Happy Birthday Lily!

We had a fun celebration for Lily's Two-year-old birthday. I think this party was more for me than for her. It was a lot of fun to do.

We did a Tinkerbell theme. We did ring-around-the-rosy, (Lily's favorite game), We had a bubble machine and popped the bubbles with wands. We also danced to the music from the new Tinkerbell movies. I made everyone balloon butterflies. I also had some cupcakes frozen from a family February Birthday Party. I just thawed them the night before. We got some light up Fairies from the dollar store for the cake decoration and party favors.

It was such a fun party and you can tell from Lily's expression that she was really excited.

Lily's actual birthday was on a Sunday, so I made her favorite, chocolate chip pancakes. I added the smile and strawberries for her birthday. She ate only the whipped cream smile and kept asking for more cream!












I can't believe that Lily is already 2 years old! She is such a fun little girl. She is ALL girl. She is always carrying around a menagerie of dolls, barbies, and girl characters. (We have a collection of Star Wars bobble heads and she ALWAYS can pick out princess Leah from the bunch). She is a very nice big sister. When Amelia is crying and I can't get to her right away, Lily starts sharing her toys. I came back to find Amelia in the swing with three dolls, princess leah, and dress up shoes. All the things that make Lily happy, so of course it should work for Amelia? Right?

She is starting to talk a lot more now. Pete told her once, "Lily you're stinky." She said, "I Not Stinky, I Cute." She is quite the character!

Sugar Cookies

So my sisters wanted me to blog about my sugar cookies. Cathy's DO's and DON'Ts for sugar cookie decorating:

1) DON'T do it all in one day - make the dough, bake, and decorate on different days. Unless you are a neat freak and really organized, it makes a huge mess and it gets more stressful and less fun to decorate.

2) DO roll the dough after making the cookie dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick on parchment paper. Roll out other portions of dough in the same fashion and store them stacked on top of each other in a covered jelly pan. This will keep for about a week. (I have left it longer, and the dough gets a little dried out, but I couldn't tell a difference once they are baked). Once I am ready to bake the cookies, I pull out a sheet at a time and roll lightly to make sure it is even. Then I cut away! It's really easy this way because the dough is still cold from not having to work it too much.

3) DON'T skimp on the thickness of the dough. I used to always roll out the dough as thin as I could in order to make MORE cookies. Not until I went to my sister's BeccaCrockers house to decorate cookies, did I realize I was rolling them out too thin. Keep to 1/4 inch thick, no less. They will taste better and keep longer without getting stale. I usually double the recipe below so I'm not tempted to make the cookies too thin.

4) DO turn the pan half-way in baking. I know this is a general rule. Depending on the oven, it may not matter, but I know that if I forget, half of the sheet is under cooked and half is over cooked. (You want to look for a slight tint at the bottom of the cookie - that means it's done. Any brown on the top means it's overbaked).

5) DON'T take the cookie off the sheet right out of the oven. Let the cookie finish cooking and harden on the tray for at least a few minutes before putting on the cooling rack. How many times have I broken a VERY hot cookie when I'm over anxious?!

6) DO some decorating on the cookies before baking. It's fun to try new things and you won't get as 'burnt out' with decorating. See the video below for some ideas.

7) DON'T waste scraps. Clump them all together and roll them out on one of the parchment sheets. If I have the energy I cut and bake the new dough after it has cooled in the freezer for 10 minutes or fridge for 20 minutes. Or, I'd save the dough for a fun cookie day with the kids the next week.

8) Do use light cookie sheets. I find that any non-stick or dark surface sheet ends up overcooking the bottom.

9) DON'T decorate hot or warm cookies. Let the cookies cool COMPLETELY before decorating. I usually will bake and then wait a few hours or until the next morning to decorate.

10) DO try some new techniques! Sanding is my favorite. You get sanding sugar and tint the icing to match. Put the glaze on the cookie. Pour the sanding suger on the cookie over a bowl. The bowl will catch the excess. You can get Sanding sugar at a baking store, or for the different holidays they sell sanding sugar in combo packs at Target and Walmart.

11) DON'T attack a messy counter with a wet towel. I get out my bench scrapper and scrape up all of the excess glaze and sugar. Then I go to town with the counter spray.

12) DO have fun! This isn't rocket science! Any 'mistakes' still taste good!

Sugar Cookie recipe: (Al's Recipe from our family cook book)

Sugar Cookies – Alison

1 cup butter ** ¼ tsp. almond extract (optional)

1 ¼ cup sugar 3 ½ cups flour

2 eggs 1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla ½ tsp. salt

Beat butter until creamy. Beat in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. In a separate bowl, combine flour baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Form into a large blob and wrap in saran wrap and chill for at least one hour. Roll out and cut into shapes. Cook at 400° for 6-8 minutes, but check them at 4 or 5 minutes if you have small shapes.

** Reading the cookie blogs, some people use butter others use shortening. I use half and half. Butter for flavor, shortening for the flakiness

Almond Glaze

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 tsp Almond extract
  

Stir confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, extract and milk together. This glaze must be stirred each time you use it. If it is not stirred before each use it will dry with a mottled look instead of a solid color.

(This recipe I play with until I get the consistency that I want).


Royal Icing - (For details that you add after glazing and sugaring)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
• 6 tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

**When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

Most bakeries use Royal Icing for the glaze as well, (a little more watered down). But, I don't like the taste of SO MUCH royal icing.

Here's a video I liked from YouTube. Enjoy!

How To Decorate Christmas Sugar Cookies on Howcast

Healthy Recipes Experiments

Ahi Tuna - I thought I should blog my recipe above. Pete surprised me and bought an Ahi tuna steak from Costco. My new way of looking for recipes is to do a google image search. I like things that LOOK good to eat. You eat first with your eyes. I found this blog and tried out the recipe. FormerChef. I didn't have a spice grinder for the coriander, so I did a Seseme seed crust instead. It turned out really good. It tasted like really good sashimi. So, the $11 we spent at Costco went to good use since it usually costs $50 if we go out to sushi. The only problem with this meal is I was the only one that liked it. Pete liked the salad but any kind of raw fish makes him queasy.

Shrimp, pasta, & vegetables - I found a good cooking blog - CafeLynnLu - I modified the recipe a bit. I combined this recipe and the basic recipe for shrimp scampi. (A little butter oil, garlic, lemon juice, cook shrimp, then I followed the recipe for cooking the vegetables). This one the kids actually liked.

Wasabi mashed Cauliflower – I had this with a Teriyaki salmon. Very good, but not kid friendly. Lily did like the mashed cauliflower without the wasabi.

Lentil Soup – Cuisinart Pressure Cooker Recipe – This is my lunch staple. Lily will eat this soup as well.

So, this is the 3^rd time that I am trying to lose baby weight. It seems to be a lot harder this time around. First we had the holidays .. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Birthdays (Amelia, Me, Pete, and our anniversary). Now it’s February, and I’ve traded in the fried cheese curds, (yes it is a real thing, it’s at A&W .. Really Good!) for whole wheat bread and salads. My problem, as always, is the FOOD.

So here is my problem, I like to try new things and experiment. However, with kids they just like really simple foods.

Calling for Healthy recipes that kids will eat! (Something that doesn't have cream of chicken soup as the main ingredient).

Flyin' Free in St. George!

We were able to get away this weekend and go to St. George! Yay! I guess we missed a big snow storm today. It has been really theraputic to be outside and in the sun. I love the expression on the kids faces ;-)

So I have had my website up for 3 weeks. I have made almost $20 with the Google Adsense. Yay! (The funny thing is that I've spent way more than 20 hours on it!)

Everyone has been asking how it works. I created an entry on how to add Google Adsense to your blog. Anywho, you sign up for a Google Adsense account and add the Google Adsensewidget to your blog. The Adsense account tracks how many times people click on your ads. Companies pay google to insert text or picture ads. Google then matches the ads to the type of content on the page.

I just posted an entry, Anti-Virus Explained: Does your computer have a cold? . My sister Al thought I needed to better explain the Anti-Virus in general ... dumb it down a big :-) I'd like to get feedback. Let me know if you have any questions you'd like me to research. I'm going to try and update the site 1 to 2 times a week. Send the link to those who you think would be interested. www.securemama.com :-)

Vintage Amelia

I had to blog this picture.

The dress was Pete's Grandma's (Leona Olsen) when she was a baby. I first found the bonnet and a little baby slip at a garage sale. Pete's mom then found the dress and shall to match.

I got her dressed up for church this morning. She did pretty good during Relief Society. During Sunday School she started SCREAMING!! She was really backed up and I was running back and forth getting diapers and wipes. Gaak! Everyone kept asking what was wrong. Anywho, after getting poop on me and the beginnings of a migraine, we called it quits.

I was able to take some pictures when she was in a better mood. She's pretty cute!

Quick Update - Under Pressure Cooking

My new website is a fun new hobby. I checked my Google Adsense account and I have an estimated earnings of $6.20. That's about maybe 50 cents an hour not including the cost to host my site. ha! I will post an blog entry on how to make money on your blog.

I just posted an article on how to optimize your mac. I have convinced many family members to purchase Macs for their home computers. Mine was starting to run a little slow (4 years old). I tried out a few of the tips that I read online.













Amelia is now 3 months old! She is smiling and giggling. I told Phillip that a fairy was born when she giggled for the first time (from the Tinkerbell movie) ha!

Phillip and Lily are funny as usual. Here they are wearing a pair of our shoes. Lily finally figured out how to put on my knee-high boots.

Phillip has been asking really thought provoking questions. I think he saw a show about astronauts and he asked, "How come we don't fall off the earth into space?" I tried to give him a simple answer but he kept asking, "but HOW do we NOT FALL INTO SPACE?!" I then had to explain gravity and that's how things fall. He's a pretty smart kid! ha!




Phillip really likes playing with my iTouch. I've set boundaries so that he doesn't download anything. He used a doodle application to 'enhance' and picture of Pete and Amelia.

Soooo... yesterday I was doing cooking projects. I was going to blog them as under pressure cooking. I made a chicken noodle soup with my pressure cooker. I was planning on making chicken stock from the chicken back and wings. I put all of the ingredients in the pot and was about to add the water when I realized, I didn't put it in the pot but on the HEATING ELEMENT. Ga'ak! Soo... I got all of the ingredients out .. no harm done. I won't make that mistake again. I had two chicken breasts and thighs that I was going to cook, but I put them in the oven while I was making the chicken stock. I forgot to set a timer and I ended up roasting them for an hour and half. G'ak!! I kept thinking of what Pete's Mom (a kindergarten teacher) would say to her students, "It's o.k. to make mistakes while you are learning." Well, I did learn that I need to set timers, and take things slowly if I'm going to do cooking projects. I also learned that cooking projects are a lot better if Becca is in the kitchen.

But, I will use every last bit of those two chickens I bought from Costco

2 thighs and 2 breasts -> chicken noodle soup
2 thighs and 2 breasts -> cooked chicken meat (a little overcooked :-)
back, wings -> chicken stock -> lentil soup and future soups
drumsticks -> terriyaki chicken

Securemama weighs in on Free McAfee

Here's a link to my latest posting. I was interested to see that McAfee was offering free anti-virus for 6 months. There's more to this story .. to read more go to my site.

Karpe Diem

Seize the DAY!!

So.... I thought it is now or never that I attack the idea that I've had in my head for the past two months. Write computer-security content that is geared to moms.

I mentioned before that I wanted to write a book. Well, the problem is that I would actually have to "write" it. So I decided to create a website to share the content. I have submitted my application to Google Adsense and have a donation page. I figure I can help people now, and if I ever turn the blog/site into a book .. then great!

So... Please check out the site. Let me know what you think!

www.securemama.com

I Can't Leave DI empty handed

So, after cleaning out our closets, Pete and I had about 8 garbage bags full of clothes. It was SO nice to get rid of stuff and feel less cluttered. When we took the stuff to DI I thought, "I don't think we should get anything, since we JUST cleaned out."

Pete walked through the store. He said, there is a Federalist dining table. My eyes got really big. I may have inherited my mom's gene of loving antiques. I went in and ran back to the car and told Pete I wanted it. I held onto the table while Pete brought the kids inside. Pete said that I was glaring at anyone who was looking at the table. (a little territorial?) So, for $75 we got a Federalist dining table which can seat 12 people once the leaves are in. Right now it's in the corner of our living room.

Screaming in the New Year

I thought I'd post that funny picture of Amelia, our New Years Baby, screaming with all of the New Year's paraphernalia.

So we are already 10 days into the NEW YEAR! I was cleaning out my documents on my computer and I found a eating journal with one entry from January 9, 2009. (the file name was 'eating log star date 1.9.2009' I am a nerd! I thought .. that's funny I was trying to lose weight right before I got pregnant.

So I think I will share my New Years goals, so that maybe I will have a better chance of completing them. In no particular order:

1) Running - I want to run the Provo Half Marathon. I should have enough time to build up mileage by the end of summer. The only problem will be on Saturdays will be, do I go on a long run? or do I go garage saling? ... Probably garage saling

2) CISSP - I've had these HUGE study books on my shelf or almost a year now. I think it's now or never that I become a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. I'm already a CISM (Certified Insane Silly Mommy) :-)

3) Paint - I want to paint at least one picture this year. Last year with the remodel, I didn't have a painting spot. Right now Pete is fixing up the downstairs kitchen which will be a great spot with enough light and ventilation to paint. I may take a class at the Bountiful Art Center. We'll See.

4) Write a book about computer security

These are pretty ambitious goals. I will be glad to check one goal off my list. :-) I guess I should have baby steps with the 3 kids - shower, eat, and make sure the laundry pile doesn't get taller than me. (It's not very hard, I'm kind of short) ha!

Swimming in the New Year

Well, we are still homeward bound with all of the snow. I thought to take the older two out in the snow. But Lily cries anytime the snow even touches her skin. Sooo ... I thought it would be fun to get the kids in the hot tub. They had a lot of fun :-) Lily looks so funny in the goggles!

Here's a picture of Lily's Dollhouse. Pete 'renovated' the Doll House. He found it at DI for $14. It's really cute and in good condition. We got the Madame Alexander dolls from DI and from a garage sale that Emily went to. I got the doll clothes at a garage sale for 10 cents each. I guess our garage sale habit pays off around Christmas! :-)

A Merry Christmas

We have had a GREAT Christmas. We loved seeing the kids' reactions and opening the toys. We also have enjoyed being the "Griswolds" of the neighborhood.

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas!

My Favorite Kind of Jewelry

We had a great Anniversary Celebration this year. Pete tricked me and told me to wear a nice outfit (I was showered and wearing jeans which is REALLY nice for me these days). I put on tights and a skirt. We kept joking about where we were going. Then he pulled into the A&W restaurant which is attached to a gas station. I tried to be nice, but Pete said I gave him the look of death. He got the door and I said, "are you SERIOUS?" Anywho, he ordered two A&W freezes and fried cheese curds. (I thought I heard him say "cheeseburgers" and thought this was the real deal). We opened our presents. Then we got up to go, and I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the cheeseburgers.

Anywho, I didn't know where we were going, and I wasn't going to make any guesses after that trick. He took me to LaCaille, which was really good and really fancy. He had planned to take me to A&W first all along to trick me and to make sure I had something in my stomach because I wouldn't last until the late reservations. It was a great dinner and the lights there were beautiful!

Pete got me an ipod touch. Yay!! it is so much fun!! I wanted to post links to a tutorial I found to convert DVD for an ipod. If you are getting an ipod or mp4 player for someone you can load some movies on it for them before christmas. Pete was laughing at me because I got so excited about the ipod touch. I probably wouldn't get as excited about a piece of jewelry. Terrible! I guess I love gadgets!

Tutorial link

Handbrake software link

I made Pete a compilation of our e-mails, journal entries, and notes while we were dating. Not as fun, but as Pete said, we will probably have that in 10 years and not my ipod touch :-)

Happy 5th anniversary Pete!

Christmas Light show

By popular request here is a video of our light show. Pete did the sequence to the "Main Street Light Parade" song. This was the song they played for the DisneyLand Light parade and is the intro to our program.



We have the show running from 6PM to 9PM on weeknights, and until 10:00 PM on the weekend. Tune to 99.9 FM!!! The Cathy Classic Station!

I'll keep posting some more videos. They take forever to upload :-)

Amelia's Baby Blessing

We had a great family day yesterday. We had Amelia's baby blessing in our ward. Pete gave her a very sweet blessing. Following church we went to Pete's parents house for brunch/lunch.

I delegated the whole meal. Becca brought her Cinnamon rolls, we had every possible type of breakfast casserole from Pete's sisters and mom. We even had home-made chocolates. Mom made a really fancy fruit plate with mangoes, kiwi, strawberries and Cheryl brought some danish wheels and flowers. I did make one sausage casserole, but I didn't set the oven timer right, so it was ready an hour after everyone had started eating. ha! Anywho, thanks to everyone that was able to come and help out!

Everyone had fun at Pete's parents house. Pete's mom has all of her kindergarten stuff in their basement and the kids loved it. They also have a "Chi" machine, which is supposed to redistribute your chi ... Here's Doug trying to redistribute his "Chi" while kids are crawling on him:











Proud Grandma's:













Family Photo: A little strained as Phillip didn't want to take a picture :-)









Feeding Frenzy!

Impromptu Photoshoot

I wanted to get a picture of Amelia in her blessing dress for her blessing this Sunday. Again, I thought about going to Target .. but after yesterday's Artic Circle Fiasco I decided not to.

Artic Circle story: I wanted to take the kids somewhere that had an indoor gym. I took them to Artic Circle. We first went to the bathroom, then ordered food ... I was a little scatter brained and left the baby's blanket and purse on the counter where you order food.. ."ma'm is this yours?" Ga'ak! I got the food and the kids settled. By this point Amelia was screaming. I got her latched on with my blanket and thought everything would be fine. Then Phillip asked "Do they have a potty by this park?" He had to go number 2. So I plopped the baby back in the car seat, kept Lily in her high chair and ran Phillip to the bathroom. I kept running back and forth because I didn't want to drag the girls into the bathroom to wait for Phillip to be done. I finally heard what I usually hear at home. Phillip screaming at the top of his lungs, "I'm DONE!!" I could only laugh at my self. I was probably showing my plumber crack half of the time while bending over and taking care of the kids. It's funny how simple things can be really hard to do with 3 kids. Once it was all said and done, the kids had a lot of fun in the indoor play structure. :-)

Sooo...my sink and counter were full of dirty dishes. My hair was greasy and the house was a wreck, but I decided to take a photoshot of Amelia in her blessing dress. This time I put the bouncer in the crib and then draped a blanket over it. Pete's mom made the dress. She looks pretty cute.

Fall Art

With Thanksgiving behind us, we are in FULL SWING of our Christmas festivities. I took a picture of one of my projects and wanted to post it before it isn't relevant. I made leaf art for Pete's birthday present. Before Amelia was born, the trees in our back yard were really pretty. Here's a link to a picture. Phillip and I collected a lot of leaves. I think in all we collected about 50. I tried to get varying shades of color in the same kind of leaf. I don't think you can collect too much.

We put the leaves within 4 of our Harry Potter books. I think it was about 4 weeks time and they were dry by Pete's birthday.

Once they were dry, I glued the dry leaves onto white paper with Elmer's glue. I had a nice frame with a matte (for kids pictures) and stuck the leaf art in the frame. It was a fun project. Now we can pull it out next fall.

Here's a picture of me and the kids decorating for Christmas. I finally cleaned up my mess yesterday. I'll post some videos of our Christmas show soon!

Happy One Month Amelia!

Well, It has already been one month! Crazy! For the occassion I put Amelia in an actual outfit and not a sleeper. :-) Amelia is a good baby. She is on the wake up at 3 AM and 6 AM schedule. Hopefully she can start waking up at 4 AM. That extra hour makes a big difference. She has a lot of the same expressions as Phillip did. She likes to furrow her brow and look around.

Lily loves to help her. She says, "SAD!" if the baby is crying and will say "Ginkee" to tell me that the baby needs her binky. Lily also comments on Amelia's hang-nails and spit-up and says, "Eeeeew!"









Olsen Girls :-)







Phillip is funny and likes it when he goes on outings with Pete. He says, "Only boys can go!" Right now he says "Boys are funny and girls are silly." I told him that Pete only had sisters and no brothers. Phillip said, "I have brothers. Anthony and Andrew. They just don't live at my house."










Here is Phillip, Pete and Grandpa Olsen at Pete's Transformer birthday party. Phillip helped me plan the birthday party. He got a Bumblebee Costume out of the deal. (smart boy). I made a good Carrot cake for Pete. Here is a link to the recipe. (This is one of my favorite recipe blogs. Everything I have tried turns out really good).

Anywho, just taking it a day at a time. I used to make big lists for each day, but right now I try to limit it to 1) Take a shower 2) Take care of kids :-)

NewBorn Photo Shoot - How To

I sometimes feel guilty that I don't take my kids to get their picture taken that often. However, the cost and the stress of it all makes me think I can do it on my own at home. I did get some cute pictures of Amelia the other day. Here are some of my tips :-)

1. Align the stars -

Make sure:

• Older kids are away or occupied
• You are rested and not too tired (you don't want to start bawling because of a bad photo-shoot :-)
• The baby is fed and burped
• If possible, get a helper

I took my pictures while Pete took Phillip and Lily to church. :-) Thanks Pete!

2. Find a good location

I got this idea after paying for a photo-shoot at Kiddie Kandids. I pulled the bottom cushion away from the couch and added extra pillows for support:

Once the Pillows were set up, I draped a sheet over the couch and propped Amelia in the corner of the couch.

3. Have good lighting

A flash never looks very good for portraits:

Use a couch that is close to a window that gets a lot of light. If there isn't a couch, you can always drape a blanket or sheet over a car seat and put the baby where there is good lighting.

Use a reflector to fill in face shadows. I tried to do this by myself, but it was a little difficult. Get a helper to hold a mirror or piece of tin-foil to bounce the natural light onto the face.

4. Use the continuous shutter option

If your camera has the option, take the picture with the continuous shutter enabled. Little babies are cute but they can do some funny things with their hands in a split second:

4. Delete bad pictures. Pick out your favorite and add any effects. I always like black and white pictures.

Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet! :-)

Here is our latest family picture:

Ha! We didn't get a family picture in the hospital because the kids couldn't visit (Swine flu). Life has been too crazy to set up a photoshoot. But for Halloween we were able to get an updated family picture. Maybe we will use this as our Christmas card picture. Ha! We drove by Inkleys and they were doing free portraits. We missed the time window but they let us use the backdrop. (Luckily they were done because the props were pretty destroyed after I tripped over them and the kids kept throwing the leaves everywhere).

Phillip REALLY wanted to be a scarecrow at the last minute. We came up with a pretty good costume with the straw and face paint. He had to go potty before we went trick-or-treating. We didn't want straw all over the house so Pete helped him go potty outside. The next day the kids were playing outside. Pete went to check on them and Phillip was bare naked from the wasted down. Pete asked him what he was doing and he said, "I want to go potty outside."

Here is me and Lily outside our house. Pete already cleaned up Halloween and I feel our house looks a little bare. Only a short time until our Christmas decorations can go up!!

Another successful Halloween!

More Baby Pictures

To say the least, it has been an adjustment after bringing little Amelia home. I was glad that Pete didn't have to go to work until today. We are glad that everyone is still happy and healthy.

Baby Pictures:

Boo! One of Amelia's Halloween costumes :-) (a garage sale find)

Little Girl Sleeping.

Our darkest and biggest baby. She came out with dark hair and with a lot more hair than our other kids. Pete can't get over the dark hair. She definitely has some of the same facial features as Phillip did when he was a baby.

Meeting the Family

Lily can always smile for the camera. But... 5 minutes later ...

She doesn't appreciate being second fiddle :-)

Phillip has been a good big brother and is helpful with the baby. It's still an adjustment but he loves to hold her and kiss her.

Welcome Amelia Rose!

Born in October 6:30 PM
Weight: 7 lbs 14 oz
Length: 19 inches

Amelia was born yesterday and we were glad to welcome her to our family. She looks a lot like Phillip did when he was born. She has dark hair and darker skin. It will be interesting to see how she looks in a few months.

We are both feeling well and will be home soon to meet the rest of the family.