Cousins

Stella and her cousin Hazel. Hazel is about 2 months and 3 days older than Stella.

Little Helper

Adeline has been quite the little helper this week...

Here she is doing dishes this morning, not sure who got washed more, her or the dishes!

We've had so many flies in the house this week and Addie thought she'd take her shot at swatting flies!

And reading to herself...

Adeline is adjusting well to no longer being the baby! I can't believe how big she looks to me now, thankfully I've still had a little time each day to snuggle her in between feedings. She's going to be a great big sister!

We're home!

We made it home on Sunday afternoon. As much as we were enjoying being waited on hand and foot at the hospital, it sure feels good to be home. Stella is such a great baby, like all newborns she sleeps more than she's awake but that's fine with me. She is a great nurser and that's half the battle with a newborn, so it's nice not having to struggle with getting her to eat. Her siblings love her, at first Addie was a little jealous of her, but now that we've been home for a few days she really likes her.

Here are a few more pictures...

Getting dressed to go home.

Strapped into her car seat, set to go!

The loves of my life...

Snug as a bug for bed at home!

It's tough to be Stella

introducing....

Stella Kate
09.09.2010
8 pounds, 5 ounces
19-1/4 inches

The c-section went perfect, my OB came up to visit in the afternoon and said that there was a little extra scar tissue, which they were expecting with it being my 4th c-section but once he was inside everything looked really good, so that was good to hear! Stella is a great baby so far. She's very quiet, only peeps when she is hungry. She slept most of the day, but is nursing like a champ which makes my heart sing with joy! I'll post more pictures later. We'll be at the hospital until Sunday sometime.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Our big girl Amelia started Kindergarten today! She was so excited when she woke up this morning, in fact she came down to our room at 3:30 am after she went to the bathroom and crawled in bed with me. I had to really talk her into going back to sleep, she wanted to talk about school, I think she finally fell asleep at 4:30.

Amelia before heading out the door!

Waiting for Bus Driver Bob

She looks a little scared but she really was excited!

Getting on the big school bus for the first time!

Yay! She did it---no tears for Amelia or Mom!

Amelia is the Class of 2023....how weird is that?!

38 weeks

We had our last appointment with my OB on Tuesday morning. The c-section is officially scheduled for Thursday, September 9...exactly one week from today we get to meet our new baby girl!! I'm so excited and ready to be done. I still have my lovely rash, it had cleared up pretty well, but by Monday the itching was driving me nuts again and I was hardly sleeping. So I mentioned it to my OB and he put me on another round of oral steroids to help clear it up, though it won't be completely gone until sometime after birth, but the itching has subsided for the most part. We'll be sharing our news as soon as possible next week. Check back next week for the official birth announcement. We learned when we had Adeline that the hospital now has wi-fi, so we'll be bringing the computer with to keep everyone updated!

So sweet

Adeline has to do everything that her big sister does, so this afternoon Amelia was sitting at the dining room table playing Barbies and Addie insisted on sitting in her high chair to play along!

Amelia's new 'do

I took Amelia to get her new kindergarten haircut this afternoon. This is the first time that someone other than my sister Amber or my Aunt Terri has cut Amelia's hair. I took her to our good friend Katie to get her haircut, I love the fresh new 'do!


While we were there, Paul decided he needed a haircut too (which he did) thankfully Katie had a few extra minutes to cut his too!

the joys...

...of being a stay-at-home-mom. Granted this is only my 2nd week of being home with my kids, but I'm TRULY enjoying every minute of it. It's really making me realize everything I've missed out on the last five years I've spent working while my kids were at daycare. I think the kids are enjoying it too! We start our day out by having breakfast at the island (yes, yes, eventually the ugly green color in the kitchen will go, maybe some day when I have an extra dollar or two and a few extra hours of time, unless someone wants to come paint for me?!), we brought the bar stools up from the basement until we can find bar stools that we like and can afford, so it may be a while, but these work for now! But the kids love eating breakfast at the island, and it gives me a few minutes to get the dishes out of the dishwasher, etc. Note Addie's first pony tail! Her hair is getting longer, finally! And yes, the fire suit is Paul's new staple to his wardrobe, he wore it EVERY day last week, finally Saturday evening I was able to sneak it into the washing machine and he promptly found it in the dryer Sunday morning and put it back on and wanted to wear it to church.


We've been spending a limited amount of time in our backyard, I'd love to spend more time out there, but the mosquitoes are terrible out there, doesn't seem to matter how much we spray for them and what time of day it is, within 10 minutes you're being attacked. There was one day last week where we were able to be out there for over an hour and the kids played play-doh in the backyard...way better than in the house, it was nice to not have a huge mess to sweep up in the house. Nothing the pressure washer won't take care of!

Adeline is quite the character these days, this little lady is constantly on the go and she never stops talking. Her new found interest is babies. She almost always has a doll in her hands, along with a blanket and a bottle. She has to have diapers on ALL of her babies and is constantly bringing them to us telling us that they are poopy, we take the diaper off and put it back on and then she's content for about 10 minutes and we have to do it all over again! She has become Gene's biggest fan club. As soon as she sees his car pull up or one of the tow trucks she yells "Geno here!", she gets very excited when he is around. Her and Amelia are doing a great job sharing a room and they go to bed great at the same time. Except the last few nights I've noticed over the monitor that Addie likes to talk and Amelia keeps telling her "Be quiet! Go to sleep!", so I think that may be bothering big sis!

Play-doh action in the backyard!

FYI: He got himself dressed!

Adeline: CHEESEBURGER!
(She always says that when you pull out a camera and she scrunches up her nose!)

Amelia is getting very excited for kindergarten next week! We had open house tonight, I thought she'd be shy when we went into her classroom, but she did great, she talked to her teacher right way, found her spot to hang her backpack, found her table and where she puts her pencil box. Next Tuesday we go in the afternoon for a short conference with her teacher and to bring all of her supplies to school and she actually starts school next Wednesday, she is very excited about riding the school bus. She gets on early, like 7:10 early! So she's planning to eat breakfast at school instead of at home. Don't worry, I'll be posting pictures from the first day of school!

We registered Paul for an ECFE class for the school year, our district doesn't offer preschool until the year before they go into kindergarten, so Kevin is going to do ECFE with him on Thursday evenings, it'll be good bonding time for the two of them. Paul is excited that he'll be going to school too.

We are pretty well ready for Baby Girl's arrival next Thursday. I've been busy "nesting" here at home. Last Friday Mary came down an helped me completely clean out the nursery, pack up the clothes Addie outgrew and get Adeline's belongings out of there and to make room for the baby. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands and company to help make a big task go quicker. I'm so fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law. She has been such a blessing to me. She also helped me organize the front porch and all of the kids' toys out there, she did a Target run for me and picked up a bunch of storage bins to help organize things. She is coming again this Friday and we're going to tackle the girls' closet upstairs and move the rest of Addie's things upstairs. It'll be nice to have everything in order before baby's arrival.

I've also been preparing a few more meals for our freezer. Tuesday I browned 4 pounds of hamburger and froze them, also made 4 dozen meatballs and froze them for a later meal. Today I made 3# of sloppy joe's (Amelia's favorite meal!) and froze that and I made some pizza burgers, which we're going to have for dinner tomorrow night and then I'll freeze the extras!