Happy Easter

So much for keeping the pictures coming. I have a good excuse though, I have been getting spoiled by my mother-in-law for the last two weeks. She leaves on Tuesday, so I will have to rejoin the real world!
Alexis was blessed at Church today. We wanted to do it while Jess' Mom was still here. My Aunt Sherry and Katelyn also came down. Jess and I look a little sleepy (how can that be?!) but it's a great shot of our little Lexi girl!

Jess always gives me a hard time for wanting to take a photo of the family on Easter before church. This time I had his Mama in my corner. We got tons of photos!

Jess and Matthew didn't get the memo that this was the silly face one. This is the,"Holy cow, look how many kids I have!" face!

I'll post more photos from the past 2 weeks later. I hope you all had a happy Easter!

It's been a little over a week...

Get ready for picture overload!!
Mama's back and the pictures are flowing! Jess was pretty stingy, right?!
My Mom held Alexis' hand while the nurses were poking and prodding her and she was so mellow. I keep my fingers crossed that she stays mellow. I need that.

Summer enjoyed "working'' next to Grammy while she was here.

This is the day I came home from the hospital. For some reason Matthew wanted his picture taken with me, with his pants down! Let's all hope he doesn't make a habit of this one!

This is my good friend Brenda and her husband, Marcello. Brenda and I were best friends and entirely inseparable in 6,7 and 8th grade when our families lived in Germany. They were in FL on vacation and we were able to visit twice while they were down. It was so great to reminisce with her.

A little out of order, I know, but I was too lazy to rearrange it. Matthew trying out the baby warmer. When they came to see me at the hospital, they could only stay about 10 minutes before Matthew had to be led out in restraints! Just kidding, but there are a lot of things for a busy little two year old to touch, but he managed to touch it all. No button went unpressed!

I am so happy that she is here and to not be pregnant anymore!

Summer came with Jess to pick us up from the hospital. She is beside herself with glee that she has a baby sister! I'll have to pull these out to remind her when they are teens!

She was really excited to dress Alexis in real clothes. She likes to pick out her outfits everyday. For having no place to go, she is always looking good thanks to big sis, Summer.

Matthew loves her, too. He walks by her a says, "Baby, so cute." or "Where my baby Lexis?" He is quick to drag us to her rescue when she is crying. And his latest saying is, "Thank you for rescuing me." And for those of you wondering, the big scab on his head is a self inflicted carpet burn.

We all went to see Grammy off at the airport. We were sad to see her go, and grateful that she was able to come and help us out. We now look forward to Grandma coming tomorrow! She gets to stay for 2 whole weeks! Man am I going to have some rotten children after 3 1/2 weeks of Grandmas to spoil them!

Summer posing in her new dress from Grammy before church on Sunday. I just realized that I don't have a picture of T Jay in this post. He loves his baby, too. He will tell me that he hasn't gotten to hold Alexis yet if I try to send him to bed and he hasn't held her that day. It may be a clever way of prolonging bedtime, but that is a whole other post!

The Candy Bong

Summer got this wand filled with candy from Cracker Barrel this weekend. Matthew being the genius that he is (it took Jess a while to figure out how to get the candy out), figured out how to open the wand and he sprinkled the candy all over the floor. Rather than clean it up myself, I told the kids to eat/clean it up. When we looked back in on them, this is the method of consumption that they came up with!

The Winner...

This is Baby girl on Monday when we came home from the hospital! So sweet! She has dimples just like the other kids!

Okay, on to the winner, who doesn't even get a prize, my little brother Chris guessed what day Alexis would be born. Way to go! (nice prize right?! If you come see me I'll bake you cookies!) I appreciate everyone guessing before my due date, but she couldn't be willed out any earlier! I'm just grateful that all went well and it's a memory now.

Alexis Melin

Guest post by Proud Papa (again!) Jess:

I have to say - I won the lottery when it came to having kids. I wanted a boy - we got TJ. Then I wanted a girl - we got Summer. Then I wanted another boy - along came Matthew. To finish out the family and bring balance back to our universe I wanted to finish with another girl and today Kelli let me hit the powerball (even though it was 3:11 AM!). Alexis Melin was born after another quick and flawless delivery by my beautiful wife. We are very excited with the latest addition to the family. I will follow tradition and give you the stats as if I had just landed a nice fish: 7 lbs, 15 oz, 19 1/2 inches long. I guess you can't be 'tall' until you actually stand up for the first time!

Two of my beautiful girls.

I can't tell you how excited Summer is to be a big sister!

Here are the three doctors who made sure the whole thing was a success!

That Eerie Silence

You all know that eerie feeling, right? You know the one where you are in the middle of something and you realize that it is way too quiet for way too long. Yep, that one. Well, every once in a while, it turns out like this...
Usually though, this is more accurate.

He's very proud of his work. I have to tell you, I had to try really hard to keep from getting angry or crying so that I could document this one. I figure when he's older it will make my case for getting a good nursing home a lot better!

Nope, still no baby yet. I have hopes for this weekend, we'll see!

So far...

So, no Luck O' the Irish here when it comes to baby having so far. My Mom arrives today, so maybe the "you'd better not have that baby before I get there" directive will expire and we can get down to business! Just kidding, Mom! I'll keep ya posted! For now, here's what we've been up to:
Summer began taking gymnastics a few weeks ago and loves it. She has been furiously working on her cart wheels and has gotten a lot better. T Jay thought that "all of the stuff she gets to play with" during class was "way cooler" than what he got to play with during tennis so he opted to take gymnastics, too. I have a one activity per child rule, so he had to pick. Am I mean or what?!

On Sunday evening we drove to Titusville to let the kids see their first Space Shuttle. I forgot from my previous time in FL that when your camera sits in the A/C and then you try to use it outside, you get a foggy lens. So, all of our pics are a little hazy. We drove up just in time for the kids to climb on the roof (secretly their favorite part, I think.) and watch it go.

This is the best shot we got. It was a really neat launch because it was pretty dark down low, but the higher it got, there was more light because the sun was still in the process of setting. We hit two different sets of traffic (a wreck and construction), which does not bring out the best in me (I get really irritable). We added an extra hour and a half on to our drive. I am glad we went, though.

Here is our little Irish Princess for St Patty's day. When asked to lay her clothes out, she found every green article of clothing that she owns! It is really hard for me to let her dress herself some days. This one didn't turn out as bad as I initially thought.

I learned something new yesterday. I didn't know that Leprechauns were mischievous. T. Jay was telling me all about his classroom run ins with a naughty leprechaun. Apparently I need to read up on the traditions and fables of St. Patty's day.