I am a slacker...

Time flies these days. I can hardly believe that our Madelene Kate is already a day past her 8 week birthday. I have thought numerous times throughout most days that I needed to post something. And sadly now I don't know what I was going to post or when.

With James, I was so good about recording every detail of his first year on a calendar. I haven't noted anything about his sister anywhere - except her birth story and that she smiled before she was four weeks old. Poor girl!

If anyone is still reading this blog, I know you're not really interested in reading anything from me - what you want are pictures. Sad to say, I don't have any available at the moment. What's worse is that I haven't taken many of Madelene Kate at all... mostly what pictures I have taken are of James in the three snows we've enjoyed so far this winter. Oh - and some at Christmas - although not many.

So I will get busy (one of these days) and post some pictures. And I'll try to do a better job of posting milestones from our children's lives... for their sakes and yours!

Such A Kind Friend

I have a friend who really knows how to serve a mommy with a newborn second child.

When Madelene Kate was just 2 weeks old, we had a warm day in between wet and cold ones. Gretchen called to ask if she could come over to our neighborhood and take James to the tot lot with her 3 year old and 1 year old. She kept James outside for more than an hour, playing hard and getting him good and tired for his nap.

Today, we had a Mommy's Group scheduled. I wanted to go, but really need to run some errands and get some Christmas stuff done. Gretchen e-mailed and then called to see if it would serve me for her to pick up James on her way by.

James was quite excited to go with her. He kept asking, "Where's Gretchen?" while waiting rather impatiently. And then when she arrived, he ran out to her car very happily.

Gretchen, THANK YOU for serving me so generously! I am off to Costco with just one instead of two. What an enormous blessing.

Happy Girl

Madelene Kate smiled today.

True - she's not even four weeks old.

But there was no mistaking it - she grinned up at me while I was holding her. And when I smiled back, hers widened. Then while James held her a bit later, she broke into a bright happy grin. This evening, she smiled at me again, and this time, Ben was there to see.

Our girlie has been so pleasant since her birth, with a sweet countenance that certainly looked like smiles even from her first day. Here she is with each of her Grammys...

with Ben's mom, six days old

with my mom, twelve days old

Pictures from Madelene Kate's first day

The very first picture we were able to take of our precious girlie - before a bath. (Mommy thinks she's beautiful!)

Although my mom was the first person to hold her, the camera hadn't come in yet, and I'm so disappointed that we didn't get to record it.

My good-looking husband: the proud daddy of a daughter!

My dad - Madelene Kate's Papa

A very happy mommy with her darling girlie

Bea & Uncle Kurt drove all the way down to meet our their newest niece and then drove home again. What a kind gift to us!

This is "Emmy" (our friend Kim) who works in the HR Dept at the hospital. She got to come up at the end of the day to meet Madelene Kate.

Ben's mom - happy Grammy!

Yay for evening visitors! Aunt Katie, Oma (Katie's mother-in-law), Grammy and Aunt Elizabeth (a close friend of our family) all came at the same time. Opa came, too, but didn't get in on the picture. Thank you all for coming to rejoice with us!

First Day of Preschool

Our little preschool group at the start of a new year - Sept 1, 2009:

Dorothy, Madison, Dalton, James, Faith and Anna

Ruth's Chris Birthday Dinner

On September 20, we got to take my parents, Kurt & Barbara and Greg & Sharon out for a special dinner to celebrate Greg & Dad's birthdays. We were sad that my brother Chris & his wife, Leslie, live so far away! (We missed you!)

Preggo sisters!

The guys hamming it up outside the restaurant.

James' Skillz

In August, as I prepared for preschool, James helped me make playdough. He thoroughly surprised me, though, when he picked up this airplane and helicopter, placed them on the playdough, and announced quite confidently, "Match!"

Then he further surprised me with his engineering skills. We had put away the trains for awhile, and when we finally pulled them back out, James proceeded to create the following layout by himself. At one point, he asked me to help him, so I added three pieces in one place and three in another to finish it out. I was quite impressed with his work!