Shriner's in Galveston

Today was Gabie's check-up at Shriner's Burn Hospital in Galveston.  The appointment was actually scheduled at the beginning of the month just a few days after Joanna was born, but thankfully they let us reschedule.  Joanna was pretty cute in her monkey outfit for the day and Gabie loved showing off her baby sister to her doctors and nurses there. 

 Gabie had a great report, they basically said just keep doing what we're doing and see you in 3 months.  We also had pictures done (they do pictures every 6 months for the doctors to have documentation of progress for research and teaching) and she was measured for new compression garments as she already outgrew her last ones.  It was a long day but we are so thankful for a good report!

Pastor's Wife Retreat

Joanna got to join mommy, nana and Aunt Stephnaie for the pastor's wife retreat.  Thankfully the retreat is somewhat close (when you consider how big the Texas district is) at Camp Lone Star.  The retreat started Friday evening and Travis and Papa were nice enough to keep the girls and pick them up from school so we could leave in the afternoon.

 

 All the babies that came to the retreat - they lined us up by baby age - youngest to oldest.

 Hanging out at the retreat.

Happy Birthday Annie!

I wanted to send a picture to our dear friend Annie for her birthday and Joanna gave the adorable smile for it :) (second picture down)

 

Love her many faces!

 

Back in the Swing

We're slowly starting to get back into a schedule, which is good because starting tomorrow there is not one day on the calendar until November that there isn't something on the calendar - good thing Joanna is so laid back and just goes with the flow :) 

For Hannah

When Mary found out that Hannah was a girl she went and bought this adorable sleeper - still being used all these years later :)

 

Trying so hard to stay awake, but so sleepy-tired.

Little Mommy

Micaiah was SO EXCITED when we told her we were going to have another baby.  Her favorite thing is to play with her dolls and be a little mommy.  We've seen almost no jealousy out of her as far as not being the baby anymore, she was more just struggling with a new schedule for awhile (and wasn't thrilled about mommy being gone for 3 days when we had her).  She brought her doll named Dirty Rock down tonight to show off what a good mommy she is.....

 

Changing a diaper

 Nursing

 And putting her baby to bed 

Determined

I am determined to catch up on this blog!  My last update was back in March, which I'm guessing coordinated with some break from school.  Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom again I should have all this extra time to blog everyday (haha!) but I will catch up at least on pictures from the past few months.  The big change to our family has been adding our 5th little precious girl - Joanna Peace.  She is beautiful and such a good baby.  The girls are all in love with her and I have to admit that being three years older then the last time we did this, quite a bit more helpful! :)  Micaiah loves being a big sister and insists that Joanna is her baby (and no one else's!).  As I am typing this I hear the lovely little lady waking up so before Micaiah decides to 'help' with that I'm off....yeah all that free time to blog...

2 Week Check-up

Today Joanna was 2 weeks and 4 days.  In Texas they require a blood draw at birth and again at 2 weeks.  It was also a routine check-up for newborns - she weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces (up a pound from birth!) and 20" (up an inch!).  The doctor said she looked perfect!  We couldn't agree more :)

Sleepy Sack

This is Mark's favorite outfit for his girls as babies - it's an adorable sleeper - Joanna is happy to oblige in wearing it.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

So sleepy

 Love this face!  It looks like someone just gave her lemon juice, but I actually caught her mid-sneeze

Snuggles with Mommy and Daddy

Change of Clothes

This was one of those days where Joanna insisted that she wanted to change her clothes a lot!  We started out in polka-dots...

 After spitting up so much that the dots were soaked we switched to the long-sleeve green onsie.

 A diaper explosion determined another change, this time Micaiah picked out her clothes - apparently Joanna liked her sister's mismatched outfit of choice better then mommy's picks because this one stayed on the rest of the day. 

 Because she was still in it when daddy got home from work for snuggles  :)

Mid-Jump!

 

 

Micaiah getting her exercise after practicing her numbers/puzzles.

 

Tonight we enjoyed getting to spend some time with some friends from Nebraska.  They were in Texas for a presentation in Austin and took some time to come and visit us - what a treat!  The whole family gathered for dinner at nana and papa's and enjoyed getting some Goeller time in!  We have such wonderful memories of all our time spent with their family growing up. Unfortunately we were so busy enjoying each others company that I didn't get any pictures, but it was still a treasured time.

Cuteness!

Wrinkles

Today Joanna went to the doctor for a follow-up to make sure she was gaining weight since she was so tiny - she was already back up to her birth weight + so we were happy about that :)

 

Wrinkles!  She looks upset, but she was actually sleeping soundly.

 The girls built a fort together after school.

 Snuggle time with sister.

Puzzles and Baths

Micaiah was needing something to keep her busy so I got a puzzle down for her - She LOVED it - she completed a 24 and 30 piece puzzle and stuck with it.  I was so proud of her! 

 Joanna getting her second bath at home - this time I wised up and waited till I had help :)

Weighing in

The hospital wanted us to have Joanna weighed a couple days after we got home, but the soonest the clinic could get us in was yesterday.  I think there was a mistake with the scale getting zero-ed out but they said Joanna weighed only 4 pounds 10 ounces.  I didn't think that was right, but didn't have a baby scale to check.  We had a growing list of baby things we needed (it's amazing how much you forget in 3 1/2 years since we last did this!). So we armed ourselves with gift cards we had been given and headed to Babies R Us.  It also works out great that there is evening church now at Faith - so we were able to take it easy this morning and still get to go to church :)

 

 Joanna wearing mommy's dress from when she was a baby.

 First time in the stroller

 Back at home we were so relieved to have found a baby scale and that the scale showed that indeed yesterday's weight was off and she is actually back up to 5 pounds 3 ounces - yay!

 Falling asleep....

 Our beautiful, peaceful girl.

Beautiful Baby Girl