Just a few pictures

Here are some more pictures of our little lady:

12 days old - this was her Sunday dress.

2 weeks old

She sleeps a lot and we love it. =)

I wanted to show some pictures of the other kids when they were babies so you could see how much they all look alike.

 Joseph, 4-6 weeks old (not sure exactly)

Kathryn - 2 hours old

David - 4 hours old

David - a few weeks old

Sarah - 2 1/2 (What a cutie! She looks like Eden.)

Kathryn - 2 months and already turning blond

Joseph - age 2

Anna (now Rachel)

Introducing our sweet baby Anna ~

**Edited: We changed her name to Rachel Eve, see this post**

She was born around 7:30am on Tuesday, January 24.

She weighed 9 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.

These kids love their new sister.

We are all healthy, but tired, and trying to adjust to life with 5 kids. Anna has been super easy and a great little sleeper so far, which is helping the transition go smoother.

A (Not So) Brief Update

I've been meaning to post some pictures from Christmas but our other laptop (where I had the pictures stored) crashed two weeks ago and the hard drive was completely fried. Don't worry, I still have the pictures on my cell phone, so you'll see them eventually.

The kids have been back in school for two weeks but David has still been home because the college doesn't start classes until next Tuesday. He's been so helpful and it's been nice to be able to rest when I need it. David spent several days finishing up one of our big house projects. With the help of a good friend and his fancy power tools, David has successfully installed all the baseboards and door/window trims in our house. He also put up beadboard around Sarah's room (at 3 feet high) and the baby room (at 5 1/2 feet high). I love the way it looks! It's so nice to feel like everything is put back together again--our baseboards were pulled off over a year ago when we had the new carpet installed and we decided to upgrade from the plain, flat 1" stuff to something more modern and 4" tall. The next project will be painting all of that trim...but not for a few months.

I'm am growing larger everyday and recently hit an all-time high weight, even though I haven't gained as much as last time, I started out 15 pounds heavier. So, I feel huge and am ready for this baby to come...except that we're not totally prepared with the right car seats (to fit 5 seats in the van) or other things like that yet. My mom is coming out here next Thursday and will stay for a week. She will actually leave before my due date, but I'm really hoping (feeling pretty confident) that she won't miss the baby. Either way, having some help will be great, whether she's helping us prepare (making freezer dinners, etc.) or taking care of the other 4 kids while I take care of a newborn, I'm grateful for any aid I can get. I'm 37 weeks along now and I'll hit 38 weeks on Sunday-ish. We're planning another home birth as long as everything is going smoothly---and I hope and pray it does because the hospital here just seems so yucky to me.

I hope you are all having a wonderful 2012. Maybe my next post will be about our new baby. =)

P.S. Do you have any name suggestions for us? The kids have a name that they call her, but I am still undecided and don't have any middle names on a list either.
For first names, I prefer...
1. Very traditional names, or
2. Names that are part of our family history, or
3. Names of people we admire, and
4. Names with 2 syllables, (three syllable names are too long and always get shortened to nicknames, one syllable names often get lengthened when they are made into nicknames).

I don't want...
1. Ultra popular names (check out the top 10 names of 2011 for a list of names we won't use--at least not for a first name), or
2. Names that are too similar to Kathryn (Katie, Katelyn, Kaylynn, etc.), or
3. Names that don't translate well into Spanish (a kid whose parents both teach Spanish has a good chance of traveling abroad or living in a Spanish-speaking country during childhood, so having a compatible name is useful....my name is completely un-pronounceable in Spanish).

Okay, I think that's most of our my criteria. Middle names don't have to follow all the rules. So....any ideas?

November in Photos

This is how he gets cozy when he is watching a little movie.

He pulls up his special chair and arranges his favorite blanket (aka "deet-deet") on his lap every time.

Sarah's fall festival picture. She is wearing all of her "cowboy girl" gear from Grandpa:

Wrangler shirt and jeans and pink boots that light up.

When we bought our house last year everything was set up for wheelchair access. There was a really nice ramp in the garage that made it easy to move in. But, it took up too much space. When the weather got cold, David decided that he was tired of scraping ice off his car every morning. So, he took out the ramp (it was no small task) and built two steps in it's place. Now, we can fit both vehicles in the garage!

Our first (and only-so far) snowfall of the year.

They rolled giant snowballs to make a snowman, but I wouldn't go outside to stack them.

In fact, I took all of these pictures from inside. 

Yeah, I'm wimpy about the cold like that.

We set up the tree the Monday before Thanksgiving because

Grandpa and Grandma Wiseman were here.

We had so much fun when Grandpa, Grandma, and Laura came to visit!

We even got a semi-decent family photo out of it. =)

David has some amazing concentration skills. 

He's doing some editing while little Davey uses dad for a chair.

When Grandpa Chuck came for Thanksgiving he showed up with a full mustache and goatee. Kathryn thought he was scary and didn't believe he was the same Grandpa that she played with at the lake this summer. Then he shaved it off--they enjoyed watching that--and she declared him to be her real Grandpa after all. 

Thanksgiving dinner (Grandpa with a goatee). He made some awesome potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and pie. I made a sweet potato casserole and attempted to make rolls again (failed). 

Sunday morning before church (sans goatee), right before he left. The kids and I all loved having family come visit for the holiday. It was so nice to have the extra help around the house. The kids enjoyed playing games with their grandparents and sharing their talents (they were constantly drawing pictures for them or singing songs they had learned).

Blog trivia: how many times did you spot Davey's blanket in various photos in this post?