Welcome AnneMarie!

AnneMarie Elise Compton joined our family one month ago.  She is a little sweetheart and everyone in the family adores her. She is a great eater and doing really well sleeping at night. (I got four straight hours of sleep last night!!!)  She's a lot like Adelaide was for naps though. She only stays asleep as long as you're holding her....We're going to have to work on that.

Right out of the oven.... 8 lbs., 11 oz. She is the first of our kids to be born with any hair -- and it's dark brown. How'd that happen!?

She was born with a cephalohematoma --essentially a big bump--on her head. You can see it a bit in this picture taken a few days after we came home from the hospital.  Now a month later, it's totally gone (thankfully) and so is her nickname, "Lumpy". 

In the last month, we also celebrated the end of school.

Adelaide graduated preschool "with honors"

with friends Blaine

and Jackie.

Sadie and Michael enjoyed field immensely.

I enjoyed watching them for about 10 minutes....and then I had to home to enjoy my AC!  AnneMarie was born a week and a half later, so I was not in a condition to brave the heat.

Since the end of regular school, we have been doing a "home summer school." It's been a lot of fun so far.  Last week, we learned about archaeology, so of course the kids had to excavate an archaeological site in our back yard.

It was amazing how much they found.  The girls even went a step further and made a museum of all their "finds". They even gave me a personal tour!

Joseph loves keeping up with his older siblings, and is beginning to revel in the fact that he is now "one of the big kids" -- at least compared to AnneMarie.

At the bounce house...  

I was doing something on the computer one day, temporarily leaving the kids ti their own devices, when Joseph came in with his hair sticking straight up.  He had helped himself to some honey and then, finding it all over his hands, had used it to spike his hair.

Ahh, yes. And blackberry season is in full swing. With all the rain this year, our berries are especially plump and juicy!  They make very tasty cobblers.