Rain, rain, rain....

We started out the year here in a "drought" - I don't remember how far below the average we were for the annual rain fall, but it is making up the deficit these past two days!! Yesterday we had some serious rain, but it didn't start until later in the afternoon, like 2:00pm....Today its been raining all day. There was an area of Houston (Southwest) that recieved 11 inches of rain...Yes, you read correctly - 11 inches!

I guess that today is our turn for the massive rain. I was watching the news and there's just one single cell that is sitting right on top of us and The Woodlands (just northwest of us - we're neighboring cities). This cell hasn't moved for 2 hours now and is dumping rain at the average of 0.75 inch per 15 minutes. Its expected to slowly move out....but sure makes for a boring day for the kids. They can't go outside and play...Good thing we have fun inside!

Here are some pictures fromt he rain today:

Our front yard.
Notice the river on the left from the rain gutters and the ponds on the right in the planter

Here it is about 30 minutes later!

There's a river out there now

Our backyard
Notice the small pool behind the slide next to the fence....

View from Jenna's room of the creek behind our house.
This creek usually has hardly any water in it!!

An up-close view of the creek
(courtesy of Jason)

Easter 2009

This year for Easter we had a packed out weekend. We went to Good Friday service at our awesome new church (http://www.thecrossing.cc/). Saturday I spent the day making deviled eggs and cookies for Easter at my dad's house. Joshie liked helping. He and Jenna got to color Easter Eggs for the first time with Jason that evening. It was a lot of fun to watch. There's a video at the end of this post - so be sure to check it out. Sunday, we went to church and the kids got to enjoy an Easter Egg hunt in their Sunday School classes. After, we went to breakfast and then drove up to my dad's house. Easter turned out to be a lot of fun up at dad's this year. All the kids were up there and we smashed confetti eggs on each other's heads. I also got to play a couple games of volleyball too. Even though my team lost 3 out of the 4, it was so awesome to get out and be "athletic" again. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the weekend and the few videos at the end.

Coloring Easter Eggs -

Joshua and Jenna - Confetti Egg Hunt

2 weeks

Can you believe that Julianna is already 2 weeks old?? I can't, but it has been a blessing since she's been here! Joshie and Jenna are still very much in love with her and so are we. Here are some pictures of her....

I have been so proud of Joshua and his "big brother" helping attitude. He loves to help with the baby all the time and take care of her. He has to know where his sisters are at all times, and so I had to share this video of him helping mommy out. :)

Cuteness

Although Joshie and Jenna have been in an adjustment phase, it has been getting back to "normalcy" around here. In fact - we are getting ready to attend Good Friday Services at our church - The Crossing - and I just had to take these pictures of the kids...

One down...

Julianna the day we brought her home.
Joshie loves her...

One week down...That might not sound like a long time to you, but consider that in that short week of seven days, there's 168 hours, which is also 10,080 minutes. And sometimes one minute can seem like a lifetime. Transitioning from two to three kids hasn't been the challenge I thought it would. It is challenging - but in a different sort of way. Julianna is the most content baby I've ever had, so I am not used to a baby that just "is" right now. Both our other kids had reflux and were very "colicy" from that until 3-6 months of age. It seems weird, but so sweet, to have a child who doesn't spit up all over everywhere! I thought that the new baby would be the challenge, but instead it was the "terror twins" that would try our patience to no end. I couldn't believe some of the anticts those two would come up with!

Here are some snapshots of our week - both the chaos and the blessings:

Leaving the hospital on Friday, we stopped by to see our friends, Dave and Michelle who had their 2nd little boy on Thursday. His name is Clay and he is on the left side.

Joshua really missed Jason. He and Jenna were both very clingy and wanted a lot of attention. Here Josh and Jason are watching Veggie Tales together.

The terror twins strike again! They would "tag team" and climb into the bookshelf even though they KNOW not to be climbing in there!

I peaked in on Jenna during church and took this hilarious video of her. My mom says it reminds her of how I was when I was little...

We went out to eat Sunday after church with some friends and the kids had their first ice cream cone. It was hilarious to watch them eat it! Of course Joshie stayed clean...

But Jenna was a different story...she was covered in chocolate ice cream...

We started to reward the kids for their good behavior and one of the things they can earn is to play outside with the bubble maker. They earned this privelege on Tuesday...
And here's a video of the kids playing outside:



I even got brave enough to give the kids a hair cut!

And finally Julianna is a week old. Here's a picture of her, and then one of her and Jason

Pictures!

Here's a little slide show of some pictures of the baby from the past few days.... I hope you enjoy our littlest blessing as much as we have!

Who do you think??

Here's a picture of Julianna - 1 day old. Who do you think she looks more like: Joshua's 1 day, or Jenna's 1 day old picture??

Julianna - 1 day old

Joshua and Jenna - 1 day old

Julianna - 1 day old

She's here!

Julianna Faith was born this afternoon at 12:11 pm after a little more than 24 hours of being in labor. After having an epidural at 1:00am and then having to be induced at 5:00 am, Julianna came out so fast that Jason almost delivered her! One minute I was an 8, the next thing we were trying to "hold her in" so that Dr. Reed would make it down from a surgery. Needless to say - she didn't make it. Another doctor had to "quickly" step in and as soon as she got her gown on over her scrubs, she caught Julianna and welcomed her into this world...No foolin'!

Julianna Faith was born April 1, 2009 at 37 weeks and 5 days. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and is 19 3/4 inches long.

All in all the delivery went well and we will hopefully be going home on Friday. Look for some more pictures to come tomorrow... :) By the way, She looks almost IDENTICAL to what Joshua looked like, I will post a picture later