Mama's Photo Shoot (4/3)

Newborns are terrific photographic subjects. They hold pretty still and are game to try any position you put them in. They don't whine and will sit for long periods of time. As long as you don't mind them snoozing a little here and there.

However, 2 year olds do not make great photography assistants. They steal your props, stand in the good light, make a lot of noise, try to get in the picture with the baby, tip the baby basket over and generally make things difficult. Note to self: all serious photo shoots should be done during nap time. Other note: locate good light source during naptime inside the house.

These pictures really need to be color corrected and edited a little. The light was great, but there wasn't enough of it in big enough patches to get the job done. So, I'm disappointed and don't have time to go through each pic and make it perfect. But, I'm posting them anyway because...well maybe sometime I'll have time to come back through and fix them up right. When I'm 100 years old.

A sweet baby in a laundry basket
Snuggled in tight- she isn't going to fit into this basket for much longer!
Still has a little jaundice
A tiny smile - at least she has happy gas.
Patience is wearing thin...
Sweet baby girl
Stretch!
Trying to eat her hands...
Stretch the other side!
Thinking hard...about something.
You think it would hurt to put your finger in your eye
Tiny feet! Her feet are so much smaller than William's ever were. But, she has the loooooonggggest toes ever! They are so beautiful (for the record, all parts of her are beautiful!)

Playing with Grandpa (and Grandma)

We always have a lot of fun playing when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. The time was no exception!

We played a little golf in the yard
We built some neato tracks for the new remote controlled train to run on
Amelia was a good obstacle for the train to run around.
Although she was a little bored because a certain 2 year old wouldn't share the remote.
This would be the one. It sure is a good thing he is cute!
And we rode around on cars. With our special driving glasses.
Life sure isn't ever boring around here....

Good thing that is how we like it....

Meeting Grandpa!

Grandpa Kevin arrived from Minnesota to meet Amelia on April 4th (I'm slowly catching up)!

Amelia meets her Grandpa Kevin for the first time!
She is wrapping him around her finger as we speak...also appears they have similar hair in this picture.
What Amelia thinks about her Grandpa
Grandma, Grandpa and their grandkids! Sorry this isn't a great picture..honestly it was the best one of the 4 of you!
And what trip to St Louis would be complete without a trip to the Texas Roadhouse? Amelia's first night out on the town with Grandpa and Grandma!
Most notably here is William kicking back and relaxing while we wait for our food to arrive.

PS I thought we had more pictures of this (like on our camera? but I can't find them...maybe later!)

1st Trip to the Library

With the help of both Grandma and Daddy, it seemed like a breeze to take a quick trip to the library to see their baby chick display on Thursday (4/2/09). The chicks weren't as exciting as they made it sound, but it sure was fun to play with their train table and read books with Daddy in the log cabin!

The train table

Peeking out of the log cabin with Daddy

Amelia is unimpressed with her first trip to the library. We'll have to work on her attitude.

Checking out the baby chick display with Daddy

Finally Home!

We brought our Amelia Ann home on April, 1!

Big Brother William was waiting for us outside and riding his bike when we drove up. Here he is peeking into the car as his baby sister.
The proud daddy getting ready to take his baby girl out of the car.
Finally home!
Family of four in front of our house
Bringing her inside through the other door - the front door was locked. William is being a "helper" by carrying the baby seat with daddy.
Look, the baby brought another present for the big brother!
Daddy and his baby girl
The big brother reading a book to his baby. What a great helper we have!

Random Hospital Pictures...

There were a few hospital pictures that didn't get put with any of the other posts. But, I still wanted to share them....

One of the things I was trying to do the night I went into labor was grab the carseat to bring with us. We've been keeping Ernie in it to 1) Keep William out of the seat and 2) Help William understand that we needed to be careful with the new little person who would need to ride in the seat. However, in the midst of contractions, it appears that Ernie came with us to the hospital! We didn't notice until we went to put Amelia into the seat to take her home. If you look closely, you'll see I did manage to unbuckle the bottom buckles before I got distracted by a contraction. So, not only did Ernie come with us for the ride to the hospital, he wasn't securly strapped in.
"You know you're a dad when a happy hour is a nap!" John got this shirt as part of a pajamas set a llllooooooooooonnnng time ago, way before we had kids. We found them at Target on clearance after Father's Day for $0.98. Seriously cheap pajamas and we couldn't pass them up. We always had to be careful when people were visiting because we didn't want to accidentally "make an announcement" to them that we didn't mean. Now that we have the kids to make the Tshirt true, it is getting kind of worn out. But, we still think it is fun! We also have a similar picture of him with William on the night William was born.
Snoozing with Mama...Mama may have been snoozing also. Us girls like to snooze together... Hopefully that is a hobby she continues to excell at (the snoozing).

Going Home

The third morning in the hospital, we were scheduled to be discharged "sometime in the morning". We had asked our nurses if we could try to get going a little on the early side so we could be home before lunch time. That way we could have a little bit of time with our big boy before he went down for a nap. Plus, we just wanted to be home!

Getting dressed for the first time...this girl does NOT like to have her clothes off...
Putting her into her pretty dress...I still can't believe we got to use this outfit (it's really a girl!)!
Socks...
A silly face while putting on her dress...
Tiny arms through tiny holes...
Harder than it looks!
Almost done...
Buckled into her carseat for the first time. Something about these hospital hats...they don't stay on our kids' heads.
Okay, two things we hate. Clothes off and carseat.
Really, really hate the carseat