Claire is finally here!!!

Claire Janette Henke is finally here. She was born at 6:53 pm on 3/25/09. She weighed 8lbs 3.4 oz and was 19.25 inches long. She is absolutely perfect. I stopped by to see her before I went to work that night. Below is the happy family.

Papa holding a very alert and wide eyed baby Claire.
Beautiful girl holding on tight.

Isn't she beautiful!! We were planning on going over to visit this weekend, but a nice spring snow storm changed our plans. We are taking the kids to meet their new cousin on Thursday, I will have more pictures then.

Here is the link to her official hospital pictures.

http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?birthid=baaed57c-0924-4877-ba4b-24d203a0e431&babyid=6a3ffee9-d0cb-4295-9391-b7b13c05e5f4

Soccer Monster

Drew had his first soccer practice last Monday. It was interesting to say the least.

Each kid gets a mini soccer ball and gets to keep their jersey. Drew is number 2.

At first the guys subbing for our coach were having the kids kick ("pass") back and forth to each other and practice on dribbling and Drew kept dribbling off and shooting a goal. I thought maybe we had some natural talent on our hands.

Drew running off and kicking the ball and Andy trying to get him to come back.

Nana was there to help with wild woman. She was everywhere, she also wanted to play soccer.

Action shot!

No hands, Jillian.

Listening intently to coaches.

Luke is on our team and his little brother Nate was there too. Nate and Jillian played a little to pass the time.

Jillian giving a pretty convincing fake cry. I think she is upset because Andy took the ball away.

Owen is also on our team. Here are the 3 boys - Drew, Owen and Luke. Aren't they cute.

Drew getting upset and pulling up his shorts in a fit.

Drew shooting a goal!

The next practice was pretty trying. It is obvious he is one of the younger kids, has some attention problems and has not been exposed to the wait your turn in line concept. I am hoping that this Monday will be a little smoother.

Skeletent Party

I get home from work at Provastinky and Andy tells me that he has some funny pictures of my mom on the camera. Not what I was expecting him to say, but he was right.

Drew wanted Nana to come into his skeletent and she did. What a fun Nana, I don't even get in there.
All three of them in there - what a crack up.

Jillian's First Night Gown

Such a girly girl. We put her first night gown on her and she was instantly smiling, dancing and twirling.

So cute on her, we have decided she definitely needs more. My big feet in the background take a little cuteness away from the picture, but that cutie smile more than makes up for them. I don't know what is more distracting the feet or the mess of toys on the floor.

She didn't wear many dresses last year, but I have a few sun dresses for this summer and I think she is going to love them if the gown is any indicator.

TO - Mom and Dad code for Time Out

I come into the kitchen and find my sweet little bean decorating herself with a blue pen. She knows that pens are generally a no no. Sometimes I let her use them, on paper only, when I am close by, but marking anywhere else is a big no no.

Marking on yourself = TO

Jillian is very sensitive to being told the rules or punishment. Telling Jillian no, generally results in a mini breakdown. She usually puts herself in time out. So when I got on to her for her inking no no and put her in time out she was devastated. So hard to watch.

She wasn't there for much more than a minute and after some hugs she was back to her smiley self.

Suckers

During Spring break 3/4 of the Roberts family got their eyes checked. In Kansas they have a program called See to Learn where 3 year olds get free eye screenings/exams. So I thought while Drew was getting his done, Andy and I might as well have an eye exam too. I haven't had one since I had Lasik in 2002 and Andy says he has never had a eye exam. Below is me trying to entertain the wild ones while Andy gets his exam. They gave them suckers, which helped immensely.

So Drew had his exam first and he did great. No concerns about his vision. The doctor said that he had large optic nerves that meant he will probably be near sighted in the future. Interesting...

It was a windy day if you couldn't tell.
After Drew was my turn. We actually went together and Drew got to look at my eye really big on a screen. The doctor was a little skeptical when I told him about my kooky eye and told him I have been told it was Duane's syndrome. Then he started doing all different kinds of test and almost seemed excited when my eyes and vision were demonstrating all the features of the syndrome. I am glad that I could make his day. That night at work I researched a little on the Internet and found out that I may be missing my 6th cranial nerve, sounds important huh. This is why you should never drink during pregnancy. Just kidding mom :) In the end my vision is fine.


Now that's a dirty look, if I ever saw one.
She is loving that sucker. It looks like she thinks she is getting away with something.

So while all this suckering is going on Andy is getting his eye exam and found out he is far sighted. The doctor told him to go tell me the news so I would get some amusement from it. And I did, I laughed so loud. I am married to an old guy who needs reading glasses :)

I am really glad that we found out, because Andy gets headaches all the time. Hopefully this will be the cure. I am sure the strain from reading and being on his computer all the time makes his head hurt.

Jillian's Zoolander look.

I will post pictures of Andy and his new specs when they come in.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A Roberts household two year tradition - green eggs and toast with green butter. Jillian got to take part in the festive green food this year.

Drew obviously appreciated his dad's effort.
This girl has the smile and "cheese" almost as a reflex when I get my camera out.

Little sister and big brother sharing a moment.

Drew just gave her a kiss and a picture perfect Jilli again. Her hair looks a little strawberry blondish in this picture. That added with her pale skin and Irish genes from both mom and dad made her a poster girl for St. Patrick's day.

They were getting a little tired of my demands by this point. What good little sports - putting up with the paparazzi mom.

I got Jilli a hat too, but it is a little big. That doesn't stop her from loving it.

Cutie Pies

Drew's green hat matches his St. Patty's day Lucky Hoopsters shirt.

Jillian's hat will be super cute when she grows into it.

A girl with some sass.

We Miss Pittsburg

Monday afternoon we headed over to Pittsburg and stopped by the hospital to say hello. So nice to see everyone. I feel like I could go to work there tomorrow and things be just like normal. Everyone is warm there and they love my kids. It was nice to see them all. We only stayed for a little while, my children were wild as usual. Jillian fell and hit her face on the hard hospital floor. There was a good amount of blood from her mouth, but no fat lip. By the time we got to the park she acted like nothing happened. The swings were a big hit, at least for most of the time.

Anna's little Brock star with his you better start moving or I am going to give it to you face. Such a cutie boy and changing so fast.
Jillian is checking out baby Brock.

I love this picture, but it makes me wonder if there is a weight limit for playground equipment :) Towards the end of the playground time Drew had another accident. He was swinging high and let go with one hand to scratch his face and fell off the swing. He was on the upswing and fell backwards, feet over his head, a complete back flip and he landed on his chest and face. You can imagine he was scared to death and some how he came out of it injury free. He was pretty upset and was crying and saying that he didn't want to have fun anymore. I didn't see the whole thing just the landing, but Andy said that all he could think of when his feet were over his head was that he might land on his head. It scared Andy and I just as much as Drew I think. What a tough boy, he must be made of rubber.

I went to Ultrasound school with Linsey and then worked for three years at Mt. Carmel with her through 3 pregnancies (my two are her Cooper). Needless to say we have been through some life changing years together. Here is a action shot of her kids Shayna and Cooper on the swings. You can see skinny Linsey in the background.

Refreshment Break

Anna's boys were so good with the little kids. In the picture below Cody is doing bubbles with Drew and Cooper. Earlier Anna's oldest Dylan was so patient with Drew and let him help fly a kite. I didn't have my camera then, my battery went dead at lunch so I bought a charger and charged it at the hospital.

Drew sliding and looking up to see if Cooper is on his way down.

Here comes Cooper. Drew and Cooper had a lot of fun together.

My friend Brenda's beautiful girl Sydney was very helpful with Jilli. We were waiting to be seated for dinner.

Coopster and Drew

Sydney, Drew and Brenda's little man Jacob. Jacob is 6 months older than Drew and I learned a lot from Brenda when she was pregnant and had a newborn and I was still waiting for mine. Hard to believe that was almost 4 year ago.

Cooper and Drew making each other laugh.

We left Pittsburg after lunch and got back to our house after 10:00 pm. On the way home the bean slept, Drew watched Wall-E and then talked about how much he loved our road trip. We had such a good little family trip. A few minor injuries, but nothing could stop us from enjoying some good family time and visiting all our friends.