Beach Anniversary Surprise

Marcy and Steve (Jay's parents) celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary while we were at the beach. Melissa, Andy, Jay, and I had decided to surprise them for their anniversary and take them parasailing! When we were at the beach in May they both said how they thought it looked like fun, but we knew it was something they would never go do on their own. So we scheduled a trip and the morning of Jay told them to put on their beach gear because he was taking them somewhere. I think they were a little apprehensive at first, but ended up loving it!! Marcy especially seemed thrilled and we were glad to let them have the chance to do something fun and carefree! Happy 39th anniversary!

The boat took them right in front of the beach where we were, so we were able to stay out on the beach and see them. That's them way up high!

Meeting Marshall

We were excited to meet baby Marshall at the beach. Jay got to see him when he was only 1 day old the weekend they adopted him, but the kids and I have been anxiously waiting to see this precious addition to our family. It has been a long road for Melissa and Andy and we all know that God had specifically prepared Marshall to be their son.

A few people have asked, so just to clarify, he is an African American little boy. Melissa and Andy were very open to adopting a child of any race. We know that this will have its own challenges as he grows and will present some unique situations and conversations along the way. We know that God will use him to help us see some of the prejudice that still exists not only in our society, but also in our own hearts. It has already brought up some interesting conversations with Catherine and Will. Melissa and Andy are very open and willing to talk about this aspect of their adoption and we are excited to see how God uses Marshall in all of our lives.

Here's Mommy Melissa and little Marshall at the beach. He turned one month old the week we were there!

Daddy Andy putting Marshall in the ocean for the first time. Marshall wasn't bothered by the ocean or the pool all week. He pretty much slept through the whole experience.
Big cousin Catherine with Marshall. She has been praying diligently for Melissa and Andy while they waited patiently for their baby and was excited to see God's answered prayers. When she plays with her baby dolls, she now adopts them in addition to pretending that she's pregnant.
Big cousin Will with Marshall. Will continually walked up to Marshall and sweetly said "baby Marshall" over and over again. He couldn't get enough of him. And thankfully he was much gentler with Marshall than he is with Anna!
We're glad you're part of our family Marshall and we look forward to many more beach trips together!

The Wedding

Jay's good friend Garrett got married on August 7th in Huntington. Jay was asked to be a groomsman and decided that this should be a special father-daughter date. So the two of them headed to WV on Friday, when the usual 6-7 hour car ride turned into a 9 hour car ride because Catherine kept wanting to stop and go potty. Jay also got to hear lots of stories about all of Catherine's babies. Catherine spent some time with Mimi on Friday evening while Jay went to the rehearsal and dinner.

Catherine was so excited to go to the wedding on Saturday. She has been talking about and planning for this wedding for months. She has been in a few weddings as a baby, but she really doesn't remember any of them. She was really excited to see the bride at the wedding and go to the reception for food and dancing. One day she had even suggested that she should wear her tap shoes to the reception so she could dance!

Here's the handsome daddy and beautiful little girl before the wedding:

Catherine and Mimi at the wedding
Jay enjoyed spending lots of quality time with his friend Billy that weekend too. Billy mentored Jay when he was in high school and is the pastor who married us. They liked modeling their Toms shoes for the wedding.
Apparently while at the wedding, Catherine met a new friend. Bennett (the son of a high school friend of Jay's) took a liking to Catherine. He kept coming over while she was eating and asking her to dance. She held him off until she finished her dinner....
and then they danced the night away! How cute are they!
While Jay, Catherine, and Marcy were at the wedding, Steve came down to G'ville and we all headed to the beach. Melissa, Andy, and Marshall drove down on Saturday also, and then Jay, Marcy, and Catherine met us there on Sunday. So beach pics to come soon....

4 month checkup

Anna had her 4 month checkup today. She is growing pretty well--she weighs 13 lbs 11 oz and is 25 inches long. This puts her in the 45% for weight and 72% for length. This is actually a big drop from where she was (83% in weight and 95% for length at 2 months), which confirms to me that she may really need a bottle of formula each day to supplement her feedings. Because of her allergic reaction to the formula the other week, the doctor gave me a special kind of formula to try that's made for babies with milk allergies. Hopefully she'll take it (she refused to drink any today) and it will provide the extra calories she needs. We'll just have to wait until she's a little bigger to determine if she really does have a milk allergy or not. Until then, we'll act like she does just to be on the safe side. Otherwise, she's a happy and healthy girl and we couldn't love this sweet little baby any more.

She wants to sit up and see what's going on these days. If I put her in the bouncy seat or swing, she can basically sit herself all the way up and I'm worried she's going to fall over in them. So today we tried the exersaucer and she loved it. Catherine and Will thought it was great to have her in there too.

(photos courtesy of Catherine!)

4 months old!

Last week Anna turned 4 months old! She is growing so quickly and is smiling and laughing so much. We love seeing her little personality develop. She laughs the most at Catherine, and often laughs at Will but then starts crying because he's pulling on her or laying on top of her. We're still working on him giving her some personal space! There's nothing better than picking her up and her looking at you with a big grin.

(She was smiling at Catherine in these pics.)

Will loves playing with her, even sharing his bulldozer and school bus. Again, he doesn't really understand the space issue and this is pretty much how he is with her all day--all over her giving hugs, kisses, pulling, licking. I need a recording that says "Will, back up." I'm so glad he loves her but at times it's overwhelming.

Anna is getting very good at holding onto toys and putting everything in her month. She chews and drools a lot, so I'm not sure if she's starting some teething already. I don't feel anything on her gums yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if she gets a tooth in the next 4 to 6 weeks or so.

For some reason, Anna has decided this month to start waking up again at night. My sweet baby who starting sleeping through the night at 8 weeks is now getting up once or twice at night to eat again. I'm a little concerned that I'm not getting her enough milk during the day and she's hungry. I had this same issue with Catherine and Will and had to start giving one bottle of formula each day to supplement around 5 to 6 months. I tried giving Anna a bottle of formula the other day. She actually drank it (I was shocked) but within a few hours she had broken out in a rash and hives all over her body. We're not sure what caused the allergic reaction--just that kind of formula or milk proteins?? She has her 4 month checkup at the end of this week and I'll talk with our pediatrician more about it then. I'm hoping she doesn't have a milk allergy and that we can find some formula to help supplement her feedings. Because of the allergic reaction, I'm definitely going to hold off on any baby food for a while longer. Overall though, she is growing well and is a great baby. We love our little Anna!

What's fun to do in Milwaukee?

So what is fun to do in Milwaukee (other than enjoy the cooler 80 degree and less humid weather)? Lots!
Northwestern does a great job of hosting family events and getting us access to great places in Milwaukee. Here's a look at a few things we did while we were there.

On Sunday morning Northwestern hosts a race. Steve and Catherine did the 1-mile; Marcy walked with Will and Anna in the stroller for the 5k, I ran the 5k, and Jay ran the 8k. One note of adventure for Catherine's run this year: She fell and scraped her knee not long after she started and got to go to the ambulance to get a band-aid. For a girl who loves any excuse to get a band-aid, she was pretty excited that the got one from the ambulance! I was excited to do my first race post-pregnancy. I always really miss running while I'm pregnant and am excited to get back into it.

On Sunday night, Northwestern rents out the entire Milwaukee Zoo. They have tents with food, bands and games for entertainment, and you can see all the animals and exhibits that you normally would at the zoo. This year we rode the tram around to get a faster tour of all the animals since we figured the kids would tire out walking that far. My favorite part at the zoo was when I took Catherine and Will to see the gorillas. One gorilla was sitting in the middle of his area when we walked up. Catherine and Will had their faces pressed right up to the window. When the gorilla saw them, it ran over really fast right to the window. Catherine screamed! It's a little intimidating to have only a 1 inch thick piece of glass between you and a big gorilla. Then the gorilla waved at them and kept moving his arms all around, giving them their own personal show. It was pretty neat!

On Monday morning, I took the kids to the Milwaukee County musuem while Jay was in his meetings. They have a great live butterfly garden, rainforest exhibits, dinosaur exhibits, and a large insect exhibit. Catherine's favorite part was using the magnifying glass to see the beetles and the gemstone collection. Will really liked the dinosaur fossils. Here are they are with one of the world's largest wooly mammoth fossils. Look how tiny they look next to it!

On Tuesday we went to a children's musuem. It's similar to the one here in G'ville, with lots of interactive play exhibits--a grocery store, bank, TV station, post office, art & theater center, a few science exhibits. This is the 3rd year we've gone to this one and they do a good job of changing some of the exhibits each year to keep things fresh. Everyone's favorite thing this time, especially Will, was driving this bus. We spent a lot of time going on trips on Will's bus. (And what did Anna do during all of this---sleep in the carrier!)

While we were in Milwaukee, the Cincinnati Reds were playing the Milwaukee Brewers. Jay and his family have always been huge Reds fans, and have consequently converted the rest of us too. We knew which hotel the Reds players were staying at, so after going to the musuems on Monday and Tuesday we went to that hotel for lunch to see if we could spot any of the players. We waited around for a little while on Monday, but after Catherine spilled an entire cup of lemonade, Anna was crying, and Will was jumping through the lobby we decided to leave. We went back on Tuesday and just after we finished lunch, Marcy came running over saying she saw some Reds players. We met Dusty Baker, the team manager, and Arthur Rhodes, an all star player. The kids had their Reds hats on and were excited about it (although I really think Marcy and Steve were more excited!) So now when we see them on TV playing baseball, we can remember how we met them. They were very nice and more than happy to take photos with us and talk with us.

While we were doing all of these exciting adventures, Jay was having a great time in his meetings. It's always so encouraging for him to be with his Northwestern "family", learn new skills, be motivated by some of the other great agents, and think about goals for our business. I miss being able to go to the meetings with him, but that's just not possible at this point. We want the kids to grow up knowing that was Daddy does is really important, so we feel like it's worth the effort to take them to Milwaukee each summer for this. It was a great trip and we look forward to going back next summer!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Last week we all flew to Milwaukee for Jay's annual Northwestern Mutual conference.
(Just a warning...this is the first of a couple of Milwaukee posts.)

Anna was very excited to go with Daddy on her first airplane trip! She really did a great job traveling. Sometimes I actually think it's easier to travel with a baby than with a 1 or 2 year old who wants to get into everything. The trickiest part with Anna was just having all of the baby gear we needed--car seat, stroller, baby carrier, lots of diapers, bibs, burp cloths, changes of clothes for all of us (she did manage to spit up, pee, and poop on the 2 of us the day we came back). She didn't fuss too much about flying--only a little when we were landing each time. She's usually a pretty content girl as long as mommy is holding her.

Catherine and Will were very excited about their airplane trip. Here they are at GSP anxiously waiting to get on the airplane.

We took one of their little suitcases to keep C & W's blankets, books, change of clothes, etc. They took turns with who got to pull the suitcase and who rode in the stroller. Will was super cute walking through the airport with his suitcase. People would stop to tell him he was doing a great job and he would walk up and give them high-fives.

Even though they did as well as you can expect for a 4 yr old, 2 yr old, and 4 month old on an airplane, it was still exhausting. Just keeping up with everyone and who needs to go potty/change diaper (remember how we just potty trained Will?) or eat/nurse was a little tricky (especially when you throw in a time change; I couldn't keep it straight for a few hours). They did much better on the way there than the way back. By day 5, we were all tired and a little less patient with waiting in airports, but we made it!