Merry Early Christmas...

...to me. Well, technically to Andrew as well. Andrew came home from work on Wednesday night with a new MacBook Pro! Um... so exciting!!! We knew that we were getting a new computer from Christmas. But, I thought we had decided to not get the mac. So, I was pretty excited when Andrew showed up with this beauty. And Madeline was just as excited about her Skittles that Daddy brought her. Thanks for being so wonderful honey!!

Gingerbread House

Madeline and I made a gingerbread house together the other day. We didn't use gingerbread though. We used graham crackers. We had a few issues with the roof staying up. But, it was still fun to make.

Madeline did a good job putting on the icing...

I mean, licking the icing with just one finger...

I mean, just using one hand...

who are we kidding. This one was her's :)

One Month Old

Oliver is a month old today. I know I said this with each passing month with Madeline, but truly, where does the time go? It just seems not so long ago that I was largely pregnant and waiting (for what seemed like forever) for him to get here. We are enjoying our time with him so much. It is certainly different than with Madeline. He gets laid down a lot more. But, the adjustment to 2 kids hasn't seemed as overwhelming as I thought it might. In fact, it is going very smoothly. We will see how it goes once he is moving around and stealing someone's toys. :)






Oliver has already learned that he has to raise his hand and wait his turn around here :)




He is very content. After he eats, he will usually lay on his back and hang out for 15-30 minutes. Other times he happily sits up in my lap and takes in all the action going on in our house. He started smiling really big at about 3 weeks old. His eyes get so squinty. :) Of course, I don't have a picture of it. It is hard to capture. He is starting to track things with his eyes now. He will follow our hands moving in front of his face.




He is happy to sleep in his bed and won't usually fuss to sleep when placed on his belly. He has a harder time falling asleep on his back, even in the swing, someone's arms and especially the car seat. Sometimes it takes a little fussing to get that accomplished. We tried swaddling him since Madeline loved to be swaddled. But, it just made him mad. His sleeping schedule seemed pretty predictable up until the past two nights. He was going to sleep around 10:30, eating at 1:30 and 4:30 and then up at 7:30. Thankfully, he seems to be stretching his sleep out a little longer. He will now go to sleep around 9, eat at 3 and then up at 7. It works out pretty well, because now I can feed him and get ready for the day before Madeline gets up at 8:30 or so. Or sometimes I go back to sleep until Madeline wakes me up. :)




Oliver has had quite a busy first month. He has met many people like his great grandma, MeeMaw...


...and great grandpa, C.O...


...little cousin, Ella, who was born 5 days before him...


... and Aunt Katherine and Uncle Daniel (or Uncle Dingo as Madeline calls him).


He is having to fight for grandparent attention since Madeline is still "demanding" their full attention.

Speaking of Madeline, she is being such a sweet big sister. She asks to hold him, especially right before bedtime (she is pretty good at procrastinating bedtime). We have to be right there with her though because as soon as she is done, she just takes her hands away and says, "all done".

She loves to climb up the side of his bed to look at him. She will say, "I be quiet" (very loudly) so that she doesn't wake him up. But, she likes to look at him and give him his toys.

She likes to turn on his glow sea horse for him.

She doesn't seem to be too jealous of him. If I am holding Oliver when she wants to be held, she will say, "I want YOU! Give Oliver away". But, she can wait patiently for him to finish eating. She wants him to play toys with her. But, he is obviously too little right now.

Oliver is such a blessing. It seems like he has been a part of our family forever. We are excited about the Christmas season with him. He is a precious gift for sure.

2 Years Old

Madeline is now 2 years old. She just gets prettier, smarter and more lovable each day.

She has been wearing big girl underwear all day for over a month now. We put her in a diaper for naps and bedtime. We usually don't have to ask her if she needs to go. She will just tell us. She has no problem going while we are out either. In fact, we usually make 2 or 3 trips to the bathroom when we are in a restaurant. She will not go poopy in the potty though. She will wait until she has a diaper on for that. So, we are still working on that. In the past month or so, she has only had about 2 or 3 accidents. It has been pretty nice now that Oliver is going through about 386,482 diapers a day.


She's a good winker :)


She got a kitchen for her birthday and has been enjoying cooking for everyone. She makes tea and then adds sugar and cream. She fills up water for us over and over from her sink. She makes happy cake and sings happy birthday to whoever's birthday it is.

She is a great pretender. She makes her little people and animals talk now. This morning she was playing with a mommy and baby. She made the baby say, "I want to slow dance." The mommy said, "Ok." And then she took them in her hands and went twirling around the room with them. She will tell us when her baby is crying and then pick her up gently to pat her on her back or give her a bottle. It also makes her laugh when I make Oliver talk to her.

She is still into dancing. She loves to "slow dance". Which is actually really fast spinning, dipping and dancing with either Andrew or I. She is very particular about what kind of music she wants to dance to. She still likes Chicago a lot.

This day she wanted to be a ballerina. So, I got out her tu-tu so she could be one. (I'm not sure how she knows about ballerinas. I guess I need to look into dance classes for her.)

She's a great singer. She sings most of the "abc song", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Jesus Loves Me", and songs from videos that she watches like Dora. I can hear her singing over her monitor almost everyday during nap time.

She is eating much better lately. She stopped getting milk between mealtimes and now she is eating actual food. She went from about 32 oz of milk a day to about 16-24oz. She will eat all kinds of food but her favorites right now are chocolate (Nutella) sandwiches, pop tarts, olives, raisins, fruit, any candy, cold green beans, apple juice, pickles, and string cheese.

~She is communicating so well. She surprises us everyday with what she remembers. She talks about our old white car and how Pawpaw fixed it. She still talks about the fast cars (a ride) at the beach and how we have to get in the car to go to it because it is really far away. She put pretend lemon in Andrew's pretend water last night and told him, "It not too sour." She asks, "What YOU doin'?", all the time. She sounds like Joey from Friends.

~She knows all or most of her capital letters. She can tell us what letter her name starts with and Oliver's. She will ask us, "What you start with?" when she wants to know what letter our names start with. She can count to 10 as well. She will count while pointing to things, but she doesn't necessarily move her finger with each number. She knows her shapes as well. (Square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, and octogon).

~She is a very obedient little girl. And she doesn't throw fits very often. If she does, it is usually when she is extremely tired. We have been very blessed by her compliant heart. If she has been crying or upset about something not going her way, she will soon tell us that she is happy and then try to get happy. She will sometimes ask for her "happy paci" to help her get happy.

~She loves her grandparents, all of them. She asks to go see them all the time.

~She has become a very loving child. She was not a very snuggly baby. But, she loves to cuddle and watch cartoons when she wakes up. She gives the tightest hugs before she goes to sleep. And she gives hugs and kisses to Oliver too. She says she loves us so much and shows us with her arms stretch out wide. She thanks Jesus for different people each night (but usually a grandparent). I heard Oliver crying over the monitor this morning while I was getting ready. Madeline ran down to his room to check on him. Then I heard her say, "Mommy's coming to get you." It was pretty sweet.

Madeline continues to amaze us. I'm not sure how she got to be so smart and sweet. But, I am enjoying every minute of it!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we traveled down to North Carolina to be with my mom's side of the family. We had a big group with 31 people there. Everyone enjoyed meeting Oliver.


My brother, Nathaniel, got to meet Oliver for the first time. I think they will be good buddies one day.


But for now, Nathaniel and Madeline are the best of buds. They had a great time together.




It was a busy Thanksgiving day. So, we didn't get too many pictures. But, here is mom showing some of her pictures she has been working on.


And here are some of the men resting up after having to eat so much.


There was the annual football game among the boys as well. But, I didn't venture out to capture any shots of it. It is always nice to gather as a family to celebrate what we are thankful for. And it is fun to see family that we only get to see twice a year. I hope you had a great thanksgiving as well.

Life as a Family of Four

Well, we are adjusting well to being a family of four. We have gotten to use our new double jogging stroller. Madeline loves it, especially when Andrew takes her running in it.



We took it to a nearby park so Madeline could swing and run around a little bit outside. Oliver was only a week old when he got to enjoy his first walk.

We made it through Oliver's first doctor's appointment. The first thing Madeline said when we walked into the office was, "I don't like shots". Um... she hasn't had a shot in the last 6 months. How does she remember these things? Unfortunately for her, we did end up getting her the flu shot while we were there. And she was right, she didn't like it. But, she got a dinosaur and a p-pop (lolipop).

Madeline is enjoying giving Oliver baths each night. Mostly she just enjoys pouring more and more water into his tub. But, she will wash his feet. She is very sweet and gentle with him.

Madeline hasn't been too jealous of Oliver, just his things. She wants to get into whatever toy he is in. She will say, "Oliver all done, my turn!" Lucky for her, she still meets the weight requirement for most of his toys.

Oliver is a very content little baby. He usually only fusses when he is hungry or trying to go to sleep in his carseat.


Madeline was kind enough to share her snowglobe with Oliver.

And then, of course, it was her turn with the boppy.

And there is no reason to wait your turn with the play gym. Why not play with it at the same time?

We thought we were going to miss all the snuggle time with Oliver that we had with Madeline. But, we have managed to find time to nap with him. There's nothing like sleeing with a baby on your chest.

Oliver has certainly been a blessing to our family. He fits in perfectly! It's hard to believe Madeline was ever this little. So, we know how soon this sweet newborn time with him will be over. But, we are excited to see who this little boy becomes as time goes on.

Happy Birthday, Madeline!

(photo courtesy of Beth Simmons)
Happy 2nd Birthday to a beautiful, sweet, funny, adorable and precious little girl!