A friendly get together

Maren is so kind as allowing & suggesting so many women and our kids get together at her house to have fun and bond. Boy was it a lot of fun the last two time we went over to her house. This last gathering was much larger then the first time when only Ruth and I came over. Ruth is missing from this photo (hmmmm).

Here we are. Do I look far away? Yep, its because of Madison and maybe a little to do with Kim's belly... lol Check out all the kids in the photo. Can you tell they were a bit wild right when the photo was taken?


This is probably one of my all time favorite kid snapshots. Kinleigh is a gorgeous little girl. And other then a little vignette and color correction there is no editing to this photo. Her eyes naturally have interest.


Hyde is also adorable! He popped in front of me and asked to have his photo taken. If you read Maren's blog he is always doing and saying very forward and totally awesome things.


Kinleigh was soooo good with Madison. You wouldn't know it from this shot, but she really cuddled and took care of her much to Madison's delight. Nate over on the left is so sweet. He is the one who has Madison's same issues and is on the same stinky (literally) expensive (also literally) formula.


Madison is almost grown out of her excessive chucking up. She has been chucking whatever new food she gets the first couple times she eats it. Come to think of it so does Blake. Blake and I were both wearing tonight's summer squash a couple of hours ago. He is now warmly tucked into his crib in PJ's while I am still a in the same shirt for a little longer. In about 15-20 minutes they are getting their last meal and diaper change in the hopes they will sleep through the night. Fat chance considering the last few nights unless Madison is now so sleep deprived she just sleeps through. lol

Some Blake & Madison info

Why is it called solid food when it is runny food? I'm calling their food runny until it gets solid! We completed 4 days of peas in honor of the only veggie their dad will eat. Both grew more fond of them as each feeding progressed and tolerated most feedings well. I'm glad I read somewhere not to start a runny feed when they are hungry. The one time I tried it their bottles were (thankfully) already made. Today we started winter squash. Blake lapped it up saying, "good. like that. alright." none of which did I say first during this feeding. Mind you they were pronounced like, "guuuth. alll riiii. lakhhh thaaaa." This still seems very advanced for our little Blakey.

Madison did something awesome last night, but I can't remember what it was now. Guy and I were really impressed with her. Well, anyway, she does a pretty funny right now. During most changings she usually gets a little 'air' time to dry out her privates. If she is on a smoother surface like a crib sheet, bed or changing pad she just lifts her legs and booty as high as she can then slams or puts them down. Now, if she is on carpet, she adds the step of relaxing and squeezing her booty cheeks together on the carpet. She gives herself a little scratch or massage.

Both babies are making the first attempts to hold their own bottles.

Blake turns himself around in his crib and migrates all around it on his back. He also has figured out how to turn off and on his Ocean Wonders crib entertainer by kicking up his feet to hit the button. It is definitely intentional. He also sleeps on his side.

Madison is jabbering much more now. She carries on these low pitched monotone moaning dialogues now.

They seem to be about 20 pounds and are no longer fitting into most 6-9 and 9 month clothes. We are hoping some of the summer stuff will fit them long enough to get through the Phx visit.

They both still stink at sleeping through the night. Last night we were up four times. I got three and Guy took one. I really should have slept between their 9-11 feedings. Even if it's only for an hour it would be better. But having the first sleep be so short is often really sucky and makes me feel worse no matter how much sleep I get in total (generally less then 6 1/2 the last two months).

Breastfeeding is officially over with. My lovely monthly friend has made an appearance. Ironically after talking to some friends about it being gone for so long despite barely to no breastfeeding the last two months.

One of my favorite things happened yesterday

Sunny rain!!! I know how it happens and all that, but it always seems like magic when you get sunny rain.


Some other things that bring a warm fuzzy feeling are when it is a slightly cool day with a steady or drizzly rain when you can sit on a covered porch or by an open window with a blanket and a book. Warm cozy and doing a nice enjoyable relaxing event. Hopefully we'll be able to instill both the art of relaxation and hard work in the kids.


It definitely was not just sprinkling either. Loved it!

Testing new photo option

Here is a slide show of some shots of the grandparents with the babies.

Some photos from today.. Backlogged ones to come...

Here is a slide show of the photos we took today. I LOVE them. When I figure out my favorites I'll put full size ones on here for you family and friends to take as your own. I'm not sure what I'll do next as I've already run out of room on the Picasa storage. It may be time to bite the bullet and pay for more storage. Yikes.



Here's a link to my albums on Picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/Pics1vball

Aunt Mady and cuz Amber

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to my Aunt Mady!!! She has won the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) esteemed President's Award!!! Wooo Hooo! Great job, as usual. She is the Customer Service Manager for the State of Arizona's Game and Fish boating division.

Amber is Mady's daughter and my cousin. I've noticed lately that we look a lot alike when I'm not wearing much makeup. This is probably because Amber rarely wears makeup.. lol Below is the only photo I had easy to find of Amber, and it isn't one I think we look much alike in either. Go figure. Most of my other photos were lost in the hard drive crash last year.

Mady & Blake showing off thier faces

Our day with Hanna

Hanna being the tropical storm that breazed by us a few weeks ago right before Ike did some major damage. Hanna had its fair share of damage too on a much smaller scale except I'm thinking the people directly impacted negatively don't feel like it was a small punch. Our day with Hanna seemed like such a cool blog title for some reason. Though really it is a pretty ordinary title now that I think about it. Oh well, here's a few photos of us on the front porch that day. Blake and Madison still love to be outside as much as ever. Yay for nature babies!

Moose chillin


Madison, Blake and I. Totally forgot who I was talking to. I just remembered what happened that afternoon. The exersaucers were left on the porch. At the time there were only two flies enjoying the storm with us. Well, when the Simpson's got here for photos they were covered with flies as I brought them into the house. YUCK. It must have been all the residual puke on them that hadn't been cleaned super thouroughly. Should I admit that?


It is sooo great to have a deep porch to enjoy rain on. Sometime we have to hang right by the door if the rain is coming from certain directions, but there hasn't been a storm yet we couldn't sit out there during.


Here is a shot down the street showing the debris... lol There is a blow up swimming pool by the man walking to his mailbox. Since he didn't pick it up I don't think it was his. And it wasn't ours because I called Guy at work to see if he had packed ours up before running down there since it could have been ours. Nope, Guy in his beautiful obsessive compulsive cleaning had packed it up like the Superman that he is!


Blake


Madison going in for a lick. She still licks all the time. Now it is mostly just her hand.

General thoughts about recent events

I just dressed Madison in a tank top (last Thursday). Does anyone else who is LDS feel like you are dressing your kid indecently when putting them in a tank? We have one for both of them, but we haven’t actually put one on until now.

Madison was definitely ready for solid food. She kept watching us every time we ate with her little mouth working, then about 4 days ago she dive bombed my mouth as I was eating a pretzel. So I broke down and started giving her (and a little to Blake who still isn't really ready) some of the cereal we have on hand. She loves it and is a super clean eater for a newbie. I'm really amazed. She also already gets easily frustrated if I'm not feeding it to her fast enough. Very funny. Blake just plays with it and sees how far he can spit it while making faces. He is also done in about five little bites.

Today at church Sister Linda Keaton (there is more then one Keaton) was about 20 feet away from us. She motioned if she could hold Blake. He was very good for her. After about 30 minutes Madison was tired of having him in her sights but far from her so she started fussing. Luckily Guy and I had been watching her stare him down and act like she wanted him. I got up and went to sit next to them with Madison. She calmed right down when she was within touching distance from him. It didn’t matter that most of the time he wasn’t even looking at her. Then Heidi Keaton in the row behind us asked for Madison. Both babies were absolutely lovely for everyone that held them during the Sacrament meeting.

Another thing we have ‘caught’ the babies doing is talking to each other. They will stare at each other and talk back and forth. So far they are only doing it about once a day. I’m so excited to see them developing a love and bond with each other.

Blake finally has enough hair to create a faux hawk. Guy gave him one today, but no photo was taken since we should have plenty of opportunities for that later.

Speaking of later opportunities… For about the last month I have been really thinking what it would mean if one of the babies died. I’ve even talked about it with my friend Amanda and a couple of others. This last week my friend who was pregnant with me lost her baby boy after he became entangled in a blanket during a dinner time nap. What a terrible accident. Especially having thought about it so much this last month I can say only that there is no way I can come close to understanding the depth of their grief and loss. Most of us ladies who know the family have shed many a tear since we found out. As with any other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints funeral I have ever attended I felt so much better at the end of the service then the feelings I came with. The family has such a beautiful testimony of the eternal nature of life and God’s infinite wisdom in allowing us to experience all of the joys and sorrows in this life. Little Carson has certainly touched and taught us many things in his short life and death at only 6 months old.

We spent most of the time in Georgia just hanging out with the family which was very nice. We did manage to make it to IKEA and the Australian bakery though. It was great to reconnect with family.

On Friday Maren invited quite a few of us ladies and our kids over to hang out. Yay for friends! I had a wonderful time. It’s funny, even if I handle just as many kid tasks as normal it still doesn’t feel like it because of the company and taking care of others kids for fun. When Ruth’s twins Shanna and Hailey woke up from their nap I picked them both up for a cuddle at the same time. They were SOOOO much easier to hold then Blake and Madison. I’m thinking it’s because they are able to hold onto me as well making it much easier to handle. We even had a great political talk when it was down to three of us.

I have about 500 pictures to process with a looming trip to Phoenix. My though is that I’ll be able to catch up on my personal photos in about a month!!!! Lol This Thursday the young women Mia Maid group (14 &15 year olds) are coming over for a makup, hair and photo shoot. I also have the Simpson photos to finish as well as about 3-4 families wanting photos soon. Yay, for those photography events coming up and not so yay for personal photo time. Maybe only a few photos can be done for you guys to see. But anyone who knows me well at all knows I have an editing problem because I like too many photos for different reasons…

My gorgeous little sister

Here is little Gracie! I am absolutely impressed by what a solid and beautiful person she is both inside and out. Here are a few photos of her from our trip to Atlanta.

She was riding up front with Guy while the babies and I squished on the back. lol

Here is how I was perched on the back a bit sideways... By the way, these are the best not so high chairs! They are both free standing and strap onto chairs. We tote them around the house for feedings in the various rooms right now, strapped them on the back of the golf cart below, and we have taken them into a restaurant. The restaurant is a fabulous application in my book. The babies are up at the table level even at their tender age, and they are clean unlike many restaurant chairs. My favorite part about these chairs is the cost at only $50 for the top of the line instead of the bottom of the high chair line at $80.

Grace is one of the few non mother women (and beats most of the moms too) who is absolutely comfortable holding and taking care of both babies at the same time. She wasn't afraid to jump right in with them. They both took to her immediately as well. Of course, she also has hair about the same length as mine for them to tug and grab.

Here's Gracie laughing at Guy because he is tired of not having some good Mexican air conditioning with me stopping to take photos every once in a while... And he really protested when I pointed the camera at him which is what got her really laughing. Sheesh, he is getting much worse then ever before in not wanting his photo taken.

Express Lane, Isle 1 (15 items or less)

Hola, Shannon is at home with the little ones and I am working Off Duty (working as a police Officer for the Town, but being paid by the business) at the Hispanic grocery store in Garner. As for the title of the blog, that is where i have set up my office where i can both watch the store, and surf the web. Working here provides us a chance to make some extra money. It is pretty easy work, and not to mention the fact that i get to learn Spanish at the same time. For example the phrases of the day are dónde está el baño? and cuánto mide? I have been asked them the most. However there is one that I am really trying to learn, that will be covered at the end of my post.

We are settling back in at home after our wonderful trip to Atlanta to visit G'pa, Grammy Rowen, and Auntie Gracie. We had a good week, however i have one thing to say about Atl.....Wow is it freaking humid there. I though N.C was bad, but Atl has us beat by a long shot. One night Grace, Shannon and I took the little ones for a walk around the neighborhood, eek it was nasty, i have not sweat so much in my life.

We were able to stay at a Place that Carmon and Judy have up at a lake 15 miles from their home. I was sceptical at first due to the warnings that were given from the Rowen's as to the condition of the place. The comments were, it is allot nicer than it looks from the outside, and it is a converted boat storage shed. Once we arrived I was pleasantly surprised, it was really nice, in fact from what i could tell it was the Hilton compared to some of the others. If you have ever heard the country music song "Redneck Yaught Club', i think that it was written about this community. The Rowen's are in no way rednecks, but the others who live in the Park appear to be. We took some pictures to share of the nice "Cabin" as we all call it.

We would wake up around 6am with the babies, eat some breakfast and take a ride on the golf cart around the lake. It was so nice, Blake sat in front with me and Madison was in the back with Shannon. We took the babies portable high chairs which strapped on to the seat and made for a very secure ride for them (the high chairs have restraints already on them for the kids). We would go to the house around 9 to catch Carmon and Judy on their mid-day break. It was a very nice visit. I am sure Shannon will cover some of the highlights herself.

I have to be honest with you though, I am traveled-out. I say this as we are 2 weeks away from our trip to Phoenix. So for future reference, if you want to see the kids and us, pack a suitcase and come your dang self. Don't get me wrong the kids are great travelers, its just all of the stuff, sheesh! I don't mind packing up and going somewhere, i just hate packing up and heading home. Come to think of it, i hated that before the kids, they have nothing to do with it. I will say though to all of those parents who suggested to travel at night when the kids are sleeping, HOGWASH, it didn't help.

Well i am rambling, even though Shannon will say it is great. I am going to end it with a story. Warning.....I have tried to make it as PG13 as i can.

Alright, so i am working night shift the last week and at around 10:00pm i am riding down a main road, I was actually on the lookout for Motorcycle thieves in a specific area. I looked to my right at a street that dead ends 2o ft from the road i was on and noticed a minivan parked in the dead end with the dome light on. Now given the time of night, and the location we as Law enforcement tend to know what is going on, that being said it is my duty to investigate. I had to go around 2 other streets to meet the dead end road and the subjects. I pulled up with my lights off and at the last minute spotlighted the vehicle. Ha...Ha... I had caught them, and caught them i did ( I think that we all know what i mean by that, if you don't, and you are wondering what I mean or you are young, I caught them lighting firecrackers which are illegal, very illegal, especially if you are not married ).

They were a Hispanic couple in their mid 50's, she was a little on the pudgy side, alright, allot on the pudgy side. That gets me to the other phrase that i would like to learn in Spanish (please tell her to put some clothes on!)

Have a good day, we love all of you!

Photos of Blake & I

Blake was not forgotten! It just took so long to load the pictures with Mady that I put these off for another day.

Today I got a book about baby signs for feeding. Blake doesn't seem to need it as he speaks quite well for a 4 month old. He calls Um Mum when he wants me. He says Hi when he wants someones attention other then me or when he first starts talking to someone. He says Ungy sometimes when he wants to eat. He also says I Lub U to us whenever he feels like it and is happy. We think it is pretty amazing!!! Madison is starting to say Ungy too the last two days sometimes when she wants to each. Mady is still not 'talking' that much since Blake is such a chatter box. She has a deeper voice and laugh. He has a higher pitched voice, normal pitched laugh and he is a squealer.

Blake is almost ready to roll over. The last two days he has been sleeping mostly on his side, except for his bottom with the big cloth diaper keeping him down.

Blake in his new sunglasses.


Another shot in the sunnies.


He is sooooooo cute!


I love shots with some color but haven't been doing it much for our personal photos.



Blake normally has a good grip on my hair. He especially loves to mess it all up when my hair is in a pony tail. He grabs the hair at my temples to pull it out of the pony tail.


Blake loves to stand for long periods of time.


This is how we play at least once a day by talking (squealing) and laughing.


He loves kisses.


And to chew on anything and anyone in his mouths path.


Cuddling with my darling boy. His Nanny really misses cuddling with Blake in the mornings.


Me with a funny face and cutie Blake.


Blake's general hand in mouth pose used about 1/2 of every waking part of his day.


Both Blake and Madison are now loving to be lifted in the air. They are almost strong enough to toss up a little. There is a mirror over one of our couches. They are both starting to laugh at themselves when lifted like this so they look at themselves in the mirror. Both kids also usually have socks on as they have my cold feet and hands.



For anyone who has been asked by me to stand there and hold up their kid forever while I take photos... Yes, I've always known how tired you get holding them and how you really can do it. Persevere for the cutest photos!!!! You can do it. This is probably one of my favorite Blake faces.


We are smiling at each other.

The four month stats

Both Blake and Madison checked out well yesterday during their 4 month appointment. Both of them came in at 17 lbs 9 oz. Mady is 1/4 inch longer then Blake, and Blake has 2 cm more head circumfrence then Madison. When giving the shots the doctor put the needles in quickly and injected the contents slowly. I really think it helped. They cried a bit and have been pretty good overall since. We did give them some Tylonal before the appointment though.

Edited to say: I just looked at this post and realized my current state of mind is definitely reflected here in the very minimally informative and unimaginative information above. This last weekend was a bomb which I don't feel able to write about. Guy has also been working and working out so much that neither of us have had a break which shows. Looking forward we are headed to Atlanta which may be a wonderful or stressful trip. Until I know which there is unease in the unknown.

Photos of Madison and I

Here are some photos Guy took of us.

The kids both got some great new sunglasses that strap around their heads! I love them and neither of them seems to mind them.


Mady is such a cutie. She actually has her head lifted so she has a neck in this photo.


Us on the front porch.



This is her look that says she loves her daddy!


Here is where she started to get fussy and I'm 'shushing her'.


A big yawn.



I was going for the sweet kiss on the forehead. She was going for the great nibble of mommy's knuckle.


I really like this shot.


Here we are having a moment on the breezeway porch.


Here is one of Blake asleep on his daddy.


Madison doing her normal tongue out as is her normal now a days.


And her fingers are always a great thing to lick and nibble on.