For Magdalyn

I haven't posted about our little Magdalyn in quite awhile so I thought I would do a special post for her.  She is growing so fast that I am constantly afraid that I am not documenting enough about her. 

 

First off, she is like the cutest thing ever.  She has such a sweet disposition (most the time).  For a long while we have been trying to break her from needing to be held all of the time.  She is doing pretty well, but definitely likes her snuggles in the evenings.

  

She still sleeps great at night.  In fact, most nights she doesn't wake up at all!!  She is AMAZING.  I deserve it.  Ellie still wakes up 3 times a night and Owen wakes up at least once, so my sleeping hasn't improved... but that is another topic and something we are working hard on.  Maggie loves to have someone sit down and just talk to her.  She coos like crazy and is always willing to flash you a cute little smile (sans camera... she doesn't perform very often for the camera).

  

Maggie is starting to spend more time in her exersaucer.  I think she was a little intimidated by it at first, but she is now spending up to 10-15 minutes in it at a time.  It is starting to work out well for when we eat dinner.  She's too little to play with the toys or coordinated enough to do it, but she doesn't mind sitting in there and looking around.

 

Here are her cute little toes!  Maggie is becoming much more active.  I've known from the time she was in my tummy that she was an active girl and I think she will live up to that.  She is constantly flailing around, kicking her legs and thrashing her arms around.  We now have to be really careful about propping her upright because she pulls herself forward and can roll off whatever she is on that way.

  

Maggie does have many moments when she is crying but 99% of the time, if you just pick her up, she is as happy as can be.  She still eats quite a bit but has really started clustering her feedings. She hardly ever eats in the middle of the night or late in the evening.  She eats quite a bit in the mornings and then picks up feedings in the late afternoon early evening.  Maggie has started to prefer mom feeding her much more than formula so I have tried giving her an extra bottle of that each day (she was only drinking 1 bottle and sometimes none at all).  I really like having a little bit of independence from my kids once in awhile since I am pretty busy with 3 now.

 

 Here is Mags smiling.  It makes me laugh because she doesn't quite have control of her facial movements and that smile is often pretty wild and uncontrolled.  She looks pretty goofy, but awfully cute!  Magdalyn is a wonderful baby sister... I say that because she puts up with LOTS of loves from her brother and sister-- it's funny how she knows they're coming because she has started flinching!  Smart girl.

We are so in love with our newest child and are so glad she is in our family.  She fits perfectly and has made an easy transition for us.  

5 Years... Holy Crap!

Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary.  We know several people who have anniversaries around the same time and several who have done similair posts, so I am totally copying them.  Here are some pictures of Daniel and I when we were dating.

Our first wedding--- pre-engagement of our own.

Before a BYU game.

Go Astros!

On our honeymoon.

Opening a few pre-wedding gifts.

These pictures make me a little sad because they were only taken 5 or 6 years ago and I am already thinking, "Geez, we look so young!".  Marriage has really aged me... or is it motherhood?

We had planned on doing a vacation every 5 years, but with Maggie's recent arrival, that didn't really pan out.  Maybe next year.  Instead, we went out to a yummy seafood restaurant here in Austin called "Eddy V's".  It was delicious and we had a lot of fun.  5 years has gone by fast and also quite slowly.  We couldn't even imagine 5 years ago what we have today, especially when it comes to the quantity of dependents we now have.  Even after 5 years, we still like each other (ok, really like each other)-- (ok, LOVE each other).  Thanks to Daniel for being such a great husband and dad.  I look forward to spending the next 5 years and many more beyond that with my wonderful Danny! :)

Just being at home

Here are a few pictures of us just being home.

Miss Mags has been sleeping all day today... some days she won't go to sleep at all and others she won't stay awake.... luckily she still sleeps great at night!

Here are Owen and Elise coloring.  They are such good friends.  They have been a cute little tag team since we got home.  Of course, there is also the other end of the stick where they feel the need to beat up on each other, but at least they usually get along great.

More sleeping Maggie.  I will try to get more conscious pictures of her.  Perhaps one of her goofy/cute little smile.  She just always seems to be sleeping when I get the camera out!

Ah, this picture!  I told Daniel that this is like my fantasy picture.  Him, with a baby strapped to him, doing dishes.  He thought I was so dumb, but I think all you women can second me when I tell you that this is certainly quite attractive to see one's husband like this! :)

Breaking Dawn/Twilight Party

**SPOILER ALERT**-- in case someone hasn't read the books or is in the middle of them.

Last night, I went to a book party for our ward's book club.  It was for the book "Breaking Dawn" part of the Twilight series.  It was a fun time and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

This is my Twilight T-shirt.  Seemed that people got a kick out of it at the party.

Here is the trivia game that I made for the party.  That turned out really well and everyone had a lot of fun.  Though, I should have made the questions a bit harder... I didn't realize what sort of crazy Twilight fans were going to be at this thing.

The hostess decorated her dining room like Edward and Bella's wedding.  She had blood (red juice), deviled eggs (for Bella's egg craving when she was pregnant), different colored candies (for the different colored eyes that the vampires had), ice cream (for the vampires cold/hard skin), and even the top tier of a wedding cake (for Bella and Edward's wedding). 

Like I said, lots of fun.  Though, I don't think I am a book club gal.  I really enjoy reading and find it fun, but I feel like it takes a bit of the fun out of it when you go and disect the book.  I did find that I loved hearing others comments and opinions on things I hadn't thought of or forgot about from the book.  I don't know, I guess I will go to book club on the books that I want to be more thorough in talking about.  Lots of fun though.

Around the House

We are glad to be home again!  We had a good summer, but we missed our home and the kids have really been enjoying getting reacquanted with all of their toys.  Here are some of the pictures we have taken since we have been home.

This picture is a personal favorite... I must say, Owen is exceptional in heels.  I guess it is an even trade as Ellie plays cars with him, I guess he owes her some dress up.  Looks like he is suffering, doesn't it?

Here is Ellie on the computer.  She is really starting to like to go on there and explore.  There are so many great websites now for pre-school aged kids, we love it!

Owen hanging out and looking sweet.

Ellie posing for the camera.

Here is our little, or not so little Maggie.  She is almost 3 months old (Wednesday).

Here Magdalyn is enjoying her new exersaucer, courtesy of her Grandpa and Grandma.  She is a little small for it but she plays in it for 10 minutes or so at a time.

She isn't sure about all the noise that this one makes, but I am sure she will get used to it.

Elise and Owen sure like playing with her while she is in it.  Sometimes it is a little scary.

Speaking of scary... here is Owen.  His new favorite thing to do (it also makes his dad very mad when he does it).  The scariest thing is that he jumps off of it!  I tell ya, this boy has no fear.

Our little Maggie...  we sure love her and are glad she is home with us.  We are learning about being a family of 5 on our own.  So far, so good!

"I want to ride my bicycle"

Elise has been bugging us non-stop since we have been home to go out and let her ride her bike.  We had been planning to get Owen a tricycle of his own so I finally got him one today.  Ellie is still learning about steering in the right direction and Owen doesn't really pedal, instead just enjoys the ride.  We also bought them helmets so they can be safe... they look so cute in them.

Here is Owen looking on by himself while Dad helps Ellie for a second.

This is why Ellie has a hard time steering, she concentrates on her feet and her pedaling the whole time.

Dad showing Owen where his feet go and showing him how to pedal.

On our walk/ride

Mom/Mags and Owen.  Maggie slept during our ride.  It will be fun when they all 3 are riding bikes one day. 

We look forward to many bike rides this fall and hopefully the kids will become pretty efficient at pedaling and steering by this time next year.

The "Bouncey Place"

On Wednesday, I took the kids to an inflatable zone that the kids call "the bouncey place".  I was having issues with my camera as it did not want to work the way I wanted it to.  Here are some pictures anyway.

Go 'Stros... one last time

Here goes my blog marathon... a lot has been happening this past week.

Tuesday, we were lucky enough to be invited by Daniel's family to another Astros game. One last game before we left Houston. It was especially fun since Daniel's dad and brother were in town. (Elise is still talking about having fun with Uncle Jordan and Grandpa). Anyways, I was so focused on how cute Ellie looked in her Astros apparel that I didn't get any pictures of our whole family group so sorry there are no pictures of the rest of the family. Daniel's mom got a bunch so I will have to steal some pictures from her.

Daniel, myself and Mags went to the game.... Elise and Owen stayed home and spent some quality time with their Grammy.
She was too cute!
Daddy and Mags.
Erin and Daniel... cheesing it up at the game. By the way... the Astros demolished the Giants... it was great.

Maggie enjoying the game.

This one is a picture of Elise at an Astros game around the same age... they look a lot alike.