Madeline Grace

She has arrived!

Madeline Grace was born on May 17th. She was 8lbs, 13oz and 21" long.


We knew she was going to be big and since both her and her older siblings had scary deliveries, the Doctor felt it would be safest to deliver little Madeline via c-section. They also suggested we do it on the first day of my 39th week. So really, she was one week early and was still almost 9lbs!
I can't imagine how big that little peanut would have been if we had waited. And good thing we did do the c-section. She had the cord wrapped fairly tightly around her little neck and had a very large head. Heck, a very large everything. So chances were very high that she would also have gotten stuck and with that cord around her neck, that would have been scary. So both the doctor and us were happy we had gone the safe route.

Maddie and Mommy came home on Friday and spent the weekend with the two older kiddos just relaxing and enjoying our new and improved family.

Funny enough, seems the dog is the one having the hardest time adjusting. He has gone back to his puppy ways of going potty in the house and being all around very naughty. Hard not to feel sorry for the dog.

Now, on to the fun stuff. PICTURES!

Enjoy!



Cailin relaxing in mom's hospital bed. Looks right at home....



Madeline and her older siblings right after coming home.

Spring Break

For spring break this past year we went to sunny, warm Mexico!

Ok, we didn't.

We thought about it. For about a second.

We really went up north with our great friends, the Frasers up to Grand View Lodge. Ok, ok, so it wasn't the sunny beaches with margaritas, however it was a very nice, relaxing time for everyone! Plus a whole lot closer and no passports needed.

We did a lot of swimming in their indoor pool/waterslide.





Jumped on their jumper and played the games they had set up for us.


We played in the condo.


We walked and walked the property trying out the different playgrounds. Enjoying the view of frozen Gull Lake.



And most of all, we spent time together away from everything. That was awesome too!

What Have We Been Doing?????????

I'm sure you were asking....Other than NOT blogging.

Well, we've been busy (sorry it's been so long).

We spent a long weekend in Duluth. Doing our usual, playing in the pool at the hotel, visiting the train museum and enjoying the lake.



We had a girl turn 6 in February! She had a party with a small group of her friends at a place near our home. The kids jumped and exerted some energy and then had pizza and cake and played and played.






Cailin sold a pile of Girl Scout Cookies (thank you EVERYONE!).

We've also been to the zoo a few times, played outside a bunch and did the usual stuff as well - school, work, daycare.

Oh and we've been getting more and more ready to meet our newest family member as the May date fast-approaches.
:)

More to come...........

The Washingtonians Came for a Visit

My brother John, sister-in-law Melissa and their adorable son Michael recently came for a visit. Not quite sure why they picked the last week in December to visit Minnesota (most folks are trying to get as far away from this part of the world at this time of year), but hey, it was awesome to see them!

The kids really enjoyed playing together. Cailin and Andrew were sooooo excited to play with Cousin Michael.

We went to a place called Pump it Up, (if you recall, we had Cailin's birthday party there previously and have gone for open jump days there) to expel some pent up energy.

We also took the light rail train downtown to visit the 8th floor auditorium at Macy's, which was still set up with "A Day in the Life of an Elf". The kids were in awe. They had a lot of fun running through the skyways (we tried to avoid the bitter winds outside by taking the handy skyways instead).

We also had a mini New Year's party together that was, well, shall we say LOUD??? My bad for buying New Year's noisemakers and streamers. Oh well, everyone had fun.

The kids also had a lot of fun just playing together at our house. We have lots of toys and I think every single one of them came out that week for an appearance. The trains were probably the most popular.

The kids liked playing with the trains, which were strewn all over our living room. We saw lots of behinds in the air as the kids were concentrating on their train play.

I wanna be a Girl Scout too!

Cailin started Girl Scouts recently. She was so excited to see many familiar faces in her troop. Many of the girls go to her same school and since they are all in the same grade level, she knows most of them, so she was very excited about that.

The Daisy group had their 'swearing in' ceremony of sorts.

Now, we are beginning to sell cookies and I am a cookie mom along with another mom in the troop. That should be interesting......

The Waiting Game.....

Andrew is a little bit excited for Christmas.....

He loves to open presents.

He is VERY excited to open any kind of presents, whether they are for him or for others.

Mike put several presents for the kids under the tree yesterday and Andrew has not left the side of the tree since (other than to go to sleep, eat, bathroom or daycare) - he is firmly parked next to the tree to 'watch' the presents.

Last night, before bed he asked if he could kiss the presents goodnight....

and so he did.

yes, we will be staging an intervention (as we discussed in an earlier post) soon.

(Incidentally, the cat was 'helping' him do this as you can see his long tail in the shot....)

It Snowed....a lot. A LOT

A week ago, we got maybe 22" of snow in about 2 days. It was quite the storm.

Mike was able to get his money's worth out of the monster snow blower he purchased last year, that's for sure. It was a little bit of a nervous minute when he made one pass through and the snow blower broke. Then he found the bag (the one that came with the owner's manual) with all the extra parts in it. Then he replaced a few sheared pins and it was back in business. Whew, sigh of relief there.

You can see the depth of the snow on this one.

Cailin was interested in playing outside.

and getting goofy when she saw the camera.....



Andrew not so much.

He was more interested in hanging inside and watching the commotion outside from the comfort of his pajamas and the living room window.

Good news is we have more snow on the way this week!

A New Puppy.....At Grandma & Grandpas

Grandma and Grandpa recently got a new puppy.

His name is Bode.

He's a 7 week-old Golden Labrador Retriever.

He's really cute.


He's really nice.

The kids love him.

And....

We get to see him when we come and visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Yeah! :)

Let It Snow

We had our first big snowstorm not too long ago. Thankfully, the bulk of it came on a Saturday, so it was really nice to be home and have no need to commute about.

Last year, Andrew was a bit weary of the snow. Not so this year! He was ready to fly out the door as soon as we'd let him. Cailin was off playing at a friend's house (thankfully that was just a few houses away, so we didn't have to drive anywhere, I just put her in a sled and pulled her there).

Andrew was busy shoveling,

Making snow angels,

And building snowmen.




He was also happy to go inside and have "warm chocolate", since 'hot' chocolate would hurt his tongue.