Rehearsal Dinner!

Some of you know that tomorrow, my very best friend Jen is getting married! We grew up across the street from each other and have been best friends since we were barely 2. She was of course my maid of honor in my wedding, and so now I am her matron of honor! And Sammi and Maddie are both flower girls along with Dave's (her fiance) 2 nieces who are close in age to my girls. And Jen's little cousin, who is Sammi's age (and who she also believes she will marry someday!) is the ring bearer. It is just going to be so cute! Tonight was the rehearsal dinner and Maddie of course had a hard time walking down the aisle. You can see here how thrilled she was about it. Sammi did great though! Although, by the end of the rehearsal Maddie was warming up a little, so there is a chance she'll do it. We have lots of incentives for her like sitting with Daddy, dum dum lollipops and her barbie Jen got her. And if she still won't, then I'll just go down and get her! It will be cute no matter what. :)

Jen practicing with her Dad. She will make a beautiful bride tomorrow!

At the dinner, Jen gave each of the girls a present, which they were very excited about! They each got a little purse that they will use tomorrow to put their petals in. And she put a little bracelet in the purse for them to wear.

And they each got a wedding day barbie! Oh the excitement that brought! :)

My camera was horrible in the restaurant, but here is a cute one of Jen and Sammi.


And all the bridesmaids, (minus Krista Dave's sister who had already left). Yes there are a lot of us!

Anyways, it seems we have been waiting forever for Jen and Dave to get married, I think just b/c we knew from the start that they would. So we are all really looking forward to tomorrow!

Nostalgia

I came across these videos the other day. Sometimes I feel bad that I didn't blog when Sammi was a baby, so I don't have as many things recorded about her. Although, I did a pretty good job of keeping her baby book up to date, since she was the first and all! I need to do some catching up on the the other two's baby books! Anyways, these videos were too cute to not post. The first ones were taken August 11th, 2005,when Sammi was 9 months old and walking! I recorded in her baby book that her first steps were on July 23rd, so this is actually a few weeks later when she could take a few steps at a time.

Here is what our dog Ashley does when the girls try to pet her. She is very protective of them and would never hurt them, but as you can see, she is very annoyed that they took her place as #1 in the house! She STILL makes this noise when they pet her.

Sammi was almost 10 months in this picture and such a little crack up! Must have been before a Pitt game :)

And finally (sorry if you are bored with videos!), Sammi's first birthday. I just LOVE her reaction :)

3 year checkup

Maddie had her 3 year checkup today. She weighs 27 lbs and is 35 inches tall, which is in the 15th percentile for weight and 10th percentile for height! So she is still a tiny little thing, but she did gain 4 lbs from last year and grew 3 inches. I also asked her doctor about her stuttering since she has been doing it for 9 months now. But, she said it is still really common at age 3 and as long as it doesn't bother her or get worse, she should outgrow by 3 1/2. She still talks in the 3rd person, which can get rather annoying, but hopefully she'll outgrow that soon too! Her doctor said that since she started talking pretty early and had such a good vocabulary at a young age, it explains why she started stuttering at an early age too. And as far as her asthma symptoms, she hasn't had any wheezing since Christmas and we haven't been doing her Pulmicort treatments at all this summer. But, her doctor said that the fall/winter months are the worse so she could still start wheezing if she gets a virus. And if she does then we will start the Pulmicort daily again. Also, Brandon's parents have a cat, so when we go there she suggested doing Pulmicort a few days before we go and doing Abuterol 3 times a day while we are there to try to keep her from wheezing. She was fine when we were there this weekend, but it is still a kitten and they don't produce the allergenic dander till they are older. So, unfortunately even if Maddie outgrows wheezing when she is sick, she probably won't outgrow is when she is around a cat. Especially since she has had such bad reactions when around cats in the past. Her doctor said she is allergic to cats too and even she still wheezes when she is around them! But, we can hope for the best and hopefully we are able to control it. Otherwise she is a healthy, happy little girl!

Walker Reunion '09

We have definitely been busy traveling lately! This weekend we went to Harrisburg for the Walker Reunion. We missed it last year b/c we were on vacation, so it was nice to make it out for it this year. We drove out Saturday morning and had a nice cookout with Brandon's Mom's side of the family. Abigail has started to develop some stranger anxiety. She got a pouty lip and cried a number of times throughout the weekend! It mostly happens if someone tries to hold her and she had just woken up, or right after we arrive and it's kind of loud and there are a lot of people. And usually it is worse if I am standing right there. If she doesn't see me, she doesn't get as upset that someone strange is holding her. But, after a while she warms up and kind of gets over it. Here she is all warmed up playing with Great-Pappy. She loved this squeaky toy and thought it was so funny. It's so fun to watch her giggle and laugh. :)

Brandon's Mom had gone through a bunch of her kids toys in the loft and Maddie found Aunt Mandy's old babydoll high chair and crib. She had a GREAT time playing with those and pretty much spent the entire weekend with them.

Maddie had gotten a kite for her birthday from a friend, and so we brought it along since PapPap and Nana have a nice field next to their house. We were some what succesful, but the wind was kind of finicky, so it wasn't the best kite flying. Still fun though!

Sunday was the reunion. Abby fell asleep in the car on the way over and there were of course lots of people she didn't know, so she was pretty "strange" for the first half, crying if anyone but Mommy held her. But, after a while she got over it and she liked sitting in the grass. And later on, she even let some people hold her for a while. Some of Brandon's family had never met her yet, so it was nice to see them!

The girls had a great time, playing on the playground and doing other outdoor activities. Here is Nate and Sammi playing ball. I think Sammi needs a few lessons though, because she was trying to swing like a right hander, even though she's left handed. She really enjoyed it though, so Brandon or I will have to practice with her.

Maddie had fun playing with Daddy and was pretty good with the sticky ball.

We also had a cake walk and Chinese Auction and Sammi, Maddie and me all won cupcakes! I'm not sure what we'll do with all of them!

And there was a Pinata for the kids, which Sammi of course loved. Maddie didn't want to hit it, but she enjoyed getting the candy.

We didn't get home till about 9:30 Sunday night, so we are all kind of tired today. And we had to be up bright and early to get Sammi to her Vacation Bible School #2! But, it was a nice visit and we are glad we made it to the Reunion. The next time we see them will be in August when we all head down to the beach! :)

Happy Birthday Madeline!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Maddie!

I like it when people do photo montages on birthdays. So here is one for Maddie.


Less than a day after birth, which was at exactly this time 1:40 PM.

First birthday! Look at that precious face!

2nd birthday! She is giving a classic Maddie "look".

3rd birthday! Look at grown up she looks!
Hard to believe she's not a baby anymore.
(Although she would often like to think otherwise!)

Vacation - horse back riding (last post!)

Monday, our last full day there, we took the girls to a ranch so they could ride horses! Sammi has ridden a pony named Pine Cone in Colorado for the past 2 years and she often talks about him! So, since she couldn't ride Pine Cone again, we wanted her to still have a chance to ride a horse while we were on vacation. And this year, Maddie rode too!

They also had adorable puppies at the ranch. I know Brandon wanted to take one home!

Here is Sammi with her horse, Keena. In Coloardo, Sammi rode a pony, but here the girls actually got to ride full grown horses!

Maddie rode Buckaroo

A teenage girl led each of the horses up a trail to the top of a little hill. Brandon and my Dad each went with one of the girls to make sure they didn't slide off. Here they are coming back from their ride.

Maddie looks so little on this big horse! We aren't sure if Maddie liked the ride or not. She was so quiet about it afterward, we couldn't get much out of her. All she said was that the horse was really thumping! I think she thought it was kind of too bumpy a ride for her!

Sammi seemed to really enjoy it though!

After the horse ride, we headed to Penn Alps, which is a little artisan village where mostly Mennonite people make things like pottery and stained glass and demonstrate them. While we were there we saw a blacksmith making something. We also had lunch at the little restaurant that is there, which was pretty good. And we came home with some homemade bread and jelly!

There was also a very old stone bridge that George Washington crossed! It was pretty cool to walk across the same bridge that George Washington crossed hundreds of years ago.


Monday night we just relaxed at the cabin and Tuesday we headed home! It went by really fast, but we all had a nice, relaxing time. The drive was only 3 hours, and it was kind of nice to not drag kids through an airport this year! We are so thankful for our time away and for the special time and memories the girls had with Grandma and Grandpa too.

Vacation - Water falls

Sunday we went to another state park and walked through this forest that had trees that were over 300 years old! It was really neat. And at the end of the trail, there were 3 beautiful waterfalls and river.

I thought this was a pretty picture of the river.

Abby and I at the top of Swallow Falls

You can see there were a lot of people there that day, and a lot of them were kayaking!

Brandon and the girls waded around in some of the little pools along the edge. They had such a good time!

My brother jumping off a rock into the water just below one of the falls! He's crazy!

After a picnic lunch, we went to another state park and the girls and Brandon, Kevin and my Dad all went fishing for a while. Unfortunately they didn't catch anything, but they still enjoyed themselves!

Maddie got this kite for her birthday and she really wanted to try it out. Grandpa tried to help her, but there just wasn't enough wind. So we'll have to try again another time. But, they still had fun running around with it.

Vacation - Beach and Campfire!

There are a few state parks close by to us, so we headed over to the Discovery Center and one of the state parks that had a beach. Like I said before, we didn't exactly have summer weather, so the girls and Brandon just waded in the water. Although, I think the girls would have gone swimming in it if I had brought their suits. They don't seem to mind the cold!

Abby of course loved to just sit on the beach, and tried to eat the sand a few times! Wed had to watch her closely!


I think these pictures of Brandon and the girls are really cool. I might try to do some kind of framing thing with them eventually to put in our house.



Saturday night, my brother Kevin joined us! We went out to dinner at the Mountain State Brewery, which had some pretty good beer and very good flat bread pizzas.

Sammi and I at the restaurant

Abigail pretty much spent the entire trip eating and pooping. She is eating so much now, and not just baby food! She can feed herself lots of things, including some of her favorites, spaghetti and bread. Although, really everything is her favorite and there hasn't been anything yet that she hasn't liked or refused!

Saturday night, we enjoyed a campfire and Mountain Pies!

Maddie especially liked the fire. Sammi was too busy to sit still, but Madeline just enjoyed sitting in her chair and watching it. Even though she has a weird look on her face in this picture!

Deep Creek Vacation - The Cabin

We are back from our vacation! Since I had already been to Colorado in Jan. and we just bought a new house, and we now have 2 kids who need plane tickets, we couldn't afford to travel to Colorado this year for our vacation. A little disappointing since there really is no other place like it, but we still had a great, affordable vacation in the mountains of Maryland. It was so relaxing and we had the best weather. Where is the hot/humid weather??? Well, I'm not complaining!

We spent 5 days in Deep Creek, Maryland in a cabin. Well, it was more like a luxury house than a cabin, but it was in the woods and made of wood, so we'll call it a cabin :)

A short walk from the cabin was a finger of Deep Creek Lake. One nice thing was we were able to take our dog Ashley! She loved swimming in the lake and the girls enjoyed many walks down here with Brandon.


Here is a cute picture of Maddie and Abby playing together. I love watching Abby bond with each of her sisters in special ways.

Brandon taking a nap on the deck :)

Brandon grilling!

And all three cuties playing on the deck.

I figured I would break up the pictures into different posts this time, since there are so many! So more to come soon!

Maddie's 3rd birthday party!

Since once again we will be away for Maddie's birthday (on the 17th), we decided to again celebrate on Brandon's birthday! It was fun to have our first party at our new house and we fully utilized our nice backyard and deck! We just had a few friends and family come over, plus at the last minute Maddie decided she wanted to invite the 3 little girls who live across the street. Did I mention before that we now live across the street from 3 little girls?? Their girls are 9, 5 and 4 and Sammi and Maddie have already been over there a few times to play. Sammi and Maddie are constantly looking out the window to see if their friends are outside so they can go play. They are really nice neighbors and their girls are so polite and cute. They treat Maddie like a little baby and just follow her around like 3 little mothers. It's just adorable. We are so blessed!! So anyways, they came over too and we just had cake and ice cream and I made a strawberry pie for Brandon.

Maddie wanted a Dora cake, so I made this one for her.

She was shy when we sang Happy Birthday, but you could tell she enjoyed it.

She loved opening her presents. Sammi got her this Barbie Doll that is a veternarian. She picked it out all by herself and used her own money. She was very excited for Maddie to open it!
We were given some gift cards to Toys R Us for the girls by our realtor, so we decided to use them to buy Maddie a bike for her birthday! A few weeks earlier I said to Maddie, "Can you believe you are almost 3!" And she said "Yeah, then I can ride Sammi's barbie bike!". Plus, the girls probably spend everyday riding their bikes outside in the driveway. And Maddie only had one of those little toddler bikes before. So, it seemed like the right time to move her on to a big bike. In her hand, she is holding her princess helmet, which she got from our friend Jen just before she saw the bike. She thought the helmet was very exciting, and then was even more excited when she saw the bike! Her face just lit up! It was so sweet.

Brandon took her out to the street right away to try it out. She needs a little practice steering, but she'll get it soon I'm sure. You can see in the background the feet of the little girls next door who of course had to follow her :)

It's hard to believe my sweet little baby is almost 3! How did that happen so quickly! She brings us so much joy and we love her to pieces. She has such a big heart and is such a good little and big sister. And I still call her my snuggle baby, because she still loves to snuggle! And this is one of my favorite pictures. I think it sums her (and Abby) up perfectly.

fireworks and Kennywood!

This year we were actually home for the 4th of July and so we went downtown to see the fireworks, which is something we haven't done in years! We went to the North Shore, where it was still crowded, but not quite as crowded as the Point, and listened to an Army Band from D.C. The people in front of us actually brought their Cockatoo! He enjoyed some peanuts we had and the girls of course were excited about that. I was amazed the bird didn't try to go anywhere, especially when the fireworks started! We had great seats and the fireworks were especially good this year. I guess it was the first year in like the past 30 that Zambelli didn't do them, but I actually really liked this group! They had an especially cool one that was like a jellyfish and it actually went up and down in the sky! It was very cool! Abigail managed to stay awake the whole time and she actually LOVED her first fireworks! She stared at them mesmerized and then every once in a while, she let out a chuckle I guess b/c she thought they were funny! She was just too cute. She was just so happy the whole time b/c she was doing her 2 favorite things, sitting outside and eating :)

Sunday, we went to Kennywood! It was perfect weather and the girls had a good time as usual. It's kind of funny b/c the pictures I took this year are pretty much the same ones I took last year's, except both girls look so much more grown up, and of course we have one more little girl to take pictures of :)

Here is me and Abby on the carousel! She loved it!


Sammi rode the log jammer with Brandon this year. She was so much more brave than last year and wasn't afraid to ride anything in Kiddie Land, except maybe for the mouse one. She even loved the roller coaster! But, she didn't really like the big drop on the log jammer and was crying when she got off the ride. So, this guy gave her this huge pink frog to make her feel better! She immediately stopped crying! I have no idea what we will do with him!

Cute little Maddie on the train. I just lover her smile!

The girls always have such a good time with Daddy :)

The girls on the motorcycles

Sammi bossing around some kids behind her on the whip!

The swings are always a favorite!

Abby was pretty exhausted after the late fireworks night! She took a couple of naps in the stroller no problem though. And, even though the last time she ate was around 6:00 at Kennywood, she fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep till 7:30 AM!

One more piece of news.....we found out today that Brandon passed his PE Exam!!! Woo hoo!! That is such a relief and a HUGE blessing! This week we are busy with swimming lessons, a little birthday party for Brandon and Maddie and then we leave for Deep Creek, MD at the end of the week for vacation!