Movie Star

My friend Dawn sent Gracie and Evie a package today and in it was a special present for Evie -  sunglasses! She was quite excited when she woke up from her nap and I told her that there was a  present for her downstairs. :) She wouldn't take the glasses off for at least an hour, whether we were inside or out by her pool. As you can see they still have the UV sticker on them. :) Her funky outfit (it's 100+ degrees here and she was playing in the pool so she'd lost her skirt already by this point :)) combined with her big glasses make her look like a celeb I think. ;)
Helping water my fountain and flowers. :)

Gracie sat out on my lap watching her big sister for a while...
But it was so hot and she was getting tired so she sat in her seat and watched us through the window. :)

First Bath

Baby Grace got her first real bath last week! She wasn't sure what she thought and couldn't believe we were putting her through such an ordeal.

The second bath we gave her was warmer and deeper and I think she preferred that one. ;)
So we definitely think that Gracie and Evie have their own looks, but they also have similar features and are for sure sisters! :) This first picture is Grace during her first bath, the second is Evelyn during hers.

Evie Date

Since we've been doing so much with the baby lately Nathan and I decided the other night to take Evie out on a date just with the two of us. We headed to the horse farm near by to see the horses and feed them grass through the fence (super exciting to Evie :)). Sadly, the horses were on the far side of the field and didn't come close enough for our grass, despite Evie's frantic waving. However, there IS a cornfield right there and Evie was thrilled that Daddy let her run up and down the first row. :)
It was a lovely evening (much cooler and less humid than it is now) and we loved our Evie date!

On a different note, here is one other picture of Evie from the hospital that I forgot to post. She was quite enamored with Gracie's hospital bassinet. ;)

Helping out...

A month or two ago Evie found some baby food jars in our pantry. She was very intrigued with them since they were so small and just her size. I told her that she wouldn't want to eat them though, they were just for babies. Well, we had this discussion a while ago, but, as soon as we got home with Gracie, what is the first thing that she does? She runs to the pantry to get the baby food for Gracie! I turned around and she had set it up on Gracie's tray to her swing!!
Evie likes to make sure that Baby Grace's swing is always on the "right" setting ;)
Something else that you need to know about Evie to fully appreciate the picture below is that she LOVES bananas. Every day starts off with one and a day only gets better if she is also allowed to have one for a snack. The first thing she says every morning is not Mama or Daddy but "banana!" with desperate gestures towards the stairs. If you ask her if she'd like a banana, she frantically nods her head and says "Es! Es! Pease! Pease!"
Our first morning home Nathan, Evie and Gracie were downstairs. Evie was eating her banana and Nathan looked over to find this:
Evie had gone to her play food and found her bananas so Gracie could have one too! This may be my favorite picture. Evie just wanted her baby sister to be happy too! :) :)
We're loving being home and adjusting to our new family!

Big Sister Evie

We loved introducing Evie to her new baby sister and were so glad that we were able to within a few hours of Gracie's arrival. Evie rotated between being curious and excited and rather indifferent. :p
"nose!!"

And an ear like me!

Evie liked watching the nurses with Baby Grace through the nursery window. :)
And eating Chic-fil-e in the big rocking chair :p

And helping Baby Grace get changed to come home.
She was very good at rocking her so that she'd stay happy. :) We have to work on the exuberance of the rocking, but she has the idea. ;)

Heading home the day after Gracie's arrival!

Welcome Grace Elizabeth!

We are so very thankful and excited to welcome the newest member of our family!
Grace Elizabeth Mortier
June 14, 2012 - 9:09AM
7lbs 1oz and 19 1/2 in long 
I should have known Gracie was coming when I stayed up until 11:45PM dusting, sweeping, and vacuuming the entire house and making a full to-do list for Thursday... Even Evie had picked up on my crazy nesting and cleaning: :)

...but I was convinced she would be late and was completely surprised. :)

The contractions woke me up around 1:30AM. We got to the hospital around 4:30/5 and she was here 4 hours later with only 15 minutes of pushing (much faster than Evie)! We really like the hospital that we get to deliver at here. We loved our doctor and nurse team that we had with Evie and we ended up with the exact same doctor, nurse, and anesthesiologist again this time! The doctor who was on call when we went in is my favorite from the practice. His shift was scheduled to end at 7 but he stayed 2 hours over so that he could deliver little Gracie for us!
We are so thankful for Baby Grace and are enjoying our little family of four!  

Nursery Makeover

So my friend Marti is an amazing decorator. Her whole home and every room of any friend of mine that she has touched is incredible. She is also the mother of 5 (including one currently in China and two who are preschoolers), wife of a busy doctor, and she had company in town this week. However, she graciously offered to give me some tips on my nursery for Baby Girl #2. She came over last week to get ideas and then last night she and Nathan kicked me out for a couple hours while they transformed the room. :) I came back before they were done and heard all sorts of drilling and nailing and banging so I was quite curious to say the least!
I wish I had some before pictures for comparison, but I thought of it too late. It wasn't *bad*, but it definitely wasn't great with poor lighting and nothing at all on the walls and little on the deks. The dollhouse bookshelf was there (which Nathan made that last month) which I loved, but I wasn't sold on anything else.
With Evie's room we stuck mostly with the pink theme, but for this baby I wanted to add some yellow and green. Here's the final product as you walk in (right side of the room to the left - Baby gets to share her room with our office - thus the desk :))

Notice the picture board on the wall that Marti made along with the chair that she quickly recovered with her staple gun to match. :) The two lamps add lovely lighting in the evening and I just love the daisy doll and suitcases!
 
Besides Nathan's bookshelf, I just love the paper daisy mobile, child's mirror (on the far right - Evie's current favorite part of the room :)) and pillow that Marti added to dress up our Ikea chair. :)

The curtains (coordinating with the hamper/toy basket below) are new and they're room darkening to help Baby Girl sleep with the sun pouring in her window. The picture over the desk Marti made and is Numbers 6:24-26. The pink bear in the light is so fun too (although a little confusing to Evie ;)).

And finally - the wall that will be over the bassinet and eventually crib. Marti wanted art work to match the bedding we'll be using with the crib but she couldn't find quite what she was looking for. So.... she and her mother-in-law made these from the patterns on the bumpers and quilt!
Me with the designer/decorator around midnight. :) Thank you, Marti!!!!