Simply Mel(Formerly Mama Monoblogs)

Happy 2nd Birthday to Madelyn!

Dear Madelyn

Today you turn two years old. We are celebrating your birthday tomorrow by having a bunch of friends and our family over. The theme is teddy bears (because you love your teddy bears!)and you will have a teddy bear cake. I think your sister is more excited about your party than you are!

At 2....

-You are much more laid back than your sister is
-You are starting to throw tantrums! Yikes
-You are speaking in full sentences
-You pronounce your "f's" like "p's".  You say stuff like " Would you make some chawky milk per me? and " This is my pish(fish)"
-You like to play by yourself and would rather not be messed with by anyone. You are super content playing with small toys and lining them up and counting them.
-You can count to twelve
-You like to ask me to write your name by saying  " Would you write my name A-E-O-L-Y-N?"
-You like to watch "Dora", "Diego", "Max and Ruby", "Strawberry Shortcake", "Caillou" and "Little Einsteins".
-You love to tell us " I do it myself" and don't ever want help. With anything!!
-You just started sleeping in a toddler bed and you enjoy keeping mama going up and down the stairs telling you to stay in your bed.
-You love your big sister
-You love to sing! You've started to sing " Give Me Oil In My Lamp", "Jesus Loves The Little Children", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and various ditties from your favorite shows. You love trying to sing along with our favorite Sunday school songs CD.
-We are not starting to potty train for another few weeks although you do enjoy sitting on the potty.
-You love to swim in nana and papa's pool!
-You are tall for your age. We'll find out your stats at next week's 2 year check up.
-You've started to love dressing up just like your sister does.
-You love your baby dolls! You walk around and ask us if we want to hold your baby and that it's crying. You call her "Apple Dumpling" after Strawberry Shortcake's little sister. You say " This is my sister baby Apple Dumpin"
-You are a super picky eater. Just like your daddy and sister!!

We love you so much and are so proud of you. You are a  beautiful, wonderful gift and blessing to us from God. Happy 2nd Birthday Madelyn Reese!

Here are some pictures of you at (almost) 2...

GOD BLESS YOU MY SWEET GIRL! HUGS AND KISSES!

Katelyn's Birthday Party Recap and Pictures

Katelyn's party went very well Saturday. Everything went smoothly for the most part and the kids seemed to have fun.  My inlaws kept the girls for the morning so Mike and I could get things ready. Aside from running out of icing and having to bake another cake to put on top of the one I already had there were hardly any snags in our day. We had pizza,pretzles, veggies,apples and grapes. We let Katelyn open her presents before we ate cake. She was sooo excited. She got a ton of cute gifts. Many  Dora, Diego and Little Einsteins things. She didn't know what to play with first! Nana and Papa got her a set of play cookware, a grocery shop cart and a ton of play food. Katelyn and Madelyn have been having fun filling the shopping cart with food and pushing it around. She also received clothing, puzzles and games that she has been working through. I made the music note cake that didn't turn out all that pretty but Katelyn thought it was great. I was having trouble actually using the decorating utensils so I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. BUT, it tasted good so I guess that's all that counts. And I was able to add some Little Einsteins figures to top it off. Here are some pictures. Mike took most of these and, hem hem, he is photographically challenged! We have many blurry shots. Not trying to be mean here ,babe. Love ya!

So, you'll have to pardon our pictures of this blessed event.  Oh, and you'll have to click on some of the pictures to see the whole thing. The typepad program cuts off some of them. Irritating!! I'll be adding the rest of the pictures to my October album. Check back tomorrow night if you want to see them. I know my mom will! LOL

 

Katelyn was helping me make her cake the night before. She's my little kitchen helper.

 

 

The cake...bleh..

 

 

The birthday girl about to open presents

 

 

 

 

She's really excited about her talking rescue pack!

 

A cute shot of Madelyn if I do say so myself. And...I do.

 

Maddy and cousin Kara playing together. They played so well and cute together!

 

 

Kate with her beloved and long awaited for trumpet from Nana and Papa

 

 

Singing "Happy Birthday". Notice her face...lol

 

Proud Nana with two of her three grandkids

 

MADELYN IS ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!

  One year ago today,at almost two hours ago, I gave birth(via c section) to Madelyn Reese. Our little fatty came into the world weighing 9lbs 3 oz and was 21 inches long and hasn't stopped growing since! She is such a joy to have around. She has been a pretty easy baby and is very laid back. She is saying some words now- mama, dada, bah bah(bottle) go go go,(from "Go Diego Go!", papa, nana, thank you, hello, bye bye. She also tries to say       " Blast off!!" with Katelyn when she's watching "Little Einsteins". It's sooo cute! She raises her hands in the air and yells a sound that sounds like "blast off!" but isn't quite there yet:O)  She is also starting to cruise and stand all on her own. And man, is she a climber!! She will climb on anything she possibly can. Which provides a lot of excitement for me. She won't have her one year check up until Sept. so I have no stats for you in that area. Oh! Aaannd, she has curly hair!! Her hair is totally different than Katelyn's or ours for that matter. It's wavy on top but then curls right up in the back. So cute. I wonder if it will stay that way?

So, Happy Birthday sweetie!! You make us laugh, smile and feel proud every day. God blessed us with you one year ago and we are grateful each and every day for you. We love you!!

   

We are celebrating her birthday this Sat.the 23rd with a party. It's going to be a cookout with a kiddie pool set up and outdoor games. Pretty low key. I found some sand pails and toys at Target for a dollar a piece so I snagged all the ones they had :o) Those are my party favors. I'll have pics up as soon as things settle down. The good news is I'm now using my laptop again! Yay! Buut, now I can't seem to find the battery charger for the battery on my digital camera-argh!So, I don't have one year pics to put on this post like I had planned. I did take pics today with my digital handycam but it is not set up to upload on my laptop yet. I have to do it on my desk top which is time consuming...yada yada. I'll have those soon as well. I hope to find my battery charger before Saturday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katelyn's 1st Birthday Party Pictures 2(from my old xanga blog)

Here are the rest of her b-day pictures!

MORE CAKE!!

TIME FOR PRESENTS!

Right here she was mad at me b/c I was trying to take that card away. Of course that is what she was interested in.. Not the toys...

Katelyn semed to enjoy opening some of the presents but then would get attached to one and want to play with it and forget about the rest. That is to be expected with a one year old!

On a sad note...today is my parents last day here. We are trying to make the best of it and have fun. We took Kate to get her one year pics today. She was in a great mood and we got some excellent pictures. I'm glad my parents got to be there for that. I will be posting the link to the web site so you all can view the pictures too.

That's all for now!

Katelyn's 1st Birthday Party Pictures 1(from my old xanga blog)

Katelyn's party went great! I hope everyone else thought so tooLeave it to children to walk into a party where they don't know hardly anyone and make fast friends with all the kids there! I had alot of fun watching all the kids running around and playing together. It was really cute. They all looked adorable in their costumes. I wanted to say "THANK YOU" to everyone that attended and for all the wonderful cards and gifts. Katelyn is one lucky girl!She got a ton of cute toys and outfits. She is set for a looong time! Katelyn did great. She was in a pretty good mood and was a good sport. She looked so cute in her angel costume. She didn't want to keep the halo on for very long but still looked edible in the costume without it. She loved watching the kids play and crawling around after them. She also loved her cake. I actually ordered two Care Bear rainbow cakes. There were actualy 24 cupcakes lined up in a rainbow and frosted with rainbow colors. They each  came with two plastic care bears that I  could place however I wanted. She wasn't really interested in opening her presents so I had a bunch of the kids help me with it. They seemed to enjoy it and it made that part go faster.There were about 40 people there. I know, I went way overboard but it was her first birthday!! I also appreciate all the help my parents and inlaws provided as well. Katelyn has some pretty neat grandparents!

Anyway, here are the pics. I have too many to post in this blog so I will post part 2 tomorrow. Oh, and tomorrow we are taking Kate to get her one year pictures taken. I can't wait!

 Enjoy!

 

Gamaw and her angel!

Smiles for this one!

Some of the kids in their costume

One of my favorites! I loved the "Incredibles" and Kayla looked hysterical as "Violet"

Kate playing on the floor

The kids all dressed up!

Batman and Holly Hobby- too cute!! (thanks Liz and Heather!)

My parents and Franco and...me. You can see the food table behind them

The room and everyone eating

Time for cake!!

All she wanted was the lollipop in Stephen's mouth..

"Hmm..I don't know about this..."

"Yum!!"

This would be such a great picture without the red eye. We don't have the new picture software installed yet!

"I'm starting to like this!"

Some for mommy...(not a very flattering picture that's for sure!)

And some for daddy. she loves to share!!

More to come! Stay tuned....

Visit With My Parents Part 1(from my old xanga blog)

As many of you know my parents are visiting this week. They got here on Tues. night and are staying until Friday morning of next week. The visit has been wonderful! Katelyn has taken to her gamaw and gampaw quite well She also knows that she can get my mom to do anything for her so she has pulled quite a few shenanigans for her and my mom falls for every one! She is going to be spoiled ROTTEN by the time my parents leave. I would have some photos to post  but Mike has my camera right now and he's out with my dad. Bummer! He got me an early Christmas gift- a new digital camera and it is AWESOME! 

We are celebrating Kate's birthday tomorrow and it has become quite a big ordeal. My mom and I shopped for party favors for the kids yesterday and all the decorations. Each of the children and babies will receive something from Katelyn for coming to her birthday. We have close to 40 people coming! Out of those 40 , 15 of them will probably be kids and babies. Sheesh! We are having it at my inlaws church in their fellowship hall. That way we will have plenty of room for the kids to run around. I'll have a table set up with coloring stuff for the kids who want something to do. It is also a costume party so all the kids will probably come in a costume. Katelyn is going to be an angel for her party. Can we all say "awwww how sweet". So appropriate for her don't you think??? We are having different all types of sandwiches, chips and dips as our food. It's at 3:00 so people probably won't be that hungry. Mom mother in law is making most of the sandwiches. She wanted to contribute to the party by buying most of the food. I'm making pb&j and pb&fluff for the kids and cutting them out with cookie cutters into alphabet letters. I thought that would be a fun way to make those sandwiches. So we still have some work to do today! I got most of the party favor bags together last night so that is one thing to cross of the list today. Anyway, I'll be posting lots of pics from the party in a couple of days.

Gotta go! Part 2 of this blog will be coming shortly

Bye!

Happy 1st Birthday Katelyn!(from my old xanga blog)

 Today is the joyous occasion of Katelyn's first birthday. I can't believe she is actu ally 1.I just wanted to say to my beautiful daughter:

         HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATELYN!

               Mama and daddy love you!!! Kisses!

I will be posting a "birthday collage" of pictures on here for heras well as all the others I have been meaning to post. We got a new memory card reader so lets all cross our fingers and wish for the best! LOL That's all for now.xoxoxo

Yay!!(from my old xanga blog)

So my last day at Abundant Life went well. I didn't cry which was surprising. I'm so emotional these days! I did get to leave early which was very nice :o) Katelyn turning one is really getting to me! She is at such a fun stage and she just amazes me with how cute, smart and funny she is but I want her to stay a baby. It seems like once children turn 1 they jump to kindergarten!

I'm so psyched that one of my fav shows is back on tonite. Grey's Anatomy rocks! I can't wait to see what happens this season.

I just wanted to post a few pictures from our Labor Day cookout/my birthday. I know that was weeks ago but here they are

These are the crazy guys playing volleyball in the rain.

That's Mike there in the hat and blue shirt showing his muscles(?)

Me and my friend Lori

Me and Katelyn

Katelyn clapping

Katelyn in her walker pulling on daddy's pant leg

My cake from my sweet husband and friends

One of our friends brought their new puppy(a husky/pitbull mix..interesting)

 Him and Lance kept laying the same way on the floor. We thought it was really cute. They got along great.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!(from my old xanga blog)

Yesterday was the grand occasion of my 28th birthday! yikes! I had a very good birthday. Thanks for all the cards and kind birthday wishes. I appreciated them. We had a Labor Day cook out yesterday at hour house for friends, new church family and old church family. We weren't sure how it would end up b/c yesterday was all rain and clouds. I didn't even know how many poeple were coming. We had a great turn out and even played volleyball in the rain! We had quite a few people show up from our old church which we were very pleased about. We are still able to stay in touch with many of them. Our new church family and old church family had a good time together and mixed well. It was very fun to see We were quite packed inside the house but everyone seemed to be having a good time. Mike and my friend Jenn provided me with a beautiful cake and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Very nice! Mike told me to go shopping for my b-day and then surprised me with a web cam to stay in touch with my family. What an awesome gift! We've been able to connect a few times but we are still working out the kinks. We are going to try to "hook up" today and get Katelyn on  the camera. Mike also had Katelyn holding 2 b-day cards for me yesterday at church. He was trying to get her to give them to me but she wanted to keep them for herself!!Very sweet. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures yesterday. I was so busy talking and hostessing that I didn't get one single picture. Bummer

hmm...other news...I'm quitting my present job at Abundant Life Christian Learning Center and going back to my old job at Hilltop Learning Center. My old boss called me and offered me the preschool class and Katelyn a spot in the infant room. She also threw in a couple of other things I couldn't refuse to come back so here I go. I am excited about it and looking forward to feeling a little more relaxed at work. I will totally miss having 3 days off a week but my new hours are good and the money I'll be bringing in is better. I'm also looking forward to actually teaching again. I haven't done lesson planning etc. in over a year so I have to get back into the groove. I give my notice tomorrow at work. I am sad to be leaving the people I work with. I LOVE Katelyn's teachers and care givers. They are AWESOME. I wish I could bring them with me I really liked the girls I worked with just not the place itself. We'll see how this works out now. I am a little worried about Katelyn's transition to a new room and new teachers but I'm sure she'll be fine after a couple of weeks.(hopefully!)

Our new heating system won't be put in for a few more weeks. We didn't realize that is how long it would take once all the paperwork was done and put in. I hope it doesn't turn real cold before we get our heat back! Our bathroom is STILL not finished.  Mike is trying to find different people to help him out with the bathroom. He's doing what he can/knows how to do right now. Hopefully it will be finished before it gets too cold. Cold showers in the winter?? brrrr!!

That's all for now. Thanks again for all your well wishes

Love, Melissa