Beach Pictures

Well as promised, here are some of the pictures that the photographer took at the beach. The wind and sun made it challenging, but there are some nice shots. Geordie and Mary look perfect in every picture!! Here are my favorites. This first one captures the mood that Maddie was in. She pretty much just wanted to run away the whole time. But we managed to keep her still for some! Mia, next time, can you just come on our family vacation and take pictures?

"I Be 2 Years Old!"

That's what Madeline says now when you ask her how old she is. Our little girl turned 2 today and I'm sitting here reflecting after a fun weekend of celebrating. I have often thought to myself lately, "I can't believe she's 2!" or "she's growing up so fast!" You know, the usual parental wonderment that our baby is no longer a baby. But it really sank in when I checked my email tonight. For 2 years and 8 months I have been receiving weekly email updates from BabyCenter.com. It is a great website that has updated me every week starting with pregnancy. It began with "You are 8 weeks pregnant", telling me "this week your baby is the size of a grain of rice, then a lentil, then a fig, etc." Then once Maddie was born, the emails swithed to "Your Baby This Week: 1 Week, 7 weeks, 20 weeks, etc." and provided helpful baby tips and developmental information. Then once she turned one, they became, "Your Toddler This Week: My 15 month-old, Week 1"...you get the point. Well tonight the email subject said, "My Preschooler This Week: Your 2 Year Old". WHAT?!! Preschooler?! Aren't they toddlers for a little longer? And we've gone from counting weeks, to years I guess. And here is what they had to say about a 2 year-old: "Two-year-olds give the biggest hugs, flash the biggest smiles, and yes, throw the loudest, most spectacular tantrums." Well aint that the truth. As reluctant as I am to acknowledge that Maddie is no longer a baby, or apparently even a toddler, and is now a preschooler, I am excited for her to grow. I am so in love with this little person who is developing her own personality, her own will, her own voice and mind. Her talking is becoming more conversational and it is so fun. I got home from work one night and she was playing and I bent down to her like I always do and before I could say anything she looked up and said, "Hi Mommy, how your day?" It melted my heart. So I'm ready for the tantrums, we've experienced some already. And as long as my 2 year-old "preschooler" continues to give us those big hugs and flash her big smile, I guess I'm okay with her no longer being a baby.

Hess Family Beach Trip

We spent an amazing week in the Outer Banks with my parents and Geordie and Mary. We decided it was the best way to celebrate my mom's upcoming 60th birthday. Sorry for giving away your age Mom, but if I look like you when I'm 60 I'll be thrilled! We had a great house on the beach and pretty much spent the whole week relaxing on the beach. We went to the aquarium one day when it rained briefly. Otherwise, we had our toes and Maddie had much more than her toes in the sand! She loved the waves and the water, but we had to hold onto her for dear life because the current was so strong from a storm off the coast. So she mostly just played for hours in the sand. Her favorite thing of all was to run down to the water and then run all the way back up to our umbrella at full speed. Here are some of my favorite pictures that we took and a video. We had a photographer come and do family pictures as a present for my mom and I'll share some of those when we get them back.

The beautiful view from our house. I've never seen the Atlantic so green!

Wild Child

Maddie discovered that she can jump onto the couch from the arm of the couch and land on her butt. So far she has escaped injury, but I don't know how long her luck will last. So we're telling her NO.....but first we had to catch it on camera! Some parents we are!

Mia and Nora's Visit

My good friend Mia and her daughter Nora made their big trip to the East Coast from Colorado and we loved seeing them! We went out to dinner one night and then to a playground with the girls. The first two pictures are from that night. Then we spent all day Friday here at our house hanging out. Darcie and Stacy from work both came and Stacy's daughter Caitlyn joined in the fun. The girls played in the pool and we had a great time. Nora mastered a jump into the pool as if it were 3 ft deep instead of 1 foot and had a bruise on her butt to show for it. We miss them more now that they're back in Colorado. I had to use Mia's pictures for this post....sorry Mia, I didn't get the copyright permission from you :) Her pictures ROCK!

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day, Dre's parents were kind enough to let us invade the lake house, yet again! It is so much fun there, we all had a great time. It was Paul, Dre, Marissa and Kaitlyn; Paul, Michelle, and Livia; and the three of us. The guys went golfing very early Saturday morning, but the rest of the time we hung out by the water. We went for a boat ride, went kayaking, swam, floated on rafts, and the girls loved playing together. Livi is walking now and so cute! Kaitlyn and Maddie sat in the swings for literally an hour. Of course, their entertainment was me singing the entire soundtrack to the Sound of Music. They belly laughed a lot and seemed to make each other laugh harder. They even held hands, it was precious! Maddie, Marissa and Kaitlyn disappeared a few times and were found jumping on the bed together! Three little monkeys jumping on the bed....none fell off thank goodness! It was a great weekend get away and we are so lucky to have such great friends. Watching the girls grow up together is going to continue to be lots of fun for sure!

Say Cheese!

Maddie is finally starting to pose for pictures now. The times she really likes to do it are when she's wearing something silly like my hat or my socks. I just had to post these.

A Great Day

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which meant I didn't have to work. Maddie slept in until 8:15 (yipee!) and when I called Chris at work to tell him, he said, "well, she doesn't have any money, that's the only present she can give you!" We spent the day together relaxing (as much as one can with an almost 2 year-old) and playing. Grandma Mary came over that evening so that Chris and I could enjoy a nice dinner out. I took my camera to the playground with us earlier in the day. Maddie is becoming quite agile on the playground, I don't need to help her much anymore. She's able to hang from a bar and pull her legs up. People say, "oh, maybe she'll be a gymnast too..." Not if I have anything to say about it :) For now, we'll just enjoy her playing on the playground!