Introducing Bellamy Jean

SHE is here! Miss Bellamy Jean took us by surprise and joined our family on June 22nd at 6:20 in the morning. We had just been told by the doctor not to expect to meet our newest family member until next week, so when our little lady decided to join the world in the middle of the night, we were definitely shocked. But it was so fun to call everyone and wake them up with news of a new baby girl!

Here are a few pictures of our first few days -- whoever said that second children never get as much time in the spotlight needs to come spend some time around this little lady! Being the only girl grandchild on both sides and one of the few little girls even in friends and extended family is definitely making up for being number 2 in the family around here. And we were worried about getting some clothes in these first few weeks -- hah! This girl has been showered in pink already -- I think the stores probably had people waiting outside of them Wednesday morning ready to get their hands on the girls department.

Here she is -- all 8lbs, 3oz and 20 1/2 inches of her. She looks a lot like her big brother in those first hours, yet already looks so much like her own little person. It's funny how much they change every time you look at them for a while -- she has already changed so much.







Will has been absolutely perfect about her. When we called to tell him that he had a new baby sister he said, "Thanks Mommy." He has been so attentive and interested in her, yet has maintained his own routine and interests pretty well. He is taking his big brother status very seriously. :)

Checking her out with daddy at the hospital....



About once a day or so he'll ask to hold her -- here they are hanging out for one of the first times...



Two of Will's aunts gave him a big brother badge that we could not get him to put on. So Todd made it into a certificate that now hangs on the refrigerator. :)



Headed home to start our new lives -- so excited!



Proud Daddy with his baby girl...



So for now we are enjoying this new adventure of life with a little girl and embarking on the journey of being a family of four. We have been so blessed and continue to be amazed by the sweet generosity of those around us. We love you all so much -- near and far!

Big changes

The pictures in this post are long overdue, and I'm going to be too pretty soon if this baby doesn't get here!

I have been meaning to post the pics of Will's new room since he moved in, oh, in April...but the only time I would ever think to do it was after Will went to bed and it's a little hard to take pictures when he's asleep in there, you know? :) So here you go -- they aren't great because it's hard to get a good angle from anywhere in the room, but at least you get an idea.

Of course there had to be some custom art work by dad to showcase our current loves around here -- it's hard to find a tractor pulling a train car full of dinosaurs out there in the art world, so it was much easier to have our resident artist (WIll just calls him dad) whip something up. :)



We had every intention of getting just a normal "big kid" bed without a lot of bells and whistles. That is, until he saw the bunk beds. Apparently it is genetically coded into boys to LOVE bunk beds and he was not an exception when we saw them in the store. He is so proud of his room (as you can see here) and bed that I can't believe it ever even crosssed our mind that we might have trouble transitioning him to his new room.



Not a great pic, but here's his little reading nook. One old chair + one container of Rit dye = perfect reading chair for his new room! I love that he looks forward to being read to every night and will be so sad when the day comes that he decides he's too big for it. So for now I'll just cherish snuggling with my little man in our chair for a story when I can get it. :)



And for those of you who don't remember or have never seen it, here's the baby room that is anxiously awaiting an occupant!





And that pretty much sums up things around here -- just waiting for our newest family member to join us. Any day now we will be a family of four and we are so excited!