Our Little Stud

Well folks, little Dawson William Picanco arrived on May 14th, 2011 at 3:59 P.M. He weighed in at 8 lbs. even and measured 21 inches long. He looks like his daddy and has dark hair. He is an angel baby so far--he hardly cries and sleeps a lot! We are so blessed.
One last "before" picture

After!

Man that was a lot of work--I'm tired!

Me and Daddy

This Daddy is not afraid of a diaper...

After his 1st bath...

Mommy, Olivia, and brother

Mommy kisses her little man

Eskimo kisses from Daddy--proud papa!

Big Sister #1

Can't resist

Big Sister #2--so excited! She kept saying, "Mommy, your baby is out of your tummy!"

Uncle Sam (and Aunt Sara in spirit)

Grandma Lori

Grandma and Grandpa Harmon

Grandpa Picanco

Gram Picanco

Aunt Karen

Uncle Troy

Sweet Little Angel Baby

This one cracks me up--he wasn't happy about the carseat.

After a minute of Daddy swinging the seat, he calmed down a little.

Olivia is a great big sister helper! She and Daddy are always fighting over who gets to hold him.

Siblings.

We are soooooo blessed to have this little man in our home--we love him more than anything already and are a happy family of five! Thanks so much to all our family, friends and loved ones for thoughtful gifts, love, support, and the service you have given us in getting Dawson here and making the whole process a little easier! We plan to send out thank you's and pics soon. In the meantime, we'll just be enjoying being together with our little stud-man. We love you, Dawson William!

Talented

A couple months ago we were out at my grandparents house visiting on a Sunday evening, when Aubrey came in the kitchen where Olivia and I were and started roaring like a lion on all fours. I said something like, "Good roaring, Aubrey! Good pretending!" After processing this for a few seconds, Olivia said to me, in a slight tone of disgust, "Mom, do you really think she's that talented?" I, taken aback, responded that of course I think Aubrey is talented--I think both of my girls are talented. Olivia, still disbelievingly, said, "Really, Mom? She doesn't know very much." (all the while shaking her head in disapproval) I think she was just jealous of the attention a little bit, but it cracked me up that she was so bothered by my complimenting her sister for a mere lion's roar. I do, however, think my girls are talented and so much fun--here are a couple of examples.

Olivia's new talent: There is no way that I could ever keep a hulu hoop up this long--pretty impressive to me!

And this may look a little familiar--we do have video footage of Olivia in the same tutu making her debut performance. Aubrey doesn't perform with quite the same flair for the spotlight as her sister, but she did accessorize a little bit more with crown and wand/microphone. The funniest part of this to me was what she was singing. If you listen carefully, she is singing "Dancing on the shelf" which makes no sense until you listen to a well-loved at our house Glee c.d. with a song on it called "Dancing With Myself." I'm pretty sure that's what she was going for. Either way, it's pretty darn cute.

Three Cheers for Nesting!

With only a couple of weeks left until I was due, the nesting bug hit big-time and I have been working hard getting things ready for our little boy to show up! I have painted bunk beds for the girls, reorganized all of the clothes that were stored under Olivia's bed before that would no longer fit with the new beds, organized the boy clothes we have acquired, painted two walls in the nursery, arranged the room, reorganized the toy room, etc. I feel so ready--in so many ways--what's the hold-up little man?! Here are some prego pics of Sara and I on Saturday--she had her baby yesterday (Sunday)! I am soooo jealous ;)

Do you know how hard it is for two women nine months pregnant to hug? That was the inspiration for this little picture session--Sam saw us hug and couldn't help himself.

The little cousins can't wait to play!

Olivia in her new top bunk bed.

Aubrey in her big girl bottom bunk.

The set.

The baby boy's room--notice the blue in place of the purple that used to be in Aubrey's room! I have always wished for a more comfortable chair to nurse my babies in, because if you have ever nursed a baby, you know that you inevitably fall asleep while you are feeding them and end up sleeping half the night wherever you sat down to do it. Now I have a huge rocker/recliner to fall asleep in that takes up half the room, but I don't care!

His little closet with shelves full of baby boy blankets and drawers full of burp cloths and bibs. This is probably soooo boring to anyone else, but I just wanted to document the fact that I do at least attempt to be organized--it just doesn't always last!

The crib with the bedding set I found perfectly fitting for a boy of David's--trains, tractors, airplanes, cars, dump trucks, etc. All these scenes will be much cuter with a little baby boy in them, of course, so hurry up dude--we're all waiting!

Easter 2011

Easter this year was pretty low-key. My mom and Miranda were in Vegas visiting Josh and Helen, and we had already had family dinners on both sides that month anyway, so we just had David's parents and my grandparents out for Easter dinner. I'm so glad that our families get along so well (or at least they pretend to;). It makes for lovely holiday celebrations at our house!

The girls in their Easter dresses.

Sorry about the lack of quality pictures--I have absolutely no photography skills--something to work on, I guess.

It seems like just yesterday Olivia was wearing the dress that Aubrey wore this year. Hard to believe she is getting so big!

A sweet little Easter story:
Of course we talked about what Easter is really about, and tried to simply explain the atonement and resurrection to the girls. Aubrey for quite a while was very concerned that "Jesus died." She would walk around telling us that a lot. We would agree and then emphasize that now Jesus is alive. Finally it clicked after she went to nursery and they made a little handout of a tomb with a stone that could be moved away from the opening. Now she loves to take that handout and explain that Jesus died and went in the cave and then the angels moved the rock and He was resurrected! It is such a sweet and special privilege to be a parent and explain the amazing plan of the gospel to our children. It is especially rewarding when something they do or say lets us know that they are really learning it--and they are so accepting and trusting about that and everything--such a good example for me to follow. I too believe that Jesus died for us and that He was resurrected and lives again! I'm thankful that I can share that testimony with my girls.

Happy Easter!

Z is for Zoo and Graduation

As a last field trip for our little preschool group, we took the kiddos to the zoo for the letter z activity. I think Olivia informed every person working there that day that zoo starts with z and that was why we came. There were only four kids in the actual preschool group, but of course they all had siblings who came.

Checking out the map with one of our "teachers"

Posing like the peacock on the top of the fence.

Roooooaaaarrrrr!!!

After the zoo we ran some errands, and it must have tired out the poor little peanut, because this was the scene when we got home that afternoon.

That's pretty much how I felt, too!

The following week we held a little graduation celebration. I made Olivia wear nice clothes and let me do her hair, and then before we did the ceremony the girls went off and played dress-up for a while and then they didn't want to change back into regular clothes for the graduation. Figures. So here is my little graduating mermaid sporting one of the lovely hats David and I made the night before.

The class of Mommy Preschool 2011.

There go the hats in the air!

This was a fun and, I felt, effective way to get Olivia a little preschool education to get her ready for kindergarten. She probably would have been fine without it, but she really did seem to enjoy it. Hip-hip-hooray for the little graduates!

Poor Little Sick-o's

My poor little babies have been sick the last couple of days. Olivia is making a bad habit of getting sick on special occasions--last time it was when everyone was here for her birthday; this time she woke up with aches and a fever Friday morning--the day of David's surprise birthday party with friends. I kept holding out hope that it was a fluke of a morning and she would be fully recovered by the afternoon. My hopes were high through the morning, because after the ibuprofen kicked in her fever went down and she was acting like herself, but by early afternoon she fell asleep on the couch--not normal. She woke up with a fever again, so I painfully decided to cancel the party--turns out David would have been totally surprised, too! Oh well. It has been a roller coaster with her since then, but nothing more than a fever and a bit of a cough--I couldn't figure out what the actual sickness was going to turn out to be--then Aubrey figured it out for us last night.
A little before midnight she threw up all over her bed (of course--I just washed her bedding that day :) So I stripped her down and threw her in the bathtub, put the icky laundry in to wash, replaced her sheet with another, washed her up, wrapped her in a towel, and after about two seconds of cuddles she was asleep on my lap in the towel. So I put new jammies on the sleepy little peanut, checked her temp, which was high, woke her up to give her medicine, and left her to sleep. By then I couldn't sleep, so I waited til about 1:00 for my brain to finally shut down. Aubrey threw up once again early this morning, went back to sleep, and then when she woke up she acted just fine and insisted, "I not sick anymore, Mommy! I drink my medicine!" Now, after eating a few bites of breakfast she is cuddled on my lap while I type, and I have to wonder--
Is it just me, or are everyone's kids a whole lot cuter and sweeter when they are sick? My girls are normally pretty busy, especially Olivia, and she is also rather fiesty. But when she is sick, she sleeps a lot, cuddles a lot, and when she asks for things she isn't demanding as usual--her tone is soft and sweet and oh so vulnerable. Like when I was trying to decide whether to cancel the party and she said simply and sweetly, "Mommy--will you just come and sit with me? Please?" It melted my heart! And ever since I tried to explain to Aubrey that I couldn't share her drink because of germs, she has been reassuring me that she doesn't eat worms---they are yucky, and I shouldn't eat worms either. Maybe it is also my perception of my kids that changes when they are sick--that vulnerability makes me feel needed and imporant--selfish, but true.

So for whatever reason the girls seem more adorable than normal, I have decided it is definitely a blessing--if not for the extra cuteness, a mom might not be able to handle waking up 5 times a night or getting puked on or washing the bedding two days in a row, heaven forbid. Just don't ask me what I think about it when they get better and I get sick, because that is a whole different dynamic which usually does not turn out so well. For now I guess I will just enjoy the cuddles.

Guess Who Came to Dinner

Last night we had a lovely breakfast for dinner--eggs and biscuits and gravy. I told Aubrey I was going to start making dinner, and she said, "Dinner! Yuck!" Then I told her what we were having and she said, "GRAVY?! I wooooove gravy!" Silly peanut. I was a little concerned, however, with Olivia's new best friend. She joined us for dinner last night and never said a word. She didn't even fold her arms for the prayer (although Olivia did try to make her). She is a pretty girl and always has a smile, but something about her just isn't right. Maybe Olivia enjoys being her friend because she'll do whatever she tells her to do.

Yes, that's right, she is a lifesize barbie. She is taller than peanut (although that isn't hard to do). Olivia got her from a friend in the ward who was going to take her to D.I. anyway but asked us if we wanted her first. Since then, she has joined us for meals, been dressed and undressed and dressed again, been sick and in the hospital, and slept with Olivia last night, which didn't turn out so well. I woke up this morning to a loud thud and Olivia screaming. I went in to see what was wrong, and she tearfully explained that she had fallen off her bed, and on the way down the barbie came down with her and kicked her in the head! Apparently sleepovers with lifesize barbies are not a good idea. But Olivia is a forgiving child. She still helped Barbie brush her teeth this morning. (It was a nice gesture from our friends, but I have to say--she freaks me out just a little bit. Oh well, hopefully the novelty will wear out after a while and she can go where she was intended to go after all ;)