1 Month

So, this is a couple of weeks late, but here is Tripp at one month:

At his one month check-up he was 8 pounds and 14 ounces and 21 inches long. It is amazing that in 4 weeks he has gained 2 pounds 13 ounces and has grown an inch and a half!

The sisters are still in love and think they have a baby doll with which to play.

Daddy and his boy:

It's A Boy!!

Wow. I still cannot believe it. The girls were right! All along they have said it was a brother and here he is:

John Gwaltney Persons, III (Tripp) was born September 4, 2009 at 7:49 am. He weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce (a little guy!) and was 19 inches long.


I cannot tell you how thrilling it was to hear "It's a boy!" I will never forget that moment and I am so glad we did know the gender until then. Since we knew Lauren and Catherine's gender, I can say I've experienced both knowing and not knowing the sex. While knowing makes the planning fun, there is something to be said for the anticipation of the moment of birth.

John and I totally expected another girl. He and I were surprised to hear it was a boy. Long ago we had decided to carry on John's family name but we had not talked at all about what we would call him. It took us a couple of days to decide between Trey and Tripp (nicknames for third generation boys.) Does he look proud?



Because of the rampant spread of the H1N1 flu virus, the hospital has banned visitors under the age of 18. So, the girls did not get to meet Tripp until we were home. I missed seeing them, but luckily they are too young to really understand that they were missing out by not getting to visit us at the hospital. Here they are meeting their brother for the first time.


As you can see, Catherine was very concerned about his pacifier.

This cracks me up. Look at the expression on Tripp's face. He knows already to protect himself from his loving sister.


They think he is a baby doll. We use a LOT of hand sanitizer and are working on teaching them the proper way to hold him.






Lauren and Catherine are proud sisters, are very excited and love, love, love their little brother. We are so blessed and thank our Heavenly Father for the healthy new addition to our family.

Summer=flip flops

This cracks me up. Notice two things: Catherine puts her flops on the wrong foot, and she can't quite get the toe placement right. But hey, she gets them on herself and that is a start.
Little Miss Priss, Lauren, is so proud to show off her newly painted toes. She is so worried the polish will come off in the pool or bath. We love our flip flops.

It's Officially Over

.....my quest for my Masters in Education. I graduated as of last Saturday! I am so thankful to be DONE and back to my former life. I have missed my girls and missed having time to clean my house, go to the grocery store, get my hair cut, clean out closets, etc. Wait. I don't think I spent much time cleaning or organizing prior to my internship (but don't tell John!) I really have missed simple daily pleasures like blogging and taking my children to the park.

So, what now? I guess I'll have this baby and go from there. A lot of people have asked if I plan to teach immediately and the answer is, not yet. I would like to do some tutoring on the side, so if anyone knows of anybody looking for a qualified tutor, please pass on my name!

Here is some randomness for your day. John's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and he wanted chicken noodle soup and sandwiches for his birthday dinner. Seriously. That is all he wanted. I offered to cook him whatever he wanted or we could have gone out. But, he wanted soup and sandwiches. Oh, and he doesn't like sweets, so I really got off easy. I didn't bake him a cake or even a pie. But, the strawberries are delish right now, so I got stuff for strawberry shortcake. More for the girls and I than John! Anyway....I digress. We were eating our soup and sandwiches and this is what John found in his soup:


Yes, that is a bolt nestled within the noodles of his Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. A rather large bolt. Here's what I want to know: how exacly did this bolt make its way to our can of soup? Was it an integral part of the machine from which it came? Did this particular bolt cause the entire factory to halt production? Or, are there any other machinery parts floating around in cans of Campbell's soup? Did anyone realize a large bolt was missing from one of the machines at the Campbell's soup cannery? Just some random questions I have.