Katharine Mercy Schwartz

On Thursday, November 20 we had a precious addition to our family. Kate decided she was not going to wait until my due date, or even my induction date to make her appearance. At 5:00 p.m. my contractions started fast and strong, by 5:30 we were rushing to the hospital and at 8:43 she was here. Impatient little thing isn't she?

Just arrived!

Slightly proud Papa!

We don't make boys, and we don't make little! 8 lbs, 6 oz-A tie for our "smallest".

This is what euphoria looks like! (post delivery obviously!)

Mama and Kate.

Maddie and Kate.

Megan and Kate.

Brianna and Kate.

Alyssa wasn't too sure what she thought about this new baby and about the fact that Mom was in a bed in the hospital. At first she just stayed by me.

But with a little coaxing she warmed up pretty quickly. :o)

Isn't she precious?

I mean really precious?

We just adore her!

Ready to come home!

In general Kate has been a very good baby. She is eating well and sleeps most of the time of course. She had her days and nights really mixed up at first but seems to be quickly figuring that out. And best of all she seems to be perfectly healthy. We will be doing an ultrasound on her kidneys in January just to check on things, but the length of time before we need to have it done definitely says something about how not concerned about it her pediatrician is. We are so thankful.

Kate is a beautiful baby and we love her so much. We are so greatful that God has blessed us with yet another perfect, little lady.

Last post before Kate's arrival

Tomorrow I go in at 6 a.m. (yikes!) to be induced. I am unbelievably nervous, but glad that it will be over soon and terribly glad that we are finally going to meet our new little lady after all this time!

Today I am (surprise, surprise) cleaning-Hoping to leave things in a relative state of order in the morning when we leave. The girls are headed to my parents house tonight so we don't need to attempt to drop them off at 5:30 in the morning. They will be there for 2 days so Jas can be with Kate and I as much as possible for the first couple of days.

I will post pictures as soon as I am able-it may be a couple of days though. In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers!

Farewell to the four

Yesterday I realized that pictures of all of my children will soon include 5 ladies. I decided I needed a few last pictures of just the four so here they are. They weren't feeling very cooperative but I wasn't going for perfection. It was more of a nostalgic thing.

This is the first picture I have of them all together.

They've grown just a little I'm thinking!

Goodbye my four ladies-Soon you will be five! (I'm feeling a little bit teary right now)

My obsession

Some women crave chocolate. Some salty foods, some sweet, some even crave things like fistfuls of flour and sticks of butter (true story). I crave 2 things-Ice, (oh how I love to eat ice!!) and smells. Yes, I said smells. Most recently it has been Pine-Sol.No, I'm not kidding. My house smells perpetually of Pine-Sol right now. I clean everything with it. Floors, counter tops, tables, windows, mirrors, even if it shouldn't be cleaned with Pine-Sol it gets cleaned with Pine-Sol because I love the smell!!!! Some of my family is quite enjoying it with me, other parts not so much-They'll live as I'm sure it won't last forever. I have not gone so far as to just sniff it from the bottle-I have been known to do that with other scent cravings (yes there are others) so don't worry, Kate should come out relatively normal. And for your information I am not the only one who has this quirk. I have searched on Google and found other pregnant women with the exact same craving. ;o)

Eviction Notice

For Miss Katharine Schwartz:

This is to inform you that if you do not vacate the premises by Friday, November the 21st, 2008, we will be required on that date, to remove you by force. We hope you have enjoyed your stay with us, but believe that you have overstayed your welcome and therefore, we would like you to leave and never return. We are not sorry for any inconvenience this will cause you as we are certain our inconvenience will greatly outweigh yours in this matter.

Thank you and we look forward to your quick compliance.

Sincerely,

The Management

1 little, 2 little, pretty ballerinas

You can't get much cuter than these two!!

Happy Birthday Meg!!

You're 9 today Miss Megan! Part of me can't believe you are so old already, and part of me thinks you've been this old forever. Life is a conundrum like that sometimes I guess.

What a lovely lady you are turning into. (although the lipstick is a bit much don't you think?) ;o)

Older kids

The older those my kids get, the more helpful they are. I rarely make lunch anymore because one or the other usually asks me if they can do it, and you better believe I say yes! Maybe they offer because they think they won't get fed if they have to wait for me to get around to it. ;o)

Will try and post later

After a relatively peaceful weekend I am somehow left with absolute chaos in my home. For some reason the mess seems to be lot worse today than it normally is on Mondays. Maybe it is because I'm pregnant and wanting everything to be in order for Kate's arrival. It's quite frustrating because it is getting more and more difficult for me to get things done that I would like to get done. Walking from one side of a room to another is hard enough, much less scrubbing down my kitchen and yet that is my plan for the day. *sigh*

So in the meantime, I have no cute, fun kid pictures to share with you. No funny little stories. Sorry-you will have to be patient with me as sometimes life just gets in the way. I'll see if I can't dig something up later!

A warm, cuddly nap...

...on a cold, snowy afternoon.

The view from my window...

...at 7 o'clock this morning.

Lovely!

Lefse!!

It's that time of the year again!! The holidays are fast approaching and for our Norwegian family that means it's time to make lefse. It is a lot of work, but amid all the mixing, rolling, flipping and fighting we usually seem to have a good time. ;o)

Measuring out ingredients.

Mixing the dough by hand. This is messy and time consuming!

The girls helped us by pre-rolling the dough balls for us.

Rolling out the dough. In order to know it is thin enough, you should be able to see the lines on the pastry mat through your lefse.

This is Caleb, helping us about as much as he does every year...

...but this time he decided to give lefse making a roll! (Heh heh)

Cooking the lefse. Yes, it takes a very skilled person to do this.

The finished product! To be eaten with butter and white sugar if you please. ;o)

Papa's room

For some reason, a long time ago, I decided it would be nice for Jas to have his own space-somewhere he could go, unwind, get away from things-He does work hard all week after all. What I didn't take into account was that it would be his favorite place to go. Hidden away in the basement, where I can't chatter at him all I want. What was I thinking??

However, another thing I didn't take into account is that he would be more than willing to let his girls hang out with him in his room. They go down there, talk to Papa, play with his stuff, and just enjoy spending time being where he is. This, in my opinion, makes it totally worth it.

Sleep over

Last night was Halloween and I just didn't feel like doing Halloween this year. We had nothing going on at church and I didn't want to do the costume thing and trudge (waddle) along-either through the neighborhood, or the mall. So we didn't. We had a sleep over instead. Maddie and Meg each chose a friend to spend the night and Brianna was allowed to hang out with the older girls while they did their thing. What exactly is "their thing"? Well let's just say there was lots of candy, popcorn, movies, and giggles in my living room last night.

For me it was an amazingly peaceful night. Jas was gone so I had him hook up the cable in our room, grabbed myself some popcorn, and Lissa and I hung out in the bedroom, away from all the goofiness of the living room. Not a bad way to spend an evening if I do say so myself!

Here are a few pictures that the girls took of themselves this morning. Pretty cute in my opinion!

Tessa and Meg

Emma and Maddie

The whole gaggle of 'em!