Mady Mae

My friend Mindy was very kind and came to our house and took pictures of 4-day-old Mady last Saturday. Mindy just posted her blog post and I had to share a few of my favorites (for the rest of the blog post, click here). I don't have professional pictures of my other kids when they were this new, so these photos are really special - they capture Mady's curled up, sleepy little newborn self. We are head over heels in love with this baby girl!

sisters.

introducing Madelyn Mae!

On Tuesday, November 17 at 7:45pm we welcomed little Madelyn Mae into our family. She was 7 pounds, 13 ounces, 19 inches long and she has lots of dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. She let out two little cries after she was born and then started looking around, trying to take it all in. When they set her on my chest, she just looked up and stared at me for the longest time...details of her birth that I will always remember. We are all quite smitten with our Mady. We were blessed with a smooth labor and delivery and everyone is adjusting well to having a new family member. So far she is a good baby and she's eating and sleeping well. She loves to cuddle and she already loves her pacifier :) I can't wait to see who this little baby grows up to be!

Chad & Katie

I wanted to take a minute and show you all how ridiculously good-looking/cute/photogenic my brother-in-law and my soon-to-be sister-in-law are. They just had their engagement photos taken by my very talented pal Mindy (for more, if you can stand all the cuteness, click here).
We love these two so much and Matt and I are very honored to be standing up for them in their wedding as their Best Man and Matron of Honor. July can't get here soon enough!

birthdays, part II

We had our second birthday party this afternoon at our house with the Jen side of the family. My friend Tiece made these awesome cupcakes - I love the way they turned out! Dylan loves his new Thomas track and trains and Ella has some more play food to add to her kitchen (love the Melissa & Doug wooden play food).



Matt was also able to get out with the guys on Friday night. His brother and friends planned a little surprise night out - my only job was to act like I was excited for him to go out with the guys and leave me home with the kids :) I was trying to act casual about it after his friend called but I think he repeated at least three times, "Let me get this straight...you want ME...to go out with the guys...on a Friday night...when you're nine months pregnant...and leave YOU home with the kids??" Somehow he managed to pick himself up off the floor and went out and had a great time :)

birthdays, part I

The November Birthday Bonanza has begun! We had our first b-day party last night at Matt's parents' house. Next Monday is Matt's 30th birthday, Thursday is Ella's 3rd birthday, and Friday is Dylan's 5th birthday. We are trying to fit the parties in a little early in case Baby Girl decides to make an appearance soon. The kids are pretty easy to please at this age - Dylan loved his guitar, new cars, bowling set and car book and Ella was very pleased with her new chair, wooden cookie set, and tutu. It feels a bit like Christmas with so much present opening going on at once - it's weird to imagine families who only celebrating one birthday at a time :)

fall photos '09

My friend Mindy took the kids' pictures a couple of weeks ago. She has been at this professional photography thing for about a year now (we were one of her first clients last fall). She just blogged about the session - click here to see her post and more photos.

I usually dread professional pictures with the kids (the outfit picking out, the hair doing, the child coercing, etc.) but Mindy makes it pretty enjoyable all around and I love the results. By the time we were done, the kids were covered in mud and...HAPPY...that's a successful photo shoot if you ask me!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year - pretty laid back and the kids had a blast so I guess that's the whole point! Dylan LOVED being a race car driver and Ella was adorable in her monkey costume (a hand me down from Dylan...sorry second child...maybe next year we'll let you be a princess!)