November

Chloe tried on Adi's hair extension headband from Halloween and she looks oh so cute!

 She's just as cute as a natural baldy :)

 Adi was such a great big sister at Chloe's first well child visit.  She wanted desperately to protect Chloe from the vaccinations and even cried when Chloe cried.  It was sad, sweet, and stressful to have not just one crying girl but two.

 I love all the smiles from this little girl.  The Bumbo seat is a pretty cool tool for helping baby girl develop the muscles she needs to sit on her own.

  My niece and nephew spent a week with us while my little brother and his wife made arrangements for them to go to a preschool while sis-in-law hangs out on bed rest waiting for baby boy (child #3) to arrive safely.  The kids did a lot of dress up - they're all super heros here - because we all know that firefighters are real life super heros!

 Adilyn is getting braver about holding her sister, but Chloe prefers for Adi to talk to her face to face.  She just laughs and giggles, she loves her sissy!

 This baby is growing so fast.  I'm not sad about it yet because what it means for me is that she is sleeping better, smiling more and requiring a tad less than constant attention from me which is a relief to have a break now and again.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

On October 31st, 2010 my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!  What an amazing accomplishment, to stay together literally through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, for better and for worse.  I'm am honored to have parents who have been able to overcome obstacles and hurdles and have kept their marriage going for 40 years.  Wow.  This is the card I made for them, the photo on the front is a copy of their actual wedding photo.

The forty years God tried and tested the people of His choosing to the end that they should bring forth fruit ere He brought them into the promised land...

My brother's families and mine honored my parents by sending them to Iowa River Power Restaurant for an anniversary dinner on us.  We also blessed them with the promise of a family portrait to be done in November when Shane and his family are coming home for Thanksgiving and to help celebrate the anniversary of the two people who brought the three of us into this world.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad.  We love you so much!

Halloween 2010

 Adi decided to be a vampire for Halloween this year, which was quite a surprise to me.  Once I arrived to her classroom for the Halloween parade I understood why.

 Two of her classmates had also chosen to be vampires, ah the power of peer influence!

 Adi had a cute spider web mask that she was going to wear but it felt too itchy so she ended up choosing to go sans mask.

 Here's a group shot of Adi's friends at school.  Her best friend is the yellow Pokemon character on the left.  The girl on the right is supposed to be Lady Gaga.  I had to do a google search to find out who Lady Gaga was and apparently I shocked my facebook friends and family by admitting that I had no idea who the celeb was.  

On the left you can see one of the finest teachers on the planet, Mrs. Smith.  We adore her.  I don't think this year could have been as successful as it has been so far without her investment in Adilyn and her adjustment not only to Kindergarten but to sisterhood as well.

 It is our tradition to trick-or-treat with our dear friends the McCoy's.  The clan is all together and posing for this shot on a neighbor's doorstep.

 Miss Chloe was true to her namesake this year and went as a flower blossom.  I just adore this costume!

 In lieu of the mask I painted some pretty cool spider webs on for trick-or-treating and we used a dollar store hair extension headband for dramatic affect.

 One last shot of my baby flower.

Halloween is much easier with just one kiddo but more fun with two!!

October

It's been way too long since I've posted on the blog.  I have a tiny bit of time this evening and want to spend it attempting to catch up on the blog.  It will be mostly photos and not much writing, but the photos are the best part anyway so, I'll start with October.

Chloe doesn't like to be swaddled.  Well, not with the arms in, that is.  She liked to have a swaddle around her middle but wriggled like little Houdini whenever her arms were put in.

 After the first couple of days in the hospital she wouldn't take a pacifier either.  This was really weird for us since Adi was so dependent on her pacifier until she ultimately found her thumb at four months and hasn't stopped sucking it since.  Here is a cute little outfit that Aunt Leah gave to Chloe.

 Fall wouldn't be complete without a trip out to Wilson's Apple Orchard.  This year Adi took her friend (our neighbor) John along.  They had a good time and painted pumpkins, too.

 Adi, Daddy and Chloe.  So cute!

 This is my 34th birthday cake.  The Co-op baked this one.  I had to steer clear of my favorite birthday sweet treat: Rapspberry Cheesecake (also from the Co-op) because Chloe doesn't like it when I eat dairy.  Most people think it's normal for babies to spit up - I believe most babies are lactose intolerant and nursing mama's can avoid much of those spit ups by cutting dairy out of their diet.  Really, it's true!  If it wasn't I wouldn't have quit eating one of the staples of my diet.  I LOVE cheese!!  But my sacrifice means Chloe rarely spits up - unless I've snuck some dairy in.  Happens every time :(

 Papa and Chloe are playing.

 This is probably my favorite outfit ever.  Thank you Aunt Carisa!  I'm a huge fan of the precious little owl on it - Chloe seems to like it too ;)

 There's my pretty little baby.  I just love her!

 Now I realize that Halloween is in October as well, but I think it deserves a post of its own, so coming up next... Halloween 2010.

Photos by Sarah McElligot

These are the beautiful photos my friend Sarah took for us.

We were long over due for family photos.

Driscoll girls

 Miss Chloe Shalom

 All wrapped up

 Toes

 Sleep smile

 Mama's kiss

 Wide eyed

 Sweet

 Cutie in a basket

 Love the basket shots

We loved Sarah's work so much we're trying to convince her to do more but she's a busy woman.  Hopefully we'll have a chance to hire her to do photos in the future (she did these for free so she could put them in her portfolio to get her business of newborn photography going.)

Introducing: Chloe Shalom

Chloe Shalom Driscoll was born 9/3/10 at 12:14 am.  She was 11 days past her due date but came on her own (we didn't have to induce labor).  We arrived at the hospital at 8:15 pm and our little girl was born less than four hours later.  We were surprised that she weighed only 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

The name Chloe means blossom.  We liked that because it ties in with Adi's middle name Rose.  Shalom, as most people know, means peace.  But it means more than that.  It's not like the hippy saying, "peace brother" kind of peace.  It's a heavenly, Godly, perfect peace.  As one friend wrote it means "nothing missing, nothing broken".  After the long rough road we traveled to get here with a second child we couldn't think of a better middle name for our little girl.  She's perfect.  Nothing missing, nothing broken.  Made perfectly by our heavenly Father, so gratefully received and loved by our family and friends.  We adore her. Our friend Sarah came by today to take some photos of our family and especially newborn pictures of Chloe.  Adilyn loves to have her photo taken so we got plenty of her as well.  I'm posting a few pictures that we took and I'll post some of Sarah's (which will be markedly better) in the near future.Adi is thanking God for her baby sister and watching over her much like a guardian angel.Cam liked the artistic shot of Adi and the crown of flowers I wore in my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Steve's wedding as a little girl.I snuck a shot of Chloe as Sarah was taking photos and this is one of my favorites.

We are all adjusting so well to being a family of four.  Adi is such a wonderful big sister to Chloe and Cam has been a wonderful husband to me, father to Chloe and Adilyn and I feel so blessed.  Thank you Lord for trusting us to be parents to these two precious girls.  Thank you, thank you, Lord!