More pictures as requested

She's a keeper!

She's here!!!

At 8:20 AM on March 13th, 2012 we met our little girl!! She's finally here! And she's a girl! All 7 lbs, 9 oz, 19 3/4 inches of her! Yes, she's a little messy here. Sorry to those who hate to see that, but it's her first picture!

Meeting mom. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. And don't I look like a floating, bodiless head? My anesthesiologist was hopping around us snapping pictures of our first meeting.

Snuggling with daddy.

And now with mommy.

Show us your muscles! And your double chin!

Big sisters LOVE everything about their new baby sister. They beg to hold, hug, kiss, sing to her to the second they walk through my door. Even dude has been quite interested in her, and not at all bothered by our holding her. Not sure what he's saying when he babbles about her and points, but you know.

He does touch her rather cautiously though. Which is good. We need him to stay "soft" with her. But he seems interested in pointing out to us that she has the basic body parts like toes, just like him.

And so I have to admit I had been a little nervous about having a baby in this smaller hospital. But they have taken such amazing care of us! First off, the C-section itself even went better. It took a little longer but felt much much less uncomfortable. And the doctor narrated for us what he was doing when we asked, which was really very cool. Then, I was treated to a complimentary massage and told the professional masseuse comes daily! I'm looking forward to another one today!!! Can you believe that people actually turn them down?! Why?! And all day yesterday, we were the only patients in the whole maternity ward so they jumped at the chance to do anything we needed right away. They've been so wonderful. (Today there's one other patient here that's being induced, so we'll have to share the nurses :) ) Then they brought in this package that they give to all new parents to celebrate. We're feeling very spoiled!

And our first family-of-6 photo! Welcome to the family Baby G!

It's a girl!!!

The last night

So my parents got here tonight in anticipation of the big day tomorrow, and we spent the day at some of the best places in The Dalles. Namely, Sorosis Park and the Baldwin Saloon. Yes, we brought all of our kids to eat dinner in a saloon. But it's historic. That makes it okay. And it's really really yummy with a seriously cool atmosphere.

Then we got home and took one last picture of our happy little family of five. Tomorrow, we'll be a happy big family of six!

Am I excited that it's only one more terrible night's sleep away? What do you think?

Last night ...

as a family of 5! Tonight we go out to eat at the best place in The Dalles - the Baldwin Saloon. Seriously old, awesome building and really delicious food as a major plus! And then, tomorrow we get to welcome mystery baby #4 into the world and into our family! Can't wait!!

T - 1 Day or around 23 hours to be precise

The other day I woke up from my nap to find this taped to my door. If you can't tell, she drew a boy's head and a girl's head and wrote, "Are you a boy or a girl newborn baby?" She's been really wanting to know. She actually asked the doctor a couple of appointments ago if he could just tell her. Yeah, as if she could keep the secret! She would've spilled the beans before we left the office. I'm not sure what's up with the cat, aside perhaps from another subtle reminder she'd like a pet. At least it appears to be less important than the baby :) So, what do you think? Your guess is as good as mine!

All about M

Three last pictures I had to add before I forget that they were ever taken in all the hullabaloo about to descend on our house. A couple of quick things about our 5 year-old M:
Favorite book - Anything Fancy Nancy
Favorite song - I Am A Child of God
Favorite food - Watermelon, strawberries, or anything with a high sugar content
Favorite color - Pink or gold, depending on her mood.

Loves to ... color, play imagination princess-oriented games, eat ice cream, dance, tell jokes, shoot nerf darts for her brother to chase down, ride scooters, get chased by daddy dragon at the park, go to preschool, wear dress-ups, feel the fluffies on her beloved pillow (and heaven help you if you made them warm), throw snow balls, swim underwater, sing songs she makes up as she goes along at the top of her "pretty voice (ridiculously high-pitched falsetto)," tell stories (everyone thinks she's shy and quiet but get her alone and there is no "off" button to the constant verbalization of her stream of consciousness), make her brother laugh, or play just about anything with her sister.

Hates to ... clean her room, get dressed for the day before noon, have stuff stolen by her brother, do anything quickly if there's something to be distracted by, go grocery shopping, and as mentioned above, have warm fluffies on her pillow.

We love her!

M's Never-Ending Birthday Celebrations

So let's pretend that it's two + weeks ago and I'm on-time blogging about M's big 5th birthday. Are you all pretending with me? Thanks. Now if only pretending my house were clean would make it so ....
Anyway, as I'd already mentioned, there had been quite the build-up to M's birthday with her claiming birthday privileges all year. She also drew pictures of birthday celebration expectations, requested watching birthday episodes of any show we happened to be watching, and told everyone who would listen that she was going to be 5 (and then next year, 6). She really had two main requests though. She wanted to go to John's Incredible Pizza, and to have a pinata. So here we were celebrating the big day (a week in advance because that's when we could get to Portland):

Good times! Nana, Bopa, Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Patti, Jim, Elena, Kyle, McKaylee, and Marlee joined us and it was a blast. What a place! It so out-Chuck-E-Cheeses Chuck-E-Cheese. It is spacious and clean and full of fun. Also, the food buffet is fantastic! And there's plenty of roomy seating that doesn't make you feel claustrophobic. We are officially fans. I think it's safe to say everybody had fun!

Then we raced home to celebrate with the Bernes, who joined us for pink cupcakes (of course). The girl is easy. I considered (briefly) making some fancy, impressive cake, but she REALLY REALLY loves to decorate her own cupcakes and just requested that they be pink. Then she and her sister had a blast dumping buckets-full of sprinkles on them while I kicked my feet up and relaxed (feeling only occasional semi-insane twinges of guilt that I hadn't been supermom).

Isn't she cute? And, as mentioned, this was all a week before the actual day! More to come.

Green Education

Not entirely sure what M was "studying" in preschool today but these were the first 2 things asked for in her prayer tonight: "And please bless that the earth will have no more trash on it, just recycling." Followed by, "And please bless that nobody litters." In her defense, I had asked her to think of something different to say tonight.

Good times at the Portland Zoo

 It had been a REALLY long time since we'd been to the zoo (I realized the other day that our little dude has never been, despite his total love/obsession with animals. And he's 17 months). It was a little chilly with the wind, but there was a gorgeous clear blue sky, which is as much as you can ask!

 The little guy was just thrilled to be outside and was happy in the stroller for a bit, but he couldn't really see the animals. But life was so much easier with him in the stroller. But he loves animals. But I'm too pregnant to chase after him. But what's the point of being at the zoo if you can't see the animals? But we'll never get him back in that stroller. But ... ah, there are just too many difficult decisions to make as a parent. I let him out when we got to the penguins, which were basically the first animal that was doing anything. I won't mention that we lost him at one point during the trip later when he ran out of a tree-surrounded play area and across a whole field when I merely turned my back to grab something out of the diaper bag. Shudder.

 But he did LOVE the penguins. And he's REALLY cute.

 Thankfully, I wasn't alone to chase after him and keep track of the girls at the same time. Grammy and Papa brought us to the zoo as a little pre-birthday celebration for M. Little man appreciated this greatly, and showed it by allowing them the great privilege of holding him every now and then when he needed a lift.

M likes to take full advantage of her birthday. The actual date was February 13th, but starting shortly after New Years, she was claiming birthday privileges. You know, like I get to go first in this game because I'm the birthday girl. J wasn't always willing to go along, but did more often than you'd think ... for a whole month.

Oh, and here's little man in the petting zoo. Grammy had been helping protect him but turned her back, and despite being no taller than the pygmy goats, he took off to tap each one of them on the back - like he was responsible for counting them or something. She turned around and saw him walking amidst a very tightly clustered group of 3 of them, shoving them a bit so he could get through. No fear. Just a love tap to each, and he moved on.

 Big Red could take some cues from her little brother. This shot required minutes of pep talks before she had the courage to get that close. Oddly she won't get anywhere near the head and prefers petting the back end. I, personally, would think avoiding the rear would be advisable. I guess it's just me.

Good times! Oh, here the girls are showing off their zoo stamps on their hands, not doing some weird salute. Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Silliness

Way to grow Spike! Spike (J's "pet") has been outgrowing Bobo (M's "pet") all along, and while M was sad about it for a few days, she decided it was all in the name. Neither her nor Bobo were to blame. Spike was just more motivated, thanks to being more appropriately named :)

 Man they've been looking forward to this day! Ha! It's pretty much as good as having a real pet, with very little clean-up involved.

 See what I mean about not growing as well. This is what Bobo's mane looked like BEFORE she started cutting. Kind of more like a clown-do than, you know, a serious little soil monkey head growing grass on our kitchen counter.

A buzz cut evened things out a bit. And made everybody happy. And left grass clippings all over the table. Still better than doggie doo-doo I say.

Are we having fun yet?

We were doing a new birthday puzzle this morning as a family--a puzzle that turned out to be a lot harder than expected (one of those lenticular ones that change picture as you move back and forth. Yeah, we don't recommend them). The girls had a couple of gems about the experience:

J: This puzzle says it's for ages 6 and up, but it's so hard for me! It's even hard for 30- and 31-year-olds... and those are BIG numbers (we laughed and pointed out that most people don't like being told they're old. It's one thing to tell mom and dad that, but please try not to tell other people that)!

M: Yeah. This puzzle is stupid-hard.