Homecoming!

Beatrice got to come home for her 1 week birthday.  We are SO thrilled to have her home where she belongs, and she is officially a "normal" baby...so other than deal with our anxiety, there is nothing special we have to do for her.  Perfect, normal baby!  We celebrated with a dinner of Gino's East Pizza...a family tradition.  With Matias and Violet, we had the pizza right before they were born, but since Beatrice caught us by surprise, we decided to wait until she could join us for the dinner.  It was worth the wait!

Hard at work on a banner for Beatrice

A little outfit I made for our Fall baby- glad she is a girl so she gets to wear it!

Wearing real clothes...yawn!

So little!

3 kids in a minivan...wow.

First family dinner- Gino's Pizza!

Beatrice Mae Handley

She's here!  Beatrice Mae Handley was born Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 9:08pm.

I went to the hospital Monday morning, not sure what exactly was going on, but not expecting to have a baby 3 weeks early.  As we drove to the hospital, there was a big rainbow in the sky...must have been a good omen!

We hung out in Labor and Delivery, walked the floors for a long time and waited to see if she was serious about having a birthday.  Late in the afternoon, it became clear that she was on the way.  I started pushing around 9 and at 9:08 out she came.  She is adorable and perfect and stole our hearts immediately!

Monday night, I was holding her and she suddenly she turned blue and wasn't breathing.  I shook her and she took a couple of quick breaths in and pinked back up again.  Scared me half to death!  The next morning they decided to take her to the NICU to watch her more closely.  Over the next 48 hours she had a few more apnea episodes, so she is being monitored and has had lots of tests to see what is going on.  The good news is that she is one healthy baby- perfect heart, brain, lungs and blood.  The bad news is that we don't know why she occasionally stops breathing.  We will probably never know- their best guess is that her brain is just slightly immature from being early.  We are waiting for her to finish a 3 day sleep study on Monday, and we hope to take her home for her 1 week birthday.  We are trying to take it one day at a time (and trust that someday we might sleep again...someday!)  She is a happy, snuggly girl, and a BIG eater.  She will be ready for all the love Matias and Violet have to shower on her when she gets home!

Apple Holler!!

How it can possibly be Fall once again, and how we can possibly be expecting another Fall baby once again, and how it can possibly apple picking time again I do not know. But all of the above are true, so this weekend was our 4th annual trip to Apple Holler for apple picking, cider and donuts!  

Check out our previous trips to the Holla, and then enjoy some pictures from this year!

The 4 Handleys, soon to be 5.

The Handleys and the soon to be newlyweds!!

The Enchanted Forest

Awwww...

Holy Family Reunion- Linnea, Abbey and Helen

Daddy's Girl!

The wonderful return of reggae man!

It is not a trip to the Holla without Linnea's pie!

Violet is 2!!

We celebrated the big event family-style with a crayon birthday party for our little artist.  Crayons on the loose, paper on the walls, pizza, fruit salad and a crayon cake. Violet got to share her birthday with Great Grandpa Merwin again, as well!

First, the obligatory look back over the years...

2009

2010

2011

And a few pictures from the party:

Getting Ready for Baby!

It seems that with each additional child, there is less preparation required.  Not much to buy, lots of clothes, toys, bouncy seats, carseats and excited siblings ready and waiting.  That said, every new baby deserves a few new things, and preparing is part of the fun!

We've been up to a bit of preparation in the past few weeks...here's some of our progress:

Before

After

Our dear friends the Baylors are moving to Scotland, and were kind enough to give us this dresser.  Julie showed up at our house a few days after Violet was born with a big bag of girl clothes that her daughter had outgrown, and continued to supply us with beautiful hand-me-downs for two years.  It seems a fitting gift that we should have a Baylor dresser in our house!  I still had cans of paint leftover from painting the nursery from Matias 4 years ago, so with a few coats of paint and a few Winnie the Pooh knobs, we have added a dresser to our matching nursery set!

Right now, our two kids share a sleeping room and a play room.  We are loathe to give up either at the moment, and since baby will be in with us for a few months, we are going to bide our time deciding on sleeping arrangements.  For the time being, the nursery will be in Mommy and Daddy's room.  The crib is up, the changing table and dressers filled with freshly-washed baby clothes.

A few more things came down from the attic today and are awaiting a trip through the washing machine.  We are just about ready...now we just have to wait for this little one to pick a birthday!

...and a quick shot of me and Baby #3 for those who requested it...

 

First Day of School 2011

Happy First Day of School 2011

Violet sporting her new mama-made backpack for her first day

Ready to go!

Matias- 3 1/2 years old

Violet- 2 this week!

Out for a special chocolate-chip pancake breakfast at the Bread Basket (where Matt and I used to go on breakfast dates as teenagers!) 

School!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.