Happy Birthday Claire!!!

We have loved watching you grow over the past two years.  You are so sweet, lovable, cute, adorable and we love you so so much!!!  You make us smile all of the time. Maddie loves to pretend that she is you.  We look forward to celebrating with you!

There's something about Clairie!  Get it?!!  Note the hair!

Maddie's Friends

Maddie loves to sleep with a lot of "friends."  When she wakes up, she puts them in the bin and brings them with her.  We captured her in action one morning...

 So we don't forget their names, from L to R: Nikki (Addison named it), Cotton Tail (she won from coloring contest), Pink Bunny (Her #1 Fav. from Easter 2010), Katie (present from Cesta's on her 1st B-day), Melody (from Grammie and Papo at Easter).

There are many more friends that she loves and sleeps with, but these are the ones that she makes sure are there every single night!

Dane - 10 Months

Our boy is such a love!  He makes so many cute noises and wants to be a part of everything.  He eats, eats, eats!!!  He now weighs 17 1/2 lbs and is in the 5-10%, so the doctor is pleased.  He can stand, but doesn't seem too eager to walk. He is a speedy crawler and he needs to be watched every second.  Between him wanting to climb on everything and put everything in his mouth, we are always on guard!  He is getting more into books.  He will sit in our laps and lift the flaps - it took some time for him to get interested in them.  He loves playing with balls and still loves being held.  He also likes to show us his teeth and loves when we brush them.  He goes down well for naps and doesn't protest at all.  He is such a good little guy and we just adore him!

 We made banana bread with chocolate chips and Dane loved it!  It was still warm, so the chocolate got everywhere! 

 Dane loves to climb on Maddie's chair.  I love how happy he looks with himself in the picture below!

A Summer Saturday...

Gotta love this conversation between a 2 1/2 year old and almost 2 year old! :)

 Cousins and Friends

 Dane loved the bounce house!  He held his own in there with the big kids and then got it to himself!  Lucky boy!

Heel Stretches!

Bye Bye July!

How can it already be the end of July? Crazy! The end of July has brought many wild storms, extreme heat and many pool/water filled days!  We lost our power once and were fortunate for my dad's generator and a dry basement (many of our neighbors flooded).  Maddie is afraid of the storms because she doesn't like the loud thunder.  So, we usually have a little crying, ear covering visitor as soon as the storms begin.  I usually end up sleeping with her in her bed and then she falls asleep.

Our usual summer days consist of spending our mornings meeting friends.  We do our best to get home in time for afternoon naps.  Hard to believe that it is almost August.  Fortunately, I am going back to work reduced load (meaning I start teaching later in the day) so I still get my mornings with the kiddos.

Maddie got a new bike!

Hugs from Matthew!

 Dane is an eating machine!  His weight will be checked later this week! 

Maddie is doing awesome!  No accidents and no potty chair!

Tired?!!

Maddie is usually ok at napping.  She usually sleeps in her big girl bed, but once in a great while, will ask for Dane's crib.  After 45 min. in her big girl bed and over 30 min. of this, I gave up.  I brought the camera with to show daddy what he missed out on.  Oh, and yes, we could tell later that she had not napped!

Happy Birthday Aunt Kristin

We hope that you have a wonderful 30th Birthday!  We are sending our love and birthday wishes your way today.  Madeline was so focused working on the birthday card....this is NOT typical Maddie in this video! :)

We Remember...

Maddie was fortunate to meet Natalie and Chris within her first days of life.  Chris and Natalie came with smiles, love to share and a whole bunch of cute outfits.  Natalie had been fighting so hard the past couple of years and lost her fight last night.  We are so fortunate to have gotten the chance to know her.  We are convinced that there is no person sweeter than Natalie.  It is a very sad day for us, but a happy day in Heaven.  We will miss her and keep Chris and her family in our prayers.  Chris is an amazing person and we can't imagine how he is feeling right now...

Burt Lake

We had a ton of fun at Burt Lake.  Thanks to the Shooks for inviting us!  Mads and Aubriana had a lot of fun together.  Maddie loved fishing, swimming and playing.  She wasn't so sure about going fast on the boat, but as long as she was cuddling with mom or dad she was fine!

We found out that Dane loves lemons!  He didn't have too much of a sour face and kept going back for more.  As you can see in the picture above, he did a pretty good number on it!

Nathan and Matt took Mads out fishing.  That girl likes to fish! :)

I enjoyed the hammock with my Dane Dane!

A table for 2 two year olds!

We had fun kayaking!

Mads was a good boat buddy!  We sang songs and talked - I loved every second of it!

The 4th!

 Maddie (in the middle) and the neighbors "watching fireworks!!"  We are pretty sure it was Maddie's idea because she was "watching them" earlier at a party that we were at.  We love how she uses her imagination! :)  Fortuntely for Maddie, she got to see them later that night!

 Dane and Allie's 1st Fourth of July!  Dane is always quick to grab Allie!

 Waiting for the fireworks show to start.  Yes - we kept our kids up too late, but how often do they get to see fireworks?!!!

Dane slept through the fireworks!  The loud sounds did not even make him stir!

 The cousins all together.  How impossible it is to get all four of them to look!  They are in age order below!  Thanks to Aunt Laura for the cute dress!

Dane - 9 Months

Baa, Daa, Maaa - those are Dane's favorite things to say these days!  He crawls everywhere (Maddie is often right next to him crawling too) and he is as sweet as ever!  Maddie and Dane are becoming quite the little buddies.  Just last night we were driving home and they each had a lightweight blanket in their lap.  Maddie asked Dane "What are you going to do next with your blanket?"  When he would do something with it, Maddie would imitate and they both laughed and laughed.  This went on for a good ten min.  Dane prefers finger food over baby food for sure and there isn't a whole lot that he doesn't like.  He isn't a big napper - naps for around an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.  He is an early riser and seems to know when the sun is up.  He usually wakes up sometime in the 6 o'clock hour, but sometimes a bit earlier.  He goes down at 7:00 p.m.  It's always harder to stick to the schedule in the summer!!!  He has a mouth full of teeth!  The bottom three are in and the top 4 are poking through.  His mouth is very bumpy and they all seem to be coming in at the same time!

Here are his stats:
Weight - 16lbs. 14.5 oz (3-5%)
Length - 28" (almost 50th%)

So...

We are working on fattening up our baby boy and he will need to go in next month to get weighed.  He eats A LOT, so I think he has the Welke metabolism!  The doctor said he is doing well and looks great, but something that we should watch. 

Grandma's Visit

 We went to Wagner Farm with Grandma to see the animals and play inside the barn.  Grandma bought the girls little cows at the gift shop.  Maddie and Claire are holding them in the picture above and Maddie wouldn't let hers go!

 Grammie and Papo have such fun toys in the backyard!

Grandma was here for the Baptism and stayed for a week!  We love when she comes to visit and treasure the time spent with her.

Some videos from Grandma's last night in town.  There are summer concerts in PR on Friday nights.  Mom was having a laughing attack in the video below - hilarious!

M&M

Maddie and Miles have been buds for a long time.  They play together so well!!