Our Newest Bike Rider



It's offical. Andrew got his training wheels off today. And he's the first kid we haven't had to help steady or teach how to ride the bike. All we had to do was take the training wheels off & off he went!

I guess he knew he really was ready. He's been nagging/asking Rick to take his training wheels off for about 2 months but we kept putting it off thinking he wasn't quite ready. Boy were we wrong. He's a pro. And he loves it!

Clever Boy

At dinner we were discussing the ratio of girls vs. boys in our family. We started out as a tie. Then more girls with Lexie. Then a tie. Boys. Tie. Girls. Joseph quickly added, "I didn't know we had any Thai (tie) girls in our family, I thought we only had American girls." He is so witty!

And, I forgot to mention. While at my sister's house on the 16th meeting baby Joseph, Joseph lost another tooth. This kid is making a habit of losing teeth everywhere we go! (Home, school, church, car, other's homes...)

And these pictures were taken just before I headed into the hospital. Someone couldn't go back to bed...He also asked the Tooth Fairy for Pokemon cards, he/she was nice enough to comply this time. Joseph was so thrilled!

One Week Old

And oh so sweet!

New Glasses

For about a year now we've known Lexie has needed glasses but I never got around to getting her eyes checked. Finally on the 7th, we got her into the eye doctor. And today she got to wear her glasses to school for the first time!

We got her 2 pairs of glasses so she could keep one in her desk. She only needs them for things far away. Once she put them on this morning she was quick to point out things that she had never been able to read around the house before. It was really interesting to watch her discover things.

Here are the pink ones:

And here are the brown ones:

We think she looks pretty sharp.

Ahhh!

There are few things that smell so sweet as a freshly bathed new baby!

Eliza Sue

Eliza is really having a week. She loves Lucy & is so sweet with her. But she also really wants her Mama-all of the time-and is having a very hard time going to sleep at night. Lucy has slept from 9pm-2:45am & then back down for the morning & last night from 9 pm-5 am without waking up. It has been wonderful. On the other hand, Eliza hasn't gone to bed until almost 11 pm & with much crying & screaming & wakes up around  5 am as well. Hopefully, one of these days soon she'll get back into the routine.

Strike a Pose

Over Achiever

Lucy is 4 days old & her cord came off! We've never had one of our kids lose theirs so quickly. But, we're thinking she had a little help with all of the kids lovin' on her. It must be so freeing to have it off.

Here's a picture of her hair. It is so much lighter than any of our other kids. It was funny that while I was pregnant I would tease Rick by saying, "Wouldn't it be funny if we got our Jennie or Evan of the family." (Those are our niece & nephew who have blonde hair while everyone else in the family has darker brown.) While Lucy isn't nearly as blonde as they, she is definitely our lightest of them all. Even her eyebrows are completely blonde.

Lexie & Her Sisters

Lexie is such a good big sister. And such a wonderful helper! I have really enjoyed watching her interact with Lucy & Eliza this weekend. She is wonderful!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew was super excited about finally being able to open some presents & eat the cake that we made for him Thursday night. (He's been super patient! Not easy for a 5 year old to do!)

Excitedly, he ripped through all of his presents & loved everything he got.

Then it was time for cake. Andrew really likes to play Transformers right now & he loved his Transformer cake.

Eliza did, too!

Our Big Five Year Old!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Our New Addition

I was supposed to be induced on Saturday night. Five years ago I was also set to be induced on Saturday night of August 18th. I never made it to either induction-well, at least to be induced. With Andrew I went in Saturday afternoon & he was born around 8 pm. This little one decided that she wanted her birthday to be a day before Andrew's.

So here is the rundown on our new, sweet baby girl.

August 17th: Last night while making Andrew's cake I was having contractions but didn't think too much of it. I went to bed & each time I woke up I was still having contractions. Finally around 3am I started to think these may really be doing something & we ought to call the doctor. My doctor wasn't on call so I had to wake poor Dr. Tyler. She asked what number child this was for me & I said 5 & she said, "Um, I want you to come in right away." We called my sister & made her come up for the rest of the morning with my kids until my neighbor could get them off to school & my sister kept Eliza for me. We finally made it to the hospital around 4am & went ahead & got the epidural. Since I was GBS they wanted to slow things down so I could get the antibiotic in for 4 hours. (Otherwise Dr. Tyler said the baby would have come by 5:30 at the latest.) Anyway, I was dilated to a 4 when I went in. The epidural really slowed things down and I was a 5 a bit after 9 am & my water broke. Of course the doctor had to verify that & poor baby has a cut on her head like Joseph did. I went to a 10 in about 30 minutes. They went to get Dr. Tyler & she got everything set up & we were ready to push. Like all but Andrew (he was the first to be turned the wrong way & it was harder to get him out that direction), I was able to get her out about 1 minute later with 3 pushes. First one she rotated, next her head, then the rest of her. Very quick & very easy delivery considering her size (for which I am grateful)!

Born at 9:54 am. 8 lbs 15 oz, 21.5 inches tall.

Proud Papa!

Sweet all cleaned snugly baby.

We called Lexie & Joseph at school to let them know they had a new little sister. They were very excited! After school, my Mom brought all of the kids to the hospital to meet their new sister.

We have one report that Joseph (after our call to him at school) had a few excited tears of joy when he returned to class. So sweet!

All of the kiddos! This is one well loved baby girl!

Grandma's 45th grandchild.

 First family picture.

August 18th:

Happy Birthday to Andrew! My Mom & my sister did a great job of entertaining the kids for us while we were at the hospital trying to decide on a name. After their fun morning, Grandma brought them up with some ice cream sandwiches so we could celebrate Andrew's birthday for a bit together.

Birthday boy & baby sister:

Baby girl also got her hearing test.  Passed with flying colors. When I was a kid I helped with this type of testing by being a guinea pig for it. Glad to see my hard work paid off.

And here she is exactly 1 day old!

Andrew enjoying his ice cream sandwich. I'm grateful he's able to roll with everything this birthday.

August 19th:

We were hoping to go home from the hospital on Saturday, but we had a little problem, we hadn't chosen a name for this little one yet. We had a lot of names that we really liked but we struggled to come up with a perfect fit for her. After much deliberation & consideration we finally decided that the best fit was: 

Lucy Kay.

She really loves her name as you can see.
Interestingly enough, a couple of years ago when we were expecting Eliza, Andrew decided that her name was going to be Lucy. When we first heard this we didn't even consider it, thinking we would not use that name for one of our kiddos. Even after Eliza was born, Andrew continued to call Eliza by Lucy (for about 3 months). (Once he finally started calling Eliza by her name, he still talked about Lucy a lot!) Ever since then, the name has really grown on us. And now we know why.

We finally were able to go home Sunday afternoon & were so happy to see everyone.

And we think they were pretty excited to see us, too.

And we all love this sweet little Lucy girl!

Meeting Baby Joseph

My niece, Kyra & her husband Kevin are moving across the country. They got to stay the night (at my sister's house) so we could all meet their new baby, Joseph! (And so they could get some rest I'm sure.) Joseph is a very content cute little boy. It was fun getting to meet him.

And here is Joseph with Joseph. Eliza was very confused when we would say we're going to see baby Joseph. I think she started to figure it out once she saw the baby.

It was rather funny discussing labor with my niece & talking about the things we disliked most (like getting the IV in). We enjoyed our visit & then hurried home to make Andrew's birthday cake for his party with friends tomorrow.

Andrew's First Day of School

It's official. Andrew has started Kindergarten! He was so excited about going it was so hard to get a picture of him.

I love this guy's cheesy grin.

He was super excited about being able to go to school again with some of his best friends.

Once I picked him up after school, he immediately told me (with a huge grin of course), "Mom, I LOVED school! Especially the play dough. It turned from yellow to green." His teacher told me he did really well today as well, so that is always a bonus. I'm sure going to miss having him around as much but I'm glad he had such a great time today.

His Last Day of Freedom

Today was Andrew's last day of freedom. His last day of no responsibilities or worries or cares. Tomorrow he starts Kindergarten. Once school starts it's all over. Summer goes way too quickly & there is always another year looming. So, we tried to have a blast of a day. We played tons!

Played at the park with one of his best friends.

Had a picnic with his friend. Andrew made his own jelly sandwich all by himself. It was his first time & he was very pleased with it.

And just hung around & flew like there was not a care in the world.

Oh to be young & carefree!
(I know he really has some freedom & carefree days ahead, but it was fun to watch him & then just think about how quickly he & all of my kiddos are growing up. It never seems to slow down.)