Birthday Boy

Happy birthday Kody! Our little boy is growing up way too fast. He is 4 years old today!Kody has really grown up a lot in the past few weeks, and he is such a good helper with his sisters. We had a Pirate party for him on Monday afternoon, with a rockin' treasure hunt and costumes. We got him his first bike, and he is loving it! I'll try to post pictures and maybe even a video a little later. Right now, the baby is crying and Kody is bugging me to look up "Panda Master" on the internet. Aah, the joys of motherhood!

My Baby

My friend Leslie wanted to practice her newborn photography, so we had a little photo shoot for Madi. It was so much fun to hang out and pose the baby, thanks Leslie! Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Home Sweet Home

Well, our ceiling is now fixed and life is almost back to order. We have moved back home, but for now it's just me and little Madi. But where did everyone go? The 2 older cubbies have gone to visit Auntie B for some much needed R & R after the chaos we've had the past couple of weeks. Here's the short version of the past few days: We took my Mom to the airport Wednesday morning (we miss you already Mom) and on the way home Mollie kept saying that we forgot Grandma. That afternoon we took baby to the Dr. to get her belly button cauterized (I guess it wasn't closing on its own), and that evening we stopped at our apartment to pack the kids for their big trip.

Thursday morning we got up, scrambled to get everything packed up and ready to vacate the temporary apartment and set off for our big trip to Pittsburgh where we met up with Auntie B for the big hand-off.The kids are now having the time of their lives and getting spoiled like crazy, did you expect anything less?! Click here to see pictures of their adventures.

Friday morning we were able to sleep in a little before heading back out on the road to take Brett and his classmates to the airport for a conference this weekend. Now it's just me and the little one, and I have to say it's a little too quiet around here. I've just been doing laundry and catching up on my sleep (I didn't get up till 10 this morning!). It's been nice to spend some one on one time with my baby, I might even take some cute pictures of her tomorrow.

Pardon Our Dust

It all started last week. I was up feeding Madi in the middle of the night (I know, don't you wish you were me!) when I heard a little critter of some sort scratching away in our ceiling. Of course, I called housing and they sent over a pest control guy who basically told me to give it a few days and the mouse (or whatever it was) would find its way back outside and we'd never see it. Gee, thanks for the help. Fortunately (I think) for us, the pest guy did notice a crack in our bedroom ceiling. Later that afternoon 2 guys showed up from housing and said the pest guy had called and told them about the crack. I was in the middle of my nap so I have to admit I was a little annoyed that he'd made such a big deal of it. I mean, I had noticed the same crack like 6 months ago and chalked it up to a bad paint job - this is student housing after all! Anyway, these guys took a look and could actually lift the whole ceiling up (that's not supposed to happen). They immediately called to get someone in to put up supports until the contractor could come and fix it. They also told me that we had to vacate our bedroom right away and not even sleep in it. With my mom visiting, there really was no room at the inn so we ended up sleeping on our mattress in the living room all weekend, and Madi slept on the couch. First thing Monday morning the contractor came and got to work. At first they said that it was just a couple of loose nails and maybe one bad spot that they would re-do. As it turns out, when they opened up the ceiling to take out the bad part, the whole thing basically came tumbling down, insulation and all! So, we were moved to a temporary apartment while they finish the ceiling. Whew, I don't know how much more excitement we can take!!

** PS, if you need to reach us for some reason you have to do it via email because we are just otherwise unreachable!