Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!

Grandma & Grandpa, Here are a few videos of the kids opening your gifts. Thanks so much!
[We rotated these on our computer, but couldn't figure out how to rotate within Blogger. We learned: always video horizontal. Hooray for bendy necks!]

Watch For Fallin' Leaves

What's could be more fun than leaf raking day?

We lost count after 40 bags of leaves!

November 5, 2008

Goodbye fall, hello winter! We barely had our fall pumpkins and mums out when they got doused by a good snowfall.

Sisters Song

This is a video of the song the girls sang for Elizabeth's blessing. This song was re-tooled from the one Katie and Abbie sang for Avery's blessing. It is about 3 minutes long.

Celebrating 2 Special Sisters

November 1, 2008 was a big day for our family! Abbie got baptized and Elizabeth was blessed. We were so pleased to have so much family and many friends join us for this special occasion. It was tough getting ready for a 9:00am baptism the morning after Halloween, but it turned out to be such a terrific day that we will all remember.

Happy Halloween!

We had a witch and 2 50's girls. Avery called herself a "peedle" girl while wearing a "peedle" skirt. She had the best day of her entire life and dragged her older sisters down the street to trick or treat as fast as possible.

Fall Doughnuts

Growing up, making doughnuts in the fall was an annual tradition.
Thanks to my mom for coming to visit this year and creating
a special fall-time momory with my kids.

It didn't take long for the kids to figure out what we have for
dinner on doughnut-making night. Messy... and yummy!!

Our Sister's Finally Home

Elizabeth finally came home but still needed a small puff of oxygen for a week or two. Her sisters couldn't wait to hold and help take care of her even though she was attached to the oxygen tank and a monitor that wrapped around her foot. She occasionally beeped and only kicked off the foot monitor during the middle of the night - resulting in incessant beeping until it was replaced.

We tried to keep her environment as similar to the NICU as possible so she could keep growing and get off the O2.

Sept. 4, 2008

Welcome Elizabeth Claire! She arrived 6 weeks early and weighed in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces. She called the NICU home for the first 18 days of her life where she put on almost 1 1/2 pounds and learned to manage this new body of hers.