This past weekend Betsy and her daughters Hailey and Brianna stayed with us a couple nights. Gretchen also joined us with Claire, the newest addition to her family.

For those of you keeping count that’s 7 women and me. Yeah, that’s right: I’m quite the ladies man.

Here they all are (left to right): Libby, Claire, Hailey, and Brianna.

Needless to say it was a fun and busy weekend.

Our neighbor’s kids were testing out their costumes for Halloween this year. For those of you who are sans children, the one of the right is Tinkerbell some fairy and the one on the left is a DoodleBop:

God, parenthood is funny sometimes. Because I Said So is a blog by a mother of six. I love her sarcastic humor and crazy family life - what a wonderful thing parenthood is. I almost pee’d in my pants after reading this post:

… As I typed that last sentence, my 3 year old walked by sporting a Stitch costume (from Lilo and Stitch), a pink, cone shaped princess hat, a Darth Vader mask, and a light saber. (The kids were bored and got into the Halloween box.) OK, :::deep breath::: I might just be able to come up with a few more funny things about which to write after all.

FYI: I found her blog after reading her eBay auction, which is also quite funny.

This past Saturday we spent a wonderful afternoon with friends celebrating Grace’s first birthday. It was a good party and a gorgeous day - cake and ice cream just tastes better in the sun.

I just posted a new album of pictures taken over last weekend. Betsy and her wonderful daughter Hailey came down to visit us for a couple of days and were even able to spend an afternoon at the zoo.

Since we live farther away now it was great to see and spend some time with Betsy and Hailey (and wish we got to see Chad too)!

Libby is certainly doing a good job eating - of that there is little doubt. But keeping her well fed is a full time job too and her mother is working overtime to do it. For anyone who may wonder what a few hours in the life of a dozen-year-old might be like I present to you Shannon’s feeding log from last night:

Paradoxically, my inability to feed Libby is more difficult to me than if the burden were shared. I am really looking forward to bottles and eventually solid foods, if only so her mother can finally get more than 3 hours of sleep in a row!

At 6:43am this morning Shannon gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl! The baby was delivered naturally at 8 pounds, 6 ounces and is 21 inches long. No name has been chosen yet (we’re working on it!).

Shannon’s water broke around midnight on Thursday, followed by several hours of painful contractions. She finally received an epidural around 3:45am, reluctantly at first because we did not think delivery was as close as it was. We both were able to sleep for a little less than an hour before doing a final hour and a half of pushing.

The end result is nothing short of a miracle.

UPDATE: Her name is Elizabeth Claire Barron, and we’re going to call her Libby!

Nathaniel Edmunds photography has captured some pregnancy photos of us, and I think they turned out quite good.

Is it just me, or am I posing a little too much like David Copperfield?

“I have always had the dream to make a baby appear out of thin air, and today I am bringing that dream to life. Before your very eyes I will magically make a baby come out of this beautiful woman you see standing here in front of you… it’s MAGIC!” (slowly moves hand in front of belly while looking deep into the audience’s eyes)

We are only a couple weeks (or days, or hours) away from welcoming our first child into the world. I am very excited for his/her arrival and we are looking forward to being parents.

Shannon is doing very well, though I have noticed that as the baby grows her ability to perform some movements and activities has decreased. I still think she looks beautiful - she truly does glow.

When the big event does occur you can bet you’ll hear about it here

Oh, to be a kid again:

Gelli Baff is a powder that you pour into your kid’s tub to turn the water into colored slime. The goo is a completely harmless powder that soaks up 400 times it’s own weight in water. When the fun’s all done add the dissolver packet and the goo disappears.

Too bad it’s only available in Great Britain.