Happy Halloween from Grandma and Grandpa

The other day, a surprise package was waiting for Mairead when we got home from school. Grandma and Grandpa had sent a Halloween gift from New York! There were a few adorable outfits, but Mairead was much more interested in the pretty card and the stuffed cat!

"Cat" is one of her favorite words to say, and lately we have been trying to teach her animal sounds, so she is practicing saying 'meow.' It's pretty funny- her voice gets very high pitched and she tries to imitate the cat. My favorite, though, is that we told her that a fish says, "Blub, blub, blub." When she says it back to us it is impossibly cute!


Anyway, you can see how happy she is to have her gift. She carried around the cat and the card for a while, but the cat won out as a favorite. Whenever she sees it, she smiles and looks at us to say, "Cat." Since our own cat is all black, she now has her own minature version!



Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

In unrelated news, Mairead had her 15month check up today and did very well. She was not at all happy about having to sit still to be examined, but other than that, she was great. She is in the 98th percentile for height, and 90th for weight, which just confirms what we already knew- we have a big girl on our hands! They were very happy with her development and impressed with her language skills. We are so thankful that she has turned out to be such a healthy and happy kid. As for our other kids, we have an ultrasound in FIVE more days! We can't wait to be sure that they are healthy and to find out if we are on team blue or team pink! We will definitely let you all know as soon as we find out. Think good thoughts for healthy babies!

Last but not least-- today is Grandma's birthday! Happy birthday with lots of hugs and kisses! See you in a few weeks!

C.N. Smith Farms

Today, we visited C.N. Smith Farms in Bridgewater for some Fall fun! They had pumpkins, apples, Halloween decorations, animals, and all kinds of great fall treats. We met the Estee family there and got some great pictures of the kids.

I promise, she was having fun. She was just getting a little sleepy when we took these pictures!


Her favorite part was climbing all over the pumpkins they had set out for sale. She was fascinated by them! Some were almost as big as she is!



This is one of my favorite pictures from the day- good job, Daddy! Dave also took the beautiful picture at the top of the blog- maybe I should hand over the role of family photographer to him from now on! I probably won't have much choice when I have arms full of babies.


Connor had a great time exploring the pumpkins, too!


Mairead loves animals, so she was excited to see the sheep and goats.

How cute are these kids?

There are more pictures in the slideshow to the right if you want to check out more of our day Thanks to the Estee family for a fun Saturday!

In other news, I had another appointment yesterday (I go every 2 weeks, but it feels like more!). I heard two healthy heartbeats (156bpm and 158 bpm), which always makes me feel better about these little ones. We still have about 10 days to go before we have the ultrasound to make sure they are growing well and to find out who will be outnumbered, me or Dave! If we have girls, Dave is seriously overpowered by team pink. But if we have boys, Mairead and I will be in the minority. Either way, we are happy as long as they are healthy and behave themselves until at least March!

Special Guest

Today, Mairead had a special visitor. Her aunt, Jen, stopped by since she had to work in Quincy today. Mairead was very surprised and excited to see her, especially when Jen let her play with her purse!

There were all kind of fun things in there. She took every single thing out and examined each one.

She is pretty smart, though; she knew to hold on to the good stuff.

She held on to the cash for quite a while! Thanks for visiting, Jen, and thanks for letting Mairead play with all of your fun things!

Happy Birthday, Connor!

Today, we spent the afternoon at the Estee residence to help celebrate Connor's first birthday. Mairead and Connor had a great time playing together, eating (and wearing) cake, and playing with his new toys. Thanks for having us, Jaime and Joey! And thanks for sharing, Connor!

Mairead was clapping while watching Connor play.

They love this Elmo. We think it is a little creepy because the pizza he is holding has a face, and it opens its eyes and sings. They were really great about sharing!

Nothing says happiness like a child eating her first ever cheese curl!

Ok, maybe cake is even better! Jaime made these adorable cupcakes and Mairead got to have her very own! She tore right into it and at the whole thing! Thanks, Jaime!

Ever since she was very young, Mairead has laughed at Joey. We're not sure what it is, but she always finds him pretty amusing! She loved all of the balloons, too.

We had a great afternoon at the party- thanks to Jaime and Joey for hosting, for the great food, and especially, for Mairead's BFF! There are more pictures in the slideshow to the right of this post if you'd like to see more of the kids!

Happy Anniversary!

On Wednesday, Dave and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. Man, has it been an eventful two years! After getting married, we got pregnant, went on our honeymoon, bought a house, moved, I finished my Master's Degree, got pregnant again, and now we are expecting twins! These two years have been amazing and Dave and I are excited to see what the next year brings for us and for our growing family.

Thanks to all of you who sent cards, emails, text messages, and phone calls to send anniversary wishes. Our favorite card came from our niece, Rachael, who drew a special picture for us. As you can see, she already knows, at only 5 years old, that we are going to have our hands full! Thanks for the great card, Rachael!

In other sort of anniversary news, this is the 101st post on our blog. Thanks for keeping up with our lives-- on to the next 100!

A Beautiful Fall Day

Today brought us beautiful weather so we had to get outside and enjoy it! Today is also Mairead's BFF, Connor's first birthday-- Happy Birthday, Connor!

We spent some time in the yard and Mairead got a ride from her Daddy. We also played ball and pushed around her little walking toy. After that, we took a walk over to the soccer fields to see all of the kids. She loved it! The fields across from our house are full of people every Saturday and she just kept saying, "kids, kids" over and over. Someday, she'll be running around playing soccer, too!

The shirt she is wearing has a lion on it and says 'Leo' because that is her astrological sign. My grandfather's name was Leo, and he was a pretty amazing person, so I think it is very fitting that she has that sign.

The Irish sweater she has on was a gift from one of my students last year. Bridget asked her grandmother to make it for Mairead when the kids threw a baby shower for me. I have been waiting for her to get big enough to wear it- I love it and I thought it was so sweet of Bridget and her grandmother to do that for us.


We hope that all of you are enjoying a nice fall day, too!

Another New Word

This week, Mairead learned to say another new word, and the word is, 'clock.' It is kind of an odd word for a 14month old to choose to learn, but she has always been a girl of her own mind, and clock is what interested her, so clock is what she says.

I have the hardest time getting her to walk or talk on video because she is more interested in the camera than in doing what I want her to do, but today she was pretty cooperative. In this clip, she says, 'clock,' does her 'touchdown' pose, and is 'silly.'

In an unrelated update, we took her to the pediatrician yesterday for a pretty bad diaper rash, and learned that she is 26lbs. She is wearing mostly 24 month clothes, and is growing all the time!

I don't have any updates on the twins, so they are pretty much staus quo. We don't have another ultrasound until November 4, so it is going to be a long month of waiting to see them again! I am feeling pretty good. I still have some nausea and I am much more tired than I was with Mairead, but I suppose that is to be expected. The hardest part is that I am not supposed to lift anything, vacuum, carry laundry, etc. This may SEEM like a good thing, but it's very frustrating to want to do something and not be 'allowed.' But, I will do what I have to do to keep these little ones healthy. Thank God for my husband who has been amazing!