Life!

We have the best little mommy here! I just love the sweet sister love!


Here is Leili in her favorite sleeping place, mom! :)

Look at the sweet chub slowly packing on!!

We are really enjoying all of the great awake and alert time Leili is having now, we all just marvel at her cuteness!!

Here is Leili's first bath! She had quite the audience and she really enjoyed the water!

All last week Riley was at cub scout day camp, his good friend Orion got to go too!!

My birthday was on Saturday so after a yummy breakfast of vegan french toast we drove to the canal at lock 12, had a picnic and then enjoyed a nice walk. Here is a picture Riley snaped during our picnic!

Fern enjoyed testing our new stroller, first by pushing, and then by riding! :)

Of course I had my traditional lemon cake with lemon frosting. MMMMM!! Thankfully Dan did not try burning the house down by putting enough candles on!!

And here is sweet Leili just being Leili! She makes noises all of the time, even when she sleeps and eats!! :)

Returning to Life...

...ever so slowly!

We went out on a little family excursion a little over a week ago... and it was SOOOO yummy! Blueberry picking!

Don't let this serious picker fool you, she ate more than what she put in her bucket!
Isn't she too cute!!

Dan and Leili did the most picking!

Jake and Fern were more into finding "hide-outs"! It was pretty warm in the sun and even I was wishing for a little shade!

Riley Loves to pick blueberries, and he actually put quite a few into the bucket!!

But of course Leili and I did plenty of sitting too! I don't get much done between nursing yet, but I enjoy cuddling with my babe! Here she is sporting her beautiful sun hat Aunt Mary brought her!

Here was Leili and my view from the wagon! Our hard working boys!

Look at our loot!! We froze most of our berries (9 cups), our next bunch we are hoping to make into jam! MMMMM!!!

Babymoon!

Hi all, thanks for the well wishes! We are doing well and just enjoying our babymoon! Here are a few more pictures to hold you over until I am blogging regularly again!

P.S. Leili is pronounced "Lay-Lee"!

Leili Ann

Well after the long 9 months of waiting she decided she yesterday was the day to give up her warm and compfy home inside mom's tummy and so here she is! She was born Sarurday June 20, 2009 at 2:29pm. She weighed in at a modest 8 lbs and 2 oz. and was only 21 in. long. She has a lot of dark hair, Dan's cute nose(only a little smaller and cuter than his).

The Proud Family!

Riley is so happy to be a big brother for the third time! He is so happy and helpful.

Jake is so good with little babies. He wanted to hold her all the time (and he is good at it too, he is a natural).

Last but not least is Fern with her new little sister. She spent all the time she could in the our bedroom after she was born either holding her or just sitting next to her looking at her and running her fingers over all of Leili's little small parts. It's nice having two mommies in the house.

MMMMMMMMM....

Well what else do you expect a VERY expectant mama to do but eat! :)

I have been a fan of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food for quite some time (I don't think I have met a lentil I did not like)! But have always relied heavily on other cooks and restaurants. Well no more! I have found a very happy meal that is easy and MMMMMMM!!!!!!

Over at the blog Vegan Dad I found this recipe for Nann triangles with Dahl filling. I love little red lentils, and chickpeas, and nann so I figured this was a winner! We have now had this a couple times in just the last couple weeks! But seeing as I said easy was a requirement I will tell you the secret ingredient (Trader Joe's nann is super yummy and about the only brand I have found without dairy in it)!!! One other tip for the recipe, Vegan Dad says to cook the lentils without a lid, but it is much more creamy (less pasty) if you cook it with a lid)!

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Now what to serve with it?

How about this SUPER yummy Quinoa Tabouli!!

(Sorry about the lighting on the picture we have not seen the sun in a few days and today it never stoped raining!!!)This is a recipe from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair, I just make it with quinoa instead of burglar. MMMMMM!!!!

But sorry I am quite pregnant and just do not feel like sitting here and typing the whole recipe out. So if you want it email me and when I have a bit of time I will get it out! :) Or you could just buy the book, you will not be disappointed! I have the older edition and it is hard to not justify buying the new edition (all the pages ARE falling out of mine, and there ARE new recipes included in the new one), but who's justifying? :)

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Anyone else have a super yummy dinner tonight?

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Oh and now all the baby guesses have passed, so ether re-guess or I get the treat! :) Who would have guessed #4 would be the hold out! :)

While We Wait...

Dan has been getting a couple "honey-do" items done! He patched THE hole, fixed the mower and mowed the lawn, tended the garden, and... Created my hair brained idea for quilt hanging!

Here is my quilt from when I was little, my Grandma M. gave it to me and it is well "loved"!
Here is one of Dan's baby quilts, he is pretty sure Peggy F. gave it to him (although he can't quite remember that far back).
They both look great up on the wall in our bedroom, plus it is nice to have a little extra "comfort" hanging around! :)
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Also during our waiting we got to enjoy Aunt Mary for a couple days!! It was great although always too short!


Jake enjoyed hanging around and hamming it up for Aunt Mary!

The kids even got her up in their little fort they have built in the wooded area!

And the good Aunt brought fun new baby stuff!! Now if we only had a little model to show them off. (COME OUT BABY!!!!)

Then Mama scored and brought out the squirt guns, what is more fun then squirting Aunt Mary!!!

Dad tried to stay out of the way doing yard work, but....

He was gotten!!

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Thanks Aunt Mary for the visit!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Belly!

Now remember this is the 4th big belly I have had and that is why I like black & white photos (it hides the stretch marks better)! Thank goodness for the self timer my camera has, the tripod my mom bought me for my birthday last year, and Riley's budding photography skills (and his patience for all of mom's directions)!!Just 5 one more time!
Fern is so excited to be a big sister!

Riley just loves babies, and bellys, and mama!

Jake is the one who plays with all the babies anywhere we go, we know he will be an awesome big brother again!

And the production team!

I think this is the first picture of Dan and I together for a nice belly shot besides last time with Fern, but that was just his hands.

And then today, it is faint but if you enlarge this you can see the henna my friends decorated me with and my birth necklace they all made too!

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Well here we are on the home stretch, now just to wait until this one is ready! I know I am!! :)

Memorial Day Fun!

Yep I am a bit late, but better late than never!! :)

Well I hoisted my large self downtown to watch the parade...And was well rewarded when Riley came around the corner caring the flag for his cub scout troop. It was so very special to see him getting to do that!

Our parade celebrated WWII veterans especially, the Grand Marshalls riding at the front of the parade in a WWII jeep were three brothers all from our town who served in the war, they are all in their 80's but looked quite spry!! :)
Riley was quite proud to be caring the flag too!

Unfortunately our pack has dwindled this year, the fourth boy is Riley's good friend Orion (you will remember him from the pinewood derby)!

And of course the little bladders could not make it through, and mama was not up to walking down the street! Thankfully we were sitting near Orion's family and so Debbie took Forest, Fern, and Jake to the potty. I snapped this photo when they were on their way back! What a patriotic bunch!

For being just a small town, and not a great hub here in Connecticut, we supposedly have the largest Memorial Day Parade in the state, and one of the largest in New England! Crazy! This year we even got Senator Lieberman. Who would have guessed!

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Yesterday we took some great family photos so I will share them soon, they should be some of the last with this belly! I am now a few days over 37 weeks, so we are just waiting for this babe to decide she is ready!

Have a great Sunday!

LOOK WHAT MY HUBBY DID!!

Can I just say what a blessing it is to have a handy husband! And a money saver!

I talked Dan into bringing this dresser home from the side of the road a while ago. It was horrible looking but we needed a dresser and free fit my budget. So Dan finally caught my vision (or got tired of me asking), and refinished and built a new top for the dresser! Then the other night while I was out having dinner with some friends he and the kids got it upstairs and in Fern's room. Half is for Fern and half is for the new babe! Fancy hu!!

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Then Dan thought he would do a couple other honey-do list items that required him to go in the attic.

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And then he thought we needed a new exit from the attic into the living room. Yes this is a "Dan sized hole" in my ceiling right at the top of the stairs/ in front of the kitchen doorway. At this end of the attic there is no plywood, so he was walking on the beams, but unfortunately he lost his footing and came all the way through landing in the living room. The boys were in the bath and oblivious, but Fern was helping dad (aka: standing on the latter up to the attic) and when Dan fell yelping Fern stuck her head up to see what was wrong, and then could not figure out where Dad had gone! She was quite surprised and confused to find him in the living room! Dan is ok, bruised, and scraped up mostly. And being that this happened Saturday night it was announced three times over throughout church, including to the whole primary. :) So we have all had a few good laughs, even Dan! Dan got the supplies to fix it today and if all goes smoothly and he does not get called to fly then maybe it will be patched before I have company on Saturday! :) And so I am thankful for a handy husband who can fix such things. But I am also hoping to not come home to such excitement again! :)

Life is NEVER dull!

Planting Day!

Well last night seems to be the last frost warning, so after uncovering the berry bushes and plants we all headed to the side yard to get to work! Here is our before, we do many of our plants from seed but there are just a few I do not mess with so Dan picked up our lovely organic seedlings yesterday! Our seeds we bought from Seeds of Change a bit ago as I mapped out this years treasure!
We had the cutest gardener this year, she planted quite a bit. This was the first year she was interested and so it is fun to know we all had our hands in the garden this year!

Look at my four sweet gardeners!! I did the pepper, and tomato seedlings and then retired to my throne over there and gave direction! :)

Hake was so happy to water all the seedlings for us, but then it was SO warm we had to make a little tent for the peppers as they were getting a little over heated. I felt their pain.

So here we are all planted (except a few second crop seeds we'll add in a few weeks). Our growing season is so short compared to what I am use to so it has been an adjustment!! :)

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More later but I have yoga tonight and should get ready!

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Oh and I took some belly photos today, more of the artsy fartsy than Dan takes so there is one of them for my profile! :)