Welcome Tessie!

Theresa Rose was born on December 11, 2012 at 9:33pm, weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. Yes we missed the triple-12 birthday by a few hours, but 12/11/12 is just fine with us.  With the delivery everything went smoothly (pain aside), and baby Tessie arrived in good time, for a total labor of just about 6 hours.  We have been extremely happy with Mt. Auburn Hospital's care for all three births.

Here we are arriving at the hospital, straight from work.  Still smiling!

The view of downtown Boston from our delivery room.

Somewhere in the middle of delivery, still smiling (barely).

Definitely smiling now after getting through the hard part with a healthy baby girl!

Tessie weighed in as the biggest of the girls at 8 lb 6.8 oz, but only just as Erin was 8 lb 6.4 oz.

Mom admiring her new addition!

Mom, Dad, and baby shortly after delivery.

Tessie's first bath!

Caroline and Erin came to meet their baby sister the next day after school.  The baby was fun to see, but the special snack room where they got free ginger ale, that was the best!

Baby Tessie arriving home from the hospital, not quite 2 days old. 

Grandma Joan holds her 8th grandchild for the first time (6th girl!!!)

Caroline holds her baby sister too!

Even Erin got in on the baby holding action!

And of course Grandpa Ed couldn't be left out either!

Tessie catching some zzzz's.

Catching some more zzzz's snuggled up close to Dad.

And more sleeping...this time with Mom.

We know it isn't a real smile, but it is still cute.

Erin is a happy girl, with crazy staticky hair!

Here is a look at Tessie's room: purple and yellow is the color scheme!

Clio always manages to identify the coziest sleeping spots, sleeping in various baby apparati over the course of the day!

Okay, now for a quiz.  Identify the babies without scrolling up.

Caroline really likes her baby sister Tessie, and she is a great helper too!

We couldn't miss Erin's school play!  Erin did a great job singing and acting the part of the snow hare in "Big Pine Tree".

And for the first time ever, the girls decided it was okay to go near Santa!

(Answer to quiz: Erin, Caroline, Tessie)

The girls meeting their little sister

November birthdays

Let's get the November birthdays out of the way before the December one!

Dad turned 38 the day before Election Day

We hosted a small (pink!) party for Erin for some of her girlfriends

 Erin received many gifts, for which she is very thankful, but the biggest hit was the mermaid costume

 Heather, looking extra humong- I mean radiant

 

First fire in the fireplace and the house didn't burn down - success!

Caroline sings the baby a lullaby

Fall fun

 This fall we tried to take advantage of our last season with two mobile children.We visited some local sites, survived Superstorm Sandy, and re-occupied our renovated upstairs.

Wilson Farm's haunted hayride is getting more and more popular

This year they mounted a giant Bug

 Duck racing at the Topsfield Fair. Caroline was picked to race one of the female mallards.

Ready,set, splash! Our feathered friend lost her heat.

Caroline had no problem with the big burlap sack slide, but Erin did not like it.

If you look at Caroline you'll see that she is wearing a hat because it was 45 degrees at Crane's Beach in Ipswich. Warm-blooded Erin didn't mind.

Getting bigger

When will Caroline be able to take our picture?

We had a group of Mom's work friends over for a fall party

Erin brought home Teddy from school for the weekend

Hurricane Sandy - run for your lives! Actually we were lucky to never lose power despite the high winds. The snowstorm last year at this time was much more destructive.

After the storm Halloween was a warm night for trick-or-treating. The girls brought home a small haul.

The finished renovation. The new baby's room is still being decorated, but here is the girls' new bedroom. To save space Caroline will take the top bunk (she is very excited) and Erin now gets the full. We hope that the girls will not remember how big their room was before we split it. 

Importantly, our existing furniture did fit in the room

The new master bedroom and king bed

The new walk-in closet 

Blue and gray is the color scheme for the bath. The tile people were excited not to be doing another one in black and white.

We splurged on the glass tile and pebble floor. It looks great in the natural light that comes in through...

... the 48-inch skylight. While framing the bath we learned that the headroom above the vanity was 2 inches short of the 6 ft 8 inch required by code. The solution was a huge skylight.

 People over 6 feet may have trouble in this space, but it works for us

Erin's healthy marshmallows

Caroline's big gigantic rhyme