St Patty's Day

We had a lot of fun taking pictures on St Patrick's Day.
The girls were so cute in their kelly green for the day.
Madison tried to help get Kennedy's attention while we were taking pictures and make her laugh.
Watching the two interact was half the fun for me.
Madison was dangling a pink ribbon like her baby sister was a cat.
I tried to put the pics in order, but they kept getting mixed up.
These are some of my very favorites.

This one was actually toward the end of our 'shoot'. The girls were looking at Daddy way in the back of the yard.

As usual, Madison is being a goofball. Her little bow was too cute, though.

Love the smiles and those chunky thighs.

This is one of her best little sweet smiles. We see this one lots throughout the day.

She was singing.

We started in the front yard, blowing bubbles.

Matt calls this the 'Godfather' face. We see this more often than not.

While her smiles are fabulous, she is our little observer and usually stares intently like this to analyze what is going on around her.



This is one of my favorites.

Madison says 'tickle, tickle, tickle'

'Here Kendady- wuk at dis pink wibbon'

She LOVES her big sister. Kennedy just missed the ribbon but was so excited.

Come on Parrot...

wet's wook for treasures! Arg Mateys!

This is what Madison just said to me when we put on her pirate stuff.
She says the CRAZIEST and Cutest things now.
Want more examples:

Lightening McQueen- the main character in the Disney movie Cars is 'White ming Fa queem' at our house.
Disney's Enchanted is the 'Gazelle' movie. No, not Giselle- Gazelle.
Polar Express is the 'Special choo choo train movie'
Peter Pan's nemasis is 'Ca-pan Hook'
If something isn't quite the way she wants she says, 'o MAN'
Everything is 'weawy'. As in...I'm weawy tired, or weawy hungry...

She also snuggles up to us and says, "I wuv u, too Mommy (or Daddy)". So cute, right? Even cuter- she says that whether we've said I love you first or not. She always adds the 'too'.

One of our favorites now is 'Want you tell me a story?'
Then she proceeds with her story first, 'Once upon a time dare was a princess by da name of...MADISON. And she wived in a castle wif da Daddy named da King....and da crocodiles, and ducks. Wif da baby sister princess named Kend-a-dee. the end'
She LOVES telling stories and singing songs on the phone.
Give us a call some time for your own story or song.

Who's Who?

The girls got these cute shirts from Carter's a few weeks ago.

Now if we don't know who's who we can turn to the shirts. tee hee

Aren't they just too cute!?

This is Madison's 'Cindawewwa candy'. Angie picked out Cinderella pez special for Madison's goodie bag at Noah's birthday party last month.

Want a candy?

Wagon: Party of 2

Yep- Kennedy is big enough to ride in the wagon with Madison now.

She's been sitting up so strong since Christmas- we probably could have tried this a long time ago.
None the less, their first official wagon ride down the street was March, 15th- Gramm's birthday.

It was just before dinner time (we went to Lalo's with Uncle Dan and Daddy- Mmmmm) and Daddy was working on the jeep so the girls went for a ride.

It was just a little chilly so we had to bundle up. We found Madison's purple hat from 2 Christmas's ago in the RV. Now it's like new again to her!

Then, we rode around the backyard on the 19th (Kennedy's 7 month birthday!).\

The 19th was also the first day we had 2 baths and 3 clothing changes before lunch time.

Kennedy had a rather large diaper blow out right after we got dressed for the morning (from outfit #1 to bath to outfit #2),

then we played in the sandbox for a little while

and Kennedy tasted her first sand

She was a little unsure about it

Then we had a bath in the sink to get all the wet sand off (slobber plus sand equals big mess)

and into outfit #3 for our wagon ride.


I see lots of wagon rides in our Spring/Summer adventures!

(Look at all these fantastic rolls and dimples!!)

PS Note all the cutie hats! Kennedy has so many cute hand me down hats from Miss Madison, and a few new ones, too! We have to do something to keep silly people from thinking she is a boy!

Bananas

Kennedy had oatmeal and bananas for breakfast this morning.
Baby food bananas and baby food oatmeal.
Usually while Mommy is in the shower, Madison watches Noggin or the Disney channel and Kennedy plays quietly on her blanket.
Mommy learned to take very fast showers when Madison was a baby.
This morning Kennedy had her eye on something and went to it.
She went from sitting up to plopping down on her tummy and pulling herself/scooting across her large floor blanket over to Madison's breakfast plate (which made itself to the floor) with bagels and bananas.
Real, big kid bananas.
Kennedy proceeded to play with and ultimately EAT the banana pieces.
God was watching over our little baby girl because other than making a huge mess all over herself and the carpet-she was fine!
No choking.
She was so proud of herself-with a huge grin and mouthful of banana.
Mommy learned a valuable lesson today...
Kennedy is focused, mobile, and its time for the pack-n-play to make its Kennedy debut!

Princesses

March 8th the girls went to a birthday party for our friend, Makai.

She was turning one.

We went straight from church (after dropping off Daddy at home) so the girls were a little antsy (it was 1pm).

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of all the kids playing outside, Madison 'picking' the daisies that were potted just for the party, pin the fire on the dragon (for the bigger kids), or the big unicorn balloon Madison was obsessed with.

I did get one picture of Kennedy playing with the birthday girl

and one of Madison making a crown with Emma, who she called her 'big sister'.

There were foam stickers, rhinestones, and ribbons to decorate the hat forms.

Madison made a crown and a princess hat.

The girls played with the hats later that night before bedtime.

Madison had a little irritation above her lips-it was gone the next day.

Kennedy tried her best to get Madison's crown, but did not succeed.

Oh- and those are stickers Madison has all over her face.

And yes, Madison is half in pjs, half in her dress.

Aren't they too cute?
Our little princesses

Have tooth, will eat

Since Kennedy's new tooth poked thru she's become an eating fool again.
Breakfast AND dinner, and more Cheerios snacks.
Still nursing a TON, in fact she tries to latch on to any part of the boob she could reach this weekend.
Including the side.
Ouch!
Guess ya get a tooth and ya need to eat!
She's napping more, too-
Hmm...growth spurt?

7 months today

Kennedy is officially 7 months today!

I've said it countless times before, but WHEW time is flying.
Kennedy is now wearing 9 month or 12 month clothing (depending on the store- why can't they all fit the same?!) and size 3 diapers. She moved into bigger diapers a few months ago, but the size 3s just seemed a little too large. Did you know Pampers makes an in between size called 2-3? We happily put Kennedy in those for a while. Now she is officially in size 3 Pampers CRUISERS!

No, she is not quite cruising yet but getting awfully close. When we sit her down she almost immediately leans forward to get down on her belly now. She prefers her tummy and likes to scoot backwards and push up to her knees.

No more 'girl push-ups',

she picks up her bottom now and gets all the way up to the crawl position.

In the last couple weeks she started pushing up and rocking back and forth.
We discovered something about our little girl this week. Mommy went to get her haircut and left Daddy in charge of the girls. Kennedy was quite content to play by herself the entire time Mommy was gone. No noise, no fuss. The second I walked in the door she put out her bottom lip and started crying. Much like her sister at this age, Kennedy is a Mamas girl! If she can see, hear...even smell me- she wants me. Last Saturday afternoon Kennedy and I went to see my friend Darcy's daugher Alyssa's gymnastics meet. Same thing happened. Kennedy was fine to sit with anyone, as long as Mommy wasn't near by. If she saw me across the gym she cried. How do we remedy this?

Kennedy is talking more, too. She goes from making these little sweet sounds when she first wakes up, to making loud screaming sounds throughout the day. When she starts to get upset she pushes her lips together and starts with, "Mmmmm...MMMmmm..MMMmaaaaa...MMmmmaaaaaaaMMMMM". I'm convinced she is trying to say Mommy since she hears Madison say it constantly throughout the day.

We've had a busy few months.

(she's a little confused about how the plastic hammer works)

From playdates,
to birthday parties,

to kids club,

to the pool,

the sandbox,

and riding in the wagon with her big sister...

Kennedy is one busy girl.

Now we are gearing up for a long trip to FL to visit Mommy's side of the family. Gramm has lots of fun plans including Disney, Sea World, and the beach. Hope there are some naps scheduled, too!

Kennedy is still taking a 30-40 minute nap a couple hours after she wakes up in the morning, another nap when/if we run errands around lunch time, 2 hour nap when Madison naps (yes, she is still sleeping ON Mommy for this one- so I'm not getting a whole lot done during the day), then bedtime around 8:30. She is not a super scheduled baby (nor was her sister) which is nice because we can be flexible with our daily plans. If her wonderful big sister wakes her up just after she goes down for the night, she is content to stay awake and play for a while and go down again when Madison does around 9:30pm.

Her favorite daily activites include laughing/smiling at her big sister and playing with her tongue. Whether she is sucking on her tongue, smacking her lips, or sticking out her tongue and blowing (think na-ni-na-ni boo, boo...or the 'farting' sound)- she LOVES her tongue.

As for food, Kennedy went from eating 2-2 1/2 containers of baby food a day at 6 months to only eating about half a container now. She decided she prefers to mostly nurse again. She's still gaining weight like a champ so we aren't worried. Luckily the pantry full of baby food won't go bad for a long time!

Look for pics from the last few months as I catch up our posts.

Breaking News!

Kennedy's first little tooth broke thru! You can barely see it beneath the skin, but run your finget across her little gums and there it is! The bottom right front tooth is happily making its arrival! No other teeth in sight (or feel).
As Matt put it...this explains her behavior and sleeping habits the past few days. She's been VERY fussy and wants to be held every second...particularly by Mommy.
She even cries, 'Maaaa...' Guess she knows who's boss! tee hee

Yikes!

Kennedy is taking her first nap on her tummy...GULP!
She's been rolling herself over for months now, but not sleeping by herself much.
This morning I'd had enough.
I let her cry it out (which only took 5 minutes) in her crib.
She flipped onto her tummy right away and cried and cried.
She finally fell asleep and I am afraid to turn her over...she might wake up, but also afraid to leave her on her tummy...the doctors scare mommies with threats of SIDS when sleeping on tummies.
AH!!
The joys and freak outs of being a mommy!

Kennedy- almost 7 months...coming soon

I started Kennedy's 6 month post on March 6th.
It looks like this:
Kennedy- 6 mo


That was it.
Guess it's true, the second child DOES get the shaft.
Our days seem to be sailing by lately.
No time to blog.
Lots of photo ops though...
which means if, scratch that, WHEN I finally catch up there will be TONS of new posts.
Here's a teaser....
The girls have new cute shirts.
Kennedy is up on all fours and rocking...and scooting backwards!
The wagon holds 2.
and lots of visitors...
oh, and new sizes.
Hmmm....stay tuned!

Noah's 2nd B-day

Sunday, February 15th we helped Noah celebrate his 2nd birthday.
He had a special fireman party.
Noah loves to stop by the fire station down the street from his house and talk to the REAL firemen and see the cool fire trucks so it was a natural theme choice!
All the kids had fun running around and playing.

Madison even helped Noah decide to break into his presents early. Oops!
They each unwrapped one before Noah's Nana caught them.
Mommy and Angie were working on food in the kitchen.

It is still surprising how much mischief kids still manage with a house full of adults!
Madison was happy to sing along when it was time for Noah's cool cupcake birthday cake.

He blew out the candles

and went out to the picnic table

to share his treats with Madison and his friend Gracie.

Kennedy enjoyed visiting during the party, too.

Especially meeting Noah's Grampie for the first time. He was her special buddy.

She fell asleep in his arms- which was just awful for him (wink, wink).

After opening presents

(well, the ones Madison didn't help break into earlier!),

Angie busted out the fire hats for all the kids!

After the party wound down and everyone went home Madison and Noah watched a movie,

Kennedy played with a truck.

then Noah's Grammie and Grampie (who came down from Washington) gave him his new trike!

Noah and Madison had so much fun pedaling back and forth on the landing with Grampie's help.

We are not sure who had more fun- the kids or Grampie!

Next was time for Madison's first bath time party!

Madison and Noah had lots of fun splashing and playing together.

The only 'what's that' question that came up was in reference to the special ear plugs Noah has to wear when he's in the water since he had his tube surgery.

Noah let Madison borrow some pjs, then the two climbed into Noah's big boy bed with books and stuffed animals to pretend to sleep.

They were like an old married couple.
They cuddled down under the sheets pretending to snore. Then threw off the covers, sat up with a start yelling 'Awake!'. Then Madison would yell at Noah and tell him 'No, no' whenever he wasn't playing the way she wanted. What a bossy kid she is!

After a little more time on the trike, it was time for big kids to go to bed.

Madison started meltdown around 8pm-not bad for no nap.

All and all it was a great day.

We are so lucky to have great friends like the Steads here to share in special times.