Introducing....

The newest member or our family...

Here I am, in all my glory. :- /  This was taken Sunday.  I was induced Tuesday.  The inducement went really well, except that I wasn't able to have an epidural...again.  My platelet count was under 100, so to avoid me bleeding out, I guess, no epidural.  Ah-natural with pitocin!  At least I knew what to expect, 

since Rylee was the same.  

Meg Elizabeth was born just before noon, weighing in at 7 lbs 12 ozs and was 19 inches long.

As you can see, the hospital here rounded up.  If Memorial would've done that with Audrey, she would've been 10 lbs 15 ozs.

My mom flew out for the delivery and to help out the week after.  She was an angel!

The nurses returned Meg after her hearing check and bath with her hair mohawked and a bow!  

Too cute!

A friend from our new church congregation watched all the girls and then brought them to the hospital to see their new baby sister.  I love this picture of Todd with all of his girls!

We only stayed one night at the hospital and then went home.  Here we are getting ready to leave.

A few days later we gave Meg her first sponge bath.  And like all my other girls, she cried through the whole thing.

We all wished that Grandma didn't have to leave!  Grandma spent time doing crafts, painting nails and playing dolls with her grandbabies.

These pictures were taken when Meg was just over a week old.  Isn't she the sweetest thing you've ever seen?  These are purely braggin' photos.

At exactly 2 weeks, Meg lost her umbilical cord.  Yeah!  A real bath.  She really liked sitting in the water...

The scrubbing, not so much.

Thank goodness for binkys!

Birthday Week!

So it was birthday week at our home!  Emily turned 9 on the 3rd and Olivia turned 11 on the 4th!  It's hard to believe that I've got girls that old.  I wish they would stop growing up and stay in grade school forever.

Soooo, Marcella has started a new tradition in our home.  She asked for breakfast in bed for her birthday in March and the rest of the girls have thought that is the best present ever!  Emily got waffles and grapes.

Emily asked for a horse cake.... again.  I stole Kathryn's idea and put horse shoes on the side.

Olivia got oatmeal with rasins and toast on the side.  This breakfast really wasn't a punishment.  My girls all love oatmeal, and rasins is a treat we usually don't have (it's really that I don't remember).

Olivia asked for cheese cake!  Ahhh, truly a child of mine.  Give me cheese cake or pie any day over cake.  I made a scrumptious chocolate chip cheese cake.  

Silly Sisters.  They were just as excited to watch their sister's open the presents.

It was a fun week, but I must admit, I'm so glad it's over.  It's a lot of work to have to plan for two birthdays a day apart!

Halloween

Olivia, Rylee, Marcella, Audrey and Emily

Happy Halloween!  Everyone was sooo excited to dress up this year.  Let me tell you, getting 5 girls dressed and makeup-fied is quite the ordeal!

Marcella is our Pop Star.  Make sure you say Pop Star, not Rock Star.  She will be sure to correct you!

Emily is our Angel... Fallen straight from Heaven.

Olivia decided to be an Indian.  Olivia's Indian costume is my first official sewing project that I completed all on my own (If you don't count a couple of emergency phone calls to my mother).

Audrey wanted to be a Witch again.  But she specifically did NOT want a green face!

Rylee was our Little Pumpkin.  She didn't last long trick or treating.  Last year we packed her in a wagon, but this year she graduated to walking.  Living at the top of a hill means lots of up and down stairs to front doors.  She still had fun and loved that everyone kept giving her candy.

May Piano Recital

May 28th 2010

Olivia's piano recital!

Olivia and her piano teacher, Meggi

Olivia was so excited because she earned third place in the students practice minutes competition. Her teacher rewards the top 3 students with movie vouchers, and after coming in around 6th place last recital, she was bound and determined to place in the top 3 this time around. She truly practiced hours and hours and was still afraid that she wouldn't place in the top three. It was pretty stiff competition!

Requested by popular demand (Aunt Ashley's request, actually)... here is Olivia's piano recital piece. I thought she did a fabulous job.

George Philipp Telemann's Rigaudon, performed by Miss Olivia

American Girl Doll Paradise

Can I just say, $money$ can go very quickly in the American Girl Doll store!
Denver has the pleasure of being the next special city to claim an American Girl Store. I thought it appropriate that my 5 girls and I be some of the first to check it out on our very first day of Spring break. It was soooooo much fun!

Here we are, piled in the mini van, just itching to go!

Aren't they all so cute? I really should have taken a picture of myself... I'm sure I was glowing with excitement too!

I spent the first 15 minutes of our car ride doing doll hair. The girls all wanted to take their dolls to this new store looking fabulous, who can really blame them, certainly not me.
(I've taught them well, already!)

We ended up getting there waaaay too early. I misread the time. The store opened at 9 am for media and VIP, we had to come back at 10. But we passed a Krispy Kreme on the way, so off to eat donuts to burn some time. How much better can one day get?!
Well, Donuts didn't take as long as we thought, so we were back by 9:45. So all 5 girls were just hanging all over the big picture windows staring at all of the great things inside.
Our day got better...
An older woman waved me down from inside, then came strolling outside to us. She told me she was going to my mother and my girls grandmother today, and would we like to come into the store early and look around?! Heck, yeah!
So, to make a long story short, we got to be in the store a little earlier than most to gawk at the hundreds of doll things that little girls dream about and grown women, mothers and grandmothers still love to dream about.
Todd surprised me by wanting to tag along and was a great sport of helping to round up 5 (sometimes 6) girls, all trying to run in different directions in the store.

Here they are back at home with all their loot. We did limit how much they could spend, but honestly, it doesn't take long to empty your wallet with 5 girls in a store like that.

The rest of the day was spent playing dolls...sigh...really, truly, a perfect girl day!

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day of the year on Wednesday! Todd wasn't home, so I got to shovel some seriously wet, heavy spring snow. Thank goodness for my neighbor who took pity on me and helped me out! I was shocked at how long the girls spent playing in the snow. Usually it's a half hour and they're inside asking for hot chocolate. But this time, it was actually pretty warm outside and they played for a couple of hours before the hot chocolate party began.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Marcella Anne is Four!

Our Family is sooo lucky to have Marcella's Birthday on Saint Patrick's Day! I asked Marcella the night before her big day what she wanted to do on her birthday. The first thing that popped out of her mouth was that she wanted to do what Daddy had done on his birthday... have breakfast in bed! I don't even remember doing that for Todd last year, it must have made a pretty strong impression on our lucky girl.

She absolutely LOVED eating in bed! Her favorite breakfast... strawberry oatmeal, chased down with a leporcahn green powdered donut. Marcella made her sisters green with envy with the whole breakfast in bed deal. I have a feeling it will be requested many times in our household from now on.

Here's Audrey, Olivia and Emily sporting there green for school.... no pinches here!

And here's our Marcella and Rylee Jo!

Denver just happened to have the most gorgeous St. Patricks day this year! The forcast called for a near 70 degree day! I was sooo excited because Marcella has been asking since January if she could go to the zoo for her birthday. She really must be a lucky girl!

Marcella brought her very best friend Cali with her to the zoo.

Marcella's first ride on the Zoo train. For those of you who may go to the zoo, are on a budget and wonder if it's more fun to ride the carousel or the train.... the carousel is soooo much better. Maybe it was the wrong time of the year for the train ride, but it was pretty lame. We didn't really see any animals and I think the carousel ride was longer!

Rylee and her mommy!

I just couldn't help but put this sweet profile in!

Our last stop was at the elephants on our way out. My, was I tired from from dragging that wagon and the girls were tuckered out too. When we first got to the elephants, they had their backs to us, but Marcella called their names (Elly and Dolly) over and over and over again. After a few minutes of this, wouldn't you know, those elephants turned around and started walking towards us! It totally made Marcella's zoo visit.


Thank goodness for Grandma! Grandma sent a package of presents for Marcella to open, it really helped so that Todd could watch her open other presents once he got home that weekend.

Marcella loved getting an Only Hearts Doll horse!

I just can't believe that my curly haired baby girl is four now.
Marcella is such a happy girl, full of the silliest things to say!