Family Pictures on Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day, we did what any pregnant mom would logically choose to do...go to a winery! Ok, so it doesn't make the most sense, but it was my choice. We are so lucky to have beautiful, scenic wineries in Loudoun County and we realized last year how nice it is to have a picnic, be outside, relax, and enjoy wine (if possible). This year we went to one we've never been to before and it did not disappoint. We took some family pictures since it was a great setting and we were really bad about taking pictures when I was pregnant with Madeline. I vowed we would do better this time. Here are some of our favorites.

We met Chris's family there to celebrate Mother's Day and put Samie to work as photographer for the three of us. Thanks Sam!

Next time we take family pictures, we will be a family of four!!!!!!

Belly Picture

My very sweet neighbors were kind enough to throw me a baby shower this past Sunday. Even though it's our second child and another girl, they insisted. We decided to take some pictures after the shower of my big belly. I am bigger this pregnancy than with Maddie and can't believe I'm only 28 weeks in these pictures. My latest ultrasound estimated the baby to be in the 73rd percentile for 28 1/2 weeks, so she's growing fast. We'll see when she makes her arrival and whether or not she'll start off a peanut like her big sister.

One of the cutest gifts I got at the shower was a "Sisters" basket with a Big Sis shirt for Maddie and a Lil Sis onesie for the baby along with matching big sis/lil sis bows and a big sis/lil sis picture frame.

Our guitar hero

We are borrowing Kim's Wii for a little while and Maddie has enjoyed playing with the guitar for Guitar Hero. One morning, she dressed up in a wild outfit (think bumble bee meets Madonna) and was rockin' out. Then one night Chris played the game and she had fun just sitting beside him pretending to play. Too funny!

It's a......

GIRL! Yes, another girl for us. Madeline is going to have a little sister. I am excited for her and of course for us. I'm hoping that with 4 years between them, they will be buddies. Maddie has been saying, "Mommy, when the baby gets bigger, she's going to be my friend." I think she will be a good teacher, although maybe a little bossy at times. But most importantly, everything looked good at the ultrasound! Here are a couple pictures. They didn't give us many, but here is a profile picture and the girl picture.

The Future Big Sister

Mommy's sweetheart on Valentine's Day (19 weeks pregnant)

We told Maddie the news that she is going to be a big sister on Christmas Eve! We told her she could open two presents on Christmas Eve from us and one was a Dora nightgown (we always do new PJ's on Christmas Eve) and a Big Sister shirt. When asked about her gift later that evening (in reference to becoming a big sister), she only seemed to remember the Dora nightgown. Initially it didn't really sink in, but in the past few weeks Madeline has been asking more questions about the baby and planning lots of things for when the baby arrives. At first she was insistent that it's a girl. Then she changed her mind and said it's a boy and we will name him Cosmo. Now she flip flops every day. One day she said, "Mommy, I know what we can name the baby...Lisa." I told her that was a nice name, but we probably wouldn't name the baby Lisa and she said with the straightest face....."Well, Cosmo it is." I just know she is going to be a great big sister, whether it's a boy or girl. And we plan to find out on Feb. 23rd, so stay tuned!

Blizzard #2 and #3!

Usually in Virginia we get a blizzard every few years. This year, Mother Nature has blessed us with not one, not two, but three blizzards in one winter. I won't go on and on about it, I feel like I just did a post like this (oh right, because I did)! Basically, Saturday's storm dumped nearly 3 ft. on us and then we got hit again with another foot on Wednesday. I got the whole week off work so Maddie and I had lots of quality time together. She was really well-behaved and didn't seem to get cabin fever, amazingly. Thanks to my neighbor who is always up for a social event, we had little outings for sledding, dinner, breakfast, and wine (water for me) right across the street to keep us sane!

This is our deck after the first storm, believe it or not!

Look closely at my neighbor's yard, the snow is almost as high as the fence!

Maddie is literally chest deep in the snow. She was kind of stuck and being the great mom that I am, I had to get a picture first before getting her out. That is why she wouldn't look at the camera!

Yes, that's Maddie in her bike helmet. She tried to ride her bike the day after the first storm. She didn't get very far.

During the day of the second storm, Chris found a leak from our roof. Good times. This is the point when I decided it was enough snow and started to get a little cranky. The good news is, it was in the future baby's room so it forced us to clear it out. And since we haven't painted yet it's not a big deal.

So lucky to have a handy husband! And good at multi-tasking. He was on a conference call, moving the computer out of the room, cutting into the drywall and getting into the attic to investigate the source of the leak!

Blizzard of '09!

We had a huge snow storm that dumped about 2 feet of snow on us. It was over the weekend which was nice. Chris spent much of the weekend shoveling and even shoveled the deck because he was worried about the weight of the snow on the deck. He ended up with a big pile in the yard below and could not pass up the opportunity to have a little fun, Chris-style. It's not exactly like doing a flip on a snowboard, but it satisfied his urge to have some x-treme winter fun!

First Visit with Santa....worth the wait!

This is Maddie's 4th Christmas and we have never taken her to sit on Santa's lap. The first year it seemed crazy to wait in line with a 5 month-old, the second year Maddie definitely would have cried, last year she said she didn't want to and I respected that, thinking if we traumatized her at 2 1/2 we might never get a picture with Santa. This year, she was game. Especially when I told her she would get a candy cane at the end. We went the week of Thanksgiving and didn't wait at all and got a great picture with a great Santa!