Ten on Tuesday

1. Michael broke his leg last night.
2. In three places. His Fibula twice and Tibia once.
3. He'll be having surgery this week and after, he'll be the proud owner of a rod (inserted in his legs) and screws (attched to the bone with) to go along with the screw already in his foot.
4. Yes, he was playing baseball. And no, I don't think this means the end of him playing.
5. These two took their first bath together last night. They couldn't have possibly had any more fun if they'd tried.




(Seriously, Mackenzie does not even look like herself in that picture. Kinda strange.)

6. Mackenzie can pull herself up now. That's what she was trying to do in the first bath picture. Really, though, it only works if she grabs your hands and then she can push herself upward. Because of this, I lowered her crib tonight. All night last night I had fears of her pulling herself up and toppling over the side. Nevermind the fact that she can't get into a sitting position on her own therefore this likely wouldn't happen. I still worried.

7. Went to the pool yesterday. Took lunch. Had a really good time. Mackenzie sat in the shallow end and played with toys for quite awhile. Only fell over once. :) Poor Michael, he won't be going to the pool for a while.

8. This one is getting freckles like her Mommy. I noticed them on the 3rd. They're very faint but they're there. I've always asked my mom when I got mine and she couldn't remember. I'd like to say I'll remember when (if) Emma asks me but there's a good chance I won't.



9. Rebekah will be here Friday. It'll be a little crazy with everything that's going on but I'm so looking forward to it. We're going to Cedar Point although I'm not sure which day now.

10. About the whole broken leg thing. I realized today that means I have to cut the grass. All summer. Awesome.

PS, just noticed my pictures in the previous post (#11) weren't showing up. So I fixed it. And now you can see her fantastic, stick-straigh-up hair.

#11

Her hair. It stands straight up. And there are these really long pieces that I won't cut.

I can't walk past her without rubbing her head. It's impossible. Really.

10 on Tuesday Wednesday

1. Today, Mackenzie is 8 months old. (Okay, so it was yesterday, but when I wrote this it was today, meaning Tuesday.)


2.I think her favorite activity is standing. She can be tired, grumpy, distracted but you stand her up and she's all smiles. But she wants to hold on to both hands. I discovered this last night. I had her standing and if I pulled away one hand she'd reach over for it every time.



3. She got her first tooth!! Bottom middle left. It broke through on Friday. Thanks to Abby who discovered it. Yes, that means Mackenzie was trying to eat her fingers. :) (You can't see it in photos yet. But she's still pretty cute in this one.)

4. She thinks she can crawl. She'll be sitting up and just lunge forward for something not realizing she's going to fall flat on her face. She's close though. She gets up on all four and rocks.
 

5. She's discovered the remote. Loves the remote. Eating it, to be exact. I mentioned her lunging for things? The remote is the number one thing she'll go for.

6. She's really good at scooting backwards. Here she is stuck under the rocking chair. And two days ago she got completely under the jumperoo.
 

7.She's starting to get loud. Talking and laughing and screeching.

8. And bouncy. Such a wiggle worm. See her shirt in the first picture? :)


9. Because of the tooth and a little bit of croup, she hasn't been feeling the best. She's been a bit fussy and not sleeping well.

10. But other than that, she's still a happy, happy baby.
 

You've got to watch this.

It is seriously amazing. I cried, it was so good and made me feel happy. I can't imagine the work it took to put this on. What a surprise! Obviously, they've got a musical/theater background. :) Pretty sure no one in my wedding party could've pulled this off, lol! (No offense Mary, Ashlie, Dana and Tara!)

Musical Wedding Toast

Ten on Tuesday

1. Grandma Sweeney with Mackenzie at Michael's game tonight. She's so cute.



2. Daddy and Mackenzie snoozing yesterday.


3. Emma posing for me. That's right, I said posing. She wanted me to take her picture last night!


4. This one is all about standing lately. I need to get a picture where you can see her face - all smiles with talking and laughing thrown in. She can be tired or unhappy but stand her up and her mood will instantly improve. It's so funny. She also thinks she can crawl. She can get up on all fours now and rock. She lunges for things not realizing she'll fall flat on her face. I think she forgets she's not even 8 months old.

5. On my birthday Saturday. (Emma's actually wearing a skirt. Not that you can tell the way she's sitting.)


6. How funny is this???


7. I can't stop eating Carmellos. Although I guess if I'd stop buying them I'd stop eating them.

8. Also enjoying Bob Evans mac and cheese. If you haven't tried it yet, get some. Soooo good.

9. I wanted to watch Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show tonight but we weren't home. People falling and getting hurt on tv is always funny. I know that's not real nice, but it's true. Take America's Funniest Home Videos. Tell me you don't laugh when the guy gets hit with the pinata bat or falls in the water getting off a boat of crashes their bike. It's funny!

10. I know I mentioned VBS before but I just have to say how well-organized it was. There were 800 kids, 175 adult volunteers and 150 teen helpers. It went so smoothly. We're still listening to the VBS CD, and I have a feeling it's a permanent part of our collection now. Emma loves (in her words) "Go Go Joshua", "I Will Fight", "God Is Good" and "Jump Jump Jump". I'm not sure that any of these are the actual song titles. She's so cute when she's trying to do the hand motions and actions that match the songs, she's always a step or two behind me.

TGIF

So glad this week is over. It's been busy. It was VBS at church and I taught the Kindergartners. Everyday except Wednesday, that is. Why? Because this kid:

 
(picture taken Sunday 6/15)

has ringworm. Sounds gross, right? I discovered it on her leg Tuesday after lunch and we saw the pediatrician that afternoon. I stayed home with her Wednesday and then we had sitters yesterday and today. Thankfully, it doesn't bother her. It's not anything serious. Just initially very contagious. With a gross-sounding name. (Did ya know Lotrimin, as in the cure for athlete's foot, cures ringworm?) She's now the proud wearer of a Dora or My Little Pony band aid, though, for the next 4 weeks.

Back to VBS, it was awesome. This was my first time teaching and I loved it. Loved seeing the kids sing and laugh and learn about Jesus. They were so smart and knew so much already. This might sound a bit cheesy, but it just made my heart happy. When we'd be singing and I'd hear them sing about loving Jesus and see their eyes all lit up and doing the hand motions to the songs with grins on their faces I just felt joy. Pure joy as I sang along and acted out the songs with them. I was sad Emma only got to attend two days at mini-VBS, due to the whole ringworm thing, but we'll be back next year. I already decided I'm doing teaching again.

Michael's summer finally begins this coming week now that basketball and baseball camps are over. We can now hit the pool for some swimming and use our new zoo membership we got as a Christmas gift from my sister.

Our friends/neighbors just had baby #2 - welcome Jack! Marie - Charlie now has some competition when it comes to Mackenzie! :)

It's my birthday tomorrow. 32. For the first time we're not doing the whole party/cake/both-our-families-over thing. My choice. I'm not sure why, but for some reason it's just not a big deal this year. Maybe it's because it feels like it's just here all of a sudden. We were in Virginia, then VBS this week which flew by and all of a sudden it's my birthday. We've got a graduation party tomorrow for one of our babysitters, Maggie. We're going to go look for carpet for out basement. (So very excited about that!!!!) And that's about it. And I'm good with it. We'll see my family Thursday when we celebrate my niece's birthday and I'm sure we'll see Michael's soon, too. Maybe we'll just have mini-celebrations. :)

Have a good weekend!

Two words

Teething Sucks.

I say that as Mackenzie sits on my lap, at 10:30 pm, chewing her hand, nose running, and obviously not sleeping.

Father's Day and a Messy Desk

This might come as a shock to those who know me, but I did not take a picture of Michael with the girls on Father's Day. I still can't believe. How I missed it, I have no idea. But, I do have a really cute picture of the three of them from the 7th, just before we left for Virginia. I love how Mackenzie's eyes are closed because she's laughing. And Emma's hat sitting crooked because she's got a pigtail on top of her head. We did have a nice day though. I made waffles for breakfast, we took his dad out to lunch. Michael had a baseball game and then we went out for pizza afterwards. Speaking of the pizza - sooo good. It was at a place new to me that Michael had only been to once before. Lots of sauce and instead of Mozzarella cheese, it's topped with romano cheese. Yummy.
 

My goal today is to expand my scrapping space from 9x10 (yes, I measured it)to something a little bigger.
 
What a mess! I've got boxes on the floor, piles of paper everywhere. Embellishments that need to be put away, piles of half-finished layouts (unforuntately, while I made progress recently, I'm behind again)! Fingers crossed and I can get this done during naptime today.

Ten on Tuesday - Virginia edition

1. It was hot. Really hot. 100 degrees every day (and I'm rounding. 99 might as well be 100). So we went shopping. Twice. On Monday and Friday. In Durham NC, 1 1/2 hours away. Although it took us closer to two hours b/c we had some difficulties following directions. Both times. The mall was awesome. It's a huge 2-story indoor mall, plus a really nice outdoor mall. Emma loved the fountains. Especially throwing the pennies in. I thought for sure she'd try to jump in but she didn't.


2. We did brave the heat twice. Once on Thursday to see Alpacas. Isn't this one so stinkin' cute!



3. And once to go to the pool. We went swimming in 100 degree heat. Although while in the water it wasn't actually too bad. Once you got out though it was horribly hot. I didn't take any pictures while we were actually in the pool, but here's Emma making a funny face while eating grapes. I realize it probably isn't that funny to you but it makes me chuckle. And also Mackenzie after she woke up from her nap. Being held in the pool wore her out. That, and the fact we were there at nap time.




4. Emma got her first Build-a-Bear, courtesy of my sister, during our first trip to the mall. While she really likes her bear, Patches, she wasn't in to the whole process. She was actually frightened by the stuffing machine.


5. We went to see my Grandma. She had no clue who I was.I saw her in the hall the day before we took the girls to see her and she just said "Who is that pretty young girl." When we told her I was her granddaughter Erin she just told me she loved me. Even though she didn't know us, I'm glad we got to see her.



6. The family reunion was Sunday, the day after we arrived. It was fun to see all our family, many we haven't seen in years. My cousin Kelly, who I was really close to in high school, was there with her two kids. And she'd brought a slip-n-slide. I didn't take Emma's bathing suit, but Kelly gave me a swim diaper so Emma didn't have to miss out on the water fun. She played in the swim diaper and tank top. Didn't bother her a bit to not be in her bathing suit. While she didn't actually slip nor slide, she did splash around in the pool at the end of the slide and drink the water shooting up on the side.



7. I love this picture of Mackenzie. She was sitting in my mom's lap. It's like she just peeked over her shoulder at me to see what I was doing. Just to make sure I was there.


8. Emma threw up in the car on the way home. All I can say is I hope that never happens again. Oh, and thank goodness we happened to be close to a Walmart. Because if it'd happened much sooner or later we'd been stuck in a car full of vomit. Ugh.

9. On our Monday jaunt to the mall we stopped at Duke. Well, we didn't actually stop. We just drove through part of the campus.

10. I've got a slide show of more pictures over on the left if you'd like to see them.

...and we're back!

We got back home Saturday evening. So good to be home. To sleep in my own bed. To not be sleeping in the same room as the girls because I don't do so well with that. I'm working on a recap with lots of photos but until then, here are two of my favorites from this past week.

 
 

And we're off!

Heading out to Virginia tomorrow morning. Well, technically this morning, since it's after midnight. I've got all the toys/food/necessities packed. The girls clothes are in their suitcase, just need to go over it again in the morning. Working on mine. I'm going to get up early so I'm ready when my mom and sister get here. I'm determined to be ready and not be late!

So, let me tell ya about our evening. We attending a graduation party tonight during which Emma fell in the pool. I actually remained remarkably calm -which I still can't believe. (I contribute this to the fact that I knew Michael was right there and that she'd be okay.) We knew it was going to happen inevitably as she was fascinated by the pool. All night long, either one of us, one of the high school kids or one of the parents there was saying, "Emma, move back. Don't get so close. Be careful." Someone was by her at all times because of this, so when she fell in (she was crouched down and bent over to look at something) Michael was right there. There was a collective gasp as he dove (literally) on to the ground and reached over and grabbed her. She went under but only for a few seconds. She cried for a few minutes while we stripped her to her diaper and dried her off. Then she said, and I quote, "Mommy, can I go play game?" referring to the volleyball net. Obviously, not too scarred. The rest of the evening she kept saying "I fell in the water. Daddy rescued me. It was scary." She rode home in her diaper (a dry one!) and shoes. Oh our crazy kid. She has no fear whatsoever.

ETA: So I way trying to fall asleep last night but I kept thinking about this. How much worse it could have been. How thankful I am someone was always by her. How you just can't take your eyes off your children for a second. That I'm glad we know Emma so well. We knew she'd end up in that pool. It's just her. She'd find a way in, even if it was an accident. We'd actually been talking earlier in the evening about a 3-yr old who drowned recently not to far from us. Pools can be so dangerous. I know this. I'm almost paranoid about it. And that's why we watched her like a hawk last night. We shook our heads and laughed about it later, but at the time it was scary. We're very blessed, that's for sure.

I leave you with a couple pictures of Mackenzie I took tonight before we walked to get ice cream. (We needed some after the whole graduation party/pool incident!)I realize they're very similar but just so darn cute that I couldn't pick just one.

 
 

Have a great week and I'll be back posting in a week or so.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Michael's parents, brothers and their families came over Friday night and we were able to get a family picture. Only one missing is Malachi, hopefully Marty and Abby will be able to go to Uganda and bring him home soon.
 

2. Emma is now eating cereal with milk. Happened by accident last week. She usually will only eat dry cereal but when I wasn't looking she dumped her milk in her bowl. I convinced her to take a bite and the rest is history.
 

3. Michael got Emma's 6-12 month clothes down from the attic and I'm now washing them for Mackenzie. Two things happen when I do this: 1. I can't believe Mackenzie is so big she needs these and 2. Every outfit brings back a memory of Emma at that age. With every single one I can remember something she was doing, how she looked, where we went. Makes me a bit weepy inside, I'll admit.

4. Planted flowers yesterday. I'm not a gardener. Don't particularly like it. But I did it. Unfortunately still have more to do. Not today, since it's raining but maybe tomorrow. Or maybe instead I'll meet my mom at the mall and go to Michael's baseball game...

5. Went to CKC Buffalo saturday with Marie and Felicia. Sooo much fun. Saw Wendy, met some Simple people - Marnie Flores, Megan Hoeppner and Cathy Zielskie, did some shopping. Found some fun stuff and actually didn't spend too much. Could have been worse if they'd had the new October Afternoon of KI. We had dinner with Megan and Cathy. We were in the car for a long time - almost 7 hours - but it went fast thanks to the fun music on Felicia's ipod. She needs some Bon Jovi though.

6. We leave in 4 days for Virginia. Girls trip with with my mom, sister and her oldest. Have not yet started to pack.

7. This is michael's last week of school. Summer is almost officially here.

8. Played hopscotch with emma last week. Well, a version of it. I drew it and she just hopped around. While counting. Out of order most of the time. We didn't tackle the rock throwing part.

9. Met my friend Janet for dinner last night. She used to be my supervisor when I worked. So very glad we're still friends and have kept in touch. I love talking with her. It's always fun. We get each other and I appreciate that.

10. Mackenzie is 7 months old as of Sunday. But that's going to get it's own post tomorrow. In the meantime, here she is today enjoying her tiger basketball toy she got for Christmas. She particularly enjoyed trying to eat the bird that isn't even seen in the photo. But it's there.
 


Happy Tuesday!

(I read over this and realized it reads kind of weird. Short and choppy sentences. But I've got an assignment to do so I'm leaving it. Sorry!)