'Ol Pals

Last weekend our good 'ol friends The Ganns stopped by. We love them...they are great friends and great parents to their two handsome guys. Jeremy and Ben have been best friends since middle school, they've done some of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. I'll be honest with you, it use to bug the sh** out of me, but now it's just plain hilarious!

Anyway...the kids had so much fun playing together - Rudy and Jake didn't know what to do with all the tu-tus and baby dolls. I will tell you this... there may be some arranged marriages in their future - especially between Rudy and Madelyn, he couldn't keep his hands to himself. He couldn't even wait until all the parents left the room. So innocent :)

She got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and...POP

We are surprised at how quickly Emily is growing! At her 6 week appointment, she weighed in at 10.5lbs. Which is huge to us, Madelyn was 4 months old before she weighed that much! But we realize that Madelyn was a shrimp and Emily is normal. I hate comparing the two, but the differences are amazing. They are both healthy, happy, fun girls.

We're convinced that if Emily's cheeks get much bigger - they'll POP!

Check 'em out:

Madelyn went through a phase of starting out giving nice gentle kisses and touches to Em, then she'd quickly morph into "Monster Madelyn" and her soft touch turned into a strong tug that pulled her across the floor. We'd respond with "Madelyn don't do that, be nice!" Well that just made it worse. So we played a little reverse psychology and decided that we wouldn't even recognize that and just say "Oh, you're so nice to your sister, you love her" and just shower her with praise...she plays us, so why can't we play her??? It's working - not a "Monster Madelyn" moment in a week! (with Emily anyway, Monster Madelyn shows her face at least once a day in some way) She LOVES to hug her and give kisses.

Things we take for granted

This morning after breakfast and coffee, I took my Saturday morning shower and headed downstairs after getting dressed. My father in law was here to get Ben - they were heading to a car show. Ben asks, "how was your shower" and I quickly said "fine" - without thinking about it, it was a shower, jeesh - what else? Then I thought for a second...it wasn't quick like I washed my hair and let the shampoo rinsing wash the rest of me, I wasn't singing the ABC's or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, I didn't have the pitter patter of clumsy, little feet running through the bathroom, the toilet wasn't flushing 10 times, and I didn't have the luxury of being serenaded with Where is Thumpkin...unlike my weekday showers when Ben is at work. My weekend showers are peaceful and quiet.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy all the extra spa treatments Madelyn has to offer -- but when I can take a long, hot, QUIET shower all alone...ahhhh, it's relaxing and rejuvenating. For now, Madelyn likes to take a bath with her little sister -but as they get older, and when the day comes they have children of their own (GASP!!), they'll understand why Mommy use to hide in the bathroom for an hour or so :)

Happy Mother's Day!

What an awesome day we had! The weather was perfect, my girls were in good spirits all day -- it was just such a good day for us!

We packed up this morning and headed to Chesterfield Berry Farm for the day. Madelyn fell asleep on the way but quickly woke when we told her we made it - and Emily pretty much slept the entire time we were there. We only woke her to eat, and then she watched big sister dance during lunch! It was great!

Madelyn rode a pony for the first time, it's name was Twinkle - she thought that was pretty neat. We saw all kinds of farm animals and after lunch Madelyn and I rode the tractor wagon to the strawberry field to pick strawberries! AAH As you can see from the pictures below - she didn't eat ONE strawberry while we were picking!!

Here's my happy little peanut -- and Madelyn feeding her peas from her kitchen!