Blessing

I can't believe I am just getting to this . . .

Here is Sophie at 3 weeks old when she was given her blessing.  She is wearing a very special dress that Adam's Nana made for Clara when she was born.

Sewing

Last year in Clara's kindergarden class she learned to sew, well, she learned some basic sewing skills.  In fact, last Christmas she asked for a sewing kit.

So when she found out that she was allowed to dress up at school for Halloween she decided that she wanted to sew her costume this year.  I don't have very advanded sewing skills myself, I can wing certain things when I have to.  So we asked Grammy to help with the project.  The three of us went to JoAnn's and picked out the materiel and then Clara and her Grammy went to work.  Clara did end up doing quite a bit of her costume, Grammy helped with a few of the harder things and supervised!  There is a picture of the finished product in my Halloween post.

It's cute to watch Clara with her sewing skills.  Of course she feels like she can do anything, and actually she has surprised me with what she has done.  She sees something that need to be fixed and she gets out her sewing box and goes to work.  She has fixed buttons and rips in stuffed animals, she even made me this amazing pillow for mothers day (I'll post a picture soon, I've just run out of time to take the picture today:)

Halloween Costumes 2011

We didn't have a family theme this year.

Clara decided on her costume because at school they were allowed to dress up as long as it was a historical character.  She wanted to be the Egyptian princess, Cleopatra.

Ian insisted that he would be a cow.

And I didn't want to stuff Sophie in one of those bunting things, so I thought a cute little pumpkin would work.

Results from our Annual Pumkin Carving Contest

I only have the pictures of the pumpkins tonight.  We just had our second annual pumpkin carving contest and everyone did such a great job!  Let me know which one is your favorite!

Clara is Seven

I just can't believe that my little girl is already 7, and next year she'll be baptized!  She is such an amazing little person, the perfect first child (at least for me).  She is the joy of my life.

Here are some things about Clara at 7:

* loves school, in fact we just had a parent/teacher conference and her teacher said, "Clara is fantastic, please keep having children so I can teach them!"  It feels really good to be validated that way!  

*LOVES to read.  And we are talking chapter books here.  In fact, I have a hard time getting her to go to sleep at night - I often find her reading a book with the light from her closet.

*still loves dancing, although we took a break from dance class last January because I was so sick being pregnant and lately having a newborn.  We definitely plan to start dance classes again soon.

*likes to write books and illustrate them.  She says she wants to be an author when she grows up.  Her teacher says that her level of writing is advanced for her age.

*she is a great little swimmer.  We still take lessons every summer and her instructor had her swimming laps and doing flip-turns (which I still haven't figured out how to do . . . )

*Ian's favorite person.  Clara is so patient with her 3 year old little brother (more than me sometimes).  She makes up games that they play together and is TRYING to teach him about compromise.

*she is so cute with little Sophie.  Often when Sophie is fussing and I haven't had the chance to get her yet I'll find Clara with her, talking or singing.

*has a great imagination!

*enjoys music and playing the piano.

*extremely capable.  When I was pregnant and having a hard time getting basic things done, she told me she would do the dishes, and then proceeded to rinse and load the dishwasher!  She is such a good helper.

*very loving, Clara is almost too big for me to hold but she still likes to cuddle and hug.

We love our little Clara and are grateful everyday that she is a part of our family.  

School's in Session

Ian and Clara started school on August 15th.  Yes, that was my due date for Sophie ~ so not the best plan, being pregnant in the summer in Florida AND due on the first day of school so I can't take them on thier first day.  Oh well, things worked out and we are so happy to have our little Sophie here!

I love that Clara and Ian are going to a small school.  Clara walks Ian to his class every morning, it's very convenient that her class is right across the hall.  I think that having Clara so near has really helped Ian adjust to school.  He is in the pre-school program, and he goes from 8:30 to 11:30.  He is still getting used to things and liking everything more and more everyday.  Clara loves school and is so glad to be going back.  She is in the Elementary classroom and loving it!

Meanwhile, me and Sophie are working on her tummy time.

She really is such a sweet little thing!  And although she is only four weeks old so far (so I can't really count on things not changing), she seems to be pretty laid back and patient with her Mommy. . . who hasn't quite figured out the whole three kids thing yet.

Our New Addition

Sophie Karyn Barr

was born on August 10, 2011 at 1:57 am

at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 inches

This was the best one so far!!  Labor went really well and very quickly.  We couldn't believe it ~ as I mentioned in my previous post, both Ian and Clara took quite a while to come . . . over 24 hours.  Sophie came in about 7!  Two pushes and there she was.  I still felt fresh when it was all over.  Of course, after about a day of recovering from Labor and add to that the eating habits of a new born and I wasn't feeling so chipper anymore.

Sorry it's taken me a little while to get this post up.  With my two kids and the baby and trying to rest whenever I can I haven't been able to get to the computer.  

Here are a few pictures from the hospital, right after Sophie was born.  Just getting to know each other pictures.

This one is sweet . . . just the girls.

Our first picture as a family.

We are all doing well.  Sophie has a touch of jaundice so we are nursing a lot and spending a little time on the back porch.  My mom has been indispensable the last couple of weeks.  She had Clara and Ian during the hospital visit and even kept them for a few days after we came home from the hospital so Adam and I could have a little more time getting to know our little daughter together.  Thank you Mom, we love you!

First "Decent" Picture

So, here is a little preview of our little baby girl.  I know it's not a fantastic picture, but it sure beats the regular profile pictures you usually come home with from an ultrasound!  

Tomorrow is the big day.  We have an 11:00am appointment at the hospital for the induction.  Fare warning . . . my labors tend to take a awhile.  I believe Ian was about 28 hours.  So don't get worried if you don't see any updates on Facebook by Tuesday night.  In my own mind, I am kind of planning to have her sometime Wednesday morning and then if she comes early it will be a nice surprise!!

Wish me luck!!

Toothless

Clara lost her two front teeth, one day after another.  She thinks it really great that she lost both of them at the same time.  And even though it's not Christmas, I bet you can guess which song she has been singing a lot lately . . . 

By the way teeth E and F have been chrisened Elliot and Felipe, respectively.  (I admit for F we had to pull out the baby names book to find one Clara was happy with.)

Summer Crafts - All Call

So, this was an easy and cute idea to do with the kids over the summer.  I saw it on the blog of a friend of a friend.  You collect all your broken crayons, then you peel the paper from them, then you grab your old muffin tin and cook the broken crayons at 350 degrees until they look done.  Let 'em cool and pop 'em out. And you've got some pretty fun new crayons for the kids to use!

So I need help!!!  I need ideas of things I can do with my kids this summer.  I've got about 2 months left in my pregnancy and trying to keep up with the kids, and hopefully keep them happy.  So let's help each other . . . ideas, please!!  I begging here.  Blog them, or post a link to a good blog in the comments section that may have a lot of good ideas or email me.  

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Easter Time

I think the bright, beautiful colors of spring and Eastertime insprired me to pull out my camera again.  Oh my, the poor thing had dust on it!!!!

We had a fun egg hunt on Saturday morning.  We like to have the Easter Bunny come on Saturday, so we can help the kids focus on Christ during Sunday.  We also had fun decorating eggs!  I love that Ian is old enough to take part in these activities!

The New Nursery

Lovely, isn't it?  And can you believe I have it all put together already?  I'm so on top of things!!!!

I WISH!!!!!!!!

This is just a wonderful nursery from Pottery Barn Kids, I actually don't plan on painting the nursery because you only really need a nursery for a year or two, so I figure why go to all the trouble for such a short time.  But this is a nice way to anounce that this little one is a GIRL!!  We are excited, and Clara is absolutely thrilled as that is what she wanted.  So now to what I DO need to do and go through all the clothes from when Clara was a baby . . . .

I'm Back . . . Hopefully

It's too far past Christmas to spend a lot of time on that.  And I'll be honest . . . I didn't take a lot of "christmassy" pictures.  I did take a lot of pictures for other people - but not so much of our Christmas, which is a shame.

We had a great Christmas!  My whole family was able to get together earlier December, EVERYONE was together.  I know that won't happen all that often.  We had a great time doing things together, including a fun gingerbread house party at our house for all the kids!

The reason I have disappeared for so long and have NO pictures to show for it is because I found out early December that I am expecting our third baby in August!!  And I don't know why but the nausea this pregnancy was REALLY BAD, even compared to my first two ~ which weren't all that fun either.  Besides the normal stimuli that make a pregnant woman more nauseous, I found that anything creative also did the trick for me.  So I had a really hard time even seeing my camera sit innocently on the desk in the office.  So forget blogging or editing all those pictures I took in December :(  (I'm really sorry, by the way to those of you still waiting, I should be back to it soon!)  I have actually been feeling better as far as the morning sickness goes.  But wouldn't you just know it, I had one great day where I spent a lot of time cleaning (to make up for all the time I hadn't been able to clean) and then I started coming down with the flu thing that is going around.  Sore throat, congestion, aches, fever . . . if you've had it this season, you know what I am talking about.  I am still so happy to not be feeling nauseous, I am really looking forward to getting through this cold so I can get to that second trimester nesting stage.  I have a lot to do.  

At my last appointment, keep in mind I was only 12 weeks along, they told me what the baby was going to be.  Sorry, I am going to keep it to myself for just a few more weeks.  The doctor said at that stage it's just a "definite maybe" kind of prediction.  So we'll see if they were right in 3 weeks.  But I mentioned it because I didn't know it was possible to find out so early, kind of cool.