Life with a Newborn

Well, we don't do much these days...

Lucy sleeps well sometimes and not so well other times. She sleeps best when she is snuggled up next to someone...like her dad. Ryan loves to sleep with little newborns.

Lucy also spits up a lot. Neither of my other kids were spitters, so I now have more compassion for all those other moms out there. I almost always have some sort of white stuff on my shoulder. And most of the time it is my pajama top. For some reason it takes most of the day before I get dressed. Bella is often found in pajamas too late in the afternoon...but with accessories:
Bella is still trying to figure out how to love Lucy. She decided this week she should be able to carry her around...not a good idea. Apparently giving her kisses and hugs weren't enough. She is also trying to remember how to use the bathroom every time now...a little regression. Between her pee, Lucy's spit up, and Clark's little bout with the flu it seems like we are always cleaning up some sort of bodily fluid.

Here are a couple other pictures...I tried a blessing dress photo shoot again with not really great results, but I kinda got a picture of her whole dress. I might try again, but I don't know what else to try until she can sit up and then the dress won't fit. Any suggestions?

We also tried to get some 6 week pictures today - the time is flying by and she is starting to put on a little weight.

Although our life is a little crazy, she is worth it!

Lucy's Newborn Pictures

I have never gotten around to getting any good newborn pictures of my kids...I think I have been too sleep deprived to think about it. But thanks to a sweet friend, who is also a photographer, I got them done!! THANKS HEATHER!! She gave me some digital files I could post:

Lucy's Blessing

We had a beautiful fall Sunday and we were able to bless our sweet little Lucy. We are so grateful for her in our home. Many thanks to our family and friends who was able to come. It was great to have you here!!

Here is a new family picture...

Lucy looked beautiful in her pretty white dress (that I finished around midnight on Saturday...that is pretty good...11 hours to spare! Good thing my aunt was around earilier in the week so that it did get done on time :). I didn't get a great picture of the whole dress, but here are some sweet little shots. The last one is the best one of the dress, but she of course is not really happy with taking photos by that point. Maybe I will try again this week.

Happy Halloween

We didn't do a family theme this year but the kids looked cute without their parents - really even better!

Clark wanted to be a rubix cube. It took a little work to find a box, but he looked just like a rubix cube (apparently that wanted to disco dance :).



I thought it would be great for the girls to go together, so I made this Bo Peep costume for Bella and my neighbor had a lamb costume for Lucy. Although Lucy didn't go out with Bella, they were a cute little pair. It wasn't my smartest idea to be making elaborate Halloween costumes with a newborn, but thanks to some help they got done!!

Introducing...

We are happy to introduce you to our new arrival...

Lucy Christine

October 6, 2009

6:48 pm

6 lbs. 14 oz.

Bella likes her and thinks she is a doll that she can play with...we are working on keeping Lucy alive.

Clark is also excited to have another little sister and wants to hold her anytime he is home from school.

I will hopfully have some 'good pictures' of her soon...I need a class on how to take better pictures. She is wonderful and we are so happy to have her here! A photographer took some pictures of her at the hospital and here is a link, if you want to check it out.

CA Trip

If I don't get a few things posted about the summer it is never going to happen...we spent a month in California - split between San Franscisco and Bakersfield. San Franscisco has much better weather, but it was good to visit family in both places! Here are a couple highlights...


Our visit to the ocean in Northern California:
The ocean was COLD! It was a beautiful day but VERY windy - you can see Bella & Clark in their jackets but Clark still wanted to do a little wading in the frigid water!

San Franscisco visit:

Lombard street - I really enjoyed driving down it and checking out the cool houses; I don't know if the kids really were all that impressed!

At the Pier...we saw the sea lions, alcatraz and I got a sour dough bread bowl with hot clam chowder. YUM! (The rest of the family ate too, but personally I thought they were missing out since they didn't get the bread and soup :)

What is a visit to San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge? We drove over the bridge (and we have a lot of driving pictures on the camera thanks to Clark) and took these pictures on the other side looking back at the city. It was a really fun visit!

Bella's 3 Year Old Pictures

I am trying to do better about taking consistant pictures of my kids - so at least one good picture a year. I got Bella's pictures back yesterday from the photographer and I think they are cute. I could post several of them, but she made this cute little collage of some of the best ones, so I am just posting it. You can go here and see a few more (they posted some on their website). We are so glad Bella is THREE!! What would we do without her!?!

FAQ

This post is for the benefit of all those who do not live close...most of our family, many friends, etc. Since it has been almost 10 years since I have been pregnant there are a couple common questions I get so hopefully these will help out.

1. Q: Do you look pregnant?

A: YES! What do you think this basketball is that I am carrying around! :) And I am even posting a picture, even though I really am not a fan of self portraits. I look like I am going to fall over backwards but anyway, here it is.

According to a lady in California when I was there in July, she didn't think I was going to make it till October and thought I MUST be having twins. But most other people don't seem to agree with her appraisal.

2. Q: How are you feeling?

A: OK overall. I certainly can't complain and know it could be much worse but I have to say that doing this 10 years ago was definitely easier! I am grateful for this miracle, so I am just going with it!

3. Q: When are you due?

A: Technically, October 11th but Clark was 2 weeks early...can't I hope for that again?

4. Q: Do you have a name picked out?

A: No...still a work in progress. If you have any suggestions that are not currently on the top 10 list of names for girls, please leave them in the comment section. (I really like many of those names but when you have a last name as common as we do we have to try and find some originality somewhere else!)

Within the next month we should have pictures of a new baby and a name for her so even though I have been a terrible blogger as of late, check back sometime!

Happy Birthday Bella!

How can our little Bella be THREE already? Time goes by so fast! She had a fun day - playing with a little friend and having balloons and cupcakes with the family.

Three fun things about Bella:

1. She loves to talk. (Don't we already have a kid that does that too?) When Ryan comes home they both will talk away - at the same time - but that doesn't seem to bother either of them. She will also sing and make up words and tunes but we aren't quite sure what they are about.

2. She loves to dress up and do her hair like a princess. On any given day she has hair that looks like Mulan, Cinderella and Belle - all at the same time. Or it could just look kinda crazy because we haven't done it yet either!

3. She likes to color and has a strange fettish with taking the paper off the crayons. I don't know why but she really doesn't like the paper on the outside so we find piles of very small paper pieces around the house.

I didn't get really great pictures of her day, but here are a couple of fun ones:

From the Beginning

I guess if I am going to try and do our summer justice I may as well start at the beginning of our travels...The kids and I took a trip to Bryce Canyon for a family reunion. My dad and sister Elise and her kids were there and we were so busy trying not to lose any kids and we don't have any pictures of the group of us - pitiful really. It was great to see the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

My dad took Clark on a hike down into the canyon since I was really not up to a strenuous hike, so after the reunion was over and my dad and sis had to leave I decided to venture on a few 'walks' with the kids. That ended up being a little more than I bargained for. We went on a little hike outside the canyon to see this waterfall and cave. Clark had a great time and Bella did OK, until I was trying to take a picture inside the little cave - she was not interested. (see picture) But Clark had a great time and walked with his walking stick that he brought from home and had all shaved down with his pocket knife - he is becoming quite the scout.

Now the real adventure begins...we drove back into the canyon and I thought it would be fun to take a little walk along the rim of the canyon so we could just see it. I went inside the ranger station/gift shop and asked about a little walk and they said it was easy for kids, etc. Great. I jump on the little shuttle bus so they could drop us off at one point and we could walk around to the next and get back on. When I was getting off I asked the bus driver which direction to go to make sure the bus would get us at the next spot. He said either way, but he would recommend going to the next spot because then my walk would be all downhill. Great. So we stay on the bus and get off at the next spot and start our walk. What the little bus driver failed to mention was that this section was the LONGEST rim walk in the park. An hour later we finally get to the next spot. Here I am, the pregnant mom carrying my toddler UP and down this path - but wasn't it all downhill you ask? Overall the elevation did decrease, but there were many up and downs. Needless to say we were WORN OUT after that excursion. I gave Clark the camera to take pictures and he took enough to publish his own travel guide so I just posted one of the canyon here and our 'end' pictures.

Finally home

What have we done this summer?

put over 3000 miles on the car
bought lots of gas
took over 200 pictures
saw lots of relatives
went to 2 baseball games (2 different home teams)
went to the zoo (and it was a balmy 72° :)
saw the golden gate bridge
went swimming
went to the beach
went to the mountains
lit fireworks
and the list goes on.

But, we are finally home again and despite the great trips there is 'no place like home'. Once I get my life back together again I will make a few blog posts of all our adventures.

Updo

I was doing Bella's hair today and it was a frizzy disaster. I should have taken a picture. Anyway, I had just done mine and the flat iron was out and hot so I decided to try it out on her hair. WOW! She looks so different! Of course, still cute.

Princess

Going back a few days...my cousin got married a few weeks ago and she had her reception on Saturday. Bella had a cute little dress and to match and some flowers for her hair. She looked really lovely - just like the princesses that she is really into right now.