"Make your own green grass"

Thank you all for all of your sweet blog comments, phone calls and emails. We have felt so much love and happiness from so many people. I am so thankful for this sweet little angel we have been blessed with. This is my favorite picture of her so far.

She is doing very well. I will never forget the moment Ashkii looked at me and said "It's a little girl!" in the sweetest, most thankful voice. It was awesome, and worth the wait.

Trevor and Savannah are so happy to have us home. They want to participate in every aspect of caring for Rachel. I am still pretty sore, but so grateful to have so much help from my mom and hubby so that I can enjoy Rachel and focus on recovering from the surgery.

When I came home tonight for a quick shower I arrived at our house to this welcome sign in the window. "It's A Girl" ...Thanks Grandma Goldy...


I am happy to report that both Brooke and Rachel are still doing well. We appreciate all the phone calls and blog comments of encouragement. Below are some overdue pictures of our newest addition.

Please forgive the formating as I am not the usual poster.

3 min old


Meeting Mom


Meeting Grandma


Meeting my older brother... He held her for over an hour today with the same grin seen above.


Meeting my older sister.... She can hardly contain her excitement and thinks this new addition is pretty cool.


The new family photo....


Yesterday she kept her eyes closed but today she was alert and looking around.

I will post more pictures again on Monday.

Born at 11:34 am
7 lbs 14 oz
19 inches

Mom and baby are doing well.
Thanks for all of your love and support.

Happy Birthday to Trevor today!! We had a fun day. Grandma Goldy flew in last night and Trevor woke her up bright and early this morning with birthday excitement. We usually do breakfast in bed for birthdays, but since Trev is sleeping downstairs on the sofa bed while Grandma is here, he had breakfast in the recliner:), which he thought was pretty fun.

We went bowling and to a great pizza place for lunch, then came home and opened presents because he just "couldn't wait" any longer. THANKS to everyone for all the great cards and gifts. It is fun to have him reading each card out loud to us now.

Trevor insisted on wearing his bandanna on his head most of the day. (It was funny to watch Ashkii try to convince him otherwise - not a chance!)

Trevor's favorite part of the day was trying out his new tennis racquet from Gpa Linton (aka tennis expert). He is also very excited to share this bday week with his new sibling soon.

I can't believe Trev is really seven!! He is growing up so fast and is such an awesome kid. He is super helpful and brings so much JOY to our family. We love you TREV!

Okay, I must say I am panicking a little with the idea of having another child in less than 10 days!!! It is crazy having C-sections and knowing the exact moment (at the same time, the planner side of me loves it). But this time I decided (with reluctant support from my hubby) to not find out the gender, and it has been both hard and exciting for me.

I am in such a different phase of life than I have been with my other children's births. I am nervous for all the changes and super excited at the same time. It is fun having two kids who are literally jumping up and down with excitement for their new sibling's arrival. Tonight, they helped me "pack" for the hospital. They put a framed picture of the two of them in my bag, and Savannah said, "You can put this in whatever space you want, honey." I layed my head on her shoulder and she started to play with my hair, saying, "I know you are nervous for your surgery, mommy, but after it is all over you will have a new child and it will be just wonderful!" I really wonder sometimes how old she REALLY is.

The baby will be sleeping in Savvy's room, and we put the crib in there a few days ago. So she has been role playing all kinds of situations. She likes to pretend that we are asleep and don't hear the baby on the monitor, so she then "gets up" to come and get me. I go in to "get" the baby and she says, "Okay, mommy, I'm going back to bed now."

My cute grandma T called me last week and said, "So . . . are you huge?!" I laughed and said "Of course!" I really just feel like I am out of room for this child. But I'm feeling really good, considering. And at least I will have cute feet at the hospital. When I turned 30 about six weeks ago (yikes!), I told my hubby I just wanted some cute new slippers to wear in the hospital. I think he did really well:

He even surprised me by dropping me off for a pedicure, which I loved. Now when my feet are swollen from a hot day, I can put them up and at least have cute toes:) Thanks, babe.

So, here is your chance everyone, to place your bets on the gender of this baby. Oh, and in case you are wondering, I really don't know what it is. I go back and forth and don't have any strong feelings either way. I am also open to advice on transitioning to three kids!!!

We found out at Church on Sunday that we could get discount tickets to the Monday Orioles game as part of our church group. Cool - we had been wanting to go, so this was perfect! I was a worried about the heat, but we totally lucked out. It rained for about 30 min. before the game, so it cooled down AND there were lots of available seats. So we moved from our cheap seats down to have a great view behind home base. Lots of fun - and the first major league game for me and the kids.

Trevor was determined to catch a ball . . .

Then, about halfway through the game, Savannah I headed to the ladies room. Just as we started down the steps, Ashkii starts yelling "Brooke! Brooke! Brooke!" I look over at him and then, SMACK, I see the ball hit just 2 steps below where Savannah and I were standing. Whoa!

Trevor starts yelling, "Mom, why didn't you get that!!" So I say, "Trev, why didn't you dive over the railing and catch it?" And he says, "Mom, I'm not superman."

Ashkii and I were joking about what the announcer may have said on the radio:

"Whoa, that foul ball just about took out a pregnant woman!"


The ball hit right behind the railing in this picture.

And this is the sign that was up behind us!



Camden Yards is a beautiful stadium!

Savannah kept begging to go track down the mascot, and lucky for her, he came up the steps just as we were leaving!

We left at the top of the 8th inning and they were ahead, but it was late so we headed out. Too bad they went into extra innings and lost. WE still had lots of fun:)