Our Dancing Flower

Maggie had her big end of the year dance recital on Sunday night. The last few weeks of dance she hasn't really seemed that interested in the dance itself, so i was concerned how the recital was going to go. Whenever we would practice, she would tell me that she didn't need to practice and that she would do it at the recital! I was nervous, but she knew what she was doing! The day of the dress rehearsal came, and she still didn't really pay attention, so i thought this was going to be an interesting show for sure. The studio that she danced at this year wasn't really put together well, but her teacher was great, so she loved it. Her friend Grace also was in her class, so it made it even more fun for her. Here are a couple pictures of her at the recital, enjoy.
maggie at dress rehearsal

maggie and grace at rehearsal

look at our big girl go!

finding her spot on the stage!

at the end, taking their bow!

A Month Old Already

Can you believe it's been a month already?? WOW...i mean i know that it's been busy here, but a month, i just can't believe it. I know you are all shocked, two posts in one night, but we have another busy weekend and i didn't want it to be another week before I get to post again. Maggie has her end of the year dance recital on Sunday afternoon and we have lots to do before hand...
So here is the update on Fionn. At his one month check up this week he was up to 8 pounds 13 oz. So we're up TWO pounds this month. He's also grown an inch and a half, and his head has grown as well. It's amazing to me how much he has grown already, and how fast he is changing. His awake periods are getting longer and longer, he's eating more, AND he's only waking up to eat twice a night now! Whoo-hoo. And yes, he is nursing almost 100% now, so thank goodness for that. His confusion is now gone, and he'll nurse and drink from a bottle! He's so funny, now when he gets tired he already tries to fight it and he's just grumpy till he gives in and goes to sleep! Silly boy. Right now he's snuggling with Greg, but i know as soon as i attempt to go to sleep he's going to wake up and cry for food. lol, isn't that life?
Thank you all for the prayers and thoughts over the last month. We appreciate them all. Fionn is a true blessing, and we don't even want to think about what a different outcome his story could have had. Let's hope that's the worst thing he ever has to endure.

Shocking!

Just a quick post this time. I just wanted to add a picture of just Greg and I. We don't get them very often, esp. ones where we're on a "date" For our anniversary this year(since it was paper) Greg got me tickets to the Kenny Chesney show last weekend. Mema and Pop-pop came down and stayed with Fionn and Moo while we went. I joked as we drove down that I really do feel old. We showed up two hours late(STUPID RAIN) instead of eight hours early. The rain didn't stop the tailgating though, there were people EVERYWHERE. We missed Luke Bryan and Gary Allen, but saw Leann Rimes, Keith Urban AND Kenny!! It was a great show and it was nice to get some time with Greg. He may have been home on paternity leave for three weeks, but alone time now consists of Fionn, daddy and mommy, lol. You all know how hard it is, CRAZINESS ensues the first few weeks after having a baby.
Anyway before I keep blabbing on, here is the one of just the two of us!

Happy Fathers Day!

We Love Our Daddy!

Greg is working today, so we're waiting for him to get home so we can go celebrate Father's Day with him. This seems like the perfect day to tell everyone how lucky we are to have such a wonderful daddy. He works so hard to take such good care of us. We are truly blessed to be loved by such a good, caring man. He finds special ways to show us all how much he loves us as often as he can. Our life may be crazy most days, but through it all we know that our house is full of love. We may be a crazy family, but we're a family and that's what's the most important.

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain, The majesty of a tree,The warmth of a summer sun, The calm of a quiet sea,The generous soul of nature, The comforting arm of night,The wisdom of the ages, The power of the eagle's flight,The joy of a morning in spring, The faith of a mustard seed,The patience of eternity, The depth of a family need,Then God combined these qualities,When there was nothing more to add,He knew His masterpiece was complete,And so, He called it ...

Dad

~~Author Unknown.~~

"A father is a guy who has snapshots in his wallet where his money used to be."

~~Author Unknown.~~

lol, i love that last one! how fitting for our family. Anyway, we love you daddy, we can't wait for you to come home!

Brave Queen Esther...and the lizard!

I bet you are thinking "huh?" lol, it's been a LONG day today and it will all make sense by the end of the post, i promise!!
My odd little girl is starting Kindergarten this fall as you all know. To get to that point though she has to have her five year physical, and as all of us parents dread, SHOTS! The reason I called Maggie odd is because we went last week for her physical and there was a mix up with some paperwork so she got everything, BUT her shots. For most kids, they would have been overjoyed. Not our little girl, she was sad and upset.(we had psyched her up for it, since her friend Jonah had gotten his the day before, and Maggie knew she HAD to have them to go to Kindergarten, and she REALLY REALLY can't wait for Kindergarten) They gave her shiny band-aids, a sticker AND a toy from the box because she was so good and patient while we tried to work things out. Nothing but that silly lizard she got from the box made it okay that she DID NOT get her shots. Let's just say the lizard was only with us for a few hours(mommy's fault) and Maggie loved it, so it was all i heard about for the last week...
That brings us today. We re-scheduled the shots for today, and Fionn had a weight check. Before i forget, he's up a WHOLE pound since last week. He's tipping the scales at a whopping 8.2 pounds now. But this is about our brave girl tonight, so back to her. Last night for our devotions we read about "Brave Queen Esther" and Maggie really paid attention and we prayed for strength and courage like Esther last night.
So we get to the doctors office and the doctor is talking to us going over our choices, telling us how they can break up the shots(depending on what she needs) into two visits since it's a lot and two of them are IM (intra-muscular) shots. They tell her she needs five, and she decided that she wanted them all today. They just looked at her (and us) like we were crazy, and i'm not going to lie, i felt a little sick thinking about five shots! But it was her decision and that's what she chose, so we all let her have her way. The nurse took about ten minutes getting everything ready and by about minute nine Maggie had changed her mind. So it was then that we decided to channel a little of "Brave Queen Esther"
She sat in Greg's lap and he held her and i put my hands on her legs and looked her in the eye the whole time. She was SO BRAVE, and so strong, i couldn't believe it. At one point I wanted to cry, but she made it through without fighting or even kicking. We won't lie, there was crying, but she never said stop and she never flinched, and she stopped crying and whimpering withing just a couple of minutes. All she kept saying was she was brave like Queen Esther! And what did she make the office girls find for her...another lizard! This one is now named "brave spot" and he clips on to her, so she wore him on her shirt for most of the day!
Her prize for being so brave and strong was a trip to Build-a-Bear to get a new outfit for her animals. What did she pick out...a pink Sleeping Beauty dress which she came home and put on "cindy" her bear and as she was going to sleep tonight she told us her bear was Beautiful, Brave Queen Esther!
It was a big day for her, but she went to sleep happy. Her school is having it's annual festival right now, so we went down for a while tonight. She got to see a bunch of her friends from school and show them Fionn so she was thrilled. She played games and got to jump in this big blow up monster truck bouncer, so it made her night. She forgot all about her arms hurting when she saw her friends, so it made it all worth it. So here is a couple pics from today. You know me, always have the camera!

brave princess maggie with her lizard!

playing a little 7-11 at the festival

mommy with her babies as we left the festival

Before the craziness began...

It's been one quick month to put it mildly and before i forget, i wanted to post a couple of pics from May of all our big events leading up to having Fionn. I know, as long ago as it seems already, we had big milestones to celebrate here in the burgh. Greg walked(again) and received even more honors this time, AND Maggie graduated from Pre-K hours before Fionn was born! It seems almost comical how I joked all week that week "he only has to stay in until noon on Friday" By 3pm we knew he was going to be born that day. We never anticipated the ride we would take from that point, but you all know that story, and it has a happy ending, so we'll skip that, otherwise this wouldn't be a blog about what happened BEFORE he joined us!
So here we go:

Maggie digging up dinosaur bones at Carnegie Museum of Natural History

swimming with pop-pop at his hotel when he brought the youth group to the burgh
and a family shot at daddy's graduation

just daddy and his princess at graduation

daddy and moo with mema and pop-pop
and Maggie at her graduation. Good job princess!!

Maggie's cheering section! A shot with everyone after graduation...

Sleep deprived and LOVING it!

Yes, it's true, i've forgotten what a full nights sleep feels like, or even more than two hours in a row strung together, but life is good none the less! What a blessing my little man is, and i know this is only for a short time so i'm not going to let it get to me.(just don't look at my eyes)
I'm sorry for the lack of posts as of late, but it seems like all i do is feed him, change him, chase Maggie around, and then it starts all over again! lol, poor Maggie. What a GREAT big sister she is, i would be LOST without her. She is so patient and loving with Fionn. I've only had to tell her a few times not to yell "QUIET" at him, lol. And that's usually while i'm out of the room and she's patiently been standing by him for a few minutes trying to get him to take his pacifier and he just spit & throws it at her. He just doesn't want me to put him down, EVER! As long as someone is holding him, he's content. He can be dead asleep and i'll lay him down or put him in his swing, and within minutes he's awake and crying. As soon as i pick him up and his body is against mine, silence! Every couple of nights he lets me put him in the bassinet for a short period of time. He always starts out there, but ends up in bed sleeping on us. Right now as i type this he's cradled across my forearms all snuggled in...well he was, now he's fussing, lol. Go figure! brb....
i snuggled him between daddy and I, let's see how long this will last! literally it's been less than a minute, and there's the cry! and the precarious balancing act begins!
We had a great time at home this weekend, i was so happy that Greg got to go home with us. Fionn met most of the family on Greg's side and everyone shared him pretty well. Thank you to everyone who told us they love the blog, i promise we'll try to keep it up! As he starts to sleep a little more and longer it should be a little easier. It was great introducing him to some of our friends as well over the weekend. Between our friends and family Fionn was in his glory, he was held almost all weekend. Maggie loved being home(as usual) and thought it was awesome that she got to see everyone(esp. all her "friends") and the fact that she got to get in the pool most of the 24 hour period we were home made her day. The fact that Howard and Kristy came over with Ben and Luke for her to play with topped everything for her. It was nice to spend some time with them and the boys. We love living here in Pittsburgh but let me tell you, it's the one thing i miss the most, a lazy afternoon with family and friends. I guess we're starting to get better about meeting people, but nothing beats our group of friends from home. Shell's shower this weekend was so much fun, it was great being included, so thank you guys for letting me be a part of it, even if it was just a small part.
Before i ramble on all night, here are a couple pics from this weekend. I have a lot from the shower and whole weekend, so i'll make a slideshow tomorrow and post it! Enjoy these first!!

Our Trip to the zoo last week

We took Fionn to the zoo last weekend for his first trip to see the animals. Maggie loved showing him all the different animals and as you can see Fionn slept through most of it. He loves to sleep with his hands above his head, and he did really well in the stroller. Once again, another shout out to the moby wrap, the one pictures above is a view of him in the wrap. The one with his eyes open is as we are leaving the zoo. As you can see Maggie loved the zoo, AGAIN! She can't wait for the new baby elephants to be born and she told Fionn all about which ones were having the babies, and she was sad that she didn't get to show him Jack(the daddy elephant)
She did have a cool encounter with the Kimono Dragon though. He was all the way in the back corner of his enclosure and we were the only ones looking at him and he walked all the way right up to the glass to Maggie for her to get a great close up!! The other picture is from the polar bear exhibit. She was sitting in the tunnel waiting for one to come in swimming!

**We are coming home this weekend for Shell's shower and can't wait to show Fionn to everyone!! Greg goes back to work on Sunday morning, so i'm not sure how long we'll be in Erie, but we would love to try and see as many people as we can!! **

Let's Go PENS!

Maggie and daddy as we leave the igloo!

moo with Sid the kid!fionn with mommy outside the igloo!

Game 2...

what an awesome city we live in! Mario has been opening up the Igloo for the away games of the series and we took the kids down there Memorial Day. Yes, Fionn was kinda small, but he slept through everything and as you can see was safely bundled in his sling. I love this sling, it is FABULOUS, so i def. give this company my seal of approval! It's so easy to use and Fionn loves when i bundle him in it! The name of the company is moby wraps and their website is www.mobywraps.com

So back to the hockey game. We only stayed for the first period, it was loud and it really wasn't a wholesome family environment when a Red Wings fan sat a couple rows in front of us. Let's just say there were some home-made t-shirts that made me REALLY happy that Maggie can't read everything yet!
We've been watching the whole series and let's just say Game 5 was one of the best hockey games i have EVER seen!! Ryan Malone is a WARRIOR and Fluery is AMAZING! We can't wait to see what happens tonight!!

LET'S GO PENS!