Meeting the Fam

Needless to say, Caroline's birth has been a highly anticipated event around here! Her sisters could not WAIT to meet her, and aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents have had to be patient as well thanks to my post-date baby! Caroline is so lucky to have such a loving family to welcome her into the world.

First family photo: the Sustar SIX!

My four blessings

Winnie's fifth granddaughter!

Aunt Lindsay with her new niece

Elaine has a new cousin!  How fun!

Daddio meets his eighth great-granddaughter.  Wow!  Girls rule. :)

She's Here!

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of Caroline Jo Sustar, born on Monday, June 23rd at 5:57pm, weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and measuring 20 inches long. I was blessed with another quick delivery -- birth story to come soon! Caroline is absolutely perfect with lots of dark hair, a cute little upturned nose, and her daddy's chin. She's our biggest baby so far and I think most of the extra weight is in her cheeks -- they are so round and adorable, I could eat them up. Needless to say her sisters are in love and I will do my best to document our life with FOUR girls!! You can call me Marmee! We are overwhelmed by this newest blessing.

Here are some photos of Caroline's birth to enjoy...

A first look at my new baby girl

Dr. Dixon made it just in time for this one!  Best doctor ever.

Brand new.

All cleaned up and ready for some snuggles

Daddy was happy to deliver.

So proud!

Look who's FOUR!

Wow! Our Libby is FOUR! We had a nice little Tinkerbell-themed birthday party with the family, complete with a Tinkerbell ice cream cake (actually it was a generic Baskin Robbins ice cream cake with a Tinkerbell doll stuck in the middle, but the girls didn't know any different!). Libby had been asking when her birthday would arrive for about 3 months, so it was a highly anticipated day and didn't disappoint. Favorite gifts included more Fisher Price Little People to add to our growing collection, Playmobile hamsters from Auntie Putz, and her own Americal Girl doll, Kirsten. Libby couldn't be happier.

As you can tell from previous posts, Libby has quite the imagination and comes up with the most hilarious phrases on a daily basis. Although she's fairly quiet when we're out and about, here at home she is often the leader of the playtime activities, dictating to Siena what all of the Little People (their current favorite playthings) are up to. She's great at coming up with rhymes and silly songs and does a great "Love is an Open Door" duet with Daddy. She loves taking center stage during "after dinner theater hour" on the outside patio. She continues to be quite independent and can play play play with a running dialogue for hours. Needless to say Joe and I get a kick out of our Libby on a regular basis, as do her sisters -- Margaret especially is a great audience for Libby's antics. We are so blessed to have her in our family and look forward to watching her grow. We love you, Elizabeth Jane!

Breakfast for birthday dinner, complete with Daddy's waffles!

A sweet birthday card from Siena

Make a wish!

Happy Birthday to You, Libby Lou!

This is what 5 years worth of girls' clothes looks like

One parenting lesson that I had to learn quickly (especially once we had more than one daughter) was how to keep the girls' clothes organized. With three (almost four!) girls in the house, keeping the hand-me-downs easily accessible is crucial. It's a good thing I'm into this sort of thing... Anyway, the attic rarely looks this organized, but in my crazy pre-baby nesting phase I finally had everything put away and had to document its beauty.

Easter in Colorado

We had an extra blessed Easter this year out in Colorado, where we got to spend some great time with Picky. The girls were troopers on the quick out-and-back trip and LOVED being back at Fly Low. It's so fun witnessing their memories of such a special place grow. We'll be back!

Playing with Picky at the neighborhood playground...

... and the hot springs pool!

These girls are SO excited for some summer swimming!

Making "Resurrection Rolls" on Holy Saturday

Margaret's FAVORITE treat: marshmallows!



Inspecting our Easter loot



Say "CANDY!"



Happy Easter from the Sustars!



Disney Cruise!

In my mad dash to "get everything done" before baby arrives (which could be any minute now), I'm going to do my best to update the blog so it's as baby-ready as the rest of my life. ;) To start, in April we took an amazing "babymoon" trip with the older girls to the Bahamas on a 4-day Disney Cruise. Yes, it was as magical as you can imagine -- constant entertainment for the kids and lots of chances for the adults to relax, not to mention unlimited meals (that we didn't have to prepare!) and our rooms cleaned twice a day. It was pretty much the most ideal trip you could take with kiddos, and we savored every moment. Hopefully we'll get to do it again someday with the younger two as well!

Some photo highlights:

We surprised the girls with the news on the way to the airport.  Can you feel their excitement??

Libby is ready!

Our first Mickey sighting while waiting to board the ship

All-you-can-eat ice cream, all the time!

Bunk beds!

Relaxing while the girls are off playing with Cinderella

Pirate night...  Arrrrrgh!

Sunset on the deck.  The weather was perfect.

Sandy toes at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island

Siena loving the clear, warm ocean water

And Libby loving the sand!

Paradise.

The girls were thrilled to find Frozen's Olaf at the beach

It wouldn't be a Disney vacation without meeting some princesses!

Libby's favorite part?  Meeting Minnie, of course!