11 weeks

Today, our precious Julia is 11 weeks old.  I can't believe how fast time has flown by.  Julia has brought us so much joy.  It's hard to imagine what life was like without her.  She has changed everything... for the better.  It is a joy to be home with her each day and see her changing.  Here are some pictures I took of her yesterday.

Julia is wearing 0-3 month clothes because she is tall.  but, as you can tell, she doesn't quite fill out her clothes.  Everything is baggy on her.  :)

Sweet girl

Julia was blessed with her daddy's long curly eyelashes.  :)

Our precious girl

Happy Julia

Julia has been smiling a lot more lately.  She smiles most often when we're changing her on the changing table for some reason.  She is also starting to babble a little and you'll see that in the second video.


This first video was taken at 3:00 a.m.  When she's so happy and sweet, it make that middle of the night feeding not so bad...

This second  video was taken during the day while I was giving her a diaper change.  You can hear her "talking."  So precious!

Surprise Baby Shower

Last Friday, we went to our Bible Study.  It was the first time Julia attended.  :)  Because it was the first Bible Study of the year, we shared blessings/reflections of 2010 in addition to praying and praising with worship songs.  We also went around sharing prayer requests and spiritual goals for 2011.  When our leader prayed a closing prayer, at the end he said something like, "...and please bless our activities for the rest of the evening."  I remember thinking, "hmmm, maybe we're doing some New Year's activities or something."  Well, shortly after I opened my eyes, Lisa and Christy started placing gift bags in front of me!  They had planned a suprise baby shower for Julia!  I was so surprised and humbled by their kindness.  Ethan had been told about it and was asked to make sure we didn't arrive early so that they had a chance to hide the gifts.  :)  I got some wonderful clothes & baby items for Julia.  Thank you so much, my dear friends in our Bible Study!

My friend, Michelle, holding Julia.

Me (and Julia) & Christy (and Caly).  We were "pregnancy buddies" together (see the picture below) and now are both enjoying having a daughter at the same time that are so close in age.  In fact, there are 2 other moms besides us at Bible Study who have baby girls, so there are 4 little baby girls in Bible Study.  :)

Pregnancy Buddies  :)

Julia and Caly

Awww...  Gotta love those lips!

Okay, I guess life isn't so rough afterall!  :)

2 Months

Yesterday was Julia's "2 month" mark!  Wow, is it even possible that she's already 2 months old?  She has brought us so much joy.  I had her 2 month check-up at the pediatrician today.  Here are her stats:

Head: 22 inches (37th percentile)
Weight: 9 lbs 4 oz (16th percentile)
Head: 15 inches (33rd percentile)

So, she is a petite little thing.  :)

Julia is eating & sleeping well.  She typically sleeps for a 5-6 hour stretch at night, so that is a blessing for her mommy and daddy!

So, what is Julia doing these days?  She started smiling at Christmas!  It was so precious...  Also, she has started "experimenting" with her voice, making strange cat-like sounds and cute squeeks and stuff like that.  A few times while smiling at us, she made sounds that sounded like a laugh.  So precious!  Her hair has really thinned out in the front but it still quite long in the back.  Her eye lashes were very short and thin when she was born, but now they have grown so long and curly just like her daddy's!  Her eyes are still very blue.  I'm so anxious to see what color they will turn.  My guess is green or gray...  Everyone comments how long her fingers are.  She seems to enjoy when mommy reads books to her, especially nursery rhymes.  She also seems to enjoy music a lot which makes her mommy happy since she's a music lover.  :)    

We just recently became a "minivan" family.  :)  We purchased a 2006 Toyota Sienna and absolutely love it!  We call it our "Swagger Wagon."  If you haven't seen the video on Youtube, you have to check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUG3Z8Hxa5I

Here's our minivan

Julia, just "chillin" in her "Swagger Wagon."

When I was born, I was born so close to Christmas that the hospital sent me home in a red stocking and hat. My mom recently passed on this outfit to Julia.

Me as a baby with my mom & siblings.  If you look closely, you can see that I'm inside the red stocking and hat.

My siblings - again I'm inside the red stocking and wearing the hat.

Julia, 29 years later, inside the same stocking and wearing the same hat.

Here are a few more recent pictures of Julia:

Baby's First Christmas.  "Moms in Touch" from my school gave her this really cute blanket!

My brother Phil's family gave Julia this outfit.  Jaime said that her daughter, Ella, insisted that they buy the skirt.  :)  I thought it was so cute, especially because it's such a shiny shirt and very puffy/girly.  Jaime made a cute shirt to match it.    

The other day when I went to get Julia out of her car seat, I saw her asleep like this with her hands suspended in mid-air.  She cracks me up!

Professional Photos

While we were in Northern California, my mom arranged for our whole family to get professional pictures done.  The photographer's name is Sarah Cain (http://www.wix.com/heracain/heracainproductions).  She did such a wonderful job!  She was kind enough to let all of us have a CD with all the pictures and gave permission to post the pictures online.

What a special treat it is to have these pictures!!!  The pictures really capture some of the personalities of the kids.  :)

I still can't believe we were all together for the holiday.  I will never forget it.  It has been 10 years since we have had a family reunion (I'm not counting my wedding because we really didn't get to just all "hang out" and also Mike & Jen's kids weren't at our wedding...).  So, I'm so thankful to have these pictures to remember how special that time was.  It was also be fun to show Julia someday.  :)

All of us - 10 adults and 10 kids!

The classic, "Make a silly face" picture!  :)

Dad & Mom's 10 grandchildren

Stairstep (Julia couldn't be in this picture for obvious reasons...)

So cute!

The best parents in the world!

Laura's family: Jason, Laura, Micah, and Jacob

Phil's family: Phil, Jaime, Ella, Annalee, Georgia, and Adam

Mike's family: Mike, Jen, Becca, Hannah, and Joshua

My family: Ethan, Lisa, and Julia

Siblings in birth order

All 6 of us.  I love my family!!!

All 6 of us and our spouses.  God has truly blessed me with such a wonderful family!  It was such a blessing to all be together...

Christmas Eve

Ethan and I drove back from Northern California on Christmas Eve day to make it in time for Christmas Eve dinner at Ethan's mom's house.  It was also a very special Christmas on Ethan's side of the family because his Grandpa flew all the way from Florida and his Uncle's family drove all the way from Missouri! 

Ethan's mom did a fabulous job with the meal, as always.  She made her traditional Italian Christmas meal which includes things like scallops, shrimp, fish, stuffed shells, stuffed peppers, pasta, etc.  Not only were Ethan's Grandpa & Uncle's family there, but several other relatives and friends of his mom came.  It was quite the gathering!

After the meal, we took some family shots outside.

   Poppy (Ethan's Grandfather) holding one of his several great-grandchild, Julia, for the first time.

Uncle Adam & Aunt Bethany meeting Julia for the first time (they're the ones who drove from Missouri).

The "Clan."  This is Poppy's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  What a group!  :)

Poppy with Jared's (Ethan's brother's) family. 

Julia's cousins (Eric, Jared, and Ava)

The 3 Lisas.  :)

Lisa and her 2 sons, 2 daughter-in-laws, and 4 grandchildren

Hanging out with my family

This Christmas was a VERY special Christmas for my side of the family.  All of us were able to go to Northern California.  Laura & family drove from Arizona, Mike & family flew from Pennsylvania, and we drove up.  It was so special!!!  Mike & Jen's kids had never met any of their cousins before, so that was quite special.  It was so cute to see all 9 cousins playing together.  I loved spending time with everyone.  If only we didn't all live far away from each other... 

Ethan and I drove up on my birthday (December 17).  It was a wonderful birthday present to be with my parents & Phil and Jaime's family.  It was so cute to see how excited Phil & Jaime's kids were about Julia.  They all were so anxious to hold her.

Uncle Phil got to hold Julia first!

Ella holding Julia

Annalee holding Julia

Georgia holding Julia

Adam holding Julia

Daddy and his daughter.  So sweet...  :)

We arrived on the 17th. Mike's family arrived on the 19th. Then, Laura's family arrived on the 21st. It was so cute to see all the cousins meet their "boy" cousins. You should have seen them. When Laura's family first arrived, the girls all stood at the top of the stairs just stairing... not knowing quite what to do. We told them to come downstairs. Then, all the kids just kind of looked at each other awkwardly. It was so cute! Although they were shy at first, it didn't take long before the house was very noisy with kids playing and having a great time. :)

This was when Laura's boys arrived and all the cousins were together for the first time.

Uncle Mike holding Julia for the first time.  So cute!

Aunt Jen holding Julia for the first time.

Aunt Jaime loved holding Julia...

Aunt Laura holding Julia for the first time

Uncle Jason holding Julia for the first time





Joshua (Mike & Jen's) and Adam (Phil & Jaime's) are almost the same age.  They both love trains so they had to learn to "share."  They were so cute together...

The girls cousins (minus Ella) working on a craft

Adam loved holding Julia...

Ethan & I stayed at Mom & Dad's house.  One day, Mike & Jen's family came over to Mom & Dad's house.  We all had brunch together and then took a stroll around the lake.

Mikee is such a good daddy!

My Aunt Linda visited one day and got to meet Julia for the first time.

Mike loved holding Julia.  When this picture was taken, Julia kept smiling at her Uncle.  If you look closely, she's touching his beard.  :)  It was so cute...

Awwww....

The cousins got to eat at their own table...

One night, Dad got his guitar out and we all sang Christmas carols.

We all enjoyed singing Christmas carols.  The grand finale was singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" where each kid and some grown-ups got to have solos for each day of Christmas.  It was cute...

The kids, on their own, decided to put on a "play" of the Christmas story.  It was very cute.  :)

Lola and Lolo enjoying their 10th Grandchild

I loved spending time with my family!  It was very hard to leave.  But, I'm so thankful that we had the amazing and rare opportunity of being all together for a few days.  Lord willing we'll be able to do it again, some day.