3 months....already...

Why is it that the last few months of a pregnancy seem to take forever, but the first three months of a baby's life go by in the blink of an eye?

Grace will be 3 months old tomorrow but we're going to be in Omaha taking pictures of two beautiful new babies, so I decided to try and take her out to the studio today.  I was quickly reminded why I usually say 'no' when people ask me to photograph a 3 month old (I'm much more diplomatic then that, but I can usually succeed at making them wait until 6 months.) Grace put up a good fight but in the end we got a few.

She's still a total delight (as long as I'm not trying to take her picture).  She sleeps all night, eats great, doesn't fuss very often and give us lots of huge smiles and big laughs.  I don't think it will be long before she starts rolling and then watch out world, she'll be on the move.  She's a big girl, last week she weighed in at a healthy 14 lbs.  She's already outgrown lots of clothes and she has rolls in all the right places :)  She's giving her big sister a run for her money in the bluest eyes contest.  I love watching her grow, I just wish she would slow down a little!

I tried to get Maggie to pose for a few shots too, but she was too busy being my "assistant".  I promised her we could look at the pictures off of her "cramera" when we get home.  She might look just like her daddy, but she often reminds me of a little mini me.

Batter up....

Last night we went to watch the Orwig girls play softball.  It was a perfect night to be at the park.  Maggie loves wearing her "cheerleader outfit" and carrying around her pink baseball glove BUT her favorite thing is being with the big girls.  Grace enjoyed the first game and mostly slept through the second. 



I think Dean was trying to teach Maggie to run.  He also tried
to teach her to climb a fence, unsuccessfully.

 



Too much excitement for Gracie.

Maggie sneaking popcorn to Miss Lauren through the fence.

Sweaty little girl!



Yesterday afternoon we made and decorated some rice crispy treats.

Perfect project for a kid who is a little obsessive....
(Aunt Joyce I thought of you while she was doing this.)

all done!

If you look really close you can see Brandon's little sail boat on the other side
of the lake, Maggie was yelling for him to come to our side.

Somebody thinks she's a big girl!!



A great idea...

...I hate to get rid of the beautiful pieces of art that Maggie creates for us, if I keep them all our walls will be covered.  BUT I think I came up with a solution, this morning it dawned on me that I could scan them, post them to the blog and have them to look at forever.

I believe these are both pictures of fireworks..... Happy 4th of July!

Poor Gracie....

This morning she got to be the passenger in Maggie's laundry basket train...

In case anyone (besides Maggie) is really wondering....dogs do have belly buttons, I have lots of information I can share if you'd like to hear it.  I also have a cell phone picture thanks to my little sister and my Uncle Mike :)

"Do dogs have belly buttons?"

Maggie: "Do dogs have belly buttons?"
Me: "I don't think so."
Maggie: "You're not sure?"
Me: "I don't think they do, but I'm not sure."
Maggie: "I guess I'll ask the Vet, he'll know. Did you know I have a belly button?"

I've been out smarted by a 3 year old...I suppose I should Google "dog belly button".

It's been a busy couple of days around here.  Friday, Grace and I made a quick trip to Omaha to meet baby Oliver.  On our way, I decided to see if we could get Grace into the doctor while we were in town, she's been fussier then usual and just seemed like maybe something was up...I suspected she had an ear infection and I was right. I hope she doesn't have as much trouble with those as her big sister, but I guess only time will tell.  So far she seems to HATE (throw-up) the antibiotic, so I'm afraid it might take us a little longer then usual to get her feeling better.  The good news is she's still sleeping like a champ. 

Friday night, Arnie and I were going to go on a date but we decided we had SO much mulch to spread that maybe we better get started.  So while Betti had the girls we spread tons of mulch in the front yard.  Saturday was more of the same, lots of yard work, mulch spreading and rock hauling.  The front yard is starting to look pretty good, I bet by the middle of the week some pesky weed will have the guts to grow through all of that pretty new mulch. 

Maggie spent Saturday with the Orwig's, they are so good to her!  She went to a soccer tournament, helped Lauren wash her car (I'm sure she was lots of help) and even got to have an ice cream swamich.  We're so lucky to have such wonderful people who are willing to adopt us and our kids....they're definitely like family to us!

This morning at church Maggie decided she wanted to go up to the front for the children's sermon, that's a big step, she usually has NO interest.  She walked all the way up to the front, by herself and sat down to hear the story, after it was done they ushered all the kids from the front out the door to Children's Church...well, she wasn't going to be fooled into that, she came running, full spead ahead back down the isle.  I guess I should be thankful she wasn't screaming.

Grace, Oliver and Nate.  Nate said he'd never held a baby
so we thought we'd give him 2 :)



"My sister helped dress me, what are these goofy things
on my feet???"



Saturday morning doughnuts with daddy!!

Gracie enjoyed dinner on the deck.

Always a fashion statement...

 

Maggie decided they both needed blue frilly skirts for church.
Thankfully they each had one.

 

Where, oh where, has the sunshine gone???

What strange weather.  Last night the sun finally came out for an hour or so, but it was still chilly.  This morning Maggie said "I don't have to wear a jacket to school in the summer"...usually that would be true, but this morning it was only 55 degrees!  I hope it stops raining for the weekend, we have lots of planting and mulching to get done in the front yard. 

Yesterday was a big day for the Westerfield family, we added another cousin, and thankfully for Alex it was finally another boy...Oliver Dash was born weighing in at 8lbs 4oz, I can't wait to meet him.  I think Grace and I are going to make a quick trip to Omaha tomorrow morning, so she can introduce herself and tell him she is the older and wiser cousin.  I hope Ellie, Grace and Oliver have as much fun growing up together as Alex and Maggie do.



Gracie is working on balencing herself while she "sits-up".

 

Hannah is here for a visit, she is so much sweeter to the girls then Reagan.



"hmmmmm...I think I might want a bottle soon."

 

The sun came out for a little while last night, just long enough for a few spins on the tricycle.

I'm supposed to be working...

I'm supposed to be working today, but I keep getting distracted!  I have hundreds of newborn pictures of Grace that I haven't done anything with...today I picked a few new ones to edit.

I can't believe how much she's changed already!  I have a few ideas for some new pictures I'm hoping to try and get next week...we'll see.  Maggie just reminded me that she was only 2 when we took these, not 3 like she is now :) (Sassypants!!)

I don't want to go to JAIL....

Saturday night one of Maggie's babysitters was the daughter of a State Patrol investigator.  I'm not exactly sure what the girls told Maggie at bedtime, but she thought they told her that if she cried when they put her to bed the police might come (when we were in Alabama I told her that police there arrest kids who pick their noses, so I started it!) Anyway, she went to bed without crying.....

Today we met Arnie for lunch and the babysitters dad was there.  Arnie tried to introduce Maggie, and told her that he was Lane's dad, she took off running the other direction and buried her head in my leg.  That NEVER happens with her.  I don't know if she really thought he might arrest her or if the gun on his belt scared her, but either way, she didn't want anything to do with him.  She spent most of lunch looking over her shoulder to make sure he didn't get any closer.  Before we got up from our table we tried to convince her that he was a very nice guy and that she should say hello, but she wasn't having it.  Arnie had to carry her past him and she still wouldn't look his direction.

All the way home I had to answer questions about bad guys and what if she or her daddy got arrested.  Maybe she has a guilty conscience :)

Mom, where does electricity come from?

...and "from the power company" was apparently not a thorough enough answer for Maggie!  It's a hard concept to understand and it's an even harder one to try and explain to a 3 year old.

Last night a HUGE storm rolled through, it showed up fairly quickly and knocked out our power.  We were in the dark for about 4 hours.  Arnie was at the Y, he was supposed to be reffing basketball, but I think they were stuck sitting in a gym for most of the storm. Maggie had a million questions about why we couldn't turn on the lights, or at least the TV.  She also wanted to know when the ice balls were going to come (thankfully they didn't) and Reagan stayed busy trying to "catch" the light that came out of the end of our flashlight. 

I heard this morning that more then 3" of rain may have fallen between 7pm and 9pm and winds were about 70mph. I would beleive it!  I haven't walked the whole property, but we don't seem to have any damage.  There are lots of trees down around town.



Right before the storm.



What did we do during power outages before iPad's?

Maggie took a bath by candlelight and both girls were tucked in in the dark.

It sounds like we may have more storms today.  There is a truck in the driveway unloading the materials to reapair the shed roof, from the hail storm in April, I hope it doesn't all get damaged before it makes it onto the shed.

Happy Father's Day...

I was lucky to grow up with an amazing Dad, a wonderful Grandpa & step-Grandpa and the best uncle's around.  They were such great role models and protectors for me.  I'm so thankful that my girls have such loving and strong men in their lives.  Happy Father's Day to all!!

The Norfolk Comedy Festival was this weekend, the Blumkin's came up and joined us for several shows and our girls and Ari had some great babysitters to play with.  It was a weekend full of later nights then we're used to (On Friday night we were up until 1am!!...I can't remember the last time that happened!)

Today we got some things done around the house, then we all took a nap and finished the day off with a swim and dinner at Grandma & Pop's.  It was Gracie's first swim, I expected a little fussing, especially because I woke her up to get in the pool, but she seemed to really like it.  Maggie swam all the way across the pool (the width) and is tall enough to touch in the shallow end.  Where did our little girl go?

We did a little family weed pulling this morning, Maggie was the job manager! She calls
those gloves her "yardening gloves"



Happy Girl!!

 

Talking to Grandpa on the phone, we're in real trouble when she's a teenager!



Maggie thought it would be a funny joke to sneak a bow in daddy's hair while he was
taking a nap.  Daddy was a good sport and pretended to sleep through the whole thing.

 

Gracie's first swim.



Flying Maggie!

 

Gracie got did so well with her first dunk that we did it a second time.  When Maggie
was a baby we passed her back and forth because neither of us wanted to be the one to
dunk her, funny thing about your second baby, it's much easier.  Actually today we
each did it with her once.  She did great. Hopefully she'll be another water baby like big sister.

 

oh the goggles!



can you believe....

I went to Omaha and left my camera in Norfolk!  I can't believe it either.  I actually left for Omaha without the entire diaper bag, you'd think it might have been the lack of diapers or a bottle for the drive that bothered me, but really it was leaving my camera at home that bothered me most.  Thankfully my parents keep a great supply of all the necessary baby stuff at their house....now that I think of it, I probably could have used their camera too....

This afternoon we had several friends over for a picnic and playtime, it was a GREAT time.  There were 6 moms and a total of 14 kids....the oldest just turned 6 and the youngest is just a few weeks old.  It was mass chaos, but nobody got hurt and everyone left sleepy. 



Gracie and Lauren were born 2 days apart...they spent the afternoon lounging.

 



Maggie didn't like running barefoot on the mulch so she went with this stylish combo...



Update...

This morning when I walked out into the garage, the BIG FAT TOAD was taking a bath in the cats water bowl....why, why, why would she put up with that?????

The dumb dog, a stupid cat and the big fat toad...

I think there must be an animal full moon coming or something.....there was lots of 4 legged commotion today.

The dumb dog...Maggie was going down her tube slide today, when she got to the top and talked it would echo down the slide, Reagan was trying to figure out where the echo came from, so time after time she would stick her head up the slide, and EVERY time she got kicked in the head by Maggie coming down.  I bet it happened 8 times, you'd think she'd learn. 

A stupid cat...that's right, our cats back is shaved.  Last night Arnie noticed a pretty god gash on Peanut's back, it wasn't bleeding and didn't really seem to bother her so we left it till morning.  This morning I dropped her off at the vet, they sedated her, shaved her back and cleaned up the wound.  We have no idea what happened to her, I think it looks like barbed wire, but it could have been anything.  Maggie was very concerned about the missing hair, she asked the vet "When is peanut's butt hair going to come back?"  While Arnie and I aren't huge cat fans, peanut has been a good addition to our household.  She has made a huge dent in our mole problem, taken care of lots of mice and usually gets the frogs that seem to be all around our house in nice weather....EXCEPT for....

THE BIG FAT TOAD....seriously, I've had about enough of this guy.  I don't really mind frogs.  We usually have several around our water rocks in the front yard and at night they're often out on the driveway, no big deal, they are kind of neat (and peanut usually eats them). But this guy must have bribed the cat to leave him alone, or maybe he's just too big, because he's been living in our garage (right next to the cat bed).  Last week when I was cleaning the garage I had my first run in with him and his twin brother, they hopped out from behind the freezer when I moved it and startled me (ok, scared the crap of me, but whose keeping track).  I shewed them out of the garage and thought that was going to be it.  Boy was I wrong.  Now several times a day I see him sitting on the ledge in the garage just mocking me!  I can't bring myself to kill him (it would make a huge gross mess), I'm starting to regret not power washing him out of the garage, he's really not hurting anything, but he's made a game of making me scream....I think maybe I can actually hear him laughing.

Arnie has been out of town today, so when we weren't dealing with animals the girls and I had lots of play time.  Today Maggie told me I was the bestest cook, I made her a cheese and hot dog quesadilla, it's a delicacy you know :)  Let me know if you want the recipe.
Here are a few pictures of the 2 legged people at our house...

Maggie making Gracie and I some lunch.



"Mom, Gracie can have this hamburger, it's pretend. Did you know that?"



A little sister chat. I wish I could hear what Maggie is telling her.

Weighing in in this corner, for the feather weight division is MAGGIE.
I told her to look tough, this is what I got :)