Birth Network of NWA is sponsoring The Pampered Mama Giveaway!  Take the Birth Survey or post a blog–or BOTH–and you can be entered to win lots of goodies!

What’s this all about?

Three sets of pleading eyes and a trip to the pet store…

Ariel

Belle

Daddy and the girls playing at Pinnacle Promenade while Mama got a haircut.

We took the girls to the Crumpet Tea Room in Rogers.  They had a blast!

At the park across the street…

Nakey Baby Shoot!

Sorry for the lapse in postings.  Two and a half months is too long!  We have had a crazy busy summer!  Lots of family things – two car trips to South Dakota in a month – and we moved!!! Lots of pictures to post!  Everyone is doing great!  Lucy is now five and a half months old and weighs 19 pounds!!!  Olivia and Norah are loving their new house and new pink bedroom.  Chelsea has been very busy with the house, kids, and more kids! 

First…our new house!

Second – 4th of July Bike Parade at Bentonville square!

Third – The girls!

Random hawk on backyard fence….

Lucy photo shoot!  Great job Chelsea!!!! 

See you again soon!

Okay, I know.  A month in baby time is like years!  Sorry!!!  But I’ve had real portrait customers, so I had to work on their stuff first.    Here is the last month!

* * * * *

The first of our two Easter egg hunts, this one with our Moms group.  There’s Lucy in the Kozy Carrier!

Livi is in the far left of this photo, Norah’s dead center, and Lucy and I are in the back right.

It’s all about the loot! 

Now for the church egg hunt!  Pastor Randy has the microphone on the far left.  We got there a few minutes late, and he waved Livi and Norah in & told them to come sit down.  So they did.  Right next to him, not by the other kids, LOL!

Time to find eggs!  This was the 0-3 year old age group.  That’s why the eggs are just sitting on the ground. 

This is Norah standing around while Ryann runs to gather eggs.

More loot!

I don’t know why this photo is sideways, but this is all the BVAG kids opening their eggs and tossing the plastic shells into the big cardboard box for next year.

The Sanders family, and our new neighbors!  It seems to be a trend at our church to have little girls…

Coloring Easter eggs!

Easter morning…we just told the girls their baskets were hidden somewhere in the toy room…

Norah may see something across the room…Livi is whipping her head around trying to find what Norah sees…

Found it!  But it’s not hers, LOL!

It’s Norah’s!

Yay!

Oh, there’s Livi’s!

Voila!

A “spotting scope!”

And a magnifying glass to help them find stuff…like lost toys…

Then it was onto the Easter program at church.  Here Livi’s class is singing and signing ”Jesus Is Alive.”  Can you see Liv signing Jesus?

We had a record attendance that day of 418 people, so I thought I’d take some photos for preservation.  I’m really impressed with how well they turned out!

Then Lucy was too cute in her Easter outfit, so I had a little mini-photo shoot with her.  The blanket she is lying on was crocheted by a wonderful woman from our church.  It is beautiful!

BABY SNEEZE! Check out her feet.  Too cute!

Older sis was just dying to get in on the picture-taking.

Here are a couple random sky shots.  You wouldn’t guess, but I took the first photo, then did a 180 and took the second photo in the opposite direction.  Pretty!

Olivia also had her first dentist appointment!

A little nervous laughter…

What a trooper!

Then Norah turned THREE!!!  Can you believe it???

A card from the Huffmans!

Liv had to see it too.

A card from Pastor Randy.

One from Grandma & Grandpa Rustad

Onto the present!

Dollies!

Magnetic dress-up!

Now one from Grampa John!

“I like to move it, move it!”

Studying intently, LOL!

Grandpa Rick trying out the singing card. 

Lucy checking out the action.

THE CAKE!

We had a bad experience with birthday hats and elastic at one of our b-day parties…now Norah won’t wear them!

Singing Happy Birthday

Time to blow out the candles!

Playing with the new goods

PHEW! I think that finally catches us up!  If you’re still reading, thanks for hanging in there!

I think I should just start calling this my photoblog!  Here is just a cute shot of Lucy.  I had gotten her all ready to leave the house, and she just looked so cute I had to grab my camera!

Oh, and to any of you who live near the U of MN–if you find any clearance baby gopher stuff, you know where to send it!    Ski-U-Mah!

*  *  *  *  *

If any of you are cosleepers or considering cosleeping, please know that the following shot is not recommended.  Siblings should not cosleep until they are at least 18 months old.  The older girls always start the night in their own beds, and usually don’t end up in our bed at all, unless someone (namely Mama) wants to snuggle and sleep in.  Then they crawl in and usually fall asleep again.  I had to carefully crawl out of the bed to take this photo.

*  *  *  *  *

Olivia outgrew her bike from last year and Norah grew into it, so we upgraded Livi to the next size and went riding!  The last time we rode bikes, Norah was still on her tricycle, and somehow, on a three-wheeled, normal, little-kid tricycle, Norah managed to fall off so dramatically that she scraped up both hands on the palm, both elbows, both knees, and the side of her ribcage.  Can you tell that Livi and Norah are completely different???  Livi always jumps off her bike before it falls and usually ends up standing over it as it is lying on the ground.  So when we upgraded Norah to the two-wheeler with training wheels and Livi to a bike that just seems huge compared to her 12″, we also upgraded to elbow pads, knee pads, and biking gloves.  I know, I’m a crazy, overprotective mother.  BUT on this outing I captured video of Norah using all of the above when she fell off her bike.  The first thing she said was, “I just didn’t hurt!”  So there. 

As you can tell, Olivia spent some time just running around without the bike too.  That’s where I caught her running down the path.

Now, the fun of having Photoshop Elements is that I can do neat things like this:

And silly things like this:

I can also take a photo and change it into some sort of drawing medium, like this:

Too fun!!!    That’s all for now!

First we’ll start with our birthday party for Auntie Jess when she was in Arkansas.  Jon got her a tres leche cake!

Singing Happy Birthday to Auntie Jess

Cuties!

* * * * *

The we had Grandma Lesy’s 64th Birthday!!  Here is the cake I made for her:

And since I ran out of room for the tail…

We had lots of fun celebrating with Grandma & Grandpa!

* * * * *

Here is a random photo of Lucy sleeping:

* * * * *

These are shots I have envisioned since before Lucy was born.  Luckily Auntie Jess was around to help me take them!  The next time I do these shots I will make sure to do them within a week or so of the baby’s birth, as Lucy did not want to stay all curled up and Anne Geddes-like.  She wanted to stretch out!

* * * * *

A couple days ago the older girls got spring hair cuts!

Livi before:

The first cut…

It’s gone! 

Olivia hair: 

Still smiling! 

Almost done! 

Norah’s turn! 

She must like it! 

Look at mama–don’t move!  Ha!   

The problem is she can’t hold her head straight, LOL. 

Still crooked!

Almost finished!

Silly, but very cute girls!

* * * * *

Finally, here are some shots of Lucy and fam this morning.  She loves morning time, and just adores her daddy and big sister!  We were all snuggling in the big bed and she started smiling, so I grabbed the camera!

Hope you enjoy!!

Sunday afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa Rustad’s

Lucy & Norah’s Dedication at Bella Vista Assembly of God

The Rose’s visit to Arkansas

Auntie Jess putting Lucy to sleep on her first night here

Enjoy! 

Lucy’s first picnic, and the problem with trying to take a photo of yourself in autofocus…

Norah on the swing!

Livi on the playground. 

Lucy sitting in her rocker out on the deck. 

More Lucy in the sun! 

Swaddled up Lucy asleep on our bed, with milk and spit-up trailing down her cheek, LOL! 

Second bath! This time in the baby bathtub over the kitchen sink. 

Love this hooded towel and washcloth set–handmade by a gal that goes to our church! 

Lucy in a snappi-ed infant prefold. 

Lucy in a VERY CUTE DRESS from Grampa John.  Yes he picked it out himself!!!   

More Lucy in a cute dress. 

Lucy is two weeks old!  She weighs 9 pounds 10.7 ounces!!  Yay mamamilk!!