Bigger Every Day!!

Wow! It's amazing how fast they start being kids and not babies! Now that Madeline is getting some teeth (6 mos late, no problem!), she's looking like a "big girl". This picture was before church a few Sundays ago. Isn't that outfit adorable?
One of her favorite toys - the remote. Only to be topped by a real phone or a plastic bowl and spoon. Why do I buy real toys when she likes these best?
When she's in the mood, she has the cutest grin!

This is our friend Ayla. She's super cute and likes pacifiers. Madeline returned the favor Ellen did for her at this age by putting the pacifier in and out of Ayla's mouth. Ayla seemed OK with it and liked the attention. I did have to watch to make sure Madeline didn't put it in her mouth, too. She loves "binkies"! Madeline met Ben and Sophie recently but wasn't really interested in them. I'll get some pictures when they interact more.

Sophie and Ben!!

They're here!!! Sophie and Ben came Friday morning at 8:42 and 8:44 respectively. Check out Andrew and Ellen's blog on the right to get details and lots of good pics. Sorry I haven't updated sooner but Pablo's been really good about updating their blog.
Jennifer and the twins are coming home today (Monday) and should be ready for visitors soon. We're so excited!!

Halloween

Ok, so Madeline LOVES dressing up . When I put her in front of the mirror she started running around the house like crazy!! I had to take a picture on the go and she really wanted her water. She's a fairy. We went to our neighborhood block party (it was very fun) and she kept trying to get in the middle of the big kids playing ball.
We went to the Pumpkin Patch and tried to take pictures. They had a great time but the pictures..... oh, well, they're cute anyway.

I cut Madeline's hair this morning - I did great! I just sat her on the counter (Maritza held her), gave her a piece of candy (yes, the wrapper was still on it), and cut it. I do hire out but only for removing scraggly ends.

Still Catching Up

Yes, I know you are awaiting Halloween pics, and I did take some. But they are not downloaded yet so here are more pics from Sept/Oct.


Here we are eating cake a ice cream for Pablo's B-day. Well, everyone but Madeline, she got a bowl with a spoon. She thought stilling on the towels and using big girl stuff was great. Everyone was coordinated. Ellen - pink bowl, spoon, and cup. Andrew - green b,s,c. Madeline - purple b,s,c. Isn't that cute?! (It was also easier for me to keep up with who's was who's.)

After cake and ice cream, Ellen took Madeline on a walk to help burn off the calories.

Thank you Shikha for the beautiful dress! She looks so cute!

Madeline was hiding under Daddy's piano. She thought that was sooooo neat.

Sorry....

I want to apologize for writing the wrong date for Sophie and Ben. We are excited to meet them 8 days from TODAY. Thank you for bringing this mistake to my attention. Please continue to point out my misprints as needed.

It's been a while....

Sorry it's been so long since I posted but I've been really bad about taking pictures. I have new ones on my camera so I'll get some of those up later. For now, here are some older ones.


Ignore the fact that I'm in my pajamas and look at the tasty and nutritious meal I made for Madeline. Yes, Shrek could have made it but she loved it and thought it was great! (John wouldn't even taste it! - can't blame him.)

Here is Madeline carrying toys around Memama's house. She prances all around the place like she owns it.
She's talking like crazy now but we don't understand much of what she says. She pretends to dry her hair and "cook" with her spoon and bowl. Daddy is still her most favorite person ever. We are practicing playing with babies to prepare for the arrival of Sophie and Ben. Only 8 more days!!

Post Ike

We survived Ike with no problems. A huge thank you to my parents for letting us stay with them for so long and especially for keeping Madeline for SO long. We were in Chicago for Ike and my parents were watching Madeline for the weekend. We joined them on Monday and settled in for some good family bonding. I think the kids had a great time and they LOVE bubbles. Thank you to Cade and Corban for the Tiger bubbles - life saver!!



This is a picture John took. Safe.....I don't think so. Clearly I wasn't there but luckily she didn't fall off.

Here she is in her tu-tu from her cousins - her Aunt Monica made it for her. She looks so cute!
As I'm making this blog, I'm realizing I need to take some more pictures. Maybe I have some on the camera......we'll see.

Big Girl!

My little baby is looking more like a little girl than a baby! Look at that face - they grow up too fast!




Here she is being a little monkey - she loves to climb!

1st Birthday

Finally! Here are some pics of Madeline's 1st birthday. I think she had a great time - we sure did!


She wasn't sure about digging into the cake and getting all dirty , but.....

Somewhere along the way it got real fun! John put here in our bathtub to clean her off - she thought that was really funny!

Walker!!!

Madeline is an official walker yesterday!!!

Fun at Home

Andrew is teaching Madeline what a dragonfly is. She's a very attentive student.
Thank you Gomez gang for the doll house - Madeline loves it!
She can use a fork! OK, maybe it was a little set up but it gives me hope.

Water Trouble

The last post I had to find something to write about, this week we had so much I didn't have time to blog about it. Saturday started off like a normal day - John wanted to do a house project. No prob. We had a leaky faucet in our shower and it went from a 30 min project to 4 days. See below. This is the first thing I see when I walk in the bathroom. I'm not sure how he ended up with the number "1".
John parents helped him fix it and babysit Madeline, and my parents let us stay with them for a while. We both have the BEST parents! Why couldn't we stay at home and just use another shower? Water was spraying into the walls and we had to turn off the water to the whole house.

During this time, Madeline got sick and didn't sleep all night Monday night. (Literally, ALL night.) My parents took the 2-6am shift and shut the doors so we couldn't hear her so we could get some sleep. Like I said, BEST PARENTS EVER!

Anyway, alls well that ends well. Were back home, Madeline feels great, the shower works,we still have the hole in our wall but we'll get it fixed (and hopefully upgraded!) soon.

I have other pics but I'll save those for another post.

Pics

I don't really have anything new going on so I thought I'd just put some cute Madeline pics up. John took these a few weeks ago with his fancy macro-only camera. It's his work camera and takes GREAT close up pictures. Anyway, aren't they sweet?

Pool Fun!

Madeline had SO much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house! They swam and swam. I don't think Madeline ever wanted to leave!
Just crawling around.
Gracey came, too. They're both looking longingly at the pool. Gracey's cataracts are so bad she actually fell in the pool twice before she figured it out. Poor Gracey. She lives very happy with my parents, though, and will continue to have a very full life with them even without good vision or hearing. We love you Gracey!
Lately, Madeline has been talking a lot and has picked up some new words. She says "hi", "bye-bye" (both with a wave), "hello" (usually with a pretend cell phone in her hand), ma-ma, and da-da. We think she also says "Ellen" and tries to sing twinkle, twinkle little star. She's so much fun to be around!

Home and Having Fun!

Don't you just want to kiss that face!?!
"Aunt Jennifer is so much FUN!"
"See you later, guys, I'm going to bed." Yes, blog readers, Madeline has conquered the stairs! We are very proud of her - she can go up SO fast!! A whole new world of scariness is beginning but she has so much fun!

Cozumel

Cozumel was AWESOME!! We had such a good time and really relaxed. Here we are before dinner with a view of the pool. (Yes, that's a swim up bar!)
Here's another pool with the ocean behind us. We got a very nice employee to take our picture.

View from our room - beautiful ocean!!

We took a lobster dinner cruise and John got really into the festivities. He's doing push-ups with a girl on his back - punishment for not winning a spinning/drinking race. This excursion was a great thing to do - fun pirate theme and 2 big lobster tails. We'll do it again although John may not volunteer the next time. I think he got more than he bargained for, but I thought it was hilarious!Here I am enjoying the ocean view after eating lunch. Could I look any more relaxed?

And then we came back to this beautiful angel. I think John did a great job with this shot and I antiqued it.
Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for keeping Madeline. It was wonderful to get away and know she's in great hands and having a great time.

Post-A&E Update

Sorry, didn't mean to worry you readers out there by stopping my posts. The week went perfectly with all of the kids. I had to work and A&E went to Galveston over the weekend so I didn't have anything new to write. Madeline misses them and they are welcome to come over for sleep-overs anytime! Madeline's lip is fine. She wasn't even swollen the next day and is still fearless over the tile. I'm trying to keep her on the carpet/wood floor but she has a mind of her own. I'll try to get some new pics posted before we leave this weekend. Cozumel here we come!!!

Bo-Bo

Madeline fell on the tile in our bathroom today. She tore her upper frenulum (piece of skin that attaches the upper lip to the gums). Luckily, our family pediatric dentist was home and after an evaluation, said it was a small tear and she would be OK. Her lip is a little swollen and I got some pictures of it. Poor Madeline. I gave her some Tylenol and she should feel much better tomorrow.

Isn't that pitiful?

Chapstick

A & E love chapstick. Look at the technique they use to put it on!


They've played so hard they're all ready for bed.

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day for 2 weeks. First with the Pages (early because of their vacation - that's why I have the kids.) and then with the Kachers.

Here's a picture of Ellen and Madeline at Walden. Madeline seems to like her backrub. Thanks Ellen!

Yesterday we celebrated with the Kachers. As you can tell, they were awesome! John and I had so much help and the kids had a great time! Winston was a HIT! Ellen and Andrew kept calling him and he loved playing with them! Thank you to all of you for doing so much while you were here - you made it so easy for me!
Extra special thanks to Ernie for watching them all on Friday night so we could go to my grandparents 60th anniversary party. He was super-grandpa and was great with the kids!!!

Madeline loved Winston, too.
A & E's new nanny started today - so GREAT! The kids really like her and gave her big hugs when she left. I came home to clean, happy babies - they had just taken a 3 kid bubble bath and had fresh smiles on their faces. Ellen screamed (in a good, happy way) Jess-a, Jess-a here! and Andrew was galloping around. Madeline was watching, smiling, and squealing. They're all just so much fun! Maybe next time I'll have twins......

A & E Day One

Today was such a success with Andrew and Ellen, I can't wait to watch all four! Well.......maybe I'm not quite ready for that yet. We were all at church, early, and then had just a great day. I'll post pictures later - I'm having trouble uploading them to my computer. Jennifer and Pablo - you have fantastic kids. Oh yeah, they had burgers for dinner. I hope that's OK!

Preparations

My camera is fixed!! I got it back today so....new pictures!

Madeline is a crawling machine and loves to crawl around the kitchen. I was washing new tupperware and we stopped to take some pics. Why new tupperware? I'll answer that in a moment. Enjoy these lovely pictures first.



OK. As many of you know, Andrew and Ellen will be spending next week with us and we are trying to get prepared. So.... new tupperware - plastic bowls, plastic utensils, and sippy cups. Super aunt? I think so!!
Now I know I may have gone a little overboard but I thought this would make clean up easier. (see below)


As you can tell, my kitchen is ready for action! High chair...check. 2 booster chairs....check, check. Baby gates....check. tarp to cover the rug...check. We're ready and excited!!!!


They're here! Seriously, this was not planned! This is how Ellen showed up and Madeline already had her's on. They just matched tonight. Isn't that cute?


Everyone is having fun before bedtime. Madeline wants to be everywhere A & E are and into everything they are doing. They have so much fun together!