First picnic

Emily has experienced many first's already including attending her first church picnic. She spent the majority of the time sleeping and being introduced to everyone as Grandma M walked around with her.

Burrito baby

Emily loves being held and cuddled. If we wrap her up tight and lay her on her stomach it doesn't take long until she is sound asleep.

I'll fit into this sometime soon

I really like the pictures my sister took of her son Jack with the stuffed bear in order to show his growth. Here is Emily's one week old picture in her Daddy's childhood rocking chair.

One Week Old

Sleep

Why is it we find it so mesmerizing to watch others sleep? I couldn't help myself taking this picture of Daddy and Emily catching some zzzzz's in the guest (formerly gun/hunting) room.


Here's Emily in her Pack-n-Play.

One of the many questions I've been wondering since Emily's birth...just what do babies dream of?

Changes

Home life has been quite a change since we arrived. I quickly found out that I am no longer in charge of my house. Emily is!! She tells me and Laura when we can go to bed, when to wake up, when her diapers need changed, when to feed her and a series of other things. It's hard to imagine a 235 pound male being controlled by a 7 pound 8 ounce girl, but I am. And guess what? I love every sleepless minute of it!!!


We are now a growing family. The only time that I have been happier then I'm feeling in this picture was on my wedding day!

Home Sweet Home

Emily in her crib that my dad and his friend Don Rugg made.

Going Home

On Friday the 18th, we where finally able to take Emily home from the hospital. What a rush of excitement as we finally get to start living together in our home.

Proud Grand Parents

Here are some pics of the proud Grandparents,

John and Lenda!



and Chuck and Ginny

God's Miracle

Today August 16th, at 4:48 am Emily Rae Groff came into the world. She was 7lbs, 8 ounces, 19.8 inches long. Both Mother and baby are healthy and doing great.

The Time is Near

Well everyone, today we are exactly 2 weeks away from our babies due date of the 23rd. Laura and I are both eagerly awaiting the entry of our Little Bundle of Joy. Laura had a check up today with her doctor and everything is “getting into place” so to say. Please check back often for the latest updates.

Showers of Blessing

Charlie and I belong to a church with people who are very generous. This past Saturday the women of our Sunday School class hosted a baby shower for us. As with our wedding shower, the generosity was overwhelming.

It was such a special and some would say emotional day. I was blessed not only to have my Mom and Sister attend, but also to have my Mother-in-Law and Sister's-in-Law in town while Charlie, his Dad and Uncle and Tim Schmidjell attended Promise Keepers.









The floodgate of tears opened very early into the shower when I heard my mom ask about the handmade cradle made by my Father-in-Law and friend Don Rugg.










This shower had it all! There were games, cake both edible and diaper form,








food representing all the food groups (yum, yum)


and the 2006 "Pregnant Posse" in delivery date order starting right to left: Marsha and I due in Aug., Shandi due in Sept., Michelle due in Nov. and Patty due in Dec.






After all the festivities, it was time to relax and put my feet up.


THANK YOU ALL WHO PLANNED AND PARTICIPATED IN THIS VERY SPECIAL DAY!

We're getting closer

For those of you counting with me...as of Thurs., July 13th we'll have only 6 weeks left until we get to see this little miracle face to face.

I am so thankful because I feel I've been blessed with a relatively easy pregnancy. Other than these beautiful swollen feet, I really haven't had a lot of problems.

(Randa was playing with this picture in Photoshop)


Here's a different view of Baby Groff.

Cousin Jack's discussion with the baby

"Jack, ask your cousin whether he/she is a boy or a girl."


Jack listens for the baby's response....


"The baby told me, but said I could not tell. You'll just have to wait."

Memorial Day Weekend in PA

Wow, what a great weekend. Laura and I spent our Memorial Day weekend with some friends. Friday night we left our place with Brian, Meredith and Jack Snyder and headed for the Snyder’s camp in the upper Appalachian Mountains in northern Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful weekend. It felt so go the get out into the country again and do some fishing. The trout where biting pretty well. Most of them had some good size to them. Between everyone that was fishing our count was in the 60's.



Our Friend Brian looking happy to be in the streams again. We fished in the South Branch of Tionesta Creek.





We caught a new breed of fish called a tiger trout. They are not only pretty neat looking but excellent fighters. I heard that they are supposed to be a cross between a Brooke and a Brown Trout.






The cabin was nice and cozy. Me and Jack had a great time together. Look at his face as he realizes that my watch is a Penn State watch.





Laura on the bank of one of the rivers with Brian's mom Beth.

Baby Shopping and More

Today after a hard day at work me and Laura went and started the "long and painful" task of registering for baby shower gifts. I guess I'm exaggerating a little bit, it wasn’t all that bad. I did get to walk around and play with some really cool toys. We are registered at . Laura will give out all the information to everyone when we are done registering.


The rain is finally over with in Ohio. At least for a little while. After the long wait our new tractor showed up. It's a 9,400 John Deere. It boosts a 455 hp engine. We have two 17 yard scraper dragging behind it. It’s a massive earth mover. Here is a picture for everyone to look at that I got off the internet. I will take some of ours soon and get them posted.

I you haven't already, you have to check out my youngest sister Holly's Blog. You can find her link on the left of my page.

Busy Life

Sorry that we are soooo slow at updating this at times! Things have been really busy for the both of us. I have been spending many late nights at work (up to 3am one night) trying to get some bidding done, and Laura has been having meetings with companies that don't feel that they should be paying their share of the bills. My job is starting to pick up. We landed our first big job last Tuesday. The job is on Lodi, Ohio. Thats about an hour and 40 minutes north of Columbus, right off I-71. Me and Ken bid the job at $502,000.00 and some change. That makes it by far the biggest job that we have ever done. I'm the Project Manager for it, so everything that goes on there is my responsibility. No stress right?!? Some of the guys went up and started the demolition on Monday. They are going to be finishing it up on on Wednesday and then start the dirt work. I hope that our new tractor and pans arrive on time. They were supposed to get there on Wed. evening but shipping got postponed. Trying to scramble to get the crews up and running. Have to hire some more help. Pray that we can keep the big jobs rolling in and keep everyone working.

Everything with Laura and the baby is great. Laura had her gestational diabetes test today. Everything went well and we don't have to worry about that for right now. The baby is still healthy and heartbeat was 150. Laura is such a beautiful woman. I love looking at her knowing that she is carring our child. I can't wait to do this with her all over again.

The Ultrasound Pics from April 20th

Baby playing patty-cake in the womb.
The baby has found his/her thumb.

"you knit me together"

Time is flying and I am so blessed to be having what I would call a fun pregnancy compared to the majority of those I've spoken to so far. I would have to say the most fun experience would have to be the night that Charlie and I felt the baby move for the first time at the exact same moment. I was laying still and relaxed and Charlie put his warm hand on my stomach. We both waited a couple minutes and then all of a sudden the baby moved. We weren't sure if it was a hand or a foot, but whatever it was we both felt it. It was the neatest feeling!!

For those of you anxiously awaiting the latest ultrasound pictures, they will be up soon. The baby already weighs one pound and my due date has been bumped up one day - sorry Mrs. Cavie it's now Aug. 23rd.

Blessed News

Charlie and I were married a year and six months when we found out we were going to have an addition to our family. We were a little shocked, but very excited. We both had our ideas of how to share the news with our family, but in the end we decided to go with Charlie's idea. Charlie's family had already planned on coming to Columbus the first weekend in January so that Friday we invited my side of the family over so we could all have dinner together. We gathered around the table for prayer and right at the end Charlie said "and Lord please be with Laura as she carries our child". That definitely would have been a Kodak moment.

I am now 5 months and growing. What an amazing miracle!!!