Baby Briggs

While in Ohio over Easter, I was able to 

snuggle with our friends new little bundle and snap a few photos. 

This family is just adorable. 

   Baby Briggs Leo

 A little Easter Bunny

 Brigg's Momma is a Optometrist, so its only fitting that 

this little boy have his own line of glasses already. 

 Is there anything sweeter?  

They are so tiny at 1 1/2 weeks.

 Briggs looks alot like his daddy.

This is one cool babe. 

Hey you, you're a child in my head

You haven't walked yet

Your first words have yet to be said

But I swear you'll be blessed

--Elton John "Blessed"

Congratulations Ann Rea and Keith! 

Briggs is a cutie. 

Nothing like that new baby smell

...until there is a poopy! 

God Bless this Child

The past week has gone by in a blur.

Just a week ago, we were surrounding by huge snowflakes and everything covered in white!

Yes, I am not making it up. 

We had quite the little snow flurry last week.  Who knew?

Oct. 22nd and over an inch of snow!!

The kids ran outside like it was Christmas.

We pulled out the winter coats, the hats, the scarves, the snow pants, and boots. 

We dug out the sleds from under the swimming pool and water guns, which it feels we just used yesterday and prepared for winter.

After the tea party on Sunday, the whole week felt like a celebration for Lil Miss.

She wore her crown every where. 

The YMCA

Grocery Store

Target 

and to Bed.

On Thursday night, we did the whole cake and ice cream thing,

and opened a few more gifts.

Baby girl had the whole "Happy Birthday to Me" song down and

sang it nonstop.

 

Over the Weekend we headed to Ohio, for my nephew Reed's baptism. 

Lil Miss tried to capture some shots of the baptism.... little photographer!

Nate was chosen as Reed's godfather, so we wouldn't have missed it. 

We love Father Mark.  He baptized all my little ones. 

He had the kids help with a few of the steps.  Rosie helped him

with the Frankincense and Bubba helped drape the baptismal cloth on little Reed. 



One happy family.

 

Going back to Beth and Scott's house, the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. 

The house was filled with kids giggling and lots of pretend car noises. 

We did triple duty with the cupcakes, celebrating Reed's baptism, Lil Miss's third birthday and Mason's third birthday at the same time.

Birthday Kids 

 Nate got in his Reed time.... awwww. 

Gigi was in baby heaven too. 

She's a natural.

 Sadly, the trip was too short and we found ourselves Sunday morning

packing up and saying goodbye.  It was so

hard to leave this little booger... but Thanksgiving will be here soon.  

 

 We are back at home now having archery practice and

trying not to break anything too important. 

 I have to be content with getting pictures of my littlest nephew

every other day and hearing his little noises through the phone.  

So blessed to be a part of his life. 

 

Being Blessed

It's a yucky rainy gray day outside. 

Time to blog and then maybe take a nap because it has

been a late night Friday and Saturday and momma is tired. 

Not to mention we lost an hour yesterday.  Darn Day Lights Savings!

 

We spent the weekend back in Ottumwa, the place of our first home. 

Not much has changed, but Nate still couldn't remember how to get anywhere. 

Good thing he has a good navigator along! 

We drove by a few of our old haunts, the house, their old school, and daddy's old work. 

The younger ones remembered very little, but Rosie did. 

 

We met some friends at one of our favorite restaurants El Rancho. 

The queso dip and margaritas were worth the trip!! 

After dinner and TOO MUCH grown up talking I was reminded by Bubba, the kids were going bonkers so we headed to our hotel for the kids to go swimming. 

Our friends followed us so we could have drinks by the pool while mommy and the kids swam.  

When I booked the hotel earlier in the week Nate and I tried to remember the last time we

stayed in the hotel with all 6 of us.  The consensus was we don't remember!

It was back when lil miss was a itty bitty baby is all that I can recall.

So, for comfort sake we splurged and got two rooms.

Kids in one room and mommy and daddy in the other. 

At least that is how it started until baby fell out of the bed at 2 in the morning and crawled in with us. 

The whole reason for our trip down to Ottumwa, not that we needed a reason to visit,

was to celebrate two little girl's baptisms. 

I got a text message a few weeks ago from baby Josie asking if I wanted

to be her godmother.  After texting back... did you send this to the wrong person?

I found out I wasn't dreaming, I was floored they wanted me to

be Josie's godmother.  What a honor!

This was the first time Nate and the kids got to meet baby Josie and baby Ella

 and they are so gosh darn cute!!!  Tiny little fingers and the sweetest baby cries.

Josie is the size now at 3 months that Lil Miss was at birth! 

 

 {Proud Mommy and Daddy}

I love to see Joey never take his eyes off those girls!

He is going to be in trouble in years to come because they have him

wrapped around their itty bitty fingers.

 

{Melissa, my fellow Fairy Godmother with Ella}

{Me and baby Josie}

All my kids were infatuated with the babies and wanted to hold them. 

Lil Miss asked Angie to "Hold Baby" and Angie graciously obliged.

She was in heaven. 

She touched every inch of baby Josie from her soft cheeks, to her little ears, to her feet.

Taking the baby away from her wasn't easy. 

"MINE!" she cried.  She didn't want to give her up... either did mommy.  LOL  

She couldn't take her eyes off her. 

It was like one of her doll babies came to life!

Rosie was all smiles as she got to hold the baby all by herself. 

Since yesterday, she has asked me 5 times when she can start babysitting.

I took my Godmother duties seriously.

Spoiling has started!

I made Josie and Ella both little dresses.  I loved the bright fabric and wanted to make two that matched but weren't the same.  It was the smallest thing I have ever made.  Lil Miss thought they were for her doll and kept stealing them off my sewing table.

It was a fun and happy day, but when we got home last night we were all exhausted.

 

Thank you Angie and Joey for picking me as Josie's godmother.

I am deeply honored and will teach her all the good things that a girl should know. 

Like you can never have enough shoes. 

Auntie Lynn will be there for her at a moments notice.

I am so over the moon for you two and those little girls are so blessed to

have such wonderful parents. 

 

 

 

 

Oh Baby!

This past weekend, little girl and I took off early Saturday morning for Ottumwa to

help host a baby shower for our friend Angie and her baby girls. 

I decided to take Lil Miss because daddy had his hands full with 4 basketball games and a sleepover so I was doing him a favor by taking her with me.   

We had a beautiful drive with a beautiful sunrise as we drove southwest to O-town.

We got there just in time to put a few decorations and help (keep lil miss out of trouble).

Angie showed up and surprised us with one of the little girls, Josie.  She had just been released from the hospital at one month and a day old. 

What a surprise!!! Her twin sister Ella came home the next day.

 I hadn't seen some of the girls from Ottumwa for a while so it was nice to catch up and mingle. 

We got to hear stories of the girl's birth and the long 12 weeks she was at the hospital.  (8 weeks prior to giving birth and 4 weeks of the girl's in the NICU)

{Lil Miss helped open the gifts.  She also tried to take off with a few acting as if they were hers.}

{One of two quilts I made}

I had been working hard on getting the baby stuff done that I was making. 

I made two baby quilts (one pink and one with purple binding), two burp cloths, and two stuffed giraffes. 

{adding a little love to the baby quilts}

{my first ever attempt at a stuffed animal}

 The whole package. 
I had so much fun making the baby stuff.  The minky fabric I used on the giraffes and burp rags is softer than silk.  I want to make my own minky blanket now.  I can call it my lovey. :-)   

I hope little Josie and Ella like their gifts. 

They were showered with LOTS of diapers. 

It's going to be insane how many they are going to go through  with twins.   

Instead of a game, Steph had seen on pinterest how we could all bring in letters to decorate their the babies nurseries.  We expanded that idea to making the letters there at the shower. 

I hope the ladies had fun, becuase I had fun putting it all together. 

We got all the letters from A to Z in different sizes and Steph painted some with metallic paint. 

I took the E and J and decorated them cute with paint, ribbon and fabric flowers. 

And then the rest of the letters were yarn wrapped by the ladies at the shower. 

I had done the yarn wrapping before for Rosetta's room.  It wasn't that difficult.

It took some explaining, but many of them caught on right away.  

Some of the letters were definately more difficult than others.  

Some of

{Steph hard at work wrapping her letter}

{Mckayla consentrating hard}

 Lil Miss made things difficult when she would take off with someone's ball of yarn and tangle it up in knots around the living room.  She would also carry it around like it was a baby giving it kisses. 

Uh, how can you get mad at that face? 

 {Jody patiently wrapping the yarn}

I thought it was something different and the finished look on the nursery wall is too cute! 

I hope Angie (and Josie) had a good time. 

It was great to pamper them and see them out of the hospital at home finally!!! 

All the girl talk and good food must have been too much for Lil Miss because she was sleeping within 15 minutes of leaving Ottumwa.   

It was some much needed girl time!!