The Great Outdoors...

J.R. *LOVES* to play outside (just ignore our weeds)

I prefer it to his indoor messes...like when he got a big kick out of dropping watermelon yesterday and watching it splatter when it hit the floor then watching Ty eat it...fun times...the fact that is was our 1st watermelon of the season and REALLY GOOD surely made it even more fun....

Anna Kate prefers setting up "doll-scapes" and then posing with them for a picture...she does this incessantly (except when she's pretending to be a princess and acting out princess stories)...indoors and/or outdoors..she loves a big "family" and is always listing every one in our family..."daddy, mommy, anna kate, caroline, j.r., ty, houston..." and then she makes up names for her doll-scape "family members" like nelly and luna and talks about her friends coming over to join her doll-scape families...bigger is better when it comes to her "families..." she prays for another baby to come to ours :) But when your house gets littered with doll-scapes every where...it can be as messy as the sand situation which follows........

Our "sandbox" got some rain in it...




I kind of wish our sandbox would "disappear..." it's a constant mess and sand always ends up indoors somehow...it doesn't make the grapes from Chile and non-organic strawberries seem as life-threatening after you've seen your son drink water from this thing....and banned him from his outdoors until it's been cleaned up.......

Caroline's nursery...

Mammaw sewed the whole nursery for her...

J.R. sleeps in her nursery and his clothes and things are still in there and Caroline sleeps in the rolling bassinet b/w our bathroom and closet...all the girl clothes including Caroline's are in Anna Kate's room...J.R. will move in with Anna Kate eventually....I feel like it would be easier to keep every one organized if the same sexes were in a row.

Caroline's 1st Week...

She's 1 week old today! We've had a great week with her and we love that she's here with us. Meanwhile, Caroline's just ate, slept and poopied :)

Our first outing...on St. Patrick's Day we went to the Galleria with Mammaw for lunch and to play and guess who we saw there of all people? Trey and Grace with their mommy and daddy!!!

Working with Daddy...
Heeeeeeeeeeeee........

YAAAWWWWWWWWWWW! says J.R. as he practices protecting his sisters ;) ...this is him drinking one of his last bottles...we are weaning him from them this week...he sure does love and miss he "baw." Anna Kate still just can't get enough of Caroline.

Meeting Sugar (her great-grandmother) and Aunt Missy...

Our only "open-eyed" picture of her...right now she is meeting Mammaw for the 1st time!

Caroline's here!!!!!!!!

YAY!!! We love her. Caroline Elizabeth Mureen was born on March 11, 2009 at 11:52am and was 7lbs 11oz (smaller than J.R. and Anna Kate :) She's just precious...she's pretty calm just like she was in my tummy. The whole labor and delivery (minus the exhaustion from no sleep the whole night of the induction, even though the labor didn't start until about 7am) was seamless and I had the best nurses in the world the whole time I was at the hospital, but my favorites were my sweet L&D nurses named Shelene and Neidra. Jon stayed at the hospital with me the whole time (his sweet parents took care of J.R. and Anna Kate while we were there) and I was so thankful to have that time with him and just to have him with me because he's perfect, especially as a husband and dad.
Anna Kate sees Caroline for the first time...it's love at first sight.

All she wants to do is hold her.

First family photo with Caroline!

In the hospital...

She's home!!!! It doesn't look like it so much in this picture, but in person, she really is quite blonde and much more than Anna Kate or J.R. were.

J.R. playing with her and sharing his cars with her while she sleeps. He was very unsure of her in the hospital...he said, "Baby" and just got all clingy to "Da-eee" and wouldn't look at me ("Ma-eee"). When our friends Kenny and Libby came to visit, he clung to Libby the whole time like he wanted her for his mommy b/c she didn't betray him by having a new baby. But when Caroline came home, it didn't take him long to warm up to her :) He's so silly and playful...I'm sure they will grow to be dear friends.

Still holding her sister at home non-stop. Anna Kate keeps telling me it sure does look like there's still another baby still left in my tummy ;)

It kind of feels like we have a lot of kids right now....we are just so beyond words thankful.

Caroline is ON HER WAY OUT....

not by choice...we're getting induced tonight and all they told me was to show up at the hospital at 10pm tonight. Thanks so much for your sweet emails and prayers and Libby for helping me clean and vacuuming my house today and Sarah for the precious Bible verses to bring with us...the first one I saw is my favorite verse - Isaiah 40:11 :) Even though it's my 3rd, I'm still terrified about giving birth!! (and we're going into this pretty exhausted...especially sweet Jon b/c he's been sick) I just try not to think about it...

J.R., this is your last time to sit on top of Caroline :)

Anna Kate...I can't wait for you to meet your sister!!!!!!!!! You are my sweet thing. She'll love getting kisses from you in person even better than on my belly all the time!

I think you are done cooking Miss Caroline...I hope you are not as big as your brother and sister at birth, no offense :) I'll love you even if you are :)

They're back!!!

They did great at Mammaw and Bubba's for the week! Anna Kate's smile when she saw me when she got back home was so big and priceless :) It's so good to have them back home (but our toy-covered floor and exponentially-increasing laundry is back, too!) This picture is from right before Christmas and it totally cracks me up :)