Many Smiles of Louis

More pictures of the little man

Per Auntie Gin's request, here are some more pictures of the little man:

Lots of Daddy love and the crazy hair-ed little boy (when I wash it every few days it stands on end:)

Grandpa love: grandpa Blake watched the 3 kiddos on Monday so Daniel and I could catch a "speed date" at a coffee shop 3 minutes away. We took Phase 10 and drank coffee...in peace. Lovely. Oh and all three kids were sleeping so Grandpa said "this is my kind of babysitting:)"

Sleeping by the window: Louis fell asleep by the sliding glass door listening to the river while I took a nap (daddy was home watching him for me:)

Louis 2 week check up stats

Louis went to the Dr. for his 2 week check up yesterday. They did the PKU test=not fun. 25 minutes of heel pricking/squeezing blood and screaming baby. But he was fine afterward and took a nice nap:)

Weight 9lbs, 7 ounces! 68th percentile
Height 22.75 inches 96th percentile (now I know why he still looks so skinny! He's growing longer, not thicker;)

And cute update: he gets cuter every day!

Baby Louis and Sisters

Louis making a move for Liv's hair already:

Sister love:

Not sure if Louis will have blue eyes like Liv or brown like M yet:

More sister love:

Welcome Baby Boy Louis!

Born May 1st, by VBAC: 9lbs 21 1/2 inches.

Way too much shopping (the one time in my life bargain shopping is exhausting:)

Walgreens: $0.54 after $2 RR

Freddies: $25.12 (6 packs Tillamook, Seattle's Best Coffee, 4 lbs Challenge butter, strawberries, 8 packages Ronzoni pasta, sour cream and marked down Yo-plus. A bit of a splurge trip (getting the good stuff, but for good prices:)

Albies: about (gasp!) $50. I figured I was running out of deal getting steam so some things I would've just lived w/o I thought I would get anyway since it takes SO much energy to get out of the house! A few of the pricier items were 6 or so lbs of ground beef, 3 lbs of sausage, a bunch of yogurt, organic whole milk, honey bunches of oats ($0.49/ea raincheck), pepperoni, juicy juice, apples, ronzoni garden delight, some powerade for labor bags:) and 4 light ranches. I am sure I am forgetting a few things, it was a load!

Wal-Mart: not sure of the totals because I need to take a couple things back that rang up wrong. It was a crazy trip because Liv fell headfirst out of the cart and landed on her face!! We drew quite a crowd and had to fill out an accident report, plus it was well into nap time and past lunch time by then. Good times. Freebies: floss. Super cheap: Yakisoba, carefree liners, Revlon nail clippers, gain dryer sheets, Motrin PM (I take these sometimes recently...so much soreness! Bad mama, I know), black cotton dress $1 on clearance, 2 pack toddler mittens $0.50. Staples: pinto beans $0.68/each, white rice for those occasions when brown doesn't cut it $0.62. By the way, Liv was just fine. Kids are so resillient, and I am thankful for that!! ;)
Totals: well, let's just say I'll be over budget this week, but not too bad for this month. Next month I will hopefully be hanging out with a new baby for the last half of the month and not shopping!!

Family photos: the waiting for baby boy edition

Tomorrow marks 35 weeks!





Credit goes to Blake & Kathy Gregory for photos :)

What's up with us in March

Pictures are still mostly on hiatus (which means I am having serious withdrawals related to not being able to take pictures of my shopping trips!;) since we haven't decided on a camera (or where that fits in our budget:). And yes, I have been getting some good deals-frozen food month has been a lot of fun in the coupon-shopping arena. Let's just say we are well stocked in frozen juice, sweet potato fries, fish sticks and frozen veggies! Which now that I think about it will make some great zero-prep meals for the last few weeks of pregnancy or after the baby comes that aren't 100% devoid of nutrition.

A few bits of news from us (important and not so much!):

~we got a much needed new bed today! I slept on this same bed when I was a teen and it was a hand-me-down from a grandparent then! (and I am 30 now:)

~we met with one potential doula yesterday via skype and will meet with another plus the midwife group we will probably use in Seattle on Monday. Excited to have things settled soon!

~this next week will be 34 weeks...so baby is just a month away from "full term!"

~we are getting closer and closer to our one-time goal for France funds!

I am sure there is more but that is all I can think of for now:)

Baby Boy Shower @ WVBC

Last weekend I was blessed with a beautiful baby boy shower at a friend's house from our church here in the Wenatchee Valley. When my family moved here in 1994 I never pictured myself back at the church almost 20 years later with my two (almost three!) children and a husband! Although no church is perfect and we've moved around quite a bit recently (Puget Sound to North Carolina to E. WA) we've been blessed with wonderful church families in all three locations.

Here are a few pics our friends the Smith's gave us (our camera still on the fritz).






We were blessed with a group of almost 20, including my mom, grandma and friends I've known for almost 20 years (hi D!). What a sweet blessing.

Baby Boy Clothes Blessing!

Occasionally I like to look on Craigslist for various things. This time it seemed to be a blessing straight from our Heavenly Father! I was so excited to see that a local coffee shop (blocks away from my parents' house) was hosting a baby/toddler clothing swap! We had more than enough tiny baby girl clothes to get rid of some excess (we have plenty left even if baby boy turns out to be a girl!)

The cool thing was everyone else at the swap was looking for other sizes so they let me keep coming back (and encouraging me to do so) for another round! I probably got 50+items, all in amazing condition and much nicer stuff than I could afford otherwise. What a blessing!

My big helper is below posing with the clothes. There were so many I couldn't fit them all in one picture!

Baby Bump: 24 1/2 weeks

Yes, I know I look 8 months pregnant already! But overall I am feeling good and still exercising (mostly walking or aerobics about 30 minutes a day 4 days a week). The holidays were bad news and I gained 7 extra pounds. So all this week I've started to write down everything I eat and that seems to curb some of my extra snacking or sugar overload. Baby boy kicks all the time and is measuring right where he should be for a late April/early May arrival.

The plan is to move to Bremerton mid-April so we can have the baby in Seattle again. Praying for a little quicker labor this time (less than 44 hours would be nice!;)

More than just pink

In just a few months our girly household will be invaded by blue things, trucks, and all things "boy". Its going to be quite a different world than our house-playing, dolly-caring for, dressing up twosome. But we are excited. Our world is about to change, come May!

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of my girly-girls in residence:

Read My Shirt: Big News

Coming in May 2011:


We'll be a family of 5! And yes, we may end up with a French citizen if you are keeping up with our mission plans:)

Big Baby O

Here's a picture of me and girls at our church's fourth of July picnic. Thanks Shari!

Just weighed my baby girl (6 weeks old already!) and she's 13 lbs! At least by the digital scale at the house here-no wonder I feel like I am always nursing. Now if only she'd stay asleep for longer than 2 seconds after I put her down:)

Snoozing in a swing with no batteries:)

We are all still doing well--this would have been such a nice week had it not been that we were also moving this weekend! Put a couple of stressful, time consuming events in the same week and life kind of gets nuts for awhile. Anyway, I will post pictures soon-we've been taking them, just no time to upload. We've switched to disposable plates, diapers and using the dryer to save time but there is still not enough!

So enough venting--we have O's first well baby check today so it will be good to see how she's doing with all that sleeping. She has an odd rash that will need to get checked out-but at birth they said it looked like a newborn rash that would go away on its own. M loves her new sister but is needing more time to adjust. She has been more tempermental and jealous than usual but I think with us packing and new sister its just a lot for a little person to handle at once.