Addelyn Marie

Addelyn is here and is already one week old! She was born Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. 12:33pm. Weighing 8 lbs. 12 oz and 21 in long! Addelyn is an adorable baby. She has blonde/brown hair - quite the change in this family! She is quiet and content so far. I love snuggling with her and smelling that baby smell. Even in just one week she has already changed. She stays awake for a little bit longer these days before drifting back to sleep. Last night she slept in her bassinet for 4 hours on her own! I was proud and rewarded her by snuggling with her for the next hour. I am cherishing these days with her so tiny and don't want her to change too quickly!

Mackenzie is an awesome sister. She is so in love with Addelyn. She came running in from school this week yelling, "Addelyn...I'm home!!" She will teach Addelyn everything she knows and love her in the process.

Nate is a great brother too! He is sooo gentle with her. I'm proud of my not even two year old boy! He pats her head, kisses her, and wants to be near her. He loves to hold her - runs to the couch and gets into position!

Ryan is the best Dad I've ever seen. He oohed over a milk bubble in Addelyn's mouth the other day and that made me laugh! It was cute to see him so in love with our third...as if he hasn't seen all this before! He is patient and always willing to get up in the middle of the night just to hold her.

We are blessed. God is good. All the time.

A funny

Nate was cracking himself up today as he chased Lilly around the house. He would yell her name, "Yiyyy!!!" He was trying to catch her so he could wrestle one of his diapers on her. And that was just so funny to the little guy as he ran after her with a diaper in his hand!

Lilly is too fast for him...at least for now.

Double Digit Days!!!

WOOHOO!!! Yesterday I awoke with a spring in my step! My excitement is still brimming. Can you see my huge smiling face through this post?

I'm smiling because it is (what I call in my head) DOUBLE DIGIT DAYS!! Yesterday was the 10th of Nov....so much closer to the 28th than the 9th is! We are 17 days from due date, my friends.

The jury is still out on baby girl's name. I'm starting to get panicked. The hubs doesn't seem too stressed about it.

Girl clothes are washed and they are adorably small.

Nate has a new big boy dresser so baby can have his baby dresser. I still can't make myself switch his clothes over though - maybe tonight. There's so much finality to his baby days in that act for me. :)

This morning my sweet oldest daughter came around the corner to ask me if I would be her mother forever. It melted my heart as I kissed her sweet face. Of course I will my sweet Mackenzie! I'll be your mommy forever.

Now, everyone celebrate the DOUBLE DIGIT DAYS with me!

I voted! Did you??

Voting can become a tricky thing when you have kids. Do you bring the kids with you and torture yourself, your children, and all people around you? Ryan had a few hours off this morning so that he could vote. (YEA!) Our polls here in Wilmore opened at 6am, so Ryan set his alarm and left the house at 6:15am! My cell phone rang at 6:45am and when I answered Ryan said, (a bit too cheery for 6:45, I might add) "Time to fulfill your civic duty!" I dressed and walked out the front door in time to grab the keys and a kiss from Ryan as he came home. I voted and was home by 7:15am! ***This is one reason why we love Wilmore!*** It's a historic day today - we're looking forward to an evening of watching for the results!!

Mackenzie learned all about the election at school yesterday. She came home asking me who I was going to vote for. Her teacher showed them pictures of the candidates and let them mock vote behind a curtain and all! So, Mackenzie understood what we were doing and was excited to hear about it. In fact, in the bath last night I asked her who she voted for: "McCain, but I think Oklahoma will win." (She also told me that it was a secret and not to tell anyone...so...shhhhh!!)TOO CUTE! I don't know where she heard this - but it made me laugh! Apparently, Obama is a bit hard for a 5-yr old to remember! Maybe she's been soaking in something from all the political ads that have filtered into our home over the past several months.

We went into Lex this morning for bfast at "The Arches". (Code word for McDonald's in our house) The kids played and had a blast. Kenz dragged Nate all through the climbing things at the top - much laughter was made.

I finished my morning by going through the drive through at Starbucks and picking up my free cup of coffee for voting today! Yum! See??? It pays to vote!

The Praying Mantis

Me to Mackenzie: "Is that praying mantis praying?"

Mackenzie to me: "Hmmm...nope. His eyes are open."

Fall, Potato Soup, 36 weeks, and Capes

It's Fall here in Kentucky. A glorious time of year! I love the brisk morning air and the afternoon sunshine. We played baseball in the yard this afternoon, along with our two "boy" friends that came to play. Then we made obstacle courses and cheered each other on!

I made homemade potato soup for dinner - I love this new recipe that I found!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hearty-Garlic-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx
In fact, we all love it. The kids chow it down like it's their first meal in weeks!

Tomorrow I am 36 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit of it. I'm tired. My ankles are swollen. My back aches. And my top ribs have been asleep for weeks now. My body is ready for this baby. My mind knows a bit of what's to come and I am a tad hesitant. I sure enjoy sleeping all night long right now. But, I know the minute I see her sweet eyes it won't matter that I only get 4 hours of sleep each night.

Nate is a fabulous sleeper. He never wakes up at night anymore. Last night I heard his mobile running and got up to find a wide-eyed Nate sitting in his crib. Just hanging out! I swooped him up and brought him to sleep "in the middle". He layed there, completely still, for an hour. I layed awake next to him. I soaked him in, he soaked me in. I adore this child of mine.

Mackenzie will be Superman for Halloween! Ha! I bought a superman costume at a garage sale a few years ago for a quarter and she plays dress up with it. The only problem is it didn't come with a cape. So, in order to be Superman - I just HAD to sew her a cape! We did this project tonight. It only took an hour - I was surprised! She LOVES it and it instantly changed the entire costume. She'll be flying down main street tomorrow night collecting her loot.

Life is good. Hope yours is too.

and so it begins...

I made pancakes for supper. I love pancakes for supper! Mackenzie told me this evening that when we have pancakes for supper it confuses her and she doesn't know if it's morning or night. This triggered a fun game between the two of us - "is it morning? is it night?". Nate smeared syrup all in his hair - I laughed because it was so cute. (and because we always bathe them after supper!) Ryan was teaching drum lessons so wasn't home to experience all this fun.

ANYWAY...I finally get the kids in the tub and decide it's definetly a bubblebath night; much to their excitement! They play really well together in the tub, especially with the bubbles. So I decided to take advantage of it and scrub the bathroom. (I HATE this task, so when the mood strikes me I must jump on board!)

Before I know it I realize that I am on my hands and knees scrubbing the baseboards. How did that happen?! With every pregnancy I become a baseboard fanatic. It's as if we cannot bring a child home to this house unless the baseboards are sparkling! With M I even went as far as repainting all the baseboards white. Weird! So I chuckled when I realized what was going on. It may just be the front bathroom baseboards...but it means a lot. It means we're nearing the end here people!

I still have a lot of baseboards to go though...