Maddy's first birthday party

Maddy had her first friend birthday party today. She was so cute. She had actually totally forgotten about it. When we reminded her, she got hyper. We got to Silverlake and she saw her name - so happy. They both posed for me super fast and then went on in.

She bounced with her friends for a really long time and then they went swimming. She basically played with Arnov the entire time. It was really nice meeting some of the moms and meeting some of the kids too that she talks about.

Once we got to the party room, she had sweetly saved a seat for her best friend, Arnov. They are literally inseparable.  I was amazed at how well she did with all the kids and activities. I hope she had  a really fun time.

Jim was scheduled to go out of town after the party. She looked up at him on the way to the car and said "daddy do you have to go now?" and got really upset. It broke his heart, and mine too. But at least she had a really nice party.

Turning Four

My baby has officially grown up on me. She's four. It's amazing how much she's grown and it almost seems as if she grew up overnight.  She is getting so articulate and specific with her words. She has been able to communicate so well.

She also wants to help a lot more - with everything. She wants to be considered as part of the team, not just the baby anymore. She really inserts herself into what is going on and it's so fun to watch her grow up.

The biggest thing for her at this age is dolls and pretending. She still loves Princess stuff, but she has branched out from Aurora and loves just about any princess.

She identifies me with Cinderella. "You and Daddy should get married like Cinderella". It's so sweet. I love how she views the world.

Barbie Central

Once we got home, the girls decided to camp in the living room. Jim had turned on the football game and the young ones were ready to play. The first started with Maddy's new Barbies that she got for her birthday. When that wasn't enough, they broke out the car. And then, they brought up every Barbie and Princess that they own. They lined them up below the TV - three rows of them. Then Reagan got her car too. It was hilarious.

Then Jim brought in the tube that the rugs were wrapped around.  Then we had a slide.  The took every doll they had and slid it down the tube. Cool slide.  They played for 30 minutes before we had to break up the party.

Skating party

Today we went to a skating party for someone at their school. They have both been up on skates now about four times. Maddy was more than ready to do her own thing and basically let go of Jim's hand as soon as she could. Reagan is ready but needed a bit more encouragement. Once she got over the "freak out" stage, she did great. They both were moving around the rink really well. I think Maddy at one point actually jumped in place. That shocked us both. But she doesn't seem to have any fear yet - comes with her age I guess.

But the toys they chose at the end of the afternoon cracked me up. Maddy wanted the light up glow stick - Reagan wanted the hand buzzer. She played with that thing the entire way home. She wound it up and shook our hands, a lot. She giggled each time. It was so cute.

Birthday parties

We went to a birthday party at Silverlake. We love going there - the kids get to swim, run and play. It's awesome. Reagan got to hang out with her Goddard friends. It was fun watching them play together. They were jumping off the side, spinning in the air, doing splits, and all sorts of fun girl stuff. I can't believe how much they've grown up.

Reagan's 5th birthday

Today, my wonderful, beautiful daughter turns five. Sniff. She is getting so big and is growing up fast... She woke up in such a good mood - excited to be turning five. We went to Mimi and Papaw's house for the morning to hang out with the family. All the cousins were here.

Jim and I ran home to put Maddy down for a nap and to get all the stuff ready for the party. This was the first time all her cousins were at her party for her ever. So cool. When I was about ready for the guests, they all started showing up. As usual, we got the party decorations done at the last minute. :)

Reagan had a blast. Playing and laughing. She is so different this year than last year. She is so much more assertive and in control. She definitely knows what she likes and does not like.

She loved blowing out the candles and being sung to, but the funniest part was when she opened her presents. I told her "let's open presents next" and she immediately went to the pile in the living room and waited. Waited... not patiently, but waited. She said "I'm waiting". In normal circumstances, I would have been mortified, but she had already waited for five minutes. Anyway, she was so excited.

She started opening gifts and shouted "Oh Yea!" about every time she opened one. It was hilarious. She loved literally everything she got. I was so happy to see such a positive response. She opened one present and actually did a whole fist pump and said "OH YEAAAAA!"

hilarious.

My little girl is one today

I'm so excited to say that my little baby girl is one today. She was brought into this world with a bang and she hasn't stopped since. Her original due date was October 21st, but the doctor had scheduled her c-section one week before. The morning of the 13th, I went in for my routine visit and they said "today's the day". Wow!

So one year ago today, we were blessed with a little baby girl. She is perfect in every way to me. She's happy, sweet, snuggly, smart, inquisitive and impatient (which I love). She's stubborn about everything and so hard to get dressed.  She loves to look at pictures and loves her family. She is just such a huge blessing to me every day.

I love my Maddy girl. My hootie. My sweetie. I hope one day she will understand how much she means to me.

11 Months today

Maddy is eleven months old today. It just amazes me how fast time flies with this little thing. She is such an amazing baby. She is happy and funny. She loves to laugh and play. I love her more and more every day. I've been blessed to have this wonderful child in my life.

Happy Six Months Maddy

My little Maddy is SIX months old today. Sniff. She's getting so big. She's just so smiley all the time and such a happy baby. I can't believe that she's already been here for that long.

Reagan's birthday party

Today was Reagan's birthday party. Complete craziness was a part of our day. She wanted Team Umi Zoomi. Of course, because it's a new show, nobody had any decorations or cake designs out yet. I decided to go for it and make a cake myself with the Team Umizoomi design. Thank goodness for Emily - she taught me how to work with it. The cake worked out well.

Reagan had a great time at the party. She ran herself ragged - literally. We had mostly family hanging out. She was so happy to have her cousins here - she LOVED it. She did, however, miss her Alabaman cousins - they left a day early and had to miss her party again this year. She was sad.

By the time everyone left, she was so worn out that she couldn't even make sense of anything. She got so worked up that she fell to the ground. I took her upstairs to snuggle with her and put her to bed. She didn't even argue. I asked her if she wanted me to sing, she said "yes". I started singing a song that we play with and she said "no mommy, that's a wakey song". So I sang the Lullaby song - she closed her eyes and was out before I got through the first verse. So tired.

Jim's birthday

Jim had a rough start to his birthday today. Maddy woke up at 3:30 am with a blow out diaper... literally. She woke up at her normal time to eat. I picked her up and went into the bedroom to change her - purposefully not waking Jim because it was his birthday. That didn't work out. I touched her diaper and it oozed poop. Ugh. It was so bad that it was up her front and back. She got a bath. He finally got back to be about 30 minutes later.

At 7:30 am, Jordan woke up and started hollering from the upstairs. She didn't feel well at all. She was sore, shaking and nauseated. Nice. He took her to the doctor. She has the flu. Even better huh?

Needless to say, it was a rough morning. We did, however, have a nice dinner of leftovers, eat some homemade cake and ice cream and chill out after the kids went to bed. At least it ended nice. :)

Birthday day

Well yesterday was my birthday. To make sure I had a day of peace and quiet, I scheduled a full body massage, facial and pedicure. I also asked Jim to meet me for brunch. I had to make sure some part of the day was about me on my birthday. As crappy as that sounds, that was the only way to guarantee I got peace and quiet on my birthday.

It worked. :)

By the time I got done with my facial, I was really relaxed. After that I had my pedicure. I about fell asleep in the chair while the lady was rubbing my calves. Ahhhh.

After that, it was the standard birthday stuff. Dinner and decorations. I did get a cool present - Jim got me an iPod touch. Now I just have to figure it out.

All in all, 40 went quietly.

18 Months Old Today!

Woo hooo. I can't believe it. Reagan is 18 months old today. It is just way to weird to think she is that old. Time flies!

Jack Fox turns 2

We all packed up today after Reagan's nap and headed over to Christy and Spanky's house for Jack's second birthday party. Woo hoo! Mr. Man is growing up. He is just way too cute. Super blonde hair and blue eyes and just a cute personality.

Reagan had a blast with his toys. :) Christy had set up the water table for the kids to play on and Reagan had a blast. She played with another young girl for a while - even shared some. But for the most part, she just splashed and got completely soaked.

She and Jack played with some ballons in the house for a bit. That was cute. They both were juming up and down for a while and having a great time.

After a few hours, she had a meltdown which caused us to leave. Unfortunately it was right in the middle of them opening gifts. Ugh.

Out for dinner

Tonight we all went to Carabas for dinner to celebreate my dinner again. It was nice. I left work and got home just in time to get an icepack on my foot and turn around. We met Dad and Mom at the restaurant and were able to get seated pretty quick. It was a nice dinner of course. I love the food there. After we got home, I think I was ready to pass out.

Out for Sushi

Jim took me out for sushi tonight for my birthday. Yes, it's a day early, but it was an easy day for us to go. I was pleasantly surprised that Jim was so easy about going... and we even got Paul and Emily to go (they even got a baby sitter). Woo hoo.
We had a really nice time. It was a nice break for me - no food thrown at the dinner table, no bribing anyone to eat - just adult conversation and food. :) Ahhhhh.

And get this - even Jim ate half a piece of salmon. :)

He heeee!

Birthday memories

We had a crazy morning yesterday that I was really worried that her party wouldn't go all that well. It did. I just kept telling myself yesterday when the craziness was happening - "just control what you can, the day is moving forward with or without me". So I did. Everything worked out just fine.

We had about 15 people (all adults and one 18-month old) in the house. Reagan did exceptionally well. She took a little while to warm up to some folks, but others she was fine with. The cake problem was resolved before the party - thank you God!

She started to get a little squinky about 1200 noon, so we decided to give her cake. It was definetly interesting. We sat her in her high chair and sang happy birthday to her. (I only got 1/2 of it recorded). She look totally confused. Then we sat the cake in front of her and she relaly didn't know what to do at all. She eventually started playing with it, but she looked confused when she had icing all over herself. It was anti-climatic. She didn't do much but smear red icing everywhere. Oh yea - red stains nicely. Oops.

After we did the cake, we completely upset her by trying to get all the red icing off of her. That took a while which meant she was 100% worked up by the time we were done. She did get some nice gifts, but she wasn't really all the interested in opening them. She liked playing in the boxes though.

Everyone left about 145pm and I headed upstairs with the birthday girl for her nap. She passed out fast. No fussing at all. She slept for three hours!!

We didn't do much tonight. We did run out and get some dinner with Dad. We piled the whole gang into the truckster and ran out to Carabas for carry out. I don't think I could have cooked any dinner after the last few days. I'm looking forward to resting tomorrow.

Cake troubles

The birthday cakes I ordered for Reagan's party were supposed to be done by Saturday morning for us to pick up. I ordered a "One year old cake" and a "sheet cake" to match her invitations. Jim took off Saturday morning to pick them up and called me when he was on the way to pick up the other stuff from Kroger.

He said "they did a great job, the cakes are really cute. one is a lion's head and the other..." I cut him off. "A lion's head"?

UGH.

I ordered a red and pink square cake with a number one on it for her cake and an animal cake for the main cake. They screwed up.

I called them and loudly complained to the owner's wife. She profusely apologized. I told them to fix it.

Guess what - they did. They had a new cake (like the one I wanted) delivered to my house by 1030am. Wow!

Happy Birthday Reagan!

ONE YEAR! Wow!

Just one year ago, she was born.

My little pumpkin, sweet pea. Sniff sniff

5:07 pm, 8lb and 8.2 oz.

Just amazing.

The day after

Wow! This day is just as crazy as all the rest. I have realized today that it probably wasn't the best idea to have Reagan's party two days after Christmas. Oh well! It's coming tomorrow fast. So today is totally focused on getting ready.

The house got cleaned this morning and the carpets got cleaned while Reagan napped in the afternoon. All of the furniture on the first floor is moved around at this point and we will have to put it all back together in the morning - ugh.

I dressed all of us in our NKU garb before heading out - Jordan really likes to dress like her sister. I think it's cute. We also spent a lot of time in the new playroom. Woohoo. We took of to hang out at Grammy and Grampy's house for a little while after we ran some errands.

Reagan decided she still didn't want to walk today. We kept trying all day. She wouldn't even walk for Jordan. I guess it will be like her rolling over - she did it one time and then didn't do it again for over six weeks. She is adding new words almost daily - it's so awesome to watch her.

By the end of the day, we had played hard and cleaned the entire house. Just think, her party is just in a few hours.