Ages and Stages

I was playing around with my camera, so there are some weird colors in some of the pictures this week.

Nick is 42 months old.

Harris is 17 months old. Yesterday, he just started saying new words. I've been a little worried because he isn't nearly as verbal as Nick was at this age. He added Mom-me, Ba-be and juice to his vocabulary. This morning, he even said Nick. Whew. We're getting there.

This is from last weekend. Harris insists on being a big boy like his brother.

I've talked about how much I love girl clothes, but I've found a whole new element of joy to having a little girl - SHOES!!!! Yes, I know she can't walk yet, but look how cute!!! These are actually her friend Hannah Grace's, but Hannah's mom is letting me borrow them.

Babies make the funniest faces!

Harris likes to play with the vacuum cleaner outside by rolling it around on the driveway. I guess I should be glad he has an active imagination.

Poor Nick. Our neighbor's dog chases him on whatever he's riding - his bike, his gator, or his little wheel and tries to bite either Nick's shoes or wheel.

Lauren and Harris. Harris is giving Lauren hugs because he just hit her about 10 seconds earlier.

Cara - three weeks old.

Fun Times / Cara's 2nd Week

Life in our house has been pretty busy. The Wade's came over last weekend for some fun.

Harris stealing cookies

We're hoping this is as close as Lauren and Nick get to kissing. We'll be keeping a close eye on these two in another 10 years.

Harris loves to show his chest off - I'm hoping he doesn't do this for a living later on.

Miss Cara in her bouncer. She looks so small.

Funny Harris. It wasn't nearly as funny when he started dumping water outside the tub.

We were blessed with awesome weather this week, so we took advantage of it as much as possible. With Nick driving, I'm thinking Harris is the one that needs the helmet.

The boys' new love is baseball. They're both terrible at hitting and catching, but they have a blast trying. GO NICK!

Nana showed Harris how to hit the ball.

Each of the boys had a Valentine's Day party at school. Since I'm not working, I got to go be a mom and help out.

Of course, I also stole some of the good candy from them too.

Harris really is irresistible - look at those chubby cheeks.

And of course flashing his boobies again.

Getting two children to pose for pictures is difficult - three is a nightmare. After about 15 pictures, I just gave up. At least they're all in one chair.

Cara's first Valentine's Day. She celebrated by sleeping.

She looked so cute, but she just wasn't into getting her picture taken.

Sunday took a cold turn, so I bundled her up like a snow bunny.

Chris and I can't believe how much she's grown and changed in the past two weeks.

Her umbilical cord fell off, and she got to take her first REAL bath. She didn't scream bloody murder, so we took that as a good sign.

Cara had her two week check up on 2/16. Wow, she's grown! Last time she weighed 7 lbs 9 1/2 oz. Ten days later, she weighs 8 lbs 6 1/2 oz. I guess she won't be our "little" girl much longer. She's also grown an inch since our last visit. The doctor says she's perfect (we already knew that). Her jaundice is completely gone, and he doesn't think her belly button will be herniated like her big brothers. That's really good news. It's still odd to have a girl after two boys. She doesn't cry much, but sometimes she'll let out this ear piercing screech like someone is hurting her. Usually, she's gotten herself unswaddled or lost her pacifier. The boys NEVER made a sound that high pitched though. YIKES! She's still a wonderful baby. Chris and I have decided that God knows that parents of multiple young children can only handle so much. She must have known too because she's the easiest one of the three.

We couldn't have a week without Nick doing something well - Nick. He's gotten really good at dressing himself. I don't let him pick out his own clothes all by himself yet though. Check out his pajama choice. A shirt about 2 sizes too small and shorts that should have been put away a year ago.

But that's not as funny as this. Both my boys are going to grow up to be strippers. God help me!

Our First Week with Cara

Cara had her 4 day old check up on Friday. She had lost down to 7 lbs 7 oz when we left the hospital on Wednesday, but she'd gained up to 7 lbs 9 1/2 oz by her visit. The doctor said she looked perfect except for a mild case of jaundice. He told us to strip her down to her diaper and put her in direct sunlight.

She did not like getting naked.

But she did seem to enjoy sunbathing.

Getting her very first bath. Also, not a fan of this.

Nick is well Nick. My doctor told me to try to take baths the first week while I was at home to help with recovery. Chris drew me a nice, warm bath on Saturday night. But before I could get in, Chris discovered this...

Nick's pajamas in our bedroom leading to the bathroom.

And Nick in my bath just swimming around.

It wasn't enough for him to take my bath. When we dried him off he ran back to get in again.

This is our first family photo. The ones in the hospital didn't turn out so well, so we had one taken at church this morning.

Our beautiful children

She has such a rough life as you can tell.

Not to be outdone in the turkey department, Harris has started playing with his hair during meals. Of course his hands are sticky and nasty so it gets all gooed up in his hair.

But he's awfully proud of himself.

The proud grandparents

Cara is still on a great eating / sleeping schedule. She's eating 2-3 oz every 3-4 hours and will usually go longer at night. We're only getting up twice. We've survived our first week as a family of five and can't wait to see what our future holds.

Coming Home

We're home!

Chris and I left the hospital yesterday. We thought Cara might have some jaundice, but her tests turned out just fine. The boys did great with her last night, and Harris seemed much more accepting of his new sister. Nick is still all about "his baby". He wants to hold and touch her all the time. We'll hope this will continue when the newness wears off.

Here are Nick & Harris wearing their big brother shirts to school on Tuesday.

Just hanging out.

Look how sweet she is holding onto the blanket.

Meeting her Uncle Dan for the first time.

And her Aunt Andrea

Daddy's new love. He's already talking about buying her a doll house. No, she won't be spoiled at all.

Uncle Brandon and Zach visited. Zach is going to have a new baby sister in 7 weeks, so he'll need some practice.

Coming home from the hospital. I LOVE dressing her in all the cute girly stuff. I think that is one of my favorite things so far. Not that I didn't love the boys' clothes...

Nick loving on his sister.

Harris is not quite sure, but he wants to be a part of it.

Here Cara, have some Mr. Potato Head sunglasses.

We did have to have a talk with the boys about not swinging Cara at warp speed. They got a little over excited.

Cara did great her first night at home. She got up twice during the night to eat, but she went right back down. She's eating well so far. We go for our four day check up on Friday. Chris and I are going enjoy the next few days spending time with her and each other till he goes back to work on Monday.

We are so blessed with our wonderful family and all of our friends who called and visited us. We love you!