Christmas with the Gierke's

The whole family at Suzi's place. Billy, Dave, Joey, Mom, Suzi, Dad, Emmitt and Liz.

We always need a crazy picture!

Grandma and Grandpa with Emmitt!

This shows off his double chin!

Uncle Billy was sick- hence the mask!

Aunt Suzi and Emmitt!

Uncle Joey and Emmitt!

We were so blessed to be able to spend time with both families this Christmas due to Emmitt's birth!  Here are some pics with the Gierke's.  Oh and I'm not sure why some are small except that they came from mom in an email...so that could be the reason.  When I tried  to make them bigger, they just got blurry!

The Nativity, Batt style

Liz, Dave and Emmitt playing Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus!

Two of our angels: Alison and Becca!

Our wise men- James, Grant, William, and Tanner!  This was the best picture we got of them!

The dashing shepherds- Blake, Wayne, Tyler and Mike!

The cutest sheep ever- Mason Batt.

Alison, Becca, Heather, Brazilian friend, and Anne.

Our fearless narrator- Grandpa Batt!

Our fearless storyteller- Grandma Batt read the story and then gave each family their own copy of it! 

It's fun having a big family where everyone is excited to dress up (even friends from Brazil) and act out the best story ever told!  Since the part of baby Jesus was being played by none other than our own sweet newborn, Emmitt, Dave and I were blessed to play Joseph and Mary.  I have such a love and respect for Mary.  She traveled about 100 miles right before her due date, gave birth in a stable, and raised the Son of God!  She was truly an elect woman!  Joseph was also an extraordinary man since he knew the baby Mary was carrying wasn't his and wasn't going to have her killed for it, was visited by an angel and was the "step" father to the Savior. What a weight of responsibility he must have felt! Needless to say we were excited to have our parts to play this year, especially since we'd played them for our ward party as well-but when "baby Jesus" was still inside of me!  We'd been so excited that we decided to sew costumes ourselves.  Thats what we're wearing in our picture.  Hope you enjoy reliving Christmas near Valentines day!!

Christmas Fun!

Daddy and Emmitt on Christmas morning!

Christmas breakfast with the Batt's!

Emma James and Emmitt Batt snoozing during present opening.

The boys with their toys! They all got helicoptors from mom and dad Batt! 

All the girls were given beautiful doilies that Momma Batt made.  (James, Anne, Alison, Liz, Kim, and Heather)

Roland, Kim and Emma wearing the hats Dave and I made for them for Christmas!

Mommy and Emmitt in his reindeer outfit!

Emmitt in his cute reindeer outfit.

What a Christmas!!!!  New baby, family, fun, new baby, presents, no sleep.....did I mention new baby?  It was the best Christmas ever.  What a blessing it is to be parents and to have our best Christmas present alive and healthy.  Emmitt has continued to grow every day since the day he was born and we are very blessed to have him in our lives.  We are excited to share many more Christmases with our beautiful son and our future children of course.




I love his sweet little face!

We're getting ready to leave the hospital and head to Idaho Falls to Grandma and Grandpa Batt's house for Christmas!

January 10, 2011 He fell asleep on the bathroom counter after a diaper change.  He's wearing the sleep sack Aunt Heather made him for Christmas!  We love it!

He hates being swaddled and I think its because he likes to sleep with his arms up, just like his Grandma Patti Gierke sleeps!

I thought I would back track a little and post some pictures from the beginning.  I'm planning on posting pictures from Christmas too!

He's a month old!

I can't believe he's a month old already.  Here are some pictures from his blessing day December 26, 2010.  It was so wonderful to be able to have most of our immediate family here.  We blessed him at Dave's parents house and then had Chinese Sundays for dinner.  It was a great day!

The Gierke family after Emmitt's baby blessing.



Grandma and Grandpa Batt and all of their grandchildren! Mason, Emmitt, Emma, William, James, Tanner and Grant.



Grandma and Grandpa Gierke

Grandpa and Grandma Batt with Dave, Liz and Emmitt!



The whole Batt family, minus Roland- who had to go back to Indiana early to work.



All 7 Batt grandchildren- Grant, Mason, Tanner, Emma, James, Emmitt, and William!!  I love this picture!

Baby is Born!!!!

He finally came!!!!  Emmitt Lee Batt was born on Tuesday, December 21st 2010 at 1 o'clock in the morning.  He gave us a little bit of a scare and I had to have an emergency C-section.  Everything is good now and Emmitt is big and strong.  He weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.  His hands and feet are HUGE, which means he won't be too short (we hope).  We don't have very many pictures of him right after he was born because it was an emergency C-section and Dave couldn't take the camera with him.  Dave also couldn't come in to the C-section because they put me under general anesthetic.  But.....all said and done we are both healthy and happy and ready to go home tomorrow (just in time for Christmas).  We are so very blessed to have such a wonderful little man in our lives.  He is beautiful and such a blessing.  We want to thank everyone who has supported us and want you all to know that we love you.   Here are the pictures so far but I'm sure we will have more (a lot more) on the way. 

Getting ready for Emmitt. Not knowing what was actually going to happen (sadly).



 Emmitt napping away.

 Mom & Emmitt napping away (lots of needed sleep going on).

 Grandma Gierke & Emmitt

 Dad was making faces so Emmitt made some back.

 Such a cutie patutie (yeah, it's a real word).

 Dad & Emmitt chillin'.  Best buds!!!!

Thanks again to everyone!  We love you all.



A little scare

So I had my 38 week appointment today and the Dr. said that the baby was measuring smaller than he did last week...which didn't sound good to me...so he wanted to have an ultrasound done to make sure that the baby was doing ok.  I of course got teary-eyed because well that's what I do...even more so since being pregnant, which may be hard to believe.  Dr. Cox patted me on the arm and told me to do good in the ultrasound!  Then because I think my face must have shown concern he came right back and gave me a little hug, which made me tear up even more, but also helped me know that he cares.  Anyway- I of course called Dave who was luckily out of class and on his way to study and he came right up to the doctors office.  I'm so glad it's close!  The good news is that the ultrasound went really well.  Baby boy is measuring at 37 weeks, but has plenty of fluid and is doing fine.  He kept pushing back against the lady doing the ultrasound.  We got a good look at his face and he's definitely a Batt- with cute chubby cheeks.  He was also sucking on his hand and gave us a yawn.  It's amazing what technology can do!