Sleeping Angels

I think we are all familiar with the expression, "Sleeping like a baby." After having all of my children, I realize I really don't care for that expression. I much prefer, "Sleeping like an angel", because my babies were never really good sleepers. Not one of them has slept through the night before the age of one year. But, when they do sleep, they are angels...beauties from heaven that I thank God for every day.
When Riley was about six and a half months old, I took a really cool (I think) black and white photo of him in the dark with light cascading over his face, while he slept like an angel. I liked the photo so much that I made a plan to do the same thing for the three other children I was planning on having.
So, when I went out searching for a frame, I bought not one, but four of the same frame so that I would have for the other three. This plan was put into action a little more than four and a half years ago. It's hard to believe how time flies, because I took the final photo of the series last week.

These photos are of my sleeping angels in order from oldest to youngest.

The Week or So

It's time for a little update on the last week or so. Ok, maybe two weeks. Here goes. Two weeks ago, my sister Connie and her hubby Greg arrived. Our first adventure together was a camping trip to Charleston lake, but not before heading to Belleville for the baptism of our special little friend, Oliver Eberts. Clay is his proud Godfather so it was a very special day for all of us. After that we headed to the lake.

camping at charleston lake
The Lake was great and I think Connie and Greg really enjoyed the beautiful scenery. A few of our adventures were teaching Uncle Greg to ski, hiking and seeing a rare Black Rat Snake, and teaching Uncle Greg to fish (didn't do so good at that as no one caught anything that was worthy of a pan). All in all, it was a great four days.

happy birthday grace "all over the place"

We returned home on Thursday just in time to prepare for Grace's second birthday. We had a simple party for her with some of our friends, but kept it pretty small considering how much time we didn't have to prepare for it. The big event was playing in the kiddy pool in the back yard. It's hard to believe our amazing Grace is two. If you ask her, though, she will tell you she is thirteen.

summer fun

Well work has been really busy for me and Clay has his work cut out for him at home. He has reallized that he will not be getting as many tasks completed as he did when he was on parental leave with Riley and Brodie. That being said, we manage to find a little bit of time to get out, enjoy the weather and have some fun. Here are the photos of us throughout the last two weeks. A few points to note:
1. The pic of Connie in the boat with a beaming is smile is actually her reaction to Greg thundering in on the waterskis;
2. We attempted a "Weekend at Bernie's" Photoshoot with Connie, Greg and the kids with Grace starring as Bernie; and
3. A little warning: there are almost a hundred photos in the slide show below. Take a seat and get some popcorn.



Now that you are done the slide show or skipped right over it, we hope to update the blog a little more often. Take care all, Evelyn and the gang

Fiona and Preston: 6-Month Photo

Can you believe it? I can't. Fiona is 6 months old. My baby is 6 months old!!! Fiona has been such an awesome baby, mind you, she still comes with a few difficulties. She is generally super crazy happy all the time unless she gets hungry. We haven't had her weighed an measured in quite some time. But, I did the comparison between my weight and her weight on the bathroom scale and she was somewhere between 18 and 19 lbs. That was two weeks ago. As for height, she is getting pretty tall. It will be her Daddy's mission next week to get some exact measurements on her next week.
So, what can she do now? Well she can squirm pretty good to get places and things. She wasn't quite rolling over but really close until Wednesday when she turned 6 months old. That was the first official day she rolled over on her own. She still likes the jolly jumper, but loves when we put the Leap Frog Learning table before for extra amusement. She also loves her exersaucer and plays there quite contently. The thing she seems to like the most, though, is standing up on her own. She loves standing beside the coffee table and just hanging out like the other 3 kids.

So, as I said, Fiona comes with a few difficulties. Actually, just one major difficulty. She refused to drink from a bottle. As most of you know, I am back to work and Clay is taking care of the kids. The milk does not floweth from his bossom. This problem becomes quite challenging when I get stuck at work and can't make it home to feed her. Like today, I didn't get home from work until almost 7 pm. Clay had to spoon feed her formula with a little pablum in it to cut down her hunger until I got home. She was pretty squawky by the time I got there. But, she absolutely refuses the bottle. We have tried to offer her the sippy cup with little to no success. We are hoping she will get the hang of it before Sep, when I have to go away to a conference.

And finally, Fiona's great new thing that happened to her over the last month was her first tooth. She got her bottom right tooth last Friday and her bottom left yesterday. She made it through them quite well as we werent' even expecting them. And finally, finally, she likes to say DDADAAADADADAD.

That's it for now. We are getting ready for Graces birthday tomorrow. So more to follow soon. Evelyn