One BIG Boy!

My nephew Dylan was blessed this past Sunday. My sis Kayleen seems to breed them big - he was 9 lbs 10 oz at birth and now he is almost 17 lbs at only 3 months old! Right now he is wearing 6-9 mo clothes. Andrew said that during the blessing he was squirming so much he thought he was going to jump out of their arms!

It was fun to all be together and spend some time with my BIL, Isaac's family. We ate until we were absolutely stuffed! We must have started to get slap happy on food 'cause we started dressing up the lil' ones all crazy. We were laughing so hard it hurt!


Here's some fun pictures of that day - enjoy!

Happy Birthday - 1 Week Today!

Today for Madeleine's 1 week birthday; we celebrated by visiting the pediatrician! It went really well and Madeleine was a champ. She's now 8 lbs 6 oz - I swore to the doctor that I wasn't overfeeding her, she's in the 75th percentile for her weight and she is still 20 inches long. The doctor said she was "perfect" and I said we already knew that, but thanks for the confirmation ;)

The past couple of nights she has been sleeping in between her feedings, such a blessing because at first we were having a "party" from 1-5 am, and that was getting a little exhausting! She is definitely a snuggler and I'm looking into getting a good sling so I can have her with me at all times.

Thanks again for everyone's love and support, it means the world to us! Here's a few new pictures of our favorite girl...

Plus One

I have been hesitant to write lately, because I have been a bundle of nerves the past few weeks, but I'm happy to announce our plus one (who obviously already has her daddy wrapped around her little fingers):

Madeleine Eileen

Born 8/1/07 at 8:19 pm

7 lbs 11 oz (or as I like to say, 7-11 straight from heaven :)

20 inches long

Her birth was an amazing experience as I was there to help (Andrew was in the waiting room). To any of you who might think - wow, she's so lucky she didn't have to endure labor, let me tell you, I haven't experienced labor for myself, but the past 3 days have been the hardest that Andrew and I have ever endured - physical pain would have been a welcomed release. It was only through Heavenly Father that we were able to continue. Emotions that we've never experienced as we saw a family hurting trying to make the best decision for this child, and us nervously hoping and trying to remain positive in spite of it all. One things for sure, it is about love. There are so many people that love this child and I know you, our dear friends and family have endured so much with us along the way. Your prayers were definitely felt and our debt of gratitude could never be paid.

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful connection with the birth family, something we hope that will always be a part of our lives, we love them so much and are amazed of their unselfishness. I know this is one of their hardest moments and would ask if you could please fast and pray for them.

An Evening of Fairy Tales

So we jetted back from our Dayton trip to make it to "An Evening of Fairy Tales" a community play that a bunch of my friends have been involved with. It was absolutely wonderful, hilarious, creative and everything else in between. Two of my young women, Kylie and Gabby were some of the big stars in the production and my girlfriends, Jelaire - the director, Kim - the producer, Taurus - wrote the music & lyrics, and Denise - the stage manager, they all put in loads of time and hard work pulling off a truly amazing theatre experience for the community. Act 1 starts with a spoof of Little Red Riding Hood and morphs with a grown up Cinderella (Kylie) over what turns out more of Princess and the Pea story. Act 2 includes the Little Red Riding Hood story with B.B. Wolf (Denise's son) looking for "Red", which leads to the Snow White and the 7 dwarves story - Gabby being the wicked witch and this one kid being one heck of a "mirror". In the end the story ebbs and flows to the characters from Act 1 in a truly amazing myriad of laughs and really great acting. Here's some pictures from the night...

Daytona Beach

Andrew was going to Daytona Beach, FL for a project he was working on with his dad and brother at the waste water plant there. Last minute, I was offered the opportunity to come - why not! I would love an opportunity for a little trip, and I'm always up for the beach! After some quick rearranging of my schedule we left on Sunday and faced horrible traffic getting out of town. We finally rolled in just shy of midnight to the Surfside Inn.

Andrew and Aaron spent a good part of the week finishing their project pulling many early mornings and late nights and my SIL, Becky and I headed off to the beach with her two boys in tow. It was absolutely beautiful! We made sandcastles and Cooper made some great "sand angels" - it was very sandy and loads of fun. After a couple of days we moved from our hotel to a condo down the street (Ocean Vista - I think). This condo was brand new and bigger than our house and very nice! We spent tons of time on the beach - the waves were nice and big and Andrew and I spent one night catching wave after wave on our boogie boards until the sun went down.

If you ever make it down to Daytona, one place I would definitely reccomend to eat is called Aunt Catfish's and it's right on the Intercoastal Waterway. The wait was tremendously long (we learned our lesson the first night and put our name on the "preferred seating" for the following night) we luckily were able to walk right in and sit. Their specialty is catfish, but I'm not one for those muck feeders so I got just plain old shrimp, scallops, crab and tilapia - I could nowhere near finish my plate and if you know Andrew and I, you know how "Southern" we like our food, so when we found out they had a big pot of cheese grits, we were in hog heaven - it was delicious!

Andrew and I went one day to the lighthouse, but unfortunately both of us forgot our wallets, so after touring the gift shop and resisting the temptation of begging for an IOU for the tour we took a few pictures (it's absolutely beautiful) and headed back for some more beach fun.

So all in all a lot of work for Andrew, but still a really nice break. It had been a really long time since I'd been to Daytona and we both really enjoyed ourselves there. I'd love to make it back there again next summer.

The 4th of July

Probably Andrew's most favorite holidays is the 4th of July. We are extremely patriotic people and love to reflect on freedoms that we enjoy thanks to those who have gone before us.

To celebrate the 4th this year my parents had a celebration at their house. My dad's brother (Uncle Ken) and Aunt Martha were there as well as Krista, Krista's beau - Michael (who we love), and Hannah. Mom's brother (Uncle Adrian) and Abi came with their 5 kids, and Kayleen's in-laws came over as well. Lots of people and lots of fun. It was good to see my new nephew, Dylan - he's so cute!

We spent several hours cooling off in the pool, Uncle Adrian brought over this inflatable pool slide, that was oh so much fun. My thighs were all over the place so those pictures won't be displayed, however I did get some fun action shots of others. We ate way too much food and had a great time laughing and talking. Afterwards, Andrew and I drove to downtown Lawrenceville to see the county fireworks show, I wish I had my camera! They were amazing and we found an awesome spot to see the show, the only problem was once over it seemed like everyone was trying to go to the same location and we were gridlocked for about 30 minutes. Oh well, next year we'll be smarter and pick a route that puts us directly homeward bound.

Pictures of our fun day:
I love this picture of my cousin, Mollie.
Dad the Super Fly!
Cousins - Fischer and Hannah in their makeshift boat
Mom & Dad
Krista and Hannah
My Hot hubby!

Decatur, GA

My mom grew up in Decatur, GA - right next to downtown Atlanta for those of you who are unfamiliar. Last Sunday while Andrew was gone at Scout Camp, Mom and I went down there so she could tell me about all the different places that she grew up.

We first started at 833 Sycamore Drive (not Street - that's where the rich folks lived :) I think Grandma told me they didn't pay more than $20,000 for this house when they first moved in and now the area is so trendy the last time it was on the market it went somewhere around $300,000 - now that would have been a nice investment! Who knew?

We then went to the city pool and park that Mom used to go to as a little girl on the corner of Lucerne and Church Streets...

Mom remembered when she was a little girl at the pool and for her to swim in the deep end she needed to pass a swimming test - she needed to swim the length of the pool (everybody was at the deep end playing and she was left alone). So she practiced and practiced and finally was able to swim the length of the pool, however, to her dismay they changed the test - you had to swim the length of the pool & back!

The park is right next to the pool and it is beautiful! We saw the ballfields where my Uncle Adrian used to play ball, the little creek they used to catch crawldad's in (one time Uncle Bob caught so many he made a little fire in the backyard and they ate them!), and the fields where they used to play.

We drove to the old Decatur Cemetary which was so neat! I really wish I had taken some pictures, but I must have been so awestruck by it's beauty that I forgot! This cemetary is where Jo Anne's twins are buried and a lot of old people!!! There are graves in there that date back to the Civil War - and I think some that are older than that. We walked around and enjoyed the beauty and majesty of all the monuments and the magnificent grounds.

We then drove down Sycamore Street, and I can see where the rich people lived! Those houses were so detailed, but Mom said they weren't quite as ornate years ago. People who have bought them since must have decided those big houses needed some accessories! Right from there we stopped at Mom's old elementary school, now called Glenwood Academy, but I think it was called Glenwood "something else" when Mom went to school there.

She kept saying everything has shrunk!!! - until we got here and it turns out they have an addition that's been added since! All around the walkways are bricks that have people's names on them. We found the bricks for some of the old principals, they also named the little side drive after Joyce Paris.

Our trip would not have been complete had we not stopped at Decatur High School.

From Mom's drill team days and theatre productions, this place is gilded in our minds as a place where a star was born! We even got to step inside the actual auditorium where the play David and Lisa was performed (Mom was Lisa - but of course you already knew that!). There were a bunch of people who were playing basketball that day, and I'm sure they thought we were crazy! Mom showed me the front where they would practice their drill team routines and the drive where they would sit on the wall waiting for their rides. Check out the cool dome at the entry to the school - definitely trend setting architecture for a school at that time. The field/stadium is also a nice size and I'm sure many good memories of Mom "dressing right" are emblazened on that field :)

Mom, thanks for this trip - what a great way to spend a Sunday! Thank you Decatur for molding the Mom I have today.