Check out her moves...

Well, we did our first ballet and tap class!! It was alot of fun and Addie Grace LOVED it!! My only gripe is that it just runs with the school year and so we only have a few more classes left that we can go to, and they are all getting ready for their program, so Addie Grace is kind of odd man out. I really wish we would have started in September, but oh well, I didn't know about it then...we'll be ready next year!!
The website said that the girls had to wear their hair in a bun, so this morning was kind of challenging. Her hair is really fine, and so pretty much the only hairstyle that I'm able to do on her is the one that you always see...parted on the side, pulled back, bow, and we're good to go. Anyway, about thirty minutes and thirteen bobbypins later she had a resemblance of a bun. I started getting anxious wondering how in the world I would be able to pull that off each week. I considered enrolling in a cosmetology program, however when we got there, I was THRILLED to see that not all of the girls were wearing buns! Hallelujah!
Anyway, here are some pictures of our morning...

Look, No Hands!!

Look how proud Sawyer is for standing by himself! I was sitting at the computer and he was sitting in the floor and he pulled up on my chair and just let go! He only stood for about 3 seconds, but still, he was proud, and so was I!!
I took him to his room and stood him up to take these pictures. I tried to take the pen away, but he was not having it! I know, I know...he could have put his eye out, but I was watching him. Please don't call Child Protective Services on me. I then changed his clothes so I could take some pictures with him not wearing Christmas pajamas in March, but by then, he was done. I did get one shot, but he was starting to fall, so my hand is on his back. Anyway, here's my big boy...excuse the pen and the out of season clothing...

Just Hanging Out...

Well, I finally feel recuperated from our trip to Nashville. Our bags are finally all unpacked, the laundry is all done, and gummy snack and airhead wrappers don't fly out of my van doors anymore everytime you open them!
Not alot has been going on...just fighting with spring fever. We have alot of fun things coming up and I'm just ready to get on with them! Addie Grace starts a ballet and tap class tomorrow and we are so excited! I'm just nervous that she's going to try and 'teach' the teacher and correct the other girls for not doing their moves correctly! She's so funny!! This morning on the way to preschool, she wanted me to be sure to call today and get directions so that we would know exactly how to get there tomorrow. She also said, "Mom, you need to get me some new ballet shoes because I don't think that they will let me wear the ones that I wear here with my tutu...even though they certainly are cute"! Hopefully, I'll have some pictures of class tomorrow to share.
Well, I'm going to hop off of here. Here are some pictures of Addie Grace and Sawyer with their friends Shelby and Jonathan on a couple different playdates. Shelby and Addie Grace decided to dress up as princesses, and thanks to my friend Suzanne, Jonathan and Sawyer are dressed up as pimps...

9 Months Old!!!!

I can't believe that my baby is 9 months old today!!! He is so rotten but we are eating him up!!!

He still won't crawl...I really think he might walk first!! He has started pulling up on EVERYTHING, and then gets mad because he can't figure out how to get back down...I'll post some of his "stuck" pictures soon.

Aaaah Home!!

Well, we finally made it!! I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to make it back to Indy!! We've been gone a week and a half, and I am glad to be home!! We played nanny in Newburgh with my neices for a few days while my sister was on a cruise, and then we went to Nashville and stayed while Brian went to California for work. We got to visit with lots of friends and got Sawyer's nine month pictures made, finally got to play in some snow (crazy that we had to go back to Nashville to do that...), and got to just hang out and enjoy being with family. It was great!!
I'm about to start unpacking (yuck!), and climb into my bed for a few hours. Addie Grace threw up on the way home and dealing with that and just being cooped up in the car has me beat. Just wanted to pop in and let you know we are alive!! I have more pictures of our adventures, but I'll mess with that later.

My Rotten Children...

Well, it hasn't been a fun week at the McDonald home (for the most part). Sawyer is cutting a tooth and definitely wants to let you know about it!! I've been griping about it to everyone this week. He was so grumpy today that I almost stayed home with him from church tonight, but against my better judgement, we went. Well, after me telling everyone how horrible he is being, he was just playing and giggling and pretending to be the perfect angel, making me look like I'm crazy or something!! Little twerp!! Oh well, at least it appears that he's feeling better. Here's my little Jekyll and Hyde...

pretty much the only face I've seen all week...

an example of his face tonight at church...'what?, who me???'

Also, late Monday afternoon, Addie Grace fell asleep on the couch for about 3 1/2 hours. She woke up saying that she didn't feel well and that she needed some chicken noodle soup. Here is a picture of her at about 10:00 eating her soup in our bed. She asked me to call the neighbors (who we are barely friends with) and ask them to come over and visit her since she was sick. Hmmm...she's not an attention seeker is she??

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that it's gone for good whatever it was!

What happens when Mom and Addie Grace are in charge...

Look at what poor Sawyer has to endure everyday while Brian is at work...poor guy! He's already been forced to have a tea party with Addie Grace and now being shoved into her princess costumes?!?
Look at his face...he's saying, "are you kidding me??"

Just to show that he didn't mind all that much...

Brian thinks I dress Sawyer too girly...I don't know what in the world makes him think that!!

Hang on...

Mom's behind the wheel!!!
Okay, most of you know that I'm NOT the greatest driver and that I'm pretty good at dropping things...but my 8 month old already knowing to hang on when I put him in his carrier??? Come on!!!! For about the last month or so, whenever I strap him in, he for some reason thinks he needs to hang on tight!! Look at this picture! I have to pry his little rotten fingers off of the bar to put it down!! I thought that it was just me that he didn't trust, but I am happy to say that a couple of weeks ago, when Brian was carrying him he grabbed on too!
Also wanted to throw in a picture of Addie Grace cooking!! She told me that she wants to be a "cooker" when she grows up (although this changes daily)...it looks like she's well on her way, doesn't it??

Happy Valentine's Day!

I took this picture before preschool this morning with their Valentine gifts. Sawyer is clearly unimpressed with his dragon and is eyeing Addie Grace's webkinz. He's plotting how to heist the frog...

Our little princess...

Addie Grace LOVES to dress up...she has always loved to and I never know what she's going to have on when she walks into the room!! We have several wardrobe changes throughout the day, and she (unfortunately) has gotten to the stage where she wants to go out dressed up!! She loves to put on her tutu and perform for us pretty much daily. I'm not sure how she's connected tutu's and her pajamas together in her little mind, but for some reason, she just thinks they belong together. I went through lots of pictures and posted some really old ones. In the one picture of her with the bows, it was before she could talk. She brought me her bow basket and handed me the bows one by one and grunted at me to put each one in her hair until they were all gone...silly girl!
Anyway, here's Addie Grace doing what she has always loved best...

Happy 8 month birthday Sawyer!!

I can't believe that Sawyer is 8 months old today!!! This baby is rotten, rotten, rotten, but we're going to keep him anyway!!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of our little monkey taken over the last week...

loving bathtime with his fishing pole...
I don't know why I like this picture so much...I just think it's funny...I put him up on the table to eat, and he was just looking at me like, "feed me lady!"

My Little Buckaroo...

Gram and Grandaddy gave Sawyer this horse for Christmas and he LOVES it!!! He's not really big enough to bounce and rock it like you are supposed to, but he thinks he's something when he's on it!! I love how he has his arm thrown up in the air, like the horse is really bucking him...if only he had a cowboy hat in that hand!!

Addie Grace and Sawyer

As I said earlier, (or partly said earlier), our computer died a few months ago so we bought a new one. Luckily, all of my pictures from the last 4 years didn't disappear. The Geek Squad was able to retrieve them and I am soooo relieved!! Anyway, in transferring and organizing all of my pictures, I was comparing Sawyer to Addie Grace at this age. Even though this is a pretty generic picture, it's funny how I have similar shots of them at the same ages...here is one that I found today...overalls, striped shirts, almost the same smirk and all...look how much more hair Addie Grace had than poor Sawyer. There are about two weeks difference in these pictures, but I'm pretty sure that Sawyer is not going to catch up hair wise...we'll see!!

Hooray!!

Well, we FINALLY got our new computer yesterday, so I'm not having to use Brian's work laptop anymore! I guess this is just my celebratory post, plus I needed an excuse to post this picture of my sweet babies. Sawyer's not smiling, but I still like it...even though they look a little bigger than I would prefer.
Anyway, we're honkered in waiting for our first big snowstorm for the year...I've got to admit that I'm a little excited!! We'll see how I feel about that after a couple of days though!!
Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some snow pictures!!

Like mother, like daughter...

It was a really pretty day Sunday after church, so we decided to let Addie Grace go for a Sunday drive in her car. Bless her heart, she really does drive like her mother. Whichever way she turns her head, the steering wheel is going to follow. These are pictures from the event...I could have kept snapping and snapping pictures, and they all would have looked exactly the same. Her poor Daddy finally gave out...I wish I would've have taken a shot of the sweat dripping off his poor brow!

"okay, you're going straight, but let's get on the sidewalk"

"oops...a little too far to the right..."

"oops...now a little too far to the left..."

"oops...now a little too far to the right..."

"oops...now a little too far to the left..."

after about five more times of this, he gives up and she's left on her own to run into the mailbox (almost)...

Wish us luck in 13 years...

my sweet boy...

Well, I feel like my sweet Sawyer always gets the raw end of the deal when it comes to posts and pictures, so I wanted to do a post especially for him.
Most of you know that I really, really wanted another little girl when I was pregnant with Sawyer, but I can honestly and truly say that I am sooooo thankful that I got this precious, perfect baby boy. I am so eaten up with him that it is almost obnoxious, and even though he is verrrrrrrry clingy, it really is just fine by me!!
In honor of him being 7 months old, here are my favorite seven things about my sweet boy (in no particular order)...
7. his sweet giggle
6. how much he loves his bath (even though I have to squegee myself off when he's done)
5. how he rubs my arm and pats me when I hold him
4. the way his face lights up when Addie Grace talks to him
3. how he LOVES to snuggle
2. the way he pants when he thinks he's about to get to eat
and
1. how he grabs me by my head and yanks me to him to kiss me (gnaw on me)

Children's Museum

I don't know if I have mentioned what an incredible children's museum that we have here in Indy...so, if not, let me do that now. It really is great and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend making a day of it.
Last week we went with our friends Suzanne and her little boy Jonathan. We had a great time! We got to check out the new Curious George exhibit which was really cute. Addie Grace's favorite thing was playing in the doghouse at Playscape. Brian has been thinking about building her a playhouse for her birthday, but we may just buy her a doghouse instead!!!
Here are some pictures from the day...

not the greatest picture of Addie Grace, but I like how Sawyer is trying to figure out the weird kid sitting next to him...

Addie Grace in the doghouse...

Addie Grace on Sparky (she named him our very first trip to the museum and now everytime we go, she has to ride him...)

Jonathan...don't you just want to eat him??

Merry Christmas...

Okay, Okay, a little late I know. I'll spare you my excuses and just get on with it...
The holidays were great...we all had a wonderful time. We did ALOT of driving, but it was still surprisingly enjoyable!! I LOVE Christmas...and I love it even more since I have kids of my own. It's so much fun seeing Addie Grace get soooo excited about all of it. Making cookies for Santa, reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, writing her letter to Santa, getting her letter from Santa (thanks Gram!), Addie Grace's preschool Christmas program...it was all wonderful!! Too many fun things to mention them all!! She did get worn out with all of it some and was just tired and cranky at times, but I guess that's to be expected with a three year old. One night that we were at my parents, I came into the den and she was sitting and crying...not just being pouty...true sorrow. I asked, "Addie Grace...what's wrong??" She looked up at me with her lip quivering and said, "My holiday cheer is gone!!" and just sobbed!! It was so funny! She has a flair for drama (wonder where she gets that from??) Anyway, we survived it...she wanted to go and pray about it, so she went to our room and bowed her head and said, "Dear God, my holiday cheer is gone and my family is lost (her cousins weren't there). Amen". After a few hugs, she was okay! She cracks me up!! I never know what's going to come out of her mouth next!!
Anyway, it was all so much fun, and I must say that I'm a little sad it's over. I can't wait until next year for Sawyer to be tearing through everything!!!
Here are a few pictures...

One of the TEN MILLION outakes from our Christmas card pictures...

Twas the Night Before Christmas...
Christmas morning...

WooHoo Santa brought me a car!!

Sawyer's first Christmas (thanks Uncle Todd and Aunt Donna!!)

Hope yours was just as special!!!