Irishsprout's Blog

Hi everyone! We are full into Spring semester now and things are as busy as ever! Andy is teaching full time for Hope and doing the part-time RD gig (along with the full-time family gig). Ryan had a J-term retreat class and starts classes tomorrow for spring semester and will be busy with his internship (and the full-time family gig). We are finally getting some much anticipated snow today so we took some pictures and I’m going to throw some others up from recent times as well! Christmas with family was fantastic, we’ve caught about every bug that’s going around, and we’re looking forward to what’s coming ahead this spring and summer. Love you all!

Christmas tree and an ornament from Greybeard.

I think they might be related.

Brownies!

Welcome to the world of rice cereal!

Moira is a big helper these days! Here she is doing the dishes with me.

First sled trip down our “hill”

Snowbuddies

We’ve had more time for the real camera lately (as opposed to our phones), so here are some more family pictures!

Snuggling

Halloween. Complete with crocodile roar in progress.

She loves the beach!

Fun with Papa is one of Moira’s favorite things.

And an outtake..

Here are some new pictures and a few updates!  We know it’s been ages and we’ll have to fill in the gaps with some more pictures of Kellan’s early days soon, but I figured I just jump right in with what is current.  Kellan is now over 13lbs and will be 3 months next week!  I took a look at past posts and Moira didn’t hit 14lbs until she was 6 months old so I think Kellan is going to pass her by in no time!  He looks a lot like she did (at least in my head he does) so I went and found a four month picture of Moira.  Here she is:

And here is Kellan:

Ryan has been busy at school and his internship and even looks the part of a seminarian and father:

Moira is talking up a storm now and is starting to try to say funny things and loves to laugh.  She is still more awake then not, as evidenced in this picture of her doing backbends in her crib, courtesy of the video monitor:

She loves her little brother, “Baby Kellan”, and wants to be near him.  Even for tummy time.

We loved seeing family in Atlanta for the wedding of Aunteenie and Uncle Jon.  The pictures of the kids all dressed up are going to be great to reflect on when they head off to college.  : )

It’s been a wild ride since Kellan arrived!  We have been so grateful for all the visitors and support from near and far during these past months.

We have welcomed Kellan Stephen Hicks Donahoe into our family!  He was born on Saturday the 11th at 7:48pm.  He weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20 inches long with a little bit of brown hair and a sweet little face.  Moira and Kellan met on Sunday and she was very excited to see the baby and to pat his hand (“gentle please” is our new catchphrase).  We were able to bring him home on Monday and have been settling into life as a family of four.  Moira is doing pretty well considering there is a little person in her Mama and Papa’s laps  : )  Things are busy with 2 little ones, new jobs, new classes, and a new town, but we have been so very fortunate to have our friends Teresa and Dan (and their girls Katie and Livy) here helping us prepare for the past few weeks and here to help us with the transition.  Here are a few pictures from our last few days – more to come once we have a moment to sort them!

Moira and the dumptruck that Kellan gave her for his birthday!

We’ve made it!  We’re here in Michigan in our new home and learning the ropes of our new town.  It’s been a wild few months with a temporary move, our final move, end of old jobs, beginning of new jobs, and lots of goodbyes and hellos.  But we’re here.
Oh and by the way baby Turtle is due next week.  Yikes!  Everything is going well with baby and we’re excited to meet him soon.  In the meantime, here are a bunch of pictures to update you on our summer!  Please excuse the formatting and click to see them bigger!

Picking Blueberries in Washington

Napping with Grandpa Greybeard

Pooltime

Wedding in NC

On the 4th

Part of our moving crew!

Papa and M enjoying Holland!

 

And finally, all of us in front of our new place.  Papa, Mama, Moira, her favorite boots, and baby boy Donahoe coming soon. : )

We have been enjoying summer with cookouts with friends and a trip to the zoo.  Here are some pictures of our monkey!

First Bubbles!

Moira and her buddies Katie and Livy at the zoo!

Penguins!

One sleepy little girl after a busy day at the zoo

Hi Everyone!  It’s been a bit busy here in Iowa this spring.  We’ve officially sold our house, moved into a temporary home until the big move in July, finished the semester, and Ry has his last day of work this Friday.  Whew!  Then we’ll be off on our summer travels with a trip to North Carolina and Washington before packing the truck and heading to Michigan.

It’s been a full and intense spring, but we did have some time for grilling with friends, wagon rides, parties, and the tulip festival.

The wagon was a big hit this spring – thanks to J, J, and I for the present!  Here’s M with her neighbor buddy Gabe and with Katie and Livy, daughters of our dear friends Dan and Teresa.

Moira on Easter

Ryan’s department has an end of the year theater party and this year’s student-chosen theme was “Disney”.  So here’s Jasmine at the park and with her papa.  Points to everyone who guesses which dwarf Ryan went as.  It’s not hard. : )

And finally, all dressed up for the tulip festival : )

Moira has been chatting up a storm and her sweet babytalk is turning into more and more words.  We didn’t blog the occasion, but her first word was “up”.  Not “up” as in “pick me up” (of course not), but “up” as in “I want to climb UP…the stairs, on the chair, on the couch, perhaps even on the table”.

I swear she’s going to be a competitive rock climber some day.

We are also taking it as a sign that we’ve been far too sick so far this year that our daughter likes to “play” coughing and blowing noses.  yikes.

In related news, we just got her a little kiddie trampoline so she can bounce away while we cough and sniffle and such.  Maybe it will be rock climbing AND gymnastics.

We are so sorry for taking so long to update! It has been a very busy and wonderful few months with a trip out to Washington for the holidays, the beginning of the school year, and trying to keep up with our high energy toddler!

Exhibit A (just another day in our house where Moira finds another way to be in constant motion):

Other things on our plate: We are planning our move to Michigan coming this summer which includes finding jobs for both Ryan and I, enrolling in school for Ryan, selling our house, packing our things, and general insanity.  Oh… and this too:

(apologies for the blur – it is hard to take stills of moving objects.)  Hooray! : )

Baby 2 (known as “Turtle”) is due in August and is growing well so far!

One! She’s one! We made it a whole year! Wahoo! Moira is such a big girl lately. She’s pointing and responding to words and deciding what she does and does not like. What a toddler! We celebrated an early birthday with Nona, Paddy, and our friends Dan and Teresa and family after our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Moira loved the clapping the most. We have so much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll have more birthday fun to report soon. XOXO.