Alison's arrival, picture edition

I feel like with every child, we get worse about taking pictures. :-) Or maybe it's because their births have gotten faster.

If you missed the whole birth story/timeline, you can check it out here

2:05am- the warmer is ready to go! 

Obviously in between contractions :-)

My mom and Wendi were there for the delivery again. Wendi slept on the couch for a while during my labor. I'm glad someone got some sleep. 

Just born, and getting her cord cut by daddy. 

Seeing and holding her for the first time! 

On the warmer getting checked out.

7 pounds 3 ounces

So glad to finally have her out! 

All snuggled up

The kids came that afternoon, asking with both grandmas, Wendi, and Sandy.  Bridget was very much in love. Carter kept shh-ing everyone because Alison was sleeping.  They were interested in the baby for about ten minutes, and then started crawling around on the floor pretending to be puppies and barking loudly. I have to admit I was ready for them to leave.  :-)

Uncle Adam came to visit that evening, asking with Paul and Elise. 

Getting ready to go home! My mom bought her coming home outfit, like she did for the other kids. Alison was not a fan of the headband. 

In her car seat, looking so little! 

Catch-up #4 - May

May started off with great attempts to go into labor. We went on lots of walks and tried ti stay active. 

We headed to the zoo one day with Elise and the kids. 

We cracked up at Judah and Bridget walking around the zoo holding hands. Judah is always asking Bridget if she'll marry him, so maybe we should be worried. 

By the time we left the kids were grumpy. 

Bridget reading Carter books. I love hearing the stories she comes up with. 

Two goons and their cheesy smiles

The kids wanted to come inside and read books but they were so filthy I made them read books in the garage. 

We celebrated my brother, Luke's, 17th birthday on May 10. I was disappointed that I hadn't had a baby yet, since I'd always figured she'd be born by Luke's birthday. 

Wendi and I took a belly comparison picture. I was 39 weeks and she was 19 weeks. 

On mothers day we went to church with Luke's parents since they were serving lunch at church. Then we came home for naps and then headed to my parent's for grilled pizza. 

Bridget discovered the sprinkler, and her and Grace had a great time running screaming through it one afternoon. 

On my due date I treated myself to dairy queen.  :-)

The day after my due date we took a walk to the park. The kids love going to park and playing on the play ground. 

3 days after my due date, I watched the the Grimm kids for the morning. I was hoping that running after 5 kids would put me into labor, but alas, it didn't.  :-)

Catch-up #3 - April

We enjoyed some beautiful days in April, although I felt like they were a little cold after enjoying the true warmth of Florida.  :-)

We finally got some more big swings for our swing set, so now no one has to sit in the baby swing.  

I went to a shower one Saturday morning and sent Luke and the kids to Lowe's for a new fan for Bridget's room. I was picturing something basic and white, like we had before. And they came home with this. :-) Needless to say, Bridget was quite thrilled. 

On Good Friday we headed over to my parents for the morning. My dad and the boys were off work for the day, so we went over and had a delicious brunch before dying Easter eggs. My mom was excited to do it with the kids, which was good because I probably wouldn't have let them otherwise.  :-)

They did a dozen eggs in record time. 

After the whirlwind egg dying, we headed outside for an Easter egg hunt. I wasn't to keen on them getting tons of candy so my mom put pennies in the eggs instead. The kids were thrilled with their gold pirate coins, and weren't so hyper either. 

Then the kids got a ride on the mower with uncle Adam, who drove them all around the yard, ruining his perfect mower lines.  Oh the things he'll do for his niece and nephew.  

Bridget brought home the sheet of stickers that were supposed to go on the Easter eggs, and decorated the recliner. We weren't allowed to sit on it for several days, until she kind of forgot about them and I could take them off without a complete breakdown. 

We continued getting ready for our little girl to make her appearance. Those newborn diapers sure look small compared to Carter's size 5 ones! 

Bridget was very into duplo blocks for a couple of weeks, and found all the pieces for this duck (she called it a parrot) and put it together herself. She made her daddy pretty proud with that accomplishment!

Carter loves to mow with Luke, and sticks right by him pretty much through the whole yard. It's the cutest thing. 

Catch-up #2 - Florida

Last summer we were talking with Paul and Elise about how fun it would be to take a couples only vacation to Florida, and us girls immediately started making plans for a trip in April of 2014. This trip was much anticipated... the first thing I did when finding out I was pregnant was make sure I could still go to Florida.  :-)

Elise's parents have a time share in Orlando that they graciously let us use, and to keep it as inexpensive as we could, we rented a car and drove down.

We left on a Friday evening, around 5. The way down was miserable. Being 33 weeks pregnant and not being able to lay down or really put my feet up made sleeping almost impossible. I was only able to sleep about an hour the whole way. I did about 4 hours of driving, from 3am to 7am since I was awake anyway.  :-) I went to bed very early the first night there.

The first morning there (Sunday) we headed out to the pool and into the warm, wonderful sunshine! I typically don't tan/burn easily so u thought I'd sit out for about an hour before putting on any sunscreen. The hour passed quickly, and then I ended up going inside. 

What no one told me, was that pregnancy hormones tend to make you burn more easily. I was totally fried, as you can see in the picture below. 

We made an emergency target run to get some of this stuff, and I actually kept it in the fridge so it'd be extra cold. 

By Sunday afternoon my legs were starting to swell, and by evening I could hardly feel my ankle bone. I'll spare you the picture.  :-) It was painful to have sun burnt stretched like that! The next 2 days were miserable, as I could hardly walk or sleep. Yes, there were many times I wished I had worn sunscreen.  

We did have a very nice, relaxing time though. We went out to eat every night but one, and lounged by the pool (I stuck to the shade) reading books and taking naps. 

I did a horrible job of taking pictures. 

Luke and Paul trying to get the charcoal grill to start. We grilled steak for the one supper we ate at our condo. 

For the drive home, we decided to leave at 3am and try to drive during "normal" waking hours. We all agreed it was much better than driving through the night, and we arrived home about 8:15 that night. 

We were so ready to see the kids!  It was the longest we'd ever left them, although I hadn't missed them to much while we were gone. I totally enjoyed the relaxation.  :-)

Snuggles with dad the morning after we got home.  

Major catch- up

So I finally decided that I could probably blog from my phone while nursing, so I downloaded the blogger app and am giving it a try. We'll see how this works.  :-) but here are our pictures through the end of March!

Bridget loves to dress up in her "princesss dress" we got from our neighbor. 

While at Kroger the week of Valentine's day the kids were in love with all the stuffed animals, so they each got to pick one out. Months later, Carter still sleeps with his puppy every night.  

Playing memory with dad

Our friend Ash came over one night and Carter thought his hat was pretty cool.  :-)

We enjoyed having our missionary friends John and Silvia, and their son Antony, stay with us for a week. 

Craft time and story time with aunt Wendi

We went to the Home show with the kids, mostly to see the dog show. However, Bridget happened to see a little girl with pink plastic construction hat and was more concerned about finding the booth that was giving them out than she was with watching the dog show. 

We make tents in the living room when I scrub the kitchen floor. 

One weekend in March we left the kids with my parents and headed to Indy to stay with my aunt and uncle and attend a conference to hear John Piper speak. It was a great conference, although I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. 

We prepared for our little girl by making lists of all the things I wanted to get done.  :-)

First stroller ride of the year. It was still a little cold. 

A target run for diapers ended in a trip to Bass Pro where the kids had fun "driving" the boats. 

"I'm fixing my stick- ups, mom!"