'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!

It's official...I'm tired!

Whew -- yes, everyone, in response to your wonder - I have fallen off the face of the Earth into mommyland. I spent today using toothpicks to keep my eyelids from slamming closed for good! But even though I'm so tired, it's a great feeling being home with Madelyn AND Emily. And we thought we had it rough when Madelyn was a baby...ha!

It's been a wonderful few weeks so far with our new little girl. She's absolutely perfect, we are so thankful she's healthy and beautiful. She has not a care in the world...she eats and sleeps and poos, ALOT!

Madelyn is in love with her new baby sister, sharing her crayons and toys - she's already had a tea party with her! They are sharing now, but we'll see how they share 15 years from now!

I have so many pictures of her already...and I've shared most of them through emails. But I do plan on getting them on our blog. I posted a few with this...but this is just a tiny sampling of what we've taken so far.

Come out and play, Emimy!

The end of this second pregnancy is drawing near! Emily's due date is Tuesday, April 7th. I visited my doctor this morning and we decided that I'll head in Monday to have her. It's a little sad, because Ben doesn't think he wants any more children -- it's a little scary, because we'll instantly have TWO little girls to care for -- it's a sigh of relief, because this second pregnancy came with more aches and pains than the first. It's a lot of things - it's an END and a BEGINNING. We're nervous, thrilled, anxious, curious, a million different feelings all balled up together!

Ben got a few pictures of Madelyn loving on the "belly juice" as he likes to call it:

Bringing home a baby bumble bee...

Madelyn has been very interested in the flower garden we have out front. She loves to pick my pansies - and it didn't bother me for a while. But when she started picking out all the pretty spring colors, I finally told her she needed to stay out.

Well - a few days ago she insisted on picking this one dark purple pansy, she held it in her hand for a second, threw it on the ground and started screaming. Then I saw she also threw down a bumble bee! It was on the flower and stung her finger! My poor girl, she cried for a few minutes and then said, "you don't pick mommy's flowers." Now she stays clear of them!