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Lucia and Susan made it out of the house for the first time today! We went for a walk around the block and then spent some time outside.

Lucia is sticking to her consistent, inconsistent schedule. She likes to nurse for a couple of hours at a time and then sleep for a while. Sometimes she is awake for short periods, but usually not very long.

We took this picture of Lucia early this morning. She does not have her eyes open very often and we wanted to take advantage. The first night was the usual mix of excitement, exhaustion, confusion, and adjustment. Overall things are going great.

After a bit of a wait, Lucia Rose Liesland joined us today at 2:35 in the afternoon. She was born at home, in the water. Susan’s labor started last night at 11, she was up at 3:00 am and woke me up at 5:30. As she labored we folded laundry and got the kids up, fed, and out the door with Erin. Her labor progressed throughout the morning and started getting intense around 1:30. Cosette, one of our midwives, was over and ready for action. Susan started pushing hard at around 2:15 and Lucia was born about 20 minutes, later, still in her bag of water. The kids were home about 10 minutes later and very excited to meet their new sister. Kari, out other midwife, was over by this time and she and Cosette helped make sure everything was running smoothly before they headed home around dinner time. After a busy day the house was empty by 7:30, with just the Lieslands, now 6, remaining.

Today was Andrew’s 9th birthday! Susan had school in the morning and then she took the kids to meet the Reagens at Williamsons Pumpkin Patch. We had a nice dinner, followed by cake and then Mari and Andrew headed to Faith Formation. We picked them up and then headed to Michelle’s for a house concert with Andrew McKnight. It was a fun day.

A little about Andrew’s life. . . Andrew likes to wake up in the morning around 8, later if we don’t wake him. Cereal for breakfast and then it is time for school. In the afternoons he likes to read, work on various types of puzzles, and play outside. He loves to play sports and any type of game. he got two pogo sticks for his birthday and loves the new hobby! His favorite food is Skyline Cheese Coneys and his favorite color is orange. He goes to bed at 9:30, if we make him. If it were up to him he would never go to bed.

Today we celebrated Andrew’s birthday party. He wanted a duathlon this year so we met at Campbell Park in Clive where they did some laps riding bikes and some laps running, all while being sprayed with silly string.

The kids have been pretty excited about buckeyes this year, and the prospect of growing their own tree. We planted a buckeye garden to further along the process. Each of the kids planted two and we’ll see what comes up in the spring!

We went fishing tonight at Saylorville Lake. Andrew caught our only fish of the year on his last cast. While the fishing could have been more sucessful, we did get to see a Blue Heron, a Bald Eagle, and a pelican. There was also live music from the marina across the water and the moon was very close to being nice and full.

After fishing we headed to TCBY for some frozen yogurt and the kids got to play the peg game, which Mari managed to master on her first try.

This afternoon we headed to the Wills Family Orchard to enjoy some fun autumn festivities. The kids had a great time in their corn maze and we left full of apple treats.