Gloria

can write her name now! Yay! We have been working on this, but the R was giving her trouble. Great job, Gloria!

Tia Becky Visit

Tia Becky stopped in for a quick visit to meet Anastasia this weekend. We were all super happy to see her. It has been way too long. And Austin and Allia even went running with her (they are preparing for a 5K together). Fun!

Sleeping baby

Baby faces

I caught Anastasia waking up and couldn't resist some photos.
She has the biggest yawns I have ever seen on a tiny person.

Groggy face

Mommy, I am still tired...stop taking pictures!

Hair stuff

I tried to catch a few photos of Anastasia with the girls where you could see the red in her hair...

And the girls all received much needed haircuts this week. I had planned to do this before baby came, but since my time was cut by several weeks that didn't happen. Mariana wanted hers "short" so I cut it shoulder length, and it looks really cute. Gloria's ended up shoulder length because she was so wiggly it ended up crooked, and I had to correct it. Allia still wants to grow hers "down to her waist." So she just received a good trim. :)

Puzzle Success

Allia worked this 500 piece puzzle all by herself with a promise from Daddy of ice skating for finishing it. She is so proud because on the box it says, "10 and up." Great job!

Manah time

It has been so nice having Manah here for the week! It has definitely eased the transition of Austin going back to work! She leaves today, and I am sure I am not the only one who will be sad to see her go. But Pawpaw is getting lonely in Groves... ;)

Happy Baptism Day, Gloria!

We had Shipley's (Gloria's new favorite treat) for morning snack and went to daily mass. So glad you are a child of God...may you continue to grow closer to Him!

Ahoy Matey!

Manah is here helping to ease our transition of Austin returning to work. The girls love to wear Manah's boots around the house. Last night, Stephen decided to take part. Daddy added the eye patch, and here we have Pirate Stephen!

Two redheads?

I think we may have two redheads...only time will tell for sure. Everyone else seems to think Anastasia has red hair, but I haven't been convinced. Stephen's hair had a redish tint to it as a newborn, and well, look at him! But the sun has been out for a few days now, and her hair really glows in the sunlight...much like Mariana's did. So maybe it's true and we now have two?!

Quick update

Anastasia had her two week checkup this morning. She weighs 6lb 14oz now...almost to 7lbs! She was so brave for her heel prick...didn't even cry! And our Gloria had blood drawn and was a brave big sister. Good job, girls! Well, that concludes our babymoon. Austin headed back to work, so back to "normal" life for us all!

Daddy time

Big sis

Gloria is really enjoying her role as big sister. She can even calm the baby to sleep sometimes if she is fussing!

A tea party

Time off work does a Daddy good! Gloria is so blessed...her Daddy organized a tea party for her yesterday (thanks to Lita's cookie bouquet she sent for Gloria's birthday suggesting a little tea party). He called and invited friends, cleaned the downstairs, set the table complete with delicate snacks and tea sets with real tea. What an awesome Daddy and a sweet get together for a precious girl!

Gloria gets up from nap and admires the setup

Dressed for the occasion

Friends! They had such cute girly conversations while being served

What little brothers do during a tea party

Mmm...those cookies must have been good. They were SO quiet eating them!

And...

just so you don't think the girls do all the baby holding

He adores his baby sister and doesn't even mind when she cries!

Plenty of arms

to hold a new baby girl!

Family movie time

Austin found a deal on Horton Hears a Who and couldn't resist. Here are all five of our cuties watching together.

A special visit

Uncle James, Aunt Karen and Jake came for a little visit to meet Anastasia yesterday. Such fun! There were tears shed when it was time for them to go!

Birthday girl

We opted for cheesecake (compliments of Pawpaw) as opposed to cupcakes because Gloria just eats the icing off and leaves the cake. Trying hard to make a special day for our special girl amidst the busyness of life with new baby. She and Daddy went off to Shipley's first thing this morning to pick out doughnuts and bring back breakfast for everyone. She picked a bag of doughnut holes for herself and ate the whole thing!

Happy 4th Birthday, Gloria!

 Holding baby brother on your 2nd birthday

 

Holding baby sister on your 4th birthday!

You are such a sweet girl with so much spunk! We love you, Gloria! Thanks be to God for our sweet 4 year old girl!

Her name

It is always interesting to discover how a baby's name comes about...at least in our family! As we discussed it, Austin mentioned that all the other girls have the name of their Heavenly Mother, Mary, so she should too. But I suggested that since Austin and I both have Christ's name in ours (his middle name is Christopher) perhaps her middle name could too, not knowing that she would be born on the feast of the Holy Name! He insisted that if we did this she should have my name, so I humbly agreed and her middle name was pretty much decided as long as it sounded nice with her first name. Then, some sweet friends of ours had a baby and named her Felicity. Instantly, all the girls decided this was the name for our baby girl (they were really enamored by baby Felicity). Beautiful name, but I didn't really want her to have the same name as one of her friends growing up! Since St. Felicity's name is in the Eucharistic Prayer I of the mass, Allia decided perhaps Perpetua, Felicity's "sister saint" so to speak. But nobody especially liked that name. Then she suggested Anastasia, another name from the list of saints in the prayer. We didn't take it too seriously until I looked up Saint Anastasia and the meaning of her name. The name means "resurrection," and her feast day is actually celebrated in the second mass on Christmas Day. Like the other saints in that Eucharistic Prayer I, she was a martyr of the early Church. It went so beautifully with the middle name after Christ that we began to consider it. We had a few other favorites, and once she was born that one just kept coming back to us. It just fit so well with her birthday, so by the middle of the next day we decided that just had to be it! So now we have our little Anastasia Kristen, and Allia is so proud to have helped choose the name, actually for the second time. She helped with Gloria's name too!

Homecoming

Welcome home, Anastasia! We arrived home last night around 9pm. Boy are her sisters and brother happy to have her. She has many arms for holding and cuddling!

Pawpaw, Manah and the girls had a balloon bouquet, lots of yummy groceries for meals and even two little gifts from Allia and Mariana to me waiting for us when we arrived. The girls gave me some pretty new nailpolish colors for "all my hard work having baby sister." So sweet! What a nice welcome!

Baby pictures

We also had a little visit from some dear friends (including her Godparents to be) last night, but there were so many people I couldn't get a good photo. Allia counted, and we had 20 people in that little hospital room! It will just have to be a sweet memory. :)