Juliets Blessing

Juliet's Baby Blessing

The day was sweet.  The weekend perfect.  

On Sunday afternoon we blessed Juliet at my parents home in Houston.  She woke up from an after church nap to a house full of friends and family that love her.  I spent some time alone with my sweet little girl, dressing her in a gown that I had worn for my own baby blessing.  The gown was worn by my Mother, her siblings, my siblings and all of my cousins on my Moms side.  Isaac and Georgie were blessed in it and I believe that Liam, Arie and Ryder were as well.  The bonnet was my Fathers.  I felt connected with all the Mothers that had done this before me...dressed their children in this gown (and bonnet) for a beautiful occasion.  I felt connected with a moment that seemed fleeting but also with history that was with us.  I felt my Gran, my Mother, my Aunt, my Grandmother, my cousins and my children.  We shared a special moment with all of them...Juliet and I.  

My most precious possessions 

A special moment with Papa.

The Men in my circle;)

Q:  Who drives 3 1/2 hours with 6 children during a residency program for a 24 hour stay to see friends?

A:  Special People.  People that you love.  People that you love.  The Bahrs

We soooo enjoyed having them there and appreciated so much their sacrifice in coming to meet Juliet.

Silly Faces

The Boys

My Babes

The kids sang "I Am A Child Of God" before Jet's blessing, then "I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me" after the blessing.  They set the beautiful mood.

Gaga and Papa kisses.

Dad with "The Nina's" (We're missing Jill)

Gaga with Juliets special cupcakes.  They were delicious!!  

Complete with pink J's on top of them!!

Arie back from Guam.  

I'm dying to get these two together again!!

After a tearful goodbye to The Bahrs and the Monsons the kids carved a pumpkin with Papa and Gaga...a smiley one.  Isn't that fitting!

I love people!!  Especially my people!  Thanks so much for being there friends.  It meant a lot to us!

xoxo

The Huddlestons Come for A Visit

Our dear friends, The Huddlestons came for a visit a month or so ago.  But Anne-Marie, I need you to send me some of your pics;)  I didn't take enough! 

Georgie and Joshua met for the first time!  Joshua is just a little chunk of delight!  He is always smiling!

And here's "best friend" Samuel.  Isaac and Samuel (darn me for not getting one of them together!!)  loved each other the moment they met and, 5 years later, still do.  Isaac still misses him.  And so do I.  What a sweet, sweet boy!

This is Emily.  

Emily looks like she just jumped out of Mark Twain or Charles Dickens novel.  And she has a personality to go right along with it.  She and Georgie get along just as well as the boys do.  Now if we could just marry them all off to each other we would have perfection!  Thanks for driving all that way, Huddlestons.  You know you're loved when someone comes to Altus for you;)

xoxo

Ash

Hard Work + Responsiblity = Grown Up = Isaac

Yesterday Isaac and I came up with a new equation.

Hard Work + Responsibility = Grown Up = Isaac

My boy is growing up;)  He got up this morning and got himself dressed for school without a single reminder.  (not totally uncommon for him but also not an every morning occasion)  This afternoon he had a couple of friends over and they ate dinner outside in the vacant neighboring backyard.  I asked him once to get dressed for Soccer practice sometime within the next hour.  When the hour was up I found him completely dressed.  As Joey and I were getting Georgie ready for her game, cleaning up dinner, changing Jet's diaper and trying to get out the door I discovered that Isaac was outside bringing in all the dinner dishes from the neighboring back yard.  That means climbing a fence with bowls, forks and cups.  I hadn't said a word to him about taking care of that mess and hadn't even considered that he would do it.    At soccer practice Isaac hustled his cute little tushy off, also not at all uncommon for him the past couple of soccer seasons.  The "above and beyond" came when after practice was done he wanted to practice even more.  While Joey and I watched Georgies game (more like somersault practice;) Isaac played soccer with his coach and his coaches two sons (they're AMAZING soccer players).  He played so hard that he threw up a little!!  When it came time for the coaches family to go home, Isaac came and got his Dad to come play with him some more.  "I practice 3 times tonight, Mom and I'm getting better!"

Upon arriving home he got himself a gigantic glass of water, hopped into the shower, brushed his teeth and put on his pajamas.  While Georgie finished up her night time rituals Isaac came out to talk to me and hold his little sister.  That's when I came up with our little equation.  It was so awesome to sit there and consider the boy that Isaac is with him.  I'm sure that many great days like this go by without my even noticing.  What a great feeling for both of us to be proud of his maturity together!  I can't believe how much he has grown up.  Although I love him for so much more than these great things that he does I do look forward seeing the little man (and then big man) that he becomes!  Hard Work + Responsibility = Isaac!  I love you buddy!

I Love My Ironman:)

My Ironman:

On September 25th Joey completed his first half Ironman.  WOW.  I can't stress enough the hard work that he put into preparing for this race.  Six am Saturday and Sunday mornings to avoid the afternoon heat during 3 hour long bike rides and 13 mile runs, weekly weight lifting, lunch hour lap swims, evening week night runs, interval training.  Joey ate, slept and breathed Ironman.

We packed our family into the minivan early on a Friday morning, drove to Oklahoma City, spent the day at the zoo, picked up his race packet and dropped off his bike, ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, a place that can guarantee you a carb load (and I got a cheesecake slice practically to myself...woo hoo;) and then headed for our hotel, courtesy of Uncle Bryant's Starwood Director position;).  The next morning Joey was up by 6 am and the kids and I, in our jammies, drove him to his race.  I asked him if he was nervous and he said not really.  He was lying;)  The kids and I went back to the hotel to get dressed and pack up.  Our plan was to return in time for his bike to run transition.  

But I got lost (if you know me at all, your not shocked..and yes I had a Garmin).  Isaac has seen this so many times that he no longer trusts me AT ALL behind the wheel!!  We found a spot for our lawn chairs along the run route and saw this:

After swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and 2 miles into his run he greeted us with a smile.  "You'll never guess what happened."  No, I wouldn't have.  "My pedal came off my bike while I was standing up and I crashed."  Ahhhhh!!!  His knee and arm were all bloody and he had a large scrape on his chin. "I'm fine.  It hurts but I'm fine."  The kids cheered him on each time he passed (four times) and even on his last leg he smiled and talked to us.  We cheered him into the finish line and heard over the loud speaker, "Joey Merback from Altus, OK.  He'd like to thank his wife Ashley for all her support."  ;)  

After gathering up his gear he began hobbling back to the car with us.  And, strangely, his wrist started KILLING him.  It felt so bad he was sure it was broken.  He had fallen off of his bike less than halfway through the race and not felt any wrist pain after the initial fall.  Isn't adrenaline amazing!?  Lo and behold, it wasn't broken, just a bad sprain but, still!!!  Joey held up impressively well for the rest of the day and into the next.  Just after the race he had said that he couldn't imagine doing that TWICE in a row....no way.  Full Ironman-ers were nuts!  By Tuesday or Wednesday the next week he was talking full Ironman.  Like a new Mom a few days after giving birth, he had forgotten how painful it all was.  

This one's for you, Dad.  This guy looked about your age and was a half ironman finisher.   Go ahead Dad, let the training begin!!

Here he is at the finish line, as spry as a young chicken!

And here we are back at the hotel.  Daddy pooped us out;)

And Juliet slept through the whole thing.  I can tell she's going to be LAZY!

And here's Georgie playing on the beach the night before.

Isaac too;)

The Zoo

Our visit to the Oklahoma City Zoo was awesome.  Hands Down, the best Zoo experience I've ever had.  We actually had some personal interaction with ALL the Gorillas, a Giraffe, and an Okapi.  

Georgie, our Jr. Mommy wanted to push the stroller around the whole time.

If the glass hadn't been there we would have touched noses, hands, shoulders, feet and exchanged breath with these Gorillas.  The biggest one marched right over and basically stared us down for about 2 minutes...it was as if he was trying to say something to us like, "See, I'm not afraid of you, but you're afraid of me"  The other ones wanted to play with us.  They were so friendly, wild and playful.  

So close!! 

Juliet: 2 months

Juliet:

2 months 

 These photos of Jet were taken on her 2 month birthday, September 29th. 

Happy 2 months in the world, Juliet!  We can't believe what a beautiful, sweet, happy, easy baby you are!!

Juliet is beginning to smile and even laugh at us now.  We hear her fussing in her crib when she wakes up from a nap and go in to get her.  As soon as she sees one of our faces her cry springs into a smile and then one of those suck-in-air kind of laughs that only babies can do.  Juliet loves to be talked to.  This also makes her smile.  She uses a pacifier to fall asleep but before she gives in to total sleepfulness she spits it out.  Georgie calls the pacifier a "saffy" so we've all taken to calling it that.  She sleeps in our bed at least half of the night, sometimes all night and I'm kind of loving it!  I never thought I could be a co-sleeping parent so we'll see how long this lasts!

Juliet: Our first month

Juliet's First Month

My goal is to take a picture of Juliet on the 29th of each month.  I'm not off to a very good start considering that I remembered this months photo session when she was already bathed, swaddled and being rocked to sleep.  But that's how I roll...by the seat of my pants.

I don't know if its because she's my third or possibly my last but I am totally enjoying every moment with this baby.  I don't feel rushed to get her to sleep, bugged when she wakes up early from a nap or roll my eyes when I have to change her diaper for the 3rd time in 20 minutes.  (I'm exaggerating a little bit but just go with me here:)  I'm successfully living in the now for the first (and probably the last) time of life.  I'm usually horrible at that.  And it seems to me that we all feel like that.  Joey wants to hold her as soon as he's walked in the door and changed out of his BDU's.  He holds her while I make dinner and while he eats dinner, and puts her to sleep almost every night.  She's totally spoiled:) 

 And Georgie wants to hold her like 15 times a day.   She gets tired of her in about 5 minutes because she's not aloud to walk around with her, shake her, hold her upside down or force stuffed animals and barbies in her face but then she's ready to go again about 30 minutes later.  

 Isaac seems to have found the perfect big brother balance.  He leaves her alone for the most part because she's usually sleeping or eating but if she's somewhere near his foot path he gives her a kiss and says, "ooooh she's so cute!"  The other day he said to me, "Mom, I don't want her to grow up and get all big and stuff."  "Me neither." I told him.  "She's so little and cute.  Why do we have to grow up?  I want us all to stay little forever."  Did he jump in my head?  I try not to say this outloud too much but the kid totally agrees with me!!  I was shocked to hear him say it.  I tried to give him my vote of confidence about how fun getting bigger is when what I really wished I could do was keep over and cry with him about it!

What We've been up to:

Juliet sleeps through the night about 40% of the time for the last 2 weeks now.  Don't hate me;)  We sleep together, she and I, in the queen size bed that's in her nursery.  I LOVE it.  She sleeps on the go in her car seat whenever we're running errands or at church, something my other two have NEVER done.  It's sooo nice!!  

When she was about 15 days old she had a fever.  We had to take her to the emergency room for a Lumbar Puncture and some blood tests.  We spent 48 hours in the hospital with her and discovered that she just had a UT Infection...nothing too scary!   For a few hours there I just knew that my worst nightmare was coming true and my child was going to die.  I cried off and on for the first few hours of our Emergency Room stay.  But, she's totally fine!!

She spent an entire day alone hanging out with Daddy while I went to Dallas to get Isaac from spending a week with my parents.  Joey was on call so he couldn't leave Altus.  She drank some bottles that I had pumped and Joey enjoyed spending alone time with her.  

I need to make an entire post about the dreamy time Isaac had with Gaga and Papa.  He cried so hard when he left them, as did my parents.  He watched shark week every night with Papa and came back a veritable dictionary of Shark facts.  More on that later.

Happy First month Birthday Juliet!!

Meet Juliet

Meet Juliet

Juliet is actually a really good baby...sleeps a lot, falls asleep fairly easy, nurses well, 

but if you're messin' with her, i.e. bath, diaper change, changing close, she's crying!  And she bleats like a little lamb when she cries.  It's pretty cute;)  So this picture really depicts the Juliet that we're all adoring right now.

And this one too...like all newborns, she sleeps alot!!

A rare, eyes open moment

Sweet Big Brother kisses

Squirmy, out of focus Big Sister kisses;)