Life

I've mentioned before that Katherine is the only girl in her class at school. One day, Kat did not want me to leave the gym, because Ms. Holly wasn't there. She was clinging to me, and I was trying to convince her to stay. Major rode over on his bike, she got on behind him, turned to me, waved and said “Bye, Mama!” They rode off together into the sunset. I ran to my office and grabbed my camera. Priceless.

Andrew is playing softball again with the church. It's a great opportunity for the guys who play to connect and get to know each other. The girls have been to two games so far. I made it to my first one last week.

Saturday, it was actually warm enough to swim. The pool felt great after 4 hours of yard work! Katherine is using the floaties and already doing great. I think she'll be able to swim without them by the end of the summer if she'll let us take them off her arms. Sara is the best teacher - she can get Katherine to take some risks.

Isabella was not too sure about the pool. Could be that we didn't have a bathing suit with us for her, or that every time Katherine and Sara screamed, it made her cry!

Andrew was gone for the weekend with the Maxey Men. They camped and hiked for 2 nights and 13 miles. Better them than me!

We couldn't all look at the camera at the same time, so this is as good as it gets for the Mother's Day picture this year.

My sweeties at lunch.

Loving each other.

Getting a little too wild now!

Easter 2010

We took a lot of pictures for Easter this year. If you are my facebook friend, you can see all of them there. These are just a few of the highlights.

Katherine's school Easter egg hunt was on Thursday. She is the shortest one!

She is a great egg hunter.

Katherine loves to ride the bikes in the gym.

Katherine helping Amber and Mama load balloons in the van for Easterfest.

Coloring eggs. I told Katherine Thursday night we were going to dye eggs the next day. She said, "No, Mama. Jesus died on the cross." Easter is so confusing for little kids!

My happy girl.

My little snuggles.

Sisters. Both girls wore hand-me-down dresses from Grace Ann Fikes.

They had a manicure on Friday courtosy of Lauren and Laura Grace.

Andrew doesn't seem to mind that he's outnumbered.

This Mama is ready to have her natural hair color back so she looks like she fits!

Mimi & Katherine.

PopPop & Isabella.

March Madness

We had some sickness in the Maxey house during March, and they both happened on weekends. First, Katherine had the stomach bug accompanied by a high fever. Throw up in my hair in the middle of the night is always pleasant. That week, I ended up with an ear infection. By Friday, both girls had an ear and eye infection. Andrew got it the following Monday. We're finally all off antibiotics. Here are the girls watching a movie together while they were sick.

When I took the girls to the doctor, Isabella weighed in at 22 pounds! Katherine weighs 29 pounds. You can really see the difference in body type in this picture!

We did a lot of yard work over spring break. Katherine told me, "Mama, I can't smile. I'm helping Daddy rake."

My aunts, Judy & Linda, came down this week to visit. The girls got to stay home from school with them and Mimi on Tuesday. Everyone had a blast.


We're getting ready for Easter! Katherine has bunnies in her hair. She told me the other day she was excited for the Christmas bunny to come put eggs in her basket. The things they learn in school! I have been reading the story of Jesus' death and resurrection at night during devotions with her. And what does she remember? The Christmas bunny.

February Flew By

We had a couple of snow days in February where they cancelled school. The first one, it didn't even snow. The second one we actually had a tiny, tiny bit of snow. So, we just stayed inside and watched movies and played puzzles. I know this is hilarious for our northern friends and family. Believe me, it's hilarious and frustrating for us, too!


Isabella got control of the remote for a few minutes.

The girls have started taking baths together some nights. They both love it. Isabella can't quite sit up on her own, so Katherine has to hold her and gets bored sometimes and thinks Isabella is took heavy. But, it's still fun to see them together.

Katherine and Mimi helped me go through the 3T clothes we have - hand-me-downs and things I bought last year on sale. Katherine wanted to try on this bathing suit and ride her horse.

Isabella can almost sit up on her own. She is reaching for objects, making lots of noises, smiling a lot (although we can't seem to catch it on camera), and is still sweet as ever. She is sleeping 12 hours at night but still gets up once during that time for a bottle. But she falls right back asleep which is so nice.

I spoke during the service yesterday at church. Our senior pastor is in Israel, so I filled in. It went very well. If you want to hear it, go to the media page at firstwesleyan.com.

It's February Already!

January was a blur...
Isabella started daycare.

Andrew supervised basketball every Friday night.
Lori got a stomach bug from Amber, who passed it to Lauren & Kendall.
Isabella learned to sit up in the exersaucer and to roll over.

Andrew & Lori went to the Ministers and Mates retreat in Georgia.
Isabella started eating solid food, but is still not sleeping through the night.

Isabella got bronchitis.
Katherine remained cute as ever.
Good thing Lori cut her hours back, and is only working 30 a week now!

Traveling with Two

We joined the youth group's annual ski trip to North Carolina this year. Andrew and several of the Howard kids skied and snowboarded for two days. Amber and I took care of Katherine and Isabella and hung out with Jen and at the lodge. This was our first trip with both girls. Traveling with two is definitely a lot more work. I think it has become less about us getting rest and more about our kids having fun, and that's okay. Katherine had so much fun on our "long trip." When we left our final meal together in Tuscaloosa, she cried all the way home, "I don't want to go home!"

I've tried skiing twice. I can do it, but I hate it. I feel too out of control and don't want to fall. Andrew loves it - actually snow boarding. So I was glad that he was able to have fun with friends.

"We're on the cheese wagon!" After carrying Isabella and all their stuff for four days, I felt like I had been skiing, too!

Isabella's snow suit. She is already in a size 3 diaper (Katherine wears a 4). It seemed like every time she pooped on this trip, it got all over her clothes. We have to put a white onesie under everything to keep her good clothes from getting ruined. Sorry if that's too much information, but we had to change her clothes and throw away 5 onesies on the trip. That's my memory of Isabella for this trip!

Katherine likes to have fun, so at night, she would not wind down. It was frustrating, but we couldn't help but laugh at midnight when Katherine was still shouting "Amen!" and stomping her feet on her pallet. She was listening to her silly songs and would not stop singing and go to sleep.

The second night, Andrew took Katherine "sledding." Basically he just slid down a little hill on his butt with her in his lap. She loved it. Laughing and screaming all the way.

A Crazy Christmas

This Christmas was by far the craziest one we've had as a family. It started on Thursday, December 17, with hours of baking, getting ready for Andrew's extended family to arrive. Andrew came home sick on Friday with what we thought was a stomach bug. He did what he could to help get the house ready, but he was very weak and in a good deal of pain.

On Saturday, my family came over to open Christmas presents. Katherine's favorite gift from us are her Elmo slippers.

Katherine really got into opening presents this year and was more than happy to help Isabella.

Andrew was getting worse and did not go to church on Sunday. The girls went home Sunday afternoon with Amber, so I could keep getting ready for the Maxey family. I lead Christmas Caroling for the church that night and got a call from Amber that Katherine's bottom had gotten extremely raw from too many dirty diapers. So, I was on the phone with the pediatrician while we went door to door singing. Katherine had to take baths with baking soda over the next several days and walk around without a diaper as much as possible. She peed on Lauren's floor - gotta love that one! Andrew went to the doctor on Monday and found out he had a peri-rectal abscess. He couldn't get in with the surgeon so was referred to the emergency room. We went there, and the doctor said he couldn't do anything, so we would need to go home and call the surgeon first thing Tuesday morning. So, I put a call in to the surgeon Tuesday and took Katherine to her school Christmas party.

Andrew told his family they would have to wait to come for Christmas. We got into see Dr. Wallace at 5:00pm Tuesday. He was able to drain the abscess in the office, and Andrew started feeling much better. His family arrived Wednesday afternoon - all 13 of them. Grandma Maxey made PJs for all of the grand kids, so they modeled them for us Wednesday night.

Katherine and Grace had a great time together. Grace is 5 1/2 years old.

Isabella was in heaven. Aunt Rachel hardly ever put her down. When she did, someone else was close by to hold her.

I worked Christmas Eve morning, because I had lost so much time taking care of Andrew. That night, I directed the Christmas Eve service at church (which was incredible, if I must say so myself). Here is Katherine ready to go...

After the Christmas Eve service, we opened stockings.

Christmas morning, Katherine opened her Santa present in our room. Both girls were sleeping in the room with us for the week, because the rest of the family was in the other rooms.

She and Isabella both got Vera Bradley bags to use for overnight trips. Katherine immediately loaded up all of her animals in the bag and took it downstairs with her.

We're ready to open Christmas presents! Katherine, please stop moving and talking, so I can get a picture!

My little angel.

The most special present of the morning was a teddy bear that Aunt Rachel made for Isabella.

Saturday morning, we were all eating breakfast. Katherine stood up on her chair to get a napkin. I told her to sit down, and she fell off right on the brick floor. I was seconds too late. She smacked her head really hard, and her eyes rolled back briefly. We got her to calm down and thought she was okay, but twenty minutes later she started throwing up. So, off we went to the emergency room for the second time in one week. Katherine had a concussion and had to get a CT scan. She checked out okay. After four hours at the hospital, we were released to go home but had to wake her up every four hours over the night.

Saturday afternoon, we had a dedication service for Isabella. It was my first act as an ordained minister.

The last of Andrew's family left Sunday morning. Katherine and I went to church while Andrew and Isabella slept late. Did I mention it was a crazy week? In the midst of all of that activity, I also cooked meals for 17 people, took care of my girls, and acted on a dare to color my hair black. We are not fully recovered yet, but are leaving tomorrow for a ski trip with the church youth group and friends. Hopefully we can stay out of the emergency room!