"You Belong With Me" (and apparently Maddie belongs on stage)

This video will never get old for us to watch. This is by far the "song of the year" in our household. Maddie loves the whole Taylor Swift CD, but really loves this song in particular. She knows all the words and loves to dance to it. The CD came with a DVD of videos and she loves watching this song's video too.  One night, Chris caught her on video in rare form. 

Now, I must also explain why it's even funnier to us because of what she's wearing. She is wearing Disney princess PJ's that shrunk when they were washed and, as you can see, are a little snug fitting. The PJ's were bought by Grandma Mary the day that Emersyn was born. Maddie stayed with Grandma while we were in the hospital and they went shopping. Grandma thought she was buying her play clothes, not realizing they were PJ's. So the next day when they came to visit us, Maddie wore her new "outfit." She walked in the room and Chris and I knew right away that she was wearing PJ's. Chris called his mom out saying, "those are PJ's Mom" and we all had a good laugh about it and continue to laugh every time she wears them.

So now onto the videos! I had to separate them into three different videos because of the length.  I'm not sure where Maddie learned some of these moves.  I mean, I know I could shake it back in the day, but I certainly don't dance like this around the house now!  I've had to start telling her to not shake her booty so much, that it's inappropriate since she's a little girl.  And she's wearing the glasses because Taylor wears dorky glasses in the video.  Hopefully someday she'll be a member of glee club (show choir) like Mommy!  But for now, we'll just have dance parties in our PJ's :)

3 Months Old!

Emersyn turned three months old today and so the 4th trimester (as they say) is over!  It's been a roller coaster these past 3 months with highs and lows.  Emersyn was an easy breezy baby the first month (as was Maddie) and then she had some feeding issues (reflux, cow's milk intolerance, etc.) which made her more fussy (as was Maddie).  We seem to be over the hump now and feedings are going much better.  She is still a bit unpredictable at night, sometimes only waking up once, and often waking up 2-3 times.  But her little personality is coming out and the smiles make it all worth it and help me deal with being sleep deprived.  She has really started to take everything in, especially her goofy big sister.  Maddie is finding new ways to make her smile each day and she is so sweet to her.  Emmie continues to grow, but hopefully her rapid weight gain is slowing down a bit.  She has gained about 8 lbs. since she was born.  Here are some pictures from the last week or two and you can see how deliciously chubby she is!

Sitting pretty in the bumbo!

Sporting their UD shirts, courtesy of my coworker Abbey (a fellow alum)

Wearing a beautiful gown with her name embroidered  (a gift from my dad's college buddy Dabber and his wife Marcia)

At the butterfly pavillion at the Smithsonian in DC.  It was so cool!  See the one on my head?

Soccer!

We enrolled Maddie in soccer for the Fall and she had her first practice/"game".  It is called Mini Soccer and she's on a U5 team, meaning under 5.  It was very cute and funny to see the kids run around with no clue, run toward the wrong goal, kick the ball sideways, or even refuse to play (not Maddie, another little girl).  The funniest was a little boy who scored a goal and then pointed at another boy and yelled, "in your face!"  His parents were mortified!  Hopefully by the end of the season they'll at least be able to move the ball in the right direction.  She looked pretty cute though in her soccer gear and she had fun.  We'll see if she takes after her Daddy and Aunt Samie and keeps it up, or takes after me and quits after getting hit in the head with the ball and decides gymanstics sounds better.  Time will tell! 

Lake Vacation

We were so lucky in August to be able to spend a week at Deep Creek Lake.  My coworker generously let us use her house since it wasn't rented and it was a wonderful change of scenery.  It wasn't the year to spend a lot of money on a vacation with a new baby, so it was very nice to have the opportunity to get away and spend time together.  We kayaked, hiked, went on the mountain coaster at Wisp, sat around the firepit at night and relaxed in the hot tub.  It was just the four of us for the first four days and then my parents and Geordie and Mary joined us for the weekend.  We were there for our 9th anniversary and my mom's birthday, so we celebrated both.  We had a lot of down time, so I took lots of pictures of the girls together.  One morning, the fog on the lake was so cool and Chris got some good pictures.  I again slacked on getting pictures of everyone.  Ahhh next time.  Here are some of the pictures we did take.