the king and his court

Bedtime stories with Daddy....nothing better in the world.

shiny happy (little) people

the princess and the (sweet)pea

tess at one month

Unbelievable....she's already a month. Tess continues to be calm and sweet during the day and at night, but evenings are proving a bit fussy. I guess it's to be expected! We took her to the doctor this morning and she is 10 pounds 15 ounces! I think she's carrying all that weight in her cheeks. My good friend Missy came along and was a godsend....she kept the elders entertained in the waiting room and I got to pretend that I just had one little baby for 20 blissfully quiet minutes. I feel so blessed with my big healthy babies and my really good friends!

beloved

My Mom......an extremely important person to four little girls....and one big one. Happy Birthday, Mom. We hope you have a wonderful day.

monday morning with addie

For a Monday morning, we fared pretty well today. Sarah and Addie came over to hang out and meet Tess. The girls taught Addie the joy of jumping off the couch onto the cushions below....a skill we all hope Addie can try out at home. Addie is sweet and spunky and all the girls adore her....Sarah brings me Starbucks and cinnamon rolls and adult conversation....I adore her, too!

stork bite

The stork must have had a really firm grasp on Tess. She is my first baby to get the birthmarks....you can see them really well in this picture!

small

candid

Erin, talking to Tracy about sledding.....Tracy, capturing things I don't always see. Amazing.

tess through tracy's eyes

more wonderful pictures from tracy.

Her favorite place to be on a cold winter day.

tracy & courtney

Tracy came to meet Tess....and Courtney came to give the girlies a solid 3 hours of running, romping good fun and entertainment. They were so happy so see her come and so sad to see her go! As for me, I couldn't have been more grateful for a wonderful morning with an old friend. Thanks, Tracy....I am so lucky to know you!

daddy time

clean

Tess's umbilical cord finally fell off! Scrub-a-dub, little baby!

anne margaret

Annie is keeping me on my toes. More often than not, if I say "WHO DID THIS?!" the answer, from one of the older siblings, is "Anne Margaret!" This morning, she broke my favorite sunglasses and figured out how to peel bananas. All of the bananas.

danger!

Watch out, Tess.....Annie is never far behind!

I do.

Five years later, I'd do it all over again. Happy anniversary, babe.

goofy girl

It's hard to believe Tess is already 2 weeks old. She continues to be an extremely calm, sweet baby. She only fusses for baths and diaper changes. Yesterday was our first big outing to take Kate to school. It went as smoothly as I could have expected....the biggest problem is figuring out how to carry the carseat and Annie while keeping tabs on Erin and Kate! When it was time to pick Kate up from school, I put Tess in her carseat around 10:45....and finally got her little sleeping self out around 1:30....not because she was crying, just because I felt like I should! Now, if I could just get her to sleep like that at night....