5 weeks old

Miss Madeline is 5 weeks old. It's so hard to believe, the time has flown by! Here are some pictures I've taken over the last few weeks. We are all enjoying having Madeline around, she is such a sweet baby and very happy. Her smile just melts my heart. Hope you enjoy the photos.

She's Here

Madeline Hodges Millard was born 2 weeks early on July 6th. She weighed 7lbs. 6 oz...my biggest baby. Here are some pictures from right after her birth, I'll put some more pictures up later.

Happy Birthday to John

Yesterday was John's birthday and we had a quiet celebration at home. John is not big on birthdays at all. If I didn't insist, he would just ignore it all together. Needless to say, he was not thrilled about me taking a picture, this was the only shot I got. And, yes, Braden is not wearing a shirt. This was a casual birthday. To celebrate, I made shrimp scampi for dinner and baked his favorite chocolate cake. He opened gifts before I could get any pictures (actually I was still in the kitchen cooking, when he decided to help himself). The kids made cards for him and we also made a card with their handprints and 5 things they love about Daddy. Here's the list:

1. He stays home sometimes. (He had just taken the day off the day before)

2. He plays with us

3. Daddy takes us out.

4. Watching t.v. with Daddy (this means usually, some type of sporting event)

5. Daddy kicks the ball with us

Really, Braden came up with all of these. Next year Emma Kate will probably be able to help contribute to the list.

Springtime Fun

Can I just say, I LOVE spring! Here's what we've been doing to enjoy the warmer days:

No, it's not Halloween, just Braden and Walker dressing up and fighting each other with foam swords. They stopped long enough to let me take a picture.

Emma Kate swinging, she loves to hang upside down.

Right side up long enough to pose for a picture. The next words out of her mouth were, "I want to see it." (referring to the picture on my camera; what did we do before the age of digital cameras?)

Braden playing soccer with John. I promise John and the soccer ball were there, just didn't make it into the picture.

Don't ask...this was his idea of posing for a picture.

Favorite Pics of the week

Here are all of my favorite pictures from this past week. Hope you enjoy!

This is where I found Emma Kate the other day. She took it upon herself to take her diaper off, use the potty, and wash her hands (bare bottom and all). We are going to be attempting potty training part 2 in the next couple of weeks.

Here is Braden posing for the camera with his newest train, Spencer, thanks to Papa. My dad took Braden to see Thomas the train and was under strict orders ( I won't mention any names here) not to buy any toys, but as you can see, my dad has NO will power. Braden told John, "Papa buys me everything."

As promised, a soccer picture. This was the only decent one that I took that day and his eyes are closed!! I think he had just scored a goal. May 1st is his last day of soccer and he is going to be so disappointed. I haven't broken the news to him yet...I don't have the heart to tell him that it supposed to rain that day too!

John home for a few minutes before heading out to yet another soccer game. The kids swarm him the minute he walks in the door. This is our life during soccer season. Hey, I'm not complaining, moments like these are priceless. It warms my heart to see the kids love all over John when he comes home.

The kids coloring while waiting on John to get home from, yep, you guessed it, a soccer game. We needed something constructive to do to pass the time.

Here's what you've missed...

since I haven't posted in 2 months!!! I can't believe I have let so much time go by without posting a single picture. My apologies to all 2 of you who actually check my blog weekly. :) So without further adu, the last 2 months in a nutshell:

Braden started soccer and loves it!! This is a picture from his first day. I'll be posting some more recent ones soon and hopefully get some good action shots.

Here are a couple of pictures of Emma Kate caught in action. Doing what? I don't exactly know, but she seems to have an obsession with diapers.

And, last week during John's spring break we re-did our bedroom. Mom and I spent 3 days painting while John was on kid duty. (He HATES painting) The curtains, bedskirt, and pillows I had made and were ready just in time! I have nothing hanging on the walls yet, and I have to say the 2 pictures don't really do the room justice at all. I wish I had taken some before pictures to share. The room was white because I've known for the 5 years that we've lived in this house that I wanted to change our bedroom stuff, so I finally got around to it and I'm thrilled with the results!

That's it so far. I promise I won't let another 2 months go by without posting anything!

It's a...

Girl!

(just thought you'd like to know)

Valentine cookies

Just for fun, we made Valentine cookies the other day. I used a great recipe from Southern Living for Lemon Butter cookies. I highly recommend it, the dough is so easy to work with! Anyway, I let Braden and Emma Kate have free reign over the icing and decorating of the cookies. They had a blast and I tried not to let my type A/control freak personality get in the way. I have to say that I did very well and we were none the worse for all the icing and sprinkles everywhere. However, the kids did take a bath afterwards. Later that night Braden said, "Thanks,mom, for letting us make Valentine cookies." That made it all worth it!

The final product...100% kid decorated. Okay, I decorated 2 cookies...can you tell which ones?