Princess Ellie cont. 2

More Princess Ellie

Princess Ellie cont.

Princess Ellie cont.

Princess Ellie

Presenting....... Princess Ellie!

Okay, so we had a photo shoot.
I know we got a little carried away, but Ellie was having a blast, and Ellie truly is the sweetest most beautiful girl. We are truly blessed to have her in our little family. Thanks to grandma we have a collection of princess dresses for her to play in. Thanks grandma.


Almost fits, maybe 1 more year.
(Below)Some material Jeana got Ellie to play with. She loves it!

New Arrivals

Okay, this week we have a few new arrivals at the Pate Place. No! Not the baby, that was last month. In order of importance...

#3 Yes! you're right it's a baby goose.(Psss.. I won't tell you thought it was a duck) Four baby geese have joined the Pate Farm, and yes that's my kitchen. The geese are for deweeding the orchard. Note: Geese are all dark meat Mmmmm.

#2 We have grass!! ..and weeds.... and grass!!! I'm am very excited about having a lawn. It's amazing the things you can take for granted, like sitting on your front lawn.


#1 And finally the best of all ...my closet door handles. Oh, you think, what's the big deal? Take yours off and go without them for 6 months. I'd have to reach under the bottom of the door to open them and when your pregnant and your center of gravity is off this is quite amusing ..or something like that. Thanks Barry, it's better than flowers

Ellie and the Goats

Ellie and the Goats... It sounds like a nursery rhyme. This spring we were happy to have three brand new baby "girl"(lucky us, ...and lucky them) goats. Due to my previous whalish condition I did not venture out to see them, but Ellie and I were encouraged to pick names for them. We choose Cinnamon, and Sugar due to their brown and white coats, and Ugly Betty(pictured above) due to her apparent blatant ugliness. After a few weeks, I did venture out to meet the new kids, and I honestly was unable to tell the ugly one apart from the other two. Yet, (like life) once you're an Ugly Betty, and Ugly Betty you remain.

Ellie loves to feed and play with the goats She goes out in the pasture and they follow her everywhere. It's funny she carries around a stick when she does it.. ... so she looks like a little goat herder. The goats love to show off for us and display amazing feats of gymnastics in order to impress us. I see the goats' pasture as an over sized playpen. Thanks to the wonderful invention of electricity.. Ellie is not getting out on her own, and nothing gets in.

Barry is milking the two mother goats, and we are enjoying creamy fresh goat's milk every day.

Sweet Baby James

A few minutes after James was born.

Barry, Ellie and James in the delivery room

James at home asleep

Whew! It's been a long week. James Stuart Pate was born Sunday night at 9:20 ish 19 inches long and 6 lbs 2 ounces. 3 wks early. Sunday was a normal day, went to church, taught my lesson, came home and was looking at cookie recipes for the no-bake cookies I was craving…. at which point I thought perhaps my water had broke, because I started leaking a little bit of fluid. We called the hospital and they told us to come in. (It was around 7pm) my neighbor who was planning on taking Ellie for us, was on vacation so we just brought her(ellie, not the neighbor) along. I wasn't having any contractions so I was 90% sure they would just send us home. When we got to the hospital they checked me out and said my water wasn't broken, but I could hang around for a while, since I was all hooked up to the monitors. After about a half an hour I began having contractions about 4 minutes apart. So they said I was a keeper. I was rather shocked. I told Barry to hurry and call my parents so they could come get Ellie before things got too serious. The nurse called the Doctor. and he said he'd come right in after he fed his horses. One must keep their prioirities straight. The nurse also called the anesthesiologist who was supposed to arrive in 15 mins. The Dr. arrived after about an hour. My contractions were 2 minutes apart then. He said he would come back and check me when the anesthesiologist arrived. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist got called into ER, and never showed. The nurse offered me some pain medicine to "take the edge off." I readily accepted, but it didn't seem to work. Turns out my IV was "inactive",... they noticed that later. Things started to get rather intense, and my parents hadn't showed up yet, so I was very grateful for the natural childbirth books my friend Charity sent me. I didn't want Ellie to be scarred for life, so I didn't make a sound and just tried to relax. She(Ellie) came over and checked on me a few times, but mainly danced around and watched TV. The nurse was out chatting with the other nurse, and the Doctor had gone back to his office somewhere in the hospital, when Baby Pate decided to make his appearance. First, I told Barry, “Find the nurse, I think I need to push". (He didn't believe me, or have the time) The next contraction, I admit, I lost all my focus and self control and screamed "He's coming-out," and after one more contraction he slipped out onto the bed. (They hadn't taken it apart yet thankfully). The nurse heard me and ran in caught the baby and clamped the cord. There wasn't much fluid, so who knows when my water broke. The Doctor came running in a little later and offered to deliver the placenta. So when I say Baby James was born at 9:20, it's rather an estimate, because no one was looking at the clock.
Fortunately everything turned out okay, and there was no complication with Mom or Baby. I am so grateful for that. Ellie seems to be fine, she was a bit concerned for a while and had a few questions, but things seem to be okay. We came home Monday afternoon, being rather sick of the hospital and its’ food. My neighbor who was on vacation returned and brought us our first meal, for dessert she brought us no-bake cookies. So all is well that ends well, and all is well because now we have our Sweet Baby James.

Snow Fun