Strong Girl

Claire is getting stronger everyday. She'll probably be quite a strong little bugger, just like her older siblings. Here she is doing a little tummy time.

1 Month Photo

A few days late, here is Claire's one-month photo... actually, here are three photos, which were all pretty cute.

Blessings

It has been a crazy week in my beloved Boston and I've been thinking a lot about the situation and the people whose lives were terrorized and changed forever. I've thought back with fond memories on the three years that I worked media relations for the Boston Marathon and to the two years that I ran it. It has always been the best day of the year in Boston and it's sad that it will now forever be tainted by memories of fear and loss and sadness. But this week I've also been very proud to see the courage, strength, pride, and determination exhibited by everyone in my home city.

So, while feeling upset about the situation "back home" I felt even more thankful for our three healthy and lively (ha!) kids. They are blessings.

Here are a few photos from the last week.

Luke & Anna got a kick out of Grammy Millette calling them--along with Claire--small, medium and large...or, as pictured left to right in this photo, large, small and medium...

Luke has been going pants-free a lot lately. I feel like I'm constantly saying "Luke, put some pants on!" At least he has undies on in this photo; that's not always the case :)

 Claire turned one-month old yesterday. I can't believe it. I ordered some new month stickers so I can take a monthly photograph of her first year, as I did with Anna (link to the first 10 months of her pics)

 As soon as those new stickers arrive I'll photograph Claire and post it. Until then, here are some pics of the little angel on her one-month birthday...

Dancing Girl

Early tomorrow morning my parents are returning to Florida after a month-long stay with us here in Salt Lake. The time flew by and I can't believe that Claire is already 4 weeks old! Mom and Dad spent a month with us for the birth of each of our kids and it was wonderful each time. But this time--with two busy kids running around--it was the most helpful. Luke and Anna absolutely LOVED having Grammy and Grampa around and they will definitely be asking for them tomorrow. 

Anna especially enjoyed all of the attention from G&G. One of the things she enjoyed the most was dancing with Grammy. Here's their final dance of the visit, taken this afternoon...

Announcements

I've been trying to get a simple black and white "head shot" of Claire on a white background, so that her birth announcement would be the same style as Luke's and Anna's announcements:

You'll have to wait to see Claire's actual announcement (it's being printed now), but here are some of the photos that I didn't use...

 Keith likes this one because it looks like she's holding a guitar :)...

I'm planning to include all three announcements together in a horizontal, 3-mat frame hang them in our bedroom. 

And speaking of the info on Claire's birth announcement...
She had her first pediatrician appointment last week and we learned that she is now 7 lbs. 12 oz (up 3 oz since birth), and a little over 20 inches long. This is up from 18.5" at birth, so we're wondering if her birth height measurement was correct. I'm not sure - is it possible for a baby to grow almost 2 inches in 2 weeks? May be that's she has been doing during all those sleeping hours!

Definitely Staged

We had the following photos of the kids' rooms (featuring Little Cord Art on the walls) taken recently. If you've never been to our house, the rooms definitely do not usually look like this. Just picture Luke's room with a million toys strewn around, everything pulled down off the ceiling and walls, and dresser drawers pulled out like a staircase with clothes hanging out...and that comes closer to the state of his room on a regular basis. When I ask him (everyday) to pick up his toys, he responds "It's too much work Mom." Kid is a genius. 

And Anna's room sort of looks like this, except that she sleeps in a toddler bed rather than a crib, and--mostly because of Luke, as in his own room--there are typically toys, books, and clothes littering the floor.

We will use the photos on our website, Facebook, and Pinterest pages, and will submit them to some websites and publications that feature nurseries and kids' rooms, as another way to publicize the business. 

The photos were taken on the day Claire was born. In fact, they were being shot exactly at the time she was making her appearance. I had scheduled the photo shoot with a photographer friend for March 19th and it was no small feat getting the rooms cleaned up and staged the day before, especially since the kids were in my wake demolishing things as I fixed them just-so. (If you've ever been in these rooms in their everyday condition, you understand what I mean!) In fact, there was so much physical work involved--moving furniture, assembling the crib, hanging stuff, tidying, etc.--that this project just might have contributed to the fact that I went into labor, 6 days early, the next morning. I'm not certain, but it's certainly possible. 

Anyway, when I went into labor at 6 am on the morning of the 19th, I was stressing about the fact that the photographer was coming because I wanted to be present for the shoot. Our contractor was also coming that day to install some new kitchen cabinets. It was not a convenient day for me to have a baby :)

But everything went ahead and turned out just fine. And we have these photos to prove that the kids' rooms can actually look neat and orderly, though they never will again!

Toasty

Keith took this photo at the cabin on Sunday morning as the kids were enjoying apples by the fire. That wood burning stove really heats the place up (see naked kids). It gets so hot in fact, that the first item we purchased for the cabin was the hearth gate seen here. It doubles as a child safety device and a clothes drying rack. 

Cabin snapshots

Last Saturday we spent the night at the cabin and despite getting very little sleep we had a great time (NOTE: if Anna, our solid 7 pm-to-7 am sleeper, wakes up for any reason during the night, we're screwed). 

Here are a few snapshots from the overnight taken on my phone.

This is our front yard...

 Luke & Claire on the snow cat...

 We think she looks a lot like Luke did at this age...

Big Brother (x2)

Luke just loves his new baby sister. He is actually quite gentle with her...at least when he's this close to her:

 Just before I captured these photos he was jumping from a laundry basket onto the couch close to where Claire was lounging and I had to warn him sternly about jumping and being crazy around her. But when he leans in to kiss, hug, or speak to her in his goo-goo baby voice, he's amazingly gentle...

 Is this girl cute or what?