5 kids!

Merry Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the kids. It was wonderful to have the girls here and have all five siblings together under one roof. Damian and I are blessed parents.

Alright you two, I'm trying to take a serious picture! Ha. Maddie and Noel are quite the little comedians.
Much better. Although I do like the silly one. :)

Maddie and Shelby. <3

..*..Noel's 2nd Birthday..*..

Here are a couple pictures of Noel on his birthday. He turned two on the 11th, the day after Emma and I were released from the hospital. I'm so glad I got to celebrate with him on his special day. Let me tell you, though, the past two years have flown by. He's getting so big!

Here he is opening his gifts:

Figuring things out...

Looking to us for help...

Maddie was more than happy to help open his gifts for him. :)

And help him eat his candy... ha.

Happy Birthday, Noel. You are loved.

getting caught up

Well, things have been pretty crazy the past two weeks... Emma was born, Noel turned two years old, Damian and I celebrated six years of marriage, Shelby and Raylee came out to visit... and I'm finally going to get caught up now... I hope. :)

First, some pictures of Emma...

Here I am with her for our first picture moments after she was born. Yes, I'm exhausted. Ha.Still exhausted... ;) Maddie came to visit and meet her new sister:One proud daddy. :)

Going home!

She likes the swing, thank goodness.

Maddie getting a little jealous of all the pictures I'm taking of Emma. :)

Holding her little sister for the first time.

Noel has been great with Emma. No meltdowns or anything!

That's all for now... I'll try to get on again today and post some pictures of Noel's birthday and our time with the girls this past week.

~ Introducing our beautiful Emma Grace ~

She's arrived! And quickly too!

Early Wednesday morning, December 9th, at 4:03 am, our little Emma Grace entered the world weighing 7 lbs, 10 oz, and measuring 20 inches long.

I woke up at 2 am to use the bathroom and thought I felt a little something, but decided that it was nothing and went back to bed. At 2:30 I got back up starting to think that I may be having contractions so I woke up Damian. At 2:45 I concluded that yes, this slight feeling was getting stronger and was perfectly timed about 3 minutes apart... so I called my mom to come over and stay with the kids. She arrived at 3, and we got to the hospital at 3:30. At this point there was no doubt I was in labor and I knew the baby was coming soon. So when I was told that my doctor would arrive in about 15 minutes I wasn't too sure she'd make it in time. Thankfully, the moment after I told the nurses that I HAD to start pushing, my doctor arrived and two contractions later I was holding little Emma.

Here is our first family picture with her that we took on Thursday after we were released from the hospital:

And here I am with her. She's two days old in this picture.

So far that's all the pictures I can post. Noel was kind enough to put my camera's memory card in the wrong slot of the printer so I have to wait until my dad takes apart my printer to get it out. Yep, Noel is quite the tinker. He put a piece of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my computer's disc drive last month. *sigh*

In other news, Damian is on his way to get Shelby and Raylee as I type this. So praise God that He brought Emma early. I've had a whole week to heal and adjust as much as possible before he left. And I really needed a week. This postnatal period has been harder on me both physically and emotionally than my last two pregnancies. But Emma is definitely a reward and blessing from God. She is deeply loved by all of us.

update shmupdate

three weeks and counting and all is well! :) that's my pregnancy update. if i started going on about how uncomfortable i am this wouldn't be fun for anyone to read. ha. but, really, i'm doing great. i am anxious for her arrival and am praying that she'll come a bit early for us and not too late. why? well, because...

...damian flies out on the 17th to go get the girls! talk about cutting things close (my due date is the 14th). but i know it will work out one way or another so i'm not stressed one bit. at least not right now, maybe on the 15th i'll have a different outlook. check back with me then. ha.

we are very excited for the girls to be here --especially madeline. both shelby and raylee are coming this time. yay! they'll be here through christmas eve. it's going to be a full house with 5 kids. we'll just all have to cozy up. :)

anyway, that's about all i have to report for now! the graham crackers in the cupboard and frosting in the fridge are both calling for me to unite them. yum yum.

happy thanksgiving!!!

a walk in the rain

the best days to go visit the ducks and fish at the pond are rainy days!
i don't know why i took a pic of these two canadian geese. they're so common here, it's like taking a picture of a cockroach in north carolina. ha! ;)

the spaghetti has TOO MUCH SAUCE!!!

this is why we don't bathe the kids until AFTER dinner!

random kid pictures

halloween costumes

here's princess ariel:

and mr. moustache (he had the BEST costume that we made out of a paper bag, but he wanted nothing to do with it, go figure): so there ya' go. halloween 2009. :)

pictures shmictures

here are some random pictures from this past month. first, damian and me:

and here's my dad with 3 of his 7 and counting (both my sister and i are preggers) grandchildren:

mom & maddie watching cartoons, well at least maddie is:

here i am, waking up & finding maddie fast asleep on me:

damian with the kiddos:

another sleepy picture of the kids:

maddie got up, but noel actually fell asleep right there on the floor:

most of these pictures are of someone asleep or looking like they need a nap! ha. i just noticed that as i wrote the captions. well, i guess that's about right considering that we have so many narcoleptics in the family. :)

a sad day for pumpkins

this morning i let samson out front to go potty and noticed that two round, orange vegetables were missing from our porch. after a brief moment of confusion, wondering where damian moved them to, i realized their fate. they were smashed in the road along with many other neighborhood pumpkins. i tried to keep the kids from noticing thinking that maybe they just wouldn't ever notice. but that didn't last long since maddie always comes out to say hi and talk to her "friends" when i let the dog out. she noticed right away and cried, followed by noel who quietly said, "awww." it was a sad day for our pumpkins.

Happy 4th Birthday, Madeline!

yesterday was maddie's 4th birthday. she woke us up at 6:30 am, very excited that it was her special day. so here she is, bright and early, opening her gifts:here's princess ariel maddie:

we took her to kids club where she and damian played like crazy on their indoor jungle gym until they were sweaty and exhausted (she was the sweaty one, dame was the exhausted one). then we took her to cold stone for a birthday ice cream.

she really did have a fun day, despite the scowl on her face.

happy birthday, madeline!

maddie's new friend

yesterday maddie got to ride rocky*, a very gentle pony that friends of ours have on their ranch. it was such a treat to take the kids for a visit. they love farm animals and now maddie loves rocky. *maddie is telling me that the pony's name is rocket, not rocky. when dame gets home i'll have double check and then adjust this post accordingly. :)

pumpkin patch

saturday we took the kids to the pumpkin patch! it was a beautiful day to do it. the sun was out, the ground was dry, perhaps a little too dry --we all got a bit of a "tan" from dirt getting airborne during the hay ride. but better dirt than mud, i suppose. anyway, we tackled the corn maze first. maddie was our navigator. after getting us good and lost, she decided she didn't want to do the maze anymore. that was fun. ;) here we are at the beginning of our adventure:

after the maze we got a couple hot drinks and said hi to the animals. petting livestock and handling food is always the best combination.

this was a very sweet donkey.
next stop, the hay ride. although facial expressions may suggest otherwise, the kids really loved it. dame's expression is accurate though.

i'm just now realizing that i didn't get a picture of us with our pumpkins. i guess you'll have to stay tuned for that. ha.