April Vacation Part 1: Audrey Meets Great Grammy Civiello

Our house went on the market on Thursday and we almost immediately had several showings set up... did I mention that Gabe left for Nashville on Tuesday?  It wasn't leaving the house with the kids for each showing that was a problem, but instead keeping the house picked up and cleaned in "showing condition" by myself that I was finding challenging. So, the kids and I went north for two days until Gabe got home.... hopefully next week the number of showings will slow.  We spent Friday morning visiting Great Grammy Civiello and Uncle Jon's farm.  The kids had a ball at both places.  Great Grammy got to meet Audrey for the first time AND I managed to get some pictures.  The only group shot I could manage was without James, but maybe we could add him later... he was too busy eating the bag of Chex Mix he found. Despite what the photo looks like Noah and Ben were enjoying themselves and were not terrified;)  Noah enjoyed exploring all of the sewing and knitting things she had lying about.  Ben really liked the Chex Mix too... when James would share it with him, oh and running to the back room with the scissors he so sneakily grabbed from Noah... he thought that was really funny.  

Our next stop was Uncle Jon's farm. Aunt Amy and Trey met us there to play with the animals.  Everyone but Audrey drove the Bobcat and tried to drive anything else sitting around.  I think that James is ready to drive the tractor on our next visit Grampy!  All the boys also spent a significant amount of time digging up the pavement and collecting "rocks" for their rock collections..... thankfully I was able to convince James to leave his "rocks" behind for next time.  All in all it was a pretty short trip given that it was not even above freezing and very windy... we will have to visit again if spring ever arrives.

Audrey's Newborn Pictures

Here is our sweet Audrey Alice at 8 days old. I am not a huge headband fan, but these ones are pretty sweet;)  Thanks to our fantastic photographer Lisa Quinn for some wonderful photos!

Noah's Gymnastics Finale

Life is getting back to normal here and Noah is finishing up his gymnastics run.  He loves gymnastics and has come so far with his gross motor skills over the past 2 years.  I would guess that this will be his last class of gymnastics since we are moving this summer, but we will see what the Farmington area has to offer.  Noah did so well in his last "show" he can flip over the uneven bar and does so well on the balance beam.  His biggest accomplishment today was going down the hippo slide.  This is a covered twirling slide that goes from one level to another.  Every class they slide down at least once.  For the past 2 years Noah has never dared to go down the slide, not for lack of trying, but he was just scared to death.  At various times his teachers have offered to go down with him and offered him many bribes, but to no avail.  Today he was determined and after several failed attempts we were about to walk out the door after class and his wonderful teacher stayed after to help him go down.  He finally did it and was SO proud of himself!

Settled

We are all happily adjusting and settling into life as a family of six.  Audrey is a great baby so far, loves to be held and has an uncanny ability to sleep through anything (personally I think that this is a coping mechanism that will serve her well with these boys). All three boys continue to be huge helpers and just adore their baby sister.... I hope this continues! My dad came this week to visit and help out for a few days which was fantastic since we are trying to get our house ready to go on the market next week!  Audrey also had her newborn pictures done on Tuesday, so hopefully those will be posted soon:)

Attempted Easter Group Picture:)

Here it is... our first attempted group shot of the kids on Easter..... this is pretty funny in retrospect.  Maybe I will have to invest in some editing software and just edit everyone together from individual photos;)

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday was finally a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the day with Grammy and Grampy Civiello! The kids found more eggs (they were most excited about the ones in their room) and Ben finally found the M&Ms inside and how to open the eggs.... this is the face he made when he discovered that these eggs had already been opened;)  After gifts and more than six months worth of chocolate and candy before 10 AM, we took a gorgeous "hike" to the duck ponds and through the cemetery. The kids finished the morning with a picnic lunch in the backyard.  Audrey slept through almost everything, so I would say she continues to adjust to the chaos well!

Easter Egg Hunts

Saturday morning we (miraculously) got everyone up and going to be able to attend the Easter egg hunt at the Children's Museum.  The kids had so much fun and it was much less of a zoo than I had anticipated.  The coolest part was that most of the eggs were filled with finger puppets so we now have lots of puppet shows with all of our new animal friends.  Later in the morning we returned from the museum to a visit from Aunt Amy, Trey, Grammy & Grampy Civiello and Aunt Andrea.  The boys played together and had a great time finding all of the eggs on our front lawn. I didn't get a great picture because they were all too busy eating the M & Ms left inside the eggs;)  

First Days Home

We ventured home after a mere 48 hours in the hospital, but are getting much better rest at home.  All of the big brothers are so excited to have her home and are all so eager to help. Ben has been the biggest surprise because he really LOVES her.  He is constantly hugging and kissing her in a very gentle way.  He always needs to know where she is and constantly checks on her to make sure she is ok.  He tries to help change her diaper, give her the pacifier and definitely lets us know to attend to her immediately if she cries... we will see how long this lasts;)