welcome joshua robert!

born monday, june 22, 5:06 pm
9 lbs 12oz, 21 1/4 inches

(typing one handed is fun!)

Getting ready.

Yikes, those newborn diapers are small!

If I get motivated I'll take/load some pictures of our other preparations... the co-sleeper's set, and the van has been purchased. I've unpacked toys and tiny baby clothes, blankets and towels.

We also got a new camera, as our old one was dying and then was misplaced by one tired pregnant lady and a small unwary accomplice. (Amelia probably took it and played with it while I was catching an afternoon nap on the couch... I remember her bringing it to me... but I don't remember anything after that. I keep waiting for it to turn up in a toy bin somewhere.)

Now, I just have to make sure that Jim knows how to use the camera, so we'll have good shots of baby's 3 first moments out in the world. :)

Because I said I would...

...here are pictures from Becky and Kerry's wedding and rehearsal. This is like time travel, because blogger hates me and completely reversed the order I loaded them in. They are mostly in order... just backwards order. Grrrrrrrr....

Tired Flower Girls.

Maria and Daddy.

The Happy couple.

Amelia and Daddy.

Mmmm... cake!

No comment.

Chicken dancing.

Cake!!!

Ah, sitting down and eating without having to cut anyone else's food. :) I should be a bridesmaid more often.

The wedding party.

My hair. 56 bobby pins, 2 rubber bands and a lot of hair spray. I didn't win... Becky had a lot more.
Kerry's family.

Our family... note how serious the girls look.

The kiss.

Not sure why everyone but Kerry looks grumpy here.

Lighting the candles.

Practice!

Who's that massively pregnant lady standing up front? I can't see anything!

Hurry up Maria! I think they have candy up there!

Overheard....

Maria standing at the screen door jiggling the handle:

"Hey! Hey, bird! Look! There's a human right here!"

She must be lonely with her sister at Gymboree and me on the computer.

Easter 2009

We stayed down here this year. I think it's the first time that we've made it to Easter Services at our own church. It was a nice weekend, thought we did miss seeing everyone in Central PA.

Here's a play by play of the weekend (more or less).

After we got the kids down I changed up the buffet. Meaning I cleaned it off and set out the flowers I'd hidden downstairs.

Easter baskets filled.

Easter morning: sleepy but excited.

I'm happy to say that the first thing that the girls noticed was that I'd reset the prayer table... Jesus on the cross - gone, replaced by a Sacred Heart statue. Pretty candle holders and a white doily to "re-dress" the formerly stripped down table.

Once prompted Maria spotted the baskets.

I think they were happy with the contents.

Breakfast, complete with Empty Tomb rolls.

An after breakfast snack - one expensive duck (from Harry and David's - yay coupons).

Family portraits at Westover - courtesy of Uncle David.

Later, after a second round of desserts, an Easter egg hunt. I missed it... completely felled by the mass quantities of desserts, I had a nice nap on the couch.

Afterward, the girls posed with their haul, showing off their make-shift shoes - plastic baggies rubber-banded over their socks. We forgot to bring play shoes, and the dress shoes needed to stay nice for Aunt Becky's wedding. Also, I think Maria's sugar high just wore off.

Easter Monday: Operation Dye Eggs without Dyeing Kids (or anything else).

We used crayons on most of the eggs first. This proved too much for Amelia - several eggs were lost in the process. Fortunately, I was planning on pickling a few anyway.

The pretty results.

Becky's Shower #2

Is this a little late? Yes, indeed it is. I will be attempting to post these pictures, Easter pictures and wedding pictures in the next day or so. I figure that I may be able to accomplish this, since the oppressive heat make it impossible for me to do much more than move my fingers. It's still April right?

Anyway, here are the pictures:

The favors: mint filled hearts and a crocheted washcloth wrapped around pretty-smelling bar of soap. My hand cramps just thinking of those washcloths.

The cake: Yum!

Most of the guests...some annoying bug kept several people away.

Becky's helpers.

I think she had a good time. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day... Surprise!

So all of us are sick. Some sort of head cold. I, so far, haven't been completely wiped out by it... but I anticipate the worst, and expect to be dragging around by Saturday, just when I'll need energy to pull off Becky's Shower #2. It should be pretty fun.

Yesterday, as you all know was St. Patrick's Day. A day to wear green and drink enough beer so that your skin ends up matching your outfit. Or maybe it's a day to celebrate being Irish - so you should go around speaking Irish brogue and eating corned beef and cabbage. It may also possibly have to do with a Saint who did something important a long time ago... involving pirates and possibly snakes, but who remembers that now?


In any case, given my cold I planned to spend my St. Patrick's day wearing my pink flamingo flannel jammies (close-up above) and laying on the couch, semi-comatose, while the kids trashed the place. This was not to be however, as my good buddy, Delbert (not his real name), had decided that on this day, in honor of the saint and all things Irish (he's Irish - so this makes sense), I would be receiving a bouquet of fruit.

Yep. Fruit.

And being that this was coming from Delbert, who has a knack for knowing when I'm indisposed - and this works both ways, we're perpetually calling one another just as the call-ee is entering the bath - it would come on my Pajama Day, so that I would be forced to receive it, blushingly, from a very polite, though slightly startled delivery man.

I probably wouldn't have answered the door at all had it not been for the small pajama clad person who, upon hearing the doorbell, ran to see who it was, then stood jumping and pointing, in full view of the door. This combined with my looking out to see the truck, which read Edible Arrangements, and realizing that whatever he had was probably perishable, compelled me to answer the door.

I'm glad I did, really, as the fruit was yummy. Some of it was even chocolate covered. And for whatever reason this pregnancy, especially recently, I'm been craving fruit of all kinds. (Just another example of the weird connection that Delbert and I share - even from miles and miles away he can tell that I want fruit, preferably already cut, and chocolate covered.)

So, thanks, Delbert for the surprise, the fruit and the story. I really needed something funny to post on my blog.