Matthew's 2nd Birthday!

I cannot believe that my baby is now 2! Where has the time gone? I know every parent says that, but it is so true! We had a bit of a low-key celebration for Matthew's birthday this year. We were heading down to Florida for the weekend the next day and decided to have a small family party when we got there. On Matthew's actual birthday we gave him his train table and trains, and he played with them ALL DAY! That night we gave him the rest of his presents from friends and family and boy has he gotten the hang of that! He also has become familiar with the concept of birthday cake after Brian's birthday and was very excited about eating his cupcake. He even blew out the candle all by himself! Once we got to Florida we had a birthday dinner with Matthew's favorite food - hotdogs - and more birthday cake. Then Matthew opened his gifts from Aunt Catie and Uncle Scott, and Baba and Daideo. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of when we were in Florida because they are on my mom's camera and I don't have them on my computer. When I get them I'll try to remember to add them!

Quick Photo Update

I can't believe Caroline will be a month old on Friday and Matthew will be 2 on Thursday! Where has the time gone?! Here are some pictures of our life the past month...

 We celebrated Brian's 31st birthday!

 We took both kids to the park.

 I took Matthew and Caroline to the botanical gardens at the Atlanta History Center

 We went to a Kentucky Derby party

Lunch to celebrate Mother's Day

 Caroline's first hair bow!

 Had friends from medical school over to visit

 Matthew completed his Little Gym class!

 Matthew holding Caroline for the first time

 Our cute little princess!

 We took Matthew to Thomas the Train Live! for his birthday. He was very enthralled!

 Watching Thomas

Out for a morning drove on the balcony

I'll post more pictures later this week or weekend of Matthew's 2nd birthday!

Photo Card

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Caroline Jane Arrives!

 We are very excited to announce the arrival of our daughter, Caroline! She was born at 1:11pm on April 27, 2011 weighing 7lb 14oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. Here are some photos of her arrival!

We got to the hospital at 7:30 Wednesday morning for a scheduled induction. After a bit of excitement that included a ridiculously low blood pressure and a fainting episode, I was hooked up to the pitosin around 9:30 or 10:00. I went ahead and requested my epidural shortly after labor started, and it was a much better experience than the last time! Mom and Dad brought Matthew up to the hospital for a little bit while we waited for labor to progress. Then around 12:45 I started feeling some pressure, and sure enough it was time to push! Mom and Dad went to the waiting room at the hospital instead of heading back to the apartment as we originally had planned. 20 minutes later, Caroline was born!

Happy Easter!

We had a great time celebrating Easter yesterday. Our last holiday as a family of three! Matthew was very excited to see what was in his Easter basket and has become quite an expert at egg hunting! Here are some videos from our day.

Nesting with No Nursery... Part 3

In addition to making things for our new arrival, I've also been making things for Matthew to play with. A few months ago when he started pointing out numbers everywhere, my teacher personality kicked in and I decided to make him some felt flashcards. One set with numbers and one with shapes. They came out really cute, except for the fact that Cajun's dog hair sticks to them like crazy!

Then a few weeks ago he started identifying letters, so I thought I should make something with those on them! 26 flashcards on a ring wasn't exactly an option, and then I remembered I had bought some Cars fabric a while back and had nothing to do with it. Alphabet bean bags were born! I painted uppercase letters on one side and lowercase letters on the other with fabric paint. Matthew loves them. He tries to carry as many of them in his arms as he can at one time! He transports them all from the table to the couch (handfuls at a time) and then takes them from the couch and throws them on the floor. All of this picking up got old fast, so I decided I needed a bag to keep them all in. I had a little fabric leftover and made a matching drawstring bag!

I have one last project that I want to complete before the baby comes, so hopefully I'll have time in the next few days. I'll keep you posted!

Construction on Our New House!

Brian and I are very excited to be building a house in Bradenton! After spending a week looking at resales and not really finding anything we liked, we decided to go with new construction after falling in love with one of the builders in the area, and discovering it was actually less expensive to build! We told the builder that we would be moving at the end of June, and they assured us that the house would be done on time. We are/were very skeptical about this, but were willing to take the risk. They broke ground on our house on April 4th, and just 13 days later they are almost about to put the roof on! Maybe it will be done in time after all...

Here are some pictures of the progress:

April 4, 2011

April 17, 2011