Baby Annabel

Annabel Cora Starkey was born 12/5/11 at 11:42am at EMH Hospital in Elyria, OH. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 18.5 inches at birth.

Grandpa, Fiona and Aunt Michele came to the hospital to see her. They stayed with Fiona while we were at the hospital.

This was taken right after she was born.

This was taken on Fiona's last day as an only child. I love this photo of Fiona and am so glad we have a nice camera now.


Baby Annabel on Dave's lap after coming home from the hospital for the second time. She was readmitted to treat her jaundice and was in the hospital for 3 more days. She's doing very well now

She has a little smile on her face in this one.

Bright-eyed baby girl

A moment of sweetness right before Fiona clocked her in the face. Fiona is not too happy about being a big sister quite yet.

Fiona gets to hold Annabel for the first time, with a little help

Fall Fun

Wow where does the time go. Now it is October, and soon the new baby will be here. Jen here wants to show off her baby. It makes her belly move all by itself.


Here is Fiona's new bed. It is a real bed but on the floor so when she rolls out she does not have far to fall. The crib is now in the new baby room. Those walls are gonna get a coat of pink paint in there.


See here. Pink walls. (only two out of four. every wall would be a bit much.)
Chickens!

So then Don, Colleen and Christine came down for a visit. We went apple picking.

And then we played in the pumpkin patch. Pick a good one Fifi!

Ooooh. Pumpkin goop! Boy did we have fun cutting up those pumpkins.



Mommy helped a bit and Fifi got really messy. Thank you mommy.

Then daddy raked leaves and pulled me around in the piled up leaves. Thank you daddy.

Our trip, part 2: New Orleans

Here we are in New Orleans! The photos uploaded out of order, but I'm not re-doing it. The top one is at the Lousiana Children's museum. We spent almost 2 hours here! Fiona had a great time in the toddler play area.

Fiona LOVES the mardi gras beads! She calls them "pretties"

Fiona on the slide at the children's museum

The Starkeys in Jackson Square in the french quarter

Happy Fiona playing in the square! It's hot here!

Someone just couldn't stay away from the beads!

National WWII Museum. Fiona slept in the stroller for a good part of the museum trip. We actually got to take in some of the museum. She was the only kid in the building so when she woke up, we didn't last very long.

Cafe du monde for beignets and a cafe au lait (decaf) for the mama. (why don't we have beignets in Ohio? Donuts do not stack up them)



Fiona and Adrienne dancing. We visited Teri and her sweet family and had a great dinner of southern cuisine.

Happy girls!

Visit to the Aquarium of the Americas.

Trip to Austin and New Orleans

Here are some photos from our trip to Austin and New Orleans.

Pub Quiz night -- second place out of 29 teams! Woo hoo! It was about 100 degrees in the evening and the misting fans helped only a little, but we were determined. This was the second of four meals that were either primarily chips and salsa or at least accompanied by chips and salsa.
After the guys went on a morning brewery tour, they picked up lunch for us all from the world famous Salt lick BBQ.


We took the babies to the play gym one day which was full giant inflatable things to climb and jump on. The first stop was the ball pit.

JJ in his swimming pool! We all hung out outside as long as we could take the heat. It was always one person's job to mist the babies with the hose. They loved it!

Babies on the swings

Fiona's first crack at baseball

The Campbell family, right before eating chips and salsa.

While the guys went to the brewery, the girls and babies went to the pool. The toddler pool with a slide and fountains was a huge hit.

Grandpa, Fiona and Dave after eating chips and salsa.

Happy babies! They don't even need those pacifiers.

JJ shares his toys with Fiona.

Bye JJ! Hopefully it won't be too long until we see you again!

Summertime girl

It's been a while since we've posted, but we haven't given up on blogging, we're just far too busy these days. Here are some new photos from June.

My mom

My wonderful, amazing, smart, lovely, strong, beautiful, unselfish, fun and loving mama. Photo taken at Christmas 2010 by Aunt Alisa. I'm doing my best, mom, to make sure that your last days are pain-free and full of love from all the people you love the most.