Introducing...

Rylan Allen Elkins
April 18, 2009
8 lbs. 3 oz.
21 inches

Love at first sight! I can't wait to hold him and tell him how much his Aunt is going to spoil him! Congratulations Allen and Amber, you will make wonderful parents!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Have you ever had a weekend where nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen, but on Sunday night you sat down and thought, "Wow, what a great weekend!" That's how I felt about the last few days. We just relaxed and watched a movie with Scott and Sarah Friday night (and I got to hold Abigail, yay!), then Saturday we ran errands and had some steaks on the grill. The weather was nice until late Saturday night, when some crazy storms came through. Easter morning was cold and stormy, but we decided to stick to our plan of making it to the 7am service. My thought that it wouldn't be as crowded as the later services couldn't be more off base...still standing room only. With the exception of being completley wired and passing one very loud baby toot (at a key quiet moment in the service, of course), church went off without a hitch!

We celebrated with coffee and doughnuts while Maddie played with her Easter basket from Uncle Al and Aunt Amber.

Next were two of my favorite activities: A nap, and then baking! I made some pineapple coconut bars and a strawberry cake to take over to Lucy's (Sarah's grandma) for Easter Dinner.


Our adopted family came through for us yet again! I even made some hairbows for Abigail and Maddie, and burned myself on the gluegun less than a hundred times. Success! We also got to chat with Grandpa, MiMi, and Grandma Linda on the webcam. End the evening with a frozen pizza and a couple hours reading a great book, and I went to bed happy. Like I said, a great weekend...hope you enjoyed this long and super detailed recap!

Two exciting things coming up this week: First, Audra and her kiddos are coming to visit! Stefandra and Stefandra 2.0 are reunited again. I'm hoping that since Neely and Maddie are both sitting up, they might actually notice each other and become friends. Also, Aidan is very skilled at reminding me that I need to childproof my house, so I'm looking forward to his help ;) As for the second exciting thing happening this week (at least I hope it happens this week!): If all goes according to plan, I should have a blog post soon about my new nephew Rylan! I have been waiting for this baby for a long time! Everyone keep Allen and Amber in your prayers for a safe and speedy delivery and a healthy baby.

BTW, Maddie has two teeth now and will be crawling any day...yikes. She is getting so big! I'll post some more pictures from Easter when I get my stupid camera working, but here are pics from my phone.

Soooo close to crawling!

My friend Dawn gave me the "cold carrot as teether" tip. Worked like a charm.


What a ham!

Easter Morning

It's happening....

Maddie is teething. It started on Tuesday and I knew I was dreading it for a reason. Would you like to know what my life has been like for the last few days? Well, lucky for you I captured it in video! If you are a big fan of Schadenfreude (Google it, you probably are), then this is for you!

On lighter note, here are some memories from happier times.
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Maddie and Daisy

Maddie and Abby. Maddie loves Abby, she is like a really cool new toy. Unfortunately, she hasn't quite learned that she can't pick up the new baby and fling her around like the rest of her toys. By the way, how awesome is it that Abby can smile like that at 5 weeks old!? She is so sweet!

Here's another example of Parenting Cliff's Notes from Andy. I asked him to get her ready for her bath, and he strips her and continues to play with her, naked on the couch. I wish he had gotten peed on. At least her clothes and dirty diaper are neatly stacked up on the couch to make it easier for me to pick them up later. There really isn't anything cuter than a naked baby, though, so I wasn't too mad.

I feel bad for posting that grouchy video, so here is a happy one.

28

The title of this post is pretty significant, for once! 28 is how old I am now, after my birthday on the 14th. Yikes. And 28 is also the number of pounds I have lost in about 12 weeks! I am much more excited about the second "28" than the first. I am 2 lbs. away from my goal, and finally got rid of all my "fat clothes." Yes! So sorry for not posting more often, but I've been too hungry (ha ha, just kidding!!) My mom was here for my birthday and the week after, so Andy and I got to have a couple "dates" with a free babysitter! Not that my mom or child could have cared less about where I was...Maddie and her GiGi had a ball and love each other so much. It makes me so happy to see that they still have a great relationship even though they only get to see each other every few months. Here they are, all snuggled up.

I had a great birthday dinner at my favorite place, The Melting Pot. Here is a picture of me and Andy before gorging ourselves on cheese, meat, and chocolate. (The memory is making my mouth water!)

Mom also helped me with a ton of projects, like cleaning out the closets and getting goodwill bags together, and a little redecorating/organizing. Sometimes, all I needed was someone just to keep the baby occupied so I could actually FINISH something. I love it when people ask me, "So, aren't you bored being a stay-at-home Mom?" I usually laugh and tell them if I ever was, I'd be neglecting something, whether it's my house, husband, child, or (heaven forbid) myself! It was great to have an extra pair of eyes, ears, and hands around here, and it made me appreciate my Mom so much! Oh yeah, and any Mom-Stephanie-Maddie time includes lots of eating out and shopping, which was fun for me, but probably less exciting for the Budget Guru Andy. Here is Maddie looking super cute in a new spring dress!

Other than getting older and less, umm, Rubenesque, we are just enjoying our routines and watching Maddie grow. She is a very funny baby who needs to be the center of attention, and doesn't mind loudly reminding you of that. She has what I would call a "class clown" personality. Exhibit A , the following picture. What IS that face about?!?!

I love how in this one, she looks like she is holding his hand!

She loves to make funny noises, and if you laugh at her, she will repeat them ad nauseum. I use the phrase "Stop encouraging her!" a lot. She also loves her bath, just like her mommy!

Finally, one characteristic she gets from me! She has been scooting around on her belly for a while now, and has just started getting up on her hands and knees, so I think crawling will happen before I am ready for it. She still hasn't cut any teeth, which is fine by me. I want her to do it while we are in Tennessee next (May) so I have backup! I'm going to miss those gummy baby smiles!

This has been a pretty random post so I will end with a random story entitled "Adventures in Google-ing." Andy and I are on a home improvement kick, so last weekend I was on the computer looking for gardening ideas. I remembed something my dad was telling me about where you just buy a big terra cotta pot, and put it on your porch with all kinds of veggies or herbs in it. It's called a Container Garden and the idea sounded easy enough for my black thumb. Well, dumb me couldn't remember what it was called when I got on Google to look it up...so yeah, at any point now I'm expecting the cops, DEA, and President of the United States to bust down my door wanting to know why I was searching "How to grow a pot garden" on the Internet. Good thing I didn't look on YouTube.

Welcome, Spring!

Well, it's the first week of March in Texas, which means of course it was 87 degrees yesterday. The weather went from the 30s to the 80s in a week...this is just one of the many things that drives me crazy about this state. You can NEVER put your warm weather clothes away. Plus my allergies are going haywire. You would think I would be used to it after almost 3 years, but nope.

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to post about than my allergies and the weather (when did I turn into an old lady?). The good news is I am kicking off my birthday celebration 8 days early with my girl's dinner at Maggiano's tonight! AND GiGi gets here on Thursday for a nice long visit, so I'm sure we will get into something noteworthy. In the meantime, here are some random pictures to show what we've been up to!

Maddie and Daddy. I think she is trying to figure out "What's that gross thing growing on your face?" And no, she doesn't have clothes on. We're country.



Maddie and Nathan. He is so cute, but if he turns out anything like his Dad this will be their first and LAST date.



Maddie's Entourage. Daisy and Duncan follow her wherever she is in the house. This is beyond annoying.



Abigail Joy Myser. Abby is our neighbor/good friends Scott and Sarah's baby. I tell people I prayed this baby into existence so Maddie would have a best friend across the street. Thank you Jesus!



Maddie and Abby's first play date.



Silly Face!



Andy "watching" the baby. Umm, I must have missed the day in Parenting Class when they told us how to watch the baby while sound asleep.



I love this picture!

More Fantastic Portraits from Erica Joyce Photography!

Copy and paste this link to see Maddie's 6-month photo shoot! Thanks Jake and Erica, these are awesome!

http://www.ericajoyce.com/cust/greiner09/

6 months!

Maddie is six months old! Holy cow, time has really flown by. All those cliches about babies are so true...the really do grow up so fast! One of the best things is watching her learn. She can roll over, sit up, attempt to crawl (looks more like she's doing the "worm"), blow raspberries, and babble fun sounds. Her favorite is "da-deeee" and "da-DAD!" but I told Andy that all babies say that first, and she still has no idea what it means. Yes, I am jealous that she doesn't say "Dearest Mother" yet. She also does a funny thing now where she will become obsessed with something so tiny you don't even know what she is staring at, like the zipper or button on your shirt. And she laughs all the time, which is so awesome!

Andy is staying busy with work like always, but we are both really thankful that he has such a good job right now. He is getting ready to move into a new building, with a new snazzy corner office like the executives on TV ;) Now, if I can just convince him to stop wearing jeans and sweatshirts to the office everyday. As for me, my big project is trying to organize all my projects! I have a long list of things I want to do around the house, but can't figure out where or how to start. After 2 1/2 years here, our bedroom still has pictures leaned up against the wall, waiting to be hung. I will get it all done sometime!

Also, if anyone has a webcam we are on Skype and Windows Live Messenger now. You can just search for my name and email and add us. We would love to see some family and friends!

Ok, now for the fun stuff! Pictures and video!

6 Months Old!

New Summer Outfit

Still No Teeth :)

Ugh...Peas!

Please, can I just have my milk?

So here is the video of Maddie's first experience with vegetables. She had never had anything but breast milk and some occasional cereal until yesterday. The part where she starts gagging should tell you how she felt about it.