Father's Day Pics

Here are some pics of Jay and his girls from Father's Day. Jay received a case for our laptop, photo paper and Adobe Elements Photoshop! We went out to lunch at Lucia's and then I cooked a big delicious dinner of shrimp cocktail, wild sockeye salmon marinated in a red wine dijon sauce, spinach, sweet potato fries and fruit (some of Jay's favorites). My parents came over for dinner and gave Jay a nice tie for work. MK colored a card for Daddy and even Bentley gave Jay a card. Talk about a good day!

Two Month Check-up

Noodle had her two month appt. yesterday-she'll be 10 weeks old this Friday! She weighed in at 11 lbs. 11 oz. (75th percentile) and was 23 inches long (75% percentile). She is very healthy and alert and did great. Our appt. was at 3 and we ended up being there for 2 hours, partially b/c we are taking part in a vaccine study for Novartis that will go all the way to her 18 month checkup. So now on top of regular baby duties I am monitoring any reactions and taking her temp under her arm everyday and recording it in her "journal" given to us.

Annalee slept great after her shots last night-it was her biggest stretch yet-11:30 pm till 8:30 am!!! I actually woke her up because I needed to nurse her! She continues to be the easiest baby alive and MK LOVES her!

Swim Lessons 2009!

The last two weeks we have been busy with Mary Katherine's swim lessons with Marcy. I have video of the FIRST and LAST days-notice the huge change in attitude! MK has also been going down the slide in our neighborhood pool by herself....for those who don't know, our slide is like one at a water park, it is big! Go MK! You can view a pic of our slide if you go to the McDuffie's blog-link is on the left. (Excuse the shakiness of the camera and talking, I was talking to someone else who was watching too). MK's favorite part of swim lessons was getting smarties or a dum dum sucker from Marcy afterwards. We really have to watch her now in the pool, she'll just jump off the steps. Sometimes she gives us warning and counts "one, two, free..."

FIRST DAY OF LESSONS


LAST DAY OF LESSONS

Crawfish Boil and the Zoo!

The train with daddy. She kept saying "ride!"

The carousel-I had to ride with her and we had to ride a "bear!"

Hi Daddy!

These orange things were cute

Willie B

The giant bird nest. It was supposed to be a true-to-size replica.

MK's favorite-giraffes!

Oooh!

Look I'm a meerkat

This weekend was one of the best weekends we have had as a family all summer! After an exhausting week of swim lessons for Mary Katherine (and continuing tomorrow), I had a tennis match at 9 am Saturday. It was a great break but for some reason Friday night, Annalee went down at midnight and was up at 3,5 and 7!!!! So, I could hardly keep my eyes open on the tennis court but we pulled it out and won in two sets! Afterwards, I ran home and cleaned and fed Annalee and got to take a nap! Both girls and I slept for two hours and then all of us were off to our Sunday school class's annual crawfish boil at the Froula's house. It was a blast-the girls did great and Mary Katherine loved playing with all the other kids and eating of course-she grazed on chick-fil-a, fruit, appetizers and M & M's while daddy and all the men stood over the pile of crawfish, shrimp, corn and potatoes. Jay brought a live crawfish over for MK to see and she thought it was neat where mommy was scared of it! Sunday morning was usual church/Sunday school (well actually we didn't go to service this morning) and a small reception to say bye to one of our favorite ministers, Craig Yoshihara, who is leaving to be the head of a church in California. Then I had a suprise for Jay and the girls-we went to the Zoo! Neither of us had been since the 80's so it was a treat. We are proud to say that Annalee slept the entire 3 1/2 hours there (didn't have to eat till we got in the car) and Mary Katherine walked the entire zoo with NO meltdowns WITHOUT a nap! We put her in the stroller for the ride to the car and she did pass out then. Her favorite things were the giraffes, the carousel, the train and all the birds. She also tried to climb in all the habitats! We will definitely go back sometime!

Nashville/Caleb's Birthday

We traveled to Nashville last Friday for Cousin Caleb's 3rd birthday party and also to visit with Jay's relatives who haven't seen Annalee yet. Friday night we went to his aunt and uncle's house (Gerald and Genette) and had a wonderful dinner of salmon with tomato relish, roasted potatoes, tomato and buffalo mozzerella, fresh spinach, bread, shrimp and a delicious pie with fresh berries! We took both girls and they had a blast running around and playing with their cousin Hill, who is now walking, It was great to also visit with Katherine, Travis and Jay's Nannie. Thanks to Genette for the amazing dinner and for the great hospitality. On Saturday Jay went golfing with Travis while I watched the kids and helped Jay's mom clean and get ready for Caleb's party, which was at Mimi and Pop's house in the late afternoon. Caleb loves "spideyman" so that was the theme of his party-from the cake to the masks for everyone! I had made all the little girls in the family matching pink and green polka dot dresses back in March-Mary Katherine, Annalee, Madison and Abby. They wore them at the party but we failed to get a group picture due to all the chaos. I have one of Abby and Madison, but MK is already in her nightgown! The older kids had a great time with water guns and soaking Pop and even Nannie (who is 84 years old!). Sunday morning MK and Caleb played in the kiddie pool and on the slide while we packed and loaded the car, which took forever! Everyone knows how there is so much stuff these days with kids! Thank you to Mimi for having us and for having everything perfect for the girls to stay comfortably.

Anna's Birthday Party

Today all four of us went to our little friend Anna Bardeen's 1st birthday party. The girls sported matching dresses and we actually got some decent pictures. Mary Katherine had a blast and actually ate/liked cake for the first time. She kept saying "cake, mmm...." over and over. Many of you know how she has had various meltdowns at several parties where she has been offered cake and she didn't particularly like it at her own party! I was thinking it would be great if she didn't like it, but darn she does now! :)

One Month????

What? Annalee is already a month old-yes, she'll be four weeks in about an hour! I sound like every other mother, but really, where does time go? Last night Annalee celebrated by sleeping SIX straight hours-from 12 am-6 am. And then she went back to sleep after eating till 9!!! Yeah! That was also the most I have slept in a month. Here are some pictures, you have to love the ones where she is crying (she has tummy issues) and MK is trying desperately to comfort her. Annalee has been an absolute delight and we love her so much. I could go on and on about how "perfect" she is, but I am her mom so I am not going to bore everyone! Jay has given her a nickname-"Noodle" and we also call her "Mighty Mouse" because she looks like him! Actually she looks a little like my brother John did when he was a baby. Dark hair and darker skin than the rest of us. Maybe I think that because I would like to remember John-I hope she continues to resemble him.