Humongous Post With Lots of Pictures Because I Can't Get My Act Together and Post More Often

Well, time is flying by and I have finally managed to upload all of the pictures on our digital camera onto our computer and compile the best of them here, for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Mary recently completed her very first science fair project.  She presented it at a science fair held at a local library with a group of homeschoolers.  We did experiments with soaking pennies in different solutions and seeing how we could change their colors.  In the van on the way home, she said, "Can we do ANOTHER science project? Because I want to do one on planets!"

Here is a picture of Lily at exactly one month of age.  It would be cool if I could manage to do this every month - we'll see!

 

We visited my family for Easter and went on an Easter Egg Hunt with my sister and her two kids.  Here is a picture of Mary and her cousin Hunter showing off their painted faces and tattooed hands.

Here is a picture of Joey at the Easter Egg Hunt.  It was a truly massive event, with 2000 pounds of candy and 20000 eggs!  Joey is probably happy because he has a grocery bag full of candy!

Here is Lily all dressed up in her Easter dress.  It's the same dress Mary wore - it's nice having two girls born about the same time of year because all the clothes are the right size in the right season!

My sister-in-laws both were pregnant at the same time I was pregnant with Lily, so now we have a trio of new cousins!  Here they are all lined up together for the first time.  Lily is in the middle.  Grandpa John gave them matching camouflage jackets for Christmas!

I discovered a new website called Kids Craft Weekly that has lots of great ideas for weekly themed projects for kids.  We're trying it out for a little while, and our first theme was Honey Bees.  Mary and Joey recently got to see some bees being installed in a new hive with some friends, so I thought it would be nice to start with bees.  We checked out a bunch of bee books from the library, colored pictures of bees, and made a bee bulletin board with facts and pictures of bees.

 

We also made snacks with HONEY of course!  These Honey Crispies were super yummy.  This picture also gives you a good idea of how crazy Mary's hair can get!

Here is a picture of Lily lounging in our living room.  

Close up of Lily's pretty face.  She's starting to smile lots now, and is so much more expressive with her facial features.  I don't think it will be too much longer before she is laughing!

Mary sometimes likes to refer to herself as a photographer.  She has been playing around with the camera lately.  This is one of her recent photos.  She acquired this Barbie at a free rummage sale and is very happy about it.  She also calls herself at various times an artist, a waitress, and/or a ballerina.

Last Saturday the kids and I went to a Paws in the Park event at a local park.  Mary and Joey got to pet some adorable dogs, color some pictures, eat free candy, see some friends, and play in the park. 

 

Here is Joey playing in the park.  Over Easter weekend Uncle Terry taught Joey the word "specimen."  Here is Joey showing off one of his specimens - a nice stick.  Joey is also playing more and more with letters - he was using the stick to write letters in the sand. 

Finally, a picture of my little pets.  

I prefer this variety over real cats and dogs any day!

Baths, Hats, Caterpillars, Cousins, Mud and Love!

First bath - checking out the mirror.

 

Wearing the hat Grandma Rosie made for her.  We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, but I guess Grandma knew, because she made a pink hat!

 A friend of mine made this adorable hat for Lily.

Mary and Joey each made a fuzzy caterpillar with some friends.  They stuffed old nylon stockings with dirt and grass seed and decorated them.  Mary's grew up really nice and full!  She loves giving it haircuts!

Joey's ended up a bit more scruffy looking.  Love his face in this photo!

This picture is for Aunt Malorie - this is a dress she gave to Mary when she was a baby.  Lily says "Hello!"

Lily with her cousin Autumn, who is six months older.  They are already quite the pair!

Park day with friends.  It was a bit muddy, but still fun!  Mary and Joey had so much fun that they ended up riding home in the car naked with their muddy clothes in plastic bags!

Mary and Joey are always trying to give toys to Lily.  They put this turtle next to her so she would have something to look at when she woke up.

They both love to hold her.  Here is Mary and Lily together.  Lots of times when I ask Joey to do something now, like come upstairs or whatever, he'll say "Hold on, I just need to check on Lily!" and before he will go to bed he'll say "Just one more kiss for Lily!"

New Addition!

The newest member of our family has arrived - Lily Rose Marie!  Here is a snapshot of her first week.  You can click on the pictures to view a larger size image.

Born at home at 2:18 am on Monday, March 21st, the first day of spring!  She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long.  She was born in the caul, or with the amniotic sac intact, which is quite rare and some say is a sign of good luck.

 Lily and Daddy, minutes after birth.

 

 First morning!

Joey holds Lily for the first time and gives her a kiss.  He kept saying things like "She's so little!", "She's so smooth!", and "She's so nice!"

Mary holds Lily for the first time.  She says she *knew* the whole time it would be a girl, even the times when she *said* she thought it would be a boy.  She got to watch Lily being born.

Future Disc Golf Player!

Sleep smile!

Sisters!

Sweet face!

More sleepy smiles!

Lily went to watch Mary's final ballet class - the students were demonstrating for their families everything they learned in the past eight weeks.  We all thought Mary was the most poised ballerina of the five in the class!

Cute cloth diaper shot!  Her face looks much less squashed in after a few days.

Saturday - first trip to the library!  We had to go pick up the new Doctor Who series that dad had on hold.

They had a bunch of big vehicles at the library and Joey got to drive a fire truck and blow the horn!  There was also a police car, ambulance, excavator, and dump truck.

 

First trip to church on Sunday!  The congregation sang "Happy Birthday" to Lily, and Mary and Joey got to ring the church bell for her birthday.  She slept through the whole thing.

  

Another super cute diaper shot!

 

Giving dad a big hug.

 

Mom and Lily.

Long Overdue Update

Wow, it's been a long time!  Things got busy with the holidays, and then we were out of town on vacation, so I'm sorry for those of you who were waiting for an update!  Here's some snapshots from the past several weeks.

Hilarious picture of Joey dressed up in a pair of Joe's shorts, with guns.

Joey playing with one of our new Christmas presents.

Mary and Joey sledding at Grandma and Grandpa's House.

Mom and Dad on vacation at the Rose Bowl.

Mary throwing confetti at her first ever sleepover at a friend's house.

Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things with some more updates soon!

December Begins!

Winter is really here - it seems that all of a sudden it is REALLY cold outside!  We had our first dusting of snow on December 2nd and Mary and Joey couldn't wait to go outside!  There really wasn't much snow at all, as you can see in the picture.  But they still had fun.

Mary made a "nest" out of grass and leaves and sticks and filled it with snow.  She has been nest-building a lot lately, both inside the house and out!  Inside, she makes nests out of blankets and pillows and cozies up inside like a baby bird.  She and Joey also like to cover up with blankets and pretend to be birds hatching out of eggs.  Lots of times Joey prefers to be a baby dinosaur instead.

We had to make a stop at the Walmart pharmacy to pick up a prescription and the wait turned out to be incredibly long.  To pass the time Joey and I made faces and took pictures with the camera.

One of Joey's most favorite things to do is play the drums.  Joe and I were downstairs working on a project and the kids were playing upstairs.  I heard a lot of banging around in the kitchen and went up and discovered that they had built their own drumset!

On December 4th we had our first measurable snow so we all got our snow gear on and went outside to clear the driveway and sidewalk.  Here is a picture of the kids all bundled up to go outside.  I didn't get any pictures of the snow, so you'll have to use your imagination.  It was kind of nice to have snow on the ground because I'm always having a hard time keeping track of Joey outside, but now I am able to tell where he went because he leaves footprints!  The kids made lots of snow angels and enjoyed making tracks in the snow.  We tried to make a snow man but the snow just wasn't packing enough, so we made a snow mountain instead.  Hopefully we can go sledding soon!