huge.post

I will begin by saying that you may need to read this post in 2-3 sittings just because it is soooo long. I haven't been posting lately for a couple of reasons:

Reason #1: I don't know if I told anyone, but I had a baby. I haven't totally adjusted to having this 3rd adorable baby around. Maybe it's all of the nursing...totally a full time job. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation. Maybe it's the laundry or cooking or cleaning. Who am I kidding? There isn't much cleaning going on these days. Where is my mom when I need her? :)

Reason #2: Our computer hasn't been wireless for a week or so. My genius computer guy (Brian), had been in San Diego for week. He and Kristi then headed directly up to the UP for several days. Hello, didn't he know I was going to have this computer problem before he left? Let's just say that my office isn't the most comfy place to sit to do a fun post. To make a long story short, Brian came over tonight, clicked a couple of buttons, and WHAM-O the wireless works. Thank you genius-Brian.


I'll start with that cute little baby that takes up a lot of my time and sleep these days. She was extremely alert the other evening, so I grabbed the camera.

This one, I call "the claw" for good reason...her face looks so innocent, but watch out (rrrrrr)!

We also broke out the baby bathtub last week to give her an actual bath. (We were all getting sick of the sponge baths.) Although, after experiencing the baby tub, maybe Amelia preferred the sponge bath! You be the judge:

I think she liked it :)

On to the bad news of the post...I totally have poison ivy. Yuck! It's this whole "living-in-the-country" thing. Not that I've never had poison ivy before, but we've only lived here 5 weeks! It's not even full-blown summer yet! The worst part is that it is on my torso which isn't good with the whole nursing thing....and it has been spreading. My doctor prescribed some meds for me today, and she says, "This will definitely help, but Amelia might be extremely cranky over the next few days!" I can handle Amelia's crankiness when I'm not itchy and miserable! So, needless to say, prayers would be appreciated for my itchiness and Amelia's crankiness.

Good news regarding the house...Josh started working on the laundry room on the inside and the siding on the outside. He's decided he should have an "indoor" project for the rainy days and an "outdoor" project for the nice days. I have pics of the laundry room, but I haven't taken any of the siding (although it looks awesome!). I'll take some and post them soon. And, I will just say it now so that no one else has to...I am so spoiled with this laundry room. Thank you Josh for your willingness to please me :) Here are some pics:

Here is the flooring:

This is the awesome utility sink. It's super-deep and will be located right next to the washer. I'm pretty sure lots of poopy baby clothes will soak in this sink. Speaking of poopy baby clothes...Amelia pooped out her diaper the other day, totally all over her outfit. It was down her leg and in her toes...not kidding. I don't think I've ever cleaned up so much baby poop, and this is my 3rd baby for cryin' out loud! I've literally dealt with a lot of crap in the last 5 years. Did I use "literally" correctly, Dave?

These are the cabinets that Josh is building. He and my dad also installed the counter top for my "folding space". The utility sink will be installed right down there to the left of the washer.

Here is a pic of the room from the doorway to the family room/kitchen area:

just.a.swingin'

Saturday night, we all went for a walk to get the mail. For those of you who haven't been here, it's about a 1/2 mile round trip. Claire was able to ride her bike down the driveway (it's mostly paved), and the rest of us walked or ran (Meredith). It was such a beautiful evening. When we returned, the girls wanted to swing on the tree swing. Of course, Josh agreed. They had soooo much fun! The pictures are a bit crazy at times, but we think they are pretty cool! We hope you enjoy them.

One more quick story...I had a meeting Monday night, so Josh took Claire and Meredith outside to plant some trees. They ended up starting a small fire and roasting miniature marshmallows since we didn't have any jumbo ones. Yesterday, Josh called me on his way home and asked if I needed him to stop at the store for anything...not too uncommon, especially if he was stopping anyway. I said, "Where are you going, and what are you getting?" He said, "I thought about stopping by the grocery store." I asked,"What for?" He said, "Oh, I don't know." What do you mean you don't know? If you were thinking about it, you had to have something in mind. Finally, he said, "Well...I thought about getting some marshmallows for the girls." I totally had to laugh...it was so sweet :) That is something that I would do! So, needless to say, we now have jumbo marshmallows in the pantry so that we can roast them sometime soon! This outdoor thing (as well as his little girls) have him all mushy-gushy inside.

not.crazy

Ok, let's just let it be known right now that I am not crazy! There, in fact, was a creature in the living room the other day! I had every right to be climbing on my counter top. However, it wasn't a HUGE animal like a raccoon or skunk. Josh saw the little critter that night and decided it must be a mouse. We set the traps the following day, and that night we caught that little critter. To Josh's surprise (and my disgust), it wasn't a mouse...it was a shrew. I've never even seen a shrew, although I have heard of a play? movie? something? called "The Taming of the Shrew". I certainly didn't want to tame this one, and I'm pretty sure it was dead once we found it anyway. He was just a little guy (or girl), but either way, I really didn't want it in my house! Thankfully, it's gone :)

Be watching over the next couple of days for a fun post about the girls! We've been having a lot of fun outside, and we've been taking some great pictures!

fatty.baby

We went in for Amelia's two week appointment yesterday. She is growing steadily. A week ago, she weighed in at 5 pounds 14 ounces. Yesterday, she weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces! She is eating sooo much better these days, a true nursing heavy-weight. Her little umbilical cord stump also fell off a couple of days ago. Claire was convinced that poop was coming out of Amelia's belly button, but I assured her that wasn't the case!

It was also awfully cute yesterday at the doc's office when I told Claire and Meredith that they had to come back on Monday for their yearly check-ups. Claire asked if they had to get shots, and I said maybe. (Claire does, but I didn't want to make her nervous all weekend about it...she hated her flu shots this past winter.) Meredith informed me that she didn't want any shots. She also informed me that the doctor and nurses wouldn't "know how to get these undone" to give her any shots (referring to her new bib overalls!). It was pretty stinkin' cute!

On a house note...I was (and possibly still am) convinced that we have an animal in our living room. For those of you who have been here, the living room is the unfinished room that is sectioned off with visquine (spelling?) at the moment. There is plastic that sounds like it is being walked on in that room. At first I thought, "What is that sound?" Then, the more I heard it, the more I was convinced there was an animal in there. The visquine was not "zipped down" to the main part of the house, so if there was an animal in there, it could definitely get into my kitchen. All I can think of is an ugly little raccoon in there or quite possibly the skunk that got into our trash on the back deck last week. Either way, I wasn't looking forward to meeting this creature in my kitchen. So, I call Josh at work to tell him that I think there might be a creature in the living room. His secretary answers, and I must sound slightly nervous because she asks, "Is everything ok?" Ummm...not really, I think there might be an animal in our living room. At this point, I decide to climb up on my counter top...not kidding! I feel just like someone on t.v. I'm also beginning to get tears in my eyes as I tell Josh's secretary that I'm going to walk back to my bedroom and close the door. Even if this animal tears up the rest of my house, it certainly won't be able to get through my bedroom door. On a side note, Claire and Meredith are with my in-laws and Amelia is in our bedroom sleeping. So, Josh is finally available to speak to me, and I tell him my situation. He assures me that he heard the noise as well this morning, and he already checked it out. It is just plastic that is getting caught by a draft and making noise. ARE YOU SURE? He is 100% confident. ARE YOU REALLY 100% CONFIDENT? Yes. Because I am seriously standing here in the closed-up bedroom with tears in my eyes ready to not come out until your parents bring the kids back. And then, I'm going to make my veterinarian-father-in-law who was once bitten by a cougar (not really...inside joke for the fam) take a major look through the entire house to check for that raccoon or skunk or who-knows-what-kind-of-critter. Seriously. So, Josh has convinced me enough (I guess), and I am back out in the main part of the house. We'll see how the rest of the day goes :)!!

so.cute

Just a quick post...

My adorable little Amelia. Don't you just want to eat her up?!! Happy 1 week yesterday!

Proud big sister Claire:

Our first family photo:

welcome.home.&.big.sisters

Welcome home Amelia! We came home Saturday afternoon around 3:30. Amelia slept the entire way home, and she slept all afternoon and evening at home as well. She ate well twice before she went to bed, and slept most of the night. She did, however, wake us up several times throughout the night just to let us know that she was still there! As soon as Josh would pick her up, she'd go right back to sleep. She definitely has the sleeping habits of her daddy thus far!

Claire and Meredith are so excited about Amelia! Meredith refers to her as "Melia". When they were at the hospital the other night, my mom was changing Amelia's diaper, and Meredith said, "Melia is a very tiny baby!" Claire responded (with big eyes and great enthusiasm in her voice), "Yeah, but she sure poops a lot!!" They have been with both sets of Grandmas and Grandpas over the weekend, and they are coming home today (Sunday). However, my mom called this morning and said that Meredith is sick, and unfortunately, it was coming out of both ends. We're hoping it isn't a big deal, but if you could say a few prayers for her and the other girls, we would appreciate it. We certainly don't need a house full of sick kids right now.

Here are a few pictures of the proud big sisters. I love the pictures of Meredith and how she's just so serious about her role as a big sister. She seriously wore her "I love being a big sister" shirt 4 or 5 days in a row during the week before and the week of Amelia's birth. She even wore it to bed under her pajamas on Wednesday night...I should have seen the labor coming! Claire looks so mature in all of her pictures. Did she have 3 or 4 birthdays that I didn't know about? It looks like it! Enjoy...

baby.baby.baby

And it's a(nother) girl! Baby #3 has indeed arrived :) Welcome to the world Amelia Kate. She arrived this morning at 11:36 a.m. and weighed in at 6 lbs. 4 oz. She is such a lightweight!

Here's how it all came about....I woke up around 3:30 a.m. having contractions and had them for a couple of hours. I then fell back asleep, and I don't really know if I continued to have them. They weren't ridiculously hard, but they were definitely more intense than they had been. I called my OB since I didn't really know what to do in a situation like this. I didn't want to go into active labor. My OB said to go ahead and come in to be hooked up to the monitor, and they would keep an eye on me for a while. When we arrived (around 9:45), they informed us that they would be doing the c-section today. Once they started doing all of the paperwork, they informed us (around 10:30) that we were scheduled in 30 minutes. That was fast!

So, needless to say, everyone is excited, and things went extremely well. I'm pretty tired, but not in too much pain (pain meds help a lot!). I'm hoping to get some good sleep tonight, and I should feel much better in the morning.

And the winner of our baby contest (sorry it was so short lived!) is......drum roll please....

AUNT JILL

(congratulations and applause)

Put your hand on the screen and Amelia will give you knuckles for your superb guessing!

baby.contest

Only 6 more days until Baby #3 arrives!!!

We're going to conduct a little contest here on the blog. There will be a fantastic prize! Ok, so maybe just a "high-five" or "knuckles" from Baby #3 as well as bragging rights. I want all of my faithful readers (all 5 of you) and those of you who check us from time to time (the other 3 of you) to make submissions. Even if you've never commented before, feel free to comment on this particular post. If you don't feel comfortable commenting here...or have troubles like my mom...you may also email me your submission, and I'll be sure that it is taken into account. Give us your best guesses, and take into account that this baby is arriving 3 days ahead of his/her due date:

Boy or Girl?
Weight?

Length?

Lots of hair or bald?

Will he/she look like Claire or Meredith or neither?
Will Daddy fall asleep shortly after the birth? (No one should miss this one!)

In honor of this post, I'm posting newborn pictures of the girls so that we'll all be reminded of how sweet they were! Their stats are included as well...

Claire (1 day late): 8 lb. 3 oz, 20 1/2 inches long

Meredith (6 days early): 8 lbs. even, 19 inches long
(She's flashing her gang sign...I'm convinced that all babies are in a gang!)

What absoultely beautiful babies we have...#3 has a lot to live up to!