Baby Charlotte

Some updates (ok, just pictures really) on our newest...

At my Stewart baby shower over Thanksgiving, Charlotte's Aunt Heidi had everyone write notes on diapers...notes that would encourage a late night diaper changer, or make her laugh.  Here's one from Debra (taken during her first sponge bath)--

 Big sister, for the first time!

Charlotte and her Mama on Valentine's day, her due date.

Waking up...

Around the house...

It seems like only yesterday...actually, this was yesterday.

And just a moment ago, a little tummy-time nap. 

(Hey, nurse said it's ok if we stick around baby.)

Charlotte Belle, 13 days old

We had a baby!

Well, our long awaited baby girl has arrived! 

Here I am, the night before delivery!

The morning of February 9th, we welcomed a sweet Charlotte Belle into our family.  

Charlotte because it's a beautiful name (and I knew a couple Charlotte's growing up who only made the name more endearing) and Belle because she is Daniel's beloved Grandma.  I also knew her before she died and she was a sweet, wonderful person.

Here's Dad with his fourth child!

Charlotte was born at 10:59 am and weighed 8 pounds even.  She's 20 inches long.  She is my "middlest" baby as Andrew weighed 7 lbs and the girls were at 8lbs 5oz and 8lbs 6oz.

Charlotte was delivered "all natural," yes, by choice.  Depending on when you start counting contractions labor lasted about an hour and a half or so.  Very similar to the timing of Eliza's birth.  

(Abby's was a whole two hours long.)

This makes three daughters!

Precious baby girl.

It was just too sweet when the kids came to visit.  They were so thrilled!  It wasn't long before they were calling dibs on holding their baby sister.

Eliza wanted to check out all of Charlotte's fingers and toes, so we took a few minutes to unbundle her.

The day after our baby was born, Grandma Stewart arrived to be our helper!  

She has been so kind and incredibly helpful!  What would we do without her!?

2 days old.

Grandma Stewart brought a gorgeous home-made quilt for her grandbaby.

4 of a kind. 

A lucky little sister.

It's COLD here...

...Well, everywhere except my fridge and freezer!  In there it's a nice 68 degrees.

Yep.  I woke up yesterday morning to warm milk and melted ice cream.  We rushed everything (thankfully) to our extra fridge/freezer and rescued most of it.  I called on our home warranty plan (thankfully) and they'll be out to "repair" tomorrow.  Sure.  A yellow fridge from 1972.  I'm planning on the replacement.  That's why we got the warranty thing after all.  So I think I'll start shopping!

P.S.  It finally feels like Wisconsin outside.  A few inches of old snow on the ground coupled with sub-zero temperatures.  Wooo, baby!!

UPDATE:  Alas, we have a busted thermostat.  And our guy FOUND the part and is fixing it as we speak!!  I can't say I'm not disappointed about not getting a new fridge out of this.  But at least it's working and at least it's clean!  I mean, might as well wash it out while it's empty, eh?

Basketball Baby

I feel like I've kind of deprived the blog of pictures of me pregnant (with belly actually showing).  Though no one has expressed disappointment.  So maybe you will now be disappointed.  

Anyway, here I am!  And a fresh hair cut to boot.

Let's work on the lighting, shall we?  Start with a flash.

 Ahh, this only looks half-decent because I used "warmify" on Picasa's touch-up features.

 Finding good lighting for photography in our house is hard. 

 It makes me sad.

Had enough?

Good night.

:)

Help. RE: piano

I have a question for you.  How do you get your kids to practice the piano?  I've started simple: you get a gumball from the gumball machine for every 10 minutes you practice each day.  They usually get 2.

But we miss a lot of days!  I'm only so good at reminding and reminding and reminding.

So...what's next?  Some reward system where they get a prize if they practice every day that week?  Or a bigger prize for practicing every day all month?  Charts, stickers, tracking...

Or should I take privileges away for them not practicing!?  (You know that's what I want to do!)

Without ranting too long...I will ask again, what works for you?

Quoteables

A couple minutes after applying a first coat of polish on her nails,  3-year-old niece Bethany reminds her mom,
"Aunt Katie needs to do a double-jacket on my nails!"
*   *   *
Andrew:  (eyeing something new on the kitchen counter, half disgusted) Mom, what is that?
Mom:  That's deodorant, but it's for women.
Andrew:  It STINKS!
Mom:  (feeling a little defensive)  Andrew, it's unscented and it's new and closed.

(pause)

Mom:  You smell dinner!

(Ham and bean soup, which happens to be one of my favorite smells!)

Happy New Year!

Meet "Happy New Year Baby"

She hopes your new year is full of happiness and frosting.

 In lieu of having real snow, we decided to make ourselves some snowflakes!  I've wanted to do this before, but with the overwhelming amount of snow outside, never really felt moved to go through with it!  But this is the year, baby!  I love how each flake is so unique--wish you could see each one in detail.