Life with 3

Well, it's been almost 4 weeks now, and we're getting the hang of it! Actually, it seems like Olivia has just always been here. She is such a sweet addition to our family! The kids are still absolutely infatuated with her, and want to hold her and love on her all the time. We've gotten into somewhat of a routine since the kids got out of school so godawful early! Last week was a bit rough with rain almost every day, but with sunshine and warm weather this week, we're now ready for summer! Miss Livilea enjoys her morning beauty rest so I get to have a little time with just the big kids. We've started trying to take a walk early(ish) before it gets too hot. It's still busy with feedings every 2-3 hours, but we're doing well. Thank God for the swingset! It will be our saving grace this summer! Will just finished up soccer and started baseball. He says he likes both, but I cannot imagine how he likes baseball. He looks kinda bored out there waiting for the ball. He does book it around those bases though! (Of course, I think he's the fastest one on the team!! ---- I know he's the tallest, by a head!) Sammy is in recital preparation mode for dance! She has a recital in about 3 weeks, and we can't wait! She has a super-froofy outfit to wear as she "shakes it" to the Good Ship Lollipop and Mickey Mouse. She had dance pics last week so she got to have a preview of her beautimous coustume as well as wear lots of makeup. I took some pre-makeup pics that I'll attach. We're really excited for some pool time coming up in the next couple weeks. With that, church camp, and swim lessons, our summer is quickly filling up!
Here are a few recent pics of the precious babes.

CHEERING ON WILL!

PRETTY DANCER GIRL!

RIDING THE CUSHMAN WITH G-PA GREATKICK IT!!!
SUPER-COOL 3-D GLASSES FROM SEEING SHREK 4 WITH GRANDMA
LAST DAY OF PRE-K
PRECIOUS BABY

SAMMY'S LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL FIRST BATH
WATCHING CARTOONS

And baby makes 5!

We are so excited to introduce Olivia Lea Huggins Petzold!

She was born one week ago, April 28, 2010 at 8:05am. She weighed 8lbs. 4.5 oz. and was 20inches long.

It was such an amazing experience welcoming her last week. Not knowing the gender of the baby was so great! It was just awesome hearing Dr. Sheridan say "It's a girl!" I honestly could not believe it. The tears started immediately! I think mostly because we just were thinking boy. Everyone seemed to think boy so that was just what we thought too. I never really had a strong feeling one way or the other.

The next best thing to meeting her that first time was introducing her to her brother and sister. Will and Sammy had spent the morning with Papa (Mom was with us in the OR). When Dad brought them to the hospital we had just barely gotten to our room. The walked up to the bed and I was holding her. Will said, "Is it a boy?" I just said, "This is Olivia." Sammy beamed. Her wish for a sister came true!! Will took it well, and has been absolutely amazing with her ever since.

We had a pretty good hospital stay, and brought Olivia home on Sunday. We are tremendously blessed that Mom and Dad took so much time from their work schedules to have the kids for most of the week. We are all so happy to be home together and adjust to this baby thing one more time! Olivia is a precious gift, and we are loving every moment!

FOUR

Our baby girl is 4 today! It just doesn't even feel right to say it out loud! When she came into this world four years ago, we were all just so excited to welcome this sweet baby girl. Although she was a little 7 pound peanut, she showed her strong personality even then. She has always been the one to observe first, then act. She knows just exactly what she wants and has no problem doing whatever it takes to get it. We are just so proud of our little Sammylou! She is a week away from becoming a big sister, and we know she will do a perfect job. Currently, her preferred career for when she grows up is, and I quote, "A princess. A real one." She plans to get mani/pedi's on a weekly basis, and just let people wait on her. She also informed us that she does not plan on kissing any princes. She'll just be a princess on her own!

Here are a few pics from our little princess's birthday party.

A Few of My Favoite Things

I made the official decision that spring is definitely my favorite season. It is just so wonderful to have an end to the bitter cold, dark, and brown winter. We are loving seeing all of the new green outside every day. My very favorite flower is the lilac, and we have 3 bushes in our yard. I cut some about every other day so I can bring the smell inside. HAPPY SPRING!

Easter and such

I feel like there's a lot of catching up to do, so a lot of this is just a picture update! It's everything from Sam's super-cute support of the awesome Cats to Easter weekend. We've enjoyed a 2 week visit with cousin Viv, and we are dreading Friday when she has to go. We had a fun Easter weekend, and even got a swing set to make it extra special! We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Baby P #3 in 3 weeks. Viv and Sam are putting their money on meeting Olivia, and won't even think about what the alternative could be! Will is pretty certain he'll be holding Thomas Ryan in just a few weeks. Ryan's not sure he'll be able to handle the drama of another girl, while I pray that God will grant me an extra dose of patience if it's another active, busy boy! We just can't wait to see our happy, healthy baby soon!!

Ready to cheer on the Cats!

Sammy and Maggie at dance class The clothes are washed and ready. What'll it be?
At a baby shower for Erin (in red). Shannon (far right) had her baby the next day, and the other girls are all due this month!
EGGS!
At the church Easter egg hunt
Easter morning
All dressed up!
Will shed the dress up clothes quick so he could help build the swing set!
Ryan and Dad building the swing set

Baby P Number 3 update

Just a quick update on Baby P #3...... (due to my extreme lack of maintaining a pregnancy calendar/journal, thought I could at least have updates on here!) I'm now down to the every 2 week appointments. They're super short, sweet and simple. Just a quick measure of my ginormous tummy and a listen to the heartbeat. Really the only thing I've heard for the last two weeks is, "You make big babies." and "I think this is going to be another big one like your first." Aside from a couple little fainting spells, things are going great. The kids are beyond excited, and so ready for the baby to be here! A few of my 10 or so friends who are pregnant have had their babies recently, so we all have "baby" on the brain now. Unless the baby changes his/her mind and tries to arrive before then, we have a c-section scheduled for April 28th. Everything is on track, and just growing, growing, growing!

One of my less finer moments...

We've come out of hibernation this week, and it has been so nice! Just being able to open the blinds and let the sunshine in has been great! Now when they see sunlight, the kids (Will especially) think we need to be outside. We took a picnic lunch to the park today after we picked Will up from school. It was so nice to take a walk, let the kids swing, and watch them just run free! We did have a bit of an incident at the park today though. Will was running around on the park equipment and I heard him start crying. He came over holding his ear and I saw that it was really red and had a cut that was bleeding. He said that another boy hit him. I don't quite know what came over me, but I marched over to that little boy (who looked pretty scared) and asked him if he hit Will. He just nodded yes. The other boy's mom was next to him pretty quick and said that they had collided. I was just so afraid that the boy had hit Will with a stick or something. I'm not sure if the boy "hit" him just from running into him or if he deliberately did it. We quickly got our stuff together because I didn't know if we were going to need to go get some stiches or not. Of course, Sammy was upset because I was frazzled, which did not help matters! (I know that some of you are not surprised about my reaction because I occasionally have a mild overreaction in emergency situations. I was definitely not gifted with calm, patient reaction to medical emergencies like Stacy and Mom!) Once Will realized he was bleeding on top of it just hurting terribly, there was a whole new round of tears. (Not at all like his mother!)

Anyway, after my "crazy mom yelling at another kid who's not mine" moment, and frantically rushing the kids to the car, we got home, surveyed the bleeding, swollen ear, and decided against stiches. I dosed him up with Tylenol and put ice on it. He even let me clean it up with alcohol!

It was a pretty sad end to our fun park play day. Hopefully next time will be better!!