New Blog

We will continue chronicling our adventures with three daughters here: pureheroicgrace.blogspot.com

Awaiting Katarina

February 2010 was busy, not just because of the usual activities, Valentine's Day, and Gabi's birthday.


Bella at her preschool Valentine's party


Gabi enjoyed helping bake banana pudding
(but then refused to even taste it).
We spent much of the month anticipating the arrival of our newest family member (and hoping that she would wait until after Gabi's birthday celebration before making an appearance). We bought a nice rocking recliner, a new bassinet, and even a minivan for the baby.


Daddy practicing lullabies


Our neighbor, Liz, hosted a diaper shower for me!


Diaper shower guests
Continuing the pictorial account of my baby bump progress:


7-month baby bump (Jan. 1)


7.5-month baby bump (Jan. 17)


8.5-month baby bump (Valentine's Day)


A week before delivery (Feb. 21)


About 30 hours or so before delivery (Feb. 28)
That last picture was taken the evening of our trip to Labor and Delivery, when I felt significant back pain and thought the baby might be coming. We were sent home, though, and didn't return until I had the baby in my arms! And now for the "after" picture:


Mommy with newborn Katarina (St. Patrick's Day)

January 2010

I need two posts to catch up, and then we will move to the new blog. Tita came to visit us over New Year's, and the girls had a blast playing with her.


Bella wanted to ride Tita like a horsie


Gabi's turn on the horsie


Bella serves Tita a tea party


Bella and baby Hannah in matching pajamas


Tita with Gabi and Asha in matching PJs
This winter was especially cold here in Little Rock, so we had lots of indoor fun. Here's a selection of pictures from January.


Bella putting on her own shoes


Gabi snuggled with her giant tigers


Gabi dressed herself up like a princess


Bella giving a harmonica concert


Gabi skating with Daddy on her new roller skates


Gabi and Asha in matching bathrobes


Bella improvising a key to "unlock" the play door


Gabi painting the girls' fingernails


The girls on an outing downtown


Bella snuggled inside Daddy's coat


Gabi showing off the quilt on her bed

Croup

Ready to go home from the hospital

We are working on setting up a new blog, but our hands have been full this week not only with a newborn but also with our sick two-year-old. Poor Bella has croup! :(


Bella resting in the chair after a sleepless night of coughing

In the mean time, I wanted to share a few more pictures of our newest little one!


Gabi and Daddy holding baby Katarina


Daddy and his little angel


Katarina

Blogging for Three

I really like our blog name, HeroicGrace. When Annabelle was born, we changed it from BabyGabriella to be inclusive of both daughters, and we selected a name using the meanings of the two girls' names. Now we have another baby, and we need to decide whether to keep our blog name or switch again. If we change the blog name, it would be nice to keep it as short as possible so that typing it in the URL field isn't so cumbersome.

We have considered:
HeroicGrace (the current name),
PureHeroicGrace (adding the meaning of Katarina's name),
MikeyLissa or Mikey-Lissa (switching to parent names, although we don't plan on having more kids)
LightOnInTheHall (lyrics from the Trout Fishing lullaby)

The blog title across the top will be the girls' names, no matter what address we use.

Katarina Lillian

For those of you not following the action on Facebook, we had our new baby yesterday! We have lots and lots and lots of great pictures, but since Mommy and Katya are still at the hospital with the camera, we are limited in what we can share on the blog. Here is a selection of the best of the best from her birthday!

Also, please vote in our new poll on the sidebar. We have to figure out if we're going to switch blogs like we did when Bella was born.

Gabi's 5th Birthday

Our big girl is 5 years old already. It has been such an amazing five years for us. I would invite you, if you have the time, to look back at Gabi's original blog from when she was a baby, and when Mommy and Daddy were still figuring out parenting, not to mention this whole blogging thing.


Happy Birthday to our sweet Gabi girl!


Gabi helped bake this chocolate chip cookie cake.


Gabi shows off that she is five years old with her blue-frosting-tinged fingers.
We had a family birthday dinner with Lolo, Lola, Ninang, and Cousin Steven on Gabi's birthday. She requested specifically that Mommy cook her chicken pot pie instead of our going out to eat. Cousin Steven was almost as excited as Gabi about the several dozen balloons Mommy and Daddy filled her bedroom with.


Opening a birthday present from Lolo and Lola.


Steven knows all about static electricity.
We were all treated to a demonstration.
Gabi's big birthday present from Mommy and Daddy was a big girl bike. We couldn't figure out how to wrap the bike, so we wrapped the basket for the bike instead.

Gabi (genuinely excited): Ooh! It's a basket to put stuff in.
Dadday: Well, it's a basket for your bike. Do you have a bike?
Gabi (confused): Um... no...
Daddy: Really? Well, let's go look in the garage.

Gabi is surprised and excited when she opens the door.
"Mommy, I didn't know I had a bike in the garage!"


Bella was also excited about the new bike and kept running in front of it.


Gabi is now very good at making sharp turns and stopping abruptly.


No crazy two-year-olds were injured in the making of this blog post.
For Gabi's party, she requested that her friends come over dressed up like princesses, so they could have a tea party. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's exactly what she had for her birthday party last year. We fancied it up more this year, though.


Mommy had a treasure hunt in the living room to find pendants.
Snow White Veda found one hidden on the couch.


After finding the pendants, the girls used them to make necklaces.
Cinderella Samantha is hard at work on hers.


Afterwards, we had high tea with sandwiches cut into butterfly and heart shapes.
Tinkerbell Gabi enjoys a strawberry at her princess luncheon.


And of course there were presents!


A thank-you hug
Bella has grown into Gabi's Cinderella dress just as Gabi was growing out of it. Gabi got this dress for Halloween 2007 when she was 2 1/2 (Bella's current age), and it has remained her favorite princess dress for special occasions like Halloween 2008 and Gabi's 4th birthday. Gabi had originally requested to wear it again today, but agreed to go with the Tinkerbell dress she got for her birthday last year, upon finding out that Bella didn't have a princess dress to wear. Annabelle was very excited to get to wear the big girl dress, as you can see from this picture.


Cinderella Bella is less reserved than Cinderella Gabi was at her age.


Bella was also excited about the birthday cupcakes...


...and having real juice in the tea cups we usually only have for pretend drinking.

Gramma Jane, Grampa, and Uncle Brian all came out to celebrate with Gabi girl. They were dismayed to find out they weren't allowed to sit at the princess table at lunch. It was for princesses only, and neither Gramma Jane nor Grampa were wearing a dress (which is apparently a prerequisite for princess-ness).


A thank-you hug for Gramma Jane in the cute new apron she made for Gabi.


Bedtime stories with Gramma Jane and Grampa

Before bedtime after a long day of celebrating, Gabi impressed Gramma Jane and Grampa by reading them all of this new book they got her for her birthday. For more on Gabi's literary skills make sure you check out the post Mommy made just a few days ago. Gabi can also read the comments you make here, so we'll be sure to alert her if there are new birthday wishes below for her to enjoy (hint, hint).