Family Picture Day

Will is 3 1/2 weeks old now and is doing terrific. I highly recommend Baby Wise to anyone interested in getting more than 30 minutes of sleep at a time with a newborn. The girls are just loving having a baby brother. Although be forewarned if you come for a visit you may see me nursing Will, Addy nursing her baby, and Harley with the breast pump on her shirt.

New Pics of Will and family

Will is one week old today! It's been a great week. He is a good little baby, just a sleepy one.

Our little Christmas Package...

Harley loves Baby Will. She loves to give him all kinds of "stuff" like boxes of raisins, toy instruments, etc...

Stan's show and tell item of the day.

My half drugged smile/proud to be a mama again look...

Addy loves to hold Will. Although this pic was taken soon after we came home and she hadn't mastered head support, she is doing a wonderful job now and I can't imagine not having her as my little mama's helper.

William Haddon Smith

Will was born Wednesday November 19th at 1:02 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 19.5 inches long. More to come...

Picture Day

This past weekend we went to Birmingham to camp at Oak Mountain State park. The park had a petting zoo, which Harley especially enjoyed (from a distance) since she is learning the sounds animals make. Her favorite is the horse sound "Neigh-a-a-a-a-a." We also got to enjoy a trip to the Birmingham Zoo to see lots of animals. Addy's favorite was the snakes, Stan's the monkey's, and mine the Giraffes. Harley was undecided.

Harley has thoroughly enjoyed our tomato plants this summer. She often has a tomato face and tomato juice has stained most all her shirts. She loves to go and pull one off and eat it like it's an apple. And surprisingly enough they are still producing new blooms. Surprisingly because Abigail, Addy's friend, ran over them with our 4-wheeler several months ago and since then I haven't taken the best care of them in the world. I may be asking her to do it again next year! Thanks Abigail. Just yesterday we counted 43 tomatoes still left!

Harley loves to ride her bicycle. She's still a bit short to pedal herself, but she likes to try.

The girls playing "kitchen" while I cook dinner.

Harley LOVES Addy to read to her. She will sit for 20 minutes at a time.

More reading....

and more reading...

I have had to get creative with entertaining Harley while teaching Addy. I got 8 lbs of pintos and put them into a hige bowl in the playpen and she stays pretty content for about 20 mins. I have found lots of fun and cheap ideas from The Busy Toddler's Book, one I would recommend to anyone who needs to juggle several children at once.

Addy being very productive while Harley is in her play pen.

Harley trying to be like her big sis again up in Addy's school chair. Another "busy activity" I have for her is to play with washable markers, but only in her high chair, which explains the green 'eye shadow."

Harley's take on potty training....So, Harley's pride and joy these days is carrying her diapers to the garbage can after we finish changing her. She does this with the biggest smile on her face while looking to see who all is watching her. The other day instead of going straight into the kitchen where I usually go to pull out the garbage can for her majestic dumping of the diaper I said, "Harley how about we throw away your diaper in mommy's bathroom. I think Addy is in there waiting on me to brush her hair." So, we walk in there. I forget that Harley has the diaper and I start fixing Addy's hair because we are running a little late for our Chick-fil-A date. I hear "plop" right into the toilet is where Harley puts her tee-tee diaper. Where else? That's where tee-tee belongs, right?

Here is the new baby's room thus far. Not all that exciting, but a few people have been asking to see it so here it is. I say"new baby" because for 28 weeks we had decided on naming the baby boy Skylar. This was Stan's choice. He had wanted to name both Addy and Harley Skylar if they were boys, so now was his opportunity. However, 3 days ago at midnight, he decides that this may not be the best name for an adult male. "preacher Skylar" or whatever he may become just doesn't sound very good anymore. So, as of now we are undecided. However, the name William is in the top runnings (Stan and his Dad are both William's).

And the kitchen with the infamous plaid paiting technique that I really don't advise anyone doing...

And lastly, everyone wants to know how homeschooling has been going....for the most part good. Addy is reading some now. As you can see, we still have a little trouble confusing the "i" and "e" sounds.

Lastly, my sweet girls and my rapidly increasing in size tummy.

update

This is long overdue, but we have been a bit over extended lately... Here are some of Harley's 1 year pics...

Addy's 5th b-day...
Addy's b-day party favors...
Harley at 15 months old...
One year ago...

We have been working on the hosue nonstop since we moved in. We have a great motivation...the new baby's arrival, because we know things will slow down a lot then. We still have finishing touches to make in all the rooms, but herre are before and after pics up to this point....

Before of the Living room...

Half way done...

Living room AFTER....the girls and I went to GA for several days and came home to this, kind of. There was a huge sheet hanging up for one day while Stan worked so diligently to finish so we could have the unveiling with the finished product. The color isn't quite as lime green as it appears in this picture.

Foyer BEFORE and dining room in the distance Before... Half way...

AFTER of the Foyer...

Dining room Half way...
3/4 way...
AFTER of the dining room...
Master Bedroom BEFORE...Master AFTER...We had no idea that when we bought this house we were buying an orchard at the same time! We have grape vines galore, peach, apple, pear, and plum trees, supposedly blackberries and blueberries, but I didn't see many of them this season. Here is Addy with some fresh grapes.

And last of all...