A really good baby!

Charlotta treated me really good last night. She slept for 7 hours! I am not sure how much longer she would have gone, but I just had to wake her up to make sure she was OK and I needed her to eat because I was pretty uncomfortable with all of that milk. I really hope that happens again, but somehow I doubt it!

Coming Home!

We get to take our little Charlotta home today! All of the kids are so excited to take her home. James cried yesterday when I had to stay in the hospital and said he would really miss me. It always shocks me how little they are in the car seat on the way home. Oma and grandma and grandpa were waiting for us when we got home. Now it is time for all of us to adjust!




There are more pictures on the shutterfly site:
http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/

Charlotta Jae is born!

Almost everyone has heard and seen the news, but for those of you who have not...Charlotta Jae Dean was born today! We went in this morning to get my contractions going since we have to be at Lena's wedding next Saturday. I think I might have gone on my own anyway today because I was already contracting a little on my own and it really did not take much to help it along! At around 12:30, I was in labor and at 3:47 pm, she arrived and what a joyous moment it was. I have to admit, I wanted a girl so bad that when they announced, "It's a girl," I just lost it, I was so happy. The doctor even said that he teared up because I was so overjoyed (and it had been a long time since he had done that!)!



All of the kids are so happy it was a girl as well. They are all in love! Meeting her for the first time!

38 weeks!

I have been contracting off and on since Thursday, but they have not turned to the real thing. I am getting a little tired of the trickery from my uterus, making me think that today might be the day (again)... Anyway, here is the belly. Any day now...

Kellen"s Preschool Program

Kellen had his final day of preschool for the year, so they did a little program for the parents. The class sang a couple of cute songs for the parents. Here is the class...

and here is Kellen, refusing to participate. The kid hates to sing and he does not like being in front of groups of people.

After sitting there for about 5 min., he came to sit on my lap. While he was sitting on my lap, he did the arm motions for the very last song. I guess he is a more behind the scenes kind of guy!

Car Wash!

JT has been dying to wash and wax this car for about a month! He bought Jim a really nice waxing kit for his birthday and has been going through all Jim's Corvette's waxing them for him. It was a beautiful weekend, so JT got it done! He was in heaven as were the boys. All three of the boys were just in love with this car (although Kellen tells me it is not a car, but a truck--it does have an impressive set of exhaust pipes, so it sounds loud like a truck!).

Papa gets a little help from his girl...

and his little tike!

Enjoying the bubbles!

Skylar is such a diva! She loves to ham it up for the camera.

Skylar's 8th Birthday Party

Having eight 8-yr. old girls to celebrate Skylar's 8th was a bit overwhelming! Girls can make so much noise. Anyway, we decided to celebrate with her friends early since the baby should be coming soon, next weekend is our 11th anniversary and then it is Lena's wedding and then summer is in full swing and so on and so on. It just seemed to be so packed at the end of May, beginning of June, that this seemed our last chance to get it done. I try to alter what we do at the party a little, but Skylar likes to do the same things every year, so if it ain't broke...

We start the morning with a nice birthday girl choice breakfast, with the special placemat and plate.

We start the party with a little activity, making shrinky-dink charm bracelets. The girls color in their charms and then we put them in the oven and they shrink. Then we put them on little bracelets. The only problem was that the little links were too difficult for the girls to open and close, so I had to do them all. My fingertips are a bit sore from adding 50 charms to the bracelets.

James always loves to be a part of the party.

I obviously need to concentrate to add those charms!

Then it is time for some pizza and cake.


And of course, you can't have a party without a pinata (I'm hiding behind the tree so I don't get hit in the belly by the bat). The top of the pinata fell off after the first hit, so we had to be a little creative to rehang it.

The dive for the candy!

Then it was time for presents!


After all of the friends left, we let her open our present to her. She has gone a little crazy for Zhu-Zhu pets (toy hamsters that act real, but no poop/pee/stink), so she got the Giant Hamster City for them to live in. Overall, she had a blast and it was "the best party ever!" Can't ask for more than that!



Of course, see the shutterfly site for more pictures:
http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

I had a really nice mother's day today. It started out by me getting to sleep in at a quiet house until 9:00. The kids spent the night at grandma's, so it was really quiet in the morning and I just slept and slept. When I got to grandma's house, Skylar had picked out some really nice presents for me. I am truly shocked at how well she knows my tastes. I didn't realize she paid that much attention to me. She picked out a nice card and put a Heath Bar in it (my favorite candy bar, after a Skor). Then she bought a box of double dark chocolate (also my favorite!). And somehow, she picked out a book for me that is the next book in a series that I am reading. I don't have any idea how she knew, but grandma said she knew and would not consider anything else. I was really touched that she knew me so well! Then of course, I got my fingernails painted by my little fashionista!

Then we had a really nice meal prepared by JT with a lot of my favorites.
Ross came up for the weekend and brought his new girlfriend, Joslyn. James and Ross spent a lot of time out on the golf course and we had a really nice time getting to know Joslyn a little better.

Brennen just does his own thing...

Ah, Kellen! He wanted to eat grapes today and I could not believe how many he put on his plate.

Fun times!

We went up to the lake again this weekend. We rented a trailer and brought all of our old furniture up to the house and now we feel we are outfitted for visitors. We are ready for whoever wants to come visit us, so just let us know when you will be there! First we unpacked the trailer and the kids had a lot of fun with that. They were riding their bikes down the ramp for hours (I only caught a little of it). Then they had fun playing with all of the boxes.

On Saturday, we stacked firewood for hours (we ordered a load and they just dumped it in our driveway--it didn't look that big, but as we stacked it seemed to keep growing). Then while Kellen and Brennen were sleeping, we did a little fishing.




Of course, Piper had to take a dip in the lake.


Grandma and grandpa came up to visit so we had a little campfire (with our new firewood!) and made smores. Yum, Yum.

Then on Sunday (since our muscles were so tired from all of the moving stuff), we enjoyed some time in the hottub. The kids just love going in and I got some real good pictures of them all together! It is so hard to get a picture with all four kids together, but I think I got a good one!