Smiles abound!!

This past Saturday Nora shared her first real smile. Daddy was the lucky recipient. Momma got her first few smiles on Sunday morning.

Since then, Nora's smiled here and there, but not with a lot of frequency still.

This morning, right after I changed her diaper, I was chattering away to her when she gave me the biggest, goofiest, gummiest grin ever! Lucky me, my camera was within arm's reach, so I was able to snap a couple of shots of her beautiful sunshine-y smile!!!!

Here they are:




....it sure looks like we've got another dimpled kid on our hands, don't it??

Cobbler recipe

Earlier this week I posted a request for a yummy cobbler recipe. I wanted to have a tried-and-true recipe to use for some of the fresh peaches that the girls picked last Saturday. Char from Give Me The Simple Life shared with me her recipe.

According to Gordon, it was TO DIE FOR. I agree -- it was *quite* yummy. Better yet, super easy to make! (If I can throw all the ingredients together and get the darn thing in the oven all while dealing with a fussy almost-six-week-old, then it MUST be easy!)

For those curious enough to try it, here's Char's recipe:

1 C sugar

2 tsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 C sliced peeled fresh peaches

Topping:

1 C sugar

1 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/3 C cold butter

(the recipe also calls for 1 egg, beaten, one time I forgot to add it and I thought it was great without it too so I just usually skip this step...just one less thing...but try it either with or without...good either way)

In a bowl combine first 4 ingredients, add peaches, stir to coat. Pour into a greased (I just used Pam spray!) 11"x7"x2" pan. For topping combine sugar, flour, baking powder & salt, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in egg (or not!) Spoon it over the peaches. Bake at 375 for 35 to 40 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden. Serve hot or cold with ice cream if desired. Yield 8-10 servings.

** FWIW, I did add the egg. We've got so many of them that I couldn't justify NOT using one!! ;)

You should have seen me dancing....

Yesterday was the first day of school for the 2008-2009 year. Not like y'all didn't know....I've only been counting down all summer long!

My girls were both very very happy to be heading off to school and seeing all of their friends once again.



The return of Miss Debbie, the bus driver, was a wonderful thing -- she'd been talking about leaving the job towards the end of the last school year. I guess the summer break gave her enough time to recuperate and rejuvenate and gear up for another year of kids screaming!



Boy, you should have seen me dance all the way back up the driveway as Miss Debbie and her big yellow bus drove off!!! ;)

Final day of Freedom

Today is the very last day of summer vacation. The girls go back to school tomorrow morning.

We are heading over to Amy's house this morning. Grace has asked that Amy's daughter, Hannah, help her practice showing Littlekins (her cockerel -- young rooster) for the Showmanship competition at the fair we'll be going to this weekend.

The bonus is that Amy had also invited another little girl to play this morning. She's going to be in Samantha (Amy's youngest) and Dianna's class this year. Since this girl will not know anyone else in the class, her mother and Amy arranged a playdate to help the little girl feel a little less shy tomorrow.

First things first. I need to wait on my washer to finish washing a load of diapers. I'm so excited to try out the new/used diaper covers that I just got for Nora. I found a site (based on the recommendation of my friend Shannon at A Crafty Mom's Blog ) called Diaper Swappers . This is a forum where cloth-diapering Mommas go to trade or sell quality cloth diapers and diapering accessories. I found one Momma's listing that had three of the style diaper covers we're using for sale. They were an EXCELLENT price, so I jumped on it! These covers are not white, they have froggy designs on them -- so cute. I'll have to try to remember to take a picture of Miss Nora's bum when she's wearing them so that I can share with you how cute these covers are.

And now my Precious is fussing. Time to change a diaper and get her dressed for the day! Till next time....

The Name Game

We received a card in the mail today from Gordon's Aunt Patsy. She received the birth announcement that I mailed out a couple of weeks ago. Along with a congratulatory card, she sent a little hand-written note. (WHY can't more people handwrite notes like that -- it's always soooo awesome to get something other than an advertisement or bill in the mail!!) She had commented on how she thought it was so nice that we have used family names for our children.

Grace's middle name is Laurel, after both Grammie (Gordon's mom) and my cousin's wife.

Dianna's middle name is Katherine, a slight variation of Kathy (Gordon's sister).

William's first name is after my father, and his middle name, Bayston, is the same as Grandpa Herb's middle name (Gordon's dad).

Eleanor's middle name is Ruth, the same as my mom's middle name.

The coincidence in all of this is that Ruth also happens to be Aunt Patsy's middle name! I had no idea, but am absolutely thrilled that Nora has this little bit of a connection to women from both sides of her family.

Shopping success!

We had a great time shopping yesterday. Lisa and Marli were both such a big help. They helped the girls to coordinate outfits, and then were there to help me check out and comment on the various outfits when it was time to try them on. Lisa even bought a few things when I told the girls that I wouldn't purchase all that they'd picked out!

I think we barely escaped breaking the bank, though I'm sure Gordon will say otherwise when he sees the bank statement this month! The good news is that the only other thing that I'd thought to try to purchase for the girls for school would be raincoats. Hopefully those won't add too much more to the school-clothes-budget!

School countdown continues

Three more days till the big yellow bus comes barreling down my street!!

The girls and I are going school shopping this afternoon after church. They truly don't need much, but it'll be fun to take them to pick out a few new clothing items. I just pray they don't try to break the bank!

Picking Peaches

Yesterday the girls and I went with Lisa and crew to Johnny Appleseeds to do some peach picking. My two big girls had a 1/2 bushel box full in less than five minutes!

....whoever said child labor is a bad thing.....maybe I should rent them out to local orchards.....it'd be a great way to add money to their college savings!?

I'm anxious to find a good peach cobbler recipe to try out -- anyone have one they're willing to share?? What? Oh, I know, June is supposed to have her own host of good recipes, which I do, but I've never before made peach cobbler. I'm sure my handy-dandy Betty Crocker cookbook will have a good one, but a tried and true recipe is always best, IMO.

Because we have so many peaches, and I don't want to gain a bajillion pounds from eating nothing but cobbler for the next three months, I will also be freezing a lot for use later on. I plan on blanching the peaches, peeling them, and then slicing them up to freeze. I know that I can buy powdered 'Fresh Fruit' to sprinkle on the peach slices so that they won't brown, but does anyone know if lemon juice will work just as well? I might have to give it a try and see for myself....

Let the Countdown Begin!

The 2008-2009 school year begins in six days!!

I'm totally looking forward to getting the girls on the bus next Wednesday morning. Yet I'm scared at the same time. Not for the usual reasons. I'm happy thinking about my big girls going back to school. Even happier thinking of how Dianna will be attending full days now that she's entering First Grade. (which translates to me having more time for errands and appointments during the day, because I won't be watching the clock and waiting for the mid-day Kindergarten bus to bring her home)

What's got me scared is the fact that I'll be on my own with both Will and Nora. I know I've done it before -- there was a slightly smaller age gap between Grace and Dianna (they're 22 mos apart).

BUT both of the big girls have been such a big help to me since I had Nora. They have been good about playing with their little brother to help keep him entertained while I attend to Nora throughout the day. They have both been good about getting his snacks or drinks if I'm busy nursing Nora when he wants something. They've been great about helping me to keep things running smoothly these last four weeks.

And, in less than a week, I'm truly going to be on my own again with a toddler and an infant both needing me simultaneously just about every single waking moment of the day.

I'm sure we'll all survive. Will is going to have to learn to be patient. He'll practice the art of waiting for his turn. Nora's schedule will spread out a before long, giving Will and I more one on one time together. And I will be perfecting my multi-tasking skills. I will be accomplishing more things at once than I ever considered possible.

I WILL SURVIVE!!

right?

Birth Announcement

Per Alicia's request, I'm sharing the final Birth Announcement design with all of my faithful blog readers. All three of you. ;)

update on Di's eye

It's a good thing we decided to call the opthamologist. There was still something in Di's eye. It was stuck under her upper eyelid, so every time she blinked it was scratching and irritating her eye even more. The doctor prescribed some optic bacitracin and some other kind of eye drop for her.

Gordon reports that Dianna was a perfect patient. She admits that she was nervous and scared, but she didn't show it! She was good and quiet and followed directions well. She didn't cry, scream, or refuse to cooperate.

Because of Dianna's awesome bravery and well-behaved-ness, Gordon suggested that Dianna should get an extra special big treat. So Mommy offered up a lunch (and dessert) at Friendly's. Dianna was THRILLED -- she loves that place!

Wait -- the story gets better

Can you believe that my kids were well behaved at the restaurant? Can you believe I didn't have to threaten bodily harm or that we'd have to leave without our ice creams if someone didn't act better?

I swear, I walked out of Friendly's feeling more like June Cleaver than I ever have!!

Grace was at the neighbor's house playing (and didn't want to join us when I stopped by to pick her up), so it was just the younger three kidlets with me. Dianna didn't bicker. She wasn't bossy. She didn't whine. She was kind and sweet the entire time. I didn't need to remind her to use her good manners at all.

Will didn't scream. He didn't try to make a break for it and run for freedom. He didn't throw himself down on the floor to show the world his best 'pitch a fit' pose. He didn't throw the crayons all over the place. The worst thing he did was take his sneakers off, which we simply left on the floor till it was time to head out.

Then there's Nora. She looked so angelic in her infant seat, snoozing away the lunch hour. She woke briefly but was snoozing again shortly after I picked her up and held her in my arms.

Somebody pinch me!

NO! Wait -- DON'T pinch me!!! If this is a dream, I want it to last forever!!!!

OH! and I just want to rave on the fabulous drive-thru at the CVS pharmacy. They've had that thing in place since well before we moved to the area, but I've never once tried it. Dunno why, but I just never think about it till I'm already on my way back out to the car with my prescriptions in hand. Well, I tried it today. I swung into the CVS parking lot and drove right up to the window to drop off the prescription orders. I told the girl at the window that we'd be back in an hour and a half. Sure enough, we were back in just about that much time and Di's 'scripts were ready and waiting! I didn't have to unload all the kids to drag them into the pharmacy and hear the never-ending 'can I' begging and whining.

Aaaaahhhhhh. Today's a good day!

Is that a fly in your eye??

Right this very moment, Gordon is taking Dianna to the Opthamologist (sp??). She got something in her eye yesterday that has completely irritated her eye. We tried flushing her eye a few different times yesterday, but never did see anything in there, nor did we see anything come out. Still, the lid is now all puffy and both the lid and the eye itself are all red.

This is not the first time we've been down this road with Dianna. Three years ago (almost exactly!) she had a bug fly in her eye. She refused to allow Gordon and I to try to flush it out. She refused to even allow us to look at it. We ended up bringing her to the emergency room that time, only for them to tell us that we would need to bring her to the eye doctor the following day because they couldn't get a good look at it.

Gee....I wonder WHY they couldn't get a good look at it -- there were only THREE adults holding her down. Wasn't that enough to keep her still????

Back to the story.

So I took Dianna to the eye doctor the next day. He got a better look at her eye, but didn't see anything in there. He did say that there was an irritation and gave us a prescription for some eye drops to help it feel better.

I just pray that Dianna is a better patient this time around. And that there's no major damage to her eye. (Which we still have yet to figure out how something got in there, let alone what it is)

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As for my mastitis, I believe we're on the way to recovery!

To my *utter* disappointment (pun intended), the Bag Balm that I had was not the same as the Udder Balm that Amy and Pauline mentioned. Instead, I went out to get some lotion that had peppermint oil in it. I only applied it once. But I think that a combination of the lotion and all the other measures I've taken is just the trick.

I did the moist/hot compress thing.

I did the massage the duct thing.

I did the nurse frequently thing.

I even did the pump after nursing to be sure we got ALL the milk out thing.

It's amazing. I went to bed last night with a painful throbbing and woke this morning feeling like a new Momma.

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Tonight is the official start of Grace's soccer season. She will join the rest of her team for the first practice of the season tonight. She's super excited.

I can't believe it's starting so early! The past couple of years she didn't started until at least mid-September. Apparently the competition team gets a longer season.

Annual BBQ

We had our annual BBQ this past Saturday. It was a HUGE success! I swear we had about double the amount of attendees than we normally do.

I guess Nora was a big curiousity.

That's ok with me. I had hoped to make our BBQ a sort of 'Welcome Baby' kind of party when I first started planning it a few months back. So everyone got what they wanted!

Sorry to say I didn't once touch my camera. I was too busy flitting about, trying to visit with everyone.

So much for me having a relaxing time, just sitting back. With as many people as we had, I couldn't help but let that 'Hostess with the Mostest' hat come out and play.

It just sucks that I didn't get to visit with everyone anywhere near as much as I'd have liked to. :(

*****************************************************

In other news, I have been dealing with more problems nursing Miss Nora than I have with my other three. I am in the middle of dealing with a mild case of mastitis -- for the second time!

Last week I was feeling all sorts of yucky and achy. It didn't take me long to put two and two together when I saw red streaking on my anatomy. As soon as that was discovered, I kicked it into high gear. I nursed Nora FREQUENTLY and drank oodles and oodles of water. Within less than 24 hours, I was a whole new woman.

This morning the symptoms all started all over again. Right before the four kids and I left to go to the Town Green for a walk. Lovely.

So I started the whole drinking oodles of water again and Nora and I took a nap together so that I could nurse her pretty much non-stop this afternoon. (She LOVES to nurse and doze at the same time....when I nurse her in my bed, we BOTH get to doze at the same time! Bonus!!)

** FWIW, I didn't totally neglect my other children. The big girls went across the street to play with their friend, Samara, and William was ready for his daily nap too. So he napped in his bed while Nora and I napped in mine.

I pray that I get this thing licked once and for all. And NEVER EVER EVER EVER have to deal with it ever again!!!

Singing little helper

This morning I heard a little sing-songy voice over in the corner of my bedroom where Nora's cradle is located. It was singing, 'Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.'

I turned around from my computer desk (where I'd been stalking....er....reading some friends' blogs) to find the following:


Will kept trying to cover his baby sister, which is a sweet thing to do -- except when it includes covering her face.....she doesn't care for that too much!

I dunno what he was thinking when I 'caught' him in the act, but as soon as I started snapping pictures he gave me this face:

And just because you couldn't see Nora's face very well in any of those pictures, here's a picture I snapped later on this morning of her playing with on her little mat...

Checks and balances

Ok, maybe the title for this post should be more like 'BALANCING THE CHECKBOOK'.

But 'Checks and Balances' sounds cooler, no?

Anyway.

Gordon and I share our financial duties. To be completely honest and fair, he's the primary payer of all bills. It's very rare that I actually take a moment to schedule payments from our online checking account.

Which is very strange. Because every job I've had since growing up and getting a real job has been in accounting. And I LOVE working with numbers.

Honestly. The favorite part of my job at the dealerships was reconciling the bank statements for all eleven different stores. The auto auction's was the best -- it was usually 18-20 pages worth of statement and such a complete mess to balance. I would often find it off by a penny or so after my first go-through, so I'd end up spending time playing detective to find out why/where the balance became off.

I especially triumphed when I'd find it was a bank error!!!

But back to my story for today. Because we have online banking, Gordon usually just reconciles the account whenever he sits down to pay some bills. Gone are the days that I'd get the bank statement in the mail and would sit down to reconcile the account against the statement. Every now and again I'll sit down to pay a bill or two and will reconcile the account myself. The last time I did this was the end of June or early July.

Gordon has been telling me that something's wrong with the account. He hasn't been able to reconcile it down to the penny since I last did it myself. It's been off and he just can't seem to figure out where/why/how.

He's even had the audacity to infer that it may be my fault it isn't balancing. I was, afterall, the last one to touch the account and have it balance properly. At least that was his way of thinking.

So I finally sat down this morning to figure it out. (Remember I said I loved this part of my old job?? I still love a good numbers-mystery!)

It took me a while, but I finally found the error. And I am thrilled to announce that it was NOT my fault! I even called Gordon all triumphantly to tell him that it was HIM and not me who made the error. Yay me.

So now our account is all balanced and all is right in the world of banking once again.

Fair Weekend

This weekend is the town's annual fair. Grace entered her four bantam chickens as exhibits. I'm thrilled to announce that she got Champion Bantam and Reserve Champion Bantam with two of her four birds!!! I'm so proud for her and she's super excited!

I had debated entering some of my photographs into the photography competition, but opted not to. It was a last minute consideration, and I didn't want to feel rushed. (I'd have had to get mats to frame the pictures with, which I don't have laying around)

As would be typical for me, I'm now regretting my decision to not rush and get at least one photograph entered. I really think I could have given everyone who did enter a run for their money.

Not that I'm biased or anything.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, the next fair we'll be attending is Labor Day Weekend, at the Haddam Neck Fair. Grace will again be entering her bantams. She may even try out the Showmanship Competition, where she'll be tested in front of judges and compared against peers in her knowledge and handling of her chicken.

I *will* be entering a few photographs at the Haddam Neck Fair. No doubt about it. I've got a few weeks to pour over all of my pictures from the last year. I'll have plenty of time to pick up some mats to frame them with. I'm sooooooooooo excited!!

Welp, we've got a few more things to do here at home before we head back over to the fairgrounds. Have a great rest of your weekend, readers!

1,000 views!!!

Y'all love me, you really do!

I created an account with Blogpatrol back in the end of May. I was curious to see how many people actually visit my blog. This site helps track not only how many people have stopped in to view my blog, but also various other stats like what pages on my blog everyone is visiting and other statistics like that.

I realize I've boosted my blog traffic a bit by sharing my blog with more friends and family members, but I simply can't believe that I've had 1,000 views on this blog in about 2.5 mos time!

Anyway, just had to share my jaw-dropping awe!

Nora's well-baby visit

Today was Nora's two-week checkup. She's one healthy little girl!! She weighed in at 9lb2oz, which is a whole pound more than what she was weighing when we took her in last Thursday -- eight days ago. Most babies at this stage in the game have an average weight gain of about 1oz per day. Not Nora, she's gained an average of 2oz/day!!

Also, Nora measured 22.5" in length. This measurement pretty much confirms Gordon's suspicions that the nurse at the hospital made a mistake in measuring her after birth. A 2.5" growth just seems a little large for a baby to make over a 2.5week timeframe.

No vaccines needed at this time. She won't be needing any shots until we go back in mid-September, for her 2-month well-baby visit. YAY!!

We've got a boy alright!

Yesterday afternoon, while out with the three girls, Gordon called my cell phone. He needed to share with me his re-affirmation that our son REALLY is what my mother endearingly says -- 'ALL Boy'.

And now I shall share the same story with all of you....

The two of them had been outside working in the backyard. After a short while, Gordon noticed that Will didn't have his hat on. Being the good Daddy that he is, he went inside to search it out.

After finding the missing cap, Gordon came back outside to find Will holding something up in the air. Will was saying something, but Gordon was #1 not paying 100% attention on the words coming out of Will's mouth, and #2 is not as fluent in William-speak as I am.

Gordon 'assumed' (we ALL know what that truly means) that Will was holding up a rock to show Daddy and also 'assumed' that Will was talking about said rock. So Gordon responded with something like, 'Yeah, Buddy. I see your rock. It's very cool. Now let's get your hat on you.'

The thing is, upon further inspection, Gordon realized that William was NOT holding a rock. It wasn't even a hard clump of dirt. Nope. Nothing of the sort. My boy was holding up a dead mouse! (And, by the way, was saying, 'Look Daddy -- MOUSE!' over and over again)

Once Gordon figured it all out, he sternly told William to drop it (which he did) and went on to tell our boy how it was fully of yucky germs and such.

And then they promptly went inside to thoroughly wash William's hands off.

Ahhh.....snips and snails and puppy dog tails....

A photo shoot for Nora

I couldn't put it off any longer. I realized today that I simply *needed* to finish designing Nora's birth announcements. Enough time has passed since her birth that if I waited even one more day, she'd be going on 16 years old before anyone received their announcements in the mail!

I had created the basic design a couple of months ago, using my Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 program. All I had left to do was take a picture (or two) of Nora, add it to the basic design, and then tweak it to perfection before uploading it to Photobucket to be printed.

So I gave Nora a bath. (wouldn't want her to look all icky or sticky for her big announcement)

And then I set up our very own 'studio' in my bedroom.

Nora was a typical model. Temperamental.

So we cooed at her and assured her that she looked like a thousand bucks. THEN we got some great shots!

Here are some of the outtakes that landed on the proverbial cutting room floor...

Kelly's Wedding

The wedding on Saturday was great fun! Kelly (the bride) was absolutely beautiful! Grace and Dianna were thrilled to finally get to go to a wedding. They'd rather have been asked to be flower girls, but being able to attend a wedding was a close second.

Here is a picture of Kelly and her Dad, Rob, as he walked her down the aisle.
My big girls, waiting for the wedding ceremony to begin...
Gordon and Will at the reception....
My littlest girl, sitting on Nana's lap at the reception...
Grace danced with a little boy, Anthony....
And Dianna danced with a bigger little boy, Anthony (her cousin)....

Back to the Real World

Gordon has gone back to work today. It was great having him home -- I'm sure to miss him! Please keep your fingers crossed that I can handle all four kids on my own without going totally insane....

I *did* get a number of pictures of the kids enjoying Kelly's wedding on Saturday. I promise to get them uploaded and posted here to share with y'all as soon as I can. Gotta remember to grab the dang camera from my car before I can do that!

Off to search for a cup of coffee, and perhaps a bowl of oatmeal. Hopefully Nora will snooze long enough for Momma to refuel her body...

Kelly's Wedding

We're going to Kelly's wedding today. Originally, the wedding was supposed to be in June, and I was going to be the photographer. But Kelly and Chris had to postpone the date, and knowing that I'd have a brand new infant, I suggested Kelly make other arrangements for photographer.

I was very sad that I wasn't going to get the opportunity to document Kel's special day, but even more sad that I might not even be able to attend -- there is just no way I could leave my less-than-two-week-old-infant with a babysitter.

SO, I had contacted Kelly and asked if she would mind Gordon and I bringing Nora with us. She responded with an enthusiastic, 'Bring ALL the kids!'

Grace and Dianna are THRILLED!! This will be the first wedding either of them has ever attended. (Will too!) Well technically, according to Grace, this is her second -- remember how I was pregnant when Gordon and I married? She's counting that as an official attendance to a wedding. Just so she can be one-up on her sister. Nice, no?

Anyway, the girls are super excited for today's event. I will have my camera, of course, and will be sure to take lots of pictures of the girls in their pretty dresses.