Super-Vi is 3!

Today is my Violet Joy's 3rd birthday!  I can't believe it's been 3 years since we welcomed our first baby girl into our family.  I truly can't imagine life without her!  Violet has been obsessed with her baby dolls the past several months so we decided on a "Baby" theme for her party.  Here is Grandma Cheryl's adorable creation for the occasion. 

The cake table complete with all of Violet's babies as a backdrop. . .

 All of the family enjoying some appetizers and Ryder Cup on the television. . .

And of course, Baby Evelyn got plenty of lovin' from everyone.

This year, Violet was much more interested in the present-opening and it was so fun to watch!

As these things usually go, she (and all of the other kids) also loved playing with the balloons. 

 Opening all of her goodies while the cousins cheered her on. . .

 Have you ever seen a kid so excited about bubbles??

 This special gift was made by her brothers and it took them several hours to create.  It is a lifesize doll for her to play with.  Not sure how long it will last, though.

Possibly her favorite gift.  Thanks, Uncle John.  Really.

 

Once all of the gifts had been successfully opened, Violet says a big "Thank You" to everyone!  She wasn't signing at all last year at her birthday; maybe by next year, she'll be saying "Thank You" with words instead of sign?

 Next up on the party agenda: CAKE!  All 11 kiddos were ready to dig in!

 A very boisterous Happy Birthday was sung to our big 3 year old, and then she had some help blowing out the candles.

 It was a beautiful day to end the month of September, and the kids all went outside to play with some of those bubbles Violet received.

 In case you hadn't noticed, Violet had a necessary wardrobe change after the cake was devoured as half of the frosting ended up on her dress.  She put on the Super-
Vi shirt Uncle John made especially for her -- Isn't it cute??

And since we hold nothing back when it comes to our Violet, we arranged to have a real-life baby in attendance at her Baby Birthday party. . . I know her baby sister is the best birthday gift we could have ever given her -- Violet loves Evelyn so much!

 This third year of Violet's life wasn't quite as boring as I had hoped, primarily because of the craziness of last winter with her heart surgery.  Overall, it has been a really great year though!  She has continued to attend all of her therapies and preschool at LeeAnn Britain and has made great strides especially in the water.  Her imitation skills, namely signing, have greatly improved as well, and she has several signs that she now does very consistently.  We're still waiting for her verbal language to take off, but we know it will happen on Violet's timeline, not ours.  So far, we don't have any surgeries scheduled for this next year, but you never know I guess.  Violet is such a little miracle, and I thank God that he chose me to be her Mommy.  We love you millions, Baby Girl!

Evelyn and KJ

As you may recall from a couple of previous posts, my cousin Sheri and I were due to have babies 11 days apart.  It was so fun to go through our pregnancies together!  Here are a couple of pictures from the summer as our babies grew. . .

As we neared the end, it became kind of a race to the finish as far as whose baby would be born first.  We had fun speculating and making predictions.  As it turned out, Evelyn was born one day late on September 20, and KJ was born 9 days early on September 21.  Cousins born 1 day apart, what could be more fun?!?  

We introduced our newest additions to each other this week, and they weren't so sure at first about the "other" baby in the room. . .

After a bit, they began to warm up to each other, though.

We think Evelyn had KJ beat in the weight department by a couple of ounces, but according to Sheri, he is quite the little piggy, too.  We'll see the next time we get together who's in the lead.  Isn't KJ the sweetest thing you've ever seen??

He wanted to be sure we all knew who the "good" kid was that day. . . Check out how he is laughing while Evelyn screams behind him.

Sweet, sweet cousins. . .

So thankful for healthy babies, and what fun it will be to watch these two grow up together!

As the Belly Grows. . .

I saw this idea on Pinterest at the beginning of my pregnancy and knew I had to try it out!  Mine didn't turn out quite as nice as the "professional" one (surprise, surprise), but I still think it's kind of cool to watch the belly grow over the course of 40 weeks!

This is how the "real" photo was laid out, but it made the pictures pretty small. . .

It never ceases to amaze me how spectacularly God designed the female body to be able to grow and carry an entire new human inside!  Although pregnancy is an amazing thing, I'm pretty excited to be holding my baby on the outside now. . .

Evelyn's First Week

Whoever said that third and fourth babies don't get as much camera time as the first ones hasn't been to my house.  In Evelyn's first week of life, she has been the subject of well over 300 pictures, but in all fairness it's her own fault for being so beautiful and photogenic!  And it doesn't hurt that we are home and not in the NICU hooked up to multiple annoying tubes and wires.  When Oliver was a week old, we were not-so-patiently waiting for his heart surgery and he had been diagnosed with a stomach infection so he couldn't eat anything (all IV nutrition).  On the day Violet turned a week old, she had surgery that resulted in screws coming out each side of her head and she was on a ventilator.  I can't even tell you how much fun I've had this week enjoying my healthy baby girl! It is so much more fun taking pictures in actual clothes with an unobstructed baby face!  And I'm thrilled that Evelyn seems to be taking after her precocious big brother, Oliver, with all of these early smiles!  I'm talking actual social smiles at less than a week old  -- I'm so in love with this baby girl!

 

Some visits with Grandma Virginia, Grandma Shirley, and Grandpa Evan. . .

Plenty of lovin' from Big Sister and Brothers. . .

(I like to call this one, "I'm sleeping with one eye open as long as Curly Head is within arm's length . . .")

Our little Evelyn June has fit in just perfectly, and I honestly can't imagine life without her!  I'm trying hard to soak in every moment with her, because I know she is already growing so fast.  We took her in for her newborn check-up this week, and she weighed 8 lbs 8 oz.  As a refresher, she was 7 lbs 15 oz at birth. . . so by 5 days old, she had blown right on past her birth weight and gained an additional half pound!  She is an incredible eater (i.e. she eats ALL THE TIME!) and I'm loving every minute of the privilege to breastfeed a baby again.  I thank God continuously for my sweet Evelyn.