last week we had a wonderful dinner with my old friend, julie, and

her husband, shaun. julie and i first became friends at bradley in 1994!

it was awesome to catch up and to get to meet her new husband.

annie, flossing.

good oral hygiene always takes precedence over clothes.

happy monday, friends.

happy

we celebrated dan's birthday on thursday.

four little girls were very happy to help him blow out the

birthday candles,

and wish him into another wonderful year.

sweet baby

we had our 20 week ultrasound today,

and are happy to report that it is a

beautiful, healthy, sweet baby.....

girl!

it is a happy, happy day for our family.

gymnastics

kate had her last of an 8-week gymastics class last saturday,

and we got to come in and watch her program.

while i don't think the olympics are going to be knocking on our

door anytime soon, she loved the class and really loved having

her 5 favorite fans there to watch her....she did a lot of smiling

and enthusiastic waving. we are all so proud of her!

her favorite place to be: at the top of the stairs,

running from the mama.

tess loves a good game of chase.

annie is dreaming of warmer days.

this is her new smile......she walks in a room, says

"mama, do you want to see my smile?"

and gives me this sweet little face.

last night the girls and i traveled to madison for eoin and

william's birthday party. it was wonderful to see my sister

and niece and nephew and some great old friends, but

i realized that it really, really is easier to do things like

that with dan! he was stuck at the hospital but was home

to help me carry four sleeping girlies into the house.

today we travel to chicago to spend the day with family,

and tomorrow i predict some relaxing and swimming and

hopefully not doing much more of anything!

happy weekend, friends.

what tess, being the youngest of four, has learned:

eventually, you are going to get a rug burn on your forehead.

from being tackled by a sister.

it's inevitable.

and... when someone gets in the way of you and the mama, it's

going to break your little heart.

every time.

tess has perfected the art of going completely

boneless when I try to re-direct her activity...

and rigid as a board when I strap her into her

carseat. complete with screaming.

really loud screaming.

(usually in public)

she does have that ear infection, so i'll give her

7-10 days on a good antibiotic to change her behavior.

erin had her four-year check up today.

she did great....

got weighed, measured, poked and prodded....

wrote her name, drew some pictures...

passed her hearing test,

deferred on her vision test

(sometimes you are too shy to talk),

counted to 30 but skipped 13

(every single time),

touched her toes, touched the sky, and

to our doctor's surprise (but not mine)

really couldn't hop on one foot.

(i know this will come)

she got 2 huge vaccines and didn't shed a tear,

or utter a single cry.

she's such a good girl.

as I reported on facebook today:

"erin got two huge shots at the doctor today and didn't

shed a tear.

tess got another ear infection.

annie got a free exam, because she really loves to be

examined by the doctor.

kate got to share our good news, which just made her

really, really happy. i think it also made the pediatrician

happy.....

i'm pretty sure we're her financial security."