it’s crazy how a ho-hum date on the calendar can become instantly special in the blink of an eye. our blink of an eye arrived april 28th 2014, transforming that date into one we will now cherish for the rest of our lives.

(photo bomber and smiling eyes after pulling an all nighter)

at 12:31pm, our DAUGHTER arrived. i’m seriously still in shock we had a girl. i was 100% certain we were having a boy. and there goes my motherly intuition out the window. geesh. a whopping 7 lbs. 15 oz. she entered the world with a bang thinking it might be fun to give mom and dad a little scare before we could wrap our arms around her. thanks to an unruly umbilical cord, she entered the world a sickly shade of blue…

but with the help of our amazing hospital staff, they had her exercising her first-timer lungs in no time flat and all was well.

praise. the. Lord.

crying never sounded so good.

baby girl is already bucking the circus system by rocking a head of thick, dark hair. little cutie.

of course, the circus came to meet their newest member and every single one of them was (and is) over the moon for her. i LOVE watching them love her. love.

love-love.

our first *official* family photo as a family of SIX…

(can i just take a moment and thank God for having more amazing plans for our lives than we could ever imagine for ourselves. before we had any kids, i only wanted 2. and here we are with 4. FOUR. and i wouldn’t trade a single one for the world. or a billion-gazillion dollars.)

sweet pea, above all, has fallen head over heels in love with the littlest member of the circus (p.s. she needs a blog name, yo…ideas?). below, she waits patiently to hold her sister for the very first time.

sweet girl was made for this. big sister is written in her DNA. i love this next picture. so. much.

who am i kidding? all my kids were made for this moment. holding their baby sister for the first time, all i saw was love beaming from their shining faces.

thanks to the unruly umbilical cord mentioned above, baby girl spent the night in the nursery, so i didn’t get as many photos in the hospital as i would have hoped for. i did manage to snag a few before we headed home though…

hair!

i’ll pre-apologize for the barrage of newborn images that are going to be hitting the blog this week and in the weeks to come. there’s something about a newborn, you just can’t take enough pictures…or maybe that’s just me!

*  *  *  *  *

in other news…

…JILL!  you won the *get out of my belly* contest! you pretty much nailed it with your guess of :

girl, 7 lbs. 5 oz. (only 10 oz. off!), and april 28th!

congrats!! email me to claim your prize : lifeasyouliveit@live.com

i have so many more pictures to share, and words to say, and stories to tell, but i’m off to bed. word on the street is you should sleep when your babe sleeps, so tonight, i’m taking that advice.

cheers friends and thank you all for your sweet words via social media…you all are awesome.

really.

blessings *