Poor Girls

Both of my girls are having a few issues...

Yesterday Gigi had a reaction to something she ate. On the trip, a little after lunch we noticed that Gigi's face was swelling up. It got quite puffy. At first we just thought it was from the sun, but it got puffier so we realized it was from something she ate. Luckily she didn't seem to notice. She said that it wasn't hurting, itching, etc. Today at church we had a few doctors take a look at it (did I mention I love my ward?) and they suggested benadryl. The real concern was trying to figure out what it was that she ate. After thinking about all of the possibilities we are pretty sure it was the shrimp in the pasta salad that she ate on our trip. Because I'm not a fan of shellfish, Gigi hasn't really eaten it. We feel blessed that it was a mild reaction. No more shellfish kid, sorry :(
Here is a before and after picture to compare. Poor thing doesn't even look like herself.


After a nap and some benadryl the swelling has decreased some. Hopefully tomorrow morning it will be gone!

Sweet little Madeline has reflux issues. She seems to do pretty well during the day, but at night she throws up everything! She's pretty talented too. Tonight the throw up went all over my clothes, Gigi's bed and stuffed animals and across the room. She is such a sweet, happy girl when she's not in pain. A couple nights ago it was really bad. She was in so much pain she just kept crying for hours. She would fall asleep and wake up 10-20 minutes later wailing. We hope this problem goes away soon, but for now we're all working on learning more patience.
Here are a few pictures of our girl when she is feeling good.

Adventures in Pennsylvania

This week the girls and I went on 2 great adventures.
First, we went to the lake with a bunch of friends from the ward. It was a little bit of a drive, but was well worth it! The lake was gorgeous. At first Gigi was a little nervous to get in the water, but pretty soon her pants were soaked and she was dying to get them off so she could go in farther.



She also enjoyed playing some "baseball" and loved playing with the parachute that someone brought.


One friend brought an extra bike for Gigi so Gigi was able to practice riding a bike for the first time. It took her a little while to figure it out, but pretty soon was able to pedal all by herself. While she was first going on the bike she kept saying that the bike was weird and wasn't working. I love that she of course assumed that something was wrong with the bike and not her.

The second adventure we went on was with Candy and Tony. They took the girls and me on a road trip down the delaware river. It was beautiful! The girls were troopers while we rode in the car, even though I didn't think to bring very many distractions. Luckily Candy and Tony brought the soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz. We stopped at a really nice park for lunch. Tony made incredible italian hoagies and pasta salad for lunch. Then we enjoyed seeing the sites at Washington's Crossing. It was quite humbling to thik about what he and his soldiers did for our country. I don't know if I could have let my husband or son go off to war in those kind of circumstances.
Here are some great shots from the trip:

Tony was an excellent driver and Candy was a great navigator.


We brought a little neck pillow for Gigi to use in case she wanted to take a nap. When Gigi saw it she instantly knew what it was...a boppy so she could feed her baby. It was so hilarious watching her feed her duck, then ask the duck if it was done eating and then burp the duck. It was like looking in a mirror. It's a little scary how much kids can immitate us.


Madeline lounging in the shade. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather!



Me and my girls at a place where the soldiers ate right before crossing the delaware river on Christmas day.


Tony and Gigi examining the canon. Tony did a great job of telling Gigi stories about Washington. She was really fascinated.


Candy in front of the Delaware river, where Washington crossed.

The 20 minute dress

The other day I was in the mood to do a project, but didn't want to spend a lot of effort or time on it. I found the perfect thing at the fabric store. All I had to do was fit it to Gigi, sew one place on the dress and add the ribbon. It all took less than 20 minutes. That is my kind of project :)

Easter celebrations!

We have had so much fun this Easter. It is so much fun celebrating holidays with kids. Gigi loved every minute of the fun! She was able to participate in 3 Easter egg hunts. The first was on General Conference weekend. Our ward had an Easter breakfast and egg hunt. David really captured her excitement!


For FHE this last week we dyed Easter eggs.


Then the day before Easter we went with some friends to the zoo for some Easter fun. Because it was such a rainy day our friends let her borrow some rain gear. I think wearing the rain gear was the favorite part of her day!


They had an Easter egg hunt, Gigi met and hugged the Easter bunny, participated in story time and did some crafts. Gigi loves it when we tell her stories, so she really got into the interactive story time.


While we were there a camera man from a local news station asked if they could film her getting some candy. She ate up every minute of it. It was so funny watching her smile and stare at the camera.
At the zoo they gave out tons of candy. Among the loot Gigi got was a package of peeps chicks. I let her have one and she stuffed it in her mouth. Later while I was getting the stroller loaded up in the van Gigi took the opportunity to find the other peeps and managed to stuff 3 into her mouth by the time I got back into the van. Sigh...


On Easter Sunday, the bunny brought Gigi and Madeline matching dresses (I'll get some photos taken later) and a few other things. Gigi went on another Easter egg hunt and got way too much candy.


It really was fun to watch her sort it all out though.


That night we went to Candy and Tony's for an amazing ham dinner with the missionaries. Candy and Tony were nice enough to get Gigi a huge chocolate Easter bunny and a peter rabbit book.
I really don't know if we can keep this kind of celebrating up every year, but we sure had fun this year!!

Monday nights

I am so incredibly blessed to live next to my sister. My sister really is the coolest, most amazing person that I know. Since I moved here we have been sharing our Monday nights together since both of our husbands are gone that night. We started out with movie nights, but since the baby has come she has basically just come over and helped me out and listened to my frustrations, etc.
My girls love her! This picture is kind of blurry, but it captures how sweet and wonderful she is.
Last night was an especially hard night. Madeline was super cranky from just getting her first vaccinations, Gigi was especially hyper and difficult to get down and I was very stressed and anxious because we still haven't been able to find an apartment to rent in Erie. She somehow calmed us all down and made us feel happy and loved. Whenever Mondays come I will forever think of my sister Candy and all that she does for me! Thanks Canders :)

Favorite Things

The other night as I was feeding Madeline I looked into the hallway and noticed Gigi's black shoes and wings. Gigi's favorite things in the entire world are her pink ballerina dress, which she wears almost every day and cries when I wash it, and her black "tap" shoes. She also loves to accessorize these items with her favorite pink fairy wings and wand and lately has been slipping on some pink striped tights to go with the outfit.
When I noticed these items it reminded me of a story my highschool english teacher shared with me. She had a toddler that was always putting her handprints on the television. It drove her crazy. Somehow this toddler died and after the funeral she came home and saw the handprint on the tv. She took the tv and put it in the attic so that she would always have her child's handprint. Sometimes it feels like my home is full of Gigi's clutter, but that night it reminded me how precious that clutter is.



I think another one of Gigi's favorite things is Madeline. It is so fun to see the connection these two sisters already share.

April Fool's on me

I was in charge of our preschool group today and because it is so close to Easter I thought it would be fun to have an Easter egg theme. Among the many fun things I chose to do we of course had to dye Easter eggs, so last night I boiled some. I had 2 dozen eggs in 2 different cartons so I boiled one dozen.
Today after we dyed the eggs I threw away the dye and gave the girls some stickers to decorate them with. One of the girls dropped an egg and then immediately after, Gigi dropped an egg. They both seemed pretty upset and I said, it's no big deal they will just have a little crack in them. Then I looked down...they were not hard boiled at all. There were 2 oozing raw eggs all over our rug. I apparently mixed up the cartons (maybe I really should get organized and label things!!) and had the girls dye raw eggs! What a crazy mom! So when the moms came to pick up their girls I had to explain that I was sending them home with colored raw eggs :)

As a side note I thought I should post some pictures of Madeline (I just wish I could capture how adorable she is!):