Time flies!

Where has the summer gone?  My baby girl is nine weeks today.  Gulp, that means I have only three weeks left of my summer vacation and soon have to face the reality of returning to work as a mom of three.  Deep breaths . . .

Anywho, enough about that.  I have a ton of pictures to share so I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum so you can just enjoy the cuteness of our kids.

If you haven't already heard, as you'll see below, Jack broke his arm in early July falling (jumping?) off the couch.  Here he is sporting his red cast.  

Apparently this runs in the family -- here is Kevin at age 3 sporting his broken arm.  Compare the two of them sitting on the same steps 32 years apart. 

 

Luckily little bones heal fast and just three weeks later in early August, the cast was off, pins pulled out and we were back in business with our summer fun, including a Phillies game with his Pop, Uncle Jim's family, Uncle Tim's family and his Daddy.

In other news, we have a horseback rider in our midst (and no, it is not me returning to one of my childhood obsessions).  Hope started therapeutic riding this summer and it's been going great. I found this description of some of the benefits of horseback riding for kids like Hope if you are interested.

Erin is also doing great.  She has been gaining weight like crazy and has started to show signs of chunky arms and thighs.  She also has a great little smile and a few coos to melt our hearts.  As Jack likes to say, "she is so sweet." 

We had a visit from our good friends Bridget, Dave, and Aaron a couple weekends ago.  Aaron is a year younger than Hope and Jack and all played really nice together.  :-) 

This past weekend we headed to Sea Isle City with Kevin's parents.  We were feeling up to the challenge of a small vacation as a family of five (with the much needed assistance from the grandparents!).  Check out some of the highlights: 

 

Erin's beach tent (out and in)

 

 Windy on the OC boardwalk

 

Our annual Mack and Mancos shots (sorry Mancos and Mancos now, our favorite pizza in Ocean City).  Kevin and I took these photos simultaneously so you can see the same shot from two different views - kinda cool.  

Here are a few other fun moments from the past 8 weeks.  Broken arm, late night feedings, etc., we are blessed to have gotten to spend this summer together.  

July 4th parade

 

 Please Touch Museum with Grandmom and Pop

Zoo with Granddad and Tim, Katie, Patrick, Declan, and Tibby. 

Phillies game 

 Erin's first playdate with friends Reilly and Raegan

Our rock star . . . this is pre-broken arm and pre-hair cut. I am partial to the shaggy curls and Kevin prefers a shorter clean parochial school cut.  We are still in negotiations - at least until Jack speaks up and gives his preference one way or another.   

Also, we think this might be the best photo of Hope yet . . .

Finally, another compilation of Erin's faces (weeks 5-7) - enough said!

XOXO to all!

Erin . . . week 1

It is time for my first update post the addition of Erin to our family.  YAY!  She is one week today and it's about time I got around to posting the news.  

For those of you who haven't heard yet, we had a girl!

She arrived at 2:14 am Friday June 21, weighing in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20.5 inches.

 

I got to have my desired VBAC complete with a few too many hours of unmedicated unproductive back labor followed by a few quick hours with a glorious epidural.  We were told it was time to push just as Kevin had settled "comfortably in" for some sleep on the delivery room recliner and less than 45 minutes later, we were a family of five!

We named her Erin Judith.  Judith was my mom's name and Erin because we wanted an Irish name to honor Kevin's 100% Irish heritage (which he likes to point out  I've diluted for our kids with my very blended "100% non-Irish" blood).  We also liked the idea of another 4 letter name to fit with Hope and Jack.

 As Jack likes to say, "she is so sweet." 

 Hopie is very interested and surprisingly rather gentle with her baby sister.

Thus far, Erin doesn't do much other than eat, sleep and get her diaper changed.

 (click here to compare the above photo to a similar teddy bear clad gal from 3 years ago - scroll about halfway through that post)

We are all adjusting and I am quite thankful for my school teacher husband and Erin's perfectly timed arrival on his first day off for summer vacation.  As if we could have "planned" it any better!

 Our nanny Danna keeps telling me Erin looks like her Granddad.

She is definitely different from the twins and was born with a head of dark hair.  I am excited to see whether her eyes stay blue or change color, if all this hair falls out and if it will really be this dark, and if she truly will resemble my side.  Hope and Jack were still almost completely bald with a dusting of white blond hair on their first birthday (click here for a reminder).  We will just have to wait and see what happens with this little one.  :-)