The Botanical Gardens

Last Friday the girls and some friends of ours Amy, Ann Catherine, and Lily headed over to see the Tremendous Treehouse's exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. We had a great time. As you can see the girls did lots of posing for the camera. Ann Catherine and Annalyse are one month apart in age and Lucy and Lily are about 9 months apart. They all get along so well. We live just a few houses down from each other, take gymnastics together, and go to church together. And as you can see on this day have lots of fun with each other.

Here is a picture of one of the tree houses designed to be a big flower pot. How cute is that? It was a bit congested inside. I think Charlotte is a little claustrophobic because each time we went inside one of the tree houses she started crying, and she never cries.

Lily Baker and Lucy loved the sand box. We had to pull them out of there. They look so sweet and innocent in this picture, and they are. By the end of the two hours Lily and Lucy were done. It was hot, they were tired and they were hungry. They also walked as slow as snails.

And these two were a hundred miles an hour the whole time. Ann Catherine and Annalyse loved playing in all the houses and running around. We also went into the butterfly garden. They happened to be releasing some new butterflies and the girls got to hold them. They loved it and it was really sweet.

Afterwards we headed to lunch and then back to our house to cool down with some ice cream. Yummmy!

Easter weekend

Earlier during the week before Easter we dyed easter eggs. As always we had lots of fun. Of course, a few eggs usually get broken in the process but the girls love it. Here we are making an absolute mess.

And here is the finished product. Pretty cute!

The easter bunny made a surprise visit also! I think that's the cutest bunny I've ever seen.

On Friday before Easter Blake, Kim, and the kids came for the weekend. We had tons of fun as always. I love the fact all the kids absolutely adore each other. It is so fun to watch them play. I am also glad that poor Grayson is finally going to get him a buddy to play with. Although, I think Grayson has a good time with Blake and Nathan too. The usually play some video games and he loves that. We made pizza's one night, went to Rosie's for lunch, played outside a bunch, and mostly just had a good time enjoying each other's company. Here are a few pictures of the kids having a big time.

I have tons more pictures but my computer seems to be erasing my pictures after I download them somehow. I am very frustrated and it is making this very difficult to do. Hopefully I will get this figured out soon. :)

I don't even know where to begin, I'm so behind!

How's that for a title? I'm a little behind in posting these days. We've had a lot of fun these past few weeks. Last weekend we started by having some of our friends over and made breakfast for the kids while they watched Toy Story in their pj's.

I don't know why the above is underlined but can't seem to remove it. woops!

That same day Mom Mom and Pop Pop came in town for Charlotte's baptism on Sunday. We had tickets to go see Disney's Rockin Road Show Friday night. Hollyce and I took the two big girls while Dad and Nathan grilled steaks and took care of Charlotte. Not sure who got the good end of that deal! :) Hollyce and I really did enjoy it. How can you not enjoy watching your kids totally light up when they see their favorite Disney characters.

Annalyse and Lucy ready to go see Mickey!! I have no idea where the peace sign is coming from.

I completely stole these pictures from my friend Amy's blog. Our pictures were so far away you couldn't tell who we were watching. Not really! But these turned out great.

I think the girls love the popcorn and drinks almost as much as the show!

In case your wondering if Lucy is crying or laughing, she is having a ball!

This picture totally cracks me up of Annalyse. This is the way she looked the majority of the time.

So we had a great time seeing Mickey and the girls were worn out. The girls love going upstairs and waking up Mom Mom and Pop Pop. The first morning they went up Pop Pop was shaving so the girls had to explore the shaving cream a little themselves.

Pop Pop's little monkeys!

Sunday was Charlotte's baptism. It was such a special time. You kind of wish something that important and special could last a little longer. It feels so good to openly profess your faith and dedicate your daughter to the Lord and raising her in His Word and in His Church. It was special having our family be a part of it, but we also missed those of you who weren't able to be there with us that day.

What an awesome ending to a great weekend. I feel overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have these three special girls. What a gift they are!

Fun with Pops!

Pops came in town last Tuesday the 16th for a visit. We took him to the Aquarium in Chattanooga. We had a great time and the girls loved it, of course. It was a long day but they did great!

Charlotte did great and hung out in the Bjorn the whole time and even took a little nap.

The next day we finally had our first sunny day in more than a week, so we headed to the park with some friends and played and had a picnic.

Lucy helped Pops make some Tapioca pudding. The girls love helping in the kitchen. If you look close you can see Charlotte sleeping on the monitor! I just noticed that. :)

Pops reading a book at bedtime. The girls had a great visit with him and didn't want him to leave.

Girls weekend!

Nathan left Wednesday for his annual guys golf trip to Destin. We were very sad to see him go. The girls and I had lots of fun though, while he was gone. I thought this was a funny picture of Lucy, Charlotte, and Beevis. It was orginally supposed to be a picture of Charlotte and Lucy showing the playdough we made that day but then as you can see Beevis snuck in and laid a big one on Charlotte. Too funny. I'm sure it surprises you all but the boys really don't do that too often (thankfully)!

I think it rained the entire time Nathan was out of town. UGH!! There were a few hours on Thursday that the sun did come out and we made it outside for a little while wearing our rain boots of course. This is Charlotte's first ride in the swing. She seemed to like it a lot. The more she swung the happier she became. It really wasn't that cold outside but it was very windy for some of the time, hence the hat.

I thought those were some cute close ups of the girls!

Saturday was such a yucky day. So the girls and I played most of the day. We got a diaper box and covered it in construction paper and stickers and then drew on it and made a face and cut out a big hole for the mouth and used it as a bean bag toss game. It was fun. A friend of mine had done it with her 2 year old boy and he played with it for hours she said. They liked it but not that much! :) So, after lunch I thought we would skip nap and have some lazy fun. It was raining outside so we went to the Movie Gallery where you can buy kids movies for $1 and some are even for free. Lucy picked out Care Bears and Annalyse picked out The Wiggles (I didn't even know she knew who they were.) We came home and made chocolate chip cookies (a special kind without eggs or peanuts), then popped popcorn and made a big pallet in the floor and ate popcorn and cookies and watched our movies. It was such a treat and they absolutely loved it.

Before Nathan left for his trip Annalyse brought one of her dolphins to him and asked him to take the dolphin with him to the beach, and so of course he did. Saturday afternoon we received this picture by email. Too sweet!!

Her eyes were huge. I think that meant so much to her that he did that. Nathan got home this afternoon and looks totally exhausted. He had a great time but I think he is worn out.

Our visit with Dr. Joseph

Today Nathan, Lucy, Charlotte, and I all went to UAB Children's Hospital for a follow up appointment with Dr. Joseph. Lucy was scheduled for an ultrasound at 11:00 a.m. She, as always, did wonderful for her ultrasound. She lays down and gets all excited about them putting "jelly on my belly and looking for the fishies". We always "talk up" our appointments as something fun we are going to go do. What was especially nice about this trip was that we were going to go see that we were now "all better" and we could thank Dr. Joseph. It also helped that we didn't have to do a VCUG today. That's when it gets ugly.

As I said she did great, and let me just take a minute to say that the nurses and the entire staff at Children's are absolutely wonderful every time we are there. They are so sweet to Lucy and they just seem to love her to death. I have such a respect for people that have to see such sad cases all day long every day. Granted they aren't all sad, but there are some REALLY sick children that go through that hospital and I can't imagine how that has to affect you over time. They always go out of there way to make us as comfortable as possible.

Now, having said that, :) we were supposed to see Dr. Joseph right after the ultrasound which only took about 20 minutes. We go back upstairs after the ultrasound and wait to see Dr. Joseph...and we wait and we wait. While we are waiting this sweet leprechaun clad clown decorated Lucy's face with these beautiful butterflies. Isn't that precious?

After reading multiple books and sitting in daddy's lap for a long time she finally fell asleep and slept for about 45 minutes or so. While she was sleeping I was even able to go nurse Charlotte in one of the empty patient exam rooms. It worked out perfectly.

Can I just say that Lucy absolutely adores Nathan. She loves him so much and always wants him to do everything (most of the time) with her and for her. She just lights up when he is around, always waiting for him to come home from work and be able to spend the weekend with him. It is so sweet to see what a special relationship they have.

So anyway, finally around 2:00 we were able to see Dr. Joseph. He was happy with Lucy's ultrasound results and said that everything looked pretty much as he expected. He said that the upper quadrant portion of her left kidney was enlarged. He compared that to a balloon that is blown up time after time and looses its elasticity. He thought that the "swelling" would probably go down after time. One of her ureters was also enlarged and hopefully that will reduce in size as well. He was happy with her incision and how well that has healed also. We made an appointment to go back in 6 months (August 9th) and we will have another ultrasound as well as a VCUG to see if she is still refluxing. If she isn't then we will be able to get off the antibiotic forever!!!!!!!!!! YEAH, can I just say that I can not wait for that day to come. Oh happy day!

So, all in all it was a great day and we grabbed linner (lunch and dinner) at about 2:30 and then headed home.

As usual Charlotte was an angel and was great all day.

Before you start feeling sorry for Annalyse because she wasn't able to be with us today, know that she had a fantastic day. Nathan and I are blessed with some of the best friends in the world. One of them being Katherine. She picked Annalyse up this morning and took her to school, then picked her up, took her to gymnastics, then they went to Big Spring Park (the duck pond) and fed the ducks. Then they headed to Baskin Robbins. (During the day I had texted Katherine checking on them and she said they were finishing up at the park and since it was 75 degrees Annalyse said she was just so hot that she really felt she needed some ice cream to cool her off. I told Katherine that she already knows how to work her good.) From there they went to one of our neighbors houses and played. When we got there she was as hyper as you can imagine. She had a great day and was absolutely worn out. They were all in bed by 7:00. Thank you Katherine!

A few random moments

This is Charlotte just hanging out with us in the living room. She is just on the verge of learning to sit up by herself. She will stay up a few minutes on the floor before tumbling over. We can wedge her in on the couch and she can sit up and play a little. She is also cutting her first tooth as well and is eating peas. YUMMM! She didn't like them too much at first but they seem to be growing on her.

When the girls know that Charlotte is awake they love to go in and "wake her up". Sometimes if I am in the middle of doing something and can't go right in and get her Annalyse loves to go and keep her company by talking to her until I get there. I don't know where it came from but the girls call her Miss De De and they just say that over and over to her. Charlotte loves it when they pay her attention. She just laughs and laughs. She always wakes up in the best of moods.

Can you see Lucy hanging down below the crib slats?

Annalyse and I had strep earlier this week and now as of today Lucy officially has it as well. They were both feeling a little puny today and they love making pallets on the couch or the recliner when they don't feel good. They get all snuggled up with their blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. I can remember doing the same thing when I was little and I loved it. They get their drinks and their little snacks and get to watch a show or read some books. They look pretty pitiful in these pictures don't they?

Trip to the Vet and a little fun painting!

Annalyse's class took a field trip to see one of our local veterinarians today. She loved it, of course. I have to say that I enjoyed it myself. No surprise there. Annalyse has said for a long time now that she wants to be a dolphin trainer at Sea World when she grows up. After today she said she wants to be the veterinarian that takes care of the dolphins. It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case one day. I can't wait (well, yes I definitely can) to find out!

Here is Annalyse listening to the heartbeat of a dachshund.

The girls love to paint. It usually involves a big mess as you can see. They start off with paint brushes but about 2 minutes into it they have their hands covered and are laughing like crazy. They had lots of fun!

Charlotte loves watching the girls do anything. She is truly one of the happiest babies I've ever been around. She's precious and growing so fast. It makes me sad. She is now saying "da da da da". Of course she doesn't know what she's saying yet but she is saying it.

Pancake Saturday

I thought I would start a blog for our long distance family out there, so you could keep up with what's going on with the McGee girls. I have thought about this for a while now but didn't know if I would really have the time to do it. We'll see. Also, I am not the best speaker/writer in the world so please don't critique my bad grammar. :) I thought it would be nice as well for the girls to have something to look back on and help them remember the special times we all had together and how much they are loved by their parents.

So, on to the pancakes. EVERY Saturday we have pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes, but daddy's pancakes. Multiple times throughout the week the girls will get excited and talk about the fact that Saturday is about to be here, daddy will be home, and we get to have pancakes.

Daddy doesn't just make pancakes, he creates them! The girls let him know what shape they would like their pancakes in. Of course, most of the time Annalyse wants a dolphin and Lucy either wants a "fishy" or a seahorse. This past Saturday they wanted sharks. Nathan does a great job coming up with all the animals. So here is a picture of Annalyse's shark.

Annalyse said, "Daddy, that just looks like a dolphin with his mouth open." "Well then that's what it is", Nathan said.

I forgot and cut Lucy's up before I got a chance to take a picture. But, as you can see she was thrilled with her pancake.

Here is my beautiful heart that he makes me each week (along with the sausage and eggs that we get as well).

The girls will say daddy makes mommy a heart pancake because he loves her. It makes me so happy that the girls know how much their daddy loves their mommy. I think that is so important and can only pray that they find a man who treats them the way Nathan treats me.

So we all enjoyed our pancakes and had yet another wonderful Saturday!