More photos

I found some more pictures to post. None of which have anything to do with each other.  Here is one more from the hospital. 

Just arriving home!

Before Grandma left.  We had a really hard time getting Nate to cooperate!  This one looks pretty good.

I think her hair is lightening up, kind of like what Nate's did.  Also her eyes appear to be gray, but who knows if they will continue to change. 

I'm having a hard time getting pictures because of this right here.  Every time I go to take a picture, the older kids get in the way.  Today during tummy time, the kids were playing and heard me talking to Rachel and ran over and I couldn't even see her anymore, they plopped right in front of me! 

Sure I know it is good they love their sister!  I just wish I could get more pictures so the Grandma's don't get so irritated with me! 

All Rachel, all the time

Alright, now that Rachel is a week old, I guess it is time to post the last of the hospital pictures! 

The first night Rachel and I spent the night alone in the hospital, Eric was toast and apparently was fortunate enough to go to bed at 8p and slept until 8am the next morning.  I on the other hand wasn't so lucky.  Rachel is something of a pistol, now not near as a pain as the other ones, but around 2:30 in the morning (you know when she was 1 day old!)  She really couldn't be settled, I tried nursing and rocking and walking after about an hour I gave up and called in the nurse, who re-swaddled her and she quieted for a couple minutes, and I tried nursing her again and then she went out.  But it was truly a pain in the tail, and a foreshadowing of our first week. 

Rachel at this point loves to be held.  She especially loves it when someone who is not me is holding her, unless she is being nursed and just fell asleep.  Sometimes she will sleep in her pack-n-play.  Sometimes she will not.  We haven't really figured that out yet, it is kind of a crap shoot. 

Rachel doesn't seem to want to spend anytime awake yet.  She will be fine for about 20 minutes, if that then she will start crying.  Fortunately, Eric and I have a lot of experience with crying babies.  We've done this before!  Of course she is 100x better than Gwen and the jury is still out whether or not she will be better than Nate.  At some point Nate started to fall asleep on his own.  I am not sure that Rachel will. 

Rachel has a strong urge to suck.  I am not sure if that is because she is 9 pounds and I am not keeping up with her or she needs that to soothe.  We don't typically use pacifiers, and I am holding out for a while to make sure it doesn't interfere with her growth and my production. 

But, my word, when she sleeps she sleeps like a champ!  All Gwen wants to do is hold her, Nate just wants to kiss her and touch her.  When she cries they come running.  There doesn't seem to be any sibling rivalry, but I wish that it wasn't 100 degrees here so I could at least take everyone outside! 

Rachel's hospital bath

Another difference between this hospital and the last was that they waited until the baby was at least 6 hours old before they gave Rachel her bath.  I thought it would be fun for the kids if we waited for them to be there before she got the bath.  So, late in the day, almost evening of Rachel's first day she got her first bath.  This has to have been the craziest thing I have ever seen.  The aide put down a paper sheet thingy that was to soak up the water in her bassinet. 

She kept squeezing water on Rachel from the wash cloth and then she would wash her. 

I think you can see it here in this picture, the inside of the bassinet is soaked with water. 

Gwen was the ever patient watcher.  Once Nate was sure Rachel wasn't crying out of stress, he just sat back in my lap. 

I can't remember what they were talking about here, but it sure looks interesting. 

Wet and angry, see the water?

Finally hair washing. 

We apparently didn't take any pictures of the clean baby, I think it ended up being time to eat and the kids left shortly after that, Nate possibly traumatized for life.  Gwen happy to help with bath #2! 

Rachel!

Rachel was born this morning at 2:25 am, she is a rather large baby and I will detail her birth in another post, but I wanted to post some pictures.  Here she is right after they weighed her!  Wow!  I can not believe she is so large!

She has been a good baby so far, although I am finding it difficult to keep on her hat.

The big sibs don't really know what to think yet, but they appear to love holding her, and get upset when she cries.  She is so large that really they have to hold her together! 

Grandma enjoys holding her also.  She was holding her and holding her and holding her and Gwen wanted to know why she couldn't hold her again, when Grandma had one of her extended holdings. 

The Wedding

Gwen's godmother got married last weekend, we drove up to Virginia Beach with Mom to the wedding.  We had a really nice time.  I was asked to do a reading, so we had to drive up on Thursday to be there for the rehearsal.  I was fairly nervous about the reading, but I've been told it went well, I am pretty sure they didn't have a videographer, so we'll never have any proof.  Kiki did a great job with the wedding, she was beautiful and since she and her husband met at a dance studio, there was lots of fun dancing!  Of course, by then I was not too into doing anything but sitting in my seat and watching.  The kids danced and danced and danced.  The kids were obsessed with Kiki and kept running up to her and giving her hugs.  We let the kids stay up way past their bedtime and everyone crashed in the hotel. 
We had a great mini-vacation.  The hotel was right on the beach. So the kids played on the beach, the water was cold!  I miss the gulf coast!  The kids didn't care though and played in the waves.  We even saw some dolphins.  We had adjoining rooms with Mom, so we had space, and could sleep in.  It was great! 

Kiki's wedding - free slideshows

Christmas 2011

We had a very good Christmas this year.  Mostly quiet and lots of quality play time.  The kids tried to change up Christmas lists Christmas Eve, but they seemed to really enjoy the toys that they received and haven't mentioned the ones that they tried to change up for.  They played all day with their toys and are still playing with them.  I put together a slide show of pictures, but sadly it has taken me a week to save it!  The website was down and every time I tried to save it, the thing crashed.  Finally this morning I saved it!  So, FINALLY I am posting this. 
We decided this year to do a standing rib roast.  Not only was it super easy and fast, it was very good.  I think it was a nice "light" dinner compared to Thanksgiving, which is nice because who wants to slave in the kitchen when there are Legos and new toys to play with!  
It was a good Christmas for all, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2011 - Free Slideshow Maker

Halloween

My Momma came for a visit, she appears to enjoy spending time with the kids for Halloween, might be the childlike wonder, or the free candy after walking around the neighborhood in the "COLD", or it could just be because she likes to visit and this is as good of a time as any! We don't question, we enjoy, you should too, because without her being here, we might not have any pictures, so when you look at the slideshow, thank my Momma! This year was a big year for us, we had Halloween Carnival at Gwen's school, the kids always love that, we had a party at Eric's boss's house, we had a neighborhood party and then we the actual event. Let's just say the kids got plenty of use out of their costumes. Gwen actually wore her costume again today. So, Friday we had the Halloween Carnival, Grandmom had wanted to do something special for the kids for Halloween so she pre-purchased the tickets for them. (Thanks Grandmom!) The kids really love this event. The school is completely transformed and each class is in charge of different activities. Gwen's class was in charge of the ticket booth, which meant I was in charge of the ticket booth, which truly wasn't that hard, but probably would have been easier if Gwen had a bigger class and everyone came! But, whatever it all worked out. We didn't actually bring our camera for that so we have no pictures, which is too bad because Nate and Gwen got on the twirly bird by themselves, this year it was a single seater and the went with 2 bigger girls and had a great time, Nate was just a smiling and a laughing. He kept trying to twirl the thing around. But he really had the most fun on the bouncy maze while Gwen and Eric did the climbing wall. Nate seriously went 15 times in a row. The next night was Eric's boss's Halloween party, costumes mandatory. Mom was kind enough to help plan the costumes and make me a poodle skirt, sadly no one knew what we were...We had a good time, but it was another late night for the kids. Dinner, was served, I have no idea what it was, but it was good! Sunday afternoon our neighborhood had a party, we went to that also. They had a bouncy house, free pony rides, cotton candy, all free, all good fun for the kids. We chose to walk and on the way home Nate fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next day! I tried valiantly to wake him up for dinner, but he just wasn't having it, so we let him sleep. Then Monday was of course Halloween! 48 and rainy, my Mom was thrilled! We invited some friends over since there neighborhood is "lame", the kids wimped out before we hit the whole neighborhood, but we were treating for an hour, and they got plenty of candy, so it is all good! All and all a good weekend for them, now I just have to get more activities in line for Christmas, since Halloween seems packed with activities! So, without further ado, the slideshow!

Halloween2011 - free slideshow

I think I have mentioned that between Gwen and Nate, Gwen is more reserved, more pensive, more a watch and see kind of kid and Nate is more I LOVE THAT. We have a new found appreciation for the public library, air conditioned-age specific activities, what's not to love. Last year we participated in the summer reading contest and Eric won a prize! So we've decided to try it again. The libraries have kick-off events where you can pick up your forms and they have stuff for the kids to do and some free food. FUN! The kids decided to get their faces painted. As you can see:Gwen the ever present ham:
Nate-he was so proud! He told her he wanted to be Captain America, she asked him if he had a red mask and white stars. I should have videoed his reaction he was like "YEAH". I know that you can't really tell that is who he is.
Today we got the met the mail man as he was delivering mail, sadly I did not know that Gwen was going to receive a little package from Grandma. I have successfully hiding all the cards, but when the mail man hands it to her, what was I to do? I gave her the choice to open now or on her birthday. She obviously chose to open it immediately. Then proceeded to put everything on. I made her pose with all the stuff on so I could take a picture so Grandma could see it...
If you look closely you will see 4 headbands and a skirt. Sure I probably shouldn't have let her open it today, but we are 3 days to her birthday and you can't say no to the birthday girl, can you?

Happy 3rd birthday!

Today is Nate's 3rd birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 3, mostly because he's talked like a 3 year old for several months now. He's also now day potty trained, which you don't often see in 3 year old boys. He is much improved this year. We are still suffering through a boy who does not nap but probably should, but who would want to nap when there is so much fun going on during the day with Gwen home.
He is quite a sweet boy. He has his favorite people and he gives them leg hugs and such. He still gives a good hug and kiss to all of us, he loves to cuddle for sure.
As I've mentioned he is a very good talker and seems to be very smart. It will be interesting to see if that translates well to book smart. He is a very active boy and has to be watched all the time! He also seems to be very musical. He always wants to listen to music and often plays the piano or the guitar or whatever.
Today has been a very good day for the birthday boy. We decorated the house up and woke up to the sounds of Gwen yelling about balloons. Nate has been walking around all day declaring "it is my birthday!" He seemed to love all his presents and is so aggreable and happy that we all had a lovely day. His godmother and her daughter were able to come up and join us for the afternoon, which was lovely. And although we could not find Nate's "Speed" car to put on his cake, he loved it nonetheless! He is currently camping outside in the new tent he and Gwen have received for their birthdays! Here is a slideshow from today. Enjoy!

Possibly my last Halloween post:the School Carnival!

The Friday before Halloween was Gwen's school Halloween Carnival. I was able to sneak out ALONE and help set up. Technically I could have taken the kids, but Grandma was there, so I got to go and be kid free, fortunately Nate took a nap! Which seems to be his MO, the Friday nap. But anyway, they really push the carnival. Before I left to help Gwen got really upset and asked if I was going to play any games, I assured her I wasn't and then she ignored me, I took it she was ok with me going. Fortunately she didn't find out her friend was there while her Mom volunteered.
Now Gwen was so excited to go to the Carnival, they had the whole school darkened, only black lights, they had indoor games, food and outdoor stuff. At the indoor games you received prizes (candy), so we did those twice. But what was funny is Gwen was looking for her friends. And was kind of upset we didn't see any. Then, she found her classmate and started squealing, she was so excited! My Mom might remember that forever. We did finally see her favorite friend, last thing of the night, Grandma took pictures of the silly girls together and they were so excited and pretended they were pirates, I don't know why!
We had a good time, between the carnival, mall trick or treating and neighborhood trick or treating, Nate still ocassionally asked to go trick or treating. They got some good use out of their costumes and the candy is almost all gone, thanks to Daddy. Here are the picture from the carnival.

Can you see me now, 4yr old edition

As we watch Gwen grow you begin to appreciate how kids learn things, you know like the peak-a-boo and hiding under a blanket means no one can see you. We have gotten to a new level with Gwen. She LOVES to play hide-and-seek...ask my Mom! The only problem is that she doesn't really get it yet. She tells you what number to count to, where to hide and usually giggles or yells when she is hiding so you can find her. Always in very obvious spots. I am sure she will learn how to really play hide and seek, oh it is fun. She honestly asked my Mom to play every hour of every day she was here, my Mom might now say, wow that was fun, but I think at the time she was a little overwhelmed. Nate doesn't really participate. Gwen has also learned to hide under stuff and she thinks it is great fun. While Mom was here Gwen decided to hide, we had to pretend we didn't know where she was...Mom might have gotten a little carried away with her shoes...
After 10, ok maybe 2minutes wandering around pretending to look for Gwen, I think Mom's figured it out, she's so smart!

Some thing's in there!

HI! Grandma!

Gosh, don't you wish you could visit and play with us!