Catch Up

Wow. So much has happened since the last post, I almost don't know where to start. Here are some tidbits:

Ryan and I are now in Oakland, Maryland. We're renting a furnished condo while the house we're buying is prepping to close on November 7th. We're very excited for that.

Ryan likes his job and has been working good hours -- not too overloaded. It's so nice having him home early because he's such a great dad. He walks in the door, throws down his stuff, and plays with the girls. It's so fun to watch.

The girls and I got to spend a few weeks in Raleigh before coming to Maryland. I loved spending time with my family, and I loved having all the help with the kiddos. ViVi misses her grandparents and her Aunt Nelly, but (sorry mom) I think she misses Olive the most. Every once in a while she goes on blabbering sprees, and you can pick out "Olive! Treat!" somewhere in the middle of them. Also, now whenever she gets on the phone to talk to someone, she either says, "Daddy?" or "Nenny?" Nenny is how she says Nelly, which is short for Janelle.

We also spent a long weekend in New York to visit my sisters Lori and Kimmy. The drive was horrible, but the weekend was fun. They live in the most amazing place! For days after we left, ViVi was asking for Chloe. It was so cute.

Now I'm just going to start posting pictures and videos. They'll be kind of all over the place, but I hope you like them!

They already love eachother:

Here's V and her friend Lucy Crest after a fun time at the pool. The Crests live in Texas, and they visited us in Colorado on the way back from a wedding in Utah. So much fun that weekend. So much pizza eaten. :)

V turned 2 while we were in New York. She's pretty good at the whole opening presents thing:

ViVi had quite the conversation going with her cousin Jonah:

Do you think V likes her presents from nana and papa?

Aunt Lori gave V Mary Poppins for her birthday. She is OBSESSED with it. She watched it for 8 hours on that drive back, and she requests it every morning. Here's one of her favorite parts:

Ryan (me) has to see a bunch more houses today, but here is more video of the outside of one of the houses we like as requested by Melissa.

This is Ryan's favorite house thus far.

Maggie-fest

OK, OK, I know I've been bad about uploading pictures of Maggie. So here's a whole bunch of Maggie pictures and videos:

This is what happens when I ask ViVi which bow she wants in her hair:

Maggie's awake!

Maggie's starting to wake up for more of the day, so I finally got some pictures of her awake!

Here are some recent photos:

Check out what I found Genevieve doing. Now, you might look at this and think, "Yuk. She let her keep doing that while she went to take a picture?"

Yup.

Beautiful girl:

Margaret Joan and Margaret Joan:

"Look, mommy, I found a pocket!"

Dancing Queen:

My beautiful girls

Yes, I know, I need to post more often. But now that I have a newborn, it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I'd like to do! I'll keep trying.

Here is Genevieve in our flower bed. She loves to sneak outside and pick all the flowers even though we tell her not to. I think this is the first time she's actually smiled for the camera. She's usually not into that.



Baby Maggie. I like to take a picture of her whenever she's in a really cute outfit.



Or when I just can't stop admiring her.

Helping nana make monkey bread. She thought this was SO fun.

Maggie's first week at church:

I STILL had someone ask if she was a boy or girl. Really? Really?

Music time fun:

My princess:

Every Tuesday I take Vivi to Tot Time at the library. The bean bag song is one of her favorite parts. She's kind of awesome at it:

More stuff

And now, for all of the random extra stuff I have:

Isn't this picture sweet?

And isn't this picture beautiful?

I MADE this dress! It's my first sewing project I've ever done by myself.

My Maggie.

There were never such devoted sisters...

Genevieve unwrapped that cadbury egg WAY too quickly.

This is in the middle of Genevieve signing "baby," for her baby sister.

Dark hair

Maggie and grandma

Daddy daughter #1

Daddy daughter #2

Gorgeous Genevieve

Yes, she still has beautiful eyelashes

Vivi's new shopping cart. She LOVES this thing. When she took it to the grocery store, two employees stopped to take her picture:

Look for "Sony Bravia paint" on YouTube. Your kids will LOVE it:

Yes, this hot tub was in my hospital room. It rocked:

Easter Fun

First, let's play a round of "Name That Baby." Can you name which is which?






And, just because I love this picture:



Maggie was born on Easter, so Genevieve had her egg hunt a little late. Actually, she had several egg hunts because she was so darn cute.

"If you think I'm sharing with you, you're crazy."

I was stupid enough to think she wouldn't immediately rip off the wrapper and stuff this whole chocolate egg in her mouth:

Margaret Joan Sweetwood

Our little Maggie was born on Easter. Compared to how Genevieve was as a newborn, Maggie has been a little angel. The delivery went well, and the recovery was 26 times easier than last time. My mother came for 2 weeks, my dad came for almost a week, and my mother-in-law is here until Tuesday. I've had so much help, and it's been great! My insanely long to-do list is now sanely long because I've had time to work on it, and Vivi has had lots of play buddies to help her adjust to mommy's new distraction.

Here are some pictures:



Vivi loves kissing Maggie:

Oh yeah, that's a good face: