Welcome Libbie!

We wanted to welcome to the world Libbie Anne Peck, who was born on Monday to our friend Kelley from high school and her husband Andrew. She joins big brother Landon. Congratulations Peck family - she is beautiful and we can't wait to meet her!

Juliette's 1 Month

Juliette is now a month old! We took her to the doctor and she weighed in at 8 lbs, 8 oz and 20 7/8 inches, which put her in the 45th percentile. She had great growth and the doctor was pleased with it, but I went back to check Ben and Abbey's stats at one month...Ben was 9 lbs, 4 oz and Abbey was 9 lbs even, so Juliette is a little smaller so far. She will probably catch up soon though!

Here is Uncle Brandon with Juliette!

Chien

Even after a full weekend with the kids, Daddy still finds time to cuddle with Chien!

Family Fun!

We also went to spend some time with family this weekend, which is always fun! Here is cousin Caroline helping Abbey with the slide.

Ben and Caroline spending some time relaxing in the hammock.

Abbey swinging with Aunt Teesa...

Abbey got to dress up as Nemo while we were there!

Weekend Fun

We had quite a busy weekend! Ben and Abbey went to a birthday party for our friend Isaac. They enjoyed the cake and juice!

Abbey had fun playing with the football.

Daddy is a natural with 3 kids...

Ben reading a book to Juliette...

Happy Talk like a pirate day!

Fall Festival?

We are finally having some warm weather up here after a very cool summer. So in order to get out and enjoy the summer weather, we went to a fall festival a few miles from our house. They had lots of activities for the kids, including several of those inflatable jumping places with slides and balls (not sure of their official name) that both Ben and Abbey really enjoyed. They had good food and activities too, but the kids were a little young to partake in those (water balloon toss for example). It was a great way to spend the day. Even with all the activities though, Abbey mostly just enjoyed walking around and looking at everything...

Ben's favorite part was riding the horse, which he spotted the moment we got there. We thought he was crazy when he asked to ride a horse (we hadn't seen it yet) - he had to walk over and show us that there were actually horses there to ride!

And of course there was a train to ride on too, which was a big hit with the kids.

Mommy and Juliette spent most of the time in the shade watching the others, but it was just nice to be outside in the gorgeous weather and doing something different!

Play time

Ben is such a great big brother - he pats Juliette's back when she is crying and sings her songs to calm her down. We are lucky to have him be such a big helper with his sisters!


Our 3 kids "playing" together...

This is the best picture we have taken so far of all of them. I have a feeling getting all 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile will continue to be a challenge for many years to come - thank goodness for digital cameras! As a side note, Ben was having a particularly goofy hair day (go figure), so we promptly got him a hair cut that afternoon!

Go Irish!

We decided to get everyone ready for the big ND game on Saturday by ensuring we were all appropriately dressed. Juliette sported her outfit (which has been passed down from Ben to Abbey to Juliette)...

Abbey wore her shirt too, but since Ben doesn't currently have any ND shirts that fit, we had to settle for a green shirt for now. As a side note, Ben and Abbey love playing together, as evidenced by the happy picture below.

Ben still loves holding his baby sister...

And Abbey is still not quite convinced that having Juliette around is a good thing, but she is getting closer!

Sadly, the Irish did not defeat Michigan, but it was a close game. We are still optimistic about their season for now!

Mama Kay and Papa visit!

Mama Kay and Papa came up to visit and meet Miss Juliette. Papa and Juliette...
Mama Kay and Juliette...

Mama Kay and all 3 kids...

Mama Kay and Papa also made us dinner every night while they were here and that was very helpful for us. Ben and Abbey were super excited to see them and we look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks! Thanks Mama Kay and Papa for your help!

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Well, Madgie left us today to return home. She has been here since Juliette was born to help us out around the house and with the kids while I recover. She has been such a tremendous help and I always wonder how we would get through the first 2 weeks without her - luckily we haven't had to do that! Madgie, thank you for all the amazing meals you made us (I LOVED them, even if Ben didn't love all of them), the meals you left us in the freezer, all the laundry and cleaning you did and all the help with the kids. I know we are all going to miss you!

Juliette will surely miss you rocking her to sleep...

Ben is going to miss all the fun activities you did with him and books you read him...

And Abbey will probably miss you the most (besides me of course)! She clung to Madgie as I haven't been able to pick her up quite yet and Madgie gave her the attention she needed when I had to take care of Juliette. She also liked to read books with Madgie and tell her the sounds animals make.

Now it is time for us to figure out a new routine as we settle into being a family of 5. We are officially outnumbered now (with Madgie being here we were still able to have one on one defense). We are looking forward to getting into our routine and figuring things out on our own, but we will definitely miss Madgie and all the help she gave us over the past 2 weeks. Thanks so much Madgie!!

Park

With all the beautiful weather we have been having, we decided to take a trip to Happiness Park, which is the perfectly-named park down the street from us. Since Abbey is finally old enough to ride in the bike trailer and we luckily received a free helmut for her at church (God will provide), Daddy decided to take both Ben and Abbey on an extended bike ride and meet Madgie, Juliette and Mommy at the park (we walked). Here they are all ready to go!

We remembered to bring bread this time to feed the ducks and the kids loved doing it! This helped Abbey to learn what a duck says (which she repeats all the time now)!

Ben enjoyed chasing the ducks - it was hilarious! Here he is acting like a duck - trying to lure them close to him before chasing them around bushes and all along the fence!

Abbey enjoyed spending lots of time on the swing with Madgie!

Juliette Update

Juliette is doing well - she is 2.5 weeks now! After a slow start and several visits to the doctor's office during her first week home for weight checks, she finally caught back up to her birth weight 1 day before her 2 week birthday! So far she is a great baby - sleeps a lot and cries very little. But it's still very early so we are holding back from making a final determination on how good she is yet. She sleeps 4-5 hours at night (which usually puts us up once during the night) and usually goes back to sleep pretty quickly. Of course she had had us up for a while some nights, but on average, she is doing pretty well at night. She is doing great!