Welcome home, Lucy!

Lucy McKenna is finally here... she was born at 1:46 pm on September 30th, 6 lb 13 oz, 19 1/2 inches long. We are so happy to have her here safe and sound. Everything went well with the delivery- other then the fact that my epidural ran out a good hour before she was born- but it was all worth it in the end. Luckily she was a little thing, so she was out with about 6 good pushes. She is the sweetest baby. She is so content, and has only cried once since we've had her home. The girls adore her. Ella just loves to sit and hold her every chance she gets. Molly loves to hold her too, but she only lasts about a minute before she's ready to pass her off. Everyone loves being around her, and she has brought such a sweet spirit to our home. We feel very blessed.

One more week...

So I had a doctors appointment today, and they scheduled me to be induced next Wednesday, the 29th. Hooray! Molly was a little too big and got stuck coming out- so they've been watching the babies growth really carefully and decided to induce early to keep her around the 7 lb. range. I am so happy to have a date- and that it's only a week away. I'm tired of being a big fat cranky pregnant lady. I can't wait to be able to bend over, and walk up the stairs without being winded, eat whatever I want without getting heartburn and paint my own toenails. And most of all, I can't wait to have this baby in my arms. We are all so excited to meet her and snuggle her.

UPDATE

Molly located another pair of scissors and cut her hair AGAIN this morning. I am not kidding. I thought her hair looked a lot worse this morning, but I thought it was just because we had a bath last night and I could see it better this morning. I was in the bathroom and saw a big chunk of hair on the floor. I yelled- Molly! Did you cut your hair again?? She said- yep. I asked why, she said because she wanted her hair to look beautiful. I said- (I know, this is awful) well, it doesn't. It is no longer salvagable. Oh well. At least people won't think I cut it awful on purpose. It's pretty obvious what happened here.

A Rite of Passage?

Molly came up the stairs this morning announcing- "I gave myself a haircut with my little scissors!" I couldn't believe it. Which is funny, because nothing should surprise me any more with this child. I was almost in tears. And she says to me- "It's funny! Laugh!" Which I eventually did. I think it really could have been a lot worse. Its almost salvagable. I mean, it was bound to happen at some point or another, right?? So I should just be glad that I can make them into somewhat believable bangs. It gets a little too short in the back, but I guess that will just have to grow out. She was feeling pretty proud of herself and even admiring herself in every mirror she passed. I informed her that she will not be allowed to use her scissors anymore, and she said- "Oh. That's too bad." Maybe one day she'll put all of her creative energies towards a good cause. Until then I am keeping the scissors well hidden.

Family Time

We got all dolled up for the library story time featuring Princess stories. The girls made these gorgeous hats since we didn't have any dress up clothes.

Our uninvited camping guest. This guy was huge and fearless. On the first night he ran off with our blueberries, cheese, and a pack of hot dogs. And have any of you ever heard a raccoon hiss? It's a terrifying sound when it wakes you up in the middle of the night. The girls have a renewed fear of raccoons. And this time for good reason. I'm a little scared myself.

Mmmm.. smores. Molly loved toasting the marshmellows, but I don't think she ate a single one of them.

Ella loved the water.

Molly loved the sand.

My little boating girl.

Enjoying our family's favorite game. Bananagrams. It's the best game ever.

Driving the boat with Papa.

Cuddling up with a cozy fabric remnant. Totally her grandma's girl.

We made an impromptu stop when we found a firefighters museum on the way to our tour of the Culinary Institute of America. Molly has wanted to be a firefighter for probably a year or more. She loves them. So we couldn't pass it up. She had a fabulous time, but it kind of sabotaged the rest of our day. Lets just say that we didn't exactly get to enjoy our trip to the CIA which was the focus of the whole trip. Molly also threw a world class temper tantrum that I'm pretty sure got everyone within ear shot questioning my parenting skills. The things we do for our kids.

Enjoying the ride from the bike trailer.

Red faced and exhausted after our bike hike. She was such a trooper. It took us about an hour and a half to get to our picnic spot, and 20 minutes to get back to the car. Curteousy of the never ending hill we had to go up to get there. About half way through Ella pulls her bike over to the side of the path and says- I give up! Molly calls out from her cushy spot in the trailer- Don't give up sissy! We're almost there! She pulled through. I was proud of her. It was quite a long hike.

Molly orders blue ice cream everywhere we go.

Can you believe the size of these Sundaes?
We went to an ice cream shop near my parents house that was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Great ice cream. But the sundaes were huge!

Visiting the museum and playing doc.

Ah.. there it is.

Sporting Grandma's glasses and looking good.

Molly looking so grown up.

We visited Papa at school and got to play in the fountain.

Love this picture.

We were able to enjoy a nice long summer vacation. We started out on our annual Waddington family camping trip- always a good time. We got rained out on the last night and ended up at a hotel (where Ella discovered and fell in love with the A&E show Billy the Exterminator...) but it just added to the fun. The girls and I went back to NY with my parents and got to spend two weeks there. We had beautiful weather. My parents found a bike for Ella on Craigs List, and she wanted to ride bikes every chance she got. They spent a lot of time on the trampoline. They would wake me up at 7:00am and ask- Can we go on the trampoline? They loved spending time with their Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Ikes. We were so glad to be able to spend this time with them.

Getting My Craft On

So I've spent a lot of time perusing the craft blogs lately for fun and fabulous baby stuff, and I came across these little shirts. I thought it would be cute to make matching ones for all three girlies. I love to get crafty, but my sewing skills are pretty spotty. So ignore the less than perfect stitching. But other then that, I thought they turned out pretty cute. On to the next craft!

Fourth of July

my little firecrackers

daddy and ella


enjoying the spoils of the parade

enjoying one of the highlights of the fourth of july


seriously, do sparklers ever get old? i think not.

watching the neighbors fireworks. we were too cheap to buy our own..

according to dad, the holidays require soda. no comment.

Happy 4th! We had a last minute visit from Todd's parents, so we got to enjoy most of the holiday with them and our Smith cousins. We went to a parade on Saturday, and then caught the Delaware firework show on Sunday night. We had a great time. Surprisingly, Molly was tired of the fireworks after about 30 seconds. It was a 30 minute show. She spent the rest of the time climbing on people or smacking her cousins on the head. I think she would have been happier with her own box of sparklers. We were putting the used sparklers in a bucket of water. When we ran out Molly said- just dry them off. Then we'll have some more. I love three-year-old logic. The girls loved the parade so much that they wanted to put on their own parade when they got home. They decorated their wagon with flags they made themselves, then wrote poems and made 4th of July bracelets to hand out to people. It was very sweet. Now it's just up to me to take them around the neighborhood. I'm starting to wish I knew my neighbors..

happy birthday to ella...and a couple of pierced ears

so very proud

make a wish... (her wish was that she could have her birthday every day. technically, you're not supposed to tell or it won't come true, but i'm not sure that's what's going to hold her back on this one).

so my little girl turned 6 yesterday. it was a great day for all. due to the fact that the last of her little friends moved last week, we had to forgo a party this year in favor of some quality family time. the original plan was to take the girls to toy story 3, then over to build-a-bear before heading to red robin for dinner. we had an AMC movie gift card that had been collecting dust since christmas. however, because yesterday was the opening day of a certain vampire movie, AMC decided that all 20 screens needed to be playing that movie all day long. seriously? so her birthday became a two-day hurrah. we did the movie and build-a-bear on tuesday, and then yesterday we went to the pool and then dinner with daddy at red robin. but before we made it to dinner, ella had one more birthday request. to get her sisters ears pierced. they were so cute talking about it, and ella convincing her sister that it didn't hurt, and she would look so pretty... that i went with it. and they really do look cute on her. so it was a big day for all. ella insisted on making her own cupcakes this year. she really is growing up so fast. i have loved having her home from school. i don't know how i'm going to function when school starts in september. she is such a big helper and such a sweet girl to have around all day. she and molly have really started enjoying each other, and spend most of their free time entertaining each other. ella loves all things girlie. she loves the idea of being a big girl. she is constantly doing things to make her family happy. she's a great little artist, loves doing art projects, and reading books. she is affectionate, thoughtful and loving, and i feel so blessed to be her mom. happy birthday pretty girl! we love you.