Mr. Man turns 4!

Our nephew on John's side turned 4 this weekend- and it was a family affair!

Of course there was singing and cake!

And gifts galore!

Fishing at the lake with the cousins.

We caught a rope, a stick, a tree and two itty bitty fishies.

Never the less, Mr. Man was happy- and that's what counts!

Happy Birthday!

First Day 2011

WOW! Another school year has begun! We officially have two 8th graders and a 3rd grader! Kind of NUT-SO!

The twins are super excited about being top dogs of the middle school! They know the layout, classrooms and have all the procedures down- so not many nerves at all! They are taking some accelerated classes (called 'diff' classes) which are considered 'high school' level- but they seem to be taking it in stride.

Pucca is back in her school- a new school...kind of. It was completely gutted and renovated last year so its basically a brand new building. Lucky for her - her classroom is right across the hall from the door she enters. She's starting her first year of 'diff' classes.

Back to school shopping wasn't well executed this summer. I managed to get all the supplies, new shoes, manicures and haircuts...but definitely slacked in the clothing department.

I told them I'd take them this fall and make it up to them...just too much for this mama...three girls in three different areas of each store at the mall...I didn't last long! So only a few new outfits. Each girls picked out their own 'first day' ensemble!

Here are the first day photos:

Twins...check out the necklaces! They ordered these from an Etsy shop with their own money- they are CUTE!

Pucca- she wanted to be 'casual- not too fussy!' ...those were her exact words!

She calls her new shoes 'twinkle toes' because there are sequins all over the toe area. Very Pucca-esk!

What's in a name?

Naming a child is always a big deal. It will be your child's moniker for their lifetime and a permanent branch of the family tree. Will it be conventional? Trendy? Unisex? Picked for a special meaning? Picked solely because you liked it? Was it the result of a family vote? A name you've imagined naming your child since you were once one yourself? Is it a family name? OR was it randomly picked out of a 'Baby Names' book on 125th page fifth from the bottom because you were tired of looking through names?

Lucky for us- naming our children has come pretty easy. We've picked names that reflect our culture and family. The twins both have Irish first names and their middle names are after women on my side of the family.

Pucca was named for the living matriarchs on both John's and my sides of the family. Which would be my great grandma and John's grandma.

This baby is named after women on John's family tree.

Evlynn Cecilia

We will most likely call her Evie for short or as a nickname while she is young. Evlynn is such a grown up name for such a little thing. Evlynn is pronounced like 'EVAN' but with the added 'L'.

Evlynn is Gaelic in origin. A great great great grandma of John's (although its spelled Evelyne- we had to keep the 'ynn' thing going! ). It also means 'the longed for child' which after all we've been through, seems to fit perfectly!

And Cecilia for a Kelly matriarch that encouraged her son to leave Ireland for America. With out which would have made it extremely difficult for me to meet and marry my bestfriend a 120 years later!

So now the secret is out. I initially didn't want to tell the name, but people kept asking and quite frankly wore me out. The girls played a part in helping pick the name as well, which makes it even more special.

Can't wait to meet you, sweet pea!

Nursery for baby E

YAY! The nursery is ready for baby #4 !

Here's a picture of the mobile that the twins helped me with. Believe it or not the hardest part was figuring out how to hang strings with multiple cranes. We even GOOGLED it for goodness sakes. In the end we came up with our own plan...involving color matching buttons. Worked pretty darn good!

I made the curtains, the bedding, dust ruffle and baby blankets. I still have a few more blankets to make. If not for this little one- maybe as gifts for someone else's. I ordered all the fabric online for less than $100 and have a ton left over. That's pretty good considering the crib bedding sets we were looking at were like $150! Nuts-so! Oh and the yellow crocheted blanket hanging on the crib is from John's grandma...it was one of the twins's but they graciously offered to let the baby use it.

The twins made artwork for Pucca's room when she was baby and now all three were able to make some for this baby. Kwynnie made the zebra, Kynna did polka dots and Pucca went with fish. I think she's hoping this sister will like to fish more than her older ones! :)

The graffiti art that's framed says "We 'heart' you"...I already mentioned it here. We painted numbers on the drawers- deciding to spell out number four just for her. Kwynnie picked out the yellow piggy bank. As family project we painted the dresser- the girls picked the color and we changed out the knobs to a simple pewter. THIS dresser has had many lives! The white shoes are leather booties from an antique store. They were still in their box from the 1950s. You can bet she will be wearing them- they are so cool! I'm very into the classic vintage style!

And the bag on the floor is her overnight bag. Nice size and has a bunch of pockets going around the outside of it for all her little baby gear. A great purchase from 31.

And if you look really close at the bottom right you can see the tip of the sheep skin rug. We found the perfect rug but it was too small. So we bought two and whip stitched them together. You can't even tell! And we now have the perfect rug!

I wanted a tree mural for the blank wall we had. I decided on the one in the picture...its a small tree blowing in the wind. Small and petite for baby...and blowing to represent fall and change. I wish it was a bit bigger...but it really looks sweet!

I have a few blankets and pillows to work on still- but not vital to the room. The pillows would go on the window bench. Speaking of which...that bench is there kind of by mistake. Or just laziness. We are actually putting a bench style toy box there. I just haven't painted it yet, she won't need it for a while. And I'm too lazy to move the existing bench- plus I'm not even sure where we'd put it...so basically procrastinating and ignoring all that at this point!

All in all...its pretty much how we envisioned it to be. The girls love it and had a fun time contributing! And I'm glad its done!