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