Grandma and Grandpa Grossarth

The day that my mom went home, Kevin's parents came to stay with us.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life who are willing to help me out.  They cooked, cleaned, did laundry, took Jackson to preschool, went grocery shopping, watched the kids so I could nap and made our whole week a great one!  It was sad to say goodbye.  Can't wait for the next visit!  

It was so fun to watch them with Abigail.  Grandma knows how to calm every baby she touches, and Grandpa loves to take videos and pictures of Abby to record every moment of her life!  So sweet.

Abigail Elizabeth Grossarth

Abigail Elizabeth joined our family on April 11, 2013 at 5:38 AM. She weighed 7lbs 2 oz. and was 19.8 in. long.  I've picked my very favorite pictures from her first few days of life, but there are still a lot of them. I took this first one when they came in to take newborn pictures of Abby.  I was glad it turned out pretty well, so we don't have to buy the CD.  :)

Abby's momma looks pretty tired- and I was!  More about that in the next post...

I love this picture because Abby kept lifting her head and looking up at me.  Made me feel pretty special after what I'd just been through.  Sweet little girl.

 Proof that she is the biggest of our babies.  

I could hardly wait for the kids to meet her.  Kaitlyn instantly became Abby's second mother.  

Jackson was so sweet with her.  Such a great big brother.

Madison was very gentle with her.  I was amazed.

This is the only family picture we have so far.  We will have to get another one soon.

Thankfully my mom was there to take care of the kids and Abby arrived before she had to leave!  

 The next day we got all packed up and left the hospital.  

She just looked so tiny in that big carseat!

Abby was immediately loved when we walked in the door.

Kaitlyn thought it was exciting to carry her baby sister.  Luckily that is the only time its happened...so far.

Grandma with the four kids all dressed up on Sunday.

The girls like to feed Abby.

Jackson likes to burp her.  

Kaitlyn was my big helper when I took Abigail to the Dr. for her first checkup.  Abby had already passed her birth weight on day 5 of life so we didn't have to go back at 2 weeks.  That's my little eater!

Little snugglers.

Gotta love the bow with karo syrup trick that my mom used for me, and I love to use for my bald babies. 

Everyone continues to love snuggle time with baby whenever the get a chance!  The only complaint they have is that she sleeps too much and they always want to be holding her.  

Pre-baby Days...

One of the biggest items on our "to do" list before baby arrived was to finish this cradle.  Kevin took on that task and it was A LOT more work than we expected.  I'm grateful for a wonderful husband who completed it for our baby girl!  It turned out so nice.  

We were at the J-Crew outlet and found a shirt in Jackson's size that Kevin already had.  Jackson was so excited.  He could hardly wait to put it on and insisted that Kevin wear it too.  Pretty sweet.

Kaitlyn felt a little left out, so everyone got in a picture together.

The weekend before the baby was born, we got to watch General Conference where we hear from the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It was a wonderful two days and the kids were pretty good just coloring and playing on the floor.  Madison had decided she wanted to start using the potty and she did really well, until she changed her mind and wanted diapers on again.  That was fine with me though because I really hadn't planned to potty train my toddler with a newborn to take care of as well! 

My mom came to visit on Monday April 8th and we had two whole days to play before the baby arrived.  Of course we didn't know that at the time and were worried that my mom wouldn't even get to meet our baby before she left.  The kids adore my mom and enjoyed lots of stories and playtime.

Easter!

Preparing for and celebrating Easter was very exciting this year.  Jackson and Kaitlyn couldn't wait  to color eggs and they did a great job with it.  The next day they just wanted to eat all their eggs.

Madison only wanted to play with the plastic eggs, which was just great because it was MUCH less of a mess.

 

Jackson and Madison helped me to make rice crispy egg nests.



They were so fun to make, and even better to eat!

 

Jackson found a slug and it was his pet-for-a-day.  He put it in a cup and stuffed a bunch of leaves and flowers in it.  I think the slug died later that day, or maybe it just played dead so Jackson would leave it alone!  Thankfully, it kept us from housing a slimy bug in his room that night!  

 

 

We got with some friends and did an Easter egg hunt.  





 

The kids could hardly wait to find their Easter baskets.  Madison quickly found the chocolate!  Definitely my little girl.

 



 

This was the best shot we could do to get with them all in their Easter gear.  So cute.

This was our fabulous dinner.



This picture doesn't really have anything to do with Easter, but it shows off our pretty new bed spread.  Plus the three kids were cute all sitting there watching a show.  Madison wasn't feeling too good, which is why she is still in pjs at 3:00 PM.  

Visit to the Tri-Cities & March Happenings

We wanted to visit our family members that live in Richland, WA and decided we had better do it before the baby comes.  We visited my Aunt Julie, Uncle Mike and cousin Dana and her cute twins.  It was fun to chat with them and catch up on life.

We stayed with Kevin's brother Lance, Heather and their son Eric.  It was such a fun visit.  The kids never wanted to leave.  Somehow we got away without getting any pictures with them.  But we did go to Eric's track meet and the kids had fun watching him run so fast!  They treated us like royalty and the weekend ended all too soon.  We can't wait for the next visit!

The kids did pretty well during the 3 hour car ride thank goodness!

I don't have very many pictures of my belly during this pregnancy, which makes me sad because usually we have taken more, but Kevin took this one when I was about 27 weeks.  

Kaitlyn was taking pictures with my phone and snapped this one of my belly.  I was 38 weeks here.

We have had the best winter here. Its been very mild with no snow.  Until March, when we had a storm during the night and woke up to this.  The kids had a blast playing in it before heading off to preschool.  Good thing we took advantage because by the afternoon it was all gone and the sun was out again.

 The girls were just being silly once again while eating lunch outside one afternoon.  The last few weeks have looked like this which is amazing in Seattle!  I love the sunny weather.

Some friends gave us a cradle and Kevin decided to refinish it.  He is just finishing it up right now and I'm excited for our baby girl to sleep in it!