Questions

We spent this past weekend in Gilbert and didn't get home until about 11pm Tuesday night. Because we were so tired we only unloaded the car and went to bed. Yesterday was a very long day trying to get everything put away and cleaned up. As I was doing this I was asking myself some questions.

Why is it easier to get things done while holding a baby on your hip than to listen to your baby cry?

Why does my husband have more closet space than me? There is something very wrong with this.

Why can't the laundry ever be done? Everytime I do the laundry before I am done there are already dirty clothes added to the new piles.

I'll post pictures soon of this past week.

Zoe has found her fingers

This last week Zoe has began chewing on her pointer and middle fingers. She doesn't really suck on them, just chews on them. It has been nice. I think that is partly why she is finally going longer between feedings. It's amazing the difference between feeding every 2 hours to almost every 3.

I just thought this picture was too cute. By the way he's eating a french fry.

Maeley realized that she too can fit inside Ella's cage. Silly girl.

Life has been fun adjusting to a new puppy. The kids still love Ella to pieces, sometimes more than the dog would like. She has realized that she can hide from them almost anywhere. We often find her under the sofas. She's a quick one too. Today I have found many toys under the sofa that I know Ella pulled under herself. I have yet to find anything with teeth marks from her chewing, well other than paper. We are still trying to tackle house training. It's so irritating when we take her outside for her to do her business and will go pee but then come back inside and poop. Seriously that's getting old.

What do you think?

Do our girls look alike?

To be honest when Zoe was first born we definitely thought she looked more like Maeley than Chase, however she has Chase's pout. Over time Zoe has become her own person and we don't really see anybody else in her. She's just her own person. Then on her blessing day wearing the same dress as Maeley she totally looked like Maeley. Tell us what you think.

Left: Maeley and Melanie March 5, 2006

Right: Zoe and Melanie February 1, 2009

And puppy makes 6

We finally gave into Maeley's request for a dog. She's been asking for one pretty much since we moved down to Tucson. Chase is afraid of most dogs but we found one he likes. We bought a Maltese and is 2 months old named Ella. Chase gives her hugs and kisses and pets her and says "soft". Shes actually a really good puppy. Not too hiper but playful with the kids. Maeley can't get enough of her.

The puppy really likes Zoe and will come a sit on her belly and lick her face. Zoe doesn't mind at all. As seen in a picture above, Maeley will put Ella in her doll stroller, buckle her in and take her for a ride. We have some really happy kids.

New family pictures

A couple weeks back I was scheduling a photo session for the kids to get updated pictures. The lady suggested Derek and/or I wear something to coordinate just in case we needed to be in the picture with the kiddos. Then we went to Target to possibly buy new outfits for the kids because they really didn't have anything that matched. While we were looking for clothes we decided to get family pictures taken. I saw a cute shirt for Maeley in green so we went with it hoping to find green shirts for everyone. We found one for everyone except me. I then decided to head over to the girls department just to see if they had anything in the right shade of green and that might fit me. So I have to admit in high school I would sometimes buy clothes in the girls department but I never thought at the age of 26 after having 3 kids that I could still do that.

I love my little family more than anything.

Zoe's Blessing Day

Sunday, Derek gave Zoe a beautiful blessing. Unfortunately she was crying through most of it. Derek's dad during the blessing put his finger in her mouth so she could suck on it which did work. After when the father holds up the baby so everyone can see, Zoe just started crying again because there was no finger in her mouth. There was a laugh throughout the congregation. My parents and Derek's parents both came. After church we had a nice lunch at our house and then they left late in the afternoon. Derek and I really appreciated the extra help at church. By far Sunday is the hardest day of the week.

My parents with Zoe

Derek's parents with Zoe

She was just so mad that morning. She looked beautiful in her blessing dress though. Actually, she's wearing the same dress Maeley wore.

Another Day At The Park

In case no one could tell, the pictures from the last post about the bowling alley birthday party would hopefully have appeared to be of a better quality than had been posted. There is a reason. New camera. The last one crapped out and I needed something that I didn't feel limited my creativity.

Today I got the chance to actually use my new camera in the outdoors. I had been doing some reading up on different things about taking photos with the features available with a quality camera, but couldn't do much with the poor lighting of indoors. Below are some of the pictures from a trip to the park with my parents who came down for the weekend. Some are quite funny. Enjoy.

Look at those matchy-matchy girls!

I like this one a lot.

Seems Belle has her eye on my dad.

But, my mother has a serious chat about how my dad can't be running around with dolls.

Palm-head

Bowling at Bedroxx

The kids were invited to a birthday party on Saturday at a bowling ally called Bedroxx. This party was for a co-worker of Derek's 3 year old girl named Caprice. The little girls first met back in August when we went bowling for a company event. Maeley thought she was so cool because she had a Tinker Bell doll. Plus she had a basket filled will stickers of the Disney princesses. This time she really enjoyed herself and Chase helped her bowl too.

Derek helping the kids bowl

Derek took this picture. I think it's really cool, even though Chase moved a little and it looks like he has two ears.

What a handsome boy!

Maeley waiting for her bowling ball.

The birthday girl, Caprice.

Zoe pics

I can't believe that Zoe is almost 3 months old. She's not a newborn any longer. Time is going by so quickly and our kids are growing up. Zoe has changed so much recently I thought I'd better post new pictures of her. She is smiling all the time now, yet somehow I haven't been able to capture it on my camera. Well there's more than one reason for that. Our camera has been acting up lately and the auto focus is not focusing correctly therefore we are getting blurry pictures. I have a few pictures where she is smiling but they turned out fuzzy. Its really annoying me.

What a cutie!

See slighly blurry, but oh well.

Isn't that smile funny? Maeley loves Zoe and Zoe loves her back.

I just can't get enought of this cutie!

Hanging out with Dad during the Cardinals game Sunday