One sweet big brother and a precious little girl....

we spent a lazy saturday today. well I should say some of us did. I was doing laundry and scrapping while my family was napping on the couch. I have to say the alone and quiet time was much appreciated.
Jackson has been very cute lately with the baby...he will crawl over when she is on the floor and whisper...hey baby...and if she is crying he trys to give her kisses or will find her paci and try and put it in for her. here he is giving her kisses. He is a ham for the most part...but when it comes to his little sister he is all heart.
we spent some time tonight...getting some pictures of Avenlea...she finally was sleeping soundly enough that we could position her. well all of her but her hands...those she still controled.. I think they turned out pretty cute. the last one is my favorite. She is so precious. I never thought my daughter would bring out the girly part of me ....but oh how she has.




I even bought ribbon today to make bows for her hair. Oh and after someone asked me how my baby boy was...I think I am going to make some headbands too. Since obviously they didn't see the purple and pink polka dot blanket with the pink, green and blue flowered sleeper. Either that or they dress their boys way different than this mom does.

Avenlea has been doing ok. I have to apologize to everyone that I hung out with last week...for my crabbiness. We haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep around here. Between Jackson's teething of his slowly moving two year molars, plus a couple and Avenlea being completely uncomfortable and discontent at night. It is hard to believe a baby can calm thy self simply by being held. She is extremely gassy too. So I have been trying to watch what I eat as well. Someone told me that all the things I couldn't eat while I was prego could be hard for her to digest now with breast milk...if that is the case we are in trouble..because I pretty much could only eat cereal while i was prego. Someone also mentioned the C word...but I am still praying against Colic. I was gently reminded by my mother that I was a great baby for the first 5 weeks of my life and then for the next few months, I was a little too much to handle. I would like to think that with what we have been through with Jackson, God would pardon me from the pay back for being colicy myself, but who knows. Right now we have both children in bed and I should head that way myself. If all goes well...the whole family could get two good nights of sleep in a row.

Jackson's buddy Lauren

wow...what a week. I am not sure what we are going to do with ourselves this next week. Jackson and I had visitors from mn for 12 whole days. My niece lauren and my mom came out on July 3rd via the train and they just left today. Lauren was such a big help...if she wasn't entertaining and playing with Jackson, she wanted to hold Avenlea, or play SKIPBO. It was so much fun to have her and to see what an incredible little lady she is becoming. Avenlea rested very nicely, as you can see in her cousins arms... When lauren wasn't helping with the kids we were coming up with things to do. She got to pick raspberries right in our backyard. This summer we found we have wild black raspberries in our easement. delicious. We made raspberry cream pie and raspberry syrup for pancakes. YUMO!!
She got a lesson from Adrian and then she was on her own. They had a contest on who could pick more. however Adrian stole hers and put them in his bowl so he could win. right lauren? We also entertained ourselves with a trip to the zoo in south bend for Jackson's therapy.
lauren pulled him around in a wagon and told him who all the animals were. We fed the fish and went in the petting zoo...to brush the goats. It was a great day that was a perfect temperature.
then we had play time in the pool.....cold at first but jack got use to it...he wanted to be like lauren. as i am typing this he is saying hi to lauren and waving at the screen. this boy is going to miss her. we also went to the park and took macy on walks...her and macy became quite good buddies too. on thursday we headed to amish country. to eat at the Essenhaus. Lauren enjoyed homemade chicken noodle soup and of course peanut butter...amish style. Then we headed to shipshe...to the carousel and the little stores. Jackson wasn't sure of the carousel...,but lauren enjoyed. Lauren taught Jackson so many things...the cutest was how to play the drums...she showed him how to tap them together and say 5, 6, 7, 8...then drumming. it is adorable. I think we have a future musician on our hands.

On Saturday the rest of the crew joined us as Jeremy and Sara came out to see Avenlea and to pick up their little girl that I think they missed a great deal. It was great to be able to take a pciture of all the grandkids. Here is the five of them. Jackson is quite outnumbered.
to say the least we had a very busy week...and thanks to my mom i have a very clean house with my laundry all caught up and clean window. So I am feeling pretty good.

on a Jackson note: we are cutting a massive amount of teeth..and so far he is not a drooler...and really isn't except on certain occasions....like tonight. we have three molars, two eye teeth and the tooth right next to the front two...all coming in at the same time...poor kiddo.