100th Post

I've FINALLY reached 100 posts. I do not know what has taken me so long I feel like I blog all the time, oh well, I'm here now! So as I type my 100th post I am sitting in what used to be my dining room in Dothan. It is now filled with boxes and will be empty tomorrow. This is my very last night in my first home. I must admit it is very emotional. Empty rooms. Empty walls. What I feel like is our whole life and all our memories in this house in boxes.

I love this house. I loved it the second I stepped in the front door and knew I just had to have it! This house was made for us. It was the perfect first home for Shay and I as somewhat "newlyweds." We were so proud to own this house. It was even a more perfect place to bring our first baby and second baby home too. It kills me to see their rooms boxed up. It hurts actually. All Mary Selwyn's "firsts" happened here and some of Adeline's too. It is going to be hard to walk away tomorrow and even harder to hand the keys over to the new owners.

When Shay and I returned on Thursday to pack up the remainder of our stuff the first words out of Shay's mouth were, "Man. This is a good looking house. I'd buy it again." This has been a wonderful first house. We were very blessed to be able to make it our first home! The new owners are a young couple and this house will be there first home as well. That excites me because I know it is the most perfect place for a young couple to start their lives. I pray they will love this house as much as I do and it will bring them just as much happiness as it has my family. I will forever cherish the memories of our first home and will miss it dearly! Needless to say I need a Kleenex!

11 months & 2 1/2

These are the ages of my girls. It is hard to believe Adeline will be 1 year old next month. It is so bittersweet. We are excited about celebrating her birthday but very sad that she is growing up. She can say "Mama," "Dada," "Mum-Mum," and she attempts "bye-bye" and "baby." (Mum-Mum, is a baby snack, in case anyone thought that wasn't a real word.) She can sign more, thank you and all done. That will be all she will sign because mom doesn't know any other signs. She loves to play with baby dolls already. She also loves to sit on your lap and will back up and plop down in your lap whether you want her to or not. She can climb on certain things, scary!! If she needs her diaper changed all you have to say is, "Lay down Adeline so I can change your diaper," and she will find a spot to lay down and wait for you to change her. It is hilarious!

She loves Mary Selwyn and wants to do EVERYTHING she does. I didn't realize this would start so early. Adeline follows big sister's every move. She plops down in Mary Selwyn's lap all the time too, which MSN only appreciates half the time. Adeline is extremely loving and passes out kisses all the time. That is definitely a trait she gets from big sis! I love this little monkey. She still feels like my baby even though she is growing up so fast.

My 2 1/2 year old is a mess these days. She has definitely turned up the drama lately. Sometimes we fall apart over nothing.....just a girl I guess. It isn't too bad because Mary Selwyn is the sweetest and most polite child. She always says thank-you and your welcome without having to be told to. She thanks me for making her breakfast, lunch and dinner and for many other things I do daily that I wouldn't even expect a thank-you for. It makes us proud. She is going through a phase where she doesn't like kisses or "hugits" but I bet she tells us 15 times a day that she loves us out of the blue! The sweetest words. Mary Selwyn has become a real Disney Princess lately. She loves Snow White and Tiana from Princess and the Frog. We watch these movies almost on repeat and she sings along to every song. I love her singing. She also loves Sleeping Beauty but will not watch that movie for some reason. She got a Snow White dress to wear to her cousin Callie's birthday party this weekend. She couldn't be more excited and plans to wear her Sleeping Beauty shoes. It's two princesses in one!

At this age they don't have too many new tricks because it seems like they can already do everything but one new thing MSN can do is impersonations. She can do funny voices and mimic certain voices. This hilarious skill she gets from her daddy. I will try to catch it on video soon to share it because I cannot even begin to describe how funny it is. Last night Mary Selwyn and I went to a mommy and me gymnastics class. She had the best time. We are looking forward to doing it every week.

I'm lucky to have two precious girls that are sweet, sweet sisters. I'm also thankful that I get to stay home with them and really enjoy them, especially since time passes so quickly!

Early Easter

We have been celebrating Easter a little early around here. Since our closing is April 1st, we are going to be in Dothan for the whole week before Easter packing, so we decided to do our fun Easter stuff this week.

We made Easter Egg Garland and hung it up. The first egg has Mary Selwyn's hand print and the last egg has Adeline's. It really brightens the apartment.

We made footprint butterflies.....aren't they the sweetest.

We made a strawberry Easter cake.The best part.Telling me what to do next.

We are no Ace of Cakes but happy with our 2 layer strawberry cake.

All that hard work was worth it...yummmm.

and we dyed some eggs

Daddy dyed some too....

Adeline in her cute lamb ears and cute bunny sweater.....sadly they are both cut out of this picture....oh well. We have been having some fun around here. Happy Easter!!!

Babies and Showers Round 2

Last week was such a fun week, well until Saturday afternoon but I will get to that in a second. On Wednesday the girls and I packed up to head to Montgomery to meet some very special new arrivals.

Allow me to introduce The Weimer Twins, born Thursday, February 25.

Caroline Landry.

Avery Noelle

These precious girls were scheduled to arrive on March 10th but I guess they ran out of room and decided to make their appearance early. I was extremely sad that they didn't wait for me but I'm even more thankful that everything went well and they are healthy. I enjoyed getting to hold them and kiss their tiny little faces. They are precious. I wanted to put them in my purse and take them home with me but Megan wasn't willing to give them up, not even one. Guess I will just have to love them from afar. I can't wait to see them again.

Now this handsome little man is Andrew Morrison Sanders. He was born on March 2nd and is just as precious as the twins. He has a head full of black hair. Baby Drew is beautiful and looks like his big brother and sister mixed together. He is definitely a Sanders baby and we are very excited he is finally here.

I spent three days going back and forth between Megan and Mary's and loving on their new little munchkins. It is amazing how much you can love someone else's children. I can't wait for the rest of my friends to have their babies, there are a lot coming, so expect more rounds of baby blogs in the next few months.

Saturday was a busy day. My niece was having her 2nd birthday party, which I unfortunately couldn't attend because I was hosting two baby showers. So I left Shay and the girls to celebrate Kate's birthday and headed to my showers. My morning shower was for my dear friend from high school Amy. She is having a little boy in April. Then I headed to my afternoon shower in Auburn for my friend Leslie from college. She is having a girl in April, maybe one of the two will be born on my birthday. Both of these girls look way to good for pregnant people, very unfair. The showers were great and they got tons of good stuff.

Amy and baby Collier

Leslie and baby Girl, who has yet to be named

This is the wreath I made for Leslie's shower. Her nursery has a bird theme so I was proud of the bird rattle I found for the center of my feather wreath.

Sadly these are the only pictures from Leslie's shower because in the middle of the shower I developed a terrible migraine and had to leave. This is the not fun part of the weekend. I very rarely have migraines. I actually never had them until I had Mary Selwyn. The doctor says they are hormonal migraines that have come about as a result of having children. I haven't really had any since Adeline was two months old until this week. They are awful. My hands and face go numb and my vision gets weird right before the worst headache ever comes on. That of course is usually followed by vomiting. I'm not sure what it is about migraines that make you throw up but that is the worst part. Luckily Brooke lives right around the corner from where the shower was held so I made it to her house and laid on the bathroom floor for a few hours until Shay could come pick me up. How embarrassing right? I am so thankful that Brooke and Tim are the kind of friends that you can just show up at their house and throw up in their toilet. I mean that is what you call best friends. Needless to say it is not the way I would have liked to finish such a fun weekend. Minus the headache it was a great trip. We got to see lots of family and I got to spend time with all my best friends. It was fun but we are glad to be home, being gone for almost a week wears you out for sure.

Some of the cousins at the birthday party.

Not-So-Crafty Mom

Once upon a time I thought of myself as a creative and crafty person. Turns out I'm not as creative or as crafty as I thought I was. Mary Selwyn has really been missing her mother's day out time. She misses playing with the other kids and getting to do fun crafts to bring home. We have been to story time at the library some but with Adeline walking it is hard to keep her contained and I decided I only have the energy for story time every few weeks. I figured we could come up with some crafts to do here at home to make her life a little more exciting. Shay's sister gave Mary Selwyn a bag of craft stuff for Christmas so we dug it out this week.

The first craft we made was a paper bag puppy puppet. He turned out cute enough and what girl wouldn't want a pink and green spotted puppy. It was so fun and easy I thought we could do anything. So I googled preschool crafts and we decided to make a caterpillar and leaf, again pretty easy and fun, but maybe a little boring. So I got brave and decided we would make a stain glassed butterfly. I took all this time to shave crayons and let MSN sprinkle them in the butterfly shape I drew on the wax paper. All that was left was ironing the halves together. Piece of cake, right? Wrong. I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong but my butterfly will not melt together. I even tried a new piece of wax paper on top because I thought maybe I used the wrong side. Still nothing. So all that work for a bunch of melted crayon shavings that won't stick to anything. I'm very disappointed. Clearly I would make a terribly, uncreative preschool teacher! Oh well, I guess we will keep trying to find new crafts that I CAN help her do. Is it too early to make our Easter garland??? Here are some pictures of our crafts.

On another note, our house is officially under contract as of yesterday. If all goes as planned we will close on April 2nd. We have diligently been praying for this and yesterday God gave us our answer. Shay said he had a feeling that our house would sell by then end of February and he was right. We are very thankful. Thanks for all your prayers. Once the house is sold I think we can work mother's morning out back into the budget and then Mary Selwyn won't be forced to suffer through her mom's lack of crafty ability!

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My Surprise Valentine Trip

This weekend Shay took me on a surprise trip. This is something he has never done before so it was very sweet and unexpected. I had no idea where we were going until we discovered the road to our getaway was closed because of snow. Luckily there was another route to Gorham's Bluff.

Several months ago my friend Jenny blogged about this place she and her husband spent their anniversary. I thought it looked like such a fun and cozy place. I showed the blog to Shay and said, "We should go there sometime." I guess he does listen sometimes....When the road we wanted to take was closed he said, "Okay, we are going to Gorham's Bluff. Go ask that lady if there is another way to get there." I think I said, "Where?" He had to remind me of Jenny's blog so I guess in this (rare) case his memory was better than mine.

Gorham's Bluff is one of the most adorable places I have ever been. It has this beautiful lodge that overlooks the bluff and the streets are lined with quaint cottages. The views are amazing. Shay and I day dreamed about what living there might be like and we decided it wouldn't be half bad.

Friday night we curled up by the fire and played a game of trivial pursuit DVD that someone must have left behind. Saturday we slept late, went on two snowy hikes, enjoyed a gourmet lunch, hot chocolate and a nap all before a nice surf and turf Valentine dinner at the lodge. It was a wonderful weekend! WONDERFUL! Valentine's Day isn't something Shay and I normally celebrate so this was extra special. This trip doubled as an anniversary trip too since we were living in different towns back in November. I'm a lucky girl with a very sweet and thoughtful Valentine! Happy Valentine's Day!

Our cottage

Hiking

I thought the icicles were super neat

Our tiny snowman. Shay added the beard and hair.

We took a million more pictures. Here is a link if you decide you want to browse through them. Copy and paste it in your address bar and it should pull the album right up.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2416621&id=7026226&l=1357b77309

Also on Valentine's Day, Happy 29th Anniversary to my parents and 14th Birthday to my little sister.

9 Months & Snow

This week we took Adeline to her new doctor for her 9 month check-up so I thought I would share her stats. She weighs 19 pounds and was in 60% for weight and she is 29 inches and 90% for height. Wasn't it just the last post that I called her short?? I guess that just goes to show Shay and I are not great judges for baby height. The doctor was impressed that she was walking and so independent, I must not have been completely honest with her because this baby seems pretty attached to me.... Overall we got a good report. No shots because they haven't received her records yet so we will have to make a special trip for that torture, booo! It is always hard to go to a new doctor, at least it is for me.

Friday morning we also got our first "snow" since we moved here. It really wasn't much but it was enough for Mary Selwyn to play in for a bit before her hands got too cold. Here are some pictures.

Snowballs from daddy's car

"Mommy my hands are cold."

Yummy hot chocolate warmed us right up.