A week and a half

Elsie is now a week and a half old. I bet you think I am going to post adorable pictures from all her 11 days of life. But you are so wrong. I am going to put up the lost pictures of her with her older siblings on her very first full day of life. Or out of womb life anyway. Turns out the camera malfunction was more of a human error, as in, all the pictures weren't transferred to the computer. So here they are. Pretty much, I have been in a haze of adjusting and snuggling my cute babies, so I haven't been doing the 100 pictures a day of my new baby that good mothers do. But believe me, she is cute. And she looks like she is hunkering down to continue to be cute for the foreseeable future.

And then there are more pictures of recent happenings.

On a side note, today is the first day of Orianna's summer vacation. She is currently sewing teensy-tiny little pillows for her Barbies/pollly's/or any other doll. Pillows are cool. And easy. (Well the "rustic" ones she makes anyway.) Except when she getting impatient which she just announced she is. "Everything is tangled!" She also is displaying her newly honed ability to tattle and arbitrate Lily and Gilbert's fights. She is a great big sister, but occasionally her big sister-ness gets on Lily and Gilberts nerves. So we will have some adjusting to do on that front as well.

After a few days of hot, hot, hot, I am sitting here in a sweatshirt at 61 degrees. I am loving it. I have been thinking about Alaska a lot lately, as I do every year at this time. When the thermometer hovers at 90, I miss those Alaskan summers--the ones where you knew you could layer on any given summer day and your wardrobe really WAS year round. No fooling around with packing away long sleeves and sweaters until the fall. I have never really got over my love affair with hoodies that 4 years of Alaskan living instilled in me and as much as I love summer, I miss being able to cozy up in a sweatshirt of an evening. So hooray for a cool, Alaskan like break in the weather!

And now, back to those pictures I was yakking about a few paragraphs back.

Flowers Mom brought to the hospital right after we got there so I could have something beautiful to look at while enduring labor. Isn't she nice? 

They WERE beautiful. Hydrangeas, pink, pink roses, stock, and dark purple statice. 

The kids meeting our Elsie girl. 

There was a lot of hugging and smiling going on

Lily was very huggy. 

Gilbert was very grin-y

And Orianna was very pleased and proud as all get out

Discussing baby fingers

Look at that grin! 

A bit unsure

Love this one! 

Gilbert loved the foot operated scrub sink. He thought it was terribly clever to operate it by sitting on it.

Amy and Connie stopped by on Saturday with a yummy casserole! Much to the delight of the kids--they all think Amy is the bees knees. 

Lily was fortunately there to inform Connie that Elsie's neck had to be supported. Just in case Connie had forgotten from raising six kids and holding lots more. 

Very serious stuff, baby holding

Auntie Tori

The pals, Rilla and Lily

And Orianna and Elliott

Our first family of 6 family picture 

A very nice picture of Mom and Dad

Elsie June and daisies. 

Owen trying to be Napoleon or something

Ashley endures a lot

Aren't they cute? 

Clover and her kiddos. Lincoln wasn't really interested in looking at the camera in any of the pictures. 

Grin-y boy

Orianna's kindergarten graduation. Which Elsie and I skipped. I will feel bad about this when Orianna is 10. At the moment it was just too much with a brand new baby. Justin took the day off for it, so Lily and Gilbert got to go at least! And Aunt Ashley went too, so Orianna had people who loved her there. 

With her teacher, Mrs. Aubrey

Orianna on her last day of school. She really wanted to wear the fascinator Ashley made her, so she did, even though it wasn't a total match with the outfit.

Gilbert had to get in the picture

And then Lily too. But then we realized the bus was HERE and they had to hurry to grab bookbags or wave to the bus.