MERRY CHRISTMAS

keegan, samantha & maggie sending joy from our family to yours

photo shoot with mom

michelle did some experimenting with the camera before we took the girls holiday picture.

keegan & samantha

samantha

keegan

maggie

after photo shoot snack attack!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you have a wonderful upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. We are looking forward to being together as a family. We sure have a lot to be thankful for!!!

Here are some current pictures of the girls.

Keegan, Samantha & Maggie. (Keegan is doing her Elvis lip).

We have three crawlers now!

Samantha making a silly face.


Keegan is taking steps.

Maggie.

Maggie getting kisses from Daddy.

Keegan.

Maggie.

Samantha & Maggie.

Samantha.

Maggie & Samantha.

The girls playing nicely together, which is pretty rare around here. They are usually fighting over the same toy!

The girls playing with Bear (who lives next door). Isn't he cute?!?

Keegan climbed into the toy container.

The girls looking for Bear.

Keegan caught with her hand in the animal crackers.

three little monkeys

our three little monkeys!

our "new" playset

A couple weeks ago, while I was at a garage sale, I found a playset a family was getting rid of for FREE to the person(s) who could haul it away. I have been wanting a swing set for the girls for awhile but our backyard is quite small so we have been trying to figure out what to do. This seemed like the perfect size and price! My dad helped Thad this past weekend replace some of the rotted out boards and get it all set up. And as you can see the girls LOVE it!!! The playhouse and slide will be so fun for them as they get older (and all their cousins and friends who come over to play). Speaking of cousins....the girls are excited for April 2009!

Things you may not know....

• Keegan is a tough little girl. She can fall down and have a red mark (usually on her head) and it barely seems to bother her.


• Whenever music is on, Maggie shoulder dances.


• Sam wrinkles her nose when she gets mad and makes an "O" shape with her mouth when she gets excited about something.


• Early on comes every week to work with Samantha and Maggie who are not crawling yet. They both prefer to scoot around on their little behinds.


• Maggie is the jumpiest child I have ever seen. Her startle reflex is strong! We even scare her sometimes when playing peek-a-boo.
  
• Maggie tries to imitate whatever we do; she will even try to whistle ~ it is really cute.


• The girls have slumber parties every night when we put them down for bed. Through the monitor we hear squealing, jabbering, giggling, kicking, and beds moving. It usually lasts about 45 minutes but has been known to go on up to 2 hours!


• The girls are extremely stranger shy. They have only lasted 30 minutes in church nursery before melting down. It is difficult to have anyone else come to babysit because I don't want to put the sitters through crying fits X3.


• Samantha has bitten her sisters to the point of bruising and leaving awful red marks. I have heard it is a multiples phenomenon. Whatever it is, it is annoying!


• Socks never stay on the girls. Some days, I wonder why I even bother putting them on.


• Today is our anniversary ~ 8 amazing years as a married couple.


• I am a better garage sale shopper than garage sale haver. We had one this past Saturday and it was rough. I got way too emotional going through clothes the girls have outgrown to price them and then dealing with the fact that we only had one pregnancy and are done having kids (sorry, if that is too much information). I had a hard time watching people buy things that once belonged to the girls. And most importantly, it is WAY too much work and we didn't make enough money to make it worth it. I have never seen so many men at a garage sale. Where were all the women with baby girls to shop for???


• I struggle with anxiety. Lately, I have been worrying about where to send the girls to school. I know, we have at least 3 years to figure it out but it keeps me up at night with worry. Most of the workers involved with Maggie and Samantha believe that they will outgrow the "gross motor delays" but it still makes me worry that if they do need assistance at school, I want the school to have all the programs needed to help them. Believe me, I wish I didn't worry and I also wish I didn't have to take Ambien every night to sleep.


• Moby is almost 8 years old even though people still ask us how old our puppy is. I guess he inherited some good genes.


• Thad and I are headed to a Tigers game on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary. The girls are going to stay at my parents' house while we are at the game (oh, and of course, we have to make a stop at IKEA!).

Foul Mouth

Over the Labor Day Holiday, my family rented a house on the Clam River in Falmouth (or as my brother called it "Foul Mouth" and then took it as an excuse to have a potty mouth the whole time!). We had a great time at the house, at the beach in Lake City, sitting around a fire at what has to be the biggest fire pit I have ever seen, and just being together as a family. The kayaking was some of the best I have ever experienced. The girls were in their glory spending time with their cousins Chloe, Bryce, Joseph & Julia. Just watching their cousins run around provided hours of entertainment!!!