In the Beginning - Amelia Claire

She's here! Amelia Claire was born on 12/12 (which I particularly love since I am an 11/11 birthday baby and those kinds of things matter to me), at 10:15pm, weighing 7lbs 13oz and 20 inches long. After a sweet visit from her brothers at the hospital we brought her home and so far things have been going pretty well. Here are some pictures from her first week.

How lucky to have these two boys as your big brothers!

They were both so excited to meet their little sister. 

Aunt Nancy came to visit...

 and Aunt Stacey...

Heading home from the hospital, below in the sweater that has been passed down through the Sherman side of the family.

 Nana spent months knitting Amelia's very own baby blanket.

The Schwartzes sponsored a stork.

She's no dummy:  Just like Owen 4 1/2 years ago, she arrived with a message, "Dear Jacob and Owen, I come in peace...and with gifts."

She got to meet LOTS of family and friends in her first week:

Sam and Anderson,

Aunt Rochelle and Lou were visiting from NY,

Robin, my friend since elementary school was in town too,

Jen and Emily stopped by for a visit,

Memaw and Nana, 

And Pepaw and Beverly.

The first week can be summed up in these two pictures:

Life carried on, though, and since it's "the most wonderful time of the year" we had many celebrations. Owen had his school Christmas concert.

Hanukkah with Nana and Papa.

Celebrating Nana's birthday (which is 12/21, another cool 12/12 connection...if you ask me)

Owen is very sweet with his sister, singing to her, shushing when she cries and keeping her company when he has the time.

Welcome Miss Amelia Claire Sherman. 

She's a keeper.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

We're trying to fit in some fun times in preparation for Hanukkah, Christmas and big ch-ch-ch-ch-changes soon to come!

First, Heath came to visit!...

then a visit to the Theater to see 101 Dalmations...

and to see Christmas lights at a nearby botanical garden with the Schwartzes and Grandma Jackie.

Not normal (they're smiling)

Normal

 

 S'mores with Jackie.

 Family of Four photo 

(me at almost 39 weeks!)

As many of the crew as we could get without tears. 

Small victories. 

(Joshy poo and Cooper Lou were there, just behind the scenes)

Ten Years, Overshadowed

Sure, Thursday was our TENTH wedding anniversary...

(Check out those innocent, young, and slender faces; we're like celebrities, waving to our fans, HA! In addition to having just gotten married, part of the joy was we were walking to the car to take us to the airport to take us to the plane that took us to Hawaii for TWO WEEKS. Wow. If you could have seen me this past Thursday evening (say, around 8pm-ish) in comparison...whew, a very different image.)

BUT I digress, more importantly our tenth anniversary will go down in history as The Day Jacob Lost His FIRST Tooth. Ta da...

If you're thinking, "but there's a tooth there," you're right. That's why we were calling him "Shark Tooth." He says he pulled it out himself at lunch which is awesome because that's an automatic audience of people to show. The school nurse must have a million of those little tooth holders to put around kids' necks when they lose teeth at school, because cousin Anderson, who is in the FIFTH grade, told us that he still has like 10 or 15 teeth to lose. Good grief!  Anyway, in between serious discussions about the Tooth Fairy and what she might bring (FYI: $1 for a snaggly little old front bottom tooth - kids these days!), I made them look through our wedding album, just to bring things back to earth.

Here's the note Jacob wrote The TF:

"Dear Tooth Fairy, I like you and my name is Jacob. This was my first tooth. I hope you writ back and draw a picture."

There's a little small white dot to the right, maybe an inch above the fairy's right shoulder - that's the tooth - enjoy that since there is little to no chance I'll be keeping that tooth for posterity (which separately has been mentioned by BOTH grandmothers as the thing to do). So that was a very exciting day/event! Even Owen said "This is exciting."

After all that excitement, it was Halloween the next day. Earlier in the week Pepaw and Beverly had the boys over for some candied apples.

Then Jacob and Owen had school parties (only have pics from Jacob's), which are complete madness and chaos, but very fun overall.

Uh oh, another Optimus Prime! Who wore it better? (This may only speak to you if you read People or Us Magazine)

And then finally the main event. We quickly carved our pumpkin before heading out to trick or treat.

Optimus Prime and The Hulk
Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween and with houses so close together, Mike took them up and down our street one time and they were filled with loot - by 7:30!! Happy Halloween!