Some Baby Gifts I Made

I made this set of a bib and burp cloths for my cousin who is having her first baby, and its a girl!

The bib is reversible.

I love chicks!  This is appliqued using the machine and then hand stitched on top.  I just cut out the chick shapes free hand.  For the bib, I traced one of Drew's bibs to make the pattern.

Where we met...

All the big kids together posing for a picture.

Genna and her godparents

Texas A&M was where Brian and I first met our freshman year in college.  It's where Brian and I met and said "good bye" to good friends.  It's where we were married and later where we became Catholic.  It is where we bought our first house, owned our first dog (okay, 2 dogs,) and where Brian graduated from vet school.  It is also where Genna's godparents live, so we had to make a detour in our trip to visit them.

We also met Godfather Brian at Texas A&M in inorganic chemistry lab.  Isaac got a picture with his godfather too.

Like father, like son, and...

 ...like grandson, apparently!  These guys have thoroughly passed down the family hair line gene.

The boys are saying, "What kind of picture is this, where we don't have to look at the camera?"

  

15 Year Reunion***

June 16th was our 11th anniversary and Brian's 15th year high school reunion.  We had a great time, and I knew most of the people since his high school was so small, a lot of them went to A&M with us, and we started dating almost 15 years ago. 

Brian and his college roommates

The happy couple...11 years married!

***Oh, I forgot to mention that we (or Brian, rather) were the winners of two prizes at the reunion.  We won a prize for having the most kids, actually we tied for this one.  And Brian also won a prize for having the highest degree in his class too, and that's not counting the one he is currently working on.

Rooad Trip Part 4: Grandparents in Texas

 Now starts the slower paced part of our Biggest Family Summer Vacation in Texas.  This week has been mostly hanging out at the pool.  Drew had his first swim and he loved it, of course.  We swam every chance we got. Genna ended up with an ear infection at the end of the week because of all the swimming.

This was moments after we put him in the pool for the first time.  He thinks it is relaxing, huh?

Notice Isaac just swimming around with his floaties.  He was practicing without the floaties this week too

Drew went for a quick  nude dip in the pool one afternoon. 

This picture of Genna is just too funny.  It reminds me of a picture in a book we have, Plaidypus Lost.

Other than swimming we visited with some friends and family.  There was quite the storm in the middle of our stay tin which we hid in the closet when we saw a tree in the pool.  No tornado as it turns out, but it was 65 mph winds, and it took the power out for a full 24 hours.  Sleeping with the power out proved difficult for the three big kids and myself.  Isaac was afraid of the dark. Genna was too hot.  Hannah had trouble falling asleep without the white noise of  the fan.  In my room there was some alarm that went off for two hours every minute for some reason at 3am.  I had trouble sleeping through that, but Brian and the baby slept through it all. 

Drew was a handful in their nice house.  He broke a crystal bowl before I had even made it downstairs in the morning of our first day.  He also had a run in with a bleach bottle.  Don't worry, I rinsed him off immediately and he was miraculously unscathed.  He was a much happier guy than he had been the previous week.  By the end of the week he had two teeth that he didn't have when we left our home 2 weeks before.  He is increasingly unhappy with baby food and prefers table food of all kinds.

Genevieve had a learning experience at the end of the visit.  While getting her ear drops, she was laying on the leather couch letting them sit.  I came back to do the other ear and my mouth dropped open and I was rendered speechless by what I saw.  She had drawn, with her fingernail, all over the couch cushion that she was facing.  A big heart, her name in giant print, and some more smaller hearts.  I called Brian over, and he and Jeff looked up how to fix it on the internet and cleaned it with olive oil.  Then came the big lesson.  She had to go to Poppy and Gigi to confess and ask for forgiveness.  It was heartbreaking how hard it was for her.  They were standing, waiting, and she was turned to me trying to pull it together and dry her tears so she could get it out.  She did the most heartfelt confessing and apology that I have ever witnessed in my life.  I had tears in my eyes.  She is such a beautiful soul.

Road Trip Part 3: Southern Alabama

 

Why go to southern Alabama? you may ask.  Good question.  It's humid and has the brightest houses I have ever seen.  No, but really it was for a good reason.  Hannah and Isaac's godfather was being ordained a Jesuit priest after ten years of preparation.  The ordination was 2 1/2 hours and right in the middle of nap time so, as you can imagine, Drewy didn't let me see most of it.  He was good during the beginning and then fell asleep finally at the end, but the middle of the Mass was all the ordination parts that I completely missed.  The weekend was full of events and celebratory dinners which meant lots of high chairs, car seats, strollers, and slings for Drew.  By the end of the weekend he was diving out of our hands to crawl around anywhere he could.  

Hannah had really been wanting a picture of just her and her godfather.

The crazy story of the weekend is when we were driving to the ordination on Saturday morning we realized that Brian left the stroller in the rain the night before after the dinner.  I say Brian left it because I was getting all the kids in the car and buckled up.  However, to be fair it was raining and late, and we were rushing to get in the car.  I guess it was just left sitting in the street where we had parked.  Thank the Lord we ended up finding it at the campus security thanks to a friend knowing the right Jesuit to ask.  It had my hand made sling, nursing cover, and the quilt I had made for Hannah a few years ago in the back of stroller.  I am so glad we were able to get it all back because it was just making me sick thinking about all the time I had spent making those things. 

Road Trip Part 2: Northern Alabama

 Next stop on our road trip was northern Alabama to visit some friends from our years in New York.  Hannah was best buddies with Payton way back then and I was amazed at how well they still get along when we haven't seen them in 2 years.  They have always clicked well.  The girls were so young when we lived near them and they were the only two in our play group that actually played together.  That was the age where most kids play next to each other, but they actually played together and it was adorable.

Anyway, five kids later (between the two of us) we had a blast together just like old times.  We went to the mall where they had outdoor sprinklers to play in and Drew got his first taste of water squirting him in the face.  It was slippery so I followed him around a bit so he didn't do a facer on the cement.

This photo deserves an explanation.  The boys look like homeless guys with this cup in front of them, don't they?  They had been playing in the water with the cup and then got cold and were warming up in the sun.

We got some really good pizza and took a ride on the carousel.

We really ad a great time and the children were all so loving and sweet together.  It warmed my heart.

Drew is the only one missing here.

Road Trip Part 1: Tennessee

 We drove overnight for the first leg of the trip.  More on the car trip later.  Tennessee was our first stop on our long road trip.  My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and my nieces live there and have horses right in their backyard.  They were excellent hosts, and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Sophie, my niece, is Genna's age, and the girls were like the three musketeers the whole time we were there.  Isaac was included in the girls' games some of the time, but he had his Uncle Rob's full attention when he was home.   

Auntie Cara shows the kids the barn for the first time and introduces them to the residen

ts.

Drew meets his first horse. They got along quite well.

The girls and their cousin Sophie made a great trio.

We could barely keep this horse lover away from the horses.  She was in love and is now on a mission to find nuns that take care of horses so she can join them and live her life with Jesus and horses, her favorites.

Isaac wasn't afraid a bit since these were ponies and much more his size.  His Uncle Rob was thrilled to have a boy around the farm since he has three girls.

This pony is missing something.  Can you tell?  Perhaps, an eye?

Even Hannah, our most cautious child, got on and had a blast.

Sopihe was being a patient peanut letting her cousins ride her horses first.

Genna was learning the ropes and was as happy as can be.

A brave knight rescued a princess.

Brian got a turn too.  Doesn't he look like an adult on a carousel?

And even I got a turn on a very lazy, sweet horse.

Saying good-bye!

38 Weeks: He's a creeper.

Drew stood for the first time without holding on to anything.  I think it was an accident though since the thing he was holding onto moved.  I doubt it happens again for awhile.  It ended in what looked like a facer that apparently did not hurt enough to cry about.  It amazes me how fast things change once they figure out the crawling.  Every week for the last month has been a new step in physical development.  He is pulling up all the time now on everything, and even starting to try to move along the furniture.  He doesn't seem super steady to me, but he rarely falls.  He even seems to be okay with getting down on his own.  I was telling Brian that I think his unsteadiness is due to his feet being little balls of fat.  You try standing on little tennis balls and see how steady you seem.

Drew's guardian angel was really watching out for him this week.  His life was saved by a thread, not once, but twice!  First time I was on the phone with my mom and I walked into the dining room for a second to turn off the light.  When I walked back into the kitchen I immediately saw Drew headed straight for the top of the basement stairs and someone had opened the door and left.  (The culprit turned out to be Isaac, BTW.)  I got there just in time to grab his leg and pull him back from the stairs.  I gave many lectures about this door being closed when Drew is awake, including a demo with a doll to show what would happen if Drew went down the stairs.  (Yeah, that was a little dramatic, but that's just how this mom is.)  I may have to lock that door when the little guy is crawling around.  They are not used to having to keep it closed yet since it is usually left open so the cat can get to her food/litter.  

Two unique things about Drew I have noticed are that he pulls on his ear when he is sleepy and has the scratches behind his ear to prove it.  Also, when I rock him, he has always had trouble getting comfortable on me, but the last two weeks he has taken to laying his head on the padded arm of the chair instead of my apparently uncomfortable self.  It's actually really cute.  As soon as his head is on the arm of the rocking chair he smiles a bit and starts blinking his eyes.

The second close call was when I was sitting inches away from Drew checking my emails.  (Man, I sound like a bad mom, but cut me some slack I am on vacation.  School's out!)  Anyway, I hear this sucking/slurping sound.  I look at Drew and he is eating something.  I assume it is a Cheerio that he found under the kitchen table because, well, let's be honest here, that happens...a lot.  I turn back to what I was doing and when I heard the sound again the Holy Spirit told me that was not a Cheerio sound.  I squeezed his cheeks and did a swipe to find 3/4 of a grape in his mouth.  "Praise God!" is all I have to say.

 

And so I don't leave you on that note, I will say that Drew is the splashiest (in the tub), wiggliest, and kickiest baby I have had the pleasure of co-creating.  Seriously.  Just try to bathe this guy or change his diaper.  I work up a sweat just changing his clothes.  He's a good sleeper though, and every mom knows that's what really counts.  :)

This is a hard core 2 hour nap from which I am about to wake him.

Uh Oh, Another Video

Drew is doing his more sophisticated crawl, and he even says "Uh oh" for you guys!

Fun in the Rain

 Hannah had a fever on Wednesday and was being quarantined upstairs.  During dinner, a storm started to blow in and the rest of us went on the porch to enjoy the breeze and wait for the rain to start.  It didn't take long for the down pour to begin.  Genna and Isaac are my puddle jumpers (Hannah doesn't like to get wet or dirty!)  and they were making plans to jump in the puddles the next day.  I was thinking the sun would probably dry the puddles before they got the chance which led me to my spontaneous decision.  The kids were awestruck when I told them to take off their shoes and run around in the rain.  I guess I am not spontaneous often enough for my kids to even believe it is possible.  Shame on me!

They had lots of fun until the thunder started, and I sent them in for baths/showers.  The best part is that Hannah didn't miss anything since she wouldn't dare participate in such messy fun.