Maggie week one

It's been one week since Maggie was born- time flies! Thanks to Grammy, we have achieved some level of normalcy at the house. Maggie continues to improve each night- stretching her sleeping longer and longer. She is a great eater, eating almost 4 ounces at one time in some instances. She has also become more alert and likes to look around especially in the evenings and morning time. Other than that... she sleeps! Here are a few photos from the last week.

Sleeping Maggie... Sleep is her favorite activity. 

 Lilly and Claire are always up for a good time. In this instance, they held a tea party in the hall. What kind of tea would you like?

 Lilly didn't waste any time digging in to the popcorn Nana sent. Thanks Nana!

This little pink hat belongs to my niece Caroline. I thought we'd better take Maggie's picture wearing it since it barely fits!

 Grammy has enjoyed lots of snuggle time with Miss Maggie. Yesterday she was one week old, and last night, Maggie was quite alert in Grammy's arms. Here are a few cute photos showing Maggie awake.

And a close-up...

We saw the pediatrician this week, and Maggie has slimmed down to a featherlight 10 lb 13 oz. More photos to come...

Maggie comes home

Many of you have been asking for more photos of the baby. We are home and doing well.. enjoying Maggie and getting used to a new routine.

We think Maggie looks a lot like Lilly did at this age, except we guess Maggie's eyes will be blue. What do you think?

Claire wanted to give Maggie a kiss before leaving the hospital for the day.

Lilly and Claire both found the hospital room to be entertaining in various ways. Rob captured this  photo of them enjoying my comfy bed. They behaved themselves fairly well each time Grammy brought them for a visit. A hospital is a lot like a hotel, you know, minus the pool.
A bed, bathroom, room service...

 Though our stay in the hospital was a great one with absolutely no complaints, I was super happy to go home. Lilly was happy to share in the experience also... 

 Miss Maggie didn't mind the car ride home nor her first experience in her infant car seat. Once home, we welcomed her to her new room. She was impressed, of course, mostly with the paint job. :)

 But Lilly wanted Maggie to see Lilly's room. And, once Grammy set Maggie down, Lilly said, "Ok, you can all leave now." It was almost as if Lilly's new "toy" was delivered home and now she wanted to play- unsupervised. After a quick, "Uh, No!" from us, we proceeded to settle Maggie into her new routine.

 And here's our newest angel asleep in her swing. She has adjusted well to her new surroundings- mostly- her first night was quite rocky, but we are looking forward to smoother sailing in the weeks (or months?) to come!

 Welcome home, Maggie. We love you!

Baby Maggie's Grand Arrival

 We proudly announce the arrival of

Maggie Grace

January 7, 2011

12:15pm

11 lb. 2 oz. 22.5 in.

Baby and mom are doing great!

 

Lilly and Grammy with Maggie.

Lilly could not wait to hold the baby. 

 Claire was interested... but just wanted to observe while Lilly held their new sister.

 

 Day two: Lilly was all smiles to see Maggie again on her second day.

 We hope to be going home soon. Thank you for all of the prayers and happy wishes. We feel very blessed to have three beautiful daughters.

Our new toy

We've been searching for a new camera- a fancy one that would result in great photos of the girls. 

After researching and researching, Rob decided on this one... the Nikon D3100. Special thanks to our friend Bec who shared her insight and expertise on the topic. We look forward to learning to use the bells and whistles. And, of course, we look forward to sharing our photos of the girls with you.

Fancy Schmancy compared to our old "point and shoot" pocket camera.

We are excited!

Happy 4 1/2

One disadvantage of having a summer birthday is the inability to celebrate at school. Lilly has been talking all year about various cupcakes, cakes, ice cream and treats her preschool friends have brought to class in celebration of their birthdays. And, as you can imagine, Lilly has been planning ahead for her birthday celebration- not realizing she will not be in school in July. So, since her half birthday was 1/1, we decided to celebrate the big 4 1/2 in style at preschool tomorrow. She picked this Rapunzel cake at the local grocery store and cannot wait to share with her class. We even purchased princess plates for the girls in her class and monkey plates for the boys. Lilly said the boys would not want to eat off a princess plate. At first she wanted to buy two cakes- one for the girls, the other for the boys. But, when she saw the Rapunzel option, she changed her mind. 

Happy 4 1/2 Lilly!

Claire was just as excited to bring the cake home from the grocery store...

One funny thing that happened this morning.. while we were at Sam's Club, Lilly asked Rob to lift her into the shopping cart. 

She looked at him and said, "Watch out, there's not much room. Remember, I'm 4 1/2- a big kid now."

 

Baby's room

Obviously it is 2011 and baby has not arrived. Rob is a bit sad we could not count baby as a tax deduction for 2010, but I am secretly happy baby will have her birthday in January instead of December. All of our Christmas decor has been neatly put away, so now we can focus on baby's arrival... soon! Many friends have asked to see a picture of her room, so since I have time, I took a few. This is the same nursery Lilly and Claire used, but now it has a fresh paint scheme (thanks, Rob), new silk drapery panels and sheer courtesy of Nana, new bedding, a redesigned closet (thanks, Rob) and some new accessories. I would still like to add a chandelier extension to the ceiling fan and sconces to the walls, but those tasks are for another day. I am in to painted ceilings these days, so here's a nice soft pink on our 10 foot ceilings; I think it makes them look taller.

The "new" room is a favorite play room for Lilly and Claire; I am constantly chasing them out of there! For now, we will wait for Miss Maggie to arrive, and we will let you know as soon as she does.

 

Monkeying around in the kitchen

Both of our girls love to help in the kitchen. It doesn't matter what's on the menu, they love to help prepare snacks, meals and special things like cookies, cake and monkey bread. We tried a new recipe on Christmas morning courtesy of Cook's Illustrated magazine and an episode of Cook's Country on TV.  It was such a big hit on Christmas that Lilly requested an encore. So, yesterday we set out to make homemade monkey bread, again.

We started with made from scratch dough, and we let it rise until doubled in size...

Then, we created an assembly line to cut the dough and prepare it for the oven. Here are the girls preparing to butter and sugar the dough...

Claire is showing off her brown sugar hands and our dough.

After another hour of rising, then 30 minutes baking in the oven and a little bit of glaze, here's the end result...

... a sugary, gooey, homemade, high calorie treat for New Year's morning breakfast. 

YUM!
Happy 2011, everyone!