Jamie has completely taken over care of the 3 older kiddos while she's been here (and Andy is out of town). Tonight I was putting away some of the little piles of clutter that have accumulated over the past several days when I asked if she was okay (meaning - do you want me to take one of them to read to?). Her response, "I'm in Heaven!" Okay, I'll just keep doing my little chores. *Mitchell is laying on the floor taking a little snooze.
Mitchell's first bath - given by Grandma. He didn't love it until she started washing his hair. His second bath a few days later he didn't even make a peep - just completely content!
Annie is a little bit put out that it's Dad's turn to hold Mitchell. (She kind of thinks this is her baby!)
Notice the love and contentment...she doesn't get enough time with him!
Grandma isn't smiling here (it was the end of the day), but Mitchell looked so cute and grown up! We've all commented on how much stronger his neck muscles are getting - very noticeable difference from 5 days ago when we came home from the hospital! He really is growing too fast for me.
The boys hanging out...
Our sweet Dr. This was his second day without sleep because of so many cute babies all wanting to be born on November 10th!
Andy finally agreed to Mitchell's name. (I kind of figured he would have some pity on me.) Looking at our precious angel, about 15 minutes after his arrival!
From the very beginning, he has been a very content little guy. He loves to look around and has even started to turn his head to sounds. His eyes are very dark blue and incredibly intense!
Meeting the siblings! Because he was born so late, the kids were already in bed. We had some fabulous friends stay the night with them (and get up with them at 5:30 am) to share the happy news! Andy picked them up after school, got some balloons and flowers, bought happy meals, and brought them to meet baby Mitchell!
They all love to hold him, but this little girl just can't get enough! She will happily sit on the couch for 45 minutes, just still and holding Mitchell.
Love those kiddos! And, yes, his hair is incredibly soft! We all find ourselves stroking it!
Our happy family!
Checking out his fingers, toes, and bracelets.
My favorite snuggly-baby position!
Time to go home! Our little 8 pound baby completely filled out the newborn outfit we bought. It is in the laundry right now so he can wear it at least once more before he grows out of it! 
That is all for now! I have more pictures on the camera, but downloading and uploading all take time (and two hands), both of which are a precious commodity! 
The Capitol! We were on the side with the construction. It was cold and windy and we were hustling (after finding a parking spot) because dinner reservations were quickly approaching!
Beautiful. Beautiful! This is my friend, Hollie, who lives in Virginia and was our hostess and our guide for the weekend! This is me 37 weeks pregnant. 
Visiting the Jefferson Memorial. Again, more tears from Lindsey. So beautiful and such a peaceful, spiritual atmosphere! This cutie baby is Sadie, who was very entertained by my three kiddos. I think she was only over-stimulated 3 or 4 times!
FDR's site. This was a cool hidden area that wasn't very well publicized, but was on the way back to the car. I loved this! Think it was my favorite part - filled with waterfalls and brass people. The kids loved running around (still amazed by how child-friendly DC is) and I cried (again) at all the beautiful quotes. In 8th grade, I had to do a research report in English for the teacher that only wore purple (what was her name???). I knew so little about history and just randomly picked FDR. I think the information I learned about him was the only thing I learned in class that year... 
Lunch at a little garden across the street from the Museum of Natural Science. 
Loved the museum! LOVED the rocks. The kids had so much fun picking out their favorites! However, my feet were so incredibly swollen, Emily was done walking, so we made this the end of the city stuff.
Yummy restaurants! I told Hollie I wanted to eat at DC type restaurants. (Like living in Texas and we take people to get BBQ from a gas station) Thursday night we went to the Founding Farmers. Fabulous! I want to go back there and order grilled cheese; it was simply amazing. Everything was good, but some things were incredible! I also had my first fried green tomatoes, which Ben loved! Friday we stopped at The Dairy Godmother for rich creamy custard and atmosphere. Saturday we had lunch at the 5 Guys, a hamburger place where you get to throw peanuts on the floor. Seriously - so much fun!! 
Friday afternoon the kids tried to catch tadpoles in the pond near Hollie's house. No success, but I got some fabulous pictures!
Again, Sweet Sadie never lacking for entertainment. She has a huge smile that the kids loved to get from her!
Saturday Ben got to play with Jozsef, Hollie's husband. Ben now thinks he has a new best friend! They played chess.
And Lego Batman on the XBox 360 (with Andy until he left for another part of his conference).
The girls entertained (tormented) Sadie and dressed her up. 
Then we had a short guitar show before heading to lunch and the National Pier.
We had a little car trouble as we were leaving lunch; for some reason the car door wouldn't close! We called patient Jozsef to come and fix it for us. While we were working on that, Andy finished up and came to meet us. Again, Sadie with her biggest fans in the girl car! 
Ben and Jozsef in the boy car.
Saturday was the most beautiful day!!! The boys played football on the grass while Annie and Emily climbed on another statue and Hollie and I sat and talked. Such a relaxing afternoon!
We took a water taxi ride from where ever we were to the National Pier (I think?). This is just better documentation that Andy was actually with us. 
The boys kept the kids busy climbing on statues while Hollie and I walked around for a few minutes to look in the shops.
Waiting for our water taxi (after almost boarding the incorrect taxi for an anniversary party, complete with a buffet).
Enjoying the wind rushing through their hair. What a peaceful way to travel...
Our last few minutes playing - more football, per Ben's request. Sadie got to join in the game this time - with cute Emily right next to her!
Super fun 3 days away from the real world! Thanks Hollie and Jozsef for being such wonderful hosts! The kids would like to come back 'next weekend!'
We had a fun baby shower...for me! I, of course, had no make up on and started tearing up a bit (welcome to pregnant world).
After make up - before food. I have to say, I think this was the most fun playgroup we had yet! Angie emailed everyone and got it all set up. (After having to reschedule it from the week before because I went on the field trip with Annie's class. Oops!) A bunch of people came that don't always make it out. We just had a great time chatting and eating while the kids ran around. It was a beautiful day, so a bunch of the boys played outside. 
Very very fun!!! Thanks for planning and organizing! Baby will love all the treasures! I love all the friends!!!
She is very sure and focused with each task she is asked to do.
Annie's class was extremely disappointing. I even went and complained during one class because I was so frustrated; that turned into a private 10 minute lesson for Annie, which was awesome! She had come to the the point that class wasn't even fun anymore. That would be because they didn't learn ANYTHING. I'm pretty positive she regressed through this class. 3 teachers and 7 kids - would make sense to break the kids up a little bit according to ability. Instead, the teachers spent 25-30 minutes of each class helping the 3 children that could not balance and walk across the ice. Annie spent most of her time skating back and forth between Ben's class and Emily's class. I tried to get her moved to the next class up, but she wasn't able to do all the skills for that class (lacking one of them). Shockingly (insert large amounts of sarcasm here), they didn't once go over that skill in the rest of her time in her class! GRRR!!! Talking the last day to some of the other parents, several were very frustrated with this one class. However, I will stop complaining here because Annie did come off the ice each time with a smile on her face. That is the important part!!!
Ben thinks ice skating is about who can skate the fastest. Those 'other things they teach you' aren't as important as SPEED (things like stopping and turning). He had a few kids in his class from school and had a great time racing with the other boys. The second to last week in class, they taught them a hockey stop, which he thought was pretty cool. Everything was great until the last week, after testing, when he found that he doesn't get to move on to the next level. It was pretty traumatic for this little 7 year old. We talked a lot about making sure we practice all the different skills. He passed everything except the forward and backward v things. I told him I would be shocked if he had come out and skated for 6 classes and was able to master all of the skills - that just isn't reasonable. Yesterday, he asked if ice skating was tonight. I told him classes were over. With a smile on my face, I reminded him of his previous statement that he was NEVER going to ice skate again!!! He laughed and said he'd like to try again. 
So, maybe next January will find us again at the rink each Wednesday afternoon...