1 week old!

Our little peanut is 1 week old today! Simply precious!

Our baby girl is 5!

I can't believe that Jaelyn is 5 years old today! We had a family birthday party today at Oma & Opa's house (a big relief to not have to worry about food, cleaning up the house, etc!). Jaelyn chose the lunch menu (without any prompting!) : salmon, baked potato (w/ bacon!) and asparagus. Seriously...who is this kid? Gosh, I LOVE her!

Enjoyed opening all the presents!!

Jaelyn has really been into reading and is actually "unlocking the code" to reading. It's quite amazing how she sounds out words and puts it all together. Plus she remembers quite of few of the sight words - - such a fun time in her life!

SISTERS!

All I can say is - - adorable! Hope the sisterly love continues for a lifetime!

Siblings!

We sure do love our little Brooke - - we fight over who gets to hold her and how long the other person has gotten to hold her, etc. Ha!

Brooke's First Bath

Brooke wasn't too much of a fan of her first bath! When Ben heard that we were going to give Brooke a bath, he wanted in on the action too! He was adorable and tried to make her feel better while she was getting her bath. The funny thing is that after she was all clean and ready to come out of the bath, she pooped! All we could do was laugh! It's kinda funny that Benjamin was still in the bath tub when this all happened because he won't hold Brooke if she has a dirty diaper - - he makes us change it before he holds her! Our Ben has a need to be clean (however, that doesn't come into play with his clothes...if he had it his way, he'd wear the same jeans/t-shirt every day & the same buzz lightyear pj's every night!)

Brooke's Birthday!

Today is eviction day for our precious little girl! Praise the Lord!! My check-in time was 5am- - wow, that's an early wake up call!! Anyway, here is a pic of me getting settled in for the induction! I Loved, Loved, Loved my nurse - Monica. She was absolutely amazing and helped me tremendously at the very end. I'm so thankful she was my labor/delivery nurse! You would think I would learn my lesson from Ben's labor and delivery and get an epidural early on...oh no, that was not the case this time around either! I was sitting at 4-5 cm when Dr. Russell came by around 12:45pm. She new my history with going to 10 cm fast, and so told me that if I wanted to get an epidural, that now was probably the best time to do it. I agreed with her, but still wanted to "labor" a bit more. Well, by 1pm things were picking up and I asked for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was doing a c-section and wasn't able to get to me for 20 minutes. At that point it didn't bother me, although I was getting to the point of labor being really painful. He finally arrived ~1:25pm (notice that I had my eyes fixated on the clock for when the 20 min. were up?!) Anyway, it took him a bit to get situated and put the epidural in. Not sure if he struggled, but he sure took his merry time and inserted the needle 2-3 times. Laboring hunched over is definitely not a fun experience...especially hearing "stay still - - don't move". While I was hunched over I started to feel some pressure - - hmmm....could it be? I do remember him saying, let me clean up your back and then get the medicine in ya...and I (hopefully!) politely said, you can clean up my back after you put the medicine in! Right after that exchange, I had an overwhelming erge to push. Yes, that's right. I was going to be delivering naturally (epidurals take ~20-30min. to take effect). And with that, Dr. Russell ran into the room and caught Brooke after just 2 pushes! The anesthesiologist was still in the room while I pushed and remember hearing him say, wow...that sure went fast! It sure did go fast...but so very thankful for a beautiful baby girl!! Welcome, Brooke Ann! We chose the name Brooke because, well we liked that name and as for for her middle name, Ann, she is named after my mom whose middle name was also Ann as well as Marcus' mom - Mary Ann.

Moments after Brooke was born!

Proud Mommy & Daddy

Beautiful - even with the vernix all over her body!

Her stats: 8 lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long
My smallest kiddo!! Yay!! She dropped to 7 lbs 13 oz when we left the hospital - - not bad either!

Proud Daddy!

The kids meeting Brooke for the first time. Jaelyn brought Brooke her blankie and Benjamin brought her a stuffed monkey. Ben was super adorable - at one point Brooke started to cry a bit and he ran over to get the monkey to help soothe her. He does have such a tender heart!

Jaelyn holding her for the first time

Ben sure loves his baby sister! Kisses all the time!!

The girls outnumber the boys!

Our first picture as a family of 5

Birthday Girl!

Jaelyn got to celebrate turning 5 (a few days early!) with her preschool friends today! The kids have the option to stay for lunch bunch from 12-1pm, so I decided to throw her a little birthday party during that time. I wanted to do something special for her big day, but with baby sister coming tomorrow, there just wasn't a lot of energy to do anything more! Jaelyn & the kids had a blast - - pizza, grapes, carrots, & cheetos were on the lunch menu with cupcakes for dessert. And, per Jaelyn's request we had a pinata!

Enjoying lunch with her friends. If I would let her, she would stay everyday for lunch bunch!

Determined to hit her pinata!

Having fun!

Even Benjamin got in on the action - our little leftie!

Ben, Jaelyn, Ellie, George, Cole, Ryder, Thomas, & Sadie - - showing off their loot!

Taking it all in as her friends sing Happy Birthday to her!

I can't believe my baby girl is turning 5!

Do I have to worry that she says Cole is her BFF?!?

Jaelyn got to sit in the teacher chair & she requested each friend sit next to her while she opened up their gift to her!

Jaelyn & Ms. Erin - - she loves her!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter Celebration today! It started off with Easter baskets full of goodies - the kids were in desperate need for new rain boots so those made it into their baskets out of necessity!!

No peeking!!

Butterfly & camouflage boots are the best!

Had to model the cool boots in our Easter best!

Then it was off to a yummy breakfast at Marcus' co-workers house and then onto a great Easter service! (Well, to be honest...Benjamin was in a bad mood and kept saying, "I don't want to go to Little Lambs - I want to go home"...and he was saying it loud enough that their were a few chuckles from the congregation! So, I ended up having to stay with him in Little Lambs and didn't get to participate in the rest of church. Big bummer. But, it was well worth it because he got to hear the Easter story & play with the resurrection eggs. Then it was off to Oma & Opa's house to continue our Easter celebration with a scrumptious meal & Egg hunt!

One last family shot before we are a family of 5! Baby girl is getting evicted in 4 days!!

Waiting anxiously for the daddies to finish hiding all the eggs!

Our beautiful *almost* 5 year old daughter!

Our full of personality 2 year old!!

Celia, Kora, Jaelyn, Elisabeth, Ben, & Emily

Checking out her loot!


Scooter babes!

Stomp Rocket Fun!! We lucked out with having gorgeous weather! Blue sky/sunshine & warm weather...it was almost *hot* in the sunshine!!

20 questions with Jaelyn

1. What is your favorite color? Purple

2. What is your favorite toy? Crafts

3. What is your favorite fruit? Cherries

4. What is your favorite TV show? Ruff-Ruff

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Egg salad sandwich (likely in part because we have oodles of decorated hard boiled eggs in the frig!)

6. What is your favorite outfit? A dress

7. What is your favorite game? Go Fish

8. What is your favorite snack? Cookies

9. What is your favorite animal? Dogs

10. What is your favorite song? Jesus Loves Me

11. What is your favorite book? My Little Pony

12. Who is your best friend? Sophie & Clara AND Cole

13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Bunches of Oats

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike

15. What is your favorite drink? Apple Juice & Milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Easter, Valentines, & Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My blankies

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? bagel with cream cheese

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Salmon, baked potato, & asparagus

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A school teacher

Easter Eggs!

We had our annual cousin Easter egg decorating extravaganza today. Thankfully Auntie Karen & Auntie Nancy enjoy the tradition too and helped the kids decorate their eggs! It's fun to watch them decorate and get their little fingers dyed in every color! Good thing we like egg salad sandwiches...'cause we've got a lot of hard boiled eggs to eat!

Watching how it's done!

The finished project - gorgeous eggs!

Being goof balls - I think Ben needs a remote control car because he LOVED playing with Elisabeth's strawberry shortcake car!!