A Tooth for a Tooth

We were visiting our wonderful Grandma Harden who is famous for beating our children. As you can see Kate was especially naughty and granny checked her in the face. Of course she made up for it with a dollar from the Tooth Fairy. So all is well. Hopefully Lily keeps her nose clean because she is too young to lose teeth and Daphne has too many permanent teeth to lose again. Luckily since this event my children have been the most well behaved children and even Ben has been more helpful. Penelope at this time isn't afraid but give her a few months until those teeth come in.

Miss Penelope and the Doctor

Since having Penelope I have begun to enjoy my late nights but I decided the scenery was getting a bit old so Friday night Penelope decided to switch things up and we spent our late night at Phoenix Children's Hospital. We also invited dad to go with us. Now Penelope is a healthy little girl who eats well, isn't too fussy and does her business properly but Friday she had a little blood in her diaper so we thought it best to go up and just make sure everything was OK since we live so far away. After spending a long evening and early morning in the ER we know that she is healthy and the blood isn't from me and there wasn't any indication of her having a fissure ( or tear) in her bowel. Her blood work came back fine also. She isn't in any discomfort so we are just in the wait and see mode. She has her one month appointment on Monday so hopefully whatever it is passes or we will probably go to a GI specialist in Phoenix for more tests.

They look so small in the hospital beds
I also learned that The Waffle House has pretty good waffles and that they taste even better at
3 AM

Just for my mom

These pictures are for my mom so she can download them. Remember my camera stinks and she was not really listening to my directions. I put this one in sepia cause I like the look but the original is also there. I hope some of these work for you.

She Loves Me

Penelope is so thoughtful. This morning she woke me up so that we could watch the sunrise. I can't believe I have been blessed with such a sweet girl. Now she wasn't quite sure of the time so every couple of hours( or half hours) she would check with me so I could tell her if it was time yet. Here is some picks of the sky just barely starting to lighten.

I know the pictures aren't the best but you can imagine how much I want to go retake them and go through this process again with a baby screaming( I mean expressing her individuality)

Sisterly Love

There is no shortage of love in this house. I hope Penelope survives it all.

She's Here!

The girls were a little sick

Home at last!

Everyone meet Penelope Anne Blackburn! She was born Sunday, May 31st at 5:33 AM. Ben did everything he could Saturday to put me in labor and I think the rocky road did it. I started having contractions 15 mins apart and called since we live 2 hours from the hospital and he told us to come in. I found out my water had been broken and was leaking so it was good we came in. Luckily my mom had been home about two hours from her trip to England and jumped in the car and was with me through the delivery and had to hurry back home for work and she was a little tired. I had a few complications but am fine and she is fine. The girls were really excited and hopefully all will adjust well to the change.

Rambling thoughts of a 38 week pregnant woman

Time passes more quickly as we get older. It seems only 8 years and 10 1/2 months ago I was awaiting the birth of my eldest child. I am now with a week of having my fourth. As I mentioned in my last blog that I had my "To Do" list and was quite successful in getting about 75% of it accomplished and now have a short "What really needs to get done before this kid gets here" list almost done I am nesting quite nicely. Well I would be if that laundry would stop piling up and those darn dished would stop getting dirty.( I won't even get into the stinky hamster cage)





I did have the opportunity of taking my girls to my last appointment so that they could partake in the experience of hearing their baby sister's heartbeat. They smiled and seemed to enjoy it. I took the advice of my husband and brought a long a delightful babysitter known as Ellie to help herd the children from my appointment to Kate's eye doctor to getting the car fixed. She was my salvation well worth any amount of money even though she tried to turn me down. They were for the most part well behaved but it makes such a difference to have someone sit with them while you pay bills and talk about what's wrong with a car or getting checked by the doctor( very important not to let them stay for that).





I am not sitting with all eyes on me and hoping that I will soon pop. I am glad Ben is more anxious than I for her to arrive and I finally had a baby dream last night and it was nice( by the way she a good eater and I was so content with just that so I hope it is true). It will be nice to move on pass the phone calls that begin with "Are you in labor?" thanks for all those who had read this far I just needed to ramble because it's more fun than ironing or cleaning the bathrooms (both on my list) Hopefully I will not have time to ramble again before the baby comes.

My babies