Meeting Charlotte

What a difference a week makes! Last week at this time, we were a family of three, simply talking about and anticipating Charlotte's arrival. Now, we are a family of four, at home, enjoying a wonderful new life. Charlotte is a very good baby, even though, she does have her days and nights confused. She enjoys eating and being awake during the night and sleeping through all of the commotion of the day. With time, we hope to see this change, especially for mommy's sake!

Mary Ellen loves coming up to her and telling her that she is her big sister! But, as you can see from the very first picture, she was not too big on the situation. She was very hesitant about it, and didn't even want to come back the rest of the day to see us. But, by the next day, she was so excited and wanted to hold her little sister. The sisterly love is already there, and it is so sweet to watch. Charlotte does great with letting Mary Ellen hold her, and she loves to look around and watch her.


Meeting Charlotte, but really not sure about it!


She does like her present from Charlotte of a new camera!


Charlotte being checked out right after being born.


Mommy and her girls!


Charlotte meeting Uncle Tyler and Aunt Rayni


The second day, where Mary Ellen had a big smile when she came in the door. This is her first time holding her.


The next day when Mary Ellen came to visit, she brought a balloon. She, of course, had to hold her again!


Family of Four! (The tv was on, so we had trouble getting Mary Ellen to look at the camera!)


Just got home from the hospital!


Checking each other out!


Look at us! We are great sisters!

Charlotte Anne Richey

Introducing our new addition. She was born on Monday, November 29 at 9:15am. She weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and is 21 inches long. Everyone is doing well!

Thanksgiving

Well, we actually didn't take many pictures on Thanksgiving and really only got pictures of the girls. On Thanksgiving, I was nearly 40 weeks pregnant, and Rayni was 20 weeks, we wanted to document the belly bumps. I definitely win the prize! We did enjoy having Mary Ellen be a part of the picture too though! We had a great thanksgiving with a lot to be thankful for, especially as we grow our family.




This is actually my last post before we become a family of 4. We are very excited about the journey ahead and look forward to continuing to share about the adventures that the Richey Crew will continue to have!

Caroline's Birthday

I have mentioned many times that Mary Ellen loves birthdays and loves celebrating them with everybody. She was especially excited to share in Caroline's birthday celebration not once, but twice! She talked and talked about Caroline's birthday and practiced singing to her a lot. She had a great time at the little celebration at Chick-fil-a on Caroline's real birthday!





But, then she had a blast at her birthday party. It was an Elmo/Sesame Street theme party that Tessa did a great job putting together. There were tons of things to play with outside, including jumping in leaves and a Elmo pinata. They enjoyed snacks, cupcakes, and of course, Mary Ellen found a party hat! It was a great celebration for a sweet girl's 2nd birthday!

Two Wonderful Baby Showers

I had two wonderful showers this past weekend as we await the arrival of baby sister. We are very excited about her arrival and anticipating the addition to our family. I will be going in for a c-section on November 29, unless she decides to come early. Right now, it doesn't look like that is going to happen, so we should make it through Thanksgiving and then enjoy our little girl!

The shower on Saturday was hosted by my sweet friend, Tessa. She did a great job decorating and putting everything together. We had so much fun sharing stories, laughing, and oohing and aahing over the baby clothes and gifts.






On Sunday, the church hosted a shower for me. It was so much fun, and a great time to visit and see everyone. Everyone enjoyed passing everything around and examining all of the great items. We are so grateful for all of our wonderful friends and the generosity that has already been shown on us as we anxiously await little sister's arrival!

The Wonder Place playdate

I guess it was a week or so ago, but whenever it was, we had a great play date at Wonder Place with Caroline, Emily, and Rosemary. We hadn't been to Wonder Place in a while, and Mary Ellen immediately jumped into the things that she has liked before and discovered new things. She has never been a fan of the water table, but she loved it this time. She also liked the sand table and anything that she could build with. She would run from place to place finding new things to play with. I am sure that we will have many more ventures there with cooler weather and enjoy having a place for Mary Ellen to run around!

"Love bugs" fun weekend

What a weekend! We had something every night, and Mary Ellen, aka love bug loved it! For her costume this year, she was a love bug. She would sometimes call it a butterfly, but she had so much fun, because it had a tutu and a headband. Even though, she likes wearing wings, she wasn't too big on wearing these. They were a little big, so it will be a good addition to her dress up clothes!

We started out the weekend on Friday night going to Boo in the Zoo. Mary Ellen is definitely not into anything scary, so we walked around and she enjoyed "trick-or-treating." She would tell us what she was going to say, but then, when she walked up to the tables, she would just put her bucket up there for the people. She was very excited to get "treats," and that is all that she cared about!



She was telling Daddy that she was ready to move on and which direction she wanted to go for more treats!


Daddy and Mary Ellen making funny faces or scary faces. I am not sure which one they choose to do. The funny thing is that it is so hard to get Mary Ellen to look at the camera and smile, and this is the best picture of her looking at the camera in a while!


She ended the night with a big smile and was happy with her tour through the zoo and the carousel ride!


On Saturday night, we had a tailgate at the church for the Hogs game! Mary Ellen did not even know that the game was on, especially when she realized she could spend so much time in this jumpy thing. We were there for about 3 hours, and I think that she jumped the whole time. She had a blast jumping and partaking in popcorn. She may not have verbally cheered the hogs to their victory, but she supported them in her attire!







And finally, on Halloween night, we went Trick-or-treating. The first stop was Caki and Bo's house, which she looked in the window waiting for them to come to the door!





We continued on to a few neighbors that I know and Mary Ellen loved that they let her pick a treat. She was very good in just picking one, but everyone would tell her to pick more.


We of course also went to Aunt Rayni and Uncle Tyler's house. Mary Ellen was very excited to see them!


And finally, this is the best picture I could get of the love bug in her almost full costume. It may look like she has eaten her way through the night, but at this point, she hadn't had any candy. She was just happy with whatever was going on!