Sweet Miss Mary

Mary Louise
born October 20th, 2011
6:08am
7lbs, 5oz ~ 20" long

I'm back home now with our sweet Mary girl. We started Thursday morning bright and EARLY - having to be at the hospital at 4am. The 2 hours from 4 to 6am were excruciatingly long, and I was super nervous for my surgery the whole time.

But at 6am, we were finally ready to have the baby. I layed on the operation table, with Jake by my side. I could hear the doctor and nurses working, and then I heard them all exclaim that the baby has lots of dark hair. Jake stood up so he could watch, and it got quiet again as they continued their work. After another minute, I heard the baby start to cry and Jake looked down at me and said softly "it's a girl."

It was such a sweet moment.

And then right away I got to see her.

She looks a lot like Sophie did, but definitely has her own look too. We're just in love with our teeny tiny dark haired little girl.

Mary Lou got to wear the pink pajamas home

Mary's cousins came to visit
Evelyn (left) is 6 weeks older and
Hazel (right) is 8 days older


Enjoying my new baby
(I told you she's tiny!)

Headed Home

We're glad to be home and we're glad to have our baby girl.

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

We're packing both of these up for the hospital.
Which one do you think the baby come home in?















9-Month Belly Shots

Eclairs Are a Breakfast Food

Right?

Miss Sophie Turned 5!

If you live at our house, you know that Sophie turned 5 on Friday, because she's been counting down to it daily for like 3 weeks. She was SOOO excited. On her birthday, she said to me "I'm 5 now! And tomorrow I'll be 5 too!"

The Birthday Girl

On about the day after her 4th birthday, she declared to me that she wanted a piñata for her next birthday party, and she remembered all year. She also requested a chocolate cake with pink frosting. So we decided to host a party for her with some of her friends from the neighborhood, complete with her requests.

Thanks to a week of gorgeous weather, I decided at the last minute that we could have the entire party out in the front lawn. Outdoor games, pizza on a picnic blanket, a dog piñata, and a chocolate cake with pink frosting. She had a great time!

A Shower for Baby Hazel

I'm all about parties this summer. This past weekend, it was for Cathy and Baby Hazel. We went with a literal "shower"/picnic theme to complement Cathy's gray, pink, & turquoise nursery.

Check out our yummy picnic spread!

It turned out really cute! Thanks to Stephanie, I didn't have to climb up onto my parents' dining room table in all my 8-month-belly glory to hang up the decorations.














































I also set up a craft table for the guests to make something for Cathy. I used the same hair clip materials that I had used earlier this summer for Pia's shower, and also set up a onesie-making station (no pictures of the completed projects, but they turned out really cute).

Serious Soccer Business

Sophie is one lean, mean, soccer ball playin' machine.


With her white jersey made to fit an 8-10-year-old tied in a knot behind her back, her oversized black shorts pinned at the waist and then rolled up a few inches, and her pink velcro shoes on, she's all business.

Don't mess.

Don't mess with this guy either.
Cause he's cute.

Fall, Please

This summer seemed especially unbearable. Did anyone else feel this way? I don't know if it was because of this belly:


Or the record breaking heat we've been experiencing. Probably a combination of both.

But I am sure ready for it to be over.

I just went out to get the mail and felt my body go tense as I stepped out into the sunlight, just waiting for that 100+ degree heat to hit me, and was pleasantly surprised to find it's only 90 degrees right now. Very tolerable when it was 25 degrees hotter than that just a short time ago.

Fall weather, please. (pretty please?)

Our Walking Advertisement

Sam should be getting paid by Disney for the amount of Cars promotion he does. It just makes him so ridiculously happy that I can't help it though. When we open his door in the morning, the first thing we hear from him is "Cah Shoooooooo?" (Cars shoes).

We're expecting our check any time.

We Went on a Shelving Spree

Inspired by our finally-finished new laundry room, Jake and I were motivated to get all the shelves we've been wanting installed throughout the house.

First came the front coat closet. Previously, all it had was a coat rack with a shelf above it. And since I don't even own A coat, let alone many coats that would necessitate an entire rack, what am I gonna do with a coat rack? I knew this area was being under-utilized.



So we put an IKEA bookshelf in there, cut the coat rod in half, and reinstalled it (you never know if we'll have an especially chilly winter. Like in the 40's or something). I may have also painted the back wall to make it prettier. The bookshelf has more than enough room for our cleaning supplies and paper goods.

I also added a couple hooks on the wall for dusters & umbrellas. The leftover floor space holds the vacuum, and the upper shelf (which was untouched) holds lightbulbs, vacuum bags, and our indoor tool box.


Another great feature of the closet is the over-the-door shoe rack that holds all the stuff that you need but can never locate in your house (flashlights, extension cords, a level, febreze, etc). That's actually been there a while, and I got the idea from Jake's mom.

Our paper towels and TP used to be in our linen closet. But since they moved to their new home, our linen closet suddenly had room to hold all of our linens! So project #2 was adding more shelves here, and our towels and sheets can live comfortably together now, instead of crammed into one small space.


And finally, since we have the smallest 2-car garage in the history of garages, we (I with my ever-growing belly) couldn't get in and out of our van while it was parked in the garage. We needed to get rid of the shelving/work bench we had on the side of our garage. So Jake installed upper shelving to hold camping equipment and other garage-worthy items.










So now we're shelved as shelved can be. And very pleased with our new-found storage space.

Love

Belly Update

7 Months

Sam's Cake Party

Instead of having a full-on birthday party for Sam this year, we just invited our families over for cake. I made 2 cakes for Sam to accommodate all of his in-town relatives, and they both turned out quite delicious.

Sam's cheeks full of air as he blows out his candles

Sam got some great gifts too. Cars cars (which, unfortunately, he opened first and wouldn't put them down while he opened the rest of his gifts), a dump truck, a Buzz Lightyear rocket (see his awesome expression when he opened it below), clothes, books, and a new car duvet to go on his bed when he transitions out of a crib.


We had a great day all day. I'm convinced Sam knew it was a special day for him. He was in a good mood, and he would just grin whenever we said "Happy Birthday" to him.

And today he either has to have all 3 of his new Cars cars with him or his Buzz Rocket. He's a happy camper though.