funny faces

Its your lucky day... I decided to just keep posting. Im on a roll.

Caroline and I had an impromptu photo shoot the other day. Here are a few of her many faces!

rewind... maddie's last day as an only child and pumpkins!

I just plugged in my camera to upload pictures onto my computer and found some pictures we took the last day or two before I had Caroline that I had to share. We kept Maddie home from school for a little one on one time and then went to one of our favorite spots - Stone Mountain - for our usual hike with Tucker.

Finally enjoying hats... which is good with winter coming up

Maddie Love

We were excited to check out the "pumpkin festival" at Stone Mountain Park... but it turned out to be pretty lame and on top of that - Maddie was NOT in the mood for pumpkin picking. She said "no" to absolutely everything we asked her to do... so we just strollered around for a few minutes, took a few pics and left for our hike.

With a VERY pregnant mommy

And a VERY big pumpkin

Once we got onto the walking trail, Maddie was back to her usual cheerful self. She loves looking at acorns, sticks, leaves... you name it... and especially loves throwing sticks in the water for Tucker. We thought it might be too cold for Tucker to swim- but he said he didnt mind the cold. It might be his last swim of the year so we went ahead and let him get all wet and stinky.

Those sunglasses stayed on her head or eyes the entire day!

Ready, set, SWIM!
Walking with Daddy

I'll be back soon with a more Caroline related post. She's doing great and is an angel. She sleeps a TON (I guess I forgot how much newborns sleep!) and Maddie is adjusting to being a big sister really well (fingers crossed).

sister love

pumpkins for the punkin

Maddie, Grammie and Jim took a trip to our local church "pumpkin" patch to pick out a few pumpkins to carve. Maddie came home with two big ones and lots of little ones that she thought looked like cupcakes!

We might carve them tonight... or maybe we'll wait for Aunt Laura to get here tomorrow night!

homeward bound

Here are a few pictures of Caroline leaving the hospital. I have to admit I was a little sad to leave the care of the nurses and being waited on hand and foot. It was like a little mini-vacation except with a lot less sleep!

Little beauty

All dressed up and ready to go!

Yes, I am as tired as I look

Car ride home complete with lovely safety information

We're home now and its nice to have the family together. Grammie and Grandad are here making our lives a million times easier by doing ALL of the cooking and cleaning and entertaining Maddie! THANK YOU GRAMMIE AND GRANDAD!!!!!

baby love

baby sisters piggies

Just when I thought my heart couldn't grow any bigger...

Caroline Louise Herndon is here!

Our sweet baby girl Caroline is here and was well worth the wait! Jim, Maddie and I are in love with the newest member of our family and just can't wait to share our lives with her. She came into the world yesterday, October 20th at 11:42am.

Mommy with Caroline just minutes after being born!

Madelyn came to the hospital to meet "baby sister" after school and melted my heart. We weren't sure how she would react to her, and to see her face light up when she saw Caroline was the sweetest thing you ever saw. She was so excited to meet her, to touch her, to kiss her and even to play this little piggy with her toes!

We headed home to the hospital today. When we get home and get settled, I'll sort through our pictures and start posting!!!! Thanks to all for your love and support the past few months.

cupcakes, snuggles and let's get this party STARTED!

Still here! Tomorrow is baby girls due date. She's already showing her Herndon-style by making me wait longer than I'd like. But, I took most the week off to prepare and spend a little extra time with my sweet Maddie while waiting for Baby Sister to come.

First we made cupcakes and they were YUM!!!! Maddie was such a great help! She literally did everything from lining the pan with cups to pouring everything into the mixer (after i measured) and turning it on (and watched it with amazement).



Next we decorated... Maddie was great at it! I can't believe how big she is.

Then we taste tested... of course! Its only right!

CHEESE!

We got in a little Mommy-Maddie snuggle time. I wish I could lay like this with her all day long every day! Unfortunately she only sits still for about 30 seconds.

I had a few more pictures from the week, but blogger and I are not getting along well so I have to end with these. I'll post more soon (if Im not at Northside in labor!)

Speaking of labor... BRING IT Scallini's. For those of you not in Atlanta... I'll fill you in. There's a restaurant here in Atlanta thats famous for putting women into labor with its eggplant parmigiana. Its been on the Today show and other national media. Its well-known that mom's go into labor within 48 hrs of eating it. They give babies little Scallini's t-shirts if they were born because of the eggplant and there's a picture wall at the restaurant with all the babies pics! I assume for legal reasons, they post the entire recipe online for anyone to view and make! So... Jim made it for me tonight and let me tell you - even if I dont go into labor it was the BEST EGGPLANT PARM I've ever eaten!

So we'll see if it works! I ate it at 9pm on 10/15. You have 48 hours kid! Honestly though, the recipe was great and I highly recommend it even if you're not pregnant. I'll let you know in a few days if the legend has anything to it.

Night night friends! We'll keep you posted!

39 weeks, 5 days

But who's counting, right?

Just two more days til my due date... and to be honest, Im feeling pretty good. I felt worse this weekend than I do today and Im certainly grateful for that. This baby has to come out eventually, right? So I might as well enjoy the last few days while I can.

Is it just me- or does Maddie look four in this picture? What's up with that? I know she will immediately look and seem a LOT older to us once the baby is here... but I'm not ready for her to mature this fast! Slow down girl!

waiting, waiting, and more waiting

We're still just a family of three.

I'm feeling trapped in the house and it's not a good feeling. We've been out and about a little bit this weekend but for the most part, I've been limiting activity and trying to take it easy. I HATE being couped up in the house all day. It drives me crazy! So... I've been trying to keep occupied. LOTS of cleaning, made a batch of cupcakes with Maddie, coming up with new games to play and am trying to sit down and watch TV (although there is never anything worthwhile on... i really don't know how people watch TV during the day).

So I thought I would update the blog. Lucky you!

Here are a few pictures of Madelyn from a few days ago in a funny shirt that Jims San Antonio client gave him on his last trip. He's going to send them to his client (who apparently likes that sort of thing). The shirt says, "Energy Rebates... the more you save, the more you save" Ummm, ok. Whatever floats your boat.

Okay, gotta run. Maddie's asking me to play with her and I can't resist. I'm sure I'll be updating a lot the next few days so I'll "see" you again soon!

39 weeks!

39 weeks and baby girl is still baking in the oven! We're okay with that- although life has had to slow down for me quite a bit this week. I feel like I have lead weights strapped to my legs. I had my 39 week appt this morning and am 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced. It means my body has started the process... but it doesnt mean I'll go into labor anytime soon ... although you never know! We've narrowed it down to about 5 names. 5!!! Yikes.

In other exciting news... Maddie is well on her way potty training herself. I say that because she tells us when she needs to go potty versus the other way around. Its certainly not every time, but at least a few times a day ( I know she uses the potty quite a bit at school but we don't get a daily report on it). She just told me a few minutes ago and actually went on the potty!!! Its so exciting. One less poopy diaper to change. Its a very liberating feeling to just flush the toilet and watch all that mess go down the drain.

cooling down. i heart fall.

I might say this 100 times this year, but I really love fall. I am starting to love everything about it. Cool air, pumpkins, chili, Maddie in tiny cardigan sweaters, the list goes on and on!

We started off this week with a few VERY cool days (we're back to shorts and tank tops now)and it was SOOOO nice and refreshing! We bundled up Maddie in a brand new fall sweater she got from Grammie and she just looked enough to eat. She was still feeling a little under the weather (as you can see from her red chapped nose) but she still looked adorable.

Still working on "cheese"

"Poor sickie still a little pale"

Wake up Tuck! If we're up - you have to be too!

One advantage of being up at 6am

I hope the cool temps come back. I was really enjoying them. Its also PERFECT running weather even though Im 1000 lbs at the moment and can't run. Im literally counting down the days until I can strap on those running shoes!

daddy/maddie roadtrip!

Happy October everyone! I'm starting to REALLY love fall. Like.. LOVE it. The weather is just starting to get nice and cool and crisp and the holidays are just around the corner (including Halloween of course!).

A few weekends ago Jim took Maddie up to Apex for the weekend so she could spend some time and Grammie and Grandad and he could play in the Apex Golf Association Fall Tournament up there. This involved Jim driving 6 hours (one-way)by himself with Maddie in the backseat. Im not sure I would have even taken on that challenge. But he did it - and she did great. He timed it so that most of the drive was past her bedtime and she slept - and the rest of the time was occupied by Tinkerbell on DVD.

What did I get out of the deal? A very quiet weekend by myself for the first time in... well... since before Maddie was born. It was pretty heavenly. I didn't get nearly as much done as I had planned (I had all sorts of ideas of cleaning, sorting, shopping, etc etc... I pretty much just read and slept). It was a nice little break before the baby comes and from the looks of the pictures - Maddie had a great time in Apex.

Look at tan Grandad!! I think he must play a lot of golf!

Grammie teaching Maddie to sit-and-spin!

Fun with Grammie

Aunt Susan, Maddie and Grandad