The Red Balloon

Read the sweet story here. 

We Love Them

Baby Poll Winner!

It's Wendy!!  If she has been wondering why we haven't publicly recognized her prediction skills, she hasn't brought it up.  Thanks for patiently awaiting this announcement!  My lovely friend Wendy correctly guessed that Deterding Baby #3 would enter the world on March 27 in the morning.  Congratulations and thanks for playing.

* I had to mention that Natalie missed winning for the second time in a row by a mere 8 minutes!  Amazing.  If I'm ever 9 months pregnant again, I will ask Natalie when I can expect to go in to labor.

the Cut

These are for Alison!  I was a little startled while the scissors were snipping away, but it's growing on me (nice pun, I know.)  Also, it's a little awkward taking photos of yourself in a mirror.

More from May

Avery is about 5 weeks old in the picture above.

This is Grace and a picture she drew of...well, she wrote a caption for you:

Good likeness, don't you think?  hehehe.

Here's the whole fam celebrating my 27th birthday:

And finally, Avery and Kaz spending some quality time together:

Those third children have to learn to defend themselves and be heard, from an early age.

Two Months and Growing

10 lbs. 8 oz.

22 1/4 inches long

It seems like Avery girl has been around longer than 2 months... although maybe it's all the extra wake-time hours we've had since March 27!  (Or maybe we all just love having her around so much)  HOWEVER, the little sweetie pie has been sleeping through the night for the past couple of weeks!  Extra exclamation points!!

She's gurgling and cooing and loves looking at faces, especially, it seems, faces of bearded men?  She sucks her thumb, loves her mommy, is sporting her new bum genius cloth diapers, enjoys bath time, and is getting to be extra-smiley and wiggly.

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY UNCLE MATT!

We love you and miss you and hope that your Ugandan internet provider makes it possible for you to see these birthday wishes from your nieces.  Time to open up your gifts!  I asked them what they wanted to say to you and included a picture of the things they made for you this morning.

From Leah, " I want to say that we have two new big girl swings,"and a picture of you:

From Grace, "Happy Birthday", and a Play-Doh cake:

From Avery, some spit:

Have a great day!