Thanks!

Anna Kate's 4th Birthday

What a wonderful birthday! While Anna Kate and Daddy were out on their birthday-date, Lucy helped Mommy bake a cake! What a great helper!
Anna Kate's cake request: chocolate with pink (of course!) frosting and sprinkles! One green, one blue, one yellow and one pink candle, please. (She is a very precise little girl.)
Mommy and the girls.
Mommy and Lucy in our silly party hats which Anna Kate requested.
Anna Kate and her silly hat - princess-style, of course. Lucy is a concentrated cake-eater, as you can see.
The day after. Too much partying! The girls wake up slowly, so here they are December 20 post-nap, watching Rachael Ray.
And Samantha! Look at those cheeks! Her skin has cleared up nicely. Now, if only she slept like this in a bed and for longer than a few minutes. :)

This and That

Samantha Joy cuddling with a stuffed kitty ("meow" according to Lucy). Our good friends, the Gaddys, sent this to Samantha, along with some fun and well-loved ladybug backpacks for the big girls. This kitty is so soft, I wanted Samantha to touch it right away! :) See, she's grabbing her kitty! (They are almost the same size - I thought that was funny!)

Look at this outfit Anna Kate chose to "put together." There's Lucy, the UTEP Miner cheerleader in the background! This is a little bit of what life is like for us these days. Being outnumbered, we are finding ways to meet everyone's needs for cuddle time. Usually, we find a spot, like this, and let everyone pile on.

First snow

Since we're getting a real snow today (4-6 inches), I thought I had better post these pictures from the "first" snow - December 1. We only got about an inch or so, but it was enough to get all bundled up and play!
Lucy was sick, so it was just Daddy and Anna Kate outside. Anna Kate used her sand bucket and shovels to play in the snow - her very own idea!

Anna Kate tells the story of baby Jesus

Samantha is onemonth old (already!)

I can't believe that Samantha is already a month old! It really is unbelievable to me how quickly time goes by . . . with each child, I enjoy these days more and more. Samantha is held all the time! We had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday - her one-month check up - and she weighed in at 9 lbs 15 oz! Lucy was not 10 lbs until two months, so the trend continues, and Samantha is our biggest girl! She is so cute with these chunky, edible cheeks! She has started to smile - Dave got a big grin last night while reading bedtime stories! She is 20.5 inches long, too!

(Does anyone have tips for taking good infant pics - between the angle and the red-eye reduction light, I can't seem to get very good pics!)

Who's the baby in our family?

I went upstairs one day to find this . . . Lucy sitting in Samantha's basinette reading a book! I discovered that Lucy can climb (easily) in to Samantha's bed and thinks it is quite fun! Lucy is clearly aware that this is Samantha's bed, though, because she will walk over to it, and say to me, "Baby, bed, night-night."

Sisters, Sisters, Sisters

Lucy holds Samantha for the first time! She was a bit more interested before I got the camera out!
This one, especially, is how we feel that most days are . . . everyone on top of one another trying to be close to us. It's sweet but a little exhausting, too!

Fall Leaves

The girls really enjoyed playing in the leaves when Dave raked the front lawn (a few weeks ago). We have this enormous tree on our boulevard, and when it decides to shed its leaves, we can't even see the grass. Likewise, we have one in the backyard . . . lots and lots of leaves.

October 31

Thanks Aunt Hillery for costumes! We have been wearing a variety of costumes on different days. Lucy loves bees, and, in fact, any small flying insect is called a bee. We're still trying to capture a couple of those costumes on film, but here's what we were wearing while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Lucy was a ladybug ("bee") . . . Anna Kate, almost always the attentive biggest sister and sometimes confused about who really is the mom, was an elephant (again) . . . Here's how that happened. Lucy still changes sizes pretty regularly, so anytime we dig out new clothes for the season or a new size, we have to cover whether Anna Kate wore it and when and maybe it still fits - can she just try it on and see? Anna Kate was wearing the very beautiful, big-girl Cinderella dress, when she decided she would rather wear the bumblebee (the yellow bee, not the ladybug), which is size 18months. So, there I was in a predicament because I had to help her understand that a costume she wore two Halloweens ago, would definitely not fit. So, in my desperation I dug around and found the 2T elephant costume, not quite 2 sizes too small. Oh well.
Just for the record, here's Anna Kate (Halloween 2005) in that very bumblebee costume!
Here are all three together . . . what a moment!

I also did not have the energy to carve pumpkins, and especially to clean up after the carving, so we opted for decorating a pumpkin. Anna Kate created this . . .
Notice the red forehead above the eyes and the earrings on the ears - what attention to detail!

Do our girls look alike?

Everyone is asking, "Does Samantha look like her sisters?" Well, I wasn't sure. So,I decided to look. Can you tell who is who?Now, the same pictures one by one . . .

Here are two of Anna Kate - one in the hospital and one at home a few days later . . .
And of Lucy

And Samantha - looking very much like a newborn - only 24 hours after birth.
And here at home

Samantha Joy

We welcomed Samantha Joy on Thursday, October 25, at 10:23am, after about 12 hours of labor. She was our biggest girl yet - 7 lbs 10 oz! I think most of it must be in her cheeks.
The girls visited us in the hospital. Lucy was very interested in Samantha, but Anna Kate was put off by the hospital itself. Once we arrived home, Anna Kate embraced Samantha completely. Lucy continues to be very gentle and interested in "baby."



Look at her dark hair!

Lucy is always on the go these days . . . Anna Kate is sitting on Mommy's lap reading - she is doing a great job, and one of her favorite books to read is Madeline.

What A Warm Fall Day

Here's a peak at our Sunday afternoon, enjoying the incredibly warm weather. Anna Kate is wearing pink cowboy boots with her skirt (love it!) . . .

A Dressed Up Bear

We had a lovely baby shower on Sunday at our church. Everyone was so very generous, and even Anna Kate and Lucy received a couple of presents. Each was given a "big sister bear," which have quickly become dear to them. Today Anna Kate was playing quietly and then showed off her bear - all dressed up. I don't know if you can tell, but those are socks on the bears' paws, a beautiful slip Grandma made for another doll, and, yes, even panty covers underneath, which I know you can't see. Where was bear going? I don't know, but she looked great!

Lucy likes chocolate milk

Lucy has decided she likes chocolate milk. I drink a lot more milk (almost always chocolate) when I'm pregnant, and Lucy tried it off of my spoon. For a while, that was the way she wanted to drink it. Now, she wants it with a straw, which is not necessarily neat and tidy for her. The straw goes in and out of the cup - full of chocolate milk. In the mornings, the girls like to sit on the kitchen counter while I make breakfast. On this morning, Lucy enjoyed her chocolate milk there, too, and, as you can see, made a bit of a mess. Oops. Good thing everything washes.

A Fashion Statement

I dearly love Anna Kate and her ever-increasing desire for independence. One battle is for climate appropriate clothes. This summer, I had to put anything warm - pants, long sleeves, sweates - out of reach to avoid the debate about why it's not good to wear such clothes on hot days. Most days she insists on choosing her own clothes, and most days you wouldn't think twice about it. But the other day, I had to capture it in a picture to share. It was chilly here. She chose a sundress, which is a favorite of ours - red, white, and blue - with leggings (at least one size too small) and a multi-colored sweater. Then, when we went outside, printed socks and her "Short Strawberry Shortcake" shoes! Priceless!