Holiday Greetings

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Maybe it's a little early (her birthday is the 30th), but in order to have the dad around and to avoid holiday parties, Madeline had her 4th birthday party today. Centered around a pond theme, the party included pinning-the-duck-on-the pond (no blindfold for 4-year-olds), fishing for frogs, treat bag decorating, and constructing paper bag duck puppets. The party was a hit, but the highlight (next to the chocolate rocks on the cake) was the "surprise guest" who came to join us--a ride-on stuffed elephant. (She is sitting on him on top of her chair.)
Madeline had a blast!

Madeline's birthday invitation

Madeline helped me design her party invitation. And, I successfully convinced her to let us ask for donations to the local food bank, not presents, from friends. (The grandparents and parents will still shower her with gifts, of course. . :) We've done this a few time before, but now, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be the rule in our house from now on: If you want a party, you asks for donations to the charity of your choice instead of presents.

Happy Halloween!

This year the girls were "spider witches" using some Halloween costumes I found on clearance last spring. I spent a while looking for witch hats for the girls with no luck. . .until I went to our ward's Halloween dinner and trunk-or-treat! The table decorations were purple witch hats with spider patterns that matched the girls costumes. Well, I revealed my scroungiest side when I grabbed the hats off the table, pulled the newspaper stuffing out of them and plopped them on my kids' heads for the parade. :) Afterwards, the provider of the decorations insisted that we keep them. . .thanks!


Sophia got to be a little pumpkin thanks to a costume Kristina left for us last Spring. It was wonderfully warm that cold night. Our trick-or-treating lasted 30 minutes since I forgot to bring Madeline gloves and she insisted on riding her "motorcycle" (tricycle). Needless to say, our candy haul this year was tiny--the girls didn't make much money off me selling candy. It was wonderful: the girls had a great time and we minimized the bouncing-off-the-walls time.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Blessing Day, Sophia!

Yea, we waited until she was 4.5 months old to bless her--but, that was the first fast Sunday Nathan was able to do it. :) Of course, it makes for better smiles in the pictures. . . Here are a couple of pictures of our cutie in her dress.


Brenda made the dress, so for those interested in a a slightly better view of the whole dress. . .


We got only a couple of pictures in the nice lighting outside since it was only 40 degrees at the time of pictures. And, of course, Sophia refused to smile wearing short sleeves at that temperature. The mom had a sweater, though. :)

Happy 4 months Sophia!

Bugs, bugs, bugs. . .

Bugs are inundating our lives.

As part of the insect unit in Camille's 2nd grade class, she had to make a model of an insect of her choice--she chose a caterpillar. I challenged her to try to make a model of an actual species. How do you think we did?

The cecropia moth caterpillar.
(We saw the moth under our deck about 1 month ago.)

The huggable caterpillar

Now that the stuffed caterpillar is finished, Madeline has asked me to make her a stuffed ant she "can hug" too.

We are all honing our insect catching skills as we try to keep our pet praying mantis (that sits in the middle of the kitchen table) well fed.

And, next week we get to enjoy a 2nd grade production of the musical "Goin' Buggy"

bugs, bugs, bugs. . .

Sisterly love--HELP!!!

Happy 3 months Sophia!

Thanks for the smiles

and for the 8-hour nights!

Happy 3 months, Sophia!

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday from our friendly Quetzal and the rest of us too!

Back to school. . .

Summer is already over for us. . .Camille missed her last day of swimming lessons to start 2nd grade this morning.

Happy 8 weeks, Sophia!

Wow, eight weeks have passed since she joined us. Sophia has given us a taste of what a colicky baby is like--I'm just glad that it hasn't been too bad and that she seems to be improving. Of course, we can handle almost anything as long as she keeps sleeping 6+ hours every night and smiling from time to time. Thanks Sophia! Happy eight weeks!

Happy 7th, Camille!

Camille enjoyed a very happy 7th birthday. It started off with her mouth giving her the first present--her front tooth. It had been hanging by a thread for days, and popped out first thing in the morning. What a great start!

Her horsey birthday party was lots of fun with coloring of backpacks, feeding-the-horse-a-carrot, cupcake decorating, hobby horse racing, and pinata destroying to top it off.

Madeline, of course, loved the cupcakes!

Sophia--you are 4 weeks old!

Sophia, at 4 weeks you have grown in many ways:

• You have definitely figured out when you are being held and how to make your preference know when you are not.
  
• You have mastered the art of voluminous spit up after mom eats chocolate (I had to test if a few times).
• You are beginning to figure out how to release your post-feeding burp in less than 15 minutes, and, without spitting up.
• You have developed the ability to heal from the nastiest diaper rash your mom has seen on an infant. Apparently commercial baby wipes don't agree with your skin at this age.
• You have mastered good eating and good growth--you went from 7 lbs 3 oz at birth to over 9 lbs in 3 weeks.
• You have succumbed to Pachelbel's Canon in D--it puts you out every time. (This worked like a charm on Camille as an infant.)
  
• You have figured out how to stay awake for 90 minutes at one time.
• You occasionally sleep for 4+ hours at night.
• You have stolen all of our hearts! The most common phrase in our house these days is "I want to be by Sophia!!!"

Happy 4 weeks, Sophia!

Thank you to the Price Lab

Thank you to the Price Lab.

Sophia loves and is already using her new towel and washcloths. She also loves the links, but was more interested in her sleeve for the picture. The chocolate is already gone and the bath supplies are coming in handy.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness!
Sophia and her mom and dad

The garden--thanks grandpa!

Grandpa Dan started our garden while he was visiting--
it's looking good, Grandpa!

And, of course, Sophia says hi!

Madeline's shocking quote. . .

Today Madeline told me that she "likes to hear Sophia cry"--definitely not the thing you want to hear coming from your 3-year-old about your infant. But, all is well. As far as we can tell, Madeline was only expressing her love of seeing Sophia's eyes open (since she sleeps so much). Crying is one of the only sounds Sophia makes and it means that she is awake and looking around. At least, I'm hoping that is what she meant. . . (She really is sweet with Sophia and loves to give her gentle hugs and kisses.)

Happy second week, Sophia!

At 2 weeks (but only 2 days after her due date), Sophia is doing well. She is a very content baby, as long as mom does not eat any chocolate. Despite the fussy post-chocolate days, she has still gained over a pound in the last 10 days--she weighs in at 8.5 lbs, according to our bathroom scale. She has a tendency to get a case of the hiccups every time she eats--which usually lasts about as long as the time she took for eating. And, she still sleeps almost all of the non-eating, non-burping, and non-hiccuping minutes of the day. Camille and Madeline love trying to get her to look at them, and they can't wait for her to start playing with them more.

Happy first week, Sophia!

Sophia is doing well as she turns one week old. We were lucky enough to catch her awake for a picture or two--she seems to only eat and sleep. :)

Madeline had a great time helping me take the pictures. Ellie (the elephant) had to be in several of the pictures, of course.

Meet Sophia Marie!

Sophia Marie joined our family on May 27th at 8:09 am. She weighed in as a family lightweight at 7 lbs and 3 oz and only 19 inches long.

She kept her cute little head nice and round by arriving by planned c-section. The surgery went very well and Brenda is recovering nicely.

Dad was the first one to cuddle her, but Camille and Madeline made sure they got their turns too.

Mom and baby came home Friday afternoon.

We are all very happy to be together as a whole family now. Sophia is doing well and has already regained her birth weight. We are off to a great start.

Thanks for all your well wishes!

Sophia Marie has arrived!

Sophia Marie joined our family on May 27th at 8:09 am. She weighed in as a family lightweight at 7 lbs and 3 oz and only 19 inches long. After making her debut in slimy purple, she pinked up nicely and is doing really well. Mom had a smooth and successful surgery and is recovering right on schedule with no apparent problems. We are all having fun getting to know our little Sophia. Camille, Madeline and Grandma Susanne came to visit on Sophia's first evening and enjoyed an amazingly good hospital dinner--restaurant style.

Camille's birthday cupcakes

As all who have summer birthdays know, you get to bring your "birthday treat" to school during that last month before summer. Friday was Camille's day. She rejected my offer to just buy something for her treat, and instead, she designed and made these "sea star" cupcakes (in honor of the ocean unit they've been doing lately). Very nice, Camille!

Camille's giant humpback whale

Camille's class had a unit on the ocean where they decorated the room with life-sized animals. She, of course, was assigned the largest animal--the humpback whale. Her teacher let her make a baby humpback whale (1/3 the size of the adult) instead of the adult, so it would actually fit in the classroom. She is very proud if it, and she tells me she really wants to take it home. . .

Last day of Spring Break

As our final excursion for spring break, we went to the Bloomington-Normal Children's museum with the Richards family. One of the girl's favorite exhibits is the painting-on-Plexiglass station.

Anabelle came to visit! (And she brought her mom too)

Camille and Madeline saw their cousin Anabelle for the first time in 2.5 years this week. She and her mom drove out from Washington DC to see us during their month long stay in the US (they are living in Israel this year). The girls had a great time going to a children's museum, a playground, our basement, and especially jumping on the beds. Come back soon Anabelle!

Kaitlyn came to visit! (And she brought her mom)

The girls loved a visit from Kristina and Kaitlyn. We played in the basement, went shopping, and Kristina helped me work on organizing our house. The girls were really sad when Kaitlyn had to return to Arizona. Come back soon Kaitlyn!

It's going to be a girl!!

I had my ultrasound this morning. Everything looks great (we got an especially detailed description since there was a technician in training there). And, we found out that we are probably going to have a girl (90% sure). Isn't she cute? And, in case you were wondering, she'll be born on June 2nd (the scheduled date for my c-section).

Camille's Valentine

Yea, it's a little early, but Camille designed her own valentine for school this year (with a little computer help from mom). She is going to punch holes on the sides and add a lollipop. I'm just glad to see her be a creator instead of a consumer. And, it turns out it is cheaper to make these (and print them off as pictures at Sam's club) than to buy valentines!

Well, after Camille made her valentine, Madeline decided she wanted to make one too. And, it turns out she needs one for her preschool. We love the elephant/duck/yellow/pink theme that is so her. :)

Great Wolf Lodge: Mason, OH

The Midwest is having an effect on us: we actually went to an indoor water park this Christmastime. We met our friends (the Konigs) midway between Pennsylvania and Illinois for a weekend of waterslides, wavepools, and boardgames. The girls are already begging to go back (especially if the Konigs are there again!).