...and then there were four

We're adjusting well to our newly enlarged family. Its been a surprisingly easy transition for all of us. Lia has been a pretty laid back baby, in spite of a serious dislike for having her diaper changed (she does the angry red-faced running-man dance with robotic precision every time).

Upon further inspection, the Hoskinson side of the family should be aware that yes, she does have the "Hoskinson Gap" next to her big toe, and the trademark pinky toe curl (Jenna has that, too, so she stood no chance).

Laina has a few reservations (as any formerly only child would with a new little sister to share mommy and daddy with) but she has been generally very loving and sweet to Lia, giving her kisses when she cries, and showing her toys. Here's a pic of her giving Lia a present she got for her before she was born, a little froggy blanket.


Jenna's mom arrived Saturday, and has been helping us get into a rhythm and making some awesome meals. We had a lot of friends cover our first few dinners until Theresa got here, which was also fantastic. Jenna was advised to stay upstairs for the first 3 days to recover, so those first 3 days I probably climbed the equivalent of a skyscraper running things up and down all day. Laina has been enjoying the extra company, and having some good laughs with grandma.

Laina's 3!

Before Lia made her appearance, another milestone happened. Laina turned 3!

She specifically requested a tractor cake for her birthday. Jenna, being 9 months pregnant was not excited about trying to pull that off, but luckily Rachel offered to accept the Iron Chef Challenge. She made Laina this awesome tractor cake, in authentic John Deere colors!

We wanted to keep it small, so we invited her buddies from the neighborhood and, of course, Aubrey and Ainsley.

Laina is getting to be a truly goofy kid. She loves to make people laugh (mostly herself). She sings her own tune (literally singing songs about any little thing around the house), and has lately taken a liking to making up languages and changing the first letter of words. She loves painting, coloring, drawing, and wearing her new butterfly wings around the house...

IT'S A GIRL!!! AGAIN!!!

 

Lia Rose Hoskinson

Born April 21, 2010 at 1:48pm

7lbs 11oz, 21 inches!

see this post for some deja-vu!

Butterfly Houses and Baby Goats

Laina made a butterfly house with Jay a few days ago. They hammered it together and then Laina (I) painted it with our friends Julie and Channing (who also had a butterfly house to paint). You are supposed to put fruit inside and it attracts butterflies. Who knows if it will actually work, but it was a fun little project for us to all do.


Then, on Wednesday, the crew (Laina, I, Julie and Channing again) went to visit the baby goats that were just born a few weeks ago at the farm where we get our milk. They are seriously the cutest baby animals I have ever seen! So far two does have given birth, both to triplets! So there were six adorable kids for the kids to interact with.

Overnighting

Jay and I had the opportunity to take an overnight get-a-way this past weekend. Our friends owed us an overnight babysitting, so on Saturday we dropped Laina off at their house and headed down to a little town called Manitou Springs which is just 5 minutes outside of Colorado Springs. The town has several mineral water springs that you can taste. We only ended up trying two of them. It tasted carbonated and was pretty good.

Here is a view of the main street running through town (and the street our bed and breakfast was on):

This is the front of the "Avenue Hotel" which is where we stayed. We'd never done the bed and breakfast thing before. It was really nice. I loved having a home-cooked breakfast on Sunday morning.

Here is the dining room where we enjoyed said home-cooked Sunday AM breakfast. The table was full. I don't know what they do if the hotel is at maximum occupancy. There were still some rooms available yet the breakfast table was full.

Below is the Miramont Castle. They offer tours but we were on a tight budget so we opted out of that. We just got to look around outside.


Below are some pics from the hike we took on Sunday morning after checking out of the bed and breakfast. It was a total impromptu hike and I was not prepared (with the right clothes or shoes). We took the easy/moderate route and got some nice pics. Including one of my profile which was just a couple days short of 38 weeks.

Easter Weekend

Laina playing with Daddy on Easter Sunday after church.

Saturday Laina helped me make carrot cake. She loves stirring ingredients.

Also on Saturday we did a little egg hunt in our backyard. Jay tried to take her to the big community event at the park, but it was so crazy and was over in about 2 minutes. So it was really better in our backyard anyways. We hunted for "resurrection eggs" which I've never heard of before this year. We made a kit in my mom's group and it was really neat. It's a dozen plastic eggs, each one filled with a little trinket to tell the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. I don't think Laina understood the message yet, but it was still neat to do and I think will develop into a great Easter tradition for our family.

Lastly, not related to Easter, I had some professional maternity photos taken by my good friend, Katie. Here is a link to the pictures at her online portfolio: http://kmathias.zenfolio.com/p427980282. Please check them out because she did an amazing job. There are also a few of the whole family and some of just Laina (for her 3 year old portraits). My midwife said these are some of the best maternity photos she has ever seen, which is quite a compliment to Katie!

Sunny Days

The weather has been absolutely amazing this week! We went to the zoo on Tuesday with our friends Julie and Channing, and we've been playing outside a lot. Not related to the weather, I got some henna on my belly. We're having my friend take some professional maternity portraits this weekend, but I couldn't resist and had to show off the artwork early. It does fade over time so I hope it's still strong enough to get some good pics this weekend, too.