Ode to BUD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Two years ago you came into our life weighing 8 pounds, 11 ounces. If I had known the joy you would bring into our life, I probably would have scheduled the induction for a couple of weeks earlier so that you wouldn't be so huge.

Today, you crash the scales somewhere around 28 pounds. You're such a joy... and have such a marvelous smile through that thumb that is constantly in your mouth. You are such a good helper to "Baby" and your sisters adore you. (So does Mom.) I love how you want to give kisses to baby in the morning, and your wonderful hugs. And I even love that you're sitting on my lap waiting patiently for me to put the "Bear Bowling" game on the computer.

Your favorite things are trucks, "Ninnens" (kittens, for those who don't speak LeGrand), Ammon. CHEESE, and being as close to Mom as you can possibly get. All the time. I love you, Bud.

We're celebrating on Sunday, you'll all have to wait for cake pictures until then. Please.

The First Sunny Day

Really. It was FINALLY fantastic outside! We've waited all winter (and all spring that thought it was winter...) to have nice weather. And what did the children do?! They went swimming. In the Rubbermaid tote that the outside toys go in. Even LeGrand got in on the fun.

This IS my Mean Face...

Savannah had a Father/Daughter Activity for Achievement Days last week. The theme was a "Father-Daughter Hoe-Down". They did "Wanted" posters. This is the picture Savannah had on hers. I'm not sure how mean she looks - it just makes me laugh.

Andrew's New Blog...

Check out Andrew's Projects and what he's doing HERE! Please pass this blog address to your friends and family and anyone who might need some custom woodworking done.

He's got some amazing projects here; some that I'd love to keep... but I'd rather let someone else keep them!

I'll keep a link on the sidebar of our blog - please check back often for new things to buy and see.

Look What Crawled Out From Under the Deck!?!?!

Thank goodness it's not Snakes. You can see LeGrand is NOT thrilled about the kittens... at least he wasn't. Now he doesn't want to let them be. My guess is that these Kittens (who all have names now (Shadow, Toes, Socks, Fudge and Victor) are somewhere around 7-8 weeks old. They're starting to eat solid foods, and their Mom is starting to teach them to do other things. Like hunt. And kill mice. They'll be a great generation of mousers. We'll see how long they last - we quit counting the number of cats we've had around here after 20.

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE

There's a LOT of cheese going on here. Margaret LOVES the camera, and can't wait for me to take her picture. (Not something I do as often as one would expect...) Caroline... well, I found this cute little hat, and I just love babies in hats. I couldn't resist. (And isn't Caroline getting some cute little fat rolls??!!)

I Only Laugh 'Cause She's Cute.

If she weren't so cute, it wouldn't be funny.

Caroline has a sense of humor. A good one. She decided that barfing down Mom's shirt (completely missed the shirt) was worth smiling over.

What could I do? I smiled back. Even though inside I was cringing.

Good thing baby barf doesn't trigger the sympathy barf that kid barf does.

What I did Last Weekend...

Last Friday, all full of energy, I decided to do a deep clean to my house. Doesn't it look clean? It was an all day event - thankfully, you're spared the "Before" shots. It wasn't pretty before I cleaned. Even the girls got involved dusting the baseboards... until I dusted the fans, and they discovered that the baseboards were filthy again. It was certainly a wake up call for the amount of dust that gathers when one burns two woodstoves in the house. And an event that will certainly happen more than once every other year. Enjoy the tour!

Welcome to the Sun Room. This is the "main" entrance to the house, and certainly the one that is the hardest to keep clean. After the Sun Room, you'll walk through the kitchen into the dining room, which then leads to the living room. (I put up new drapes and changed the furniture... it's a lot brighter now, and feels so much better.) The final picture is our music room - note the new bookshelves in the corner. Andrew built them. (Isn't he WONDERFUL? He's also for hire. If you need new bookshelves or built-ins, or anything built, he's pretty handy with a hammer...) The music room isn't quite finished - it needs a new coat of paint and some sheers in the window, and I'm still working on moving the books to the shelves (I found four unopened boxes of books the other day... I'll need the shelves for them! Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE books???)

I'm just glad to have a clean house... This week's resolution is to keep it that way... After all this cleaning, I went to the temple to clean there. I was reminded that there are still areas of my home that need some attention. You don't get pictures of those... :)

The Elusive Smile

She doesn't like to show her gums... but one of these days, I'll get a picture of her with her ear to ear!

The things boys do...

When Mom's not looking, LeGrand finds all sorts of things to get into. He thinks he's an artist and his FACE is the canvas... Pardon the Boogers. His Chinese writing took precedence over the kleenex.

LeGrand Johnson

Isn't he HANDSOME??? He was first in line for "school" photos, and did such a great job of doing what I asked him to do! The hat he's wearing is from LeGrand Johnson Construction Company... seemed appropriate for him to wear it, considering that he's named after the founder of the company (no, we don't know the man, just thought it was a good solid name...)

As of this posting, LeGrand is 20 months old, and smart as a whip. He gains more words in his vocabulary daily!

Learning to smile

Well - she's getting to be at that stage where she's starting to smile. So far, the smile has been elusive, but we'll get it one of these days! Right now, I think we're getting the pre-smile. It's beautiful.

Look for blessing pictures to come later this week - we're doing them at the same time as school photos on Friday, weather pending.

Must. Hold. Head. Up.

This picture seems to say, "Mom, please hurry and take the picture, this is hard!" Immediately after taking this picture, she put her head back down on the pillow, and didn't look up again. I guess we wore her out...

I never realized how difficult it must be for an infant to hold their head up, but Caroline is doing very well, and Savannah and Margaret most definitely thought it was something funny to see. They were very nearly rolling on the floor in stitches as she started looking up. These were taken this afternoon...

Caroline is now 6.5 weeks old.

Wardrobe provided by Aunt Patience Mastny and her lovely Daughters (and possibly Mateo...)

Baking Bread

Buttering the tops of the finished product...
The UN-Finished product...

I have been putting off making bread for the last six weeks - only because I've been otherwise occupied with Caroline (whom I wouldn't trade for the world, by the way). Today, I decided that it needed to happen, so I enlisted the help of my two best helpers. My other two helpers watched.

After making the dough, I divided it so that the girls could make their own. I did NOT touch their loaves, only showed them how to form them by making my own. Sometimes it's hard to not do something for them, but the looks of joy were unmatched. We'll definitely be doing this again.

Wardrobe protection provided by Grandma Pierce.

More Caroline photos

You asked, we're delivering. LeGrand loves his baby sister.. every time he sees her, he has to point out that she has a nose, eyes, hair, fingers and toes. And he runs to bring her diapers and blankets and everything that I might need. She's the first thing that he wants to see in the morning (even before Mom...). I love it.

Enjoy the photos! The cradle that Caroline is in is a doll cradle. She still fits into it.

Caroline at one month...

At one month is 6 pounds, 1 ounce. She's 20 inches long - a gain of 1.25 inches over the last month. It's a good thing children don't continue to lengthen at that rate - if they did, she'd be a monster! Her weight gain is slow, but sure. Considering the amount of time that I spend feeding the hungry, I'm actually surprised that she's not a butterball yet, but she'll get there!

The dress that she's wearing is a dress made for an American Girl doll. It's the only one that she has that fits her perfectly. (And she's absolutely adorable in it - but I'm biased...)

In the last month, I've re-discovered how to eat with my left hand, learned that LeGrand is a BIG boy (FYI - he tips the scale at 27 lbs, and is 32 inches tall...) and that I don't really like carrying him around... and we've all learned that Caroline is the perfect addition to our family. I already don't remember what life was like before her.

Margaret and LeGrand

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago... Margaret was trying to get me to take her picture through the window... it worked! (She saw the camera and immediately went into "cheese" mode...)

This is LeGrand's "NO" face. It's one of the rare moments that he doesn't have his thumb in his mouth...

Baby Update

Caroline had her second well-baby check yesterday. Proof positive that she's eating... she's gained 7 ounces! She's still itty-bitty, but she now weighs 5 lbs, 11 oz. (And her cheeks are plumping up!

LeGrand on the other hand weighs in at 25.5 lbs. He's a tank.

Making Amends...

Caroline had her first "after I was born" visit from the Midwife yesterday. She's healthy and growing! However... we have to amend her birth weight.

Yesterday she tipped the scales at 5 lbs, 4 oz. No, she hasn't lost THAT much weight, after re-weighing her on the fish scale she was originally weighed on, we determined that her birth weight had been off...

SO... here are the stats: On 26 February 2010, sometime between 12:45 and 12:50 AM, Caroline Louise Stahr entered the world. She tipped the scales at a whopping 5 lbs, 10 oz. No wonder she doesn't fit into anything that we have for her! She was still 18.75 inches long, making her the record smallest baby in the Andrew and Linda Stahr family. She fits into Savannah and Margaret's baby crib. And there's still a little room for growth there.

She eats well, sleeps even better, and is expected to start making headway in her poundage shortly! I'll keep everyone posted.

LeGrand dotes on her, and the other children beg to hold her. We're keeping Margaret at bay until her runny nose leaves.

Mother is doing fabulously, and feeling great about how quickly the recovery seems to be going. Don't worry, I'm still taking my daily naps...

Caroline in Color

This is for you, Dad...