Our Family Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had the Christmas Eve party at our house this year. The weather was very bad out and a lot of people already had plans, so it was small and nice. Madi was so excited Christmas Eve day that she was non stop and we could not keep her in bed for nap time. But she did very well that evening for not having a nap and it made it easier at bedtime because she was spent. We were so afraid she would get up and come out while we were putting presents under the tree.

Santa came undetected, ate his cookies and milk and the reindeer ate their carrots that Madi left. She even drew a picture and left it under the tree for Santa. He left her a nice note in return and way too many presents! Madi was up at 6:30 and was very excited. "Mommy, Santa left presents, Santa left presents! Let's go open them!" I sent her to the bathroom while Chris and I got up and before we made out to the living room, Chris heard wrapping paper being torn. And of course, the first present to be opened was her sewing machine!!! She was so excited and I wanted to get her reaction on camera, but we were too late. Oh well, it was fun to watch her and all her excitement. Even after telling her during the day who some of the presents were from, she still thinks everything came from Santa!! We opted to let Evan sleep and not get him up for presents. He really has no idea what is going on this year. And I am glad we let him sleep. I would have had to feed him and miss watching Madi open her gifts. It was nice to give her all the attention one last Christmas.

After we opened our gifts and played and picked up a bit. Dan, Jane and Jon came out with their gifts and we opened again. Again, all those gifts were also from Santa! We did more playing and cleaning up and started making lunch. My parents came out and joined us for Christmas. It was a wonderful day. And my wonderful husband did all the cooking this year. It was very amazing and he did a great job!


After opening her sewing machine.


My Happy Christmas Baby!!


Loving the exersaucer!


Madi's team shirt! She told Grandma she wanted a team shirt with her name and the number 3 on it. She opened that gift and immediately tore off her other shirt and put her team shirt on. She was so excited. That night she took it off and folded it and layed it on her table in her room. I asked her why she didn't put it in her hamper and she said she didn't want to get it dirty. First thing the next morning she woke up and put that shirt back on. I thought oh no, she is going to want to wear this shirt everyday!! Later in the afternoon of the second day, we ended up turning the shirt around and wearing it backwards because she wanted to see her name and 3!! She is just too much fun sometimes!


Sleepy baby.

New Year's Eve we are having a get together with the Gengler family and New Year's Day we are spending the day with my parents and Jason, Tabatha and Jaxson to have our family Christmas. Fun and busy weekend coming up!!

Happy New Year!!!
Love, Amy

Merry Christmas!

We are ready for Christmas. I have a couple of things to pick up from the grocery store tonight. We are having the Christmas Eve get together at our house this year. And then Christmas Day we are doing the lunch for Chris' family and my parents. It will be a nice day and I am looking forward to it. Chris is taking Thursday off and has a very long list of baking things he wants to do. So, it will be a very messy day at our house and hopefully he can get what he wants done and I can get the mess cleaned up before the party! And I have all the wrapping left to do. I am not very motivated to get wrapping done this year and I don't know why. I need to hire someone to do my wrapping!!



Here are some pictures from this last week. We had a fairly busy week last week. Madi had her Christmas Program and party at school on Thursday. We also got to go see Santa at Kennedy and Coe on Thursday.

Here's my smiley man!! I can't get enough of those smiles. He is a pretty happy and content little guy. We also had a huge milestone Friday night. He slept all night long!!!! And has slept every night since! Merry Christmas to me!! Very exciting!

Madi at her Christmas Program. I didn't realize that the settings on my camera for my flash were wrong until later that night after the program and seeing Santa were all over. Very disappointing, all my pictures were blurry from the day. :(




Meeting Santa.

She sat on his lap this year, no problems. She asked for her sewing machine again. And after opening her gift, she had a sad face. We asked her what was wrong and she said Santa didn't give me a sewing machine. We had to assure her that the gift that we ask Santa for will come Christmas morning under the tree. This was just an extra gift.

My special present!!

Playing!



Madi's snowman. First his name was Frosty. Then once we added the hat, he became Daddy!

Last Saturday night we went and looked at lights around town. Evan wasn't interested very much!!

But Madi loved the lights and was excited to see the Georgetown Santa's!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Love, The Helm's

3 Months Old

Evan turned 3 months old on Friday. Time is going fast, I can't believe it's already been 3 months! Not a lot of changes going on right now. He is holding his head up very well and has graduated to playing in the exersaucer. He loves it. He doesn't really play with anything on it but he likes to look at all the bright colors and loves being able to sit up. He isn't much of a floor player. But that could be because he gets a little crowded in on with big sister when he is on the floor. He probably feels a little more safe in the exersaucer.

The last two weeks he is sleeping for longer stretches at night. YEAH!! Last night I was so surprised because he ate at 9:00, went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 3:30, ate and slept until 8:45!!! What was even better was that Madi also slept until 8:45, Momma got some good rest!! He is still eating about every 3-4 hours during the day and I would love to get that stretched out a little too. One step at a time!

He is a very happy boy and loves to be talked to and also has big grins when Madi sings to him. It is very cute. Of course I have no pictures of it because as soon as I get the camera out he stares at it and clams up. I'm going to try to get more pictures taken. But like everything else around here, I just don't seem to have the time to get it done. But here are some pictures from this last month.


Visiting deer camp


Playing patty cake with Madi.


Sleepy time in the swing.

I also updated our family picture slide show on the right side of the page. Check out the awesome pictures that Andrea did. I got very large pictures of the two of them together and then the individual pictures to put on the wall in the living room. They are gorgeous and can't wait to get the old pics down and holes repaired in the wall and get them up. My Christmas present to me this year!!

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

Madi is so in to Christmas this year, it has been really fun. She has been talking about Santa and visiting Santa since July! And once Halloween was over, to her, it was Christmas time. So, last weekend when we told her we were putting up the tree, she was so excited!! I put the tree up and it only takes five minutes, it's pre-lit and all the branches are attached, super easy to put up and plug in. Unfortunately, our poor tree had some major electrical issues this year. But it was so funny and so precious. Madi was standing in front of the tree when I plugged it in. Only two little sections of lights came on but Madi's reaction could only come from the innocence of a child! "WOWWW, it's like magic!" She didn't care that not all the lights came on, she was in total awe. Priceless!!

We tried to get the lights working but it just didn't work. We would replace one bulb and it would flicker on and then pop another bulb. Totally not safe to even try and fix. Luckily I had bought an extra tree last year on Black Friday and had a back up. I took my $20 tree out of the box and Chris' reaction was "Nice Charlie Brown tree Amy!" It looked very sad and thin. But with a lot of fluffing of the branches, it looks really nice now. Madi decorated our Charlie Brown tree all by herself this year. She was so proud of herself and it looks amazing!! I especially love that all the decorations are on the bottom two rows of branches! I could just eat her up, she is so darn cute! I did end up adding some balls to the top part of the tree just to finish it off. But every day she asks for more decorations to put on the tree.





Now the tree is up and every day this week when she would get up in the morning and at nap time, she comes out to the tree and says "No presents yet? When is Santa going to leave the presents?" After telling her several times in terms that she doesn't understand yet, I finally got the advent calendar made. I've seen a lot of neat ideas and different ways to do advent calendars. But I just don't have any time to do any crafty things this year. I remember making a Santa and filling in his beard with cotton balls to countdown to Christmas when I was younger. So that's what I made and she loves it! Except now she keeps asking every night if she can put all of the cotton balls on. I don't know if she wants to fill it all in because she likes to put the cotton balls on or if she has caught on yet that once it is all filled in, it is Christmas day. That's what I remind her every evening that when it is filled in then it will be Christmas day and Santa will come that night with gifts. Then we count the open spots.



We went shopping last weekend and saw Santa at Wal-Mart while we were there. Madi will see a toy or something she wants and she'll say "I wish I had that." And I'll tell her she needs to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas, we are not buying toys this close to Christmas. So she went and sat with Santa and told him what she wanted and got her picture taken and got a candy cane. She was very excited. I asked her what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas. "I told him I want a sewing machine and he wants to give me a doll! But he didn't give me what I wanted." I had to laugh, she thought he was going to give her her gifts right then! I told her Santa is making his list of things to bring all the kids. He will bring your gift and leave it under the tree. So cute! The only thing she is consistent with that she wants is the sewing machine so that is the only thing she told Santa she wanted. He said that's a new one, do you want a doll too? So she asked for the sewing machine and thinks that Santa also wants to give her a doll!! Maybe I better pick up a doll too, just in case she remembers that!!



This evening we are going to go to the mall and maybe visit Santa there and pick a name off the Angel Tree. I have done the Angel tree the past couple of years but this year Madi will be able to understand what we are doing and help pick something out. I think it is important to not focus only on the receiving part of Christmas but also the giving. That is the fun part of Christmas and also the most memorable. Being able to help others. And I want her to have those kinds of good values.

Love, Amy

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! We had a great Thanksgiving day. We hung out at my mom and dad's house with Jason, Tabatha, and Jaxson. We spent the whole day watching the kids play, it was a lot of fun. Jaxson is really getting around and he is so full of smiles. Madi had fun playing with Daisy and when Evan was awake, he was taking it all in. It will be fun to see all three kids together this summer when they are all mobile!!

Chris spent all day Thursday planning our Black Friday shopping trip. We have really enjoyed doing this every year and last year was fun because just the two of us went out together. But it seems it is becoming a hassle with two little kids. It is too early and too crazy to bring them with us. So, Thursday night I was debating on whether I wanted to go at all and we ended up talking ourselves out of going. At least the 4 and 5 am time. There really wasn't anything that we had to have or that we would be bummed if we got there at 8 and they were sold out. So, I decided to stay home this year and Chris went out at 9:00. He didn't get much so we really haven't started our Christmas shopping yet.

The rest of our weekend has been spent getting everything together and loaded for Deer Camp this week. Chris had my van loaded, the back seat of his truck loaded and the bed of the truck full. We had talked earlier in the week and decided to let Madi stay Sunday night out there. All the guys aren't out yet, no hunting until Wednesday. She could hang out and do fun stuff with Daddy. But Thursday night she came down with a cold. She was running a temp Friday night. We went ahead and packed everything for her. But once she was out there, all she wanted to do was run around in the cold air and it made her cold even worse. She was really coughing bad and her nose was running like crazy. We decided she needed to come home instead of chancing it becoming worse. She wasn't very happy at first but she got over it pretty quickly. She has been pestering me all day though to go out and see daddy. We are going to go back out Thursday night and take supper and then we will go back out on Sunday to help tear down and load everything up. Chris got four tags so next Monday we will be busy butchering meat. Which is good, we are almost out of burger in the freezer. Evan didn't make it out to deer camp Sunday. It was supposed to be so cold. And there is a big difference between Madi's first year out there at 6 months and Evan at 2 1/2 months. We will see about the weather Thursday and Sunday if he will make it out then or not.

Here's some pics of Madi at Deer Camp. With her supposed to be staying out there, I went out to find some warm outer wear clothes. Found some camo for her at Ace and snow boots at Kmart. She looked so cute in her hunting clothes.





And a couple of pictures of Evan.



Big grins!! He is such a happy guy after he wakes up. He is really starting to make a lot of noise and "talking" to us. It is very cute. Especially when he throws in a squeal. He also loves looking in a mirror. He played for the longest time on the floor this morning just looking at himself in the mirror.


My cutie bug!!

Have a great week!

Love, Amy

8 Weeks

Evan is 8 weeks old today and we had his 2 month checkup this morning. He is growing like a weed!! I was so surprised when they weighed him. He is now at 10 lbs 14 oz. (39%) and 22 inches long (23%). He is on track developmentally. We need to do more tummy time and get those neck muscles strengthened. He does really well when he is sitting and on our shoulders holding his head up, but once on his tummy, his legs and rear end get all the lift. It's quite funny to watch. Tuesday when he was on his tummy, he was actually pushing himself around the blanket with his feet.

The doctor wants us to try Zantac for a week and see if that doesn't help his fussiness. She said we should see a difference within the first week if that truly is the problem. A lot of what she was describing in reflux babies, sounds a lot like Evan. I didn't really think of acid reflux before because he doesn't spit up but she said it is not uncommon for acid reflux to occur without the spitting up. And hopefully this will help with him wanting to sleep on his tummy and getting him switched back to his back.

Otherwise, everything is going well with Evan. He has been giving us a bunch of smiles lately and is becoming more aware of his surroundings. He is staying up for longer periods during the day. His favorite thing right now is the fan. Unfortunately, the fan is getting more smiles than anyone else :( He likes to watch it sitting still but also loves to see it spinning and he tracks it very well when it is moving. I just wish my electrician husband could rig the fan up to turn slower when it is on. We are constantly reaching up and just spinning it ourselves, but it doesn't stay spinning long enough to get much done in between. He also loves his mobile on his bed and he likes looking at the bumpers on his bed. He isn't very interested in his floor gym or the toys on the bouncy seat.

I don't know if his wanting to be held and close to someone is any indication of his personality at this point. But it seems like he is going to be my cuddly one. He prefers to be held and close so he can study our faces. And Madi was more of my independent baby. She would be content to play on the floor or in her bouncy seat while I did stuff around the house. She is still very independent, not the cuddly type unless she is sad or not feeling well. We will see!

Madi's favorite toy right now is Evan!! She can't keep her hands off of him, and kisses, kisses. She amazes me more and more everyday. I am so thrilled with what she is doing and learning at school. Last night we were playing in the shed and she says "Mom, you have to put your right hand over your heart like this and say Pledge of Allegiance" and then she said the whole thing by herself!!! Totally blown away, I didn't even know they were doing that in school. And she is constantly singing new songs that she is learning. And she is writing her name so well. I am very, very happy. She is really thriving.

We've had a couple things done around the house the last couple of weeks. We finally got the door on the safe room on and done. Now it is truly a safe room/storm shelter. We also had the roof put on over the back deck. Chris is totally in love with it!! He keeps saying my wife is so excited to have this. But he is the one that can't get enough of it. It is nice and will be great this summer to lessen the amount of sun beating down and coming in the back windows. Plus the big bonus is keeping the rain off the back door, which has been our big leaking spot for some reason. Chris also installed a wood burning stove (the kind made out of two metal barrels) out in the shed. He is been out every night this week to start a fire. I asked him the other night why he keeps going out and starting fires, he can only be out for about an hour before supper is done and bath time, etc., he says he just likes to start a fire. Of course he gets it installed on the nicest week of fall so far. It's almost too warm to even start a fire!

We are headed to Beloit this weekend to get family pictures. I'm so excited!! Have a great weekend, it's supposed to be a nice one!

Love, Amy

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween with the kids this year. Madi was a witch. Decked out in purple and black. I didn't do a costume for Evan. He was too little to wear the pumpkin outfit I made for Madi for her first Halloween and knowing he was going to be in his car seat and fast in and outs at friends and family, I didn't want to mess with a bulky outfit so he just wore a festive onesie. He was still a cutie!!


This is the first year we carved pumpkins. I was planning on skipping it even this year but when we got our pumpkins she started talking about making them into jack-o-lanterns. They must have talked about jack-o-lanterns at school because we have never talked about pumpkins like that before. So, since she knew about carving pumpkins, we kind of had to do it. We ended up doing all the work anyways. She doesn't like to touch things that she isn't sure about. And she wasn't having anything to do with that yucky slimy stuff in the pumpkin. She would touch the seeds but she would not touch the inside of that pumpkin or the stuff pulled out of it. But she had fun drawing faces on the pumpkins and then we cut them out. They turned out cute and fun and she loved lighting them and looking at them glow.




Madi's pumpkin




Love the smiles!!

Mr. Serious. He was working on a good poop at the time!!

My pretty witch!

We trick or treated mostly at our families homes. We hit about 6 different places and then we usually end our evening at my parents where Madi loves to help hand out candy. In past years they didn't have too many kids once we got there, but this year, they were busy. Madi had a blast and the door bell was non stop. She was trying to play with Nana but they didn't get much playing done, she spent most of the time running back and forth to the door. At least it wore her out some! We were going to go door to door on their block (we haven't done that yet) but she was content enough to just hand out. Maybe next year.

Thursday, she got to wear her costume to school. They did a parade and then put on a little program. It was so cute. They sang songs with actions and it was so much fun watching a bunch of 3 year olds all trying to keep up. But everyone was on their own part of the song, very cute!! After their program, all the parents and grandparents left and the kids had their party.

Evan is 7 weeks old. He is doing well. He is very fussy right now. I guess some babies go through this between 6 and 12 weeks. I didn't experience this with Madi (at least I don't remember her going through this). So it feels like I am learning everything again. At times I feel like I have no clue what I am doing (again). And I am so afraid that I am doing everything wrong that I know Chris thinks I am a total nut case right now. I probably am, but I am blaming it on sleep deprivation. He is sleeping better at night. He drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep. But the little stinker won't sleep on his back, only his tummy. Which these days is an absolute no no. All babies should be on their back, no matter what. Sleeping on their tummies increases the risk of SIDS, etc, etc. So, I am breaking all the rules and letting him sleep on his tummy. Makes me very nervous to leave him like this. I am constantly in checking to make sure he is still breathing. I have even tried going in a half hour later and rolling him to his back. But as soon as he is on his back, even after being asleep for awhile, his little arms get to waving and he wakes himself up. I'm doing the best I can right now. And for both of our sakes and for Madi, at least I am getting some good rest at night. It is only two to three hours at a time but I haven't been as exhausted as I was before when I was sleeping in the chair holding him all night.

Another 4 day blog post!! Will be back tomorrow with updates from Evan's doctor appointment.

Love, Amy

My Babies

Yesterday I was watching my screen saver scroll through pictures of my kids. I glanced up to see a picture that was taken right after one of them was born and for a split second, I couldn't figure out which one it was. They looked so much alike when they were born, it was unreal. They handed me Evan after they got him cleaned up and it was like a flash back to 3 1/2 years ago and they were handing me Madi again. Pretty neat!! So here is the side by side of the two. They definitely have different characteristics, but they do look a lot alike.



Have a great weekend!
Love, Amy

One Month Old

Evan turned one month old today. I can't believe it's already been a month, it goes too fast. Not a lot of changes this past month. He still has quite a sporadic sleeping and eating schedule. He is going to become a little chubby monkey if he keeps eating like he is. At times he wants 5 ounces of milk and other times he will only eat 1-2. Makes it hard to get him on any kind of routine. This last week he has been congested and he just struggles to breath when I lay him down. So for several nights he slept on his boppy. Made me so nervous to leave him by himself. I was afraid he was going to wiggle down into it and get his face covered. He never did and he now thinks he can only sleep while I am holding him. We have another crazy sleeper on our hands!! We are still having trouble at times getting Madi to settle in at night. She has been having troubles the last two weeks also. We have had quite a few wet beds recently. Makes for one tired Mama around here.

Madi is still totally in love with "her" baby brother (as she calls him). She still gives lots of kisses and hugs and I have to tell her often to get out of his face. She just sits over him. I wonder where he got his cold from!? She also likes to hold him and feed him. I was getting dressed the other morning and came out of the bathroom to this:



She is such a big sister. He looks like he is fussing, but he wasn't. He was just laying there listening and watching her. Very cute. I remember a picture of me and Jason laying together on Mom and Dad's bed very similar to this one!

Last weekend we went to Abilene to their tractor show. What a beautiful day we had. A little chilly in the morning but the sun was out and they put on a great show. They have an old wooden carousel powered by a steam engine, very cool! Madi and Daddy, Dan and Jane all rode it a couple of times. They also have a steam engine train that we all rode on. It was about a 45 minute trip. Our first time on a train. It wasn't a smooth ride by any means, but I could of probably gone to sleep on it! Madi did the pedal pull again. She got third place!! She loves doing it and she got a prize this time, a tractor, of course she loves it too!!


Pedal pull


On the train


Evan doing his usually thing when we are out and about...sleeping!

Thursday, Madi had her first field trip at school. We went to the Vo-Tech school to the dental program. They learned all about keeping their teeth clean. And the fun part was getting to ride in the dentist's chair and seeing all the instruments and how they work.


Counting teeth. 10 on top, 10 on bottom.

And finally this weekend was the Flywheels Harvest Festival. Of course mother nature really screwed up everything. It was so stinking cold this weekend. It pretty much turned out to be a wash. We had a fairly busy Saturday morning but by noon, there was no one to be found. Luckily we were moved inside out of the wind, but still in an unheated building, so it was still cold. Madi and Evan were there for a couple hours. Long enough to play with some kids and have some fun. Then they went home with Nana for lunch and naps. We were supposed to be setup for Sunday also, but no one came out Sunday. We ended up packing up and headed home by 2:00. All the outside activities were canceled, along with the kids pedal pull. Very disappointing considering all the time and money we put into it. Not only because of the weather but from the attitudes and the way things were conducted by other members. Needless to say, this will probably be our one and only year that we are in involved in this way. It is sad how there are a couple of bad people among a lot of very nice people that can suck the fun and enjoyment out of things. I really liked getting our part organized and done and would love to do it again, if some things were changed on the board members end. But enough of that!!


Madi shelling corn the old fashioned way, by hand cranking.


Evan in his tractor shirt. Not a very good picture, but I didn't want to get him all unbundled. He was so toasty warm.


Madi doing the cake walk. We ended up winning quite a few baked goods. One time Madi just ran up after they stopped the music and happened to be standing on the winning square. She won and didn't even have to walk!! She loved it.


My little mommy.

Well, it has taken me three days to write this post. I will try and keep the blog updated as best I can but I am finding it harder and harder to find free time to do anything. Hopefully we will be able to get into a better routine around here soon. Have a great week!!

Love, Amy

Two Weeks

We have been home for two weeks now. I can't tell if it has gone fast or gone slow, I've just kind of lost track of what day it is. Our first week home went really well. Chris took the week off which was wonderful!! I was able to relax and focus on Evan and learning all about him while Chris took care of Madi. They had a fun week. They went to work together in the mornings and he took her to preschool and they just hung out together. She was Daddy's little shadow.

Evan is doing good. He is still a little off during the night. He sleeps really well during the day and everyday he is staying awake for longer stretches at a time. But he is still waking up to eat about every 2-3 hours. During the day he eats and goes back to sleep no problems. But at night he is eating and going back to sleep but as soon as I lay him in his bed, he wakes up and screams. I pick him up, rock him a bit and he goes right back to sleep. (Does someone sound spoiled already?!) I'm not quite sure what to think about this yet. I remember having to rock Madi until she was sound asleep before laying her in bed. And I know that part of this little routine we have going is my fault also. I am just so exhausted at night that he eats, I burp him and then find myself waking up an hour later still holding him. I just can't seem to keep myself awake to get him where he needs to be. This is one of the big differences between the first baby and the second. I don't mind getting up and being up all night, but at least with Madi, I was able to nap and rest when she did. Which meant I could get a lot more catch up sleep then. Now, I have about an hour in the afternoons when they are both down that I can get a quick nap. That's if I can get my mind to stop running about everything else that needs to be done. And I feel so guilty about just sitting an vegging when Madi is up because I want to make sure I am spending enough time with her and not having her feel neglected or having to come in second all the time to the new baby. It's a big juggling act right now and I just don't want to fail either of them.

Thank goodness for preschool!!! Madi has an out and something to keep her occupied for a couple of hours every week (that I don't have to plan myself!) She is having a really good time with preschool. She is always singing new little songs that they learn. I have already seen a big difference in her recognizing letters and numbers. Although they haven't learned anything but A and B, 0 and 1 the last couple of weeks. She is paying attention and wanting to learn at home much easier. I tried several times to actually learn the letters of the alphabet, not just know the song, but know the letters by sight. She just didn't have any interest. But now she will name off several letters and numbers while playing in the tub.

We have had some other outings the last couple of weeks.
Evans first outing was to the doctor on the 14th and then to Target on the 15th. I thought that would be a quick, easy trip. Dropped Madi off at preschool, Evan had already eaten and was sleeping away. But we weren't there for more than 10 minutes and he filled his pants. And boy he was not happy. He screamed and screamed. I finally had to go change him in the bathroom. Not what I was wanting to do with a four day old, yuck!
On Saturday, the 19th, we had a busy outside day. We had a family reunion in the park at 12:00. We ended up staying until 5:30 visiting. It was very nice. Madi played with cousins and Evan slept. Then we headed to a wedding reception and finally left for home at 10:30. So that was a long day but we all had a lot of fun.
Friday we went out and did some shopping, made our first trip to the library. Madi loves going to the library to play. They have a nice play area and there are always lots of kids there to play with. Then we went to lunch with Nana and Papa to Madi's new favorite restaurant, Pizza Hut! Evan slept the whole time, surprising though because he should have been up and ready to eat about half way through lunch. But luckily we didn't have to try and eat and feed at the same time. That night we went out again with Dan and Jane for supper and then Madi went home with them for the night.
Saturday morning was the Smokey Hill Museum Street Fair and Parade. Evan did great during his first parade. He slept (big shocker!!) He even slept through the fire truck blasting his horn right in front of us. I hate when they do that, scares the crap out of me. He just jumped and kept sleeping. Then he managed to sleep through three marching bands. Jumped again a couple of times but kept on sleeping. Of course Madi was on cloud 9 during the parade. She didn't care what was going down the street, she was just looking for people handing out candy. At one point she yells "Look, that girl has CANDY for me!!!" as she turns the corner to start coming down the parade route.


Madi and Evan at the parade.




Chris and Dan rode the tractors in the parade.

And then finally, on Sunday, we made a trip to the zoo. Ella's 5th birthday was last weekend and they came to the zoo this weekend and we tagged along. Ella and Madi had a blast spending time together and they really didn't care about the animals. They had fun just running around and playing together. It was a lot of fun to spend time with all of them at the zoo. It was really windy and I was worried about Evan swallowing too much air, but he did really well. He was a little fussy that night but not bad.


Evan at the zoo.


The girls!! Ella, Ava and Madi. Such cuties!


Our first family photo. Madi was mad because we made her get down off the tractor to take a picture and Evan was mad too.

So, we have had a bunch of firsts the last two weeks and a lot of running around. But that's what we do. And no better way to find out how to do all of our running around with two kids than to just do it.

Sunday night Evan's cord finally fell off and his circumcision is looking great and healed up so he finally got his first official bath tonight. He screamed bloody murder the whole time. He did not like the bath at all! And what a difference between him and Madi. Madi never screamed and fussed, from day one. She just layed there. But Evan doesn't like having his diaper changed and he doesn't like having his clothes taken off and putting them back on. So it really wasn't a surprise that he didn't like the bath. Hopefully he grows out of that. And Madi was the big helper. She was so excited to give him a bath. She tried to calm him down. When he cries she is always there being a little mommy. She will say (in a high pitched talk): "It's okay, Madi is here." "Hold on little guy, almost done." "Here, here, here's your binky. Momma, move him closer so I can give him his binky."


I like the little finger sticking up. I am sure in baby gestures, he is really telling us what he thinks about the bath!!!

Evan had his two week checkup today. He is 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 20.8 inches long. He is doing well. She is pleased with his weight. Even though he is eating a little too much. He started wanting to take 3 oz at a time this last week and she said he should still only be eating 1 t0 2 oz every 2-3 hours. So I am going to try and back him back down to 2 oz. He also has a goopy left eye. She prescribed some drops and said it could be just a clogged tear duct. Nothing to worry about and it should work itself out within the first year. We go back on November 6 and he will get shots that day. :(


And anytime Evan is up and in his bouncy seat, this is what you will see. Madi standing over him giving him a million kisses. She is a really good big sister and she loves him to pieces. She has been helping by making bottles, tries to calm him down when he cries, she will run and get things for me if I ask. She is doing amazingly well. I couldn't ask for better kids, I just love them so much!!

Have a great week!! I can't believe October is almost here but I am loving this fall weather.

Love, Amy