A Whole Hand!

On October 17th Dax turned five! A whole hand!! We celebrated by going to see Where The Wild Things Are on his birthday. It was wonderful and we all loved it. We then headed home to have dinner with Nanna, Uncle Brian, Auntie Brittan and the cousins. Dax requested that Daddy make his alfredo sauce and it was so good! We love our sweet buggy boy and have cherished every moment of the 5 years he has been with us. He is the sweetest child I have ever known and I am not just saying that because he is mine. We are so proud to be his mommy and daddy and love having him in our family. Our sweet prince!

Birthday cupcakes at school


Birthday party at the park


Five years loved!

Maternity Pictures and Baby Shower

Matt took beautiful pictures of me about a month before Phoebe was born. I am so grateful to have these photos. I look at them and feel so beautiful knowing that my sweet girl is inside growing and preparing to join us. I am so thankful to be a mom and to have the ability to carry my children.





I had a wonderful baby shower thrown for me by my two wonderful friends, Amanda and Devon. It was so nice to be with family and friends to celebrate the impending arrival of Phoebe. It was a surreal pregnancy in so many ways after having been a surrogate mom twice. There were times that I would have to pinch myself when I realized that the baby kicking me was my baby. What a gift to be able to have a sweet baby to love after the gift of being a surrogate mom. I think all surrogates should have a baby of their own after they are surrogates.

My beautiful and delicious cake! This was before we decided to add Marie as a second middle name.


Piper was so excited to be there and part of the celebration. She could not wait to meet her baby sister!


It was so fun to share my pregnancy with Amanda. She had her sweet baby girl, Nora just 12 days before Phoebe was born. Here we are in all our pregnancy glory!

Back to Blogging

I really thought I would be able to overcome the black hole in the middle of my screen and continue to blog, but I couldn't. Not being able to see what I wrote without having to do acrobatics with the window screen made blogging a chore instead of fun. This is what my beloved MacBook looked like the day I sent it in for repairs.



Sad, hu?I wanted to share with everyone the wonderful happenings here at chez Mitchell. To tell you all about the sweet baby girl who was nestling into our hearts and about the incredible love her big brother and sister have for her. At this point it is near impossible to catch you all up on the last 4 months in words. I have always thought pictures do a better job anyway. So the plan is to post in pictures each month I missed out on sharing with the blogging world. At this point I am sure all of my readers have given up, but I want to be able to share this with my three (!) kids one day.

Goodbye

Matt was gone for a week this month. He was here...



He left us behind with a heavy heart and headed for West Virginia. Here is the trip in his words...

The first death in my family happened on February 7, 2010. My grandfather, Harry Mitchell, died at the age of 92. Leaving my grandmother all alone on the side of a mountain in West Virginia. I never really took the time to really get to know him, though I loved him and looked forward to seeing him. I won't make the same mistake with my Grandma. I am inspired by their dedication to each other for 60 years. The funeral was almost emotionless. Yet there was a peacefulness knowing he has moved on to a better place.



The snow fell softly throughout the week, a nice treat for this Florida boy. Grandma's house is the one constant in my lifetime. It's the one place that feels like home despite the porcelain bunnies everywhere. She seemed to keep it together for the most part, but sometimes I would find her crying aloud asking, "What am I going to do now?". I was never sure what to say, so a hug felt universal at those moments. The week was filled with probating, organizing, searching for titles, cooking, cleaning, watching Grandma cheer aloud for Apolo Ohno, shoveling snow, eating, a trip to the top of the mountain to see where Grandad and his parents lie and where Grandma will someday as well. Hopefully not too soon.



Harry and Ann Mitchell 1956

Announcing...

It's official! Phoebe Ann Marie Mitchell made her debut on October 30th and 12:38 pm. She weighed 7 pounds and measured 20 1/2 inches at birth. She kept us on our toes in the last few weeks before her arrival and decided an emergency c section was the best way to make her grand entrance. It was a scary turn of events, but both Mom and baby are healthy.

Phoebe is absolutely adored by her older sister and brother! Mom and Dad are pretty smitten as well. We are all so grateful to have her here with us and look forward to a new life as a family of five.

Here are a few pictures of our sweet baby girl.

Dax loves his baby sister!


Phoebe the punk rock baby


The kids meeting their baby sister for the first time.


Me and my girls!


Phoebe and Daddy



Here are a few from her photo shoot with Daddy. We are all in love with her blonde hair.

Grandparents Breakfast

Piper's school has a special breakfast for students and grandparents. This was the third year in a row that Grandma and Grandad picked up Piper and had breakfast with her at school and then got to see her classroom and meet her teacher. She was so excited and looked forward to this day since the first day of school. Next year Grandma and Grandad will play double duty and have breakfast with both Piper and Dax!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. Right?

I know, I know! I have been a bad blogger friend. I didn't intend for this to happen and I have missed all of you, but alas I have been a bad blogger friend. I have had many wonderful and exciting things to tell you about, sprinkled in with a few mundane things as well, just to keep it interesting. See the thing is my Macbook has suffered an injury. It is a fixable injury and purely cosmetic, but it is an injury nonetheless. It all started the night we transformed Piper's room from this...




to this...






We worked really hard to transform Piper's room into a room for Piper and Dax and we were quite pleased with the outcome. As the kids happily camped out in the family room we basked in the accomplishment of this new room. It was pretty late and we were pretty tired so what happens next has been forgiven. I set my Macbook on the step stool and left the room to get something. I hadn't been gone long when I heard a crash and Matt yell. I ran back to the room thinking he had fallen somehow and asked if he was okay. He answered that he was fine, but my computer might be broken. WHAT?! The proper response would have been relief and joy that my husband was okay, but I admit that it was fear for my beloved laptop that was the overwhelming thought in my head. See when Matt went to move the step stool he didn't see my computer sitting on the top step and it slid right off and hit the floor. Hard. What has resulted is a cracked screen that has gotten worse as time has gone by. It can be fixed and will be fixed, but right now we are using our money to pay for things like electricity and rent with not a whole lot left over.

So you see, it has been difficult to blog with a screen that is blocked by black fingers of pixel killing death. But so many fun things have happened and I want them to be here at chez mitchell blogspot. So I plan to blog like crazy and catch you all up on the stuff that has been going on here. As you can see we have done some remodeling and still have a bit more to do as well. So check back often in the next day or so for new posts of things that have already happened and maybe even a current event as well.