Macy's First Formal Dance & Disney on Ice

Macy's preschool held a Winter Formal. She was so excited to get dressed up and dance, break dance that is. She was all dressed up and really broke out all her moves. Santa was there too and it was definitely a shock to a mexican santa that attempted to be white. I'm not sure why they didn't just leave Santa mexican, but I guess being in the south, it was perfectly acceptable to make him put on white makeup. I'm not sure the pictures really do it justice, but this Santa definitely made you do a double take.

We also took Macy and Tyler to see Disney on Ice. Neil got us awesome seats and the kids were both totally in awe. Tyler was so excited he actually fell asleep after intermission.
Click here for pictures

The blur of November

The first weekend of November we spent in Ohio, see previous post. The next weekend was the Raleigh Christmas Parade. Adam and Katie joined us this year at the parade and it was not nearly as cold as the past year, so it was a pretty good time, although the warmer weather did make it more crowded. Adam was nice enough to lift Macy onto his shoulders so she didn't miss a thing. A few days before Thanksgiving, Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Saundra made a stop by on their Thanksgiving East Coast Tour 09. Macy made sure she woke our guest up in style with her clock that crows at 6am. The day of Thanksgiving we put the finishing touches on our new pet, Gobble Gobble and then he joined us for dinner over at the Bates' house. After having way too much sugar the girls started to run amuck and say they were going trick or treating. The day after Thanksgiving we put up the tree and Macy put the star on top. Our good friend Josh took the kids photos at the park down the street. Macy totally hammed it up. He got some awesome shots and you should recognize some of them from our Christmas card. Then we spent the rest of the weekend going craft crazy. Click here for the November pictures.

Whats round on the ends and high in the middle...

OHIO! This weekend we drove up to Ohio to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Macy was so excited about going to Grandma's house and had big plans of making banana bread and drinking tea. We discovered Tyler's love for the piano which was so cute to watch him sit and bang, I mean play, on it. Macy liked the piano too, but she was more interested in making Grandpa use Ariel to play. Grandma and Macy got dressed up for a fancy high noon tea. Of course the princesses joined them and Grandpa followed them around like the paparazzi.

Tyler is 10 months

I know I say this every month, but I really can not believe how fast the time is going. Tyler already has 5 teeth. He said his first word, "bye". We are counting this as his first because it was unprovoked by us and was said in perfect context with a wave too. He has said it since then too, but will not say it if you ask. His newest thrill is climbing into the kitchen cupboards and playing with my pots and pans. This has renewed Macy interest as well, so now I have the both of them in thier while I try to cook and my pots and pans have disappeared because clearly that is not where they belong.

October 2009 - Full of Fall Fun

Fall is in full swing with crazy weather and lots of festivities. We took the kids to Hill Ridge this year with the Bell (Ryan), Redlus (Kaden & Cooper) and Taylor (Alexis) families. The weather was in the 40s and raining off and on, hence the red noses and winter attire. The kids had a blast picking pumpkins and playing. Thankfully that was the end of the cold weather for a little while. We took the kids to the state fair. Thankfully, Neil's work had gone earlier in the week and everyone gave Neil their left over ride tickets. So we took Macy on lots of the children's rides. She had so much fun. Since a few days before we had been wearing winter coats, I didn't even thinking about sunscreen, but luckily only Neil and I got sunburns. The next weekend was extremely full with the Durant Halloween Trail on Friday night. That was a hayride to some crafts and skits in the woods. The Taylor and Bates (Avery & Claire) families joined us. The first thing the girls did was get tattoos, of course. The next day we drove out to Statesville for a Hot Air Balloon Festival with the Bates and Fitzpatrick (Marianna) families. The girls were in awe constantly. Someone gave them spin wheels which they loved carrying around to catch the wind. Once the balloons started to inflate they were mesmerized and so excited when they started to take off. As the sun set, the balloons came back to the field and would light their fires to glow. It was really pretty, but unfortunately due to the wind they had to end it early. We stayed the night at a very scary hotel then went to the zoo the next morning. We had hoped to feed the Giraffes, which is new, but apparently the Giraffes are still scared of people and not interested in the food. Macy had fun regardless and we ended up getting a family membership because we realized that this was Tyler's 3rd trip to the zoo. The zoo had some fun carnival type things going on and Macy got another tattoo. We are really keeping our fingers crossed that by the time she is old enough to get a real tattoo that the interest in them will have worn off because right now it seems we can't go to any event without her getting one. At least they are free for now. The month ended with trick or treating galore. Neil's work did their annual trick or treating for the kids, where Macy was not shy at all. Macy was the kitty cat as she requested last year. I'm still amazed she stuck with that costume idea for an entire year, although we did have a slight scare a few days before when she said she wanted to be a puppy dog like Tyler. Tyler wore Macy's puppy dog costume at Neil's work, but on Halloween itself, he had a little devil costume. We went trick or treating with the Redlus family. Kaden was a skeleton and Cooper was a bee. The kids had a blast. Macy liked to confuse people by saying "Trick or Treat, I speak Spanish". Maybe we should have made a sign that said my real costume is Dora dressed as a kitty cat. Click here to view our October pictures. Macy is continuing to take her Gymnastic classes, but is still refusing to go without me. She loves Mr. Kevin and has a blast, but the second I mention that I will watch from the lobby, she says she doesn't want to go and starts to cry. Apparently they forgot to cut the cord when she was born. Tyler has started a gym class too through the Raleigh Parks & Rec. He unlike his sister couldn't care less if I was there or not. Just don't take him away from the trampoline. He loves to jump and no matter where I put him in the room he immediately heads for it. We also finished our kitchen remodel this month, for pictures of that visit my 101 goal blog.

Tyler is 9 months

And is extremely difficult to get to lie down long enough for these pictures to be taken. He's 16lbs 5 oz and 26.75 inches tall. He is unstoppable these days. He's loads of fun to play with because he will "talk" back to you and definitely has his own ideas of what he wants to play with. Macy is also discovering the fun of interacting with him, while eating dinner if he screams she will scream and he will scream again causing her to scream again, you get the picture. She's an awesome big sister/mommy and still loves to make silly faces when he's upset. Tyler's latest facinations are our vents, he loves to pick them up and look down them, and while I'm cooking, he likes to climb into the pot cabinet and bang things together.

August & September

August and September were very busy months, especially for Birthdays. We started August out with celebrating Neil's friend Adam's birthday. Next came Macy's friend Alexis, who had her birthday party at Jumping beans. She had a blast, but it was apparently not as tiring for her as one would expect, becuase that afternoon she tore her vallance off her wall while she was supposed to be taking a nap. The next day she had her friend Kaden's birthday party at Klaystation (a paint your own pottery place) She had fun picking out a fairy to paint and then insisted on painting it yellow and only yellow with a little bit more yellow and topped off with yellow. Next was Macy's birthday which started off at home with a cake that morning, then we drove up to Auntie Robyn & Uncle Rickie's for a family style celebration. She had a birthday plum which was a bigger hit than the birthday cake. After she went to bed everyone else ate the to die for dessert that Grandma had originally planned for Macy's birthday. The next weekend Macy had all her friends over for a birthday party at home. The next day her friend Marianna had a birthday party at the beach with a hidden treasure hunt in the sand. Lastly was a surprise Lobster bake for Kellie's 30th. We got live lobsters which were in my fridge freaking me out for a couple of days. Macy made friends with them and checked on them frequently. She said "They are so cute, I love them!" I'm amazed she didn't tell Kellie all about them when we went out for cupcakes the day before the party. Inbetween all the birthday parties, Macy started a gymnastics which she absolutely loves, cried at a new ballet class stating "the teacher is scary", had ear tubs put in (amazingly well, you'd never known she had surgery, besides the 6 hour nap that day) Tyler cut 2 teeth, started to crawl, , started to eat table foods, learned to sit up and wave. To view all the pictures from August click here and September click here.

The fall harvest at the Harding house

Macy picked her pumpkin last night. This is the largest one that she grew from the seeds we planted back at the beginning of July. I was quite impressed since July was really late to start with seeds. There are a few other small ones that we left on the vine to see if they get any bigger, but we noticed the vine all around this one was starting to die, so we wanted to cut it before anything bad happened to the pumpkin. She's very proud of her pumpkin, but all she talks about is how she wants to carve it now. That might be a hard one to wait for Halloween. Next year we are definitely going to be more strategic with the pumpkin and maybe attempt to confine it to our yard. Thankfully either the neighbors haven't noticed it took over thier tree, or they just aren't to saying anything about it.

Of all the sunflower seeds, only 1 lasted to full bloom and got to be around 9 feet. We had to string it up because it was too heavy and started to bend over. We probably won't do these again next year because they were extremely high maintenance and very fickle.

Tyler is 8 months & has started crawling

And he hasn't stopped since.

What is wrong with these pictures...

One picture is Macy about to get surgery done to put tubes in her ears. She's as happy as can be & not a single tear was shed. The other picture is her on the outside of a ballet class too scare to go in, moments after a hysterical fit. Apparently she'd rather have surgery than dance with her friends. That revelation marks the end of my attempts to put her in ballet.

Macy is 3

It's so hard to believe she's 3. At times she acts like she's much older and she amazes me with the things she will say, but then other times it seems like just yesterday she was as small as Tyler. She's keeping her place on the bottom of the growth charts at 35 inches and 25 lbs. She had quite the birthday week this year. It started with a cake the morning of her birthday. I thought it would be a fun tradition to start that the mornings of thier actual birthday they would have a small cake for breakfast. She thought it was great. We then went up to Auntie Robyn and Uncle Rickie's house where we did a family celebration with Grandma, Grandpa, Robyn, Rich, Tori and Saundra. She got to open presents and had a birthday plum instead of cake. She thought that was the coolest thing ever. Then grandma came home with us and stayed the week. At the end of the week, we had the big bash with all her friends. She had her bouncy house and a Dora slip & slide, which complete with her friends was her dream come true for a party.

Tyler has survived 7 months with his crazy sister.

Tyler is 7 months old now. He's babbling away and boy can be babble. He also has perfected Macy's high pitch squeel. While he still hasn't totally figured out the crawling thing (he can go backwards like a madman, if only all the stuff he wanted was behind him...) He has started to pull himself up on stuff, which the jury is still out on whether that's a good thing or not. He also got his first tooth which you can sort of see in the picture. He's still the happiest baby in the world until 6:00 feeding time comes, then you better have his food ready or be ready to be lynched. He is Tyler Pickle Man and don't you forget it!

RRROOOAAAARRRR!!!!!!!

The Durham Life & Science Museum opened the Dinosaur trail.

July

We started July out with Macy's first ballet recital. That might possibly also be her last. We went blueberry picking, which Macy totally loved. I'm surprised she didn't turn blue with the amount of berries she ate. It is a good thing they don't have security camera's on the farm. Every berry she picked she said "I just gotta try 1." Tyler learned to sit up and is oh so proud. Macy decided, on her on (way before I was ready) that it was time for the paci fairy to come visit. She said that she wanted 2 Dora dolls and a princess dress. Well there was quite some disappointment when she saw what the paci fairy left. In the sweetest voice possible Macy exclaimed "1 Dora doll, but I asked for 2" Our goal for August: to teach her an appreciation for gifts. Tyler had his first long car ride which was all the way up to NH. A 14 hour drive, became 18 hours of driving and 24 hours in total, but amazing didn't feel terribly long. While up in NH, we went to the Henshaw cabin in Maine where we did some paddle boating, swimming and lots of relaxing. We also went to the York Beach Wild Animal Kingdom and Amusement Park. It was probably the best zoo I've ever been to, but Macy couldn't have been any less excited about the deer walking amongst us that you could feed and pet. All she wanted to do was run with Cody. She had so much fun playing with Evan and Cody. Ya Ya and Grampy had scored major points by spoiling them with Cotton Candy and of course after you have cotton candy you must have ice cream to wash it down. Of all the kiddie rides there, the only things Macy would go on was the bumper cars and a gigantic slide, which before she was even stopped at the bottom she was exclaiming, "Again, Again!" We also went to the Stone Zoo with Uncle Kurt, which was small, but what they had was good. I've also started making good progress on my 1001 goals in 101 days. Macy and I worked on making alphabet letters with pipe cleaners, which she amazed me with how many letters she could create on her own. We also made fish and fishing rods out of pipe cleaners for her and Avery to fish out of a pool. I discovered her new love for making friendship bracelets and saw her demon side when I told her it was time to stop because we had to go to ballet. So July was a full circle, we started it with crying at Ballet and ended it with crying at ballet. The middle was good though :-) To view all the July pictures click here. To view the pictures from our New England trip click here.

6 Months already

I know I've said this over and over, but wow, where has the time gone. Inspite of the 95 degree weather, I feel like it should only be March. Tyler is now 14lbs and 8oz. He has mastered eating solids and sits all on his own now. He's more determined than ever to crawl and we have some hysterical video of him attempting it, but he still hasn't figured that one out yet.

Some cute pictures of the kids

Macy's new hiding spot. (Macy says "Momma, I hide. First, you cover me with letters then you come find me")Tyler & Claire just chillin and being adorable

The little birdies hatched

They are hard to see, but we think there are 5 beaks and apparently one is very hungry cause his mouth couldn't be open any wider.

Now we just need them to quickly grow up so they can leave the nest before our house burns down. (notice the extension cord they built their next directly on top of)

Tyler has graduated from the baby tub

and I couldn't be any more excited to sell that horrible baby tub on craigs list. He loves his new ducky tubonly problem is that Macy thinks it's a boat and wants to know where the oars are...

17 Days

Up to 11 watermelons, 3 pumpkins and 4 sun flowers.

Tyler is sitting up!

It's a whole new exciting view of the world.

Happy 4th of July!

This 4th of July we had Macy's friends over and had a simple old fashioned celebration at home. The guys went out and got some fireworks that we set off out front and the kids had fun with sparklers and stayed up way too late. Now I have to explain to Macy daily why we aren't having all her friends over this weekend to set off fireworks again. I take that request as a sign that she had a blast.

Just 1 week later

So far I have 9 watermelon sprouts, 2 pumpkin sprouts and 4 sunflower sprouts. I think that's pretty good given most packets said the germination was between 7 - 14 days. We're off to a good start.

Where in the world did June go?

What we did this month:
1. We went to a Pirate day at the Museum of History in downtown Raleigh. Arrgg.
2. We checked out the NC State Botanical Gardens. We only made it about 1/3 the way through, but what we saw was beautiful. Now Neil wants to turn our yard into a Japanese Zen garden.
3. Tyler started eating solids and is quickly eating us out of house and home.
4. I learned that I am not Tyler's mommy, Macy is and I should listen to her because she knows best.
5. We turned Macy into a fish - we played in the rain every chance we got, we played in the fountains at the mall, we played in the sprinkler because she was mad when it wasn't raining and she wanted to play in the rain, we went swimming at the big pool where Macy's floaties worked so well she now claims she can swim all by herself (more like she floats with the current, but she says swim and per line 4, Macy knows best)
6. We went to the Durham Life & Science museum for Bubble day (and several other times) where Macy made her own soda pop and she actually sat still long enough to have a rainbow painted on her face.
7. I left Neil alone with the kids and we got lots of pictures of Macy's feet and both kids with junk mail on their heads.
8. We went to a hog day festival where there was no hog racing or hogs in mud or hogs for petting like daddy promised, but we roasted in the 98 degrees so much that we felt gross as hogs by the time we left.
9. We took daddy to a Durham Bulls game where she got to meet Dora on Father's day (see older post for more details).
10. We went to Marbles with Macy's friends Kaden, Alexis and Ryan where they had a blast and the stars aligned so we actually got 1 picture with all of them. That won't happen again for another 10 years.
11. We went blueberry picking at Vollmer farms with our friends Adam & Katie, where I think Macy ate more blueberries than we actually picked...shhhhh, don't tell.


To view the pictures of this month click here - First half of June and here - Second half of June.


This was written in memory of our 1st sunflower, which Macy just realized a few days ago is gone. Macy: "But I have to pose for Auntie Robyn" So my guess is she is more in mourning over the lack of something to pose next to then the actual passing of the sunflower.

Maybe we should feed Tyler more...

Watch out Heidi!

Plants Take 2

Ok, so the first step to fixing a problem is to admit you have a problem right? My thumb is as brown as the dirt. Now moving on, step 2, starting over and not repeating the same mistakes. I got that sunflower to be over 5 ft, I can do it again, but better (aiming for keeping it alive 3 months this time), I know I can! Robyn has inspired me. So there are 24 sunflower pods, 12 watermelon, 36 Pumpkins(ranging from 5lbs to 500lbs in orange and white) Pumpkin patch will be at the Harding house this year. YEAH BABY!!

Day 1:

Happy Father's Day!

We hope all the dads of the world had a happy father's day. We took Macy to see her first Durham Bulls (minor league baseball) game with the Bates' family. She loved the game and when it was time to go there were quite a few tears: "Momma I want to watch more baseball". Then this morning I was told she didn't want to go to preschool, instead she wanted to go see a baseball game. Dora also made an appearance so the girls got to meet her and even gave her a hug. I was quite impressed because Dora was gigantic as you can see in the picture above which she is on her knees. Tyler enjoyed the game as well, so I see many more baseball games in our future.

5 Months and growing

Tyler is 5 months old now and growing so fast (although not as fast as our sunflower cause that would be freaky) I love his chunky thighs. I don't know how we got so lucky, but he is one very happy baby and so easy to please. He's eating solids now which he likes to slurp off the spoon. His favorite book is Sandra Boytons' Dogs. I can't read it too loud though because Heidi will start to chime in. Macy and him have already started the "he's hitting me momma", which is fun to explain to a 2 year old why her brother can hit her, but she can't hit him. She becomes more and more of a mother hen to him every day with things like taking his paci out because it's only for bed time, or taking his hands out of his mouth because they don't belong in there. The other day she put him in time out for crying. So apparently she's not going to put up with much. I have a feeling that will be happening a lot more in the months to come.

Tyler is eating solids

We started Tyler on solid foods and so far he seems to be willing to eat whatever we feed him and he's pretty close to bottomless. I've decided to make our own foods which is pretty fun and way cheaper. In her typical fashion, Macy was unsatisfied with my feeding technique so she felt the need to take over and show me how to do it right. Good thing we had her first, otherwise I'd have no idea how to take care of Tyler.

Sunflower Report

It's been a month since we got our sunflower and it's still growing strong. It looks like it's about to start flowering even. There's a mini sunflower growing next to the huge one, so I am going to attempt to move to it's own pot so maybe we'll have 2 sunflowers growing soon. It's gotten so big and is really thriving in the pot, so I think it will be staying there for the summer to avoid the risk of me killing it when I move it.