Sara and Amber

Amber and Sara did a photo op together because they were both looking
very cute and princessy. Amber even gave us one of her best smiles
yet!

Finally Getting Some Family Pictures Up

Well it has certainly been a busy week for me so far, as i have been
going to work this week then coming home and trying to hang out and do
stuff with everyone before going to sleep early to do it all over
again. We all will be here tomorrow so i should get some more
pictures and have some better hang out time with everyone.

Here are a couple pictures from when the Larsen family arrived.

Sara Makes It

Sara, who came all the way from Germany (through Detroit), was the first to arrive from Naomi's family. The rest of the family is arriving tonight. We forgot our camera when she arrived and have missed a couple other opportunities to get pictures of Sara with Amber, we will have those shortly. The rest of Naomi's Family is going get in tonight around 6:30, and will be here till Friday. Our bets are on Grandma Maureen to hold Amber first, but Grandpa to hold her longest ;-)

The older girls are actually out getting a massage right now, so i am on baby and house duty. On a random note, for anyone who has ever wondered what old stockings are usefull for i have an answer: You can use them to strain impurities out of paint! I was trying to match paint on one of the walls at the townhouse and had a can that was the correct paint, but the can had corroded and put a bunch of junk in the paint. However by pouring the paint through a stocking (toe in the can and the leg cut, streched, and ductaped around the opening), i was able to clean the paint out. I did manage to totaly cover my hands and arms with paint in the process as well (yay for water soluble paint). Anyway now you know what to save them for!

Mom and Amber

It is interested to notice how our bodies adapt and change to circumstances. Amber has been sleeping almost entirely through the night for the last 3 nights now (6,6 1/2, and 7 hours). Which means mom (dad too, but mainly mom) is getting a lot more continuous sleep. However she has almost felt more tired then she did on nights when she only got 3-4 hours of sleep at a time. I can imagine that after she gets more into this pattern that it will be that much harder if she does wake up at night :-)

Another Good Morning From Amber

Here is another video of Amber saying good morning to everyone. Just one day till Sara gets here now!!!

More Picnic Pictures

Here are a couple more pictures from the family picnic for Shawnee and Phil.

Full pictures of the picnic are posted at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lucasandnaomi/ShawneeAndPhilPicnic
and for pictures of Shawnee and Phil:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lucasandnaomi/ShawneeAndPhilSEngagement

If you didn't guess this is Shawnee and Phil


Whole smith side of the family


Uncle Trevor


Aunt Wendy (Shawnee's mom)

Good Morning From Amber

Here is Amber saying good morning and hi to everyone :-) You can see how alert and awake she is in this because she slept for 5 1/2 hours last night. Good little girl!

Amber is also getting ready for the Larsen family to be here this coming week by practicing all of her cuteness. This will be the first time they have seen her in person and everyone is looking forward to it! Sara will be here Saturday and Grandma, Grandpa, Brian and Renee will be here on Sunday.

Family Picnic

My cousin Shawnee (not in these pictures, although her mom is there next to my mom) just got engaged. To celebrate the occasion a family picnic was held this last Sunday in Lancaster PA. Amber of course stole the party ;-)

Amber Showing Off

We got the little camera back so here is the next in the Amber video installments :-) We spent the sunday afternoon with my dad's side of the family as my cousin shawnee just got engaged. So we should have a couple good pictures of that to post shortly as well.

Amber's Sun Dress

Mom is training this little girl to be a sun lover (not really trying
it yet), but she at least has all the outfits to be able to hang out
in the sun. While i write this Naomi is actually over at the pool
getting a little well deserved rest in the sun while i keep tabs on
Amber.

Amber Is Starting To Like The Water

Amber had fun in her bath in the sink yesterday! She also had fun in her fluffy towel afterwards. She also slept very well again last night !!

Just Testing You

So Amber likes to test our resolve and problem solving ability through her different cries. Some of them mean that she is just tired, while others mean that she has a diaper that needs changing. Some mean that she is hungry while others mean she wants to be held. It is up to us to decide what is best for her as she can communicate some through her cries and actions but often doesn't know what is best for her or how to help herself get comfortable. Talk about a test :-)


Just testing. . You ;-)

No Pictures Today

So i don't have any new pictures today: not that Amber is any less cute, but just that i am a little pictured out for a day or two! But since i don't have pictures i thought i would add a game to my blog as i always enjoy playing addicting games. If you scroll to the bottom of the page i added air hockey (finalists were air hockey and tetris). Blogger has just about every possible game you could think of, so let me know (in comments) if you have any suggestions.

P.S In Amber news, she only woke up once last night!! I guess if you count 5am as night then it would be twice, but only once between 9-5 is good for us!

Amber Went to Church

So this last Sunday was the first time Amber got to go to church with us (and the first time we got to go). She was a very good little girl and loved all the attention she got from the ladies at the church! It has been a tremendous blessing to have such good friends through our church that are an encouragement to us spiritually and emotionally.

Still Sleepy

Amber is still quite a sleepy little girl. Here she is while we are trying to keep her awake for a little bit after meal time. It is getting easier to do so, and she is able to focus on us more and more.

More time with Mom

Amber gets a little more face time with Mom. We didn't get any pictures of it, but Amber also got to come watch Dad as he practiced for the men's softball with the church team. Dad is looking forward to having his own cheering section this fall :-) Does crying count as cheering? ;-) Actually Amber has been very good when we have taken her out recently. We even got to go on a date on Friday night as she slept in her stroller as we ate pizza at a local restaurant. We are just letting her sleep with whatever noise is going on around to help her get better at sleeping through things :-)

New Poll

So i decided to add a poll to see why people think babies smile. If you have ideas i haven't thought of you can put them in a comment on this post.

Poll Results

So the polls are in and the masses agree that Amber looks most like Naomi (12 votes to 6)! We actually saw a picture of Naomi when she was a little baby the other day, and i do have to mostly agree. Although i think Amber still has a good bit of Smith in her as well.

Amber makes sure she gets her face time with Mom as well. The middle picture she was pretty close to a smile ;-) I wonder if smiling is something babies imitate from their parents or is it something that God made them know how to do, they just don't know how to control their muscles when they are born to do it? Maybe that should be my next poll.

More Face Time With Dad

We are catching more and more of Amber being alert and with her eyes open :-) Here is another picture of her with Dad after he came home from work. It has been a bit of a challenge with going back to work as I get to see less of Amber and Naomi (when they aren't asleep).



In other news, we send our compact camera that we have been using for videos back to Canon for them to repair the sensor. Apparently a number of older Canon cameras were shipped with faulty sensors that created purple and blue lines randomly in pictures and videos. If you go back and look at the videos i have posted you will notice them at times. Hopefully we will be able to get this back within 2 weeks so we can continue to post more videos.

Amber Dressing Up

Amber has already started to like to dress up :-) I think she looks very cute in a dress! Maybe it is because it hides the diaper bump better, or maybe just because she is such a cute little girl.

Amber Is Very Awake Part 2

One more video of Amber being awake. You get to see her cute pants in this one too.

Amber Is Very Awake

Our little girl Amber is getting more and more awake during active time :-) She has also started to smile a bit. It is a lot of fun to watch her grow and learn new things, like how to focus on your face :-)

Amber Sleeping In The Crib

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of Amber sleeping soundly in her
crib. We have found that she likes the crib better then her basinet,
although she still would probably rather fall asleep in the swing. We
are trying not to make a habit of that though so she can learn to fall
asleep in a real baby bed.

Naomi Waking Amber Up

Amber has really started to show us a little bit more of her cute personality! This is Naomi waking her up. I think she already has some of Naomi's mannerisms, because she looks a lot like Naomi when i try to wake her up in the morning some times: "hum. m.m .. let me sleep a little longer. . mummm.m .m. so comfy in bed. . . . don't want to get up. . . yes. . even for food. . . " :-D

Another Video From The Park

Here is Daddy with Amber sleeping.

Couple Videos From The Park

I took a couple videos from our Burke Lake Trip as well, however they are taking a while to upload and process on the blog. I got one done, so here is the first. Hopefully i will have one more tomorrow.

Baby's Day at the park

We took Amber to Burke Lake Park today, and she loved it!! She slept through pretty much the entire two hours we were there :-) Burke Lake Park is where Naomi and I used to go to run while we were training for the Army 10 miler and the 1/2 Marathon. It is about 25 min from our
house, and has a large lake that you can go fishing or rent canoes on. We will probably be brining Amber back there on a somewhat regular basis :-)

Amber Alert

Our little Amber didn't want to go to sleep last night after she woke up for her middle of the night snack. She would cry for 10 min, then fall asleep, then wake herself back up again, we would check on her, calm her down, and then repeat the cycle. In the middle of the night it seems like forever, but it was probably only for an hour or so.

Well after she fell asleep she woke up this morning very alert, and very calm. Here are a couple short video clips i took of her this morning.

Nap Time

Both mom and Amber were pretty tired here, so they both decided it was
time to take a nap together :-)

We had Ambers 2 week check up yesterday and everything is looking
good. She weighed in at 8 lb 10 ounces right after a large poop. We
were telling her not to poop yet so she could tip the scales a little
bit more, but she got too anxious and couldn't hold on ;-) The goal
is for a baby to get back to birth weight (8 lb 5 ounces), by the two
week mark and for them to be pooping and peeing well. These are the
signs that she is getting enough nutrition and her system is
processing it well. Way to go mom and Amber.