feels great to be 29!

my birthday was last week and as a great big birthday gift my friend anne jones came up to hang out and help me gain some sanity!  it was so great to have her around.  of course scott LOVED playing with his bff brody and sara was extremely excited to meet her new bff macie.  i swear she's even smiling a little bit in this picture.

                                       

here's the fearsome foursome.  (though sara is mid-diaper change and a bit naked).  part of me can't wait until they're all old enough to run around with each other but most of me wants them to stay small forever.

anne got this precious shot of the girl.  seriously anne... thanks so much for coming!

that night james and i took the kiddos to cheesecake factory for my birthday.  sara slept the whole time, scott was a great kid and my dinner was delicious!  so i would say it was definitely a successful birthday event.

i wasn't going to include this picture since i obviously forgot to put make-up on (for my birthday dinner?? hello!) but i thought it would be a good reminder of how exhausted and happy i was on my 29th birthday.  i wouldn't change a thing!

on sunday james let me go to church while he watched the kids at home (scott had a runny nose so he stayed home too.)  when i got home this is what i saw.

                  .... too cute.

then another birthday surprise came my way this past tuesday when my friend hallie tusberg brought me donut holes and a card signed by all our cub scouts.  i told hallie once that i have a secret obsession with donut holes so she brought enough for everyone to eat.  it was perfect!

and my mom has been asking all week for current pictures of sara... so here you go mom!
i took this one yesterday...

and this one about twenty minutes ago.  (it doesn't get much more current than that.)

thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes, gifts and surprises!  so far it feels great to be 29!

3 weeks and a kick in the head

before my mom left for the airport two and half weeks ago she told me that i had to send her a picture of sara every day so that she could see her grow.  well... every day is a bit much, but i thought i could do every week  (at least for a while).   so this blog post is for you mom! 

these three pictures were actually taken a few days ago.  i thought she looked adorable in this little purple outfit. 

i love her eyes.  when she is wide awake they are so big and dark and beautiful.  and there is something so peaceful and calm about her when she is just sitting there looking around.  she is such a good little girl.

these pictures were taken a couple hours ago.  today is sara's 3 week birthday and i had her two week check-up yesterday (this slacker mom forgot to call the doctor to make the appointment.)  anyway, sara had already grown two more inches (she is now 21 1/2 inches long) and she weighs 9 lbs. 6 oz.  that is almost a pound heavier than her birthweight but still an ounce smaller than scott was when he was BORN. ouch!

                                   

scott loves playing with sara on her little play mat.  he is such a good big brother to show her how it all works. 

sadly this picture was taken about ten seconds before scott crawled off the play mat and accidentally kicked sara in the head.  i wasn't sure if i should feel more sorry for my screaming sara or for my quivering lipped, distraught little scott.  he felt so bad but sara was fine in the end and i figure its probably good that she start toughening up now.

                                     

happy 3 week birthday sara!

two weeks old!

i can't believe our little sara girl is already two weeks old.  and i'm happy to announce that she was only up for ONE middle-of-the-night feeding last night!  (can't tell you how nice it was to see the sun coming through the window when she woke up the second time!!)

here's our big little girl having a bath with grandma palmer.

grandma palmer came out last wednesday to help us for a few days.  it was so nice to have her around!

bryan, annie, julia and audrey even made it up to meet their new cousin.  the hotel they were staying in had an indoor pool that was as warm as a bathtub (or so i was told...) so we all headed over there and had a pool party.

since almost all of us have a birthday sometime in the next month or two we had a joint birthday party.  james and i have been looking for an excuse to purchase this gigantic chocolate cake from costco and this was the perfect event!  (for whatever reason the cake looks really tiny in this picture... trust me, it is AnYtHiNg but tiny.)

fun family in town, pool party, birthday cake... what more could a kid ask for?

the next day we all went to the movie theater to see Gnomeo and Juliet.  Unfortunately it was sold out so we went to Rango instead.  It was kind of a weird show but the kids seemed to enjoy it... and so far scott hasn't seemed to have any of the nightmares that i was concerned he would have (or that i would have) from the movie, so thats good.

scott is really such a good big brother.  he LOVES helping wherever he can with sister sara.  he helps me give her a bottle, he helps change her diaper, and he INSISTS on going with me to check on her during her naps.

before taking grandma palmer to the airport we stopped in at Five Guys Burger and Fries since she had never been there before.  it was truly a delicious experience. 

thanks grandma palmer for coming out to visit and help so much! 

we loved having you out here!

and here's the little stinker on the night before her two week birthday (the name "little stinker" isn't completely accurate however, because she is a BIG stinker.  how can such a tiny little girl have so many messy diapers?!)

and naturally i had to get another shot of brother and sister together. 

scott's expression pretty much says it all.

and then i get a photo like this and remember why its all worth it
and why we'll do it again and again...

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