fair 2010

blessing pictures

racqual took these pictures of her in her blessing dress. she wasn't real cooperative (what's new), but i think they still turned out great.

swinging with phillip and david

bonnie and i have been exercising in the morning and phillip and david wanted to come to my house afterwards. it is kind of fun having kids without their parents around, you get to know them a little better. we were working on a puzzle (well mostly me)and aurelie was in her swing. they started pushing her back and forth and amazingly, she fell asleep in her swing (which never happens). i guess she just needed a little more altitude. cindy hardy asked me the other day when she was trying to quiet her down while sitting if she had "altitude sickness." i was a little confused until she said, "you have to stand up with her." i quickly said oh yes, she definitely has altitude sickness.

Photobook customized with Smilebox

stratton update

racqual did this picture of her hands and her feet and i just love it!

monica did these of aurelie at 6 days old, she wasn't real cooperative, but monica was very patient with her and did a wonderful job!

it has been so fun getting this little girl photographed (thank you monica for these beautiful pictures). racqual took some just a few weeks ago when she is a little older, but i haven't got them back yet and can't figure out how to put the smilebox on my blog. she is so photogenic when you can get her to stop crying. i feel pretty worn out lately because she isn't the best baby, but that is something i have dealt with in the past with my other 2 (hence the reason there is a 7 year gap). i still don't think i was ready emotionally to do the newborn thing again. it is pretty draining when you are constantly sleep deprived (you know that it is a form of torture). blake has been working a lot lately and i am frustrated because i never get a break and he is frustrated because he feels like he never gets a break. i have to say that i started doing scriptures with the kids even when blake is working instead of leaving it up to him to gather our family together for prayer and scriptures before bed. anyway, it has seemed to help us become stronger as a family. i can't believe the blessings that it has brought to our family in the few short months that we have been doing it (don't get me wrong, were not 100%, but we make an effort to be). it just seems like things go more smoothly. anna has been so much help with the baby. i have some pictures of her bouncing aurelie on the ball that i am going to have to post, that is about the only way we can quiet her down sometimes. she already knows exactly what she wants and gets very upset when we don't respond immediately to her needs. you can tell i'm tired now and that is why i am so scatterbrained, i will write more later. p.s. we got the garden tilled up so nice and now it has been raining for the last 24 hours, so we'll have to do that again before we plant. i love my greens and wish i was a better gardener so that i had fresh greens all year round.

snaggle tooth

i just took a picture of the picture of us when we were little. weren't we cute?

avery's teeth are growing in so funny. the middle ones are just now starting to grow back after 9 months and now he has lost 1 of the side ones and so he looks pretty funny. blake has been calling him snaggle tooth and he says that that doesn't hurt his feelings as long as we don't call him that in front of people.

blake's grandpa haynes

blake's grandpa hayne's has the biggest hands i have ever seen. i absolutely love them. i always have to get pictures of him holding our babies with these gorilla hands. they even make this 10 pound girl look small.

i have already spoiled her rotten and she wakes up as soon as i put her down. this seems to be a regular at our house. don't be surprised if you walk into our house at anytime during the day or night and find us in this exact position.

avery and blake

blake keeps on saying, "look what i can do." i guess maybe you had to be there, but it was from madtv or saturday night live or something, but it still makes us laugh.

avery said tonight, "since the baby's been born, life has changed A LOT and you guys have been making A LOT of new rules." the new rules consist of things like, don't throw things around the baby. blake and him have been attention starved lately because there is a lot of baby holding going on and not much else. i am totally taking advantage of not having to clean house or make dinner for at least a couple more weeks. blake has been a ton of help and it only took 5 days of cleaning up the kitchen before he told anna that he was exhausted and it was her turn to clean the kitchen. i think he has a new appreciation for what i do.

the very first night that she was a part of our family, blake heard her cry from the kitchen and said, "i love hearing a baby cry in this house." the second night, he said, "i am never going to complain about her crying, i have wanted her for so long." the third night, i took her out of the room at 4 a.m. and at 5 a.m. he came in and said, "you could at least shut the door if your going to take her out." it only took 3 nights before he decided that he likes his sleep more than hearing her cry.

newborn anna

i can't believe the similarities between my 2 girls. i'm sure aurelie will get her own look, but right now every time i look at her it takes me back 10 years to when anna was a baby.

i asked avery who this is and he said, "the baby!" i said nope, that's anna when she was a baby and he said, "there's no difference, she looks just like the baby." it was pretty cute.

aurelie's many moods

she can go from this.....



to this....



and then to this is 2.5 seconds

she had her first check-up yesterday and weighed 9 lbs 8 ounces, so we were excited to know that she is gaining. today i had someone ask if she was 2 months old, when i said 11 days, they were shocked. she has already added so much to our life and we are already very attached.

aurelie june and her aunt em

she's here...aurelie june stratton...i know its a mouthful

avery, liz smith (midwife who delivered all 3), anna, and baby girl stratton (any name ideas are very much appreciated).

we don't have a name yet, but we already love her to death and anna and avery are fighting over who loves her the most. i will detail everything out later, but the long and short of it is that she weighed 9 lbs 6 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long. born at home at 3:48 p.m. she is very healthy and is quite a screamer already. she was actually born on her due date (thank goodness, can you imagine if she wouuld have went past it). she looks a lot like anna did when she was little except with a little more hair. she is doing good and i feel great!! we are so blessed!!

yeah, we changed her name!