Two Months In

We're now 2 months in with a new tiny girl in the family. I was wanting to carefully choose and sort and organize pictures in a logical, chronological order, but who has time for that nonsense??? So here's some pictures. Enjoy!

First, here she is at 1 week and again at 8 weeks.

"Um, a little help please." 6 weeks old

First day of the big ones being in school so we got to sit outside in peaceful solitude on this beautiful day. If we'd had a hammock, we'd have been in it! 6 weeks old

Same day. Sloane getting to play without anyone bothering her.

8/25 Just Mama and Sloane (and Elise, of course) heading to the park to feed the ducks.

Sloane's a hair-twirler. As soon as the thumb goes in her mouth, the finger goes in her hair. I've cut out more than one dreds that she's unintentionally formed! Today she came running to me saying, "Mama, my finger's stuck!"

Blair was doing her own hair one day. I told her to leave them in for a second so I could take a picture. Well, by the time I got to the camera, I found about 8 pictures just like this one that she had taken of herself. We owe these mini photo sessions to Aunt Kristy for teaching Blair how to take her own picture by holding the camera out at arm's length! :)

I'd be crying too if my hair looked like this!

Sloane's first day of school. (She actually lets me put her hair in a ponytail...as long as she can still reach the ponytail to twirl.)

Happy Birthday Reid!

Reid is now a 7 year old boy. I can't believe it. Seven...no longer close to 5 which is still a "child", but closer to 8 which is a full blown "kid". Yes, I know my thinking doesn't make sense to anyone but me...but I know what I mean. :)  Anyway, we had his party on Saturday. He said he wanted a Transformers party, but since he's already had one of those, I talked him into a robot/Transformers party, which then ended up just being a robot party. Oops. Well, he's always talking and walking and acting like a robot anyway, so I thought it seemed fitting. He showed a little dismay at not having a Transformers cake, but like I said, we've already had one of those. And honestly, how do you make a Transformers cake anyway?? We're creative, and I like to think somewhat decent at cake making and decorating, but a Transformer cake is way beyond our scope. So we went with a robot, which we named Robo-Reid.

Reid is a friend to everyone and likes to share everything with everyone so when it was all said and done, we ended up having 26 kids at our house, from infant to 8 years old! Many were siblings of his friends, so they weren't ALL Reid's friends, but still. That's a lot of kids for one household! But Jer and I thought it went much better than we were expecting. Between the playroom, Reid's and Blair's rooms, and the backyard, everyone had room to spread out and play.

I am usually the cake baker and idea maker, and Jeremy is the decorator. Here's Robo-Reid.

And here's Robo-Reid, complete with cape, sword, shield, and robot chest plate. Odd combination of robot/superhero/knight, I'd say. I could barely get him to stop for this picture and then he raced off to the next thing.

We put trick candles, which also sparked, on the cake. It was a good idea until I heard something that sounded like someone spitting. That was my cue to quickly get them off the cake and extinguish them myself in water. 

Transformers were the big hit this year. He received lots of Transformers, a couple games, and money, which he then used to buy more Transformers.

Not party related, but since I haven't put any current pictures of Elise up here, here's one for now...Princess Elise. I'll try to get more up later.

Baby and other stuff-- July 10-14

Playing catch up so here's our week in a quick round of pictures:

Elise Mary, spending time outside with one of her namesake grandmas, Margaret Mary. She also shares the name with grandma Mary Teresa.

Look! She does have eyes! At least one of them.

Always a princess. Her ruby red slippers were a Big Sister gift from Elise.

Aunt Kristy came up that first weekend to meet her newest niece.

Elise's first outing was to a church softball game. Only 4 days old! But hey, it was pizza and ice cream night, and I DO have my priorities. :) Here's Sloane enjoying (read: slathering herself with) an ice cream treat.

Second outing to Reid's baseball game, only 6 days old. It looks like we're setting this girl up to be an athlete. :) Reid played for the Kings, led by Coach Jeremy himself. Reid did a great job hitting off the pitching machine for the first time. He throws well, runs slow, and chats the ear off of anyone at first base. His favorite part is the free slushy after the game.

I think there's a baby in there somewhere.

Uh oh, bath time. Looks like it's going okay so far.

Oops, not a fan of the hair washing.

But water rinsing and a kiss from daddy make it all better.

One week old

We have a new baby!

Wow, so what's new around here?? A lot actually. For one, we have a new family member! No, not a dog this time...a baby! A real live human. No, you didn't miss the announcement that I was pregnant. I never got around to it. As many of you know, that first trimester fatigue is not a joke. Man, it hit me like a ton of bricks. If you look back at when my posts started dwindling, you can trace it right back to the same time I fell into a deep 3-month slumber. Anyway, so to recap, I got pregnant, we found out we were having a girl, and here she is! Little Elise Mary, born July 7th at 7:07am. (Yep, 7/7 at 7:07, neat huh? Vegas, here we come!) She was 7 pounds 2 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. A full head of dark hair and cute as can be. Well, we think so anyway. And not to brag, but to quote one of our nurses who said, "Man, she is so stinkin' cute! And I see a lot of babies. Some babies are not cute but this one is!" Yeah, that nurse quickly became my best friend! (And no, I don't want to know if you don't agree--just humor me!) :) Anyway, on to what everyone is really interested in--pictures! And sorry, I'm not capable of editing or scaling back, so you get to see lots. :)

Hours old 

 I love Reid's expression. He was genuinely excited to see her and had a ton of questions for our nurse.

 Big brother loves her.  The kids brought that pink puppy, creatively named 'Pink Puppy', for Elise.

 All sprawled out

 Blair brought some of her own things for Elise--a princess book (what girl doesn't love a princess book, even at just a day old), her beloved bunny that she is sharing with Elise so "baby Elise isn't sad", and a "smelly blanket" (so named because it doesn't always get washed as frequently as it should) because she thought "Elise might want something smelly." 

The girls are so excited about their new sister. Sloane got quite upset when it wasn't her turn to hold baby. She'd point her finger at Elise and shout at whoever was holding her, "Give it back me!" In this picture, Blair is showing her Cinderella book to Elise.

Adoring daddy

Little porcelain doll, except this one screams, squeals, and poops

Dressed to go home, holding onto my finger

What???

Had to get some pictures wearing the bonnet

I think Blair took this one, but I loved seeing her little profile (I warned you about them not being edited down!)

Us with my parents, who we are so grateful to for watching the kids while we were in the hospital for 2 1/2 days. What a job they had! Everyone should have parents/grandparents like these. 

August 18th - First Day of School!

Please disregard the crazy layout of this post. I can't get the pictures to go where I want them to and I'm tired of messing with it! If I keep trying, it will end up being the last day of school before it's correct.

Yea, it finally came--the first day of school!!! You don't know how excited I was for this day to get here. Man, these kids are work. Yes, I know kids are work, and I signed up for that when deciding to have kids. But really, you don't understand---THESE kids...they are work! And trouble. But also sweet and loving. Anyway, that aside, I was still thrilled to see the 2 older ones head off to school yesterday morning.

Blair started Pre-K this year and Reid is in 1st grade. Blair is now joining Reid at his school, which she is super excited about. She finally gets to ride the bus, and she didn't even have to sit in a car seat on the bus, she told me. She seemed pretty happy about that. Of course, since she has a easier time sitting still than her big brother, it doesn't surprise me that she gets to sit in a seat of her own free will (whereas Reid, God love him, still had to be "reminded" to stay in his seat with the use of a seatbelt booster last year).

Anyway, I drove the kids to school yesterday morning, probably more for me and my emotions than for them. I just love seeing them get settled the first day. As usual, we were running late. So we were hustling in as school announcements were running over the loud speakers. We stopped at Reid's room first. Everyone (all 8 of the other kids in his class) were already in their seats by the time he took his. I hated having to rush him into his room, but in the end, it was probably better for him since it didn't give him the chance to get rowdy at the excitement of seeing his friends again. (And better for me since I am a lingerer and tend to linger around for no reason, which probably would have made the drop off harder for everyone.) Anyway, Reid never has a problem being dropped off anywhere, so I was a little surprised when he looked a little timid walking into his room and motioned for me to lean down. In a whisper, he said, "I don't know where to sit." So I helped him find his desk, he sat down and was fine.

I then ran out of his room and across the hall to get Blair dropped off in her room. At the instruction of her teacher, she found her hook in the hallway, hung up her backpack and then went back in her class. I helped her find her seat, gave her a hug, said "Have fun!" and walked out. Now, Blair is pretty outgoing and friendly, but she does show a little separation anxiety at times. So I was partly expecting a "Don't go" or "I want my old school" or at the very least puppy dog eyes. But nope, not a tear, nervousness or anything! So, I just kept walking and that was that. And even more impressive is that she didn't even take her beloved, don't-leave-home-without-it, carry-it-everywhere, ratty, old bunny with her! It turned out to be a very uneventful drop-off. So, obviously not needed by my kids on the first day of school and with nothing left to do for them, I got back in the car and headed home, a little misty-eyed at the fact that my little Blair is now officially a school girl. 

Sloane wanted to wear a backpack and take a First Day of School picture too

Oh, prior to the first day, I asked Blair what she was most excited about about going to her new school and she said playing with dolls and playing on the computer. When I asked Reid, he said he didn't know (typical Reid answer). At the end of the first day, Blair's favorite part was playing on the playground, painting, and playing with playdoh and Reid's was centers (activity stations).

Enjoying some First Day of School ice cream after school

Our Little Mermaid

Blair always wants me to dress her up like a princess, and I really try to get into it and like doing it, but when it comes down to it, I'm just not a dress-up kind of girl. I never was, and still am not, a girly girl. I was always the one that was proud to show off the bruised knees that I got in basketball practice. So how I ended up with 3 girls I'll never understand! Anyway, usually playing dress up just isn't that fun for me. But THIS kind of dress up (piecing together a costume, creating a set, posing for pictures) I can do...

Sloane wanted to dress up too. But when I tried to get her in the lobster costume to play the part of Sebastian the crab, she wasn't interested.

A Blair funny

I asked Blair how her bus ride home was today. I asked her who she sat by. She said she didn't get to sit by her friend C. A mix of frustration and disgust in her tone, she replied, "I sat by some boy. I don't even know his name. Stinkin' boys. Stinkin' boys and their stinkin' penises."

That's right, girl. You keep that mentality till you're 30.