Two Weeks Old

Happy two week birthday to little Ellie! On May 27, we went in for Ellie's two week check. Ironically, May 27 was our original due date. If you'll remember, Ellie weighed 6 lbs 9 oz at birth. At her two week check, she weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz. I was astonished! I actually asked the corpsman to weigh her again because I thought the scale was wrong. But no, there it was. And she's now an inch longer than she was at birth. So way to go, Ellie! It's great having a baby who really wants to eat. That's a definite difference from her big sis when Kate was Ellie's age. And Ellie's very predictable--eating every three hours. And I usually don't even have to wake her up to eat--she lets me know it's time.

Also, we've welcomed Gram Luminati to our home for a few weeks. What a blessing it is having her here. Mommy is SO appreciative of all the naps she can sneak in while Gram and Kate have fun together. We will certainly miss Gram when she goes home--which, thankfully, isn't for a while yet.

Here are some more pictures. I will endeavor to get a picture of Ellie's adorable dimple in the middle of her right cheek. It's so precious!

Mom, Dad and Ellie hanging out.

Dad and his two girls.

Kate and her friend Landen playing in Landen's swimming pool.

See what I do all day? It keeps me very busy.

That was Fast!

I'm humbled and excited to report that our house sold this weekend! We had four offers in the first two days and signed a contract last night after some negotiation. The closing date should give us plenty of time to work out the details and prevent us from having to pay our existing mortgage when we all head down to Ft. Belovoir for the month prior to our departure. We also received word on Friday that a heavily prayed-for program to help military families is up and running and should help us recoup the majority of our losses on the house. It will be a while before we see any funds, but the knowledge that they should be coming is a great stress reliever.

Kate was very excited too and couldn't wait to take down the "for sale" sign.

Ellie also got a visit from her Grandpa this weekend. He was in town on a business trip and the rest of the family was really jealous.



Grandpa spent a fair part of the weekend crammed into our increasing cramped Ford Focus while we evacuated the house so throngs of people could look through it.




Kate and Grandpa both agreed that they were each more fun to play with than Ellie.



It's lunch time here at the Luminati house now, so I've got to go, but we wanted to say thank for all the prayers. God has been very good to us this week ... blessing us beyond our expectations.

A Couple of Pictures

Before I head off to bed for what will be my last shot at a good night's sleep for a while, I wanted to post a couple of pictures. Enjoy ...

Here are Jen and Ellie about 10 minutes after the birth.


Ellie sleeping soundly this afternoon.

Here is Kate watching Ellie sleep.

Kate was very excited to meet her little sister, and decided to lean in and give her a kiss.

Ellie is here!

Elliana Hope Luminati was born this morning at 1:40AM. Both Mom and Baby are doing great. She came two weeks early, catching us a little off guard. But everything worked out in the end. Total time from "Is that a contraction or just indigestion?" to "Hello Ellie!" was six hours. She weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long.

I'll post pictures when I get a chance, but for now I've got a 20 month-old to feed and then, hopefully, naps for both of us.

Big Trucks--Herndon Style

Last week, our town had their big trucks on display. If you don't already know, Kate is fascinated by big trucks, backhoes, motorcycle noises, fire engine sirens, etc. I was so excited to see how she would react to the trucks up close and personal. She loved it! In fact, we went several times during the week as the trucks were on display each day. She cried almost every time we left. I think she liked seeing all the other kids milling around almost as well as the trucks. Her favorite is the trash truck, which makes her the most excited because she can recognize it's noise as it comes down the street. On trash days, I better get in there in time to let her look out the window to see the trash truck--she gets jittery with excitement. She's so much fun! Enjoy the pictures.


I couldn't get over how small she looked by this big digger.



Off and running--she would dance across the parking lot from truck to truck. It was so funny. Check out the jazz hands.

She's not quite sure about wearing the hat, but she can tell you it's "wew-o."

"Geen! Geen!"

Finally getting a smile for the camera.

Pics are here!

Thanks to my wonderful husband for putting Picasa back on our computer so we could upload and post some new pictures.


Thanks again to Nana for coming to help us get the house ready to sell. It was great having you here and you were SUCH a big help!!

Waving hi to her Nana.

A rare only Mom and Daddy shot!

Not much room on the lap these days....

Keeping up that happy face.

She loves to put sliced black olives on her fingers and wave them around. Here she is discovering she can do that just about anywhere, provided there are olives.

Now she can climb into her exersaucer. Quite the skill! Getting out...now that's another story.

Say cheese!

Now that I've buttered you up with some new pictures of our family, I have to confess that I was attempting to transfer a whole bunch of Easter pictures and videos from the camera card to the new computer and devastatingly, I lost them all. One would think that at my age and with my computer ability that wouldn't happen, but I realized (too late) I managed to create a short cut, not a new file folder. So, sadly, VERY sadly, all the Easter pics and Kate hunting around for her hidden eggs are lost forever. Sigh. Just so you know how cute she looked (and how sad I am!), here she is in her Easter dress. (Thanks to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Gil for the sweet dress!)