Constant Beginnings

Here are the pictures to go along with "family pictures" post.

Almost immediately when we found out we were expecting, Chris' co-worker, Ellen gave us this lovely knitted blanket. It is beautiful and oh so soft. Claire will love it. Jessica, my sister, has been shopping like a crazy person. She bought Claire way too much! All of it is pictured above--2 dresses, shoes, a t-shirt, a blanket, and a really soft duck. Claire is so lucky to have such a giving auntie!! I can't wait to see Claire in each of these outfits. She will be such a cutie!!

Claire isn't even here yet, and we have been given so much. She is one lucky kid. My friend, Julie, gave her this little duck ring toy a couple of months ago, Diane and Alma (family friends) gave her the 3 cute outfits pictured above, Nicole, my best friend from childhood, gave us the infant massage kit and 2 adorable outfits, and Nancy (family friend) gave us the baby towel with hoodie. All in all, she is lucky and we are lucky to have so many wonderfully generous people in our lives.

Lauren finally graduated, not that it took her longer than usual, but it just seemed like she should have been done long ago. I guess that is what being out of high school for 11 years will do to you. She graduated with honors, actually Salutatarian of her class. We are all very proud of her and all of her accomplishments.

I have returned. After a short, but wonderful trip home, I am posting some pictures. Olivia has been asking why she hasn't appeared on the blog, so I am making her wish come true. I had the kids paint some pictures for the nursery. They were pretty excited to do so. Initially I had asked Luke and Olivia to paint, but Ava couldn't resist giving it a try. I think she may have ended up with more paint on her than her paper, but she had fun. The pictures turned out well, so now I need to find some frames. I have also included a picture of Lisa and Ava at Lauren's regional track meet and my Dad with Luke and Ava. I didn't take many pictures this trip as we were busy so much of the time preparing for graduation. However it was a fun trip and I loved seeing everyone. It was certainly very sad leaving.

After months of saying I would post pictures of the nursery, here it is. It is not finished yet, but you get the general idea. The walls are painted "lilypad," which is a softer, yet limey green. We got quite the deal on the crib. We ended up buying it from a girl in Springfield, MA for $125. She was asking $150, but I talked her down. Pretty good. It is lovely. Exactly what we had in mind. The bedding was purchased from Pottery Barn. Total price-$208.25. Probably a bit much for a baby, but it is rather cute. We bought the sign from the Paper Store in Leominster and the letters from Walmart. They put us through quite the ordeal. Chris and I initially saw them and bought five of the six letters at $1.79 each. They didn't have an "e" in stock, but we assumed they would get one in eventually. No such luck. We returned to Walmart several more times with no success. I called Lisa to check in Bismarck, only consonants left. I looked online--nothing. My Mom checked in ...