Which one of these things....

is not like the other?

Give up? That's because they are all alike. I never really thought that Ashby and Avery looked a lot alike as babies, but when you throw Luke in the mix, I sure can tell they all belong to us. Man I love these kids. And here's one more picture of Luke kind of smiling. He's a big kid huh?

Goodbye forever

We've had some big changes around here in the last month or so. The girls have grown up a lot in the last month and it all started at the dentist. I took the girls on Oct. 27 and Avery received a stern talking to about her thumb-sucking. The dentist said he likes them to stop sucking their thumb at age 2, we were well past that. He talked to her about it and we reinforced it at home and I'm happy to report that she has tremendous will power and no longer sucks her thumb. Well we don't think so anyway. She only sucked her thumb with her blanket and blankets have been confined to the bedroom for the past year or so, so it's actually hard to know that she doesn't suck any more. She says she hasn't been and I'm inclined to believe her. Ashby also had some major changes. She gave up her blanket, yep we're terrible parents, she was 6 and still sleeping with a blanket. She has done great, despite what she thought. Prior to taking the blanket away, the thought of sleeping without it struck such fear into her heart it was sad and a little scary. Anyway I thought I would show a progression of blanket use in our house. Brynn please don't feel bad about the condition of Ashby's blanket (she made it), no other item in our house has been as loved!

Exhibit A: See it there by the couch?

Exhibit B: Summer 2004

Exhibit C: 2005

Exhibit D: 2005, this is the earliest recorded evidence of Avery's bad habit.

Exhibit E: it's starting to fray a little, can you see it?

Exhibit F: she sure is cute though.

Exhibit G: Look at those strings hanging down, but still mostly intact.

Exhibit H: both girls showing off the infatuation.

Exhibit I: this is the last picture I have of Ashby with her blanket and it was 2 years ago. It still looks pretty good huh?

Exhibit J: this is the blanket today. I guess it would be mocked by other blankets for it's obvious lack of blanketness, but Ashby didn't mind. I put it in a shoe box and contemplated burying it in the backyard, instead I just put it in Ashby's keepsakes box. Hopefully she'll laugh about it later.

Time to check in?

I have been completely checked out of real life for about two months now. Unfortunately I feel like I am being dragged kicking and screaming back into life by various responsibilities. I really don't want to be. I have thoroughly enjoyed being blissfully ignorant of my former pre-Luke life. Blogging definitely went by the wayside, but it's time to update because I will hate myself if I missed out documenting the past month.

Here's October in quick review:

• Luke was born on Oct. 10th. He weighed in at 8 lbs 9 ounces. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he is now up to 10 lbs 4 ounces and he has grown an inch in three weeks. He is in the 97th percentile for height!


• Roger was off work the whole next week after Luke was born. We loved having him around (he will disagree, he hated playing Mr. Mom, but he did a great job!)


• My parents came to town the next week to meet the baby and reconnect with the girls. We again had a great time. The girls ran my mom ragged...it really wasn't much of a vacation was it mom?


• Ashby celebrated her 6th birthday while my parents were here. She also lost her fourth tooth, luckily right before school pictures. She wanted to go bowling for her birthday and I'm happy to report she came in second out of five in our first game. Ashby was so excited to celebrate her birthday while my mom and dad were here, it meant so much to her, thanks mom and dad.


• We had some fantastic Halloween fun. Avery dressed up as Dorothy and Ashby as a clown. They both had the opportunity to wear their costumes to several functions. They raked in some serious loot while trick-or-treating. Unfortunately because I was checked out of life, I didn't do some of the traditional fall things that I love to do. We didn't even carve pumpkins (all you mandated court reporters, please spare us...)

Now for the heap of pictures.

Avery with Luke, maybe this is why she isn't head over heels for him like Ashby is... he cries a lot.

We like to start a million projects at once. Roger and my dad tiled our entry way while my parents were in town. I couldn't go through another winter with carpet, it was wet for five months straight. Doesn't it look awesome?

Ashby, Grandma, Avery and Grandpa

Ashby with her cake of choice. She always chooses Halloween stuff for her birthday, easy for me, but I wonder how much longer that will last.

Sweet six year old Ashby with her missing teeth.

Ashby and Avery bowling, yeah we don't know how to take pictures in a dark place, sorry.

We took a trip to the Carnegie Science Museum. Ashby bouncing her legs away.

Avery doing some serious construction work in the ball place.

Avery (not so sure about Luke), Luke and Ashby.

Luke not looking very lumpy. Why are newborn babies so hard to take pictures of, they always look so lumpy...

The Halloween costumes

Ashby looking like she got beat up after a long night of trick-or-treating

Ashby and Avery before church


Check out these cheeks

Some photos, finally!

We are home from the hospital and doing well. We made it through the first night home without too much trouble, Rog and I are just tired! I feel fine and feel so blessed that everything went so smoothly. I cannot praise Kevin and Kelly enough for coming and taking care of Ashby and Avery. I didn't have to worry about a thing because they were here. Of course our camera malfunctioned and we lost all the pictures we took at the hospital, but here are a few that Roger has taken on his phone.

In other equally exciting news, Ashby lost another tooth. This time one of her two front ones. It actually is scaring me quite a bit because the one tooth that is left has kind of moved over to the middle and is also loose, so is just hanging there. It looks awful. Hopefully it comes out soon. We have school pictures on Thursday!

The girls seem to be adjusting well to the new baby. They love him and want to be where ever he is, I can't say I blame them. I am so happy and blessed. I love our sweet little family.

Luke at the hospital. I love me some chubby cheeks, I kind of want to eat them, does anyone else ever feel that way about their kids' faces?

Luke at the hospital.

Here's little Luke today. I am loving his dark hair, unfortunately I can't keep my hands off of it (it's so soft) so it's greasy all the time.

Ashby and Luke yesterday. She loves him.
One down and please, please one more to go soon!

He Has A Name

Luke Heinz Worth

(Heinz is Chelsea's fathers middle name. So no, we did not name our son after a catchup company.)

Stay tuned for pictures!

He has arrived!

I just wanted to give everybody the quick details. Our baby boy was born today (Friday 10/10/08) at 3:17pm . He weighed in at 8lbs 9oz and was 22inches long. Mother and baby are doing great. I am sure Chelsea will do a post soon with more details (and hopefully a name!). Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Yea for good news

I went to the doctor today and he told me that they would schedule my induction for Monday. By the time I got dressed and out to the desk to check out, they were scheduling the induction for tomorrow! So yea for that! We have to be there bright and early, but it's a huge blessing because we are able to arrange for someone to take care of the girls. I have been stressing big time about what we were going to do with Ashby and Avery and now it's all worked out. I hope everything will go well; this will be my first time being induced. I can't wait to see this little baby! We'll post as soon as we can for all you far away folks!