I'm back!

Time to dust off the old blog and get back to writing!  I have a bunch of unfinished posts written since January that I could publish...but I think I'll start fresh with what's been happening in the life of the Eaton's!











In March, I sign a "senior reporter" contract with WRIC TV8.

A week later, we buy a brand new house!  It's five minutes from our apartment, in the same

LDS ward, and closer to work.  The builder asks more than we can afford...but we low-ball an offer AND request a new driveway and deck.  We're pleasantly shocked when he says "YES" to everything!



We move in and begin painting, decorating, and getting the nursery ready.  I swear we have everything a baby girl could possibly ever need.
















Because our little family is expanding, we say farewell to my Honda and buy a Jeep Liberty from some friends down the street.  I'm a little sad to see my Civic go -  it's been with me since 2006 and carried me across the country to Virginia.  I get over it quickly - as I don't have to worry about the Jeep overheating every time I turn on the AC.

Erica and I enroll in "hypnobirthing" classes and spend an hour every week under hypnosis.



We learn skills that will help Erica have a pain-free, relaxing labor and birth experience.  Did it work?  You'll have to read her blog to find out...






With birth classes out of the way and a house, car seat, nursery, crib, diapers, and boxes of wipes ready to go, all we need is a baby!








She's supposed to arrive May 26.  We throw a birthday party - complete with a "Happy O birthday" cake and pizza.  She doesn't show.



Memorial Day comes.  We buy 15 bags of mulch and spend hours working in the yard.  Erica hopes this will help baby along.  She doesn't show.

We go to the doctor.  An induction date is set - Monday 10 June at 8am.

No need for that though!  

The Friday before we're watching "The Rainmaker" and Erica starts to have frequent contractions.

We try to go to bed and get some sleep.  It doesn't happen.

Erica labors all night.

At 5am we go to the hospital.

Jennifer, the midwife, meets us there.

For the next 11 hours, Erica endures the most painful experience of her life.

Finally, at 4.02pm on 8 June 2013, I catch Emerson Lily Eaton in my arms and put her on my incredible wife's chest.

 8 pounds even.  20.75 inches long.

We are speechless.

 We are in awe.

We are grateful.

 Now Emerson's three weeks old.  It feels like we've known her forever and she's always been a part of our family.

 She's changed us so much. (Will we ever sleep again?)  I had two weeks off work and didn't want to go back!  It's hard to leave the most beautiful girls in the world to go report on murders, fires, scandals, and crime...but thank goodness I get to come home to them!

 So now we are parents.  Weird.

 Erica is a mom.

I am a dad.

Me.  A dad.

Uh....that just doesn't sound right...but hey, if I'm gonna be a dad, I want to be Emerson's dad.

Ya know, I knew I would love her.

I just didn't know I'd love her this much.

Just Give

This Christmas season, people have been asking themselves: 

How do you celebrate a holiday when so much has been taken? 

The answer is simple: Just give.

WATCH:

Peace and Stew

Today in church, the three speakers all talked about peace and the primary kids sang "Beautiful Savior."

If there ever was a day I wanted to hear little kids sing, today was it. 

If there ever was a day I wanted to hear people talk about peace, today was it.

The topics and music were picked weeks ago...but I desperately needed those messages today.

Every time a big event happens anywhere in the world, part of me wishes I was there.  

I think about how I would cover it, who I would talk to, the contacts I'd make, and what I would do to make my story different than the others.

I don't think there's ever been a huge story I haven't wanted to cover.

Except this one.

I want nothing to do with it.

It hurts to watch or read the coverage.

I feel for my reporter, photographer, and producer colleagues who have been assigned this horrendous event.  One of them hasn't slept since Friday.  Another says she can't write her script without crying.

Today I've been thinking about the LDS dad who is preparing to bury his six-year-old daughter. He moved his family to Connecticut just a few months ago.  He's my age.

This Facebook page has been set up in honor of his beautiful daughter Emilie.

Today I've been thinking Emilie and the 19 other children.  They were the same age as the primary kids who comforted everyone at church today while singing:

"Jesus is brighter, Jesus is purer...He makes the sorrowing spirit sing"

Fortunately Erica and I have had a busy weekend so I've been able to avoid a lot of the coverage.

In fact, after church, we went to a birthday party!

This is Derek and Melissa.  The missionaries serving in our neighborhood knocked on this fun family's door a few weeks ago.  Now we're all friends!

Derek turned 31 years old today.  To celebrate, he made this MASSIVE pot of Brunswick stew.  If you haven't heard of it, you haven't been to the south.  

There's 10 smoked chickens, pounds and pounds of beef, corn, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and other yummy things inside this 50 gallon cauldron.

Derek started cooking the stew around 11 o'clock this morning.  For SIX hours, he, and a few others, stirred the pot continually with this boat oar.  They never stopped until the oar stood straight up!

I'm not a big stew fan but both THIS WAS DELICIOUS!  


It was super thick and there was TONS of meat...which I LOOOOOVE!

 
There were about 30 people at the party and the pot was still FULL of stew after everyone had eaten.

Derek scooped the leftovers into these plastic bags and cups for everyone to take home.

We went directly from the party to the church for a Christmas concert and the stew was so delicious that Erica brought it inside.  She found a spoon in the kitchen and went to town!

We've decided we want our next gathering to be something fun and unique like Derek's birthday party.  Who doesn't love getting together with family, friends, and good food...especially if you get to take leftovers?

Oh...and speaking of our next gathering...do all you can to be in Richmond January 9th.  We are having our "Gender Reveal PARTY!"  
  
We don't know what we're having until that morning...and the secret will be unveiled at the party!

More details to come but you are invited!  

**Notice how the font is blue?  Yep...you already know what I think we're having....**

The Last Three Months...

Now you know all the secrets we've been keeping for months.

We won the big deal worth over $24,000.

We are having a baby in May.

We turned down a job in a top 20 television market.

We turned down the big deal worth over $24,000.

We are excited, scared, thrilled, nervous, and happy to welcome a new addition into our family.

Sometimes don't you think God has a great sense of humor?  I do. 

Here's why.

For the past year or so, Erica and I had talked about having a baby.  

We decided to wait until after we visited my mission in Australia and, more importantly, hold off until I got a job in a bigger TV market.  

We also wanted her to make sure the stupid tumor in her back wouldn't create a problem when she became pregnant.

We went to Duke.  Doctors said she needs to have another procedure so we scheduled it.

We went to Australia.  Had an incredible time (obviously!).

A few weeks later I'm at work covering a murder late at night.  Gotta love Richmond.

Erica calls me and frantically says, "COME HOME.  NOW!"

I arrive and see the pregnancy test. 

POSITIVE.

I think it's wrong.

The next day we go to the doctor.

It's right.

We cancel the Duke procedure.

FIVE DAYS LATER I get a random email from a news director in a top 20 market.

He tells me to call him.  He likes my work.  

For three weeks we email or talk on the phone every day.

He offers me a job.  It pays $15,000 more than I'm making now.

Wow. 

Perfect timing for a new baby that's on the way.

God is blessing us.

We decide we'll likely take the job.

So we think about it.  We pray about it.  We try to convince ourselves that it's right.

It's not.

We turn it down.  

Crazy?  Yes.  More like insane.  

It's rare, rare, RARE that a top 20 news director calls you out of the blue and offers you a job.

But it wasn't right.

A few days later "Let's Make a Deal" runs.  

We win big.

Then we get a letter from the CBS accountants saying we owe lots of money in taxes.

We debate whether to take the trips.

We decide to go on one but, when we call to book it, find out the black-out dates are December through May!

Yes.  Six months of black-out dates.

May won't work because little peanut will be joining is.

We turn down the trips. 

We get nothing.  Not one thing.  

Our friend who won $200 at the end of the show walked away with more than we did.  And we won the big deal!

So here we are.

No big deal.  

No new job.

BUT...a baby.

Erica will be a mom.

The best mom.

I will be a dad.

Yep, God is funny.

A baby.

OUR baby.

Joining OUR little family.

Better than a new job.

Better than trips worth $24,000.

Better than THE BIG DEAL.

A baby.