Colleen's Arrival

Colleen Marie Hanks arrived on April 7, 2016.

Her arrival was quite different from her siblings. My water broke at 1:30pm and I called some friends to come stay with the kids while we headed to the hospital.

Jess, Emma & Mia came and took their naptime at the house as Patrick and I headed to the hospital.

Patrick was so giddy that he took all sorts of photos while I was in labor, none of them particularly flattering. But there were smiles until contractions finally started at 5pm and then she was born at 8:46pm!

Our petite little lady - 6lb 11oz with dark brown hair 

I think this is what they mean by "love at first sight"

All clean!

Our great labor & delivery nurses

The nurses during my stay were enjoying their shifts; there were three of us who were in the postpartum area with our third kiddos. The nurses said it was the most relaxed shift they'd had in weeks since we didn't bother anyone for anything and just spent our stay snuggling and resting before heading home to much louder homes.

Who wouldn't want to snuggle with this?

On Friday morning, Patrick headed home to relieve our pieced-together childcare and pick up his parents from the airport after their last minute flight change. In the afternoon, they brought the kids to meet their little sister.

Both kids were really great about wanting to hold her and curious about the hospital room. 

Grandma getting snuggles

My friend Sarah came for a little visit later that evening.

Colleen and I spent Friday night together and then Daddy came to spend Saturday with us until we were discharged.

I'm pretty sure I have a photo of Patrick eating while holding each one of our children in the hospital.

Getting ready to go home

War Eagle!

Poor kid - Daddy grabbed the receiving blankets that were on top (all blue!) and she's got on her orange onesie so we grabbed a pink hat. Good thing no one stopped to ask us if we had a son or daughter.

Finally calm after the 'Daddy swing' started with the carseat

On the road home

On our way out of the hospital, we realized that it was snowing! Although it turned into a rainy mix on the drive home, you never know what you're going to get with the weather in April.

When we arrived home, the kids were eager to hold their baby sister all over again.

We came home to these beautiful decorations that Grandma, Granddaddy, Amelia and Austin had put together.

First photo as a family of five

Arm Bike, Lego Exhibit & Running Bases

Daddy assembled the arm bike that the kids received at Christmas, thinking it would be a fun new distraction inside until it was nice enough to take it outside. As usual, his helpers thought the packaging was the highlight at first.

Learning how to maneuver.

Over the next few days, the kids got pretty good at rolling around our living room in the arm bike.

As part of our preparing for Grandma to come visit and how to be kind to her broken arm, I sewed the kids each their own arm sling from fabric they chose. Our doctors' kits just keep getting new items!

Lunch at a new diner after our weekly library run (now on Saturdays with Daddy). I wonder sometimes what the staff at restaurants think about us when we enter with our large stack of books and read between ordering and eating. 

Silly fireman animals

Sweet boy during naptime

A nearby mall was hosting a traveling Lego exhibit of various national monuments. I took the kids to pass one morning looking at them throughout the mall and then playing in the Duplo/Lego play area.

Washington Monument

Statue of Liberty

The kids have a book about the statue so Amelia was super excited to see this one.

Jefferson Memorial

the Capitol

Race Track in the play area

Another afternoon we went to the park and dragged our t-ball set out to the vacant baseball diamond. The kids were so excited to run the bases after hitting the ball; we easily spent an hour just hitting and running, hitting and running, and repeat. They slept well that night!

Mini Girls' Weekend

Kimberly, an Auburn ChemE friend came to NJ for a wedding shower and stayed with us over the weekend; Carolyn came down also so we could have some girl time all together. The kids snuck in some reading time and play time. It was a really nice relaxing weekend - not many photos because we mostly spent our time chatting and catching up.

Saturday morning library run

After Kimberly returned from the shower, we went and painted pottery and had a lovely kid-free dinner.

While we were out, Patrick and the kids made and ate ribs and watched basketball. They were still up past their bedtime when we returned home and very happy with their evening with Daddy. Amelia is showing off her sticky sauced fingers after "eating meat off the bones".

Kimberly left early Sunday morning and Carolyn stayed until the afternoon so we just relaxed and did a painting windchime project.

Austin turned it into a painting-everything-black project.

Later when we assembled the windchimes, the kids pretended they were various instruments. Amelia is pretending a drum here.

Austin's violin