Trying to Update...

There are SOOO many posts I have wanted to do, but believe it or not, I just have not had the time. Please bear with me as I try to get them written/published (many are started as drafts, but not published) I realize they will be out of order, but I am going to try to fix that when I get caught up (I hope!)

Westrick Pictures

For my parents' Christmas present this year, my siblings and I decided it would be nice to have a photographer take a few pictures of our new expanded family. We thought it would look nice to all wear clothes in the browns, creams, and orange colors and I just LOVE how they turned out! (I apologize for the small sizes, I am unsure how to change that)

My parents with their four grandchildren (L-R - Lilly, Griffin, Addison, Cooper)

Our family of 5:

My favorite sister and family, Becky, Ben and Cooper:

You know you're tired when...

You fall asleep in the Exersaucer :) Lilly really is asleep here, even though you can see her eyes just a little (apparently this is how her Grandma Judy sleeps also)

Roll along...

We've been perfecting the ROLL lately!! Here is Lilly in mid-roll. She can go in any direction - left, right, to belly, to back...she is EVERYWHERE! Her little body twists and turns in some very strange directions. Al was playing with them this morning and she started scooting around. He said that if she would not have been on a blanket, she would have been across the floor. LOOK OUT! Griff is doing pretty well on rolling from belly to back in either direction, but has not really seemed interested in going from back to belly yet. It is quite comical to watch him as he tries to go over feet first, raising his lower torso about a foot off the ground, but then ends up rolling over by tilting his head and following that :)
And then we have Addison. She is just so content wherever she is. When we put her on her belly, she just plays there for awhile. She CAN roll to her back, just choses not to as much as the other two. She shows no interest in rolling to her belly from her back though.

First Smiles :)

Getting the first smile from each of the kids completely melted my heart! After so many sleepless nights, the first smiles made me forget all of the sleep deprivation and any frustration encountered. If these do not make you smile, I am not sure what will :)

Griffin - August 14

Lilly - August 20

Addy - August 31

Fall Pictures

I had not really given much thought to getting professional pictures taken, but recently had my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law (is that how you say it?) ask about them and show interest. The appointment was made at Portait Innovations in Perrysburg for the babies and their cousin, Wade, to have their pictures taken on a Sunday afternoon. I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous about how it would go with three 3-month olds and one 16-month old, but to my surprise it went very well! All four of them cooperated and the pictures turned out VERY cute! They took many pictures together and individually, and even with Al's grandparents. I was so excited to get the pictures back and get some pictures hung up in my house (I have not taken time to order pictures yet...YIKES!) Thank you so much for this fun afternoon!! I do want to mention that the pics did in fact turn out better than the ones pictured after they did some editing such as remove photographers foot from pics. Since they took 120-some shots, I will not put them all on here, but will show a few of my favorites:


Go Buckeyes!! The dolls were a last minute grab of mine as we were going out the door. I wasn't sure if we would be able to use them, but I am so glad I brought them. I thought they looked very cute with the babies.
Great-Grandma & Grandpa Starkey with Wade and triplets:

Playing in the leaves:

Cousin Wade looks so grown up!

Introducing Cooper Joseph

My best friend and sister finally delivered Baby Cooper Joseph Friday Aug. 20th. She was induced Thursday night and went through 20 hours of labor, only to have to endure an emergency C-section. Becky did a fantastic job! When he was born, he weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. Apparently he does not want to be smaller than his cousins! We are very fortunate to have been blessed with this beautiful boy, who came into the world with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and a true knot in the cord. It is a miracle that mom and baby were doing wonderfully after the whole ordeal. I was very disappointed that I could not make it down to see them right after Coop was born since travelling with three newborns is not the easiest thing to do, but I did get to meet him this weekend. Isn't he so cute?!?

Happy mother with a sleeping baby:

Proud Grandma with her two grandsons:

God Bless Us

Sunday, Aug. 29th, we celebrated the baptism of the babies! The babies entered the Catholic faith during the mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Genoa with many family members and friends present. The hot day was beautiful and the babies looked very precious as they wore the baptismal gowns made by my mom. Father David L. Ritchie, along with the congregation, enjoyed the sacrament we celebrated. Al and I could not have asked the babies to have acted any better! There was not one peep from them the entire mass!! Father even asked what I had put in their bottles because they all did so well. Everyone knows how pictures go after a ceremony like this...now picture that, times 3!!! It seemed to take forever to make sure we had the pics we wanted with each of the babies.

Aren't these outfits BEAUTIFUL!!! Thank you so much mom! You did a wonderful job making these :)

Matt lighting Addison's baptismal candle from the Easter candle:

Everyone tracing a cross on babies' foreheads:

Final Blessing:

First family picture of all 5 of us since the hospital I believe:
The Westrick side of the family including Al and I, with babies, Mike and Dani, Matt, Ben & Becky with Cooper, and my proud parents:

Four generations of beautiful women:

Four generations of handsome men:

Our family with Al's parents and grandparents:

Our family with both sets of grandparents:

Father David with us:

Lillian getting baptized:

Lilly chilling on her blanket given to her from the church. These are beautiful quilts the women of the church make for each baby that includes their name and baptismal information:

Lilly with her Godfather Dave and Godmother Becky (doesn't Becky look awesome for just having a baby 9 days ago!):

Griffin being baptized:

Sleeping after church:

Griffin with Godfather Mike and Godmother Andrea:

Addison being baptized:

Addison after church, who at this point was tired of pictures and getting very hungry:

Addison with Godfather Matt and Godmother Jody:

Cake I made for the lunch we had at our house after church. Unfortunately with all the events and desserts others brought, I forgot to bring the cake outside with the rest of the food, so we now have a lot of cake to eat!
Babies in their party clothes. (Lilly is in the light pink headband and Addy is in dark pink ;)
Three babies with cousin Cooper joining them. They were not happy about this!!

The day was fantastic and we thank everyone that joined us in celebration, and those that could not be with us, but kept us in their prayers. We also thank everyone for the wonderful gifts the babies received. They now have Bibles, personalized plates, CD of Bible songs, Jesus Loves Me bunnies, and a good start on their college fund. I am also looking forward to using the gift certificates for a photo shoot and for the babies to make picture frames with their footprints. Thanks everyone!