Glamorous life...

Lipstick morning, noon, and night is a common occurance at our house... but the dress up trunk has been collecting dust for a few months. The girls decided to try on all their dresses this morning while I was feeding and putting Jacob down for a nap. When he finally fell asleep, I discovered these glamour queens!

Fishing at Burke Lake

We originally planned to take Janis to King's Dominion today, but decided to do something low key so that Cathy and Jacob could come. I hadn't been to Burke Lake Park in a while and the girls wanted to go fishing-- so we decided to give it a try. They had a great time, caught a few, and then we rode the train and carousel. It was a lot of fun and of course I took my camera!

Easy Bake Oven Recall

If anybody has or knows anybody that has this oven, please have them return it (click on the picture to take you to the recall form). Ashley got her fingers caught in it on Sunday. Luckily the oven was off and we were eventually able to get her fingers out without any serious harm, but it really scared her and us. I can only imagine what would have happened if it were on. We had just been talking about the recall, and had it out in order to return it. We had our backs to her and all the sudden she started screaming. You see, the spring loaded door that allows the little cakes to go in and out of the oven, opens easily when pushed, but once it closed her fingers essentially got stuck between the door and the oven and the more she pulled the more it "crushed" her fingers. All we needed to do was push the doors from the outside, but it took 4 adults and a very long 60 seconds or so to figure that out. She was screaming and I was in a complete state of panic. Send it back!

Home Invasion...

before I go any further, let me say that I mean the title of this post in a positive way :) Marc's cousin Janis is visiting from Switzerland this week. To celebrate, what do you think we did? Have a party, of course... not just any party, an all weekend party! 28 of Marc's closest family and friends came to give Janis a warm welcome. Saturday was the perfect day-- 80 degrees, no humidity, beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds. We needed to be outside...so we spent the late morning/afternoon at Chrysalis winery and then came back to our house to bbq. Today we had breakfast at IHOP and then spent the afternoon at the Lansdowne pool (where everyone was staying) and then came back to our house to eat leftovers from the bbq. I took MANY pictures-- but as hard as I tried-- I failed miserably at taking "snapshots". The lighting was so beautiful at the winery that I couldn't resist taking pictures of the girls there.


The whole gang-- even Copper!


Hannah and Steve (Marc's brother)


Policegirl Hannah




The views were beatiful at Chrysalis.


Ashley with bright lipstick playing with Jacob.


Ashley and Daddy

4 months and 4 vaccinations

Well, here we are at 4 1/2 months. Looks as if we are raising a future linebacker!

Stats (95 perentile across the board):

Weight - 19 lbs, 3 oz

Height - 27.5 inches

Head - 17.75 inches

He was not fond of the shots, I heard-- I'm glad I had a meeting so Marc took him :)

First Tooth!

Guess what we discovered tonight during dinner? Jacob has cut his first tooth. He's been a little fussy the last few nights, so we're not really surprised. No pictures of it yet--you can't really see it very well-- just this one of me and Jacob after dinner!

Quotes of the day!

No pictures today-- just two quotes which totally made me smile.

#1 Anyone who has ever been to my house knows that I struggle with organization. The kitchen sink always has a dish in it, the living room floor always has toys or blankets left out, the dining room (well since we don't use it to eat, it's a holding area for all the stuff that really just needs to be thrown out), the garage is an obstacle course that hasn't seen a car in months, I won't even begin to address the kids playroom. So needless to say you won't find the inside of my home in Better Homes and Garden anytime soon. So, I read this quote today in the tagline of an onlline acquaintance and it totally sums it all up for me:

"A clean house is a sign of a wasted life" :)

I'd much rather be doing pretty much anything besides organizing and cleaning the house!

#2 Last night when Marc got home from his final MBA class -- woohoo-- he told Hannah that he was all done with his classes and that he got an A+ on his paper. She gave him a high five for the paper and said:

"So when will you be done with work?"

Isn't it what we all dream about :)

Is there such thing as too much help?

I'm so glad that 4 1/2 months later...the girls still love their brother dearly. They are so helpful at times getting me diapers, wipes, medicine, pacifiers...but at others they are a complete and utter frustration. Hannah wants to hold and mother him all the time-- but she does things like bounce him around (and for a child with reflux-- that's not good), stick her finger in his mouth, carry him around the room (we get a weight check on Thursday, but I guarantee he's 18 pounds, at least), reposition him in her arms while I'm not looking, feed him ice cream, I could go on and on. He loves Ashley-- she's one of the few people that can always get a laugh out of him-- but she's so rough with him. I'm so afraid that she's going to hurt him (unintentionally, but does it really matter?). I try to be patient as I know how much they love him-- but on days like today (my day off so I've been with them 24/7), I'm so glad to put them all to bed and breathe a little sigh of relief! Oh these pictures were taken when I was trying my hardest to get a good "4 month" picture of the little guy. It was impossible... I had too much help!

Beautiful flower... girls that is!

This weekend our friends Mike and Nikki got married. Hannah and Ashley had important jobs for the wedding-- they were flower girls. During the ceremony, Hannah worked overtime as Ashley felt a little intimidated by the crowd. However, after the ceremony, Ashley was back to her comical self-- cutting the rug on the dance floor and keeping everyone entertained. I also had a big job-- photographing the wedding! My friend Chris gave up his day to help me chase the bride and groom! I'm so glad he helped, I don't know how I would have done it without him. They would have found me passed out in the broom closet mid-way through the day! I don't think I'm cut out to be a wedding photographer-- compared to newborn, children, and family photography, it's like a quick sprint vs. a marathon! I think I'm a sprinter! I was exhausted at the end of the day. I haven't gone through many of the pictures-- but here's a couple of the girls.

Metamorphisis...

Since I was gone last week, I kinda lagged on posting some of my favorite pictures-- and as people who know me can attest, I take a lot of pictures! I have one of those favorites to share today. I love "sleeping baby" pictures. I think all parents should keep a picture of their child sleeping on the refrigerator or in the visor of their car and refer to it when their child is amidst a total and complete breakdown. It is a gentle reminder that the creature in front of them that has somehow morphed into the devil will every day, even if for a brief moment, turn into an angel. Here's two of my "angels".

Jacob's First 4th!

We celebrated the 4th low-key at the house with a "beer can" chicken cook out and Costco fireworks! Ashley thought they were too loud, but Jacob was entranced-- he didn't even jump when the firecracker sounds went off (funny, in the picture below, he looks as if he's saying-- "so is this all?"). When Marc and I got everyone tucked in, just as we were drifitng off (which these days takes all of 60 seconds), we heard the crack of some distant fireworks. We opened our eyes to see a beautiful show from out bedroom window. It was as if someone was doing it just for us :)