Update on some cute little ones.....

Addison is now all but 5 months old, how cute is she?! I used to think she was all Karen but now I see some Andrew peeking through. Whoever she favors she's a keeper!

This is Gabrielle, her mother Donna was my good friend when we lived in Texas. She and I actually had our little girls two weeks apart, Katie was 7 weeks early and Gabrielle was 3 weeks early. Guess the girls just wanted to come out!!!

Lauren is getting more adorable with every picture, look at that smile! Amy and I both say that this stage, Lauren is 6 weeks older than Kate, is so much fun. We love watching them discover and learn; apparently Lauren has really taken to coloring.....future artist??

This is Maddux, he's the big dude next door. He was 10 pounds 5 ounces at birth and has been off of the growth charts ever since, compared to Katie's shrimpy stature he's HUGE! At 6 months he is only 2.5 inches shorter and 4 pounds less than Katie; I see a sport with a ball in his future (basketball maybe?).

This is Tim, he Katie's international friend. His mother Astrid was an exchange student that lived at our house in 1994-95; she is now back home in Holland. Tim just turned 1 and is just a cute little blonde haired blue eyed guy!

E-I-E-I-O

I have been trying to get a good video of Katie singing Old McDonald Had A Farm for a while now, with no luck, I guess she's camera shy. Anyhow, today I finally had a bit of a break through, although she is normally a bit more enthusiastic about it. I'm going to keep working on getting a better video of it, E-I-E-I-O is a word to her and she uses it for everything. It's hilarious.

A Day at Grandma and Grandpa's..

Playing with an Easter gift that Mommy forgot about, whoops?!

Turning the lights on and off at Grandma and Grandpa Burts house.

Watching Mickey Mouse with Daddy while snuggling with the remote control.

Grandma Burt keeps this musical Christmas bag out just for Katie to play with, she goes right for it everytime.

Fundraising Time!!!!

The day we brought Katie home from the NICU at 4 lbs. 12 oz.






This year Katie and I will be participating in the March of Dimes March for Babies. As most of you probably know the March of Dimes is the primary source of funding for research and support in the quest to lower the premature birth rate here in the US. When Katie was born 7 weeks early Nat and I were both overwhelmed, confused and scared and we had so many questions , too many to remember. Our NICU nurses had given us books and pamphlets from the March of Dimes and suggested we get online, blog and research.

What a find!

I can still remember the feeling of relief billowing over me as I read accounts of other babies being born "too soon" and growing into perfectly happy and healthy little kids. It gave me the assurance that I would one day be a mother to a crazy, caught up, toddler and *poof* here we are, nutty and on track.

If you would like to join Katie and I for a leisurely 3 mile walk on April 27th we would love the company and if you would like to donate to our cause we would absolutely appreciate it. I have set up an online page to facilitate easy donating: http://www.marchforbabies.org/suziburt

Thanks in advance for your support and if you know someone else in your area doing the walk, thank them from us........

How does this happen.....

If you have ever watched Jon and Kate plus 8 than you know about camera frustration. On the old shows, she got a new camera this year for Christmas, she would constantly complain that her camera took the worst pictures and she hated when the kids did cute stuff and she had to take a picture because she knew she would get all excited for great pictures and end up with hazy, blurry, junk.

Well that's exactly how I have been feeling lately, every picture I take that looks so great on the camera monitor looks horrible and blurry on the computer. I feel like I'm missing so many great pictures that it just makes me crazy. AAgghh..

Then today for no apparent reason every single picture I took of Katie playing was gorgeous, the color was right, she had her eyes open and there were only two arms in the picture, I usually get double the arms with the blurry ones. I am beyond stunned, especially when you factor in the teething, crankiness and the fact that she hasn't been sleeping well.

I have somehow inadvertently stumbled onto the secret to perfect pictures, get to the point of total frustration with your camera that you swear that it is going in the garbage and at the last minute pull it back from it's demise; presto.

The perfect pictures..... Enjoy....

Random....

Don't remember what she was clapping for or about, but I'm thinking it might have been about a balloon.

I just wanted you all to see her big belly, so cute and round!

Chasing after a bouncy balloon, that her Grandparents Burt got for her. Nat and I have been playing with it for the past 24 hours and Katie thinks it's hilarious that we are so in to one of her toys!!

Wanna egg?

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

Our next door neighbors had us over today for Easter dinner, which was fun and delicious. We still had some cake and balloons left over from the shower yesterday so we brought the dessert and entertainment. Maddux and Katie both loved the balloons, which made for some great photo ops, unfortunately my camera is on the fritz and only about 1 in 10 pictures turned out. Oh well you can see that Maddux loves it! I put Katie in a dress for dinner, which was a bit big, but cute; she really liked playing with the bow in her hair so it was in and out all day. All in all it was a really fun day, so fun in fact that it's 4:45pm and Katie is fast asleep in her crib which she has been in since 2:45pm.

NICE!!!!

Christy's Bridal Shower!

Today was Nat's sister Christy's bridal shower here at our house. Look at that pretty bride-to-be above, doesn't she look cute!!!

Aunt Christy and Katie catching a quick bonding moment.

The cake, look at all of that chocolate!!!
And yes we still have half of it sitting on the dining room table.

Can you tell that she loves the pillows....

Our trip to Annapolis

Katie and I went down to Annapolis on Monday to visit with Karen and Addison. The trip started off well enough, look at that picture above of her sleeping the whole way down. Once we got to Annapolis all bets were off and Katie turned back into a crazy toddler again! First Katie decided to throw her lunch, Macaroni and Cheese, at Karen's dog instead of eating it. I understand in hindsight that Mac and Cheese might not have been a great idea for lunch out, next time I promise to bring chicken nuggets or something less staining!

Katie's second act was constantly trying to steal Addison's pacifier and by constantly I mean that out of 20 pictures I took that day 15 have Katie's fingers on a binki! I really do think she believes that other babies are here for her enjoyment!

Somehow Addison made it through Katie's antics!

This final picture is of Katie running down Karen's street, it's a quiet street with no sidewalks so after she threw a tantrum about being in the stroller I let her run for it. Well again another bad call on my behalf because just around that bend in the picture was a raised manhole that Katie didn't see jump out in front of her and she fell and bit her lip and cheek. Now when I say that she bit her lip I mean she chomped on it, and did it ever bleed. I felt so badly for her because not only did it hurt but she just couldn't calm herself down and she was screaming for about 30 minutes straight. Her purple lip just went away today, four days later, so I know it was a doozy.

And just for good measure about 15 minutes after Karen cleaned both of us up and Katie calmed herself down she fell again; Karen was letting her dog out to go to the bathroom, I was still cleaning a bit of blood off of myself and Katie just followed Karen right out of the door, missed the step and landed flat on her face on the deck. This time I think she was just ticked off, not really hurt, but just mad that she couldn't get herself together.

I decided that it was time to go home and I think that I made the right decision because she was fast asleep in the car before we were even out of Annapolis. What a day........

Playdate

Baby Grayson taking a snooze while the wild women go crazy all around him.

Katie and Makenzie taking a bounce on the zebra.....yes somehow they did both fit on it?!

Makenzie showing me how she can spin on the zebra and make herself so dizzy she falls off.(Katie was cheering her on from the corner!!)

Katie sitting in Grayson's car seat; I don't know why she does this but everytime there is an infant car seat around she must sit in it!

Easter at My Parents House

Next week my parents will be travelling down to North Carolina to spend Easter with my sister Sarah and her husband Tim so they decided to have us and my other sister Liz and her husband Doug over for an early Easter dinner today!

Mom made a bunny cake, she used to make them when we were little, and of course Katie's Easter basket was full and overflowing! The picture below is just some of the gifts the Easter bunny brought to my parents house, what you can't see is a bubble machine, a shovel and rake for her sand box and a dress; yes that's the dress she was carrying around by the tag in the last picture.

Mom also got Katie two starter seed kits, one a sunflower and the other a pumkin. Katie enjoyed shaking the seeds in the cup and everyone else enjoyed making fun of the fact that with my superior gardening skills the seeds were more alive now than they would ever be once planted on my watch. (I tend to kill plants faster than average!)