Penny

My beautiful niece. . .

It was such an honor to be there for her birth and to capture some of her first moments. Congratulations Melisa, Jay, and big brother Quentin.

I Got My Christmas Wish

Penelope June Oker
December 24th, 2008
8:00 a.m.
8 pounds, 13 ounces

And I was there to watch her being born! Check back for pictures tonight. . . .

His Royal Highness

When we were expecting William, even before we knew he was a boy, I just knew his name was William. Steve and I sat down one night to talk about names, and I had a list of approximately a million reasons why it had to be William. I swayed Steve easily with my conviction, but his main concern was that Caroline and William sounded too much like British royalty (duh, Caroline is Monacan royalty!). So of course I'm finding it hilarious that Caroline now calls her baby brother "Wills" almost exclusively. :)

Here they are playing their favorite sibling game, "rough house in William's crib."

Caroline's contribution to the photo shoot:

Three-year-olds. Can't live with 'em, can't drive all the way to Nebraska.

Time Out

This will have to be a quick post, as I am really busy babysitting the 6 sleeping Baby Jesus's upstairs while Caroline, I mean Mary, is at preschool.

Last Monday poor Doggy had a tough day. He just couldn't get things right. He was throwing things, hitting, not cooperating. He spent most of his day in time out. Luckily his patient mama kept giving him more chances and having conversations about how to make things better. I was quite amused by this little show. And quite pleased that the "mama" was gentle and loving instead of screaming and nasty. :) Their little minds are fascinating, aren't they?

Baby's First Christmas

I'm enjoying this Christmas season more than I think I ever have before. Caroline is at the perfect age to enjoy the music, decorations, and magic of the season without being totally corrupted by the commercialism. She and I have all sorts of plans for decorating gingerbread houses, making cookies for Santa, and drinking hot chocolate Christmas morning - I love that we can make plans to do things that we both enjoy. And let's face it, holidays are always extra-special with a baby in the house. William is absolutely in love with the Christmas tree. Here are a few shots of him checking it out.

Eating Baby Jesus:

Caroline's contribution to the photo shoot:

Two Is A Magic Number

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We headed to our wicked cool (you like that New England slang, Midwesterners?) local farm to pick out our family tree tonight. Not my most exciting pictures ever, but I had to get back in my blog groove, so here you go. Somebody who shall remain nameless wasn't in the mood for having her picture taken, so please attribute the lack of equality to three-year-old attitude and not to favoritism.

Caroline proclaimed every tree we saw "perfect" and "just right."

My monkeys.

William checking out the poinsettias.

Aren't these things supposed to be poisonous?

Please note my lame attempt at creating a banner. Someone have sympathy and tell me how to fix it!