Sydney"s Arrival!

Sydney joined the family on June 13th, 2009 at 9:25 am. I started having contractions around 3:30 in the morning and was not sure if it was the real deal or not. I stayed in bed until about 4:30 watching the clock. The contractions had been right at 5 to 6 minutes apart for the entire hour. Then I got up to see if being active would make them worse or not. I did a couple of loads of laundry, swept the kitchen floor, emptied the dish washer, and took a shower. Around 5:30 I decided maybe I should call the hospital and see if I should come in. The contractions were then about 3 to 5 minutes apart. I woke Seth up and we got Madalene ready and headed to the hospital. We stopped at McDonald's in town to get breakfast for Madalene and Seth. It was 6:03 on the clock in the car and nobody was answering at the drive thru. I thought Seth was going to hurt someone. We drove up to the window and he asked what time do you open they said 6 and he pointed at the clock that said 6:03. The women looked at him like he was crazy and shrugged her shoulders. We then went on to South Hill (where the hospital is) and got them a biscuit from Hardees and continued on. The whole time Seth still is not sure that this is the real deal because I was cleaning and not dying of pain!!!!! Before we left the house he asked "if you are in labor how come you are cleaning and not resting?" I did not have a good answer for him, other than the cleaning helped take my mind off the contractions. When we arrived at the hospital it was 6:40 am and I was dilated to a 6 almost a 7. Then we knew it was the real deal. I was able to use the labor pool, which helped tremendously with the pain. Then at 9:25 Sydney graced us with her presence. We were at the hospital all of 2hrs and 45 minutes. Sydney was 9lbs 11oz and 22 1/2 inches long.

Sydney was very animated today. She showed lots of expression and of course Madalene could not be left out on the action.

Hello Sydney!!!

So it has been forever since we put anything on here. It takes a major event and many people begging for pictures.

A busy May!

Once again there is a lot of catching up to do. Since graduation we have been going nonstop. After graduation we got to spend time with Uncle Jake and Aunt Amanda. Madalene and I went to South Carolina to see Aunt Carole with Jake and Amanda. Always good times when we get down to visit. It was nice being able to spend the extra time with Jake and Amanda.Then shortly after that Madalene and I met Les, Janice, Melissa, Christian, Kathy, Scott, Chelsea, Andrew, Sara, Kerry, Jeannie and Kyle at Daytona Beach. Madalene had really been looking forward to going to the "Beach". These last two pics are courtesy of Uncle Kerry. He got really great shots and this one of Madalene is probably the best picture ever taken of her. Love it!!!!!!!!!

We also got to see the shuttle launch. Madalene is still talking about the rocket that went to outerspace. Lots of fun and good memories were made on this trip.

This weekend will be off to the river. Hopefully we will have pictures up soon.

A lot of catching up to do!!!!!!!!

Last time I wrote was in February when we were putting the swing set together. It has been finished since that weekend and was ready to go for Madalene's Birthday party.

Madalene is always a big helper. She helped finish with putting the Mulch around the swing set and made sure the walk way was swept before her guests arrived. She also helped Becky put the finishing touches on the Soccer ball birthday cake.

Grandpa Bob giving a good push!

The swing set was a big hit at the Birthday Party!

Later that night Madalene and a friend tied up Ian as they were playing dress up.

It had been a long day and when the kids went out they went out hard!!!!

In the middle of March Madalene and I went home for a friend's wedding and Easter. Madalene was so excited about getting on an airplane. On Southwest it was open seating, Madalene had a window seat for every flight and enjoyed being able to watch the luggage being loaded. When we were coming into Chicago Midway there were a lot of ponds and she said "Mommy look at all the mud puddles!"

While we were home we took advantage of the Zoo once again. We were really fortunate with a beautiful day and the animals were also very cooperative.

After a good trip home we flew back to Virginia and packed up for Rendezvous. The picture below is Madalene at the kids tent playing.

A couple weeks back Madalene and I went up to Richmond with Seth who has class there every other weekend. While we were there we went to an activity at the High School for the district Bobby works at. They had all kinds of fun activities and Madalene played hard.

Finally, this past weekend Mom, Les, Melissa, Christian, Kathy, Scott, and Sara were in town for graduation. It was a very busy weekend, but we had a great time. It was such a treat to have us together for Mother's Day. The three little ones had a great time and were plum worn out come Monday. Everyone left by midday on Monday and Madalene slept Monday night from 5:45pm to 8:30 am. I would say she needed some rest after a big weekend.

Maybe Today?

Yesterday was a good day. A trip for mulch yesterday set us back several hours, but with the exception of that things went well. We did not finish the swingset, but everything will be completed today.

The First Frame

By this time of the day is was nice to see something coming together.

As you can see Sammy is making sure everything is going as planned!

Big Helpers! They wanted to measure everything and kept asking if they could do anything else to help.

Our big helpers also reorganized the wood for us!

Snack time. The dads didn't get a break for snack time. Although, I think they took their fair share of beer breaks.

After a long hard day of play we took a bath, went to get something to eat, and then went to Uncle Tim's to play the Wii. Take note of the get up: pajamas, coat, stocking cap, and don't forget the ever so special "Magic Crown".