Sunday Chillaxin

Autumn and Daddy take a Sunday afternoon snooze in Gramma Sandy's recliner. We will soon say goodbye to this wonderful piece of furniture, and may need to replace it someday with one just like it in our new home (HOPEFULLY soon!).

Bathing Beauty

Earth Day with Daddy

We started the day out by visiting Jill's good friend Hillary and her beautiful children (minus Gracen), including Jill's "own Godson" Giddy, Sissy (Nevaeh) and Gallen (who has gotten SOOO BIG!!!). What a treat. We are just sad that Mommy missed it.

Then we stumbled upon an Earth Day Festival taking place at the U of M with Duluth's own Cloud Cult headlining. Autumn was able to hear some incredible music and listen to Daddy talk about the importance of taking care of our planet and his admiration of Mother Nature!!!

Glanville Love

Hanging out with Counsin Jaxx and Mattie, and Auntie Jen!

Beverage of choice

From left to right: Autumn (moma's milk), Mom ("the other" a red blend) and Dad (New Belgium pale ale)

Read Head???

Reluctantly Adorable

Headbands - to do them or not to do them - that is the question?

First Swim!!!

A3 - Moma's good friend Katie and Autumn's new friend Anna

Spring Hiking

Whether it's Gooseberry Falls...

Or the Lakewalk...we enjoy our family hikes! We are so excited for this warm weather and now that Autumn is a bit bigger, to do some serious outdoor education with our girl! There is so much to see and touch and smell, it's a lot for Mom and Dad to take in and enjoy...imagine seeing it all for the first time!

We are so thankful to live in this incredible community full of great trails throughout the city, not to mention this BIG BEAUTIFUL LAKE! I can just imagine playing on the beach this summer, with Autumn lubed up in sunscreen, and going for her first dip in the mighty Gitche Gumee. Yes, we will be patient for it to be a bearable temp - likely August. Until then we look forward to many explorations of Hartley, Chester, Lester, Piedmont and the SHT!!!

5 Months!

Time flies... Today we celebrate 5 incredible months of life that we have so graciously been able to share with our sweet Autumn. I can't even describe the amount of joy this little person has brought to my life. I was a pretty joyous person before Autumn but this, as we often try to describe to others, is a whole new level!

Autumn - I love the way you nuzzle my face when you get tired and how you curl up in my neck to fall asleep. I love our cuddle time and how you respond to moma's belly laughing with big smiles! Your Daddy and I love you so very much and are already so proud of the amazing young lady you are becoming! We can't wait for tomorrow and every incredible day with you that follows in this one precious life!
- Love, Moma

Dear Friends

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. As we reflect on how wonderful it has been as new parents to have so much knowledge and experience to tap into from our friends (and family) that have children - we feel really blessed. We also look forward to several new little ones to join our circle of family - friends VERY soon!...


This is Autumn and her friend Audrey (aka A1 and A2) - note the little ladies already holding hands :-)

I love you, Gramma!

Autumn is babbling away these days. Yesterday we spent some time at Gramma's house and after a gassy meltdown, Autumn made it all worth it when she said what sounded like "I love you gramma"!

The Village People will no doubt be recruiting Autumn...

Great Grandma Furey's Surprise 80th Bday Party

Great Grandma Furey turned 80 on April 2nd this year! She didn't want any big to-do on the day of (Good Friday), so her grandchildren organized a surprise birthday party for her the following week, April 10th in Frazee, MN - her hometown. We invited all of the family and some of her dear friends to join us at Uncle Pat's bowling alley. We had a great time with family, friends, food and fun!

Grandma has always wanted to take a hot-air balloon ride so we all chipped in and got her a gift certificate!

Cousin Sophia loves Autumn!!!

I love my Auntie!!!

Drop Beats Not Bombs

Autumn loves drumming with Daddy!

Autumn's First Babling!

Our little girl has quite the voice! - Daddy

Easter Sunday

Peace Church had a great Easter Sunday service, with incredible music from Peter Provost. We then enjoyed a family drive up the North Shore and brunch at Northern Lights Cafe. Our family is truly blessed!

Packing on the Pounds!

Out little girl is getting SO BIG! She is getting close to 5 months old. Up until yesterday, Autumn has been weighing in at about the 7th or 8th percentile for her age. However she has been between the 50th and 75th percentile for height. Long and lean just like her Daddy! Yesterday we had a great visit from our friend MaryJo and she weighed Autumn in at 13 pounds 5 ounces!

We knew our girl had been eating really well these days and seemed as though she was filling out quite a bit. Since her 4 month appointment, she gained 22 ounces in 18 days! This bumped our single digit girl up into the 25th percentile!!!

Now I know none of this REALLY matters, and it's all just numbers and percents - and what truely matters is that she is happy and healthy. As a nursing mother, however, I can't help but be a little joyous about seeing my baby girl growing so well.

Steal of a Deal!

Today I met a great lady and mother of two at Peace Church. We got to talking, both admitting that we were staring at each others babies throughout Easter service. We both nursed our little ones during service, but she had this great contraption that provided much more privacy and ease. She told me that its called an UdderCover - which immediately turned me off due to the cow reference. However she told me she found a coupon for it online to get it for free (regular $32) only having to pay $9.95 for S/H. So I just found the coupon (Chubby2) and got myself a free one!

Workin for the Weekend

We LOVE weekends!!! Time is flying by so fast and the weekend is the time to soak in every precious second we have with our beautiful baby girl. Whether we go for hikes, visit friends and family or just stay home and do nothing but snuggle and play, it is the best. Pre-parenthood I always looked forward to weekends, but not like now. Although saying goodbye Monday morning is hard, it's the joy from the weekend that gets me through the week and leaves me looking forward to our next few days all together.

Mobile Surprise

Today I borrowed Daddy's phone to take a photo of Autumn and low and behold I found several great pictures that I didn't know even exhisted...so here they are!

This is Autumn's friend Nona - she loves Autumn... "She's just so cute!" ~ Nona Campbell

Going for a walk with Grandpa in the Snuggli

This was Autumn's first time sitting in something (other than the Bumbo) so Daddy took a photo and sent it to me at work (this was at Summit).

This is just a great shot of Autumn yawning, although it captures her herniated belly button well. It is now pretty much gone and we were just saying the other day that we hoped we had a photo of just how big it was!

Getting Active!

Grandma Ann calls this the "casino" as it lights up, makes noise and Autumn jumps while she's in it. It's actually called a "jumperoo" and was a hand me down from our Cousin Chloe!

Here is the casino in action!

This is called the "kick gym" and was a hand me down from our cousin Jaxx! Although not as dramatic as the jumperoo - Autumn enjoys putting her "crazy legs" to work.

Working on Rolling

Back in February, Autumn surprised us with a fairly early roll over. Unfortunately we missed it as she did this at daycare. Ms. Linda, the lead teacher in the infant room at Summit School, said that to be sure it wasn't a fluke thing she put her back on her tummy and she did it again! However, she has not done it since. Dr. Reichoff told us that her daughter only did it once and went straight to crawling. We still wait patiently, video camera close by, but ultimately just enjoy her and our time on the floor!

Supporting Nursing Mothers (and their babes)

President Obama's health care bill is symbolic for a number of reasons. But one of the gems is the provision that employers will be held accountable for providing a private place for breastfeeding moms to pump their milk at work. What a victory! For years, because of the sporadic laws in only 25 states and accommodations offered by a handful of employers, working moms were left on their own to fend for themselves. They had to fight for a private place to pump (NOT the bathroom), or felt forced to give up breastfeeding early because of the barriers that work posed.

Now, according to the bill, employers would be required to provide a "reasonable break time for nursing mothers" in the first year after giving birth. Women would be provided a private place, other than a bathroom, to use a breast pump. The provision exempts companies with fewer than 50 workers if the requirement would impose "an undue hardship," a determination left to the employer to make. While this is a giant step for breastfeeding, the way the language in this section is written might leave the pumping mom in a precarious situation. It's possible she might not be protected under this bill if her employer does not understand the importance of pumping and keeping up her milk supply.

Obama's health care bill opens the door for breastfeeding moms, but they must walk through it, and might have to continue to fight for the "reasonable time" and "private place" they need to pump and express their breastmilk.

With all that said, the health care bill is still a huge leap, and it offers such validation for the importance of breastfeeding, breastpumping, and breastmilk within the context of our Nation's health and preventive medicine.

Autumn 1 week old

Autumn 4 1/2 months old

Happy Easter!

Although it's not Easter yet, this morning we couldn't resist!


Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and to celebrate Easter because they will be at "Mickey's House" over Easter with Autumn's cousin's Jaxx and Mattie. But she got her first Easter basket!!!