We came home on Labor Day (after waiting a painful 4 hours for the one doctor actually working the holiday to finally make it to our room). Thankfully we had some great friends we haven't seen in years come visit us, so that helped us pass the time, along with the first season of Veronica Mars (why they canceled that show is beyond reason).So we got home and loaded all our stuff on the pool table (because that's what pool tables are for, just like treadmills are for extra closet space). The kids were so happy to see us, not that they didn't have lots of fun staying with Grandma & Papa (thank you!!). The grandparents had even given us a cake to celebrate Graysen's birthday (and everyone said "awwwww").
We also tried to see if we could get some more pictures of our baby girl. Here are a few.
Graysen sleeps a lot for now and is doing really well. She doesn't really cry that much and is beginning to make the shift from being awake at night to sleeping at night. Hopefully we can keep that up! At her 1-week checkup she was back to her birth weight of 10 pounds. What a champ! We have her on formula, so we're going through the process of figuring out if she can handle the Wal-Mart formula brand or if we need to go with a name brand. So far it's looking like name brand formula may be in our future. She doesn't fit much of her preemie outfits, and the many newborn size diapers we had don't fit her either. She's already growing up so fast!!!
Charlene is recovering very well, too. She takes the stairs with relative ease, can handle the bumpy car rides much better now, and has even tackled shopping with us a couple of days now. The kids, on the other hand, have been a little out of sorts since we returned home with our new bundle of joy. Annabelle has been kind of jealous, and the boys have just been all-out aggressive and hyper. But Grandma and Great Grandma have been so nice to keep the amazing dinners coming so we can focus on the children, myriad chores, and catching up on sleep.
Huge thanks to all the family and friends who showed their love, helped us out, and told us what beautiful babies we make! And just for the record, you all can stop counting because while they were doing the C-section we had Charli's tubes tied. We are officially done (but so grateful for and completely in love with each of our children)!!!
Graysen Lilly was born at 11:31 AM Sat Sep 5, 2009, weighing in at 10 pounds even and measuring 19 1/2 inches long. The C-section went very smoothly without any complications, and our Gracie is doing great!!! Praise the Lord!!! You can see a few more photos at our Flickr page (link is provided at the top right of this blog).
For Bella's second birthday, she wanted to go to the paygwound and 'wing (i.e., playground and swing), so we took her to a nice park nearby. She and Declan had a blast on the swings.
The bigger swings had massive puddles under them, so Gabe went for the motorcycle instead.
After a few minutes, the cousins arrived: Alexa (affectionately known as AJ), Gaige, Josie, and Kaydran. As they were driving up, we took a quick pic with Mommy.
Then we headed on a treacherous expedition to the parking lot to greet our friends!!
Everyone kind of did their own thing, having a total blast. Even though the merry-go-round was surrounded by water, I went ahead and pushed them all around super fast (but forgot to get a picture of it). Everyone had a fantastic time, and we all went to Braum's together for lunch (they are an ice cream diner that is so, so good). Later we went to Great Grandpa Fred's house to finish off our day of fun with family.
Annabelle turned 2 on August 1st. We had her b'day party the night before and she had lots of fun. We dressed her up in a cute new dress and let her be her silly, adorable, dancing self.
She even blew out her own candles!!
We let her tackle dessert all by herself, which included a cupcake and two helpings of ice cream (she is an ice cream fanatic!).
The octopus play dough factory, tea set, inchworm, and baby doll & stroller are a hit with all the kids (who also seem to think they can ride in the stroller, despite our pleas...and our threats). Bella also loves her new hair pretties, pretty shoes, and pretty clothes (she is a princess, after all), and of course she loves her books. Thank you everyone for the wonderful, thoughtful gifts and for celebrating with us!!
Then he put on his hand-me-down super-cool Batman backpack (thanks to cousin Gaige!) and we were off to school.
His new preschool is part of a church and is actually quite big. Gabe was pretty proud to be there!
We got to hang out with him for a few minutes and that made him feel more comfortable, apparently way more comfortable!
Tell me where you have ever seen a cuter first day of school picture than this next one!! If anyone wants prints of this one, let me know. I love my son!!
His first and second days of school have gone really well, and this school is 500% better than the preschool he attended last year. One of the things they do to make the kids feel big is they get in and out of the cars all by themselves. Of course, Gabe is such a pro. He's been practicing buckling and unbuckling himself all summer and opening and shutting his own door for a couple of weeks. Now when we get in the car he exclaims the second he's ready, "OK! I'm all buckled, it's safe to drive on the road now!"
