Sweet Babies!

 

Isn't she just the sweetest thing?  Oh, you think I'm a bit biased?  Well, around here everyone seems to agree with me!

This was taken on Tuesday morning (3 days old) Barrett and Raya both had woke Dalayna up pretty early and neither was too interested in letting her get anymore sleep, so when I got up Dalayna left baby downstairs with me while she went back to get a nap.  Of course then Raya slept for a couple hours!

Do you recognize the name of this book?  I'm pretty sure they don't print it anymore, although when my older kids were little I did find a copy (which unfortunately they wore out)This particular one belonged to my mom when she was a little girl.  We kids loved to spend time looking at them--very carefully and under supervision I might add, as the book(s) are a cloth like paper combo, and they were very worn and taped together back then.  Jessi inherited this book from her Gramma 'Cilla and we have enjoyed reading it.  Quite a few times now!

And speaking of gifts--Miss Jessi got this fun floor puzzle from her Auntie Nish.  The first several times she worked on it required a little bit of help, but soon she was putting it together all on her own.  It's provided quite a bit of entertainment.  At least the pieces are pretty hard to loose track of!

I'd hate to give the impression that Relyssa is sitting up here doing nothing...hehe!  Once in a while she does manage to make herself useful...... :D

Barrett hasn't paid a whole lot of attention to his baby sister for the most part, so it was pretty cute to see him sitting here watching.

Wednesday morning I caught this photo of Jessi holding Raya.  Jessi is a wonderful big helper, and loves to hold her baby sister!

I was trying to get a picture of Barrett this morning--he was so cute running around in his jammies, but for the most part he was moving too quickly and everything turned out blurry.  I took this snap across the room, and although I  didn't think it was that good a picture, there is really something timeless about it.  3 little kids in their morning jammies- a couch, the milk--

I don't know about you, but it just makes me want to pick them up and squeeze them!

I'll leave it on this note for this morning--we kind of take our time getting around in the mornings here, but it's "that time" now, breakfast is over & time for  Grammie  to find some clothes for kiddo's, comb some hair & make the bed.

My helper

On Monday we did some baking while Mama and Auntie Lyss took baby into town for her check up and to pick up some groceries

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 First we made bread.  Jessi helped mix it up.

Then we made Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon rolls.  We also made a big mess of the kitchen!  It was worth it tho!

 Jessi was quite insistent that Raya needed a birthday cake.  She decided the cinnamon rolls would work fine, but they also needed a candle!

 Here you go Raya!

 And Jessi got to blow out the candle after we sang Happy Birthday.  Now Jessi's happy, and the Cinnamon rolls were delicious.  (Raya slept thru the whole thing)  :)

Raya Elaine

Announcing our beautiful grandbaby--Raya Elaine was born March 4, 2011 into her Daddy's hands, at home. Quite the over-achiever already, she insisted on racing the Midwives--- And won by about 10 seconds.
1:27am 7 1/2 lbs.

 

 For those of you who didn't see this on FB--this is one of my favorite photos!

 

  I snapped this picture on Skype while I was still home.  It sure made us anxious to get on the road! 

 

 Our first view!

   I wasn't planning to come up until the 5th, so Baby arrived without me here, but lucky for her Mama, she came after a  very short hour and half labor.  I think the genes are being passed along! Leon got to switch his weekend off, and came up to ND with me, along with Ryan and Alishia.

Jessi was so excited to show us her new baby sister,  Raya Elaine, named for her Papa Leon (Ray) and her Memaw Ruth (Elaine)

 

 Flowers from Auntie Nish & family--It's hard to have new babies born so far away!

 Jessi is enjoying putting her new puzzle together--actually 4 puzzles, all scenes from Astrid Lindgrens books (Pippi Longstockings) that I found for her when I was in Sweden.

 Barrett ended up with Pnemonia, so was a sick and unhappy little boy for the first few days I was here.  He's on the mend now.

 Papa finally managed to hold him, Barrett really didn't want anyone but his daddy while he was sick.  Thankfully the meds seem to kick in pretty fast!

 Baby girl time--Raya is very content as long as she is in someone's arms.  Thank goodness for slings!  Even Grammie can get her stuff done holding a baby this way!

 Breakfast time with grammie--

 Barrett hasn't paid a whole lot of attention to his new baby sister--probably partly because he was sick.  I'm don't think he's  really aware yet how much he's going to have to share Mama!

 Diapers drying--A timeless thing--and yet so colorfully different than scenes of diapers drying on the line years ago!  I have to say, I love these cute and cuddly cloth diapers.  A far cry from the ones I occasionally used when my babies were little!

 And Miss Jessi--My sweet helper around here!  We're having a great time putting puzzles together, reading stories, baking bread & cinnamon rolls, and Jessi helps load and unload the dishwasher and set the table for me too.

All for now--hopefully we'll have some more to share soon!

Happy March 1

      
 I'm feeling very blogged down.

I can't believe I did ONE post in Feb. and that was hardly what you could consider a post.

It's the first day of March.  It came in like a lamb.  It is SO beautiful out there.  I'm loving the earlier sunrise and the fact that it's now daylight when we leave for school in the mornings.

It feels like spring--I know we can have more cold and wintery weather, but I'm going to love this while it lasts!

Maybe I'll manage to get some posts done soon.  Life keeps happening around here, ya know!  Right now I'm getting ready to leave this lovely NE weather and head to ND, (where I don't think the weather is going to be quite so spring-like).... hopefully in time to meet our newest grandaughter when she arrives.  I've been quite lucky with all the others.  I'm quite aware that daughter, family and new baby would all function just fine without me there when she arrives, but Wow--being there to help welcome those grandbabies in the world is just the most precious thing!

I finished up a big scrapbooking job for someone--A years worth of pictures/pages each for two darling little boys.  I've had their family as one of my clients for about 10 years now!
Next job is my trip to Finland/Sweden album for myself, and I'm really looking forward to doing it!

 The second weekend of April some of my blogging friends are planning a girls weekend in St. Louis!  Anyone want to meet up and go with me from here?  I would love to go, but driving by myself all those miles is not too appealing--especially since I've got pretty much the same distance (9 hrs) to travel this month.

Maybe March "Madness" will hit, and I'll do some "mad-blogging"!
In the meanwhile--Enjoy whatever weather you're having--spring IS right around the corner!