Miss Anne turns 5

Annie had her 5th birthday on Monday.  Poor child, to have a birthday so close to the birth of a new sibling.  She didn't get a friend party like she would have liked, but I just wasn't up to it 2 weeks after delivery.  She was a good sport though and we had a fun day.  She got breakfast in bed as usual, she opened presents, we went to the school and had lunch with Christopher and Michael, we had dinner and cupcakes at the park and played.  It was a fun day.

Here are 5 things I love about my only little girl....Anne, baby Anne, Annie, Miss Anne....she has lots of names.

1.  She has the most contagiousus giggle/laugh.  Sometimes she just can't stop laughing, no matter how hard she tries.
2.  She has a tender heart and feels badly when she sees people in need.  She told me she didn't want to eat on her birthday cause there were kids that didn't have food.  We decided she could give some of her birthday money to humanitarian aid instead.
3.  She is a good little helper to mommy and will always go get what I need for Daniel.
4.  She plays mostly with boys and likes to get dirty and hold bugs and worms, but she also always wants to do "girlish" things with me.
5.  She loves to sing and hum and can be heard singing anything from "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" to music from the Lorax.



Singing Happy Birthday



We had to take Jacob in for a second blood test and after I wanted to take some pictures of Anne at a small garden outside the hospital.  I told her to smile and this is what she started doing.  Where does she come up with this stuff? :)  She doesn't even watch TV and she's around boys mostly.  It was pretty funny and we laughed about it.  Then she gave me some really cute smiles.






"The pose" strikes again.





Me and my girly.

 





Of course, Jeff had to climb to the very top of the spider web.



Fabulous Fall and Fake Sleepers

Wow, it seems like fall came fast this year.  We had warm weather and 2 days later it was cool, raining and the leaves were turning and falling already.  The kids jumped at the chance to get out the rake and play in the leaves.  Fall is my favorite season, (if we could just get rid of Halloween it would make it more perfect.)  ;)

My kids are really good at fake sleeping.  Their favorite thing to do when they hear the garage door open (which means Jeff is home from work) is to drop to the ground and pretend they are asleep.  They know this means they will get tickled when dad comes in.  It's so funny to watch 2 or 3 kids simultaneously drop to the floor like they fainted or something. 




Notice her shirt is on backwards....I have no idea why. ;)



Michael also faked us out really good at dinner the other day.  I totally thought he was asleep for a while, until we mentioned dessert and that was the end of fake sleep.

Jacob makes me laugh

Seriously, Jacob is one funny kid.  Even though he can be stubborn and he seems more prone to crying since Daniel was born, he still cracks me up.  I wish I could video tape everything he says, cause it's usually funny and just writing it down doesn't do it justice.  Here are some of his latest funny things. 

Anne told Jacob we were having chicken and potatoes for dinner.  He said, "oh no, me no like nat...eat chips me."

Jeff put Jacob in a time out for something.  I wasn't sure why cause I wasn't in the room.  At the end I went in and asked him what happened.  "Hit Anne me."  I asked him why he did that.  "Anne me ressing (wrestling), now me trouble."

Jacob is so sweet though.  He always says, "ruv you" and please and thank you.  He loves to give hugs and kisses and is so soft with Daniel.....not always as soft with his other siblings though. ;)  Here are some funny photos of him...and some funny ones of Daniel too.

Laundry baskets make great chairs

 

That is, until you fall backwards.  (sorry for the creepy red eye)



 They also make a good spot to have a snack



Jacob likes to do homework with the big boys.  He also likes to scribble on their homework in red pen,
which doesn't go over very well.



"Hi there"



"Ew, what's that smell?"



"Okay, photo shoot over...I'm tired."



Paternity leave

Oh, I love paternity leave.  I forgot how much I like it.  When Jacob was born we didn't really get a paternity leave.  Jeff had the time but he was studying and taking the CPA exam so even though he wasn't working, he wasn't home either.  These last 2 weeks with Jeff home have been fun.  Even though he has been doing some work from home, he's still been here.  He has been so great!  He's done all the school runs and taken the kids to do fun things afterward, like golfing which is their new hobby.  He's changed all of Jacob's diapers....bless him!  He holds Daniel at night to get him back to sleep.  He's done all the laundry.  He's teaching Annie to ride a bike.  He makes me lunch and brings it to me while I'm nursing.  I told him that as long as he had his own office, I think I could get used to him working from home.  I don't know that he would get any work done though.



Jeff looks asleep but I don't think he was.  Daniel is stretching so cute.



Playing catch




First bath





Having Jeff home left me lots of time to do this.



Even more cuteness

This post is dedicated to my mom and my sister....because they wanted more pictures.   :)

Becoming a family of 7

So we're back to being a odd family....odd in number that it.  Jeff likes odd numbers so this is good for him.  Baby Daniel was born September 8th at 4:36 am .  He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 19 inches long.

I had to get induced at 37 weeks which is something I've never wanted to do.  I prefer things to happen on their own, but this turned out to be the best thing for him and me...and I was still able to go natural which is always my preference.

I've always had issues with my blood pressure after delivery but this was the first time that I had problems before delivery.  My blood pressure was getting extremely high, but I had no other symptoms of pre-eclampsia.  But it got to the point that the doctors were concerned something could happen to me so they sent me to the hospital for observation.  We decided that it was better to have the baby then rather than send me home on bed rest....that wouldn't really solve the problem anyway.  So I got induced and I was glad that it didn't turn out any different than most of my other labors in the end.  The lead up to delivery was longer, but my water still broke on it's own and the amount of time in hard labor wasn't really any different than my other labors.  Even though child birth without medication is extremely painful....at least for me it isn't super long and it only takes me like 3 pushes to have the baby so that's why I'm a believer in no epidurals....things go so much quicker.  Just my opinion.  :)  My blood pressure is still kind of high but we are now getting it under control with medication.


Anyway, we love little Danny (he's already got a nickname, although we mostly call him Daniel).  He is such a good baby and all the kids want to hold him all the time.  We feel blessed that he made it here safe and sound.  Babies are really such blessings and I just love the new born stage. Here are some pictures to prove that he is very loved. :)



I know I look awful..but they wouldn't call it labor if you weren't supposed to look awful afterwards. :)





He looks all purple and red in this picture but I love the fingers in his mouth.