Here are some pictures from yesterday afternoon when the older kids had their first visit with Lucas

The first family photo with Lucas.

The most experienced big brother holding Lucas

Max was very proud. He took many turns holding his new brother.

Sophia thought he was very cute, but was considerably less careful than her older brothers when holding him. We'll need to work on that.

We couldn't talk Henry into holding Lucas. He was, however, very into the idea of giving Kara all the presents that aunt Kathy had so generously helped the kids pick out for the new baby. Henry did think it was hilarious that we are going to spend the night in the hospital. "You gonna sleep here!?!?" he said while laughing.

Tim was happy to hold Lucas with some assistance. I'm not sure if he know what to think about the little guy.

And a couple bonus pictures of just Lucas. He was feeling cooperative and had his eyes open for these. We will be coming home sometime Saturday. Kara is feeling good. Lucas is doing good. All is as expected with his single kidney: it is there and functioning, so nothing to worry about. He is starting to be a little more awake today.

As promised, here are a few more pictures of Lucas. His brothers and sisters will be visiting this afternoon.

Timmy 2nd Birthday!

Timmy's birthday is actually today and so we celebrated, of course. We had a little party with all of us plus Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale.
Then later tonight the 7 of us went out for dinner to continue the celebration.




Here are a few pictures of Timmy opening his gifts. I tried to get him to look up and smile at me, but he wouldn't look away from his new toys until I put the camera down. He and his brothers and sister all enjoyed the new gifts.


Timmy's Blue's Clues cake.

Alex completed his 50 mile bike ride! (Randy too)

Some of you already know Alex has been working on his cycling merit badge for Boy Scouts. There is some written work on first aid he needed to do and then complete 2- 10 mile, 2- 15 mile, 2- 25 mile bike rides, which he has done. He also needed to plan a 50 mile bike ride and complete it within 8 hours for the badge. Today, he (and Randy) completed the 50 mile bike ride in 6 hours and 35 min.!! Yea Alex!!!

Sophia's First Day of School

Finally, the day Sophia has been waiting for since the day after Christmas - her first day of school!! From the sounds of all she had to say it went very well. I have told some other people I think I heard more about Sophia's first day than I have ever heard about the boys' days at school ever. She made a friend named Samantha, had gym, listened to the story The Kissing Hand, and had recess where she and Samantha played. She has been bemoaning the fact she has to have 2 whole days off before her next day of school, since she got home - so it seems school met her expectations.





Here's Sophia with her brothers, ready to go.


Here's silly faces for Sophia!

Boys 1st Day of School

Today was the 1st day of school for Alex and Max. Here they are before school, the last one is silly faces requested by Max. :)

Both boys seemed to have a good first day. Sophia's first day is actually tomorrow. She sang all day about it being the last day of summer vacation, she also asked more than once how long until bed time so she could wake up for school. So she is excited to say the least.





This is our school of fish we made for the first day of school. The first vertical line of 3 fish top to bottom were made by:#1 Alex, 2 Alex, 3 Me (I wasn't going to include mine, but the kids thought I should). The 2 line is 1 - Henry, 2 Henry, 3 Me. Line 3 is 1- Sophia, 2- Max. Line 4 is 1 Sophia, 2 Max. (I thought someday I may want to look back and remember who did which fish.) Our little tail fins didn't work as well as they looked on the example we had, I'm guessing we just used the wrong candy, but they were tasty just the same.



The kids thought they really needed to be arranged in the shape of a bus. With one little fish (bottom right) waiting to get on the bus.