Harper Dawn

Oh, my little Harper! What to say about a little girl that has truly turned into a little person in the last few months. Everyday she says something new, does something new and grabs onto our hearts a little more. While I've heard that there are little girls out there that play quietly, or can sit and read books by themselves, or are seemingly more compliant than a boy might be; that is NOT our Harper. My girl wakes up on level 10 and keeps going all day! She runs, she dances, she laughs and talks CONSTANTLY, she always wants to go "bye, bye" or go see her "frwends" (which I think is terribly funny since outside of church on Sundays she really only has one "friend" and he's a boy, and he's 3, and she always trying to hold his hand when they are together.) She is extremely opinionated and stubborn, which can lead to battles between her and I since, according to her dad, she got those two traits from me. But simply put, she is full of life and as her dad says "she is so freakin' great!"
Little Miss got into Mama's makeup. At least she was in the right general location.
This is the "Mama, I didn't do it," look.
Loves her babies.

My Two Babies

One of the first things I said when Luke was handed to me was "He looks so much like Harper." These probably aren't the best pictures to compare, but I thought it would be fun to look at Harper and Luke right out of the "oven" (as Jeff would say). Luke's head is obviously smaller, Harper has a dome on her!
Harper Dawn
Luke Hudson

The End of The Grandparents...AHHH!

Mom and LukeBoth my kids are very upset that Grandma is leaving them all alone with Mom!
Harper, going in for a kiss,

"Hello everyone"
So after weeks of grandparents, we are, as of today, by ourselves! I have a feeling a little "detoxing" will be in order for our Harper; she has been living in a world, of cartoons, toys and balloons (thanks mom, I will now be avoiding the flower section of Schnucks) and someone to say "yes" to her mom's "no." In fact, when I told her she couldn't watch anymore TV today she started crying "ganma, ganma" (we had dropped my mom off at the airport hours before). To be honest, we are all going to go through a bit of withdrawal. Between both moms we could barely take off an item of clothing before it was thrown in the wash, and my fridge, freezer and pantry is stocked with so much food, I literally will not need to go to the grocery store for weeks. Beyond all the practical things however, we will desperately miss the company, and fun times spent together over these few crazy weeks! Thank you moms and dad! We heart you!

Destiny

So, I know anyone who happens to actually look at this site really only gets on here to see if there are any new pictures or videos of my sweet kids and probably the last thing you want to read is my sports soapbox, but, as a break from my studies today I find it hard to concentrate, given that my Nuggs are in the conference finals and a crucial Game 5 is on tonight. I went to ESPN to check it out and found this great little piece by Rick Reilly, whose articles in Sports Illustrated I really love. If you're a Nuggets fan, check it out. It will make you laugh or get you pumped for the victory tonight. If you're not a Nuggets fan, there's still time to get the train before we dominate the rest of the world and hoist our trophy,...better get on it. And for any Lakers fans, I don't think I can say much to you on here..after all, it's a family website, other than it's gonna be so sweet when your little golden boy crybaby has to go home and watch us play in the finals....GO NUGGS!

Rick Reilly's ESPN Story Link

Don't Cry

I just thought it was cute watching Harper in her first moments as a big sister, saying "don't cry." We'll have some interesting moments, no doubt, when she wants to take him and carry him around the house by herself, but we're confident that her obsession with babies will come out in a constructive way in the future. If nothing else, I guess she can teach him how to give knucks. For those of you wanting more pictures, we'll try to upload some photos on Snapfish that you can download and print if you want later tonight. Also, a photographer came by in the hospital here and took some pretty awesome pictures that we were obligated to get because they were so good. To see or download those, here's the snapfish link: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=843158013/a=126516533_126516533/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Luke Hudson Van Eps

So for those of you out there without a Facebook account, I wanted to put a few videos up here for you to see and to give you a rundown of our time here in the hospital. Everything with the birth went well, we arrived here at St. Luke's around 8 a.m. for induction and Steph was dilated to 3 initially, and was hooked up and started on her Pitocin induction around 8:45. Her doctor came in to check her around 12:30, found she was dilated to at least 4, broke her water right there, and she got an epidural within 20 minutes. Steph was feelin good at that point, so we threw in a movie and both took a nap. We woke up to her being dilated to 7, nearly totally effaced, and the nurse said we should have a baby within the next few hours. For us, this time flew by given that Harper's induction took over 24 hours and extending through the night. He cried right away after they suctioned him and pinked up really quick, easing his dad's anxiety. Although we were initially just glad to see all ten fingers and toes and all parts in the right places, we were struck how much he looked like his sister initially, with those same bright red lips. He was fine that first day, mostly sleeping, but yesterday as we suspected might happen, he went from a 0.0 bilirubin to over 9.0 in less than a day. So he's been getting his baby bronzing ever since yesterday evening with the UV bili bed, to help clear the bilirubin that his immature liver can't clear yet. He's been under the high intensity lights all day, hoping to drive down the numbers so we don't have to take a bili bed home with us like we had to with Harper, and we're trying to push the fluids on him but he's been so-so with the feeding so far. All in all, though, with today's technology jaundice like his is not a big deal, just more of an annoyance. We're still kind of shell shocked that we are now the American family with 2 kids and a dog, but also incredibly thankful for our new healthy boy. We have been so fortunate and thankful to my parents for their tremendous help with our crazy 1 and a half year old during this whole ordeal. We might have been clinically insane by now without them. Thanks to everyone for your excitement and support.

Mama and Harper

These were a few of our last moments as just "Mama and Harper" before brother Luke made his first appearance.