Julia is 1! (Excuse me while I sob a bit)

Today is Julia's first birthday! I cannot believe she is already 1. She got to celebrate today with Grandma and Grandpa who were in town from Utah. We did cake and presents (and a trip to Milburn Orchards...see a few posts ago) to celebrate, and while she had no idea what was going on, she is pretty naturally enthusiastic, so she loved it all!!

Julia, stop growing. I mean it, stop it!! You are just a gem of a girl. You are my most active child and while you are not yet walking (although I'd lay money on you beating your sisters at 14 to 15 months), you have no problem getting around, and you free stand rather steadily. You squirm all over my lap these days, but don't want me to put you down. You like to climb all over me. You are a happy baby generally who smiles at literally anyone who smiles at you. This makes you particularly fun to take to the store...you smile at any stranger, and it makes you easy to get a good picture of. You say hi, mama, dada, all done, uh oh, play peek a boo, dance whenever you hear music, give hugs and kisses, and love your mom most (I had to throw that in there since the other two have ALWAYS preferred dad). We couldn't love you more! Happy Happy Birthday baby girl.

The pictures are from her birthday and her first year. Gosh, that was too fast!

Happy Birthday Lucy

Like I said in the last post, after a 24 hour stay at the hospital, we came home exhausted, but nonetheless so so so thankful that Lucy was alive and well and turning 4 the next day! You'd think that a sleepless night on a vinyl couch would make me consider not celebrating at all, but Lucy wanted a pink kitty party, so I went into full party mode (which is way lower than most people's normal party mode already; it's all relative) and decorated and made a cake and cupcakes and dinner. Well worth it to let her know how much she means to me. Lucy Mae, you hold a special place in your parents' hearts. All I have to do is mention your name to your dad and he smiles. No really, it seems like every night I tell a Lucy story to your dad and we fall asleep laughing and so thankful that you came to our family. You keep us all entertained. You love your sisters, animals, the color pink, chocolate milk, bananas, painting (NOT coloring or drawing), and giving hugs. We love you so much, beautiful child. Happy Birthday LuLu! (The last pic is of her celebrating at preschool with a fake plastic cake, but real candles...she loved it)

A Quick Stay At The Hospital

We had had a rather healthy year up to the end of September when a stomach bug hit. It hit Julia first and then Lucy got it. Sabrina never did, lucky duck. Julia was sick for about 3 days, but after that seemed to recover rather normally. On about day 3 of the illness for Lucy, I started to think that things were looking up, but then they really started to look down. Despite making her drink every 15 minutes, she dehydrated to the point where she couldn't even walk or stay awake on day 4. On day 5 I took her into the doctor (our first trip to this dr ever) where she threw up in the waiting room (they got us back to see a dr really quickly), fell asleep on the examination table, woke up briefly when the dr came in and threw up again...NICE. I had a nice cry with a nurse (whom I'd never met, mind you) who didn't seem to judge this crazy stranger bawling at her (still embarrassed about that). So the dr determined that Lucy was dehydrated enough that her sensitive stomach wouldn't let us hydrate her adequately at home; so we headed to the hospital for IV treatments for a night. Lucy was so weak that she didn't even wince when they put the IV in her hand. And if you know Lucy (who screams when a drop of water is on her pants), that's not normal. At about 1 AM, our old Lucy returned when she demanded string cheese and a white cupcake. We gave in on the "liquid diet" and let her have saltines. We came home the next day and by Sunday, her birthday, things were better. So thankful for modern medicine!

About Delaware

I feel like I've been so good at instagram, that I was almost going to be done with this blog, but I really have no other way to record some of my thoughts about things, so I'll keep blogging for the time being. Most of these photos are from instagram though.

Let's start by talking about our new home...Delaware. I would have never known about this place, and really, it's a fantastic place to live. It's beautiful, for one. Of course the landscape is much like Virginia, but the area we live is a lot less populated and I find myself driving on some new little country road almost weekly. It's beautiful. Our leaves are starting to change, but my east coast experience tells me that the peak for leaves here is end of October, first of November, and sorry Utah, your leaves are spectacular for two weeks, ours last for months.

Our favorite place in the area has been Longwood Gardens (technically in Pennsylvania). Pierce DuPont (another thing you need to know about Delaware...the DuPonts are EVERYTHING out here, bought a park in early 20th century and turned it into his personal garden. He turned it into a huge garden complete with a massive conservatory and large fountains, open to the public and spectacular. We bought a yearly pass, and it paid for itself within a month of being here. The girls like it as much as I do, which surprises me a little. If you visit us, you'll go. Just know that.

Today, we also ventured to Milburn Orchards (technically in Maryland) with Grandma and Grandpa (our first Utah visitors). A quaint farm with U-Pick apple trees, animals you can feed, a pumpkin house, apple cider donuts, corn maze, a little market. I was in love with it when the waft of the donuts met me when I got out of my car.

We have also found our ice cream place. It's Woodside Farm Creamery that's been around since 1797. It's a good thing it closes at Thanksgiving because it's already responsible for 5 of my lbs, and every one of them has been worth it! They have the cows they get the milk from there and everything.