Everly's First Bath...at home.

You'll see by the pictures, she clearly loved her first bath.  Lucky for us, this was the only bath she decided it necessary to scream through!  I got very few pictures because she was obviously not a fan and wanted nothing to do with being clean, but it is documented nonetheless.  On this particular day I was going to attempt to take some newborn pictures of her so I thought it would be nice if she didn't look like a complete grease ball.  Turns out, maybe I should have left her greasy so that hair would stay down! Live and learn.  Live and learn.

Welcome Everly Lorraine

Well the time has finally come, it's time to introduce the princess of the house.  Everly Lorraine joined us a day after her brother's 9th birthday!  We are going to have busy September's from here on out, but Nolan has already volunteered to have combined family parties :).  For the most part everything went pretty smoothly, she didn't come out quite as quickly as Bennett but she was a close second.  I had some issues with the first epidural they tried to give me, but second time was a charm and I started feeling no pain just in time to push!  I wasn't planning on natural childbirth, but I definitely almost experienced it!  But it's been a few months since that day now, so I'm starting to get that motherly amnesia everyone talks about.  Now as I look back, that day seems nothing but blissful (almost).  She came out with a decent head of hair and a prominent butt chin, definitely a Struckmann baby!  Depending on the person you ask or the day you look at her depends on whether you think she looks like Nolan or Bennett.  If you ask me, she is a perfect combination of both.  We are so in love.  She has completed our family and made our hearts full.

Things were going a little too smoothly, so Everly decided to spice things up a bit.  She landed herself in the NICU for a couple of days due to an eye infection.  They wanted to give her some antibiotics and do some testing to make sure there was no infection in her bloodstream and that it was just concentrated in the eye.  She was given a clean bill of health after a couple of days in the NICU and we were cleared to go home!! I did think we needed a couple of pictures though to include with her journey, the nurses even made her a little banner to spice up her space a bit.

And FINALLY we got to bring the little princess home.  Look at those proud big brothers!!

Nolan's Birthday

Nolan was turning 9, I was due 5 days after his birthday.  I so stupidly decided I should have his birthday party the week before my due date.  Pregnancy brain does WEIRD things to you.  He wanted a little sleepover, I know I told you it was not my brightest idea!  I did have one bright idea though, I took them to a trampoline park to get their energy out!!  I think it worked, kind of, and then we came home ate cake and they ran around the house for a few hours before we made them go to sleep.  All in all, pretty uneventful quite honestly.  I heard minimal fighting, no one got hurt and they got a "decent" amount of sleep.  Happiest of birthdays to the one who made me a Mom, and the one who makes me proud of him EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Grilling 101

For Father's Day a bunch of us got our better halves a gift certificate to Weber Grill to their "Grilling Academy".  Which meant we got to go too, we are smart us ladies.  It took a few months to land on a date that would work for everyone one but we finally did it!  We had enough of us that we got to do a private class which turns out was a good thing because we are totally inappropriate and should not be around anyone that doesn't know us well.  Lucky for us our teacher thought we were funny...I think.  He tolerated us at least.  We had a great time making some fancy food, eating, drinking and making fun of each other.  We may have even learned something?  Maybe, verdict is still out on that one.