Baby Claire!

Meet the newest addition to the Hermansen clan. Baby Claire was born at 9:34 am on Thursday, January 13th. She was 8 pounds even & is 21 inches long. She has a fair amount (at least for a Hermansen) of dark brown hair... but it's mostly on the sides & in the back so you can't really see it in any of these pictures. She has been perfectly healthy so far, for which we are very, very grateful. She's a little angel! She looks A LOT like Hailee did as a newborn, which is great 'cuz Hailee's a babe! Jess did awesome with the labor & delivery and is recovering well (though she's VERY tired... and deservedly so). She and Claire are napping in the bed next to me as I type this. Jess & Claire will come home tomorrow (Saturday) morning sometime.

Of course, we are so thankful for EVERYONE who has been thinking of us, praying for us, and supporting us. But we especially wanted to say thank you to the Taylors (our good friends next door) for helping out so much with the kids at a moment's notice, and to my Mom for coming up and taking care of the kids (especially since they're all pretty grumpy, clingy (to Mom & Dad), and dramatic about this life change, despite their utter excitement about having a new little sister).


Daddy giving Claire her first bath (which she wasn't too terribly happy about)!


Little buddy Kyle holding his baby sister for the first time. Jess and I are pretty sure that, despite all the talk of "Baby Boo-Boo" over the past several months, he didn't have a clue what was coming. He still probably doesn't really grasp it (although we might be surprised). It will take some adjusting for he & the girls, I'm sure, but Kyle LOVES little babies and is (gratefully) surprising soft & gentle with them. I'm sure Claire will have Kyle wrapped around her little finger in no time.


As soon as the kids got to the hospital room & we got them sat down, they were all INSTANTLY reaching out for Claire. It was especially cute to see Kyle so anxious to meet his new little sister!


Raelyn meets her little sister, Claire, for the first time! She'll surely be a GREAT big sister to Claire, just like she is & will continue to be to Kyle!


Hailee is absolutely IN LOVE with her new baby sister! It's so adorable to see how Hailee is just living for those moments she can spend with Claire. We're all finding ourselves lining up behind Hailee to get a chance to hold her. People always comment on how much Rae & Kyle look alike; Hailee is thrilled about having a little miniature Hailee in the family.


Welcome to Earth, Baby Claire! Being born has got to be a pretty lousy experience for these little ones! But we're so happy she has joined our family!

Christmas Shopping Has Begun!

So, today I got some fun stuff on line on the Disney website for Christmas gifts, and that got me thinking and doing more planning and preparing for Christmas. Which of course got me thinking in several different directions. One of which is "Scentsy" products are basically the perfect gift for anyone, especially Mothers, Mother-in-laws and sisters etc. I am planning on putting in an order here one of these days myself. So, where I am going with this? I just wanted to remind everyone that we are Scentsy Consultants (but not your traditional consultants) we do all of our sells through our website that Kevin has built. The website is www.candlemadness.com . It is a super slick website to navigate through and purchase stuff through. You can order anything you want and they will ship it straight to your house. So, with Christmas coming up quickly I just wanted to send out a reminder to you all that you can check out our site and see if there is anything you would like to get for the holidays. Scentsy has a ton of new products too, so have fun looking at all their new stuff. Also, for any of you locally I do have a ton of sample scents at my house if any of you want to come and smell before you purchase. Thanks for your support guys, and good luck with all of your Christmas preparations.

Happy Father's Day!

So, today we celebrated Father's Day for Kevin. Yep, I know, we are only 3 months late. I was so sick with my first trimester, I couldn't even think about doing something for Kev on Father's Day. The night before Father's Day I cried and told him I was so sorry I wouldn't be able to give him a good day. He was super sweet and didn't mind at all, and ended up taking care of me and all the kids that day. So, I vowed to myself that even though it would be late I would give him a good Father's Day...eventually.

So, this morning I got up with the kids before he did; ever since being pregnant he has been great to get up with the kids on the weekends to let me rest more. So we got up and while I made him a yummy breakfast in bed the girls colored him pictures and Kyle ran around causing his usual mayhem. We then sang him "Happy Father's Day" (happy birthday tune) and woke him up with pictures and breakfast in bed.

Then we didn't spend any real time with him until afternoon, when all of his different church responsibilities were over and done with for the day. Then I got to make him pork chops on the grill, potato casserole and some freshly home canned peaches. It was delectable, if I do say so myself. :o) And the kids and I gave him a book, I can NEVER go wrong in getting Kev a book. He loves to read and we love building up our library so it is fun to have excuses to buy a new book every now and then.

So, here is a shout out to my wonderful hubby. Happy (late) Father's Day. You are an amazing father and awesome husband. Thanks for all you do for the kids and me. We love you so much!

Boy or Girl!?!

Well, today we had our ultrasound and found out that our baby is in excellent health. Everything seems to be right on track and very healthy. We feel so blessed to have a healthy baby on the way. We also found out that we will be having another GIRL!!! Wahoo! We are so trilled, we would have been just as thrilled to have a boy coming but we are so excited to start decorating, thinking of names and just anticipating the arrival of another sweet angel girl to come our way. I am already looking forward to getting out all my girl clothes and getting them organized! Anyway, fun stuff!