Anne: a bit of background

7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long

I've loved the name Anne for forever - it's my grandmother's name as well as my sister's middle name.  Laurel's middle name is my other sister's first name.  I know people often look to their ancestors for names, but my sisters are my favorite people, and I've loved naming my daughters partly after them.

Anne is a wonderful baby; I'm finally getting a bit of quality sleep at nights since she'll have at least one 4 hour stretch of sleep.  I've only managed one outing with all three kids, and that was a quick trip to the library. I can't imagine taking all three of them grocery shopping and plan on avoiding that as much as possible!

Sleep is a hot commodity

Luke's working hard for the garden

Thank you, UVU, for 80 hours of birth leave!  Which translates into Luke finding ever more creative spots to cultivate above and beyond the 4 raised beds.

How to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight in 10 days or less!

Juice fast.

Because you've been hit with a violent stomach flu. 

Yuck.

Anne's Here

Whether it was the full moon, a low pressure weather system, or just a bit of inherited Petertammenson impatience, Anne decided to join us 19 days early on Saturday! Here are some photos (note: her entire face and head were bruised while making her dramatic exit, poor kid):

You know what stinks?

When you buy 4 beautiful bunches of organic rainbow chard, and then your hubby and you come down with a stomach bug that lasts for days and by the time you feel like eating something besides applesauce, the chard has clearly passed its use-by date.

Our basement

I've never been excited about basements; in fact, my dream house wouldn't have one. But our home's basement is lovely - and especially now that the weather is warming up, I see the appeal. And it's great to have a bonus living space. Our basement is just one big room, but it's filled with light from the two large windows. I'm so grateful to have natural light! This is just a view down the stairs - the white "wainscoting" was originally dark wood paneling - yuck! It's so much fresher now. And I love the other paint color; it's Martha Stewart's Love-In-A-Mist , and it is just the happiest pale blue. If I had my druthers I'd paint the whole house in it. And the bags/aprons hanging in the stairwell are copied from my mother. There isn't enough room in the front closet for those pesky church bags for myself and the kids, so hanging them in the stairwell from 3M hooks has been a great short term solution. Thanks mom!