Thanksgiving

MiMi and PopPop with their grandbabies.

I set a separate table for William and SoSo.

~~~~~

MiMi and Madelyn

~~~

This was so cute. SoSo wanted to help feed Madelyn. She was so excited.

A couple of William's "Firsts"

August 2, 2007. First day of school. He's 3.

~~~~~

~~~~~

First night of Kid's Praise. September 2007.

~~~~~~~~

First time on stage. Nov 20, 2007.

His school's Thanksgiving Celebration.

Fall

Madelyn, William, and me at EPCOT. Madelyn is 2 days shy of 1 month old.

Mid-October at Magic Kingdom. William whips out the map and says, "Let's see what we going to do."

William and SoSo holding hands walking through the mall.

Crazy kid climbing 15 feet up off the ground.

Picture we took for my mom's BDay.

Autumn Fest

William dressed up as a race car driver. Sofia dressed up as a ladybug. Madelyn slept thru the whole thing. The kids had a lot of fun!

William, followed by Thomas, scaling the inflatable rock climbing wall.

petting the bunny in the Petting Zoo

Holding on to the donkey in the Petting Zoo

Taking a short horseback ride.

Coming down the huge inflatable slide - on his belly. It apparently is boring to come down on your bottom.

I can thank my sister for this cute little trick he learned . . . closing his eyes and smiling for the picture.

Cousin Love

SoSo loves her "Maya" - as she calls Madelyn. It is so adorable. I wish I could record what she does when she sees her baby cousin. It's something like, "aAAAah, Maaaaya" amidst the cutest girly laugh.

SoSo says, "essited" as she holds Madelyn

I know it looks like she is crushing Madelyn - but she is just loving on her.

SoSo and William posing for my mom's BDay pics

Bringing baby home

Madelyn is a joy. At all times. Midnight. 3am. 430am. 615am. I'm told it will get better. I know it will.

Dressed and ready to leave the hospital.

GBobbie & her newest "Great" - as she likes to call them.

Daddy and his little girl.

Taken Oct 1st.

Taken Oct 1st.

Welcome . . . Madelyn Dawn

Wednesday evening after we returned home from church - my water broke. Less than 4 hours later I had a lovely epidural in place. 13 hours after my water broke, our adorable daughter joined us. Just like my delivery with William, I had a relatively easy delivery - less than 5 minutes of pushing. Thank you Jesus.

Madelyn came into this world on Thursday September 20th at 9:19am. She weighed 7 lbs 14oz and is 21" long. She has a head full of black hair.

She looks a lot like her big brother when he was born.

William gave Madelyn some love and held her for a good 15 seconds.

Madelyn (above)

William at birth (below)

Bigggg Belly

. . . and inside is a fabulous little girl who probably already has a pink ribbon and pink polish on her nails. Her pink striped room awaits her.

William kissing my belly.

37 weeks. 5 days. But who is counting????

It's time!!!!

Day at Palm Island

So mom and dad took a beach vacation to a very secluded island. They invited Steph and I to come down because they wanted "us" to enjoy a day at the beach . . . translation . . . it had been over 48 hours since they had been with their grandbabies and were going through withdrawl. If we could have shipped the kids down their alone - I think they would have liked that just fine!
We had a great time on the beach! To our surprise - SoSo loved the sand. She sat and played in it for quite a while. William on the other handled his love for the beach differently. Throwing sand, rolling around in the sand, digging in the sand, covering PopPop's feet with the sand, trying to bury SiSi in the sand. Much fun was had by all.

Palm Island

Little Poses

So when William was 6 weeks old, I thought getting a professional picture of him was hard. He was screaming, I was all alone & sweating, the photographer was edgy, the end result . . . a picture that will embarrass him in front of his friends and girlfriends (girlfriend part being 25 years down the road, but it will happen) for years to come. I don't know why I even bought them. To remind me of the fabulous experience???
One infant has nothing on multiple children.
I learned this after Steph & I spent a morning trying to get William to stand still and Sofia happy and both looking at the photographer at the same time. Steph was crouched nearby holding on to Sofi's pacifier ready to rip it out of her mouth; I was holding a prop in front of William in hopes of keeping him entertained and still. Then simultaneously Steph ripped the paci from Sofi, I pull the prop away and "click". William starts to run and Sofi is ticked.
I now have a whole new appreciation for those of you with multiple young children and good looking family photos. Somehow, we got a sweet Easter photo of William and Sofia and a live bunny. All still for a microsecond - but it was long enough to capture a great memory for a lifetime.