She's here!!!

Amelia Jane Harry arrived on Friday October 2 at 6:46pm. She weighed 7lb 10oz and was
20 1/2 inches long. We are so excited to finally have her here! The labor went well and I was able to do it without pain meds-which was my goal. I'm a little bit tardy in my posting because we have spent the last few days running back and forth to the doctors trying to monitor her jaundice. However, today her levels stayed steady so hopefully we're reaching the end of our worries. Yeah!
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to get a decent picture of a newborn? They are so wiggly and pull the oddest faces. She really is just a cutie pie. We all adore her to death.

Online Again

We're finally back online after the move! It took awhile to get ourselves together but I must say I am very excited to re-join the real world.

We are getting to know our new surroundings and so far really like VA! George is really liking his new school. Ella turned 3 and we only have 4 weeks until our new little one arrives. Whew!

I'm sorry I'm not posting any pictures. It will have to wait for another day, I'm afraid. Bye!

Criminal Confessions

We had quite the adventure this morning. Here's how it played out...

I was heading out to the doctor's office to give them my request for records transfer form. It had taken us a million years to get out the door because the kids didn't really want to go. Finally I ushered the last little body out the door and closed it tight...only to realize that I didn't have my keys! We were locked out. Normally we keep a spare hidden in the barn, but with putting the house up for sale and such we had moved it. I did a quick look around the outside of the house and was assured that all of my paranoid precautions taken to ensure our safety while Benji was away were in full force. All of the doors and windows were locked tight with the exception of one of the boys' bedroom windows on the second floor. What to do? I had no cell phone and I knocked on the neighbor's doors and no one was home. I could high tail it down to the library and call a lock smith (expensive)...or I could break into my own house. I decided to break in.

So, my first criminal act was to "borrow" a step ladder out of the neighbor's garage. From the top I could reach a bit past the second floor window sill. I then cut through the screen with a pair of garden trimmers, opened the window, hoisted myself up and through (not an easy task when 6 months pregnant) and was able to unlock the door.

The kids loved the whole situation. Some of the ideas they came up with were 1-climb up the side of the house with a rope (George added, "But mom, maybe you don't have the right skills.") 2- Climb the pine tree and swing over to the window 3- Let Iyah the monkey climb the side of the house. I was also informed many times, through hands covering giggling mouths, that "Daddy is going to be soooo mad at you!" Hope you're not mad babe!

Dinner Conversation

My boys had the following conversation at dinner tonight and I found it quite entertaining:

I: George, what if you had to dance with a girl?

G: Eww! I would yell, " Iyah help me!"

I: (Giggling) What if a girl tried to hug and kiss you?

G: I wouldn't let her. I would run away.

I: What if she chased you and hugged you and kissed you?

G: Then I would beat her up. I will never let a girl hug and kiss me.

I: Yeah. We don't like girls.

At this point mom jumped in

M: I hug and kiss you and I'm a girl.

G: But you're in our family. We don't want princesses hugging and kissing us.

Good to have that one clarified. And obviously mom hugs and mom kisses are still OK. That makes me happy.

We did it Daddy!!

After much convincing, bribing, teasing, etc. George finally agreed to let me try to pull out his tooth. I got on the internet to learn how to tie a slip knot with dental floss and we set the time and place- after dinner in the family room. When the time came George slipped quietly upstairs for a minute. When I asked him why he said he went to say a prayer to help him to be brave. However, bravery has never been his strong suit. The minute he re-entered the room he was freaking out. I finally got him to "just let me see if I could even get the string around his tooth." However, once the string was set he decided there was no way he was letting me yank that thing out. He covered his mouth with his hands and was screaming! Iyah was covering his ears and Ella had her face in the couch and was rocking back and forth. It was very dramatic. At this point I don't think I could have gotten that string off if I tried. So, after practically sitting on George and restraining his arms under my legs, etc. I gave it a yank. He was yelling, "Don't pull it out, don't pull it out!" as I calmly walked into the kitchen to get him a paper towel. When he staunched the bleeding and calmed down he told me again, "I don't want you to pull it out." At which time I presented him with his now detached tooth. His response? "Oh." I asked him if it hurt. He shrugged. Geez. One down...how many to go?

One more quick story. Ella is always loosing her "better" baby. Whenever I can't find it at bed time I try and substitute the "other" baby. She doesn't like that very much. "Me not like that one!" she tells me. Well, today when I was picking up her room guess who I found in the garbage? You got it..."other" baby. I guess she'd had enough substitutions.

Climbing Trees

Iyah (up top) and George (Down low)

Iyah's new hobby is climbing trees. I don't know how it started, but he is really very good at it. I think part of the reason he likes it so much is that it is one thing that he does better than George. I have to admit that it scares me to death! I turn into the super paranoid mom, "You'll fall to your death!" or "We're going to end up at the hospital!" I can practically see him rolling his eyes at me. He says, "Mom, I can do it, I'm a monkey!" Then he asked me the other day if we will have lots of trees for him to climb at our new house in VA. All I can say is...mom hopes not.

Our Last Week

Baseball Boys

T-ball ended for George this week. Unfortunately it rained on his last game, but the kids didn't mind one bit. George liked t-ball a lot more than he liked soccer so we were glad to finally have a successful sport experience. I think it helped that dad was the coach! Isaac was especially excited that he was able to play in a couple of games, filling in for missing players. He hit as well or better than some of the kids, but he didn't quite get the running the bases part. All in all a great season and very happy boys.

Little Miss Ella got a new hair cut. This picture is her cheesing it for the camera. I told her we needed to take a picture to show her grandmas and she said, "Okay" and then stood there smiling until I went and got my camera. She knows she's pretty darn cute.

This is our last week with Benji and then he heads down to VA to start his big new job! We are very excited to start this new phase of our lives, but we are going to miss him super lots. Hopefully we can join him soon!