Mimi comes to visit!

My mom is here for a couple of days and we are loving it! Madeline is attached to her and has probably said "Mimi" 800 times in 24 hours!

Mimi and her granddaughters

We took the kids to the Museum of Natural Science downtown. We had never been but Jack is OBSESSED with dinosaurs so I thought while my mom is here and can help me, we would give it a try. It is a fabulous museum and one that the kids will enjoy for many years to come.

Jack and Mad and the T-Rex head

Jack and his favorite dinosaur

Downtown is definitely lacking on places to eat lunch with kids and we are always searching for new ones after our Marbles visit. Today we tried the Cherry Bomb Grill and it was great! A good place for kids and good food!

Weekend fun

We had a wonderful weekend and felt very accomplished doing all we did with three kids! It was our first attempt at doing "normal" weekend things with all three kids like shopping, parties and visiting friends. Clay and I were excited to get out as a family and loved it!

My goddaughter Sarah turned ONE and we celebrated with her on Saturday. She was not afraid to dig right into the cupcake! (Banner courtesy of yours truly!)

Fistful of cupcake!
The Edgars- Will, Sarah and Cary- Love these friends!!

Last week we received our first issue of Garden and Gun, a subscription from my mom for Christmas and we love this magazine. It is like Southern Living with an edge. Check it out! Anyway, they profiled a restaurant in Durham called Scratch. We decided to go over and check it out after the party.

Clay and his girl, Mad

Scratch is known for their pies- this is the lemon one and it was delish!

Jack thoroughly enjoyed his donut muffin. Who wouldn't enjoy a donut muffin?

Playing outside

We also did a little shopping and found these beauties for $3! Every girl needs a pair of gold hitops!

We had a great weekend and felt reassured that our little tribe might actually be manageable in public :) We'll keep you updated!

Baby doll obsession

I spend my days trying to divert Madeline's attention from Virginia Ann. She has a newfound obsessions with her baby dolls and that helps me alot!

Pushing her doll and bear in the stroller

Feeding baby doll in her new highchair from Jay and Jen
Sitting on the bottom bunk (wishing I would let her sleep there!)

My mom, Shannon and Maeve went to NYC last weekend and visited the American Girl Doll store. Mimi got Madeline her first AGD- a Bitty Baby and it came in the mail today. Madeline is so excited to have a new baby. We fed and swaddled her immediately. When I asked her what we should name the baby she said "Ginia" which is what she calls Virginia Ann. We are going to work on the name...

Two months!

WARNING: There is alot of cuteness in this post!!

Our sweet Virginia Ann is two months today and the time is flying! I have not been good about taking pictures or blogging but really people, I don't have much free time or free hands. VA rarely gets put down b/c of of her well-intentioned but overzealous sister who would like no more than to carry her around like her own baby doll. Needless to say, I play defense all day long :) Virginia Ann continues to be a sweet, sweet baby. She is so chill, loves to sleep about 4 hours at a time, eats and then sleeps some more. When she is awake she is very happy and just watches all the craziness around her. We are getting lots of smiles lately and it melts me. Her cheeks are filling out and she is very long. She is such a snuggly baby!

An example of how chill she is-while waiting to be put down for her nap- I got a phone call, then Madeline needed a drink and Jack needed a snack- I look down and she has fallen asleep sitting in the crook of my elbow. Chaos all around and she decides to check out. I love this girl!!!

Family visits and more sledding!

CLay's parents and sister Ann and her son Owen came to visit on Monday. We were so excited to introduce Virginia Ann to one of her namesakes!

The group hadn't been in our house 10 minutes and Clay and Jack were ready to take them to the "big hill" for some sledding. We all bundled up and headed over to Sunset Lake.

Do you think these two had a good time??

Madeline hung out with Grandpa- she didn't want to sled this time
Ann and Owen

Grandpa and Jack took a turn

And then Jack got Ann to go with him too!

Walking back up the hill

Brother and sister- as if you can't tell!!

Being silly with GrandpaA flower, a frog and a monkey

On Tuesday morning, we headed over to Winston-Salem to celebrate Dottie (Clay's grandma)'s 89th bday!

Dottie with the kids- Virginia Ann is the youngest of her 11 great grandchildren!

We loved having family time and hope our visitors will come back soon!

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas- our first ever not traveling to family which was a little sad but we loved waking up in our house! Jack was so excited to see if Santa really came!
Reading the letter Santa left him thanking him for the cookies!

The kids were so cute opening their presents and playing with each of them as we went. ONe of the biggest hits was from Mimi and Goose- a bag of dollar bills!! Our kids love the Dollar Store and know exactly what this meant- they were bummed that it was closed on Christmas!

Jack asked for a "big Buzz Lightyear" for about three months. Mimi and Goose came through and he hasn't put Buzz down yet!

Olivia Newton John? No just Snow White! Madeline loves her new princess dress- the first of what will probably be many!

Eating oatmeal in a not so princess like fashion!

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Madeline enjoying her new trike- her legs just have to grow a little more!

Our sweetest present of all! Virginia Ann took in all the chaos and then went back to sleep!

It started snowing Christmas night and we woke up to 8 inches!! Jack was ready to sled at 6am! We waited til about 8am so not to wake the neighbors.

The morning run was chilly b/c the snow was still falling hard. Madeline only last 20 minutes.

Traisping through the snow!

We have had a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed and are trying to relish this sweet time with our wonderful children. It is so fun to see everything through their eyes!

Merry Christmas!

The front and back of our Christmas card!

One month

We did it! We made it a month! Virginia Ann is a sweet baby and finally starting to wake up and be more alert. She is a very loud little girl all the time- not crying, just grunting. As Clay said "she sounds like a bunch of pigs." She is wearing 0-3 clothes and although not nearly filling them out, she is almost too long for them. Eating every 2-3 hours but the last two nights has gone some 4 hour stretches which is heaven to me!

This has been a challenging month to say the least. I would like to laugh in the face of the Jennie Councill who thought having one child was so difficult. The baby is not the issue; keeping up with Madeline and keeping her away from Virginia Ann occupies most of my day. That is compounded by c-section recovery. My parents gave me a great gift of a sitter on the days the kids don't go to school and that has been a lifesaver. Clay has also been working a modified schedule allowing him to go in early and come home earlier. He has been wonderful with Jack and Madeline and gives me lots of time to rest even when I know he is exhausted too. I have such an amazing partner in this parenthood thing with him! I know every one says to enjoy this stage but I will be honest and say it is not my favorite. I look forward to feeling better physically, to more sleep, less feeding and a smile every now and then :) I am proud we made it through the month and excited for what is to come! We will have a very Merry Christmas with our precious little ones!