Some Words of Advice...

...DO NOT under any circumstances EVER go to downtown San Antonio on a Saturday during spring break with small children. (This is not to say that we didn't have fun, b/c we did, but we also grew a few gray hairs!) Our friends Chris and Falene from came to visit us and we went to Brackenridge Park and the Riverwalk. I have never, in all my years seen this park so packed! It took us an hour to find a parking spot! Then we decided to go to the Riverwalk and that was even more insane! Lillie and Samuel were pretty cranky too, though Aidan and Grant were superstars!
Even though it was busy we had a fantastic time visiting with our friends and their beautiful baby boy. Thanks for coming to visit!

Grant's 1st train ride.

The picnic tables were all occupied so we improvised! Thanks for sacrificing your beach towel Falene!

"Hey! Where'd my sunshade go!"

New Pics of Grant

So Grant is officially 1 month old tonight at 1:51 am. Like any new parent I have to say, I do not know where the time has gone. But this time around I knew from experience that it goes fast and I am making sure to treasure every moment. We're all settling in nicely. Grant is super mellow just like Lillie and Samuel. He is also very alert and gaining weight quickly in the true form of a Doolittle baby. It's been a fantastic month and we are having so much fun with our new little guy.

I just love this face that he makes!

This is how Grant likes to spend every night from 7pm until Tim and I go to bed. Not with me, with Tim. He konks out and I get a 3 or 4 hour break!
The love and excitement has not worn off for Lillie! She is still his 2nd mommy.

Ah brothers! I try not to think about the trouble they are going to cause me!

After his bath. He is our first kid who loves his bath.

Grant and Holly, midwife extrordinaire! This is his 2 week check up where he already weighed 9lbs 10oz. I forgot to get a pic until he was already in his carseat! Not very personal!

"The 4 Musketeers"

Our New Arrival

Hello All, So everybody knows by now but I'm blogging for posterity's sake! Announcing our new arrival:
Grant Harrison Doolittle
Born: 2/18/2009 at 1:51 am
Weight: 8 lbs 14 oz
Length: 20.5 in
Both mom and baby did great. The home birth went very well and our midwife Holly was fantastic! Thankyou Holly! You will forever be a part of our family! We had Lillie at the birth (she was very well prepared) and she did great. She thought the whole thing was fantastic and talked of nothing else for a few days afterwards. Samuel thankfully slept through the whole thing. Phew! Everything went according to plan. So, to make up for lack of blogging here are pictures from the very begginning right up until yesterday.

Here is Grants first bath. He doesn't seem too happy about it does he.

Lillie helping dad to swaddle Grant

The brothers first meeting

Here is Grant with his "second mommy". Lillie loves Grant and can't get enough cuddle time.

Catching up on some zzz's

I think this is one of the only pictures that I have with Grant. I need to get Tim to take some more!
Our babies get jaundice. It's just what happens. Grant has had a very mild case though compared to the other kiddos. Here he after getting some sun. It always puts him into a nice deep sleep!

Oh my goodness, isn't this the most adorable boy!!!

27 Weeks

The third trimester has begun. And I'm feeling it. This baby is everywhere! So...heartburn, aching back, dead tired all the time, can't bend down to pick up toys or clean my bathtubs. Sorry family who are coming for Christmas. I'm trying to convince Tim to clean the bathtubs before you come but I can't guarantee anything.
But it's still fun to feel the baby move of course. This little boy is going to be CRAZY! He is all over the place. Lillie and Samuel didn't move too much but this one is a kicker and a puncher.
Also, I had Lillie take the picture hence the kind of crazy angle. She did a good job though.

My new kitchen!!! With Before/After pics

I have not liked my kitchen since we bought this house. Unfortunately there were other more important things to fix first. I had resigned myself to living with it and then Tim, wonderful Tim, made it beautiful for me for my birthday! I love you babe! My birthday was Friday and Tim had the day off work! We went to IHOP for Breakfast and then to Lowe's and Home Depot. I got new countertops, a new sink, new faucet, new hardware on the cabinets, and new paint. I was floating on air the whole weekend. On Friday I kept wandering into the garage and opening up the box that held the sink. I love home improvement projects and since the kitchen is my favorite place to be, this was a little slice of heaven. Him and our friend Kris took a whole Saturday and they did a fantastic job. Thankyou Tim, Kris, (and Michelle for loaning us your husband on a Saturday)!

Before:

After:

Okay, the new faucet was not a planned purchase, but the old one was damaged during removal. Guess how much this faucet cost?... $10. I kid you not! And yes, it's a real faucet. Not plastic or anything. Tim said he stood there a long time in disbelief and trying to make sure that was the real price. It was! Talk about a great deal finder!

Thankyou for my new kitchen Tim, I love it! Now to decorate...

Random stuff

Okay, first and foremost, does anyone want to know how much I paid for gas today? $1.89! I know gas is going down everywhere and it's not big news anymore, but I did a little happy dance at the pump b/c this is the price that it was for us 5 years ago! $1.89. I can't believe it. It only cost $44.89 to fill up my gigando tank. Today is happy.

So I love being a parent. You get to witness all sorts of stuff. And that Samuel is a funny kid. He has taken to eating apples whole, with peel and all. So I give him one before we run errands. He had a lot of time to eat before he finally got to get out. He ate about 3/4 of it...The top 3/4. I kid you not. He ate it from the top down, core, seeds, and all. He still wanted it for awhile and I kept waiting to see if he would eat the bottom really yucky part. But he got tired of it. It was pretty funny. I gave him another one yesterday and he did the same thing. I guess you can say that he's not picky.

Here's proof:

Halloween

So, Halloween. Yeah. It's sort of taken me a long time to post about this one since it didn't quite meet my expectations. Not all bad, but not one for the record books either. Lillie was sick, but still insisted on going trick-or-treating. She was super sad and tired, and by the time we got way to far away from the house to turn back, that's when she decided she wanted to go home. Like the evil parents that we are we told her NO. She had sworn up and down that trick-or-treating is what she wanted to do and we had told her that we wouldn't come back. So she mostly rode in the wagon and we took her bucket up to the door for her. Poor girl. I really do feel bad. She's been looking forward to it for a long time. The good news is, thanks to our embarassing diligence (have you ever trick-or-treated as an adult? You get some weird looks.) she still ended up with a bucket full of candy to enjoy for weeks to come.
Samuel on the other hand had a fantastic time, the only bummer is that he wouldn't wear his costume. He was supposed to be spiderman. Well at least we're having another boy so maybe the $9 costume won't go to waste. Lillie did wear her costume but took off all the super cute accessories: the wings, shoes, and the flower wreath I stayed up late to make.
Hmmm...I feel whiny. I'm sorry. My next two posts will be full of enthusiasm. I promise. I know, because I am about to type them.





















So besides the actual night, the rest of the Halloween season was pretty fun. Here are some pics of Lillie putting treats together for her pre-school class. She had a lot of fun doing that. The pumpkin patch where we picked out pumpkins... Of course! Carving pumpkins, and cookies from our Halloween cookie day.