He's Here!

Well, after much waiting and anticipation, our new little buddy is finally here! You'll have to excuse the order of pics... we girls had our toes painted on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for buddy coming and were planning on showing you our cute toes before he came... And then he came before we could show you our toes...

Wyatt Daniel was born on Friday morning at 6:07am weighing in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 19 1/2 inches!

Happy, proud and exhausted parents!

New big sisters come to admire the new little man on the block.

Can you tell they had a long night too? Our dear friends came to pick them up at 3am so we could get to the hospital!

We were all surprised that he does not have tons of dark hair like the girls both did...

But we love his squishy cheeks and think his hair may have some red in it!

Mother and Son!

Life is good after a bath and some time under the warmer!

Nice double chin... looks like he didn't get the proper nutrition in the womb or something!

Oh, we are so excited to finally be able to hold this little miracle in our arms and kiss him!

Sugar and Spice

Emelia made this super cute turkey for me a few weeks ago when we thought the buddy was going to come too early and I was "sort of" on bed rest. She found the idea in a magazine and all of a sudden brings this to me while I'm laying on the couch. Super Sweet!Emelia has been taking a sewing class once a month and this is her latest project, making an apron - good job Millie! Now she keeps talking about how she needs her own machine (and that I won't share mine) as well as pointing out how our machine is so loud and the others are sooo quiet (and a lot more expensive too!) Well, in my defense I am willing to share, it's just that she decides she wants to sew just when I settle in to work on something important. (Like Hannah's Happy Harvest costume that has to get done by Sunday!) However, if my dearest hubby just wants to buy me one of those fancy quilting machines... I'd be happy to hand my machine down to Miss Mille and I'd even throw in a pair of ear muffs for her to drown out the noise...
Hmm... sweet or spicy? I think mostly spicy these days, but this was taken a few weeks ago when we managed to make a pan of Apple Crunch with apples from the orchard. We Westies have decided we don't like oatmeal in our "Crisps" and I found this recipe for an Apple Crisp type recipe that does not have oatmeal. Not that we are opposed to oatmeal, just not in our fruit cobbler type desserts. Anyways, this is just me taking advantage of my temporary table which is even larger now. Although my table is kind of feisty and he likes to kick at anything that presses in on his territory. I have no idea where the feisty comes from and I keep telling him that if he doesn't like it, well why doesn't he come out where there's a lot more room! Uff Dah!
And here's another sweetie... helping Mommy make homemade applesauce a few weeks ago. Don't worry, I gave her a pretty dull knife and she enjoyed cutting up the apples for the sauce. We used Haralson and thought it turned out awesome. Matter of fact, that sounds YUMMY... I think I'll have to thaw out a container for tomorrow! The apples cook down a lot and you don't get many containers, but it's fun to do it yourself and great to know it's all natural with no preservatives, etc.

Girls Day Out

Back in August we girls had a special day out before starting school. We went to the American Girl store, which has a restaurant where you can bring your dolls with for a special meal or party. Hannah was super excited as this was her first time. (Emelia got to go last summer with her friend from Iowa!) They saved their money up for the past year so that they could pick out something special and were excited to go shopping too! (What girl doesn't like shopping?)
They make your meal very memorable by providing special chairs for the dolls to sit in and even serve cups with pink lemonade and "Dessert" for your doll. Emelia loved pouring the lemonade and helping her doll drink it up. (As well as eating the whipped cream with sprinkles!)
And here's one of the happy shoppers after her purchase. She decided on a boy bitty baby since she's looking forward to her brother arriving. (I'M STARTING TO THINK THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! - OOPS, EXCUSE THE RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A VERY LARGE MAMA!)
And here we are just a few nights ago squeezing in one last tea party before the boy arrives. Please excuse the pathetic looking woman on the left. We all really thought he was gonna make his appearance this weekend and had fun with a quick tea party on Friday night. He (as of this moment) still has no intentions of coming out, but the food was yummy and the girls helped out a lot to make our party fun. And in case you are thinking that I am super amazing to put on a tea party at such a late stage of pregnancy, HA! Those cute cookies - STORE BOUGHT cookie dough (Great Grandma would be horrified!) and the frosting was leftover and I found it in the freezer! But hey, the girls had no less fun so hip-hooray!

Cranky

I went to the Doctor today and he said I am not dilating at all (or thinning out, etc.). With Hannah I had already been dilated to a 2 and 75% thinned out for a week. He then said, "Well, those third children, they always do everything differently." Thanks for the encouragement. As in, the third child will probably come two weeks late or something? Well, I left the office very cranky today. And I know those of you who have gone overdue don't feel a bit of sympathy for me, but in my defense I weigh more than I did for either of the girls, so I'm carrying around a lot of weight here... I told the girls that Mommy is cranky today, it's nothing to do with them, but that they better not push any buttons. So far they've done pretty well and the crabby "torpedo" has not launched off yet. I am looking for a substitute teacher though... please call if interested:)

So in celebration of not dilating, I've been making soup all day today (as well as yesterday). I figure I might as well get some food made and frozen so we have something to eat once this buddy does arrive. Except that I'm in such pain now that I can barely walk. No pain, no gain they say, I guess.

So, here's me and Mr. T this weekend when I was not crabby. We took Hannah to the apple orchard since Emelia was invited to go horse camping with friends and Oompa for 4 whole days. Hannah got this nice shot of us in the corn maze. I'll post some pics of the actual apple picking fun later. Gotta go nurse my crabbiness in a bowl or three of soup. Along with maybe several candy bars or something...

Torpedos and Submarines

My dear hubby was in the Navy, you know. And they say that it never quite gets all out of their system... So, about a month ago I was showing him my belly and he said, "Wow, it looks like a torpedo!" And then just a few weeks ago he said, "That's no torpedo, that's the WHOLE SUBMARINE!!!" I tried not to take it personally, but honestly I feel like the WHOLE SUBMARINE these days. These pics were taken last week on my 36 week mark, and I don't find them especially attractive, but I think they provide some evidence that Mr. T is right in his assessments. Except that I can' t help thinking that my lady family and friends may have a more delicate way of stating it to a woman in such a fragile state of mind...

Cowgirl Princesses

Emelia recently had her end of the year show at the place where she takes horse riding lessons in the summer. Hannah very occasionally takes a lesson, but prefers dancing over riding. However, she decided she wanted to join in the fun for the show. Emelia's horse teacher puts on a very fun show with the kids where they get to show off their skills and have fun doing games on the horses.

Here I go mom, aren't I super cute? (YES!)

In this game you ride down to a barrel, then hop off and run with your horse back to the starting line as fast as you can. It was a stitch to watch my little pip-squeak doing this event because she's so short, ran so fast and is normally terrified of the horses when she's looking up at them from the ground! (Hey, anything for a ribbon, right!?)

This one's kinda blurry, but the expression on her face was priceless as she got her ribbons and realized, Oh, I should show these off to my fan club (Daddy, Mommy, and Grandparents)

One proud little rider...

And now for our tried and true cowgirl... riding on Spirit!

Giddy-Up! No time for pictures Mom, this is serious business!

Emelia did not do any bareback riding for the show, but this girl has amazing balance on a horse. (She gets that from her mommy:)) The week that the students all had to ride bareback Emelia was the only student who did not fall off of her horse - Wow!

I don't think I ever get bored of seeing the delight in her when she rides... And so far, she doesn't ever seem to not be delighted to ride! I wonder if that's how God feels when we are doing the things he has gifted us to do...

Nice Riding pretty girl!

I think this one is my favorite picture of the day... Millie with her ribbons and one of her super happy smiles (with just a hint of her spunk mixed into that smile). Can you see it?

So proud of both of my girls! Can't wait to see if Buddy Boy likes to saddle up too!

My Super Cute Son!

Well, here he is... our super cute son! It's kind of hard to see, but this is a profile view taken of Buddy this morning. They got a new ultra sound machine and made me a cd of a few pics so I could share them with you. It's hard to see when he has gotten so big, but I can tell he's really cute. And I am not biased in any way, shape or form. Doctor says all looks good and now it's just wait and see when he feels like making his grand arrival! Considering how much weight I apparently gained in the past 7 days (I KNOW THE SCALE WAS WRONG) I think any time now would be a good time! Oh, I just can't wait to kiss that sweet face!

What is it?

What is it with children and umbrella's? The love them and they are so good at destroying them so quickly when given to them to play with. So for the past year I only buy them at the dollar store since I get sick of spending money on them to have them broken the next week. And after the dollar store version ones got broken, I just told the girls, "Well a little rain never hurt anyone! You are not going to melt!"

Well, I finally decided I was being a bit crazy and we should probably have at least one umbrella in the house, so I decided to "splurge" on a Wal-Mart version. I gave them a long lecture about how this is not a toy, blah, blah, blah... I did let them walk to the mailbox with it while it was raining so they could test it out, and here's the smiles I got. They look like they are just ready to join Mary Poppins for a spin down the lane!

Sewing...

Yep, I'm still managing to get in a bit of sewing here and there, and I know my days are now few until I'll be taking a sewing break for awhile. I still have a list a mile long of what I wanted to have done before buddy arrives, but of course it never gets all done (or even close). These purses were suppose to be Christmas gifts for the girls, but Emelia got a new bible from church and really wanted a nice bible case for it. Well, I happened to know that the bible fits into the small version of the Amy Butler "Frenchy Bag" and it was going to save me about $40 to just finish these and give them to the girls now (cuz of course Hannah would have to have a new bible case too, you know...) Emelia's is the teal and browns and Hannah's the green floral.
And these two quilts were made for two little girls who have never slept on real beds in their whole life until just a week or two ago when they were given a new home and new beds to sleep on. I was asked to be a part of the project and it was truly a joy to sew these blankets for two special girls. The younger one loves purple, pink butterflies and ballerinas.
The older girl likes the brighter, funky colors as she is a pre-teen. I think I must have done ok, since Emelia was in love with the finished product and has been whining about wanting one just like it for herself for the past two weeks. Well, I'll have to find something to make to replace the purses I was going to give them, so we'll have to see...
I've also been making some burp rags but I'm waiting to try them out to see if they work well or not. I made them out of flannel and have a friend who says flannel is great for burp rags. I'll have to keep you posted on that one.

First Day of School!

Well, we've been going for awhile now, but here's some pics from our first day of school! We've decided to start school in the basement this year since we have not been able to complete our window project in the 3 season porch (the original school room) and it starts getting a bit too chilly to do school in the porch around the time I am due to have baby boy! (IE - not a good time to be moving all the school stuff... I'll be busy just trying to keep everyone fed and sleeping!) Looks like some happy students ready to learn, hugh? Emelia is now in 3rd grade, starting her 2nd year homeschooling with Mommy!
And Hannah is super excited to be in Kindergarten this year!
My two sweet girls. Boy am I thankful for them and that I have this opportunity to be their Mommy and teacher.
Emelia loves to read (and is an excellent reader) and is doing a great job working hard in all subjects and being a helper to me when I need it. I think her favorite subject is snack and play/break time, but a close second is art and science! She might grumble about daily handwriting but she has beautiful penmanship already!
Hannah is just so happy to be a part of school, she is happy with most anything we are doing for school. She does seem to really enjoy math (and reminds me when we have not done a math lesson in a few days - WOW) and loves to do the daily calendar (which she reads to us with her long pointer).