Laura Turns 2 Months

Laura turned two months on Sunday.

She is such a sweet, happy baby and all of us are so thankful for her.

We're off for a checkup on Thursday, but I think little Laura weighs just over 8 pounds.

She had her first visit to the ER Saturday after vomiting and fussing for several hours and turning white as a sheet. After an xray and checkup she seemed fine and hasn't had a problem since.

The two sisters -- yay!!!

On other subjects, we are enjoying some gorgeous, cool weather here in Indiana. The windows are open and we can sit outside and enjoy summer.

More of Laura's Baptism

Here are a few more photos a friend took at Laura's baptism:

Apparently, this photo looks just like my mom's baby pictures:

Such a great picture!!! Rachel and Margie always have a good time:

Isn't this sweet?!

And The Winner Is....

#14: Stephanie

Congratulations! It's nice to "meet" you, Stephanie, and now you'll have to let me know an email address and:

-whether you'd like regular or decaf tea

-which flower you would like (choose one from my Etsy shop)

-I'm assuming you want the knitting patterns!! :)

-and whether you would like to have Mansfield Park or A Year in Provence as the book

Back to regular programming tomorrow. And, by the way, I've finally fixed it so anyone can leave a comment!

Post 500

According to Blogger, this is my 500th post. That calls for a giveaway!!! And, the giveaway includes things that represent what I like to post about here on Blackberry Rambles. The only thing not included is something to represent the children (hmmm....maybe I should award a free day of their company).

Here's what I have for the giveaway:

1 felted flower (color to be determined or of your choosing)

1 box of Irish Breakfast tea (regular or decaf)

1 set of food photo greeting cards

4 knitting patterns from Christina (3 cardigans and one lace scarf)

1 book (yet to be decided)

Now, for those of you overseas (beyond Canada), I'd be willing to ship the flower and the knitting patterns.

Also, if you happen to win, and aren't interested in the knitting patterns, we can award those to a second winner.

Just leave a comment and I think I'll pick someone on Monday.

Garden News

Remember these folks -- the Mallards? Well, guess who's chosen to build her nest in our front garden?!

Saturday morning I walked out of the house and yelped when Mrs. Mallard flew out of the bushes in front of me. That's when I had a look behind the bushes and there was a round indentation in the ground, still empty. But, later that day, this is what I saw:

And, she laid another egg on Sunday and another one on Monday. We'll see how many she goes for.

I sat the children down and gave them a very serious talk about the duck nest. We are all very excited, but we've made some rules about never going into that garden or behind the bushes. And they are not to tell the neighborhood children. I don't know what Mrs. Mallard was thinking when she chose our house (except that maybe she likes our bird feeder). I hope we can be quiet enough for her because we all can't wait to meet the ducklings!!!

Laura's Baptism

Yesterday was Laura's baptism. We were all excited about this special day. It was a wonderful time, both at church and then at home with the family. One of my favorite memories will be getting Laura bathed and dressed with the help of the kids who were so excited to participate in that.

After Laura's bath the children took turns brushing her hair:

Then we got her into the baptism slip and then the dress. The outfit was apparently made by my grandmother for my father.

I'm assuming the pink-trimmed bonnet was not my father's. :) Perhaps it came from my mother's side.Here's the whole bunch, one of whom tried to run out the door to church with neon orange flip-flops.
Everyone thinks Laura is adorable and they can't stop hugging and kissing her:

A friend took much better pictures, but I don't have them on my hard drive yet. So here's one of the baptism itself. Dr. Blackwood came over to do it for us.

Happy Father's Day to Michael!!!!

Friends and family joined us here at the house for lunch afterwards. The Brodies were in town, visiting the Blackwoods and it was fun to have them along.

Dr. and Mrs. Blackwood:

Daddy and Mommy:
The fizzy grape juice the hospital gave us when Laura was born:

Rachel and Mrs. Blackwood sat for hours at the piano.
Cheeseballs for appetizers:

The meal:
And the dessert:
"Uncle Robert" reading to the children:

Sweet little Laura, slightly tired:

Here is her afternoon dress, sent by a friend.

And now Michael is gone for the entire week and the kids and I are home alone. We have plenty to keep us occupied, and hopefully we'll have somewhat of a relaxing and fun week. And tomorrow I'll tell you our exciting garden news!!!

Black Raspberries

This week we headed to the woods to pick black raspberries. Picking berries is one of my favorite things and fortunately my kids are growing to love it too!

Most of us had a great time, except for Rachel who said she "met up with too many spiders." The rest of us, now suffering from multiple bug bites, agree there were too many bugs.

We all enjoyed the hand pies we made when we got home.

I think we ended up with about 5+ cups of berries which was more than enough for a large pile of hand pies.

Everyone had their turn.

One child made "juice" with his handful of berries.

Here they are. They could have been sweeter, but we enjoyed them nonetheless.

Yum, yum!!!
The bug bites are influencing my resolve to go back for more berries to make jam. Hmmm....

Updated Pictures

Each year for Father's Day Michael gets a new set of wallet pictures of the kids.

This year I kept forgetting to take the pictures.

So we had to do them quickly, before the rain started.

And half way through, the battery went dead in my good camera. So we had to resort to the point and shoot.

And I do have one for Laura, but I couldn't get it to upload properly. :) oh well. Hopefully I'll have them all printed and ready for Michael by Sunday.

The Last of the Week

Our week got off to a good start Sunday with church, family dinner, and this beautiful tart Emily made: lemon, blueberries and blackberries. And, wouldn't you know, I forgot to post it on the cooking blog. Oh well.

I didn't get the chance to mention how much fun I had garage saleing last Saturday with Rachel, her friend Dori and Laura. We started before 8, stopped at Starbucks, and got to the sales just as they were opening. The girls helped me watch Laura as well as enjoyed shopping. Tea at Auntie C's ended the day and we were home around 4:30 p.m.

Christina came over for a photo shoot this week. Two of her shawls are going off for publication so we needed some pictures.

How to get a nice background without a million vinyl houses in the background! Kind of hard! The shawls are lovely, aren't they!!

Yesterday the kids and I got stuck behind a slow-moving van following two bike riders. Turns out they were from Crossroad Bike Tours and were headed on a trip most likely from Los Angeles to Boston. Apparently, those riders had each paid $10,000 for the privilege! Wow. It does sound like fun...just a little expensive.

Thursday evening I sat down to do my finances and realized my checkbook was missing. After much searching, the only thing I could think was that it dropped out of my bag at a restaurant I had been to 8 days earlier. I called the restaurant at 10 p.m. and they HAD THE CHECKBOOK! I hurried down to get it only to find myself frantically searching my wallet for my driver's license. It was no where to be found but the kind manager gave me the checkbook anyway. I laughed at myself the whole way home. What a predicament! The next morning I went online to find out what I would need to get a new driver's license and then checked my wallet, each card, for the fourth time. What do you know! the driver's license was indeed in there, just in the back and turned around to the back. Very relieving though!

Christina made THE BEST iced tea this week -- out of lemon balm. She put the fresh lemon balm in a bowl of water and kneaded it until the water was tea-colored. She added a bit of runny honey and poured it over ice. Wow! I'm dying for more, but I don't have a lemon balm patch, yet.

Michael and I got away for a date night last night after going a lengthy time without one. We headed to Eagle Creek for a picnic -- what a relaxing idea! Laura enjoyed it too, although she never managed to get to sleep.

And today is a day for chores and cleaning. You'll never guess: I pulled another bag of trash out of the boys' room this morning. :)