Post Farm

We finally made our annual trip to Post Farm tonight and had a great time! Madisyn wanted to get a small (and she meant small... it was $0.25) pumpkin for herself and one for Landon. She fed the goats and rode on the swings. We may go back again to let her ride the hayride and the tractor pulled "train."

Like father, like son.


Madisyn was a little sceptical to feed the goats this year.


Anyone with two (or more) kids knows the difficulty of getting them to smile at the same time :)






Mommy and her little princess. What an ordeal we had with her yesterday... she got a concussion after falling while climbing into her stroller to go on a walk (watch out all of you with little climbers) and had to go through a cat scan. They actually wanted to send an ambulance because she was throwing-up so much, but I didn't want to wait that long, so brought her in immediately. Long story short, she's doing 100x times better today. One of our scariest moments as parents!

Here's the big boy doing his thing. He's not crawling yet, but seemingly very close... watch out! He loves to go from his tummy to sitting up and back to his tummy again.
When he tries to crawl he gets on his knees and arms and then he tries to go to his toes and his arms. Forget crawling, he's ready to walk ;) (let's hope not!)

Anniversary

I'm so lucky! I'm married to the most wonderful man! We spent the entire past weekend celebrating our anniversary up north. It was perfect... we went out to dinner, shopping and to the cottage Friday night, then Saturday we took our time making it over to The Shack (we highly recommend it... the website doesn't do it justice). It was gorgeous, especially with the fall colors. Our room had a fireplace and hot tub and everything was made of hand-carved wood (as noted by Rob, even the toilet paper holder :) ).

Miss Madisyn Grace

For about two months now, Madisyn's been "fully" potty trained (she wears underwear except when she goes to bed). Yeah! Here’s the big dilemma… number two! She waits a couple of days and then does it in her diaper after she wakes up (before we realize she’s awake). I have tried bribing her with everything… any ideas?

Mission: to get a video of one of us trying to go to bed with her, yet another one of her a-typical toddler behaviors. When we try, she giggles and tells us, “No, you take a nap downstairs!” She thinks we’re ridiculous for even thinking of sleeping with her in bed. She truly insists that we not sleep with her. At least we don’t have to worry about her ever trying to sleep with us.

Six months and three days

(eating rice cereal for the first time)

Half a year old! I am completely overwhelmed with how much change has gone on. Aside from the normal growing up and developing, I can’t believe how much different our lives are now; compared to when Landon was in so much pain. I still vividly recall the days and nights of non-stop crying where the only way to relax him would be to hold him against my body, on his left side, and walk or sway. How tiring and stressful those days were! I felt like such a poor mother recognizing and verbalizing my need to get a break from my kids. My back never stopped hurting as I was constantly carrying him and not maintaining good posture. And now, he’s just a little bundle of joy!

He’s at this stage where he absolutely adores Madisyn. I swear, the second she walks in the room, he glows! She is absolutely amazing with him, which may be part of the reasoning for his adoration of her. She’ll come up to him and give him toys, sing to him, give him hugs and kisses. In fact, at school the teachers told me that she came into his room to visit (one of the many things I love about our daycare) and she brought him every toy from the shelf :)



He started sitting up on his own about a month ago. He scoots some, but not a lot yet... I'm hoping that he starts crawling and walking late, since I realize how difficult it will be with two mobile children!


I wish I could keep them this age forever!

Just the two of us

I believe this is the only picture of just Rob and I since we've had Landon. The camera seems to be much more attracted to the kids!

"I love you"

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy?"

"Yes, Big Girl?"

(pause) "I love you, Mommy."

She's started saying this to Rob and I lately and I thought it was absolutely precious until today when she kissed the window and said, "I love you, spider." (there was a spider on the screen outside)

Oh well, I'll take the non-prompted, "I love you," any day. :)

Two MORE girls!!!

Madisyn, myself, Ethan and Patty a month ago


Ethan and Madisyn last week

Doug and Patty had their second child, a little girl, Isabel Mya (not sure on the spelling) last week, 6 lbs. 1 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. She was their second miracle child. Ethan, who will be three this October, was born at 28 weeks along, 2 lbs. 14 oz. and now he's as healthy as can be (as can been seen from the pictures). To make a long story short, Patty's doctor said that if she hadn't had a doctor's appointment scheduled for last week Wednesday then Isabel would have likely been stillborn. They noticed that Isabel's heart rate was irregular and she was sent right to OB and ended up with an emergency C-Section. Praise God for giving the doctors and nurses the wisdom during that time!

My coworker and his wife (who the diaper cake was made for) also had a girl last week Thursday. Jim got the call from Megan while at work, left around 12:15 and Katherine Leia was born at 5:58, 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20 inches long. From the sounds of it, everything went fairly smoothly for them.

Two more girls!

My girlfriend and housemate from Hope, Kara and her husband Ross welcomed Rylee Grace on Saturday, August 18th. She was a couple of days overdue, but a petite 6 lbs and 8 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. From the pictures, she looks absolutely precious (with lots of dark hair!).



Other friends, Brian and Liz welcomed Reese Elizabeth on Friday, August 10th. She was 7 lbs. 9.6 oz. (I didn't even know that some they measure ounces in to the tenth) and 19 inches long. She has a great story to go along with the delivery. She too has a lot of dark hair (as can be seen from the picture). Here's the happy family (the big brother is Braden who is 20 months old).



I almost forgot! Landon rolled from his back to his tummy a week ago! This means that there have not been any short nights in quite some time (I don't even remember the last!). He's been sleeping 10-11 hours/night!

Babies, babies, babies!

Nick and Bethany, friends from college, just had their first baby on Monday. Congrats, you two!!! His name is Porter (Bethany's maiden name) David and he was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. We hear he has hair, but not red (sorry Bethany!), but have yet to hear if he's pooping on command and not crying as Bethany insisted would be the case :) We hope to see them soon and I'll post some pictures then.

As you can assume, it is the baby craze time in our lives, seems like everyone is pregnant (many with their second or third)! OR... twins ;) (as we found out this week) I can't wait to have permission to make that announcement!

We know of six more due in the next month! One of them is a coworkers' wife who we held a baby shower for this week. It will be their first and you could see them glow, it was really sweet! I was excited to make my first attempt at a diaper cake. Here's how it turned out. I was fairly pleased, but also have some ideas for next time, which I think will improve it a bit.



Here are a few of the latest pictures of Madisyn. Her latest is correcting me when I call her "Honey." She says, "No, Daddy's Honey." I guess she's right :)

Promotion!

After working four short months at SoundOff Signal, Rob got a promotion! We actually got the news just over a week ago, but I'm still struggling to find time to blog (imagine that ;) ). Anyway... he is now the Western Regional Sales Manager. Which basically means that he's in charge of the sales for 13 states, including Alaska, Hawaii and California.

He will continue to travel approximately once a month for three to four days each, which so far hasn't been too bad (okay, he's only traveled once so far, but I think we'll be able to handle it... and family has offered to help with the kids :) ). He now has more control over his traveling and his bonus', which are two major plus' for him. Not to mention the best bonus of all: supposedly spouses can be approved for one trip per year all expenses paid. I think Hawaii sounds nice :) I don't think I'll push my luck though, we'll wait until Rob's been in this position for a while before we explore that option.

I'm so proud of him and all of his hard work! It's wonderful to see someone else recognize what an asset he is :) Congratulations, my Love!