Caroline

Well I didn't get around to posting much while she was here, so here are a few photos. 

 

Here is Annie in Caroline's crib.  At least once a day I would find them like this.  Annie loved to check on Caroline.

 

Caroline did not like her pacifier and was not a thumb sucker.  I am so grateful to have this picture of her sucking her first knuckle.  Because that is what she preferred.

These pictures my niece took just 3 days before Caroline died.  I am so thankful to have them.  If you or anyone you know has any pictures of Caroline please let me know.  I would love any and all pictures.  

Our little Angel

Sweet Caroline is now our little angel.  She passed away while we were down vacationing in Florida.  She was healthy and happy and passed away with a full tummy and lots of love.  She was 11 weeks old and will be missed terribly by us all.

Sweet Caroline

Sweet Caroline made her debut to the world early early Saturday morning.  Another almost effortless birth as she was born with one push.  This time, however, the Dr. and Chris were both in the room.  Since we thought she was going to be a boy we had no name chosen for her.  Finally about an hour before we checked out of the hospital we chose Caroline.  At 9 lbs she is my biggest baby and she eats like she is out to prove it to the world.  She is adored by her two big sisters and her big brother.  It looks as though her hair might turn light like all her siblings, but for now I enjoy her dark hair.

County Fair 2013

What a blast the county fair was.  Emily started the week off by catching a pig during the pig scramble.  The kids each got several blue ribbons for their entries (cookies, legos, and other items).  Chris and I each won some blue ribbons (canning, rolls, wooden craft items, and others).  It was really fun to show off our entries to everyone.  The kids each entered a chicken which they were able to sell at the end of the fair, so they LOVED that.  They each worked in the ice cream shack and their favorite part was being able to eat free ice cream at the end of their shift.  They entered the pie eating contest and the watermelon eating contest. All in all it was awesome!  I love the county fair.

Out for a walk with Grandpa

Annie loves babies and strollers.  She got a double stroller with two babies from Aunt Z for her birthday and she absolutely loves to push them around.  This picture was taken in Florida, where she only had a single stroller to push.  Grandpa took the kids for a walk and so Annie had to bring her stroller with her.

A long time ago

CJ saw this picture and said, "Is that Annie's bumbo?"  So cute.  I guess this was about 5 years ago.  Oh, where does the time go?

Last summer

Last summer we went to this spring fed lake with our friends.  It was awesome.  So here is a picture of me and the kids hanging out in the lake.

It's that time of year again!

 County fair pics from last year.  We are so excited to go to the fair this year.  Join us if you can.  We LOVE it!

 

 

Scootah

Annie learned how to scooter and how to ride a two-wheeler (with training wheels) while we were in Florida.  I love her cheesy grin.  Oh, how I love it.

Hair

Got static.  Unfortunately the lighting was a bit off.  But you get the picture.

Baseball

 

So last year we went to a Frederick Keys game.  The kids got free tickets for completing the summer reading program.  We invited Grandma to come and the kids had a blast.  It was a bit of a late night for Annie, but as usual she had to be right in on the action.  Both CJ and Emily got game balls.  We are sitting right behind the visiting team's bench (it cost $8 to upgrade all the tickets, totally worth it).  We cheered for them since they were a Virginia team.  We have already signed up for this year's summer reading program and are super excited to go again.  I'll have to get you the dates of the games Grandma.

Headed our way?

What a fun time in Florida.  Grandma and Grandpa bought these bikes at yard sales and had enough for everyone.  They even bought a tiny bike for Annie, but I just pulled her along in the trailer when we went for rides.  If you look closely you can see her on her "scootah".  We tried to ride bikes everyday.  There was a nice pirate park almost two miles away that we would ride to.  There is a really nice bike path so we didn't have to worry about crossing the street or traffic or kids falling into the street or anything.  They also had three more grown up bikes for me and my two sisters.

Cousins

Sometimes I think they think they are siblings.  They did live together for a few years and super close by (3 houses) for a year.  What a nice Mother's Day picture.

Amen

When she was just "learning" about keeping her eyes closed during a prayer she would yell, "eyes, eyes" repeatedly during the prayer.  But she was very determined to keep them closed.

time flies

A little flashback post.  I can't believe we had lived here for two years already!  These pictures were taken as we were planning/planting/starting our garden in 2011.  Look at how little CJ is.  I am so excited for our garden this year.  I've been looking over seed catalogs and dreaming of nice weather...

skating

Annie is getting so big.  As with most third kids she wants to do everything the older two do.  Including roller skating.  Sure this time she has on the toddler skates.  But the next time we went to the rink she had to have real roller skates.  I didn't get any footage or photos of that, something to look forward to next time.

How fun

 

 So we went swimming at my parents' pool the other day.  The kids always have fun swimming.  This time to step it up a notch I decided to try out the underwater feature of my camera.  It took a while figuring out the timing, but when I did I got some pretty decent shots.  Of course, the battery was dying so I didn't get too many shots.  Here they are....