The Egg Hunt

The Easter Bunny hid lots of candy filled eggs in our backyard.  All the brightly colored eggs looked so pretty in the grass and bushes that I almost didn't want the girls to gather them up. I really need to use our video camera because my favorite part was listening to them scream with glee each time they discovered a hidden egg.  Gwen's basket got so heavy that Jon had to carry it around for her.  Elle only liked the eggs with chocolate kisses in them and Gwen only liked the jelly bean filled eggs.  As soon as the hunt was over they went through their eggs and swapped for their favorites.  Needless to say, our home is brimming with candy.  I let the girls eat candy all day long.  Literally.  Chocolate for breakfast? Sure!  A jelly bean snack? Why not?!

Oh, how I love Easter.

Easter Morning

Before the girls went to bed they each grabbed their empty pails and placed them in front of our fireplace.  We of course also had the carrots that Elle placed right in front of the baskets for the Easter Bunny.  We made sure to leave the fireplace doors open so that he could get into our home.  The girls were so excited they could barely stand themselves.  As I was getting the girls out of the bath and into their pajamas, Elle informed me that she liked their new jammie dresses (our word for nightgowns) but that they were not very "eastery".  Apparently they needed to have ducks or bunnies on them.  (I will remember that next year, Elle).  Their anticipation for the bunny's arrival was just too cute for words.  The next morning we woke up and headed downstairs to see if the Easter Bunny had visited our home.  Well let me tell you, he did not disappoint.  The girls ran down the stairs and were almost star-struck that the Easter Bunny had eaten their carrots!  They both could not get over that.  They loved their treats.  The bunny knew that Easter means only chocolate from Sees Candy (wow, that was a long line) and they each had giant foil wrapped bunnies and chicks. They ripped the foil off and both bit off their bunnies chocolate heads.  Gwen got the movie, Peter Rabbit and Elle got the movies, Charlie Brown Easter and (drum roll) Beverly Hills Chihuahua.  Elle saw the movie and said, "how did he know"?!  Silver piggy banks that daddy helped them fill with pennies were also so fun.  We had a really great morning and yes, being the parent is WAY more fun than being the kid.  Jon and I loved every minute.  

One More Sleep

Our house has been decorated for a few weeks now in anticipation for Easter Sunday.  The paper mache' eggs are a big hit as is the bunny on the dresser in our entry.  The bunny is on a box and if you open it, there are two (secret) pretty eggs inside.  But I would have to say, the favorite decoration by a land-slide is our Easter Tree.  It is adorned with pretty painted eggs and pictures of the girls.  They love to hop on the kitchen counter and admire their little faces hanging in bunny and baby chick painted frames.  I was happy to report to the girls this morning that we have just 'one more sleep' until Easter.  Upon hearing the news, Elle ran straight to to refrigerator and then informed me that we DO NOT have any carrots in the house.  That is at the top of our to-do list today... all in preparation for the Easter Bunny's arrival.  

A First

Elle was pretty excited this afternoon.  We were lying on my bed while Gwen was napping and her baby sister in my tummy was being abnormally active.  I told her to put her hand on my stomach and then to just be still.  I wish I had a camera to capture her excitement.  She felt her sister kick her little hand through my stomach for the first time.  She was absolutely in awe. She sat straight up, looked at me with an open mouth and wide eyes and said, "mama, I felt her, tell her to do that again"!!! Pretty sweet and I think something she won't soon forget.  

Gwen Gwen

We rarely call this cute little girl Gwendolyn or even Gwen.  In our home she is either referred to as    'Gwen Gwen' or Gwenners.  She loves jackets with hoods and calls her hood a hat.  And when she is lucky enough to have a jacket on that has an attached hood, the hood HAS to be on too.  I love my 'Gwen Gwen' and I love how cute her little round face looks when she has on her "hat".  

Comfort

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with this cute little face about one inch from mine (elle's that is, not tiger's).  Elle said she felt sick and had thrown up.  I hopped her up into our bed while I went to survey the situation in her room.  Sure enough she had.  I stripped her bed, started the wash, cleaned Elle up and got her back to sleep only to have the whole scenario repeat itself about 45 minutes later.  Poor thing.  Jon had gotten home late last night and so I tried to be as quiet as I could to let him sleep.  Elle and I were in her room and she just kept crying that she just needed her daddy to know she was sick. She HAD to tell him.  She tiptoed back into our room and in the dark she tapped him on the shoulder and said, "dadda, I am sick and I just wanted you to know".  He kissed her and she tiptoed back out of our room and into her bed with me.  Something about just him knowing she was sick comforted her.  I thought it was so sweet and I could relate.  When I had a few months of being super sick with this pregnancy I did the same thing to Jon on numerous occasions.  In the middle of the night I would tap him on the shoulder, while wimpering I would say, "I know you can't do anything about it but I just need you to know how sick I feel right now".  Just like he did with Elle, he would kiss my forehead and then just hold my hand as I would try to get back to sleep. Somehow just him knowing also made me feel better.  The girls love their dadda and I love my Jon.  

So no preschool for us today.  Gwen is thrilled to have Elle's company.  Laundry, cartoons, 7-Up and tissue paper flower making here we come.  

(p.s. i love how cute my ellers looks in these pictures.  her blue eyes and little bare feet are my favorites. tiger is pretty cute too)

23 Weeks

Just like her mama, Elle loves to take pictures.  She took this of me in our front yard this afternoon with our dog, Tiger.  This was our best shot. The other pictures had my entire face cut off...she was focusing in on my ever expanding belly. Can't blame her, it is a hard target to miss these days.  I am now 23 weeks pregnant and feeling so much better.  Can't wait to meet this little mcgee girl I am carrying inside of me.  It is starting to feel "real" and I am so excited.  

Peek-A-Boo

If I am in a hurry or not in a hurry, without fail, Gwen has to play peek-a-boo each and every time I get her out of her carseat.  In fact, those adorable little chubby fingers will not budge from her eyes unless I indulge her in atleast one game.  This is one of the little things about her that I know I will miss someday and most likely would even forget as time passes.  So as long as she thinks it is funny, I am happy to play along.  And let me tell you, she thinks this is VERY funny.

Freeze Frame

I love when I can capture the girls without them knowing I am there.  On Sunday morning they hopped up on our window seat in the upstairs hallway.  Elle opened the shutters completely so they could watch the rain sprinkling down outside.  I heard her telling Gwen to look for birdies and to watch the rain trickle down the window.  I think of Elle as being so big because I so frequently compare her to Gwen.  But looking at these pictures I am reminded just how little she still is. Standing there in her jammies sucking her thumb.  These are the little moments that melt me.  While trying to get down Gwen just barely bumped her toe.  Elle ran and got a band-aid for her and helped take care of her little sister. She is my little nurturer and loves to take on the role of mommy any chance she gets.  Oh how I wish I could just freeze time with these little ones.  

My Girl

Miss Gwenners had her cast removed.  She is loving the freedom she now has, especially in the bath tub.  We got our Easter decorations out over the weekend.  The girls were so excited!  Gwen loves to walk around with her basket of paper mache eggs.  She spent a good portion of this morning transfering them from the silver bowl to her felt easter basket and back.  Good Times.  I am enjoying being back into our daily routines.  I am appreciative of the simple times I spend with my girls and Jon.  What a blessing.  I spent so much time along with so many others praying that this little one would be OK.  Now that she is, I do not want to take it for granted.  I want to continue to pray now in gratitude for the blessing that I still have her with me.  The miracle that she is doing well and is here with us is not lost on me.  We were given a precious gift.  I still feel so much gratitude to all the many other families that prayed on our family's behalf.  Again, thank you.  I love being a mom. Gwen and Elle's mom.  Nothing could bring me as much happiness as my two little blue eyed girls.  

Table for Two

When I was 4 years old I remember my dad waking me up in the middle of the night.  In the dark he snuck me downstairs and we had our own little date night.  He popped a bag of popcorn and we watched the movie Lady and the Tramp all while the rest of my family slept.  I am the 2nd of 5 children so to be singled out this way was a HUGE deal.  I am sure little episodes like this happened with all five of us but to me I felt sooo special and so very important. This was a simple thing but as you can see, 30 years later I am still thinking about it.  Well last night I woke up at 3:30am and could not get back to sleep.  That night with my dad came to my mind and I had an idea...

I crept into Elle's room and in the dark I whispered her name.  Her sleepy little eyes opened and I said, "Elle, it's mama.  Do you want to go downstairs with me and have some cereal...just the two of us"?  She sat right up and with a huge grin on her face she started shaking her head yes.  The two of us went down into the kitchen and without turning on even one light, we got the milk and the cheerios out.  She started out sitting right next to me but by mid-bowl my cute little Ellers was sitting in my lap.  With just the moonlight shining in on us from outside our kitchen window we had our special time.  I told her a few of my very favorite things that I loved about her and tried to express how much I love her. She is my little girl, forever.  With no preschool on Fridays Elle was able to sleep in as late as she wanted.  When she came downstairs this morning, I gave her a little wink with my eye.  It was our little secret and I can't wait for another bowl of moonlit cheerios with my Elle.  

My (little) Big Girl

Elle and Gwen spent the majority of this morning in their pajamas playing house.  Elle was the mama and Gwen was the baby.  Elle even had Gwen calling her mama.  She is still little (just 4 years old) but she is our big girl.  She LOVES to be the mommy and Gwen is happy to play along.  Elle put a purse on her shoulder and sat Gwen in this dolly stroller and strolled her all around our downstairs. She even loaded Gwen up with a blanket, baby doll and a pretend box of pretzels from our play kitchen.  They were apparently running errands.  I love Gwen's oh-so-serious face.  

We're Seeing Pink

Baby McGee #3 is a ...GIRL!    

I told Elle and Gwen that daddy and I were giving them ANOTHER best friend.  Gwen doesn't quite understand yet but Elle is over the moon excited.  And so am I. 

3 little girls running around here...I can't wait.

They Found Us!

Those sneaky leprechauns found the McGee house!  We have been talking about this day for weeks.  On our calendar that hangs in our kitchen, Elle colored today's date in green so that she could count the days until St. Patrick's Day.  When the girls ran downstairs this morning they saw what those silly leprechauns had done.  Green shamrock balloons were hanging on the girls' chairs and Silver and Gold chocolates were all over the floor.  The leprechauns even tipped over our kitchen chairs and took all of the pillows off of the couch!  The thing that made the girls giggle the most was that the leprechauns turned our milk green and when I made their scrambled eggs, those mysteriously turned green too!  And let me tell you, Elle made sure that I dressed her in head to toe green for school.  She did NOT want to risk getting pinched.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday Mornings

I love Sunday mornings.  My Jon is home and we don't have to hurry and get out of our pajamas. This morning the girls were racing around our kitchen on these hot pink plasma cars.  They call this game, "freeway".  The kitchen island makes the perfect round-a-bout and they get going pretty fast.  I need to video it because I love how they sound...laughing and racing all around.  Elle does an amazing "skid-out" when she gets to the front door.  If you come and visit us, she will be sure to show off this incredible skill.  I love how Jon is cooking away in the background of the last photo.  I poured cereal for the girls (that's my best breakfast trick) and then Jon came into the kitchen with a much better plan and pulled out bagels and eggs and made us all amazing breakfast sandwiches.  He treats his girls well...all 3 of us :)

The Love Buckets

These little buckets are filled with sweet notes and toys that people have sent these two little girls during Gwen's recovery.  I have often thought how thoughtful everyone was to remember Elle as well as Gwen.  I explained to the girls that these buckets look like they are filled with toys but that they really are filled with love.  People that love them thought to send them these sweet little gifts.  Going through the love buckets is a favorite past-time around here.  Thank you again for being soo incredibly generous and thoughtful.  We love each of you.

Secrets

Elle taught Gwen the art of telling secrets.  It is THEIR little thing they do together and they will NOT tell me what they are saying.  Gwen's sounds mostly like breathy jibber-jabber but Elle is really confiding in Gwen.  It is pretty cute.  I love watching these two sisters interact. Priceless.  I hope they will continue to confide in eachother for the rest of their lives.  That's what sisters are for.  

The Big Day

We showed up at the hospital this morning at 5:45 a.m.  Gwen was prepped and ready for surgery on her elbow.  We ended up having to wait 2 hours while the hospital tried to locate cherry flavoring for her medicine.  What?!  Since she couldn't have any liquids we couldn't mix it in with juice (my brilliant idea).  Needless to say she was lucky she had her daddy there to entertain her.  Jon is amazing at laytex glove balloons, a hidden talent of his.  They took her off to the operating room and returned an hour or so later.  Turns out, they did not need to operate.  They took her bright pink cast off and used a machine to manipulate her elbow around and realized that her joint was in place just fine.  This is the second time she has avoided this surgery.  Hooray!  They re-casted her and sent her on her way.  When Jon and I were called back to the recovery room, there she was all bundled up in warm blankets sipping apple juice with a nurse.  When she saw us she said, "mommy, dadda"!  Those words never get old.  She then wanted her daddy to hold her (Gwen is a daddy's girl through and through.  True love I tell you).  And despite making the doctor write a special note on her surgery papers (for real) to remember the pink fiberglass, this morning they could not find pink.  Obviously not a pediatric hospital; no cherry syrup flavoring and only neutral cast colors...so white it is.  We are now home and miss gwenners is watching The Tigger Movie on TV snuggled in on the couch.  Another happy day.