just a few more of my cuties......

this is why old men shouldn't play sports.......

don decided once again this year to play softball. he plays for a parks and recreation league for our city. the team was comprised of mostly twenty-somethings with a few (ahem) old men scattered in. the season was fraught with injuries. one of the young guys on his team was hit by a line drive in the face which resulted in 3 broken facial bones. there were a few other minor injuries throughout the season....most of them incurred by the older, (ahem) more mature men on the team. then on 7/24/07 in one of his last games, don was out in left field and the ball was hit to him. he misjudged it and ran forward to catch it, realized that it was going to go over his head and planted his right foot to stop. he started to turn to run backwards but his planted right foot stayed planted while the rest of his body made the turn. this resulted in what he described as a sickening popping noise and immense pain. this strong, cancer surviving, macho, he-man, sports hero dropped on the spot. he had to be taken off of the field on a golf cart. unfortunately i wasn't at that game but my co-worker was as her (young) boyfriend plays on an opposing team. she happened to see the commotion on the field don was playing on and went over to check it out. she saw him being loaded onto the golf cart and called me. there was no way don was going to be able to drive the car home so i had to have my neighbor drive me to the ball field to retrieve my car and my injured sports hero. he actually had to be driven from the playing field to the parking lot. heh. the above picture is what a torn groin muscle looks like and was taken three days after the injury. and just in case you had any doubt just how macho he really is, he was in the basement weight-lifting the day this picture was taken. he still has the bruise after two weeks although it is fading some. that's my guy.......

sometimes change sucks....

like when don decided to change internet servers from aol to comcast to accommodate his new laptop and wireless setup. in short..i don't like comcast as my new server. maybe it was too easy to use aol because we had that account for so long. comcast is what we are signed up for as our high speed internet, telephone and cable for the house. apparently, blogger doesn't recognize my new email address and password. and changing it was like running around in circles. like everything else in life lately, the emails to try and change over to the new server were automated. you know, like when you call anywhere for anything and you get routed to india and your customer service representative is "jennifer" or "michael" even though they have curiously very thick indian accents. well that is what it was like for me to try and access my blog in the last few weeks. i know some of you have been waiting for me to post, and i apologize for the delay. i found out that i can't upload pictures to the blog and i'm not sure why. if i can't figure it out, i will either switch from blogger to typepad or open a brand new blog in blogger. i plan on working on this tomorrow. so, my friends and family...be patient for a little longer. oh, and tessa is getting cuter by the day and scarlett is so sweet with her and such a helpful big sister. i promise, i will try to get some pictures uploaded. if i have to start another blog, i will let you know.........

edited...i guess i can upload pictures, just differently and one at a time instead of directly from picasa..ah well...here is nanny with tess and scarlett in the most unusual sleeping position i have ever seen her in....more later

scarlett loves her baby sister...

tessa is lucky...not a bit of jealousy toward her from scarlett. she is very protective of tess and is very good at keeping champ from licking her baby sister's face (which he loves to do and we really have to watch him for).
she is so sweet and will let me take pictures of her and tessa whenever i ask her to.
i am loving this pose...a pose that scarlett just did without any direction from me. well, i did clone her feet out of the background because she was sticking them straight up.
and here is one of nonna with my sweet tess, we love her so much.

just a little slide show from yesterday...

we had a litte photo session today...

i have been waiting for 9 months for this moment...a photo session with my new precious granddaughter (that still feels weird to be considered a grandma...for the second time no less)
tessa was so good and photographs so well. we had a mini session in my bedroom and it was a lovely time. shannon had to stop and feed her in the middle of it so we took advantage of that time to get some of her and tessa.

and scarlett burst into the room at one point so i decided to get her in on the action too. i had to convince her to take her shirt off and she wasn't willing until i promised her a popsicle for her cooperation. ahh, the power of bribery...

and you know i have a thing for baby feet.....

so pink, with the perfect little piggies and the adorable wrinkles on the soles..


well now i have a thing for still attached, dried up old umbilical cords.....that look like reese's peanut butter cups.....:)

it really does..click on the picture to make it larger...

one of my favorite things in life.......

is that he will take a walk with his dad and his dog....
and still hold daddy's hand
even at 10 years old.....

they found this little guy stuck to the side of our shed...

i guess it's some kind of tree frog. allison took these pictures of it and found that it had some pretty remarkable markings.
he got a ride on my sunflower globe and on ali's green shirt.
he tried to escape a few times, this was one of those times but it got her this cool shot of it's colorful butt.
he (she) was very small and for the most part really quite content to just hang around on her hand or austen's. very cool little critters we have around here.

poor tessa...

when she was born, the doctor thought that he heard a "pop" and suspected a clavicle fracture. they checked her out and felt that because she had good range of motion and wasn't crying in pain, that she was okay and deferred the xray. shannon however, suspected that something wasn't right and took tess to the doctor yesterday. they sent her for an xray and sure enough, the clavicle was a complete fracture. shannon called me at work sobbing, and told me what happened. she felt so bad that maybe she had aggravated the injury by dressing and holding her wrong, albeit carefully. doctors said to keep the arm immobilized by pinning a long sleeved t-shirt to her shirt at the chest. with the warm july weather she had to become a little more creative so this is the result.
tess is still very content and does not seem to be in any pain.
shannon took the girls to kelly's for a play date and kelly took these pictures. i am having major withdrawls because i have not seen tessa (or scarlett) in 2 days. she still looks like her daddy, especially in this picture. what a doll.

she has changed so much...

in just a short 24 hour period. her face seems to have filled out and her cheeks are fuller. she is so cute and so good. with her little milk mouth and black curls, she is so sweet.
if you look closely in this picture she has a little baby mohawk compliments of daddy. now if i could only think of a way to make it pink...
she is so good, hardly a peep. she is feeding good and sleeping good. shannon feels great, so much better than last time {so she tells me}.
we are in love with her but austen is besotted with her. he wanted to hold her the whole time we were there today and talked to her and kissed her. he is totally in love with her and he and scarlett clamor to be the one to hold her when they are together. he is going to have so much fun when shannon starts babysitting for him after the two week gm shutdown and don is back to work.

this is scarlett when she was born and she is looking more and more like her every day. it should be interesting to see how much they look alike {or different}. time will tell.....

here she is.....

tessa christine...
21 inches long....and wrapped around my finger.....
adored by her new big sister....
and the cutest little thing who looks just like her daddy... and her grandma christine (jason's mom). shannon did very well, once things got started. went from 6 cm. to birthing her in 40 minutes. too bad it took almost 24 hours to get to that point. she went in wednesday night and tessa was born on friday at 12:06 pm. two pushes and she was out. with a fuzzy head of black curls. and is just adorable. congratulations shannon, jason and scarlett and thank you for another adorable granddaughter.