Guess who found my mascara......

At least she knew where to put it!

Swimming survival

Well a while back I received an email from a friend with a video of this baby falling into a pool of water. Terrifying right?? Well turns out the baby ended up floating to the top and floated on his back for several minutes.

Check out the video here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0mUPr68x2U

Well it turns out that there is a place here in Cool Springs that teaches this technique! I'm definitely going to take Olivia, especially since we now live in a neighborhood with a pool!

Here's more information about it!
http://www.mtss.net/forms/Kennette_flyer.pdf

More pics!

Things are improving!!

Olivia loves her so much!

In Clearwater, FL for Susie's wedding

Bath time!

Cheese Nip?

Well, I thought I would update you about my two precious angels! Things are going pretty well! Definitely much better!



Olivia has had her world turned upside down! We started by transitioning her to a toddler bed. This did not go well at first! So after one night of literally not sleeping (Matt was up with her from 11-4am) we decided to go ahead and put her crib back up. Everything was back to normal for two nights, then all of a sudden she figured out she could climb out of her crib. Well after 45 minutes of in and out, we finally decided this was a no-win situation and made a bed on the floor for her and locked her in her room. We woke up the next morning and she was asleep on the floor like we had expected. So needless to say, the toddler bed went back up and we are slowly but surely making progress!! Then we were out of town for 6 days and her schedule was completely off. She stayed with my parents down in Destin while Matt, Madi & I went on down to Clearwater for a wedding. When we got back, Olivia had a fever of 102 but it went away after a few hours. She had been having several different symptoms that I thought were either teething or allergies so we just kept an eye on her. Well yesterday, I finally took her to the doctor and it turns out she had a double ear infection and a sinus infection. Man did I feel like crap!! The good thing is that it's treatable and she is finally on two different medicines so she should be feeling better soon!



Madilyn on the other hand, has been doing great! Around her 6 week birthday, her colic symptoms started to fade. We got a Rx for Zantac to treat her reflux and we use it every now and then! Of course she still cries and all that, but there is definitely a dramatic difference! She is such a good eater and is getting nice and plump!

Audrey Caroline

My church, Cross Point Community Church is doing a series called Plan B. This series is all about what to do when life gives you lemons. Last Sunday as Pete (our pastor) was closing up his sermon, he mentioned that this past Sunday was one not to be missed. If we had plans, cancel them, because this one was the one to be at. Well we just happened to be going out of town for my friend's wedding and had no intention of canceling our plans, but the anticipation was eating away at me not knowing what was in store.

On Wednesday, as we were on the drive down, I got an email on my Blackberry from Pete's wife Brandi, letting us know that the sermon was going to be about a family we had been praying for in my Moms' group. Now I knew why Pete felt so strongly about this.

Here are the videos about the Smith family and Audrey Caroline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBQYda-mkTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYzp2mu2g5c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_HmwjPm80

If you would like to read Angie's blog, you can visit the link below...
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/
I recommend reading "A Letter To My Daughter" on April 11th.

All I can say again, is how humbling this story is and how silly I feel when I think about the "problems" that I have. After watching this video the instant we got home, Matt and I, both in tears, scooped up our little Madi and told her how much we love her. I can't even imagine having had to say goodbye to her 8 weeks ago after only 2 1/2 hours. As soon as I know Olivia is deep into sleep, you better believe I'm going upstairs to tell her the same thing!

Thank you, Smith family, for enlightening me with your story and your faith. Thank you for Cross Point for being the most amazing church I've ever been a part of. And finally, thank you God for blessing me with my two amazing girls. I am truly, truly blessed.

Eliot 99 balloons

Well this truly is an amazing story and definitely made me leave the pity party I was having for myself and realize that life is what you make of it. I like to think that I live by that philosophy already, but whenever I forget, God has a way of making me remember.

Check out this video if you, too, would like to be reminded! :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0

Madi's first trip to the zoo!

It was a bit chilly and started to rain towards the end of the trip, but our trip to the zoo was SO much fun! Unfortunately Matt was out of town at a business conference, but my mom, dad, me and the girls spent a good 3 hours at the zoo on Tuesday! We had such a wonderful time and every time we go, Olivia enjoys it more and more. Madi slept and besides pooping all over herself, was a perfect angel! :)

Family

I really just can't describe the feeling of gratitude I have towards our family. Madi is just a month old and she has already been visited by both sets of grandparents, her aunt & uncle and her great-gram, and great-grandma & grandpa! How lucky is she????

Madi 4 weeks -- Olivia 21 months

What happened to my babies???

Well, it's official. The sweet, cooperative, quiet baby that I thought I had, is no longer. :( Madi has decided to grace us with some evening tunes! She thinks that crying from about 7-10 every night seems like a good idea, and this week from 7-10 in the morning! What the heck is going on here??? On top of all that, the girl WILL NOT take a pacifier and just gets even more mad if I try to feed her if she's not hungry (i.e. tries to take my nipple off) even though she's constantly got her hands in her mouth. Then when we finally think we've got her calmed down and she's almost asleep, she projectile vomits or poops and we have to get her changed which just gets her going all over again.

Oh and did I mention that now Olivia has started waking up at various times throughout the night in terrifying screams? Poor little girl. Thank God - literally - that I have Matt. I don't know if other husbands/dads are as hands on as he is, but he is pretty much just amazing and has been my rock. I really think he's getting less sleep than I am at this point because at least Madi will fall asleep and put me to sleep when she nurses in the night. Olivia stays up for hours at a time.

Needless to say the tears that have probably been long overdue just flowed out of me this morning. I kind of knew this was coming, but I was really hoping that it wasn't, ya know? So we will just continue to pray and try to do the best we can. In the meantime, I guess we'll just have to take deep breaths until this passes -- it's going to pass, right??