I've determined that it is impossible to get a good picture of three children, especially when one is a 6 year old boy. A house heated to 85 degrees didn't help, I suppose, but we couldn't have a goose-pimply naked newborn. Thanks, Laura! (Find her on facebook!) More pictures of Piper coming soon. She doesn't look anything like this anymore. Sob!
Emerson is convinced that the bubble bath is actually lotion and it is not doing her skin any favors. I try to tell her otherwise, that it is actually bubble bath. She looks really close at the label and says, "Nope. Because there isn't any f." When I inquire as to what that means, I get a scowl. And with all the attitude a three and a half year old can muster, she says "bubble bafffffffff." I'm such an idiot. :):):)
The holidays were lovely and we are glad so much of our family was able to meet Piper Elly. I did another pathetic job of documenting the holiday. I had forgotten how many hours of each day are spent feeding a newborn! We enjoyed Christmas Eve at Doug and Jill's home - Santa had all kinds of room to land his sleigh and delighted seven of the eight kiddos in attendance with gifts. Ryker was pretty disgusted that Santa hadn't gotten the memo regarding Piper's birth and as a result, Santa had to do some scrambling to make sure there were a few gifts in Piper's stocking the following morning. Thank goodness for instant messaging! Christmas morning we cozied up in our home and later, Marlene whipped up a delicious Christmas supper. We enjoyed visitors from the Schimdt, Thompson, Tippett, VanBatavia, VanNortwick, Hewitt and Good families - all had to travel and we love them for it! Before we knew it, we were ringing in the New Year (sometime around 10 o'clock). Best wishes to all for 2011!
I have oodles of pictures of family loving on Piper and not much else. Ah well - she will look at her baby book and know that she was loved from the very beginning! 
I love the last picture of Emerson - she was sad to learn her cousins from Dallas would be boarding an airplane and flying home to Dallas the following day. Campbell and Caroline are really special to us all!
Ryker and Emerson worked hard to prepare for Ryan's Birthday by wrapping gifts, making cards and decorating a cake with 33 candles. When Ryan interrupted the wrapping process, Em informed him that her gift (a Cougar jacket) was a secret. "It is NOT a coat!" she added for emphasis. Unfortunately our Cougs were not able to eek out a victory over those dawgs but they did make a pretty good game out of it. And we didn't need another reason to celebrate anyway. Happy Birthday, Love!
We spent a memorable Thanksgiving in Mt.Vernon with the entire VanBatavia Family. Why didn't I think to take a complete family picture??? Arg!!! I always enjoy our kids' conversation after holidays and vacations. Ryker's favorite parts of Thanksgiving included playing Balderdash with the grownups and decorating Auntie Sue's Christmas tree (Thanks Cousin Ricky and Sara, for your patience!). Em's "best" parts were petting Tilly and playing with Cousin Amy. Cousin Amy wears purple tennis shoes and won Em's heart immediately for that and many other reasons. We are thankful for Uncle Mike and Aunt Sue, who opened their home to the whole rowdy bunch. We're thankful for our country, warts and all. We're thankful for fellowship, family, friends, love, babies...
We hope yours was happy!
In preparation for Dad's birthday celebration, Joe and Michelle spent the afternoon making the largest quantity of spaghetti I've ever seen. It was amazing! The grand kids provided tremendous help opening gifts. Dad was deeply moved by the compassion and generosity of his family, many of whom contributed money in order to donate a heifer and chickens to third world families in his honor. If you haven't already checked out Heifer International, do it now! We also enjoyed a home video in celebration of Dad's 60 years before engaging in a rowdy game of Fear Factor/Minute to Win It. Happy Meal puree and caramel onions anyone??? If laughter is an indication, everyone had a great time. Happy Birthday, Dad! 
Naming baby number three is proving difficult but oh-so-much FUN. Ryker and Emerson have all kinds of suggestions. Ryker is rooting for Raptor (my personal favorite) but he also likes Ryder, Ripper, Rocker and Biker. All coordinate so nicely with his name and no, the possibility of a girl baby doesn't occur to him often. Emerson is much more pragmatic. For a girl it is Sophie and for a boy? Sophie-Boy. What else?
Because we're struggling, we've also appreciated suggestions from family and friends. Unfortunately, Ryan and I are still worlds apart but please keep them coming! And meanwhile, I've had fun passing on my favorites (Ryan's rejects) to the passel of pregnant women we know at this time. Sincerely hope everyone is enjoying the season. We are!
Once again, Teresa worked like a crazy woman, preparing for a harvest party. She is the most energetic, hardworking Momma I know and I love her! Getting all the kiddos together in one place for a photo was a challenge. If they look disgusted it's because they were. We enjoyed dinner, games, storytime, pumpkin carving and trunk-or-treating. A big thanks to everyone who helped and most of all to Tee. She makes things happen!
There was more trunk-or-treating at Ryker's school carnival. I couldn't get Ryker and Brian to slow down long enough for a decent photo but caught this one as they climbed out of the cardboard maze for the 100th time. Thanks again to Grandma Marlene, for cute kid costumes. Princess Emerson was pleased as punch and though I didn't get a picture of Ryker with his "face" on, he was pretty proud of his Batman costume. 
After all that Halloween, we felt a lot like this Jack-o-Lantern and it wasn't hard to convince the kids to pass up trick-or-treating. Instead we made milkshakes and popcorn, turned off all the lights and watched How To Train Your Dragon. It's a good thing because this pregnant Mama didn't need more chocolate!
