Fancy Baby Pictures

Those who know me personally, can tell you that splurging on "fancy newborn pictures" is not really my thing. But when your professional photographer friend wants to take pictures of your sweet newborn, it's really hard to say no!!

So, friends, here is Georgia's photographic debut!

If you love these pictures and want some of your own, please talk to my friend Kellie Conlon!! She does great work, is really sweet and accommodating with the kiddos and really makes beautiful pictures! Here's a link to her site.

Seriously. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Call her. You won't regret it. I only wish I had done maternity pictures with her!! But, hopefully, she will be doing our Holiday Pictures!!

I just had a baby!

Words can not begin to express how happy I am to be able to share that sentence!!! After what seemed like a never ending day, Georgia Waverly is finally here and a real member of our family! She was born on May 28 at 1:29am (1 whole minute before my own deadline...) and weighs in at a whopping 6lbs and 10 ounces, 19 inches long. Below is our story and pictures!!

Best moment of the whole night was finally being able to get that little girl on my chest!!!

I went to the hospital at about 10:30 in the morning because, well, nothing felt "right". The girls got dropped off at story time with nanny Melanie, Annie was at a friend's house, so it was me and the boys. Jonas and Geoff were both hungry and tired, respectively, and annoying me in the waiting room, so I sent them both home before even getting checked into a room. I texted Kati, my doula, and told her what was going on. She offered to come to the hospital to keep me company and I accepted.

Since the computer was not picking up my contractions and they had my due date wrong (they thought I was only 36 weeks and 2 days instead of 37 weeks and 4 days), the hospital wanted to send me home. My doctor corrected my due date and scheduled me to be induced the following week. He told me that if I could get my cervix to change or my water broke on it's own, then I could have my baby, but otherwise, he was stuck. So off Kati and I went!

I had not eaten all morning because nothing felt right. Since they did an ultrasound in the hospital and showed me my baby was doing fine, I was now VERY hungry! Kati and I went to Chipotle where I proceeded to eat an entire salad. Something I had not been able to do for most of the last few months of my pregnancy! We walked to Target to take care of return for Kati and that is when things started to get interesting.

While we were at Target, my contractions started to pick up. So we walked some more. Finally, we had seen enough of Target and Kati wanted me to be closer to the hospital in case things got more interesting. So we walked to Panera and got some drinks and headed to the hospital, making sure to hit every speed bump and pothole along the way!

We arrived at the hospital, where I knew my contractions had still not picked up enough to stay...so we walked...and we walked...and we texted my doctor, who suggest we keep walking until I couldn't take it...so we walked....and we talked...and we walked... and we texted the birth photographer...and we walked.... and we walked some more! Then we went inside...I proceeded to walk the entire lobby, round and round and round. Geoff and the big kids showed up with flowers and I continued to walk...

We finally got in a room around 8pm and low and behold I had changed my cervix! I was at a 4 when I left and now I was a 5.5!!! Hooray!!! Lexie got there just about then. My doctor came in and confirmed I had indeed changed my cervix and then broke my water and we were off and running!! Geoff and I walked the floor and Lexie followed us taking pictures. Contractions got stronger and it was time to head back to the room to check on baby.

Such a crazy and wonderful night!

By 11 this routine had gotten old and tiring. I was worried I wouldn't be able to make it to the end, so I asked for an epidural....that worked for 20 minutes or so. By 12:15 I was shaking so hard the bed was shaking, Geoff was shaking, everything was shaking. My doctor was called and after about 3 contractions and 1 strong push, Georgia Waverly was born!!! It was quite a dramatic day, but such a wonderful evening!!!

Geoff, Katie and I with our sweet Peach Pie!!!

The Peach herself! Georgia Waverly

Recipe: Chicken Enchilada Casserole Crock Pot

This week, we have reached an all new level of meal planning!!! I am so proud of us!

We have planned meals, shopped for them and made dinner AT HOME every night this week.

Here's what we've done so far:

Sunday:
Monday: Walking Tacos
Tuesday: Meatball Subs
Wednesday: burgers and dogs on the grill, greek salad and green bean casserole
Thursday: chicken enchilada casserole
Friday: leftovers!!!!
Saturday: meatball stroganoff

Last nite was the chicken enchilada casserole. Even Dilly loved it!I found the recipe in the Busy Bees Crockpot Cookbook. Once I read it, I knew it had to change, for starters, there were no veggies and i can't eat meat out of a can....just can't. So here's the recipe that I made:

1 10oz can of red enchilada sauce
1 cup sour cream
1 can corn
2 breasts of chicken cooked and shredded

Layer in the crockpot, from bottom to top:

a few spoonfuls of sauce and sour cream
tortilla shells, torn to cover the bottom
2 large handfuls of spinach
1/2 the chicken, corn and sauce mix
2 large handfuls of cheese
tortilla shells, torn to cover the layer
2 large handfuls of spinach
1/2 the chicken, corn and sauce mix
2 large handfuls of cheese

Cook on high for 1 hour and 15 minutes and enjoy some yummy goodness!!! Please forgive the lack of pics of food, but I do have a pic of Dilly eating up!

Daddy dressed Me!

One of the greatest highlights of my day, is getting pictures from my husband of our kiddos! Since he has the babies all day long, by himself, I don't always get to join in the fun of picking out cute clothes for our little babies!

Here are a few of the sweet pictures he has sent me over the past few weeks.

I really like this one of the babies sitting in the toddler chair together! It's a chair full of baby!!!

 

Geoff was really proud of this outfit, tie-dyed onsie, purple jacket and pink snuggly sweatpants...seriously, do these children get any cuter!?!?!?!?

Lissy is quite proud of her climbing abilities. I however, am loving these overalls! So far, she and Annie have each worn them and every time it is so cute!!!

 

I still love how cute she is in the peace sign tshirt and she (and the big kids) really enjoyed the challah Geoff made. It had a cream cheese filling rolled into it before the whole thing was braided into a round challah. Seriously, it was amazing.

And of course, who wouldn't love a child wearing a fabric headband. She looks like a hippie baby and it so cute!

I feel like I should be asking her when she's going to clean the toys up!

Happy Friday!
 

6 months of cuteness in pictures!

Now that Dilly is 6 months old, I thought I'd share 6 months of cute pictures. Don't worry, it's not a picture per day. She has been such a joy to have as a part of our family. It is so funny, because when I found out I was pregnant, before  I told Geoff, it seemed crazy to me to think of having 4 children. Now that we have 4 children, I couldn't imagine our home without all of them. Our most recent addition, Lillian Daphne, fondly known as Dilly.

She has been such a sweet baby. She smiles, is rather round, which is always cute on a baby and is working hard to be able sit up on her own and we can all tell that any minute now she will be moving around! Life will certainly be crazy then!

When she was born she weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. This is the whole gang all together on the outside for the first time. Dilly was about 5 minutes old.

We had Lissy's 1 year and Dilly's newborn pictures taken by my friend, Laurie. She owns Southern Style Photography.  

Below is Dilly on her 2 month birthday.

 
at 2 months old she weighed 10 pounds and 8 ounces and was 24 inches long.

by 6 months she weighed 16 pounds 13 ounces and was 27 inches long.

She now coos and smiles and everyone, nearly sleeps through the nite and will laugh and hold hands with LissyJane while Lissy Jane dances in front of her.

I cant' wait to see how she changes over the next 6 months. I know having 2 little ones is going to be crazy, especially with 2 big kids at the same time, but none the less; I am excited for what the future holds for our family.

 

Exersaucer Time!

Now that Dilly has gotten bigger, it was time to bring out the exersaucer so that she could start working on strengthening her legs. She did great her first time in the exersaucer and seemed to have a lot of fun.

What we didn't expect was what kept happening during the day on Sunday...Lissy kept climbing into the exersaucer! As you can see from the pictures below, she was constantly putting her baby into the exersaucer and climbing on top and standing before climbing into the seat and playing with all the toys.

As you can see in the picture, she put crayons in the bottom of the exersaucer earlier while playing.

                                    So proud of herself that she got in and was able to play!

 It was hilarious to watch her play and then get frustrated when she couldn't get herself out!!!