One Month

  Last Saturday Luke turned a whole one month.  It's crazy to think he is been a part of our lives for that long already.  It feels like he's always been a part of our family.  He is almost eight pounds now and is getting some nice chubs now.  Emery still adores him and tries to hold him all the time. Avery asks me all the time what baby brother is saying, so I have to make up conversations between her and Luke.  Harper likes to call Luke "our baby."  Other than that Luke is just doing all the normal baby stuff of mostly eating and sleeping.  We love his sweet little face so much.

Luke and the monkey at one month.

Taking a nap.

Avery really wanted to hold him this day.  I love this picture.

Taking yet another nap.

A Visit from Nellie, Paul, and Reagan

  The day after Thanksgiving my sister Nellie flew in with her family to meet Luke.  Avery and Harper were very excited to see Reagan again.  The morning they flew in they kept asking if Reagan was there yet.  They still call Reagan, baby Reagan, even though she is two and a half.  All the girls had a great time making the grandest messes.  I took advantage of the extra hands at home and put up my Christmas tree.  I let the girls put some of the ornaments on, so if you look carefully all the ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree (Since then all the ornaments have been moved to the top half of the tree).  I was happy to find out that Emery did great having Reagan as her temporary roommate for their visit.  One morning when I went to get them up I found Emery standing in one small corner of her crib because Reagan had stuffed quite literally everything she could get her hands on into the crib.  Emery was standing a midst a giant pile of diapers, burpies, bedding, and toys.  Fortunately she hadn't cleaned out the dresser of all the clothes yet. When Luke gets kicked out of our bedroom he'll have to bunk with Emery, so this gives me hope that that will go well. 

Reagan, Avery, Emery, and Harper.  Yes this was the best picture I got of them all.

I was trying to get all the girls to stand in front of the Christmas tree, and once again this was the best I could get.  Reagan didn't make it in the shot, Emery has her back turned to the camera, and the big girls are making silly faces.

Reagan was pretty happy holding Luke.  Luke looks a little uncertain though.

Thanksgiving

   For Thanksgiving this year we went to my parents' house and spent it with my brother Adam and his wife Angie, and Daryl's brother Karl, his wife Aimee, and their son Tyler.  The kids had a great time and weren't too crazy.  We had a nice low key Thanksgiving since we had a three week old, and my sister-in-law Angie is due to have her baby on Christmas.  No one really mustered up the strength to do anything over the top.  Daryl did have fun perfecting the fine art of grilling ribs, but don't worry we had a turkey breast as well.  It was a great day.e

Harper really likes her Uncle Karl.

Tyler showing off his missing two front teeth.

Emery ready for feasting!

Tyler giving Luke some kisses.

Daryl's ribs in all their meaty glory.

Avery's Happy Birthday

  As it happens Avery and Luke's birthdays are only six days apart now.  Avery doesn't mind right now.  In fact she talks about her and Luke being birthday buddies all the time.  It's very cute, but I'm not convinced they will always be happy about the close proximity of their birthdays.  Oh well they'll live.

   We celebrated Avery's birthday with a party the Sunday after the fact.  On the day of Avery's birthday Daryl took her and Harper to see Big Hero Six followed by a fabulous dinner at McDonald's where Avery and Harper played for 45 minutes in the play area.  Daryl was feeling exceptional generous that day.  We asked Avery how she liked her birthday that night, and told us there was no cake, presents, or candles which obviously meant it wasn't really her birthday.

  For her party we were happy to have all the usual suspects in attendance such as Aimee, Karl, Tyler, my parents, Adam, and Angie, but we were lucky that Brad and DeAnna were in town to meet Luke.  Avery once again this year requested a cake with strawberry cream and frosting, but this year she wanted it decorated with butterflies.  I of course didn't make it, but purchased it from a bakery.  Avery had a great time opening her presents and playing with her cousin.  She loves Tyler so much.  We have to explain all the time why she can't marry her cousin when she is older.  Avery is a energetic, sweet girl who is a wonderful sister and daughter!

Avery's birthday cake complete with butterflies.

Avery with her Angry Birds Princess Leia.  We had to position Harper and Tyler on either side of Avery, so they both could have an up close view of the present opening.

Brad, DeAnna, and Luke.

Emery loved the birthday cake.

Emery also enjoyed getting in DeAnna's boots.

Here is Avery's super cool My Little Pony birthday card, and you can see her new ponies on the table too.

Here's Luke

   It's been two weeks since our newest family member, Luke Van Adam, joined us on November 6th.  He was born five minutes before his due date on the 7th.  My water broke about ten minutes to eight that evening, and we were off to the hospital since I have a history of fast births.  This one was no different.  Contractions didn't start in earnest until maybe nine-thirty or ten after Daryl and I walked around for about a half hour.  They were pretty mild too, so we thought we would try to sleep.  The nurse had just given me a shot of painkillers to help me sleep and left when things started to get a little more serious.  I had had her check to see how dilated I was before she left though and I was still hanging out at three maybe four centimeters, so no one was really worried about an imminent arrival. We should have been.  In the next twenty or so minutes I became fully dilated, and I shoved Daryl out of our room in search of help when I felt the baby crowning.  Daryl returned quickly with help, and indeed the baby had crowned.  He was out pretty quickly.  When they put him on me I noticed he had a ton of dark hair, and that the doctor had made it.  In fact those were my first words after Luke was born, "Dr. Graham you made it!"  I guess I was in "real labor" for maybe an hour and a halfish.
   Luke was 6 pounds 7 ounces and 18.5 inches long confirming my guesstimate that he was smaller than Emery who as a baby who was a giant 7 pounds 5 ounces. Like I said he had a ton of hair when he was born and he even got some more after he was born.  We ended up staying in the hospital two nights since he was born so late the first night.  The girls were very happy to meet him.  When we held Luke out for Emery to get a closer look at him she immediately held out her arms to try and hold him.  I thought that was pretty sweet.  Avery and Harper were very excited to share with their nursery and primary classes that they had a baby brother that Sunday.  So far Luke has survived being a little brother to three older sisters.  Emery has already accidentally stepped on his face a couple times trying to climb over him and me included.  Babies are lot sturdier than we give them credit for sometimes.  We love Luke and are so happy to have him as part of our family.

This about an hour or so after he was born.

I love how happy Emery looks right here.

Emery holding her baby brother.

Emery and baby Luke hanging out on Mom and Dad's bed.

Here's Luke with the monkey at eleven days old.

Happy Halloween!

     Avery and Harper were especially excited for Halloween this year.  Avery was talking about it all week.  This morning she was able to wear her costume to school for her little Halloween party in Kindergarten.  She was Princess Leia from Star Wars Angry Birds.  I was surprised that she was not only able to put her jacket on over her puffy costume, but she even wore her backpack too.  Daryl and I took Avery and Harper around our neighborhood trick or treating while Emery held down the fort with my parents.  We ended up being gone for an hour.  One house was all decked out for Halloween with inflatables, spooky music, lights, and fake people in the car in the driveway with a strobe light going.  Avery tried to tell us that Daryl needed to carry her and Harper quite dramatically declared the the house spooky.  I love those two girls!

Avery ready for school this morning.

Emery rocking the ladybug costume.  I put this costume on her took a picture, and then off it came.

Avery and Harper in costume before trick or treating.  Harper is a butterfly.

The sweet candy aftermath.  The girls' scored Capri Suns at one house.

Harper very pleased with her candy haul.

Earlier in the day Emery decided to do some quality assurance tests of baby boy's car seat. I just love how Emery makes herself cozy in random places.

Pumpkin Carving

   Last night we got around to carving our two pumpkins.  Avery went with her Kindergarten class to Remlinger Farms a couple weeks ago, which was great because our family has been struggling with some gross colds that prevented us from getting out to the pumpkin patch.  On that field trip Avery was able to pick out a pumpkin.  She drew her own design on her little pumpkin and then Daryl did his best to carve it out just as she designed it.  Then Daryl carved out our bigger pumpkin into a cat design with the new Dremel pumpkin carving tool that we bought this year.  It turned out pretty good. Now we are ready for Halloween.

Avery insisted on wearing these gloves that are clearly to big for her to help clean out the pumpkins.  I did the bulk of the work cleaning out the pumpkins, so Daryl could concentrate on the carving.

Here's an action shot of Avery cleaning out the pumpkin.

Avery was pleased with how Daryl rendered her design.  She thought it looked scary. 

Here's Daryl carving the big pumpkin.

Here is the finished product.  Not bad for Daryl's first time using the power carving tool.

Later that night I went to check on the girls real quick before I shut their door for the night and saw a pair of knees sticking up on the top bunk.  I had to come back with the camera of course,

Avery's School Picture

  Oh Lifetouch.  Here's Avery school picture and it's pretty cute, except why couldn't they have swept that little piece of hair back?  Apparently I didn't shellac Avery's hair with enough hairspray that morning.  I suppose this is what retakes are for.

Tyler Turns Seven

   Last Friday was Tyler's seventh birthday. We celebrated in style at McDonald's.  Avery was absolutely sure that Tyler needed to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy for his birthday.  She has really been into Ninja Turtles and Batman lately in addition to her regular more "girly"  fare.  I took her and Harper to Target where they picked out a Leonardo action figure and some Raphael body wash.  Avery was sure Tyler would love them and she was right.  I can't believe that it's been seven years!

Emery just keeps getting cuter.

Harper saw me taking a picture of Emery and wanted her picture taken too, and this is the face she made.

Tyler and his awesome Costco sheet cake!

Avery was so excited to see Tyler open up the birthday gifts that she picked out for him.  

Random Picture Time!

  Here are some pictures that I've taken in the last month or so that have been burning a whole on my hard drive.  The first two are actually from September when Karl, Aimee, and Tyler came by to visit.  Then the others are from this month.  Life has been pretty busy.  Daryl transitioned from contract worker to full time employee at his job, and also found out that he was accepted into UW's Technology Management MBA program that will start in January.  We are anticipating that our house in West Seattle will be officially sold this week, and I am about four weeks away from my due date.  

Aimee really is great aunt and mom.  I like how they put a blanket on her first before they forced her to be their horse.

I had some awesome snuggles with Tyler, and he also told me that it would be okay if the baby should end up being born on his birthday October 24th.

These two crack me up.  They insisted on taking a picture once we got done putting this sweet cat puzzle together.

Here's a better shot of Cats from Around the World.  Avery made everyone go around and say which was their favorite cat.

Harper was on the floor when Emery decided she would make a nice chair and sat down in her lap.

Avery had to get in the picture too of course.

Harper's First Hair Cut

  Today was Harper's turn for a hair cut.  The stylist and I both agreed that she ended up with the worst damage between them both because Avery cut off a lot of the hair in front; almost all the way to the scalp.  Harper was very excited about her hair cut and asked me if it was time to go to her hair cut for hours before we had to leave.  She was very good and still with a very solemn face for most of the hair cut.  Just like Avery she likes her hair cut a lot.

The before picture which I don't think quite captures the awfulness of what happened to her hair.

Say goodbye to the super mullet.

Harper's new hair cut.

The back view of Harper's new hair cut.

Avery and Harper wanted to do a bunch of silly poses for me.

Emery wanted her picture taken too.