Silliness

So, the other day the whole family went to Target to return a gift Molly got two of, and to do some shopping with her birthday money. Of course, we went into the clothing department and shortly after arriving, I began to hear something I had never heard before. Jackson was walking around, picking up little dresses and shirts and saying (with a high pitched voice), "Oh! How cute?! Awe!" Over and over and over again. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised but I just couldn't stop laughing. Thankfully he seems to have gotten over his last "mommy-ism." That one was his answer to any question. "Ummmm....nope." Apparently I say that one a lot, too.

On a different note, Molly is everywhere! Apparently, when they learn to walk, they learn to climb at the same time. She is able to climb our entire staircase. Also, her new favorite activity is climbing into one of Jackson's chairs, standing up, and smiling at Mommy and Daddy while they are telling her to sit down. She climbs on toy boxes, digs thru my purse, and has even gotten herself up and into Jackson's bed! What am I going to do with her???

What a week of fun!

Okay, okay! I know it has been over a week since my last blog. Don't worry, Jason has been nagging enough for everyone. But, in my defense, it has been a crazy week!

So, last Wednesday, the 22nd, was Molly Jean's first birthday! She had taken her first steps over a month ago, but last Tuesday she just took off!

On Saturday, we had Molly's birthday party in our backyard. The Lord was good to us and gave us beautiful weather for the party. It was a little windy, but, being that is was over 80 degrees outside, I found it refreshing.

We were able to celebrate with several good friends. I had to get Molly up from her nap for the party, so it took a little while for her to really get in the mood. Well, time and a little bit of sugar may have helped. I think she liked her sunflower cake.

You will have to go to www.picasaweb.google.com/themcginthys to see all the wonderful presents she received! She truly is enjoying them all! Thank you!

On Sunday, my parents came of from Florida to spend a wonderful day with us! We did our best to make the most of it.

First, Jackson, Papa, and Framma enjoyed a little of the outdoors. Papa spent some quality digging time in the sandbox. And Framma wasn't afraid to get a little wet for her little guy! After dinner, we headed out to Young's Jersey Dairy for some ice cream and animal fun. Molly enjoyed seeing the baby goats and Jackson loved the cows and climbing on the tractor. Molly also enjoyed her first ice cream. I thought I would just share mine with her, but I think I should have gotten one for herself.

So, I have a 1 year old and I really do feel like she was just born! I know every mom says that, but it's only because it's so true. Where did the time go? When did she learn to do so much? Even though I can't figure out where the time went, we are surely enjoying our children so much!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of going to Jason's dad's house for Easter! While we were there, they decided to throw an early birthday party for Molly. I was thrilled to see that for Molly's birthday cake, they ordered a My Little Pony cake. For those of you who don't know, I LOVE My Little Pony. If you would ask me what my favorite Christmas present ever was, I would say my My Little Pony Show Stable. I even got my dad to go out in a snow storm (had to put boards behind the tires to get the car out) to get me the mommy pony that went with the baby pony I already had. I thought it only appropriate that I buy Molly her first My Little Pony for her first birthday! It was a great party and the cake was delicious!!!

We also got to celebrate Easter together! First, we went out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Jackson enjoyed his pancake and even got to eat some of Jason's apples.

Following breakfast, Jackson got to play bubbles with his Pawpaw while Mommy hid eggs in the backyard. I'm now sure who was having more fun. Pawpaw or Jackson?

Finally Jackson got to go on his Easter egg hunt. It was a great weekend of fun and celebrations.

I guess it's been a while.

This evening I sat at the computer and soon after, Jason asked me if I was writing on my blog. I told him I wasn't and he decided it had been too long since I wrote. So, here I am.

I feel like I should have a million things to write and yet, life seems to finally be a bit boring. Don't worry. Right now boring is a good thing.

We have enjoyed some of the random Ohio weather. Yesterday, it was in the high 60's and today it snowed.

It has been a bit of a week for firsts in our home. Jackson sang the alphabet song all by himself! Molly lifts up her arms and says, "ta da!" And Molly also colored with crayons for the first time.I would love to be able to say that Molly is walking but, inspite of knowing she has the ability to do it, she just isn't interested. She took her first steps a month ago. And she takes a few here and there. She also says, "Ma ma," and, "Da da." Mostly, "Da da" though.

I also had the joy of putting my kids in their Easter outfits a week early!

I think it is completely fair of me to say that Molly looked like a princess.

What a MONTH!!!!

So, in the month of March I took the kids too and from Milwaukee, had Jason's brother come visit, took the kids to and from Florida and am now waiting for my cousins to arrive at my house! You may be wondering if I have lost my mind. Initially, I would say no. Then I think, "who in their right mind would do all of this in one month???"

We went down to Florida to visit family and help Uncle Matt get settled into his new place. I drove down on my own with both kids, but this time I was smart enough to take two days to drive it. Since I wasn't going to get to Florida until the day they were leaving my wonderful Uncle Paul (insert sarcasm here) and Aunt Lois (we like her) stayed an extra day so they could see me and the kids. You will find no photo's of Uncle Paul on here, since I didn't want to risk breaking the camera (I love you Uncle Paul!), but here is Molly with her Great Aunt Lois.

Overall, it was a fun visit. Jackson got to run around and watch Mickey. I got to go to an outlet mall. What more could anyone possibly want???

Our trip home, however, could have gone a little more smoothly. We set out around 7:30am on Saturday morning, with full intentions to drive all the way home in one day (since I had Jason with me this time). After about an hour, we discovered we wouldn't be able to get out of Florida just yet. There was rain and flash flooding all over. The road we wanted to take was completely blocked. So, we turned around and went back to my parents house to wait out some of the rain. We let Molly take a nap and then finally set off, again, around 11:00am. This time, we took a different route. For much of the drive we debated driving all the way home or stopping for the night. We made it to Kentucky and stopped at the first rest area to change diapers. While we were there Jason and I dicovered that much of our up coming drive was covered with tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings (as if we hadn't had enough bad weather). So we stopped in Bowling Green, KY with only 4 1/2 hours left to get home.

Below you can see a brief video of Jackson and Molly enjoying our hotel room. I think this video was taken about 2 hours past their bedtimes. Sorry the video is so dark. It's the best I could do. All you really need to know is that Molly is enjoying herself, no matter what Jackson does. I promise we would have stopped it if she were crying.

It's a zoo in here!!!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking the kids to Milwaukee to visit family. Jackson has a cousin, Oliver, who is only 2 months older than him so it's always fun to get the boys together. They wrestled, jumped, spun, shouted, and ran with each other. It was great! Molly enjoyed watching from the safety of the exersaucer.

The first night we actually stayed at a friends house and I learned what a challenge it really would be to sleep in the same bed with Jackson. Now, if I weren't trying to sleep, all of this would be incredibly cute and wonderful, but not when it's 1:00am and you need sleep. The first night Jackson trying to sleep on top of me at least five times. Then he woke me up at 5:00am saying, "Hi Mommy! Jackson wake now!" So cute now. So not cute then. Thankfully, when we went over to my brothers house, I was able to put a body pillow in between Jackson and me and the nights got much better (not that any of them were perfect).

During this visit, we spent Saturday morning at the Milwaukee Zoo! I really don't remember when the last time was that I went to this zoo. It seemed a lot more fun this time, then I remember. Jackson had a bit of a meltdown at the beginning, but, as we saw more and more animals, he got a lot better. It was fun to listen to Jackson talk to and about all the animals. Apparently, all elephants are "baby" elephants. Of all the animals to insist on........ the elephant??? Even after seeing it up close, it's still a "baby" elephant. Also, apparently camels know how to play ring-around-the-rosey and I had no idea that peacocks could actually fly!

Another highlight of the weekend was Molly standing herself up without holding on to anything. She did that many times and also took several steps. I certainly wouldn't call her a walker yet, but she's working on it. It won't be long now.

Overall, the visit was a success. We look forward to Jackson and Oliver growing up to be great friends.

Crazy Wonderful Weather!!!

So, yesterday I thought it was pretty nice outside. Partly sunny and 56 degrees out. Today was suppose to be warm but gloomy and rainy. What did we get? 75 and sunny!!! Hallelujah!!!

Of course, it didn't take long for me to get Jackson outside! Here are some pics of him wearing shorts outside for the first time in 2009!!!

As you can see, he already skinned his knee. Thankfully I am fully stocked with Scooby Doo and Cars band-aids.

Molly also had a chance to get outside. She, however, is still getting accustom to the great outdoors. The wind has a tendency to blow her over. I did, however, get to have both kids in our wagon for the first time. Molly seemed to think it was alright and Jackson thought it was fantastic (until he started stomping on Molly's feet). I couldn't get them both smiling at the camera, but at least I managed to get both of them to look at me. I'll take what I can get!

So, as you can see, today was wonderful. Tomorrow? A high of 44???? This is just madness! I have a teething two year old that needs to get outside!

On a side note, we met some new neighbors that have a 13 month old little girl. It was crazy for me to look at that little girl while I sat holding Molly. "Two and a half months and that will be her???" Isn't God amazing? To create these tiny beings that grow and learn so quickly and in that time, bring so much joy, change and excitement to our lives! It just blows me away!