4 weeks already??????

 I can't believe that 4 weeks have passed since we met our precious baby girl!  Sheesh!  She continues to grow and is doing so well.  She is a feisty little thing.  She loves to be held and loves to eat!  And if those two things don't happen when/how she wants them to happen, it gets ugly really quickly!!!  But overall she is a great baby!  We can't complain.  She is sleeping 4-4 1/2 hours at night.  During the day she is eating every 3 hours.  She is awake 45 minutes to an hour and then sleeps about 2 hours.  Her morning naps are her best!

Yesterday for the first time since Maggie was born, I felt human again! I actually set an alarm to wake up AND I cleaned my house!  Still lots to do today but thankful to be finding my groove again!

Maggie and Ottis

 it was nap time and someone was not interested in the least in having her picture made!!!

Fun summer with the girls!

We were so very thankful that we got to spend another fun summer with our friends Ruth and Helen!  Caroline absolutely loves playing with the girls and they are so sweet to her!  They will do just about anything she asks them to do.  Today was our last day and we finished the season with the play "Beauty and the Beast!  (Yesterday was "The Wizard of Oz" but not too many pictures of it...)  The girls spent a lot of time picking out their costumes and I was thrilled to watch!

 Belle, Luminar and Mrs. Pots

 Belle and the Beast

 The Beast and Gaston

 Belle and the Beast

Feed My Starving Children

We had a ball again this year with many of our church family members as we prepared meals for Feed My Starving Children.  This activity is one of my favorite things we do as a church family.  (My other favorite being caroling!!)  You may remember last year that Caroline had a popsicle sale to raise money for this project.  Each meal cost approximately 25 cents and can malnourished children a "good" meal.  Tonight, we packaged over 30,000 meals which will potentially feed 88 children for 1 year!  It's crazy!!  This year Catherine and Caroline were really big helpers and had so much fun serving along side of us!

Sweet Caroline

 We continue to be amazed by how well Caroline is adjusting to life with a sister!  She is eager to help and usually accepts the responsibility with a smile!  We have noticed that when people come over to visit, she tends to act a little crazy!  We are trying to work on that...

Yesterday she decided to play Monopoly Jr with Jingle baby.  Much to my surprise, Jingle Baby WON! HAHA  I thought it was pretty cute to watch her play with her imaginary player...

 Last night Caroline asked if I was planning to sleep on the couch with Maggie.  I replied yes and she left the room.  Then she came back with her pillow, her sleeping bag and a few books.  She said "Well I am gonna sleep in here with you and Maggie."  Sweet girl...to bad it didn't last.  She decided she would sleep with daddy and keep him company since I had Maggie...hmm

 Relaxing on the couch with Ottis and Lucy...pray for Ottis.  He is driving us NUTS!  Ever since we brought Maggie home it's like he has forgotten what to do...she is eating our coffee table, pottying in Caroline's room, escaping out the door and running away...this momma can only take care of one newborn at a time!!

Maggie 3 weeks already?????

 It is crazy how quickly time is flying by these days...hard to believe our baby girl is 3 weeks old...she has had a good week.  Sleep is pretty unpredictable especially during the day.  Some days she is really good about going back to sleep and some days she just wants to be held the entire day.  As you might can imagine those days gets long and hard with all the other things that need to be taken care of around here.  But other days you could almost tell the time of day by her routine.  So I am thankful for where we are at 3 weeks.

We have discovered that she loves to be swaddled at night and looks like a glow worm that I had growing up as a kid.  She takes her bottle and goes right back to bed, PRAISE THE LORD!  The longest sleeping stretch we have had this week has been 4 hours but hey, I will take it!!!!  Within the last few days she has began to enjoy her play mat.  She is very alert and loves to know what's going on around her...we continue to give thanks for this sweet girl!

Sweet Maggie

Just a few sweet pictures of our girl!

Love how she crosses her legs

 look at those sweet cheeks!!!

 sleeping beauty

 big sister is loving her job!!  she is amazing!!

 tough life...

Outdoor Fun

Last Thursday after Caroline's dentist appointment, there was so much that Dr. E didn't want her to eat or do.  It seemed like everything she asked for I had to say NO.  I was tired and she was bored.  Finally she said well can I at least go outside and sit since I can't run or swing.  So we went on the front porch to play with bubbles and such.  Hang with me cause this story reminds me of the book "If you Give A Mouse a Cookie." She grabbed her broom to clear the sidewalk since it had grass clippings where Andy had cut the grass.  Then decided to get the sidewalk chalk.  When she opened the chalk box, there was an empty bottle of bubbles.  So she went back inside to get the bottle of bubbles and came back with her sprinkler and asked if we could set it up.  While I did that, she put her bathing suit on and came back to play finally!  It was a fun afternoon and Maggie enjoyed hanging outside, although she probably doesn't remember much since she snoozed the whole time!

Sharing our sweet girl with friends and family

Caroline's sweet friend Catherine had been on vacation since we brought Maggie home.  Caroline couldn't wait to introduce Catherine to Maggie.  She was so sweet trying to tell her/show her how to handle Maggie.  About a minute into this sweet situation, the girls looked at each other and said "Are you ready to go play?"  LOVE IT!

Both of my brothers came up last weekend to visit.  Sadly I didn't get a picture of Bob and his family with Maggie.  But my sister in law saw this picture and grabbed her camera and so did I.  But I thought it was appropriate given some conversation that took place before it.  When Caroline was born Peyton was 4 and Wilson was 1.  They were too young to understand her adoption and just always knew she was there.  Daniel and Claire never thought it was important to mention her adoption and so they never had any reason to doubt.  But when Maggie came along, they had some explaining to do.  How could they be getting a cousin so soon...Aunt Rita wasn't pregnant...So Daniel and Claire explained that Maggie was being adopted just like Caroline was.  They didn't have any questions and just rolled with it.  A little later Wilson said "So momma, that's why we adopted Gus (their dog) cause Mrs. Alford (who had the puppies) couldn't take care of him anymore."  BOOM, he got it in his childlike faith.

On a side note, Maggie evened out the grands on my side of the family-4 boys and 4 girls!

Roller blade Fun!!!!

 So being the big sister these days has some great benefits for Caroline.  She has been given lots of fun gifts and even some cash to buy a little fun something.  She asked for a pair of roller blades.  She had enough money so we headed over to Toys R Us to look for a pair.  She found the perfect pair-pink and multi colored bottoms!!  She couldn't wait to get home and try them out.  Just so happened when we bought her helmet last year at Once Upon a Child, it came with elbow and knee pads.  She has been looking for any excuse to use them and now she had the perfect excuse!!!  It took her and daddy a little practice but by the end of the evening, she came flying pass the front door.  She was so proud of herself and has declared she wants a skating party for her birthday!

First Bath

 Maggie's cord fell off Tuesday morning and we were so glad!  That meant that Wednesday evening she would be ready for a "REAL" bath!  Sponge baths are great but there is nothing like a fresh bathed baby!!!  Of course Caroline was eager to help!  It took Maggie a second to get use to the water but then she really seemed to enjoy her bath.  We had to purchase a new bath tub because only the good Lord knows where C's bath is???  We put it up in the attic we think but it couldn't be found and after several attempts, we used a gift card to purchase this one.  WE LOVE IT!  It is awesome.  It sits in the regular bathtub and it's almost like a hammock that she just sits in.  Highly recommend it for anyone looking.

 love when she grabs my finger like this...

Swim Banquet

 It's hard to believe our 8 weeks of swim team is OVER!  Shesh, where did the summer go???  IT's been a fun season and Caroline has grown a lot in her swimming techniques as well as character.  Swim meets were not her thing, at least not right now.  She was happy to swim with Grace or Ruth close by but she just wasn't ready to swim on her own  So we decided to continue with swim practice but would hold off on swim meets until next year.

Tonight, our swim team had their end of the year awards banquet.  This banquet is their "carb load up meal" in preparation for tomorrow's big Championship meet.  The team is divided into 3 age groups, with each coach coaching a specific group.  Each coach gave out two awards-most improved swimmer and coaches award.  Our sweet girl was awarded the most improved swimmer.  I wish I had listened just a little closer to hear what her coach had to say but some of the highlights were:

• this swimmer came with no competition swimming experience
• this swimmer was shy and often very reserve the first week or so of practice
• this swimmer always showed up with a smile
• this swimmer was always willing to do whatever she was asked

of course when they called Caroline, she wasn't so sure she was walking up there by herself.  But thankfully Grace came to her rescue and walked with her.  I am so thankful for the love and compassion Ruth and Grace have shown her.  These girls believed in Caroline and encouraged her any way that they could!!!

Grace, Caroline, Ruth and Helen

2 week check up

 Sweet girl had her 2 week check up today.  We were all curious to see how much she had grown since birth.  Dr. W was very pleased with her growth.  She was 10 lb, 1 oz and 21 inches long at birth.  Yesterday she was 10 lb, 7 oz and 22 inches long.  We have a growing girl!!  Her belly button was a little irritated and so he put some meds on it to hopefully clear it up.  Other than that, he was pleased and said we didn't have to return for 2 months. :-)

**on a side note, I forgot that you have to strip them of everything but their diaper...and it's freezing inside a DRs office.  of course, i didn't bring a blanket so we used the next best things...a burp cloth.  OOPS!**

Maggie at 2 weeks

 We had a lot more cooperation this week with pictures!!  Haha, I honestly can't get over how "alert" Maggie seems.  Her big blue eyes are always looking around trying to take it all in.  She continues to be a super sweet, happy little girl!  Because my brain is still mush these days, I started a little list of things to remember about this week.

Here goes:

• Maggie eats 3oz every 3 hours
• Maggie is usually awake for about an hour after eating and then sleeps about 2 hours until her next feeding
• she makes lots of noises when eating or sleeping, pretty funny to hear
• just last night she hit her longest nightly sleeping stretch-5 hours!!  woo hoo!!
• 6:30 to 8 in the evenings seem to be her fussy time.  she likes lots of rocking, holding, walking, etc.

love this picture, it looks like she is winking!

So proud of my brave girl!!!!!!!!!!!

 A few weeks ago while on vacation, I noticed that Caroline had a permanent tooth coming in behind her baby tooth which wasn't going anywhere...we visited Dr. E who said she felt that the tooth needed to be pulled as well as the tooth beside it.  OH FUN I THOUGHT.  If the dentist told me that as a kid I would have flipped!  Shesh when they told me at 25 I had to have my wisdom teeth removed I didn't go back to the dentist for several years...but not my girl!  She is brave!!!  She couldn't WAIT to go in and have them pulled.  She was looking forward to the tooth fairies visit.  She never once got really nervous or even teary eyed.  I was so prod of her!  She did really well and was back to her sweet self mid afternoon.

a reminder of what it looked like before being pulled

 big and brave

breathing strawberry air

done

 so proud!!!!

 Ansley lost her bottom two teeth last week!  Caroline couldn't wait to show her...

A side note on child labor at our house.  I asked Caroline to help me with something and she said "Don't you know I had surgery today.  I had two teeth pulled and I am in pain.  And you still make me do all the work!!!"  Oh my word, she is a nut!

**updated with a picture of Caroline placing her toothfairy pillow under her pillow.  She was excited to find a $2 bill as well as a gold dollar.**

Miss Maggie

I realized over the weekend that life has been busy and unlike with Caroline, who was my  ONLY responsibility, I haven't taken a lot of pictures of Miss Maggie.  But here are a few of sweet pictures of our girl.

smiling at Gracie

 girl loves her paci, it's almost like she is learning how to keep it in...

 first visit to the pool.  sleeping while the girls are swimming

 my view around 1am one morning

Storytime with Tyler and Nori

My sweet friend Jill has been absolutely amazing in helping me with Caroline.  She has taken her to the pool and to storytime several times since we brought Maggie home!  Caroline LOVES it and always has such a good time.  Aunt Jill sent this sweet picture from last weeks time together.  So thankful for good friends these days...not sure what we would do without it!