Sydney’s first day of school (8/31/2010)

Like every other mom out there, I was nervous for my little girl to start school.  I was so frazzled and nervous that morning that I didn’t even remember to take a picture of her getting on the bus.  But here she is getting off and loving it.

She has an amazing teacher, and is already learning so quickly.  I’m astounded by how quickly she is soaking up new concepts. 

I have to say though, Sydney was nervous about starting school.  (She had a terrible preschool experience in New Jersey.)  However, she was finally convinced that school was okay when I told her she got to ride the bus, eat in the cafeteria, and play on the playground…every day!  You can tell what’s the most important to a 5-year old!!!

Sabrina’s baby blessing

8-1-10

What a beautiful day!  It is always wonderful to reflect on the blessings of a new baby.  Sabrina has been an angel, and definitely what I need right now in my life.  I couldn’t ask for a more pleasant or peaceful third child.  

I’ve made all three of my girls’ blessing dresses and I had fun putting them together.  They are all so different and bring back so many memories of that time in our lives.  Who knows if I will get the chance to make another one…but I kinda hope so!

Chloe’s 4th Birthday Party

A kind of beach party…

So its been tradition for Chloe to have her birthday at the beach since we lived on the Jersey Shore for all of her other birthdays.  So of course she wanted to have a this year’s party at the beach too. We did the best we could with pulling out our little plastic swimming pool and making a “sand castle” cake.

 

But of course, I told Matt he had to finish putting together the playset before the birthday party, and so the night before my mom was helping him putting it together just after flying in from AZ.

The Elusive Smile

So Sabrina has definitely been our mildest baby (especially when I am careful what I eat).  But you would think by the pictures we have taken that she wasn’t very happy because no matter how hard we try (or how tricky we think we are) we haven’t been able to capture her smile.  We were lucky enough to get a picture of Sydney and Chloe’s first smiles just as they happened, but Sabrina is easily distracted and will not smile if the camera is anywhere near.   We have a whole collection of near misses, taken just after the smile disappeared.    

 

 

 

 

 

I even got to a point where I was frustrated at just missing the cutest smile and, in frustration, begged Chloe to make her smile.  She was more than happy to help me out in her own little way.

 

 

 

She’s been smiling since she was 4 1/2 weeks, so its been nearly 3 weeks of near misses, but I am happy that we can finally share her cute smile---even if its only a half smile and its a little fuzzy. (Notice how she had to be looking away from the camera!)

For My Momma

So I totally thought that once I set this blog up, I would never update it except when under extreme pressure.  But here I am finding so many things I keep telling people about and finally am getting around to showing.

Ever since we moved to our new home almost a year ago, we have loved how beautiful Maryland.  Even the brown of winter wasn’t as dreary or windy as New Jersey.  So when my mom came to visit when Sabrina was born, she gave me the motivation to finally take pictures of some of our beautiful scenery on our main roads right here.  Enjoy our heaven!

  

 

Also here are some photos of Sabrina chubbing up a little bit.  She is by far our most petite baby, but still long in comparison to other babies.

 

 

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Isn’t she sweet (ignoring the mohawk of course!).  I swear I see Matthew’s brother Stephen in her.  When will one of my children come out looking like me!?!   

Itty Bitty Sabrina

May 24, 2010—4:07 pm—7lbs 12oz—20.5 in

I know we’ve already sent pictures to most of our friends and relatives, but what better time to finally succumb to the “you’ve got to start a blog” pressure than a new start with a new little one. 

We started calling our new little baby "Itty Bitty” right away because she was so much smaller than we remember babies coming out…and she has stayed tiny. 

She’s also the best sleeper we’ve ever had and we finally have a baby that follows all of the descriptions of newborns in all of those books I was ready to toss after my first colicky child. (There were a lot of books!) She sleeps a ton, soothes easily, eats only when she’s hungry, and actually had a distinct 3 week fussy week that you read about, but I was never able to distinguish in my other babies.  Now at almost four weeks, I’m counting my blessings that I’ve been able to enjoy this newborn phase instead of pseudo existing in a delirious state of exhaustion.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still tired.  But at least I am cognizant of the world around me.

Here’s a video of Syd & Chlo meeting her for the first time.

 

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The Ranch

We went to my grandpa's ranch near Aripine, Arizona for the month of July(which is about 45 minutes away from the Snowflake temple). This was such a special place for my family growing up as we would spend our summers here to get a break from the heat. At the same time, we learned to climb trees, that beautiful sunsets mean grandma and grandpa love us, and its okay to get dirty!

It was such a treat for my girls to play with their cousins just like I did growing up (even though there was a LOT of us in my mom's nice new little cabin). It was funny at first to see how much of city-girls they were tripping through the forest, constantly trying to wipe their hands clean, and running from bugs (and dogs!). But in the end, they adored their aunts & cousins and brushed away a little of their city-girl edge.