Happy Birthday, Baby Lily!

After much waiting and anticipation, Mark’s sister Katie finally gave birth to Lily Katherine today.  She was 9 lbs, 9 ounces, healthy, and a cutie pie!  Katie decided to give us quite a scare, but is now doing much better.  I’m sure the new little family would appreciate all your prayers as Katie recovers.  And since Mark decided to take my bag to the car with my camera in it, I have no pictures!!!  I’ll get some up after we visit next time.

I suppose some pictures of the girls will have to do.  😉

Kallie is very into ATTACKING everything that comes within her reach, and the girl is fast!  Today I was walking by her sitting in her bumbo, and she managed to grab my pant leg as I walked by.  She continues to be the happiest little baby around, giving us endless smiles and and lots of laughs.  And no, she still isn’t sleeping.  Mark and I have adopted a new schedule where each of us takes half of the night, and that way we’re each getting a good solid 3 or so hours of sleep each night.  We can’t start any hardcore sleep training until we’re in our own house, so for now we continue to walk in delirium. 

Here is Kallie trying to eat Makenna’s head:

These girls are the best.

*Note:  Lily was actually born today, March 24th, but when I post things later at night it gives the next day’s date…go figure.

My Pitch for Video Monitors

I’ve always said that the two best purchases I ever made were my pump and my video monitor.  How could anyone NOT want one when you can roll over at night, and with the flick of a switch, see this?

 

Nice Dreams

Makenna has been changing so much lately.  It’s like she’s maturing overnight, and she’s starting to make conversation like a big girl.  Here are a few tidbits from the last couple days:

Makenna:  (plopping on the floor in the kitchen while I’m making dinner) “So Mommy, I see you’ve got a nice new calendar up there, don’t ya?”

Makenna: (sitting down next to Katie) “So, how do you feel about that baby Lily in your big old tummy?”

As I tucked her in tonight, we were talking about nice things she could think about so that she has nice dreams (she’s been having bad ones lately).  I said, “Maybe you could think about Disney World so you have dreams about Disney World!”  She said, “Yeah, I’m going to think about really great things…like cantaloupe!!  It tastes so wonderful…”

Mark’s Big Day

Yesterday Mark entered the next decade of his life, joining so many of us who have gone before him.  We celebrated by working our tails off packing and moving, but we did manage to get out for dinner late last night.  Today we had lunch with the family, where he was showered with gifts that remind him that he’s still a kid. 

Here is Mark’s too-cute-to-be-three-days-shy-of-40-weeks-pregnant sister Katie, and her husband Micah.  Would anyone else kill to look like that at 40 weeks?  😉

Makenna, Danielle and Grandma:

One of Mark’s gifts from Makenna was a water balloon slingshot that we’ll use at the beach.  It fires up to 200 yards, and it isn’t gentle.   Here are Mark and Matt setting up…

The boys getting ready to launch…

These pictures make me laugh SO hard every time I look at them…sorry Matt, I think it’s the way you’re standing…I had a MUCH funnier one but I spared you.  😉

…and THEN came the hole in the siding on our house.  Yeah.  Not gentle.  Fortunately, since we’re, you know, closing on our house in a few days, Mark disguised fixed it before I even had time to take a picture. 

We saw quite a bit of this face from Kallie today:

Laura took a bunch of pictures and in all of them only one of us is looking at the camera, so I chose one of me, naturally:

Kallie and Grandma:

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and daddy for our family.  As I type this, it’s past 9:30 and I still hear him outside working in the garage to get it clean before we move.  This is after a full day of hard labor yesterday, a horrible night of wakings (on top of the wretched time change), and me crashing on the couch at 5 pm for a nap, leaving him with both crabby girls.  And he didn’t make a peep.  That’s why I love him. 

Happy Birthday, Honey!!

My time has come

Those of you who know and love me (or at least haven’t told me otherwise) know that a monumentous event happened in my life this week (oh, besides that whole getting the awesome house thing).  First of all, let me tell you a story.  Once upon a time, a loooong six years ago, a young couple purchased a home that was near their families and the beach, but NOTHING else.  Despite the fact that the young couple loved to spend their free time being out and about–shopping, going out to eat, going to the movies–they lived in the boonies and watched the years go by while driving 20 minutes or more to get anywhere.  A few years ago, something happened.  A Wal-Mart was built right down the road from their house.  Their excitement was mediocre at best.  But they bided their time and waited patiently, and this week saw the young woman’s wildest dreams come to fruition.

I know you weren’t expecting this, but the young not so young anymore woman is me, and besides my marriage, the births of my children and my salvation, this could very possibly be the best thing that’s ever happened to me:

Yes, I took a picture, and yes, I am that much of a nerd.  This beautiful, brand new Target is a mere 2 minutes from my house.  I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.  I took the girls yesterday and was so overwhelmed by the amazing-ness of it all that I had to leave immediately.  I am counting the hours until Mark comes home today and yes, I shall return…ALL BY MYSELF.  We are in serious trouble here, especially b/c we have a huge new house that needs all new EVERYTHING, including furniture.  I think Mark will have to send me back to work full time.  I don’t think my one morning of work per week is going to cut it. 

Here is the Kallie Girl herself, all ready for our Target trip:

YES!!!

No, that’s not Makenna standing in front of some stranger’s house, that’s Makenna standing in front of OUR new house!!  We got it!!

 I’ve never been in love with the outside, but Mark thinks it’s a “tough” house.

After three agonizing weekends of waiting, we finally found out this afternoon that we won the bidding war.  People were WANTING this house!  It was a foreclosure, and a ridiculously great deal.  It’s 2400 sq. ft (compared to our 1350 right now!), has a room over the garage (so it could technically be considered a 5 bedroom), on a quiet cul-de-sac, great neighborhood, huge backyard, lots of potential, the list goes on and on…and we’re going to give it our signature complete makeover.  😉  We can’t wait!

 Makenna is STOKED.  She’s getting her “steps” in her very own house, and has already declared the room over the garage to be her room.  I’m not sure how that’s going to work out, as Mark has dreamed of  having a room over the garage for ages.  He wants to make it a “blast your head off” surround sound room.  I wonder who will win…

Here’s a shot of Kallie and Makenna doing “school” today.  Pardon her bedhead, as usual:

And more tummy time…I get the best expressions out of Kallie when she’s on her tummy:

Gotta love the drool… 😉

Our house…is a very very very fine house…

Well, we’re in full swing moving mode over here.  We’ve rented out our big fat storage unit and have stored away half our life there so far.  Am I weird that it makes me sad to think of all our things sitting alone in a storage unit?  Anyway…we have to be out next week and, oh yeah–minor detail–we’re still homeless.  Things keep getting more and more complicated and we’re just ready to be done.  This too shall pass….

So here are the girls…Kallie is sportin’ her new babylegs (shout out to Tanya!):

We had a couple warm days this week so Kenna had fun picking “flowers” (aka weeds) in the  back:

We broke out the Jumperoo for Kallie yesterday and she seems mildly interested.  Makenna is thrilled to death over it, of course.  I had to post this blurry action shot b/c it was Kallie’s first reaction to being in it:

But ever since, she pretty much just chills in it and checks out whatever crazy dance Makenna is doing in front of her:

That’s all I have for now!

My Mama

I just need to take a moment to recognize my mom, because without her I would be a WRECK!  She gives so much for us, and I can’t ever thank her enough for keeping me sane.  She hangs out with me, folds my laundry, makes me take a nap, distracts Makenna when I think I’m going to lose it on her, holds Kallie until her arms are going to fall off, makes us dinner, you name it.  I will shamelessly admit that the reason we can’t move further than a few blocks away is because I NEED MY MOM!!  I love you, Mom.  🙂