Grace is 1 month old already!!

One Month Old

Yesterday marked one month for Grace - it's amazing how quickly time is going!! She has gotten quite strong - lifts her head up all the time and turns to find people. Before we know it she'll be turning 1!!

Coming home from the Hospital

October Campout

Joshua has wanted to go camping for simply ages...we went when he was 2 and haven't had time to go since. This past weekend, Brian took him and Nathaniel for a quick overnighter...just outside of town at a some friends' house where they have a little camping/picnic area by their house. It wasn't all that warm (I think it was around 35 degrees Saturday morning). But it was enough for Joshua...he said it was the best. And Nathaniel had a blast, too. They want to go again, but they'll probably have to wait until next summer. Here are a few pictures:

For Aunt Carol...

as per Aunt Carol's request, here are some new pictures of Grace. For some reason, I'm just finding it hard to actually get the pictures off the camera and onto the computer, much less uploading to the blog (wish I didn't need to sleep!)! (There are more on Facebook, as well). Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the boys camping with Daddy.

We would like to introduce...

Miss Grace Olivia Lee!

She arrived at 6:43 pm, Monday, September 21, 2009 at the Fairchild Medical Center in Yreka, California. She is our "tiny" baby, weighing in at only 8 lbs 13.2 oz and was just 20 inches long!

As you can see, she has chubby chubby cheeks, just like big brother Joshua had when he was born! We think that most of her weight is in her cheeks!

She has quite a bit of dark brown hair...quite different from her blonde big brothers!

Mommy & Grace - like my collection of bracelets...mine, Graces, latex allergy and lab work...drove me crazy!!

Daddy & Grace...Brian even got to wear a bracelet...told him that was good proof for his teachers of why he missed classes Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday! (not all of them, just some of them!)


Big brothers, Joshua & Nathaniel, were very happy to finally have Grace here and home!

Nathaniel is less than happy when she cries...he hates it. Yesterday, I caught him heading out the front door as she was crying saying, "I gotta get out of here!"

He also encourages everyone to put their hands on their ears when she starts!

Just relaxing at home...

Our three kids...

So excited to leave the hospital! Actually, she was less than thrilled with the car seat :)

Nathaniel's Birthday Sweater...

The boys always get new hand-knit sweaters from their Great-Grandma Darlene for birthdays and Christmas...not only do they love their sweaters, but they get so many compliments! With Nathaniel's birthday being at the end of August, he doesn't usually get to wear his new sweaters for awhile...however, last Sunday (the 6th) it was pretty cool in the morning, so he got to wear one of his new sweaters and boy, did he look cute!

Joshua wore one of his sweaters from last Christmas, but took so long getting his shoes on that he didn't get a picture taken...but he was very handsome as well!

No baby yet...technically we're late...the due date was the 13th...but I'll consider us really late if she's not here by the 17th...which was the first due date we were given. The doctor expects me to have her sometime this week. If for some reason she doesn't arrive by Monday morning, we'll go to the hospital at 730 am to be induced. I don't think I look that big when I look down at my stomach...but when Brian took a few pictures the other day (the first we've taken this pregnancy) at just over 39 weeks, yeah, I'm huge! I think I'm having another 9 pound baby!

Nathaniel's Birthday...

Nathaniel was quite into the idea of birthday this year. Last year we held off on presents, cake, etc. until the weekend because his birthday was the same day as Joshua's first day of school, Brian had class that night and more. This year we're holding off on cake & ice cream to Saturday again, but we couldn't really hold off on presents. He KNOWS that you get presents on your birthday and asked about them in the morning. We told him that he'd get presents after his birthday dinner when everyone was home from school and work.

So he started the day with breakfast...when asked, all he wanted for breakfast was yogurt, preferably blackberry yogurt, please. He loves yogurt! Eventually he did add that he wanted some chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes. So here was his birthday breakfast...





Later that morning, he and I ran to our storage unit to unload some stuff and I empty partial boxes and some bags and made a little progress there. Then after I paid the rent fees, we went to the store to see Grandma. He usually gets a cookie at the store when we go there (they give cookies to little kids), but being as it was his birthday, Grandma had gotten him a special treat...a little 6 pack of Oreos! And then I let him pick out ice cream for dessert since we weren't doing his cake. When we got home, we shared the Oreos (I managed to snag two...he was pretty protective of them). I've had some Oreo scrapbook paper for years and was always going to take pictures of the boys eating them, but never have. Now I've got some pictures :)

After lunch we played Cooties (he beat me, fair & square, I couldn't roll a 1 for anything and by the time I got my Cootie body, he already had everything but a couple of legs) and then it was time to pick up Joshua from school. On Wednesday (1st day), we'd waited for him in the car, much to Nathaniel's dismay. He wanted to see his brother's new classroom! So I told him that we'd go for his birthday. Joshua was pretty thorough showing us around the classroom. When we got home, Joshua played with him for the rest of the afternoon - he'd planned all kinds of special things for his little brother's birthday. It was so sweet. Joshua always wants to do stuff like that on people's birthdays. For my birthday 3 years ago, when I was expecting Nathaniel, he planned some games and snacks for my special day. Here are the decorations and "plan" for his party with Nathaniel.

One thing they did was plan out some puppet shows. I have one picture of that and then I videoed their little acts. Unfortunately, I don't think I can load them to blogger...it hasn't let me load videos for awhile. Just trust me that they were hysterical. Joshua's narration was wonderful.

For dinner we had homemade pizza (another Nathaniel favorite) and then he finally got to open his presents. He got some toys and some clothes and art supplies (like big brother has) and finally he got his monkey boy blanket! He was torn between playing with his toys and eating his ice cream...finally he ate a little ice cream. Going to bed was not high on his list of priorities last night, but finally he crashed, leaning against me sitting on the floor next to his bed.

Joshua was the present bringer (though he wasn't always fast enough for Nathaniel)

and the card reader.

Finally, my monkey boy blanket!!!!

Daddy reading him his new musical pop up Thomas book...

He was quite the happy little boy. Today I need to bake his cake and hopefully decorate it (as a monkey) tonight so we can eat it tomorrow with Great Grandma when she comes up.

Birthday Boy!!!

In three short years we've gone from this...

to this....

to this...

to THIS!!

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!!!