Two years old!

Miss Madeline turned two last week! She was fully aware it was her birthday and loved singing "Happy Birthday" to her herself (and continues to do so). We started the day with presents and birthday pancakes in the morning and then took munchkins to school to celebrate. I have vowed to not do big parties until they are old enough to appreciate them (my opinion so far is age 4) so we were just going to have cupcakes at home but then I got a stomach bug and was down a couple of days. Clay took the kids to Chik-fil-a for dinner and our wonderful friends the Smiths, showed up there with pink cupcakes, balloons and presents for Madeline. She was so excited and we were so thankful for their thoughtfulness!

There are few words to describe Madeline sufficiently. There is so much personality in such a small body. We are constantly amazed at her energy and her vocabulary. I do not remember a time when she did not talk. She is a constant verbal train of thought. You can have full conversations with her. She loves to sing and will sing to you or to no one at all. She sings in the car and in the bathtub. She sings real songs and ones we don't know. Her current favorites are "Child of God" and "Bringing home a baby bumblebee." She says her own prayers at night including thanking God for our whole family, her teacher Marian, her friend Jonah, school and playgrounds. When Madeline wants to do something she knows she should not, she will look at me and say "Go away Mommy." She is so smart and sometimes devious. My dad has nicknamed her "Sam" from Bewitched :)Madeline likes me but she LOVES her daddy. He has almost as much energy as her so they make a good pair. She runs into his arms every night and loves playing tag, chase and hide and seek with Clay. She spends most of her time during the day bugging Jack like a good little sister should and he tolerates her 80% of the time. He invents games for them and leads her in fort building or pillow fights. It warms my heart when they play together. Madeline loves Virginia Ann and feeds, rocks, burps, etc her baby dolls just like I do with VAC. I can't wait to watch their relationship develop. Madeline is such a blessing in our family, pure entertainment every day. Happy Birthday Madgirl!

Cupcakes

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Juju sent Madeline this cupcake set for her birthday. She loves it and will "bake" and say "look, just like momma." I couldn't be prouder!

I love these little feet and I love how she sits with them crossed. She is a girl through and through.

Three Months

Loves her hands

And her feet

Virginia Ann's first three months have flown by! She is still a great baby- calm and chill all the time. She loves to sit in her seat or swing and just watch all the madness around her. She has "woken up" in the last few weeks and smiles and coos alot. She is sleeping in her crib and wakes once to eat which is so wonderful after our first 10 weeks of waking every 2.5 hours. If all babies were like Virginia Ann, people would have 10! She is so easy and such a joy with her chubby cheeks and big smiles she gives us. I cherish the few moments I have alone with her- she is growing way too fast!

Madeline and Jack wanted in on the photo shoot. Crazy that they were all looking at the same time! Crazy that I have THREE children!! We are so blessed!

Valentine's Day

Holidays are so fun when you have little people who are excited about them! We had a great time making Valentine's this year. I saw this idea on a blog and hoped my kids would pose for the pics and couldn't believe it when they actually did!

Madeline was excited to have a party at school and loved coming home to dump her Valentines on the couch and take stock. I love how hard she is concentrating here. This girl is serious about her candy!

My littlest Valentine!

Virginia Ann tried out the Bumbo for the first time. She is starting to like it and is very happy when she can lean over and get her hands in her mouth!

The kids woke up Vday morning to lots of goodies sent by Mimi and Goose and Grandma and Papa. They are so loved!

Virginia Ann's Blessing

We blessed Virginia Ann on Sunday and had a whole lot of Councills come to celebrate with us! We missed Ann, Ryan , Owen and Jenn!Our family

The Councill Men- Will, Jay, Clay, Jordan and Jim

Sweet Virginia Ann

With my grandmother Madeline's cross

Beautiful gown!

My mom bought the gown and has had every grandchild's initials put in it. VAC is next and then QMS! Our family is so blessed!

The boys also ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Saturday morning in the cold rain-it is a 5K where you run half way , eat a dozen donuts and then run back. Jordan was the only one who ate all 12 but Clay is glad to check it off his list. I am just glad no one got sick- at my house :)

Blessing Day

Jack

January 2007

Madeline

May 2009

Virginia Ann

February 2011

Three cuties- all from the same mold!!

The truth

First, I am going to show you the kids cute Valentine's bathroom. I could tell you that every room in our house is decorated this cute. I could also tell you I did all of this in a few hours.

But I would be lying and this post is all about honesty. It took me days to print that file out, send it to Staples, get a frame and then actually get it on the wall. It took even more time to paint the wood pieces, then cut the names from vinyl on my Cricut and then actually get those on the wall. Seriously, people, like weeks. See, I, like many of you, read those blogs where the moms are all crafty and cook great things and always look super cute. I read them and want to be like them. But then I stop and KNOW they are only showing us one side of their lives. I know that alot of you think I am crafty or bake fun things and I do that- some of the time. But here is what I do MOST of the time:

I come into Jack's room to find he has taken everything he owns and put it on the top bunk

I come out of my room after feeding the baby and find that Jack and Madeline have taken everything they both own plus all the cushions in the house and piled them up outside my door

My bookcase looks like this at the end of the day

And most mornings I wake up (at 6am) to Jack having piled more stuff in Madeline's crib to help her climb out.

This is what I do MOST of the time. I clean up, pick up, vacuum up, empty dishwashers full of stuff, load laundry, unload laundry, fold laundry, put it away and start all over. I hold the baby so the toddler doesn't harm her. I build tents and forts and make more messes out of sheets, blankets and pillows. I go up and down the stairs a bazillion times and still can't fit into any of my clothes. I try to feign some sort of normalcy that reminds me of the days when I had control and cute shoes and necklaces without teethmarks and at least 15 minutes in the day to do something I wanted to do but those days are long gone. Everyone keeps telling me to "enjoy this time- it goes so fast." While I realize that, I think it would go faster if I got to sleep any longer than 4 hours at a time in the last three months. I love my kids. They are amazing. I laugh alot but I cry sometimes too because this motherhood thing is hard. Damn hard. And that friends, is the truth.

Chocolate lovers unite!

Take a bunch of these...

Add a cute baking assistant...
And you get this yummy chocolate peanut butter cake I made for Supper Club!
(recipe courtesy of Bakerella)

Two cuties on the way to church! I might have found that red skirt at Old Navy for way cheap and I might have bought it in pink, red and grey for Madeline and I might have done the same for Virginia Ann :) Just maybe...