"Mommy Piggietails"

Madison LOVES her new piggie tails. She runs to the mirror every morning to see herself after we do her hair. On Wednesday she kept asking for "Mommy piggietails". I gave in. Pretty cute pics, huh?

Fire

How close were we to the fires? They came down over the ridge into our city before being extinguished. Here are a few pics taken earlier this week from our backyard. Lots of smoke makes for scratchy throats and stuffy noses!

Waiting for Daddy

Madison loves to go out on a wagon ride to meet Daddy on his way home from work (he rides his bike now) or sit out on the curb in front of the house and wait for him. On Tuesday she greeted him with new pigtails and her super cute 'G' hat from Aunt Kimberly. Daddy helped her play with a ladybug, too!

Patti's Pics

Our friend Patti from church is starting up a new photography business. We were honored when she offered to photograph tiny Kennedy a few weeks after birth. Patti is working on growing her portfolio and we were truly the beneficiaries! These are some of our favorite shots. They were taken September 5th, when Kennedy was only 2 1/2 weeks old. Look how much more hair she had then...she's losing it fast!

Mommy and the girls

Yesterday was the last day of our Picture People portrait club membership and we still had free photos to redeem. We coordinated in our brown, denim, and lavendar and headed up to the mall for a quick photo shoot. As usual, we got the photographer who did nothing to pose us, or engage the girls. With the help of Mommy we managed to get a few good ones. I really like this 'retro' color change they offer. Kind of a cross between color and sepia tone. Here are the best of the bunch.

The girls, pumpkins, and friends

Here are the pics from our trip to the farm with Spencer, Ryan, and Caleb. Kennedy enjoyed most of the day in her new sling-(Mommy LOVES it, too!) Madison spilled juice on herself at lunch just before we wandered thru the corn maze...note the wardrobe change. Apparently riding in a wagon all morning is not as tiring as pulling one since Mommy was exhausted when we got home, but Madison skipped her nap. Needless to say, it was an early night falling asleep in Daddy's arms long before her usual bedtime!

We will upload the bulk of the pics later today.

Madison's first Pigtails

Yesterday we went back to Underwood Farms, with Spencer and the gang this time. Madison sported her first piggie tails! Here she is with her bag of carrots on the way to feed the ponies.

Miss Kennedy-almost 8 weeks

Kennedy is almost 8 weeks old now. She's really is growing like a weed. At her 6 week check up (and ear infection appointment) she was 12 lbs already!
She is still sleeping in her bassinet, and doing much better at night. She only wakes me up to nurse twice a night for the most part. She LOVES to be swaddled in the special blanket Aunt Kimberly sent. (Special note for other Mommies- the Miracle Blanket is a MUST HAVE. I wish we knew about it when Madison was a baby. It's AWESEOME! I want 10 more so we always have one clean and ready to go! HA!)
Kennedy is still in her size one diapers but has moved up to 3-6 months clothes. Tonight she is wearing a 3 month sleeper as the temperature keeps dropping (58 degrees and dropping at 8pm) and her feet are stretching to the bottom. Looks like we may be moving up to 6 month sleepers already! She is very hot natured so at night her short sleeved onsie and the swaddle blanket are more than enough to keep her content most nights. This cold snap is changing things up a bit for us.

She is a super strong baby. We struggle to get her to lay her head down. She is insistant on having it up and looking around. This is a problem when she gets sleepy because her neck isn't strong enough to hold her head up very long. She ends up head butting our shoulders and chest and, of course, getting upset about it. When we hold her up to burp her she puts her feet down and stands on our laps, too. When we hold her up when she's upset she pushes one foot down like she is stamping her foot!
Her new best trick is smiling, though. She smiles in response to us now. The smiles seem to get bigger and better every day! She's cooing and kicking all the time, too. Miss Kennedy still has beautiful steel blue eyes, but is losing her dark hair. Her hair line is reseding (just like her Daddy!) and she's getting thin and patchy in the back. We are anxious to see if she will lose it all and what color will come in behind it- or if she will be a baldy like her sister for a while.

Here are a few of favorite recent shots.

The last 7 weeks...

Time is flying since the arrival of our little Kennedy!

The last few weeks were interesting around here.

September 18th- Madison woke up from her nap with pink eye, by the 19th when we went to the doctor it was in both. We disinfected everything, started drops, and watched it go away...and come back, then go away again. Then the congestion and cough started, and Madison got a cold. Her friends had been sick, too so we know its going around.

Then the bad news...

Kennedy got it, too! October 1st Kennedy's little cough got worse so we took her to the pediatrician. Turns out the mild fussiness, low fevers, nasal congestion, and cough were the result of double ear infections! Oh, and did I mention she got pink eye, too. Luckily the doctor wrote us a prescription for Kennedy when Madison got pink eye just in case it developed. So sad- at 6 weeks she already had her first unscheduled doctor visit.

Dr Pattan said it's easy to forget how sensitive tiny babies are to germs and colds. We have to be more careful about exposing Kennedy to colds. I forget, Madison can be around runny noses and end up just fine- Kennedy can't yet. With an early cold/flu season going around here, we may be spending lots of time alone in the coming months.

On the brighter side...

It's football season. Madison has her bark down pat, 'Go Dawgs, Sic em, woof, woof, woof- YEAH. No way Gators.' on Saturdays and 'Go Stee-wers' on Sundays while waving her 'terrible toddler towel'.

Aunt Darlene sent Madison a Snow White costume, so we have Princess Madison time almost everyday now.

As the weather cools down we are enjoying time at the park. Unfortunately, the temperature is up and down so today our trip to the playground was cut short as it is 96 degrees now.

Kennedy will have her own post soon with all the updates on her smiling developments (hint, hint)

Here are the photos of our adventures the last month and a half.

Farm Day with Noah

Yeasterday the girls and I met up with Angie and Noah at Underwood Farm. You may remember the farm from one of our previous summer posts with Spencer.

In the month of October the farm is all decked out for the Fall Festival. On the weekends they have extra activities for the occasion. We were perfectly happy feeding the animals, playing in the pumpkin patches, and running around on Monday. Some of my favorite pictures are under the gourd archway near the tall sunflowers. Madison and Noah had such a terrific morning! Kennedy enjoyed hanging out in the wagon while the bigger kids played. Thanks again for bringing the snacks, Noah!

Love these pics-look how tall the girls are!!

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