No, Alyssa, I am not still pregnant.

This post is for my mom and my friend Alyssa who have ever so "gently" been reminding me that anyone who is looking at this blog would still think I am pregnant. I am not, in fact, pregnant any longer. We now have a fantastic 1 month old and are adjusting to life as a family of 4.

The last belly picture...

And then we met...

Claire Marie

August 30, 2010

7 lbs 7.7 oz

1:44 pm

She is a sweet, precious girl who has stolen our hearts. Even her big sister is a fan of her. Below are some of her 1 month old pictures. Time is flying by!

Finally, here is a special picture of 4 generations of ladies in our family. L-R: Avery, Patty (my mom), Etta (my grandmother), me, Doris (Kevin's grandma), Claire, Sandra (Kevin's mom). My mom is holding Avery because they share a middle name and Sandra is holding Claire because they share a middle name. What special people make up our families!

Baby bump

I suppose that Mother's Day is as good as any to take the first official baby bump photo. This time around it has been less fun to see myself in pictures because it means I really look like that! Yikes! When did that happen?
The photo was taken on Mother's Day at 23 weeks and 1 day. I can't believe that we are already halfway through. Wow!

Here are some other pictures of our Mother's Day events. On Saturday, Kevin grilled burgers for us (with a portabella mushroom for me) and we ate on the back porch. Avery loved them and almost ate an entire hamburger patty all by herself!

On Sunday, Kevin grilled again and this time made ribs (my favorite) and pork tenderloin. We were joined by some great friends and had a feast! Avery decided she wanted to sit in a big seat without a highchair since the other kids were eating that way. This is really the only picture of that meal, but we will remember it anyway.

Last, here is a sweet picture that I don't think I have posted yet from a few weeks ago. Avery's friend Mackenzie introduced Avery to fine fun of dress up. So they both picked out their own outfits and then danced around the living room. I think I see this coming up again in the future with Avery and her sister. :)

I hope all you Mothers out there were wonderfully celebrated. Our jobs are priceless!

Girl!

It is official! We are having a girl! Fun! A sister for Avery and another princess for Daddy. Here are our sonograms. They are a bit hard to see, but this is all we have until we see her in person.

We saw some great shot of her during the sonograms, but the photos aren't quite as good.

The nurse called her "laid back" because she was pretty calm the whole time, so maybe that will translate to her personality when she is here.

Enjoy!

Profile #1

Profile #2

L:Full frontal face

R:Face looking down

Happy Easter!

An Easter post on Easter day??? What is this family coming to?

Easter weekend was a time of great adventure for us. Avery got to do all sorts of fun things and thankfully the weather cooperated. Saturday morning Kevin borrowed a bicycle trailer and took Avery out for her first ride. I was so proud of her when she climbed in as soon as it was ready to go. She rode around the block with Kevin once and really enjoyed it. Later that morning she rode to the park and back with Daddy. They had a great time, but as you will see in the following pictures, there was a slight incident with a slide meeting a cheek. Chalk it up to Avery demanding to be independent while going down the big slide.

So, Easter is becoming one of my favorite holidays for photo opportunities. This year did not disappoint! We had a wonderful Easter get together with the family in Topeka on Saturday,

complete with 4 types of dessert and an Easter egg hunt! So fun. Avery is at the perfect age this year to enjoy the hunt and she was loving it!! We had a blast following her round the yard watching her face light up every time she found an egg and placed it in her basket.

After the egg hunt Avery got to swim in the spa with cousin Brooke, Lexi, and Aunt Lisa. We had a hard time getting her out of the water!

Easter Sunday came and Avery got to wear her brand new Easter dress made with love by Nana. It was so sweet and Avery was very excited to wear the "hop-hop" dress.

After church we had some friends over for dinner and had another Easter egg hunt. The girls were so excited and had a fabulous time searching the back yard.

I suppose there is no minimum age for stealing someone else's find. Luckily, they both ended up with overflowing baskets of eggs.



Then the best part, finding the chocolate inside each one.


So another successful Easter celebrated by the Dodd family! What wonderful memories were made! Thank you all who were involved!