Birthday weekend

This weekend we celebrated mama's birthday!

oooo, an ice cream cake cover!! 

I want cake!

Mmmm, yummy:) 

Dinner at Red Robin on Friday night.... Kenna LOVED all the balloons - so much to look at!

And Saturday, off to a wedding.  Here daddy is entertaining Makenna with her monkey book.

Such a silly girl

Quite the party animal...

Thanks for a great birthday weekend, dady and Kenna - I had lots of fun spending some good quality time with you both.  Muah!!!!

Thanks Miss Elizabeth!

More Brewer pics...

What a great day at the ballpark - a win might have helped, but we had fun nonetheless.  Thanks for coming down Mom and Dad (and for all the help in the yard today) and thanks Daddy for taking the afternoon off and joining us!  What a fun early birthday present for mama!

Play Ball!!

Nothin' cuter than a daddy and his little girl at the ball park!

Hangin out with Papa

And Oma

Was it something I said?

And some snuggle time with mama...

Watching the game with daddy

Woah, that game tired me out... I slept long enough to miss the Brewers get the lead...and lose the lead...All while I snored away in mama's lap

Me and Bugsey watching for the rain to come... love that little baseball butt!!

My 3 loves:)

My first Brewer game of the season, might as well go big;)

Happy Mother's Day!

What a great weekend!  Mother's day has always been a tough one for me - I love my mom and appreciate her oh so much, but there has always been that part of me that wondered if I would ever be able to celebrate Mother's day with a child of my own.  It's a really tough holiday for infertiles and I'm sure it is for a lot of women that have lost children or lost their mothers.  Please continue to pray with me for all those ladies out there that are still waiting for their first mother's day.  Today was bittersweet as I celebrated with my baby girl, but thought alot about all those ladies in my life that are still waiting.

We were able to head up north yesterday to see Brad's grandparents and then my family.  Makenna had a blast hammin' it up for everyone.

Resting up for the big day ahead of her!

With Great Grandma and Grandpa

Checking out the view...

Time for a snack break:) 

Enough with the camera, mommy!

Givin' mama some cuddles..

And daddy some lovin'

Now, on to Oma and Papa's house!  Such a silly Papa!

Getting brave on Oma's chair

Such a big girl

Happy Mother's Day Oma!!  We love you!!

Posing with Oma's pretty flowers

Daddy, don't eat my face!

Thank you for a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, baby girl!  I couldn't ask for a sweeter baby.  Yesterday when Brad and I were driving back to Milwaukee, we were talking a bit about Mother's Day and how I was excited to be finally celebrating it and I mentioned (with tears streaming down, of course) that as much as infertility sucked, I would go through it all over again if it meant having Makenna in my arms today.  He was sweet enough to write in my card from her this morning that she loves me so much that she would be frozen all over again if it meant having me for a mommy.  I thought that was sweet.  I am one lucky mama and wifey! 

Videos

Here are some videos I finally dumped off my phone:

-The first is Kenna on Easter on the ride home from Grandma and Grandpa's house, showing off her Hi's the whole way home:

-The second one is Makenna showing off all her tricks

-The third one is from today.  She's started putting her toy phone to her ear and saying "hi" and then pretending she's actually talking on the phone.  It cracks me up:) 

11 months!

Happy Birthday Kenna girl!  11 months already... Wow, how time flies!  First things first, let's try to get a good one with Mr. Monkey this month...

Hmmm, maybe not

Don't try to trick me with funny jokes, I will not smile...

Or props, I'll just look at them and not the camera

Hmm, books will keep me seated, but I still won't look at you

Standing almost worked.

A picture before her nighttime feed definitely did not work

And right after her nighttime feed just caught her mid-cough

You are getting closer..

This one is the best I"ve got.. Not bad, actually

But starting with her big "1" next month, we might have to move on to pictures in her chair every month!  She seems to like this.

So, what's my 11 month old up to? 

Just about everything!  She is SUCH a little ham these days and makes us laugh non-stop.

Her first official word is definitely "hi".  She still says it all the time, my favorite is when she wakes up from nap or bedtime and starts saying hi, hi, hi over again until I come to get her.  

She's also repeating much of what we say and has mama, dada, up, out and "bah" for Bugsey down pretty good.  

She's crawling all over the place and has finally learned to sit from a crawl.  She's started pulling up on everything to a stand and shuffling along the furniture.  When she's ready to sit back down from a stand she let's go and flops down on her butt rather dramatically - hey, its a big load coming down.  

She is in her big girl carseat, which daddy installed yesterday for her.  She still fit in her infant seat, but it was getting too tough to carry her around in it.  She would have been in it earlier, but we were waiting for spring.  We've finally given up on spring ever coming and decided to put her in it.

She's eating like a champ (shocker, I know).  Her favorite food is strawberries and I've learned if I give them to her with another food, she will pick out all the strawberries before she eats anything else.

  She is starting to get into just about everything, but has learned that no means no.  If I tell her no sternly enough, she will flinch and actually listen to me.  The next time she goes near something I've told her no to, she'll keep repeating no no no no as she crawls near it. 

Her latest favorite (and daddy's too) is "shaking her piggies".  I'll have to post a video, because this one is REALLY cute! 

Happy birthday Makenna!  We love you!!

Enjoying my new wagon!

The Easter Dress

My friend Cheryl wrote an awesome post on "The Easter Dress" that I couldn't resist reposting.  It sums up quite well my feelings about last weekend and getting my little girl all dressed up.  Thanks, Cheryl and praise the Lord for answers to years of prayers for both of us!

"We all know that the real reason why we celebrate Easter is to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We celebrate because our Lord and Savior rose from the dead three days after taking on our sin and dying a brutal death on the cross. What an INCREDIBLE reason to celebrate!!! Honestly, I think it will take a million more Easters for me to truly understand what Jesus did.


This year, Easter 2011, was unlike any other. Through many tears I’ll try and explain. You know how Easter in modern-day culture involves easter bunnies, easter egg hunts, and easter dresses? It does, right? Sad but true. And of all the commercial hype that surrounds this amazing holiday, it’s those darn easter dresses have been silently breaking my heart year after year.

Every Easter, for years, John and I would go to church and I’d see adorable little girls in frilly little dresses... and my heart would break. Oh, what I wouldn’t have given for my own little girl in an Easter dress!

John and I had our hearts broken monthly - for years - as we waited on God to grant us our heart’s desire and answer our prayers with a child of our very own. There were lots of really hard days, and really hard months... but the holidays were always the toughest. Especially Easter. All because of those darn dresses.

But this Easter............. at last... we were able to celebrate with a little girl of our very own, dressed in a frilly little easter dress. And our hearts couldn’t be any fuller.

We couldn’t be more thankful to God for showing us his love and faithfulness through his Son, Jesus Christ... as well as through our own little miracle, Alexa Mae."

Here's a shot of Miss Lexi in her BEAUTIFUL Easter dress:

And our Miss Makenna in her frilly dress:

Thank you Cheryl, for the heartfelt post.  I must admit this Easter I got teary eyed more than once holding on to this little girl and thanking God for answering my prayers.