Happy St. Patrick's Day Lucy

 
Vicky is no longer pregnant.  After two total hours of labor which included only half an hour at the hospital, (meaning no epidural), and one big push, baby Lucy arrived at 7:10 am... ALL 9 lbs 15 ounces and 22 inches of her, (and already too big for newborn diapers.)  Vicky walked into the hospital dilated to a 10.  She was incredible, and I am so proud of her.

Unlike her older brothers, who were two and three weeks early, Lucy decided to hold off until nearly the end, with only four days left until the due date.  Thus changing our St. Patrick's Day celebrations forever.  Lucy has been such a real joy already.  So here's to hoping she will be as calm and quite all of her childhood, and life for that matter, as she has been today... I'm serious.  Both boys soaked her right up.

Here are a few more photos to enjoy.  I'm sure Vicky will post more at a later date.

 

E-mailed to Paul 25 minutes ago:

Apparently it's sunny enough to pee outside again.  The boys are out there playing, Benjamin opens the door to put his apple inside on the ground, and goes back out to pee in the trees.  Comes back in a minute later to get the apple.  Rhett watches with interest.  I'm glad his diaper is still on at least.

xo




(What can I say?) 

I love it when this happens

Baby Shower

My sweet friend and visiting teacher Deena threw a baby shower for me at her house.  Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the event, but I took these pictures of the "what Vicky's baby will look like" collages that were made.

Elmo is covering up the extra hands.

 

This one apparently inherited my beefy shoulders.

 

Maybe she'll be a thinker from the start.

But this one was the popular favorite!  Hopefully it's not a true taste of what we're in for?

The shower was really fun, and I was truly flattered that so many people came!  I wish I had had more opportunity to socialize with everyone and enjoy all the yummy treats!  I feel so blessed by everyone's kindness and generosity.  Our baby girl really got spoiled.

Cookies

Can you tell I'm playing February catch-up and changing the date on most of these new posts?


I normally have a hard time when the boys want to help in the kitchen.  This time, while Rhett was napping, I tried to be more patient and let Benjamin help me scoop cookie dough.

He turned out to be quite the cookie dough pro.

Scoop...

 and Scrape

 

Perfect.

 

  
Drop...

 

and bake!

 

Yum.

In Seattle

Our super awesome niece Cara performed in the Washington Junior High All State Choir concert on February 19 and we were excited to go down south for the day to see her and the rest of the Segos.  Of course, going down to Seattle usually necessitates a visit to Ikea.  Benjamin has asked me at least every other week for the past 6 months if we could go to Ikea (because they have an awesome play place for kids) so it was nice to finally be able to say yes!  While we were there we bought a large area rug for our apartment in Ketchikan (yep, still going there, just not so soon now), which has hard floors all over.  I must say I was a bit disappointed in the rug selection at Ikea.  I expected better.

Anyway, after a hot dog lunch at the Ikea food court we met up with "our cousins," as Benjamin and Rhett call them, and had a fun little time walking about the Seattle Center.  (After paying $12 for parking there's little else to do...)

Benjamin and Breton take turns being the fish

Paul and Landon chat and stroll

The day was beautiful and sunny, but cold

The kids all wanted to climb on the whale tale, but this is about as good as it got.

Landon called these pictures "poor man's memories," since none of us could actually pay to go up the Space Needle.  But we were there!

While the venue for the choir concert wasn't ideal and we didn't get to actually hear most of Cara's performance, Paul and I did get to listen to the last two songs and they were great!  It was totally worth the trip, even if we hadn't heard a single note of song.  Thanks again, Segos!  It's always a good time!

Making Valentines

A few days before Valentine's we got out our paper and scissors and went to work on Valentines to send off to grandmas and grandpas and other people we love.  Benjamin practiced writing his letters, copying words I wrote on a separate paper.

To Grandma and Grandpa Duersch we sent this brown heart (mostly) cut out by Benjamin and stamped all over with little green alligators.

He wrote all of the letters of his name... never mind that they're out of order.

Grandma Key got a little pop-up heart number.

He added a tic-tac-toe game as well.

Grandpa Key got a simple cut-out heart (again by Benjamin) and a vertical "I love you."  (Benjamin was getting bored by this point and wanted to change things up.)

He wanted to make his name more interesting as well, writing first the E, then the B, then the N.

When we came to the end and needed to make one for Great Grandma Sanders (who always sends us fun decor to brighten up the Valentine holiday) Benjamin suggested that we just go outside and find some flowers and send them to her in the mail.  But a lack of flowers in February led us to make a flowered paper heart instead.

I was impressed with Benjamin's willingness and his patience for writing those letters over and over.  By the end he was done, but it was fun while it lasted.

Valentines

 Much of the Valentine love in our house was expressed through food this year.

Love-you heart pancakes in the morning...

for these two loves of mine:

Even our Costco pizza was full of love.

And a giant cookie to finish things off.

 Not to mention the pasta machine that Paul gave me that turned out some pretty delicious noodles for dinner the next day.

I need to remember to get the pictures from my phone later so I can post about the Valentines that Benjamin made for his grandparents.

Are you a Jimmer Jammer?

I am.



(Jimmer Jammer Guitar/Back-up singers: Shawn Bradley, Chad Lewis, & Lavell Edwards.)


"His name is as versatile as his game. It's a noun: An Arizona fan praised the Wildcats' defense for not letting a big-time scorer "pull a Jimmer." It's a verb: YOU GOT JIMMERED! read a sign waved in the BYU student section. It's an adjective: "He was making some Jimmer Fredette threes!" gushed Syracuse's Scoop Jardine about the six bombs Cincinnati's Dion Dixon hit from beyond the arc. Jimmer has several definitions in the Urban Dictionary, including this: One who is in range as soon as he steps off the bus."
-KELLI ANDERSON SI.com

Blankets for the Baby

 One of the great parts about having a girl is that I have things to make.  A boy would already have everything he needs because of Benjamin and Rhett.  But while I'm sure a girl would be just as warm and snuggly in a blanket patterned with footballs and basketballs, wouldn't it be nice to have something a little more feminine?

As soon as Christmas was done I was excited to start on some baby projects.  I've only done two so far, and other matters are starting to take precedence, but it's a start and I love how they turned out.

The first is a simple cotton blanket perfect for a nursing cover or letting baby play on the floor.  It should work for swaddling too, if this baby will stand for that.  Paul's sister Marianne first made me one like this when Benjamin was born, and then another for Rhett, and they were well-used.  I think this one will be, too.

I followed instructions and tips from this blog and this blog to make this flowery four-layer flannel blanket. Just like they said it would, it took a lot of time to make!  But it definitely wasn't hard, which was great.  I have the materials to make another one, but I haven't decided to go ahead yet because of the time commitment.  Even so, it was worth it and I hope this blanket gets a lot of use over the years.