday and Monday, we had guests from Ft. Leonard Wood! Our friends Tom and Robyn came to visit on their way through Georgia. We had so much fun catching up with them. After 27 years in the military, Tom retired (actually he is OFFICIALLY retired today!!) and he and Robyn joined Wycliff to be missionaries in Nigeria. They will be helping with Bible translation in their nearly 300 languages. WOW. It was so fun to hear how their transitioning is going and to see how excited they are to go! We felt super special to be included on their tour of SE. Being in the Army that long, you end up having people you know EVERYWHERE. Tom and Robyn are special to us, they really made our time at Ft. Leonard Wood so wonderful, we were sad to leave! I can't even wait to hear how God is going to use them in Africa and the all the crazy adventures they will have there.


Also, today is the best day to have a birthday ever! I might be biased, but Happy Birthday Martha!! And me! :) We're getting old.