Having Fun With Laura

Laura has been having a great time lately with everyone being at home. She has gotten spoiled by a lot of people (Thank you, everyone!) who brought gifts for her as well as for Sara. Here she is preening in the mirror in a darling new dress from my brother Danny.

Another one of her favorite activities has been playing outside in the "soft" sprinkler. It has been super hot and she spends hours cooking, painting and just playing pretend outside.

She also has loved playing the Wii with her Daddy while he has been home so much. They play Mario Party 8 together because they can be on the same team. Daddy loves it because Laura snuggles him the whole time they play. Laura loves winning and spending time with Daddy.

Of course much of her time is also spent crafting. Laura is into making "books" lately. However, one of my favorite things is when she turned herself into a craft project. Here is our flower child.

Growin' Older

With the realization that our blog is old (over a year now) we thought we'd show you how much we've grown. Check out Laura when we started versus now:
Also look how much Sara has grown already. This is her only 2 days ago at 16 days old. My goodness these girls grow up fast.
We also decided that our blog was looking old. We hope you like the update.

Home-less Improvements

So, we really are home improvement junkies. Even when it's not our home. We've recently done two home improvement projects at Mom and Dad's house. (A good way for us to pay rent.)

The first project was hanging an additional shelf to hold their grandkid pictures. Our addition of Sara made it just too tight for the single shelf. Here is Jason the acrobat and my dad getting it hung.
The other project was installing a fence for them in their backyard. It is a shield they definitely needed from the new club house. Who knew our fence building experience would come in so handy?

Sisters!

Laura is the best big sister, EVER! We are regularly astonished at how wonderful she is. There seems to be no adaptation to her new role as big sister -- no jealousy, fits, or frustrations. She genuinely loves her sister and is excited to have her here. Laura is gentle, patient and affectionate with Sara. Yes, we recognize that we are that lucky to have such an amazing girl as the oldest child in our family.

It is so fun to watch these sisters already starting to love spending time and playing together. Sara turns towards Laura's voice more than any other voice. She almost rolled over the other day in the attempt to get closer to Laura (the slant on the couch helped the endeavor). I can't wait to see how much the play as they get older.

These girls are so lucky to have a sister so close in age to them. This is a rare thing in our family and I think it will be a big blessing in both their lives. I know my sister is a blessing in mine and we are nearly 2 decades apart in age. These are some lucky girls and we love them!

How Firm a Foundation

Progress is finally being made on the new house. Hooray! They poured footings and foundation last week. Everything is now waterproofed and the initial grade is done. The plumbing in the basement is 2/3 done and should be finished tomorrow. That means they can pour the basement slab on Monday and start doing framing by the end of next week.

It's such a relief to be making progress after all of this time. Thank you to Craig who is making sure things moving so fast. I'm sure there will be more "progress" pictures to come, but here are some of us in our new basement before they started plumbing.

Get To Know Sara-Bear

After Laura, we didn't think we could be so blessed again. However, lightning has struck twice and Sara is just as beautiful, amazing, brilliant, and full of personality as her big sister. Here are some fun things for you to know about Sara:

We, naturally, think she's incredibly beautiful. We love her dark hair, bright eyes, long neck and fingers, and beautiful skin.

She knows her family and turns towards our voices. She also likes to take up a lot of space. She stretches out her limbs at every chance. Don't you dare try to wrap her arms when you swaddle her. She'll let you have it! Her legs are constantly stretching out. She puts her feet up to be kissed and holds her legs at the most unusual angles. No wonder people at church could see her moving in my belly from across the aisle.

She is incredibly healthy. She is such a little chow-hound. Who knew such a little person could drink so much? She also seems to really enjoy peeing on daddy. There must be something inspiring about him! Here she is burping after one of her gorge fests.

Here she is as she's grown day by day. She has changed so much it's amazing. (Days 1 to 4...the top picture with the bear is day 5)

Our New Little Family

We're finally home from the hospital and these last few days have been decadent. Jason has been home from work and we've spent every minute together as a family.
  There has been much snuggling. There has been much playing. There has not been much sleeping, but there have been millions of smiles.

We have spent an incredible amount of time just staring at our new little Sara. She is such a gift from heaven and we have each spent nearly an entire night just studying her and falling more in love.

Sara Rosalie

After over a dozen trips to the hospital and much pain and diligence by her amazing and wonderful mommy, Sara Rosalie was born on June 7 at 12:10 am. She weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and is 20 inches tall (long). She has a shock of black hair and dark eyes (when they're open).

Sara and mommy are both doing great. Just 7 hours after the c-section, Melinda is feeling better than she has felt in months. She is up and moving around and is in (comparatively) very little discomfort.

Sara is strong and healthy and, despite being 4 weeks early, went straight to the "well" nursery and has had no problems whatsoever. The doctors are amazed at how healthy she is for her age. She is absolutely perfect!

We will be in the hospital for 3 days and should probably be released on Saturday or Sunday. We will post more pictures and such then. For now, you can see a bunch of pictures below.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. They have helped more than you know and now we have 3 (Melinda, Sara, and Laura) beautiful and healthy girls for the trouble. What more could you possible ask for?

Addition Anticipation

The days until our new little girl arrives in this world are becoming very long. Perhaps it is the trips to the hospital (we're at 11 now), or the fact that I have grown out of all but 2 pair of my maternity pants (note the picture below...yes, I really am that huge), or maybe it's the bedrest. Regardless, I am getting antsy to meet my little girl face to face.
It also may be all the stuff that is just sitting around waiting to be used by a cute little munchkin. This is us toting all the baby stuff we thought we'd need to use in her first three months of life to my parents house before the big move. Can you believe how much stuff one tiny human requires?!