Eve's Baptism

Eve was baptized this weekend at the ripe old age of 20 days. She was welcomed into the Catholic Church at St. Joseph here in Michigan. She was very good during the entire mass and even when they poured the water over her head (and into her eyes a little). And we enjoyed lots of visiting with family and friends. It was a great weekend!

Eve with Great Grandpa Ralls and Pauline the day before the baptism. It was their very first meeting, and it was so sweet.

Eve ready to go. Good thing we baptized her so soon--the gown may not have fit if we waited too much longer!

The girls with Gigi and Grandpa Jeff.

All of us with Grandma and Grandpa Ralls

Eve with her wonderful godparents, Chris and Allison.

All of us with Fr. Brendan, who performed the baptism. (Allison and Chris, why do you look like you are trying to get away??)

Eve and her proud (and tired) parents.

Our little Evie. This baptismal gown is from Ireland. My mom bought it when I was pregnant with Annie, and all our girls have worn it.

Mallory holding Eve. She did a great job. Maybe she needs a new baby? :)

Thanks everyone for coming to us for Eve's baptism and sharing in her big day!!

They Can Be So Cute

They really can. Reinforces the decision to have multiple children. Even if it is just a fleeting moment. :)

Oscar Worthy

Like Annie at the same age, Kate has a rather unfortunate hair situation going on. She was rocking a really nice baby mullet until I cut it a few weeks ago. The cut definitely improved the look of her hair, but it also led to one unforseeable side effect--something that never happened with Annie's stick straight hair. Kate's hair puffs up a little bit more and then curls under. That sounds like it could be cute, and it generally is. Except for one small problem: She sometimes looks like Javier Bardem's creepy, murdering character in No County For Old Men. I had nightmares about that guy for weeks after I saw that movie, and now Kate gives me flashbacks on a weekly basis.

We tried to catch her on a Javier Hair Day:

Creepy.

They are both making weird faces, but you see it don't you? We'll be sure not to teach her to use an air compressor.

Two Weeks

Eve was two weeks old on Monday. This week, she survived her first outing with her sisters (she slept the entire time we were at The Treehouse), got her first bath (she was sort annoyed by that), and was generally a wonderful baby (yay for me and Matt!).

At her doctor's appointment last week, she was already well above birth weight. She's getting chubby already!

Chubby baby face.

Sweet girl.

Baby Buttercup

Annie still insists on calling her Buttercup and telling people that is her name. Kate calls her Baby Eve or Baby Cutie.

Eve loves pacifiers, and so do Matt and I. It was awful when Kate wouldn't take one, so we are rather happy Eve cooperated on this front!

Yeah, I still love big baby bows. Matt says they scream "Look at my baby!" but I don't care. You should look at her. She's cute. :)

I forgot to put this photo in the Valentine's Day post. Kate loves to hold her baby sister!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The best I could manage of all three of them :)

Eve

Kate

Anne

And this is just funny. I was attempting to take a picture of Annie alone because I realized I hardly ever take their pictures by themselves anymore. Kate refused to allow this to happen. She also ripped her bow out of her hair. Here is the resulting photo. Sometimes I think the outtakes are better than the cute ones.... 



Little Monkeys

We have an official "going home" outfit for all of our kids. Matt bought it when I was pregnant with Annie, and all the girls have worn it home. It seems to be getting smaller and smaller on our increasingly large baby girls. :)

Eve

Eve again looking rather monkey-like.

Annie looks so grown up!

Kissing Baby Eve

Cuddling

Eve!

Eve Elizabeth arrived on February 7 (her due date!) at 11:12 a.m.  She was 8 lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long. She's definitely our biggest baby! We went to Labor and Delivery Triage Sunday afternoon because I thought maybe my water had broken. They said it hadn't and sent us home. The midwife, who was great, made it seem like she didn't think the baby would come any time soon. So, we bought a bunch of junk food and invited some friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Of course, as soon as the game started and the Reeds arrived, I started having painful contractions every 5 minutes. I felt silly going back to Triage and I was in sort of denial that I was probably in real labor, so we waited until about 11:30 p.m. to go back. Once we got there, as soon as the new midwife on duty checked me, it was clear we weren't going home! Our baby was coming! All the stuff after that is either boring or gross or extremely painful, so we'll just say a short 12 hours later, Eve arrived and she's perfect! She surprised with her head of dark hair, too :)

Just born.

That's a big girl!

Our new family of five!

Kate looking shifty eyed about a new situation as always. :) She really does love Baby Eve, though, and she's been so sweet with her.

Annie loves holding her and she is such a wonderful helper.

I've already taken like 1000 more pictures, so I'll post those soon!



Morning

Eating cold blueberry waffles on the couch while watching cartoons in footie jammies. Oh, to be a kid again!

It's Exhausting

I posted this picture on Facebook already, but it's too funny not to put on our blog, too. Kate was having a bit of a rough day last week. She refused to take a nap and had pretty much had it with the day by dinnertime. She threw a huge tantrum (over what I can't even remember!), so she went to timeout. In timeout, she continued to freak out and then she hit me. So to her room she went. I left her there screaming in the doorway. After a few minutes, it was quiet upstairs. When I went back to check on her, this is what I found:

Acting completely out of control is exhausting :)

Chuck E Cheese

Last weekend, in hopes it was our last weekend as a family of four, Matt and I took the girls to Chuck E Cheese. Despite being a busy Saturday night, we had a really nice, relaxed time with the girls.

Eating some gourmet Chuck E Cheese pizza.