Girl Time

Kendall didn't start pre-school until the last week of August, so we had a couple of weeks where we could hang out while Braden was at school. Most days we would find something to do with Jaycie, Olivia, and Emilia. You may also find us at the Bread Co. eating bagels and enjoying coffee...or at least I was!

Why is she so big?

Avery loves the Bread Company!

Kindergarten Here We Come!

Hard to believe that my baby boy (okay, I know he's 5 1/2) is in school. I was a little sad to see him go, but he was ready! I had a few tears after he left the gym to go to his class, but I was too excited to be very upset. I LOVED school! I always have. I knew how much fun he was going to have this year, so it was a fairly easy transition. His teacher's name is Mrs. Hellmann and she seems like a great fit for Braden. She's pretty strict when it comes to behavior, but that is exactly what Braden needs. He loves getting up and going to school each day, which makes one less thing I have to stress out about when I go back to work!

August - The Beginning

The beginning of August was busy. Daddy was back at work and I was doing well by myself with the three kids...that is until I saw my classroom for this year. Once I discovered how much work was involved, I started to stress out just a little. I am so thankful for my friends and family who helped me out with getting my classroom ready for the year to start. Avery was 3 weeks old, but for two weeks she and I (and quite a few times all 4 of us) made the journey to my classroom to try to get things thrown away that weren't needed and unpacked all of my boxes from Woodland. Once that was finished, I was able to truly enjoy my time off with the kids!

My room - the work in progress. I will still have more work to do when I return, but this looks 1,000 times better that when I started!

Emilia and Avery - twinkies! Jaycie helped me A LOT by volunteering a couple of times to watch my older ones for a few hours while Avery and I worked in my room.

Now that we have two girls, I find myself wanting to dress them alike or coordinating. I'm going to do it now, because I'm sure soon enough Kendall won't want to dress like Avery. I've only been able to coordinate Braden once, so I documented it by taking a picture. I'm sure that will happen again in the future (if I can help it)!

We also had to say good-bye to our beloved pet Holly. She had been a part of our family since the day Dustin and I moved into our house. He was busy unloading the trailer, and Mom and I went to get Holly from the shelter. With the addition of Avery, Holly was feeling a little stressed out. She began peeing at the bottom of the stairs to show us how distressed she was feeling. So after 8 years of living with us, Holly had to find a new home. Thankfully, my parents took her in. That being said, Holly is still MIA somewhere in the fields outside of Brighton. I don't think she liked the "country life." The kids don't know it yet. They still think they'll see Holly when we go to Mimi and Papa's house. I'm not sure how we'll tell them, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there!

Melissa (aka Aunt Lissa) is a great bow maker and bow board constructor. The girls and I are very lucky that she is so talented. We get to be the recipients of her great work! Here is the bow board she made for Avery. It is painted in "sugarplum" which is what I usually call my kids, so it was meant to be!

Where has the time gone?

Okay, so I have been SEVERELY lacking in the blogging department. It seems like every time I want to sit down to blog, my dear, sweet husband has been hogging the computer! That will no longer be the case since he is the proud owner of a Macbook Pro (I guess that's what it's called). I myself am not a "Mac" person, unless you count my iPod. So now we each have our "own" computers. This should help me keep up to date on my blogging efforts. Here are a few pictures from the rest of our July.

Avery's first sponge bath. She proceeded to poop all over the towel right after this picture was taken. I actually think all of our kids have done this ;)

So clean and cute in her "Avery" towel!

Daddy and his babies on a Saturday morning. Reading "Money" magazine. I'm sure the kids loved it...NOT!

My big girl "playing" Go Fish with Avery. I'm not sure who's winning ;)

The first of many playdates with the Rodgers girls. This one was while the boys were at the SonQuest Rainforest bible camp at our church.

Hanging Out & a Birthday

Since we've been home, we haven't done much. Dustin has a major case of cabin fever! I am enjoying my time "relaxing" because I know when he goes back to work there will be very little "down time" around here.

We also celebrated Dustin's 31st birthday on Friday. My parents, Gunkle, and Lissa came over and cooked for us. Then we had a blizzard ice cream cake! Happy birthday to my favorite guy!

Playing around with the camera settings.

Maybe a little smile???

Braden holding Avery all by himself. He looks VERY proud!

Dustin blowing out his candles and trying to stop Braden at the same time.

Daddy and his "older" kids :)

Going Home

The hospital where I deliver must be big on getting new moms out the door! I had Avery at 10:31 on Wednesday and we left at around 6:00 pm on Thursday. It was very similar to when I had Kendall. I had no good reason to stay (other than wanting some sleep at night), but really, they were waking me up to feed her and check my vitals throughout the night, so at least at home there was a chance of fewer interruptions. The kids were SUPER excited to take Avery home. They helped us get everything ready to go. I snapped a few pictures of this momentous event!

This picture was meant to show the necklace Dustin gave me. It is not a great shot, but the charm is a mom and dad holding three children. It's exactly what I wanted!

They were SO happy to see Avery again!

My beautiful family

She looks like she's thinking, "Seriously. How many times are you going to take my picture?"

Here we go...!

She's Here!

Well, true to form, our littlest addition followed tradition and came on her own after the doctor scheduled an induction for Friday the 16th (Dustin's birthday). I wanted very badly to go into labor on my own, but I was feeling like our bundle of joy was NEVER going to get here! I went to the doctor on Tuesday, got scheduled, and went into labor early Wednesday morning (around 2:00 am). We called Aunt Lissa to come over and stay with the kids while we went to the hospital. We arrived at Alton Memorial around 5:15. When the nurse saw me she thought they were going to send us back home because (in her words) "you look to happy to be in labor." Well, I showed them! I was already at 7 cm. We were staying! We got the "good stuff" at around 7:30 and I was feeling good. Avery Josephine Riechmann made her grand entrance into the world in just enough time for the doctor to catch her! She was a whopping 8lbs and 4oz and 22in long. The length wasn't too surprising considering how much kicking I felt in my ribs up until delivery! She is perfect in every way. We are so blessed and happy to have 3 healthy children. Truly, there is no greater gift than a child. What a feeling to know that our love is so profound that we can MAKE another human from it! Here are a few hospital pics from our newest arrival...

This is me at a 9. The epidural is a good thing!

Avery Josephine

Proud Papa with his newest spawn (I say that because they ALL look like him)

What a great feeling to meet what has been inside for 10 months!