My Girls

As much as I love having boys (and I really do), there is just something about having two little girls in my life.  I am already imagining all the fun mani/pedi dates, trips to the mall, dinners while the boys are at father/son camp outs, scouts and at conference priesthood session, laughing sessions together, and romance movie nights.  I have so many memories growing up that included my mom, sister and I together.  I can only hope that despite the eight year gap between these two, that they will be best friends for life. 

Right now Maddie is a little mother hen to Taylor and watches over her in the best way possible.  She just loves her little sister so much and cries when Taylor is sad.  She loves changing her diapers, singing to her, including her in whatever games the children are playing, she enjoys holding her and rocking her to sleep.  I keep reminding Maddie that although Taylor may not remember exactly everything she has done for her, she will remember the happy feelings she feels towards having such a loving and devoted sister.  

Maddie has been thrilled over the prospect of sharing a room with Taylor and was bursting with excitement the day we finally  transitioned her into the girl room.  She has been thrilled waking up with Taylor in her room every morning and being able to check on her before going to sleep at night.  This picture makes me laugh......Maddie apparently was having trouble falling asleep one night and so she decided to literally climb in bed with Taylor and fall asleep.  I found them both this way in her crib around 11pm when I came in to feed the baby before I went to sleep.  I did remind Maddie that it was important not to lay by the baby at night after this :)

Taylor has come a long way in the chub department.  She started out as a string bean, but has recently developed impressive leg and belly rolls.  None of us can get over how adorable she looks with rolls and big smiles combined together.

My kids are all equally obsessed with little girl clothes as I am.  Talk about trouble! Every time we go to a store that has baby clothes, the kids all gravitate to the little baby girl clothing and try to convince me to buy even more clothes that are "sooo cute".  This outfit is yet another one of our "ridiculously cute" purchases as of late.  I love how into the shopping experience even Robby can get when we get around baby clothes.  I have frequently had to purge our shopping cart at the check out line when I find 5-6 extra outfits worth of clothing that got tossed into the cart without my knowledge or approval.

Blueberry Pickin' Fun

 After a rather rocky and lonely start in Massachusetts, we are excited to have finally found some friends to get together with this month.  And because of that, another year here doesn't seem quite so bleak even with the impending winter months right around the corner.  This month we have been able to swim, play, laugh, play fight, girl talk, and now blueberry pick with our friends the Larsen's and Bischoff's. It is practically the perfect combination for our brood. Maddie is good friends with the Bischoff's oldest daughter Brooklyn and then all together we have five boys between the ages of 5 and 8 years old.  The other two families have daughters within a few months of each other (3-4 years old), there is one toddling little guy and then baby Taylor.   Good thing Carina will be having a little girl in only a few months as well, a perfect someday playmate for Taylor.  We are quite the group when we go places with eleven children between the three of us Mom's.  

Earlier this summer when we went home to Arizona it was so wonderful to see everyone there and have play dates with many of our old friends.  Unfortunately it also reminded of how isolated we are back East and it made it that much more difficult to come back.  These two families have made the transition so much easier this time around.  It's amazing how much easier life seems when you can laugh and talk about life with other adults even just once a week more than before.  

Another benefit to these gatherings is that Carina also happens to be a professional photographer and brings her fancy camera with her to capture these fun moments together.  And so I now have beautiful, stunning images to go along with my memory of the fun we had picking blueberries at "The Big Apple" orchard.  We will be back to pick apples and pumpkins later on this fall!

 Maddie and Brooklyn: "though she may be small, she is mighty"

-a quote I think of often when I see my petite little girl amidst much taller friends her age

 I couldn't say enough wonderful things about the Baby Bjorn.  I have had this one since Robby was born and used it countless times in those seven years.  It has never torn, ripped or malfunctioned.  And we are HARD on it, the carrier gets smashed in bags, stepped on in the car, carries babies in the rain, used on our bi-weekly trips to the grocery store, and it maintains itself beautifully. 

 This kid is a crack up, I love is semi-nakedness at all times

 The blueberries were fantastic, and we already used them all up.  Between blueberry muffins, fruit salad, blueberry pancakes, and a snack they were immensely enjoyed by all at our house

Quick trip to Hanover

After a fairly lackluster August and a tad bit of the blues following our amazing Arizona trip, we decided to head back up to the Upper Valley for a short visit with some good friends and to see some of our favorite places.  Needless to say, it involved leaving Saturday morning bright and early right after I worked a night shift at the hospital.  Why in the world do we somehow ALWAYS schedule our trips like this {note to self: never ever ever do that again.  It is never a good idea and leaves me rather cranky and tired the entire day and into the next as well, if I'm perfectly honest} 

Initially I had grand plans to take the kids to the Montshire Museum, go on a hike to Boston Lake, do blueberry picking, visit the Kostles and Pyfers, visit Dartmouth campus......you name it.  Unfortunately reality quickly set it and after the short 3 hour trip turned into a five hour drive due to some irritating traffic we had to make some adjustments with our schedule.  We did fit in a quick pit stop through our old beloved neighborhood "Sachem Village" and stopped for a few minutes at the lush, green soccer fields next to the neighborhood for a quick game of soccer {take note of Maddie's high heels that she plays sports in without even batting an eye}  As you can see, she never lets athletics get in the way of looking fashionable.

 By this time,  it was now afternoon and as previously stated I was exhausted! Luckily we were still able to fit in blueberry picking into the plans while Jesse went on an hour long run/hike.  The blueberries were tasty and just as plump and delicious as we had remembered.  It was a nice warm day, however we had a bit of a run in with the farms dogs that I fear may have ruined Robby's relationship with dogs in general, specifically with the larger ones.  As we were getting the berries weighed and preparing to pay, the kids were kind of running around and they saw two huge dogs near the back of the store.   My children have spent a lot of time around larger dogs and therefore have a somewhat unhealthy fearlessness towards these animals.  Maddie and Robby both went right over to them and must have somehow spooked them.  The next few moments were a bit hazy, as the dogs began to bark and run after the kids.  This resulted in them screaming and running with the dogs chasing them in turn.  Maddie was the quickest and jumped over behind the cash register area, and Eli was the furthest away and ran away screaming and crying.  Robby ended up nearest them and was terrified as the barked and snapped at him.  The owners tried to grab onto the leashes and calm the two dogs down but one of them took off after Robby and ended up nipping him right above his right hip.  We think that one of the teeth nicked him, but it did break the skin.  My poor boys were both hysterical and shaking after the incident.  The owners were apologetic and felt terrible about what had happened.  They promptly announced that our berries were free of charge and that the animals had never behaved like this before.

After I got the children calmed down enough, they each took turns coming back up to their large white dog and petting him while the owners held on tight.  Thanks to gymnastics, I learned that when you get hurt you should always try it one more time so that they won't be as scared in the future.  Even though Robby did come up and very reluctantly pet the dog, he is now terrified of all dogs, and gets very scared if they bark at all around him.  I am hoping with time, he will feel more calm and comfortable around them again.

After this scary incident, we headed over to visit our friends Bryan and Catherine Pyfer, as well as meet back up with Jesse.  It was so fun to cuddle and visit little miss Charlotte.  She is the newest member of the Pyfer family and a measly 4 weeks old.  She is teeny tiny small, all girly, and super snuggly.  The kids couldn't get enough of her and it was unreal to think Taylor was tiny like that only a few months ago.  It makes me so sad to think that we both finally have babes around the same age and yet we no longer live near each other. 

We capped off our day by eating at one of our favorite restaurants while living in New Hampshire....Moe's.  Or as Eli always says "Welcome to Moe's!!!!!"  Later that evening Jesse went off to visit some old school friends, while I happily tucked in for the night with the kids.    

The next day we made plans to attend our church that we went to in New Hampshire but we had a little bit of time to spare midday.  We decided to stop by the beautiful Connecticut river and go on a short walk around the area.  It was as beautiful as we remembered it and we were able to reminisce about some of our favorite times.  We also took the time to take a few pictures at this lookout, including the one below of Taylor and I.  We then headed over for sacrament meeting where we were able to reconnect with some of our old friends (Kostle family, Pyfer's again, Morgan family, etc) before heading back down to Walpole.  Although I was tired, it was a fun low key weekend.  It hasn't been easy transitioning to living in Massachusetts but I am grateful that we live close enough to go up and visit New Hampshire fairly regularly and that we can still stay connected with grad school friends!