A quick trip

Over the weekend, we took the girls for a last hurrah before school starts. Things started out a bit bumpy as Jacob woke up with a fever the morning that we were leaving. Poor thing had never had a cold and didn't really know what to do. I think we all had a bit of a bug over the last week or two :) It was a quick trip, but we had a blast. We went to Dixie Stampede and Splash Country. The girls loved the cabin that we stayed in! I didn't drag my camera around with me to the water park and there were no cameras allowed in Dixie Stampede-- so the only pictures I'm posting here are ones I took at the cabin. This was the view of the Smokey Mountains from the giant two story deck. I bet it is beautiful in the fall!


As you can see Jacob loved his kitchen sink bath!

Ready for school...

We're getting ready for school at our house. We got haircuts yesterday and this weekend, we'll be doing some back to school shopping. Hannah's hair was really damaged by all the chlorine from the pool this summer and we've had some difficult mornings trying to comb it. So she decided that she was ready for a shorter cut. I think it looks adorable on her. She might try bangs next time...we'll see. Ashley has had this cut before, but it still looks cute! I can't believe that she'll be starting Kindergarten. Time flies!

Snaggletooth!

Hannah lost her first top front tooth! Just in time for Jacob to start cutting his top two teeth :) She came into the bedroom last night after I had tucked her into bed and said "Mommy, I lost another tooth"-- she had just lost one of her bottom ones last week. I was a little scared when I heard and saw it-- it was barely even loose. Apparently she wiggled and twisted it pretty hard. It wasn't even bleeding so I suppose it was ready to come out-- I just wasn't ready for it. She told me that she thought the tooth fairy would bring her $20 because it was a very important tooth! The tooth fairy wasn't quite that nice-- she had to settle for $5. It was so funny this morning when she was trying to tell me a story about her friend, "Maritha"-- I mean Marissa.

New toys and favorite toys...

Shortly after Jacob was born, we found that he loved to clutch something when as he was falling asleep or eating. I bought a few different animals for him to try. There are two, in particular, that he's loved from the start. One is Semmel (is that a name?) the bunny lovie, by the company Sigikid. He loves to nap with Semmel over his head or next to his face. I don't have a picture of him napping with Semmel, but I do have one with him riding in the stroller with him (below). The other favorite is Sandwich the cat by blabla kids. It's a colorful knit cat that is so soft. I used this one to put between my chest and Jacob when I was nursing him to keep him from scratching and pinching me. Now I put it next to him when we give him his bottle. He loves to hold onto the little legs and arms-- its the perfect size. One more link...my favorite online toy store is Oompa Toys-- they have great European toys and low shipping. We love the HABA and Hess wooden toys.

As for the new toys-- last week Marc and I officially made the committment to get into some sort of regular exercise. I promised him that I would give jogging a try-- this is a BIG step for me. I'm the kid that used any excuse possible in elementary school to avoid the physical fitness test in gym class. I also joined the track team when I was in high school to hang out with the cute boys, but when it came time for me to pick an event-- I was in big trouble. I ended up throwing the discus, but if you did a field event, you also had to do a running event. They stuck me running the 800m-- man was that a mistake. Believe it or not, there are people in the world who acutally do a full out sprint the entire way-- uggh! At about 200m, I was ready to collapse-- by the end I thought I was dying. It did get better, the more I practiced-- but the only thing keeping me from quitting was the cute boys. Lord knows why I thought they were worth the pain. Anyway, maybe the "cute boy" will keep me going in my jogging endeavor-- we'll see. I'll report back next week, after our first run. Anyway, so that we could include one of the kids-- most likely Jacob-- we bought a jogging stroller. The picture above is us taking it out for a test drive with Jacob-- he liked it :) The other pictures below are just fun ones. Jacob continues to teeth and drool, and has started grabbing everything in his reach. The other day Marc was holding him and drinking a Corona and Jacob kept grabbing the bottle and sticking it in his mouth. At least the kid has good taste!

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 :)