Visitors for Wella

 I've been calling our new baby "Wella" lately. As in, the second part of her name, kinda. Like, if you say "Luella" out loud, is sounds like Lu-wella, so I call her "Wella" or, sometimes: "Wella Wella" (said really fast together). Isn't that ridiculous? We agonize over the perfect name for our child and then we give them this silly nickname the second they are born. Well, anyway....

Wella-Wella has had lots of visitors this week! First she had her Grammy and Grandad and of course Grandma and Grandpa and her aunts and uncles. Then she met Brigitte and Scott and Annabel. And then, on Friday, our good friends, the Dischers, came to stay with us for the weekend. They have 10-week-old Julia Rose who we got to meet for the first time (since they live in Dallas). Sammy was completely obsessed with her because she's much more animated and friendly than our baby is at this point. 

We did a lot of hanging out at home and ordering-in food, but one night we ventured out to Stanleys, a local bar/grill that has outdoor seatting and LOTS of outdoor games in the parking lot for our Sammy to play. It's the perfect restaurant for us, actually. They have "bags" and basketball and even a dunk tank, (it was hard to keep Sammy out of that actually). This is Jenn and Ryan, now forever known to Sammy as "Julia's mom and dad".  They are great!

Actually, Ryan is more than "Julia's dad" because he is very high energy and ran around with Sammy a few times at the park and at the restaurant which made Sam very happy. He actually said the phrase: "Ryan really wore me out at the park!" I didn't know that was possible. Here is beautiful Jenn with Julia. Can you believe Jenn had a baby 10 weeks ago? She's stunning.

Here are the kids and Ryan and Matt playing "bags" or "cornhole" or whatever you call it.

 Then, Sunday, we got a visit from our other good friends (from FLORIDA), the Barbars. George and Matt roomed together in college (and played football together) and Leah and I were great friends as well. They have three kids as well, but here are our older two with their older two: Tori and Anthony. They are here for a month for George's work, so we get to see them for a few more weeks. Yay! It's so funny to see a picture of all of our kids together: weren't we just in college a few years ago??? How do we have all these kiddos?

In other new, Wella-Wella is being thoroughly doted on and attended to by Claire, now known as "second mommy". I think Claire would be happy if I took a long trip right now and left her to take care of her new baby sister alone. She wants to be with her every second. I'm really trying to encourage that relationship, so I've given her LOTS of freedom with the baby. Here she is modeling our new Moby wrap!

How cute are they?

I was never a wrap/sling person with our other kids because I've always had a bad back, but this wrap does actually make it seem pretty easy to "wear your baby". It's very "ergonomic" as they say. Seriously...how cute is Claire in this thing!?

She's also into reading to her baby sister. I can't believe how capable she is at 7 years old! She can hold her really well and supports her head really well and even changes positions while holding her very well. I still usually say she has to only hold her sitting down, but we're trying to give her all the chances we can...especially while the baby is small enough that it is still possible to hold her easily.

And in other news, Wella had her first bottle the other day. My other kids NEVER took a bottle, so I'm trying to see if we can get this one to take it a little earlier, and she did! We'll see though. Either way, she's pretty darn cute with her little hat and baba. Well, Matt is driving Jenn to the airport right now, so this is the first day since our baby girl was born that it will be just our little family together. The house seems very empty!