What a difference a week makes ...

So I feel like everywhere I have gone the past few months, I have heard people talking about Pure Barre, this exercise class that uses a ballet bar. I still had about 15 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, so I figured why not go ahead and try it for a month. I had heard you where sore afterwards, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I went to my first class last Wednesday and came home telling Chris it was the most miserable thing I had ever done. If I hadn't paid money to join for the month, I didn't think I would ever go back. I had to get Chris to get me advil in the middle of the night Wednesday night b/c I couldn't roll over in bed. Trying to get down on the floor to feed Emalyn her cereal or walk up the stairs to put Maddie in was almost impossible. Muscles were sore that I did not even know existed in my body. But it is amazing what a difference one week of doing Pure Barre has made. I am still a little sore after class, but nothing like that first day. And I am already seeing a difference in my body after 5 classes. Everyone says you get addicted to it....we shall see.

Everything on the home front is good. We are enjoying playing outside. Maddie loves helping me water my flowers each day (which usually results in at least one meltdown between the front and backyard b/c she does not like for me to help at ALL, so that is one of the many things we are working on). I am definitely seeing why so many parents say that age 3 is hard than 2. There are so many hard things to learn in this new world. It is amazing to me how much more aware of everything Maddie is and how well she is able to communicate with me. But along with that comes quite a few frustrations. Somehow she has already learned to ask..."Are we there yet?" And asks it over and over and over again. So we are working on only asking it once and then mommy will tell you when we are there, we are working on saying "excuse me" when mommy is in the middle of a conversation instead of continuing to scream "mommy" louder and louder and louder! We are working on how to communicate our emotions instead of just screaming and pushing, we are learning about inside voices (our poor neighbors....she just goes outside and screams instead), and of course we are still working on being gentle with our little sister. I came into the den on Wednesday, and Maddie was pulling Emalyn around the room by her arms. But with all of the hard parts of being almost three, there are so many new fun things that she is able to to...she loves to help me set the table each night, and unload the silverware from the dishwasher (you never know quite where they will end up in the drawer, but none the less the are in the correct drawer), and her all time favorite thing is to help me cook, (making cupcakes being her favorite of course!).

Emalyn is just growing. I can't believe she will be 6 months in 10 days! She has learned to roll to her stomach, but then won't roll back to her back and get SO mad. She has woken up a couple of time the past week furious, face all red, screaming b/c she can't get back to her back. She is still just a sweetheart, but definitely lets her little opinion be known when she is not thrilled with the situation. She still loves Maddie, and actually laughs more at Maddie than she does Chris or I either one. 

Here is the latest creation with my embroidery machine. It is hard to tell from the picture, but it is a pink and green purse. I had a blast yesterday afternoon using my machine, and actually got a few things monogrammed!

It finally happened....

I remember asking several other moms at church if they had any good suggestions for ways to entertain Maddie while I was trying to cook dinner. Their response was it is always hard. But  it gets easier once you have more than one, they entertain each other. And tonight I had my first moment where it was easier with two than one! It was a miracle! I had tried to squeeze too much in (as usual). We had stayed at the pool a little bit longer than I had planned; I had to rush to the grocery store to get a few more things for dinner; and then rush home to cook dinner b/c Reid and the girl he is dating for coming over to eat and for me to meet her. So I walked in to a messy house (of course! b/c I didn't manage to get them down for a nap at the same time today), set the groceries down, turned on Maddie's music, set Emalyn down in the living room, and hurried into the kitchen to get as much done before one of them had a melt down. And it happened...Emalyn was giggling with joy. I tried to peek in to see what Maddie was doing to make her laugh, and I still have no idea what Maddie she did.  But none the less she entertained her for 20 minutes until Chris walked in the door. It was wonderful! Here's to many more nights of them entertaining each other and maybe even trying new recipes again.

Summer!

I feel like summer is finally here. The pools finally are allowed to open since we are not having to conserve water anymore. We have been outside a lot: walking down to the playground down the street, playing in the sprinkler, and catching lightning bugs at night!

Maddie wasn't sure what she thought about the sprinkler at first, and insisted on Chris and I run through it with her.

We have had all sorts of baby animals in our front yard this year, but the baby bunnies have by far been Maddie's favorite. We found the first one the day we were playing in the sprinkler; it is teeny, tiny, but it is just to the right of Maddie's shoulder. 

This is her latest pose, usually when she is trying to tell you something that she knows she is right about.

And here is another one of the baby bunnies, she is living in the bush right in front of our side porch, and every time we walk out the door Maddie looks for "sister bunny."

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We had a pool party for playgroup at Neel's house. Carrie and Maddie were in matching bathing suits!

Emalyn just chilled in her bumbo!

And you can't have summer without catching lightning bugs. Maddie of course was petrified of them. It has taken me two and a half years of working on the girl just to get her to touch a worm. But she was quite excited to run around the yard and point them out for Chris and me to catch for her. Here she is with her bug box, still unsure if they were going to come out or not, so she wouldn't take her eyes off of them.

Bruce Baby Shower

It was so fun after being surrounded with pink at our house to celebrate a baby boy (Chris has commented that half of our house now is painted pink)! William Alex Bruce is due in July, and we had a baby shower for her this weekend. We have crossed paths with the Bruces ever since college and so enjoy their friendship. Katie and Chris knew each other at Auburn, and I ran into her on my unit at Scottish Rite. She was the pharmacist, and we realized they lived diagonal from us in our townhome complex in Atlanta. And then they moved to Nashville a week before we did. We cannot wait to meet this new addition to their family, and I know  Maddie and Emalyn will love have a playmate when we all get together.

Yum...you can't beat Sweet & Sassy's Cupcakes

Katie Agnew, Betsy, Katie Bruce, and Me

Here are the rest of the pictures from the shower:  http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4500330014/a=91347848_91347848/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/


So I am going to try to posting about little things I am thankful for, so my family can always look back and know how blessed I am by them. Today, I am thankful for my husband and for his willingness to love our girls so well. And for the fact that Maddie called his name this morning and wanted to go outside and show him the worm we found yesterday (which meant an extra 30 minutes of sleep for me). And I am so thankful for Emalyn's excitement when she sees me coming to get her. Her little legs just start kicking! It always brings a smile to my face.

A Recap of this Spring

Can you tell we have been at home more this week? Everything stops when your child gets sick...two playdates canceled, time with Miss Caroline (Tee's girlfriend) so mommy can get out of the house by herself canceled, missed music class, and we will miss Macie's (Brian's, Chris's brother, oldest) voice recital this afternoon. But that means I have had time to catch up on things around here.  Three post in one week for me...definitely a record.


Seeing as our plans for the week have been canceled, it means I have had time to catch up on all my friends blogs. And I have really loved clicking on their favorite blogs and seeing what is going on with girls I haven't seen since Auburn, so I have decided to make our blog public now, so no more logging in to view it! And I figured I would fill everyone in on what we have been doing this spring (and part of the reason I haven't had time to post).

The battle has begun..Maddie has started wanting to pick out her own clothes. I knew we would cross this bridge at some point, but just thought I would have a few more years. Depending on the day and what we have going on, I let her choose and here are the results (polka dotted dress, leggings, frog sweater, and flip flops)

Tee house-sat (no idea if that's how you spell that) for a family that raises their own chickens, so we went over with him to help him feed them one afternoon. Maddie loved it!

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So many pictures of Maddie, figured I needed to include one of my sweet baby:

Easter Morning 

(The Easter Bunny did visit Maddie, she had just already scattered everything across the floor)

Emalyn was baptized the next weekend. 

 

We went to Atlanta for a baby shower for our sweet friends the Cahills the weekend after that.There were three other couples we were really close to in Atlanta, and the Cahills round it up: everyone now have babies (with Baby Cahill due in June). It was so fun seeing them, and we are so excited for Katy and Paul!

Ashley, Mary Catherine, Katy, Me, and Ann (our Bible Study leader)

On the way into Atlanta, we got to stop and see the Boney's and their new baby Bradford. Anna was an ADPi with me at Auburn, and Bradford was in Senate with Chris. They lived in the same apartment complex as we did right after we got married.

And then we got back and Miss Emalyn stopped sleeping through the night. A little bit of rice cereal and the girl was set! Here are the before and after pictures of her first solid food. 

 And the next week....The Flood!!
You can see how high the water got up by the water line on the wall of the garage door. This was what it looked like Monday morning, when we began the clean-up process.

My extra refrigerator floating and things stacked up everywhere!

We go to a really small church, but last year there were 7 babies born into the congregation. These sweet families have been so welcoming to us. Sadly, the Paynes are being relocated to Jackson, Mississippi for a new job.We will miss seeing them and watching little Anderson grow up.

Ella & Anderson Payne, Becca & Camille Taylor, Me w/ Emalyn & Maddie (of course she couldn't miss being in the picture), Clara & Eden Soundara, Cheryl &Violet McTyre

(Ha...I just realized looking back through this it looks like I don't own any other outfits. The three times I have worn this outfit happen to all be captured in this entry)

With a little time in there to celebrate Alena's 3rd Birthday. As Maddie says, "we are both friendses."

And finally a low-key weekend at home last weekend:

Maddie getting ready to take her baby on a walk. She actually made it all the way down our street and the street behind us, before she was ready to get in the stroller.

Another milestone: Maddie first haircut!
We went to Diva and Dudes in Cool Springs. She definitely thought she was a princess...sparkle hairspray and all!

You can't tell from this picture, but it really is a cute haircut.

Well at least I have caught up on the blog for now. Goal for this afternoon: catch up on my thank-you notes and maybe even get the last few birth announcements mailed out (yes, Emalyn is now 4 months old and I haven't gotten them all mailed out!)

A Breath of Fresh Air

So after two weeks of post-flood clean up and trying to figure out where to put everything that was down in my basement, I feel like I am finally getting things back together and I can turn my attention back to my girls again. There are so many little things that I am enjoying about them right now. We were getting out of the car for church Sunday morning, and Maddie noticed there was a hole in her kitty cat (and of course in the world of a two year old, it was a really big deal!). Trying to hurry her out of the car, I said yeah there is, we will have to take it inside later and I'll sew it up. And she turned to me and said mom you're the greatest. Talking about making my day! Maddie has such a sweet little heart. We have had several trying weeks with her since Emalyn has been born, but I am started to see her sweet, obedient spirit shine back through. But there is are still funny little things that she is doing  that remind me she is struggling with sharing her world with a little sister.  When I introduce her to someone new now, she pretends to be a dog. I mean tongue out panting, and her hands go up beside her face like paws. I continually remind myself of the advice that another nurse gave me when I worked at Scottish Rite, that everything is a phase and they will grow out of it. My brother of course thinks it is hilarious, and eggs her on to do it more. So it may be a while before we out grow that one!

Emalyn is still doing well and is as easy as ever. She had one little stint when she was waking up in the middle of the night, but we went ahead and started her on rice cereal (pictures to come I promise) and that solved that problem. We "followed" (as much as I can follow something) the Babywise schedule with her, and it is amazing the difference it has made. She is like clockwork. She eats, plays for about 45 mins to an hour and then gets a little fussy. I zip her up in her sleep sak, set her in the bed, and she drifts off to sleep. If she is fussy and doesn't go to sleep, that means she has another burp. I go back in her room, burp her, and then she goes right to sleep. It is amazing; we were no where close to that with Maddie. It was at least 5-6 months before she go on a routine, and when she did it was 15-20 minutes naps here and there. We went on Monday for Emalyn's 4 month check up: she weighed 13 lbs and 11 oz (48%) and was 24 and 3/4 inches long (66%). So she has definitely slowed down a lot, but she is still really long. She is fitting into Maddie summer clothes that she wore when she was 10 months old. Emalyn is in a really fun stage right now: giggling and cooing all the time. She loves getting her diaper & her clothes changed. She starts laughing as soon as you put her on the changing table, who knows it could be because it is one of the very few times when she gets attention without her sister being in her face. But she really does love Maddie. Maddie is still a little rough with her and still has a hard time understanding why she can't flip her over and pick her up just like I do, but it is neat to see the bond that is already forming between the two of them. Maddie has had a fever today, and at one point they were both crying, Emalyn b/c I had to stop feeding her to go get Maddie when she woke up from her nap, and then Maddie b/c I had had to set her down on the sofa to pick Emalyn up while I searched for the phone to call my mom for back-up. But in that moment, Emalyn started cooing at Maddie and smiling. And Maddie immediately stop crying and smiled back at Emalyn and said "just the cutest girlie I've ever heard". My mom tells Maddie she is the cutest girl she has ever seen, and Maddie translate that to cutest girlie I've ever heard when she is talking to Emalyn. :) Okay, well I am off to feed Emalyn for the last feeding of the night.
   

Pictures

This one is for everyone who has asked for pictures. I finally got our Easter album together. I am working on the album from Emalyn's baptism and working on a post with more details on the girls.


http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4453486014/a=91347848_91347848/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/