Men and Baby

My daddy, cousin Jordan, brother-in-law Joe and Shawn look at the new baby girl.

Daddy and Claire about 30 minutes after birth.

Shawn and Uncle Joe with baby Claire.

My dad, Henry, Jordan, Joe and Bo stand by after birth.

With My New Little One

Holding Claire less than an hour after birth.

Celeste and I checking Claire out.

Girls! My mom, sister and baby with me after birth.

Getting Measured

She's tall--22 inches!

She's huge--10 pounds, 3 ounces! I will never forget the look on Shawn's face and my sister Celeste's face when they weighed Claire after birth. They just turned around and stared at me with eyes as big as saucers.

Getting her first diaper on and wiping off her cord stump.

Dressed and ready to go!

Aunts and Uncles

Aunt Daisy, Theresa, Ilene, Elle and Kai all check out the new baby.

Uncle Kiyu with Claire.

Auntie Cel with her new neice.

Uncle Henry holds Claire Elizabeth less than an hour after birth.

A New Look!!

Howdy, everybody!

Thanks to my talented and very dear sister, Life is a Bowl of Cherris has a brand new look! Thanks, Celeste! I love it!

More of the Kids' New House

Kai peeking out the window.

Kai sitting outside the house.

Enjoying imaginary chicken nuggets and fries (according to Kai).

Fostering Independence

We decided that it's time for the kids to grow up and move out on their own. We bought them a nice house conveniently located in our back yard. Quinn is greeting you for the tour.

Kai and Quinn inside their new digs.

Little toddler eating area outside the house.

Kai and Quinn in their new house.

Our Project of the Day

This area of our yard is too shady for grass to grow properly, so we decided to mulch it in and make it into a play area for the kids. Here it is before we started mulching and cleaning up the area, but after Shawn put down the edging.

The kids watch as Shawn cleans up some tree debris.

The play area after mulching.

Exhausted!

Our Garden---Continued

Our garden today. It is looking really awesome and everything is growing like crazy. I don't know what all is in the soil, but it's working. So far, we've done everything organically--no pesticides or anything. Considering that, everything looks really great. We have only been able to eat lettuce so far, but the lettuce was really tasty.

Here you can see two heads of broccoli finally popping out. Pretty soon we'll be able to eat them, too.

Side view of our rows of beans, peas, corn and sunflowers.

A tomato that is growing on one of our tomato plants. I'm especially happy about these because our tomato plants were looking a little puny up until last week when we finally got a little bit of sunshine.

Finally a Firefighter

Sooty face from fighting a fire!

Shawn's post-fire self portrait.

FINALLY, after ten years of having the training to fight fires...AND after two months of working as a firefighter, Shawn has fought his first life structure fire. He got called out around midnight last week to help a nearby fire department with a house fire. By the time the Harrisonville guys got there, the bulk of the fire was out. They spent the next two hours or so fighting hot spots inside the house, pulling down charred pieces of the house and putting out any small fires or embers that still remained lit. He said it was exhausting, but of course he was elated....and dirty.

Joe's Graduation

Shawn's little brother, Joe, graduated high school last weekend. Great job, Joe! Here he is accepting his diploma.

Joe and the rest of his graduating class--there were only three guys!

Mom and Dad Cherri, Shawn, Kai, Joe, Quinn, me and the Douce Grandparents.

Our family with Joe on graduation day.

At the Dinner Table

Kai at the dinner table.

Shawn teaching Quinn how to count. So far she says, "Two....faaaaaaayyyyyyeee (five)," then claps for herself.

Kai and Quinn at the dinner table.

Another Day in the Life

This has been my day so far (it's only 11:39 AM):

8:30 AM---husband wakes up and realizes he's already half an hour late for work.
8:32 AM---husband's fire chief knocks on door to make sure Shawn is okay. Shawn greets him at the door shirtless, disheveled and still wearing his anti-snoring breathe-right strip.
8:40 AM--husband kisses me goodbye and heads to work.
8:45-9:00 AM---I obsessively read news stories that really have no relevance to my life in any way, shape or form.

9:00--awaken my two rebel yells (aka, my children)
9:05 AM--I realize that I have no milk and no bread.
9:05-9:15 AM--diaper and clothing changes.
9:25 AM--attempt to feed children organic oatmeal. Quinn eats, Kai snubs.
9:30 AM--give children bananas instead.
9:35 AM--give up any hope of going to the gym today.
9:35-10:35 AM--tidy up house, check blogs and message boards, strip bed linens while children watch Sesame Street and Big, Big World.
10:40 AM--attempt to order some books on Amazon.com.

11:00 AM--Kai informs me that Quinn "pooped."
11:02 AM--Stand horrified in the living room doorway when I see her diaper has leaked and she has poop on her dress, legs, hands and all over our beautiful Persian rug.
11:03 AM--scramble to try to contain the biohazard.
11:04 AM--realize wipes aren't going to do the job and declare defeat.
11:05-11:08 AM--try to shower screaming, slippery, poopie toddler.
11:08-11:10 AM--try to dress screaming, slippery, clean toddler.
11:10-11:20 AM--attempt carpet cleaning.
11:21 AM--call Shawn to help me cool down.
11:25 AM--put children in the playroom and put on headphones, only removing them every few minutes to make sure the children are okay.
11:38 AM--decide to blog.......

Afternoon in the Sun

Today we spent the afternoon planting plants in the garden while the kids were napping. Once they got up, we blew up the pool for them to swim in. Here's Shawn lounging with Quinn and Kai in the back yard. After a few minutes of them being in the pool, Kai lifted out a little present Quinn left for us saying, "Oh, look at this poop!!" Since I'm sure you all want to see it for yourselves, here it is: