Inspired {Azalea}

I purchased 2 beautiful Azalea bushes the other day, and had to go out and snap a picture of it to show you. I love Azaleas. I love all flowers, actually. My Mom has passed down her green thumb to her daughters, and I'm so grateful. (all except for one (the youngest), but I think she's coming around. I made her help me plant flowers the other day and I think she rather enjoyed it. :))

Happy Birthday, Mema!

Today is my Mom's birthday! And since she lives in Wisconsin, and we're not able to be with her, we made a little video for her. :) It's short and sweet, and though the babies didn't join in on the singing, they held their little signs for Mema. And Kay Kay sang so sweet. :)

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!


(The video is only 30 seconds long...not 2 minutes 34 seconds)





Kay Kay drew this just for you Mema. "That's me and Mema, and some flowers and a rainbow. And Mom, how do you write Happy Birthday Mema?" :)

Our Week in Pictures (and a few words)

I've been M.I.A. since last Tuesday, and for that I apologize. The week has just passed me by! A few of my family members actually called me concerned that I hadn't posted in so long. ("Are you ok? I was so worried about you!")

Ha! I'm fine, no worries. ;o)

We've had awesome weather this week, and we've been very busy playing outside all week long. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our week outside. Fortunately, I do have some cute pictures of the kids inside. ;o)

This week we...


Practiced our smile-on-cue smiles:

Joey gave all he had to give mommy that "smile!" she requested of him.


Eli tried with all his might, but could only come up with this goofy little smile- which makes Mommy laugh every single time she looks at it.



Rowan gave the cheesiest smile she could muster..


But won the award for best on cue smile when she gave me this one...truly a photographer's daughter when you're 2 and can smile on cue and make it look natural. That's my girl. ;o)



Kadence has been smiling on cue for years, but had to get in on the fun. She chose to give a goofy smile like her younger siblings because goofy is so much more fun than natural looking.



We watched Daddy from the window...


And Eli tried on Daddy's boots...they were still too big. Dangit.


Davey built me a raised bed for strawberries, which I planted a few days ago. He also shoveled a couple of tons of dirt into the back of his truck- bless his heart.





The babies finally have become interested in television this week, and for the past few nights have watched an episode of The Bear in the Big Blue House before bedtime. So cute. ^_^



And I got in some serious cuddle time with my 4 favorite little people in the whole wide world. :)




How was your week? Hope it was wonderful. :)

Today is a Good Day!

First, Stellan made it through is surgery!! Check out his blog for updates!



Second, I met my next weight loss goal this morning! 40 pounds! (41 actually!) My weight-loss blog is now set to public, so anyone can view it. Check it out if you want to see the latest before and after pics!

More Prayers for Stellan...

Please keep Stellan in your prayers tonight, and also tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. He may go into surgery tonight (rather than tomorrow morning) as his heart has flipped back into SVT after being taken off of all of his oral meds. Pray for his Mommy too, as I'm sure she is really scared right now. :(

My Friend is Having her Babies!

So excited I couldn't help but post about this. My good friend Andrea (whom I met online through an infertility forum) is at the hospital right now getting ready to give birth to her twin baby girls. I'm sooo excited for her and her husband!! It's been a long road for Andrea and Jason to get to this point, and I can imagine the joy they are feeling knowing that this moment has finally come for them.

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers tonight!

I get to meet the babies in a few days when I go do their very first photo shoot! I can't WAIT!!


A picture of me and Andrea from last summer

Stellan's Name Gallery

Remember baby Stellan? He's become quite the internet sensation- people from all over the world are praying for this little guy. I read on his mom's blog that at Fenway park tonight the scoreboard read, "Welcome to Boston Stellan!!" Amazing. For those of you who haven't checked in on Stellan lately, he has been flown to Boston where they are awaiting some more tests to be run to determine if he in fact needs to have an ablation done on his heart. An ablation done on an infant is very dangerous, but his heart is very sick so it may be necessary. Please keep baby Stellan in your prayers.


I also had the privilege of adding some photos to Stellan's Name Gallery this morning. (it's 1:30 am, couldn't go to bed without uploading and emailing these photos to his gallery) If you get a chance you must check out his name gallery. People from Paris, to the Great Wall of China, to Vienna, to Africa have submitted photos. It's so amazing to see all of the photos.

The photos that I took for Stellan were taken at The Cross of Hope in Effingham.


This cross stands 198 feet tall, and weighs 180 tons. It's purpose is to give travelers along the interstate "hope".


How fitting for Stellan, right?




Lying down looking up at the cross



Me standing at the base of the cross



Me standing at the base of the cross, circled.



We're all praying for you here in Illinois baby Stellan. Hugs to you and your family.

2-year Check-up

These three little stinkers...





...just had their 2-year well-child appointment with Dr. F. Aside from being the biggest handful's you can ever imagine while at a doctor's office, (lots of screaming, crying, kicking, touching the icky trash cans, eating sucker pieces off the floor that Eli chucked after Dr. F. handed him one to make him stop crying...it was a very..ahem..busy check-up..) the check-up report was great! Aside from some concerns about Eli and Joey's hernia sites (won't go into detail, I'll mention more later if it's deemed necessary. Could require surgery, but we have to meet with a urologist first, so no worries right now)

Height and weight:

Joey was 27 pounds, 33 inches tall
Elijah was 26 1/2 pounds, and 33 1/2 inches tall
Rowan was 25 pounds, 33 inches tall (what a little pipsqueak!)


Thank God we don't have to go back for another 6 months. It's a work-out taking three 2-year-olds to see the doctor. OH, and they each had 2 shots too. The boys cried the longest, Rowan cried for about 5 seconds. Hehe. Showed her big bubbies up. :)

My Surprise Visitor

Last week, I happened to glance outside in my driveway and saw a vehicle I didn't recognize.

Well, ok. I did recognize it. But it shouldn't have been there. It couldn't be. I squinted really hard to read the licencse plates, and sure enough...

IT WAS MY MOM!!!

I ran to the front door, and she was already partway in my kitchen. I seriously almost knocked the poor woman down I was so excited!


I love my Mom. She is awesome. And I love when she comes and stays a week with us. And so do the kids! They love their Mema! I just wanted to share a few pics from her week here with us. As usual, we didn't get many (it's always a hair issue with my mother), but we did get a few.

Come back soon Mema!! We miss you already!!! xoxo















*Also don't miss my blog below on the newest members to the McDowell Farm!

Welcome to the Farm, Beebee Kitties

A little after midnight lastnight, one of our outside cats, Sweetie, gave birth to 5 adorable little kittens.


After the first two were born, I woke Kadence up so she could watch the birth of at least one baby kitten. 45-minutes later, the third kitten was finally born. ;o) I actually had to help the mother cat deliver the baby because it got stuck! It was stuck for a good 20-minutes. I kept thinking to myself...great..I'm going to traumatize this poor child if this kitten dies. But it didn't! Pshew! After it was born, and she oohed and awwed over the new baby kitten, she said, "Can I please go to bed now?" Ha! Amazing how birth is boring to her. This kid knows too much let me tell ya what.

Today, she is completely and utterly in love with her new baby kittens. She tried going to Gaga's house twice today, and had to come back both times because she missed her kittens too much. :)

I'm not sure which order they're in, but we have: Spongebob, Squidword, Sandy, Pearl, and Mrs. Puff*. Which if you are a Spongebob fan, you'll know these are all characters from the show. Kadence is a HUGE Spongebob fan, if you couldn't tell. (*Mrs. Puff is the kitten with the fat belly who got stuck. "Mrs. Puff is kind of fat too Mom. Let's name that one Mrs. Puff." ^_^





Can't wait till they're all fluffy and cute and running around chasing things!!

Birthday Pictures- Part 1

I have a ton to share, so this will just be part 1. As I've mentioned before my internet moves at snaaaaaail speed. 5 pictures literally takes like 5 minutes to upload.

Enjoy the pictures! (in no particular order whatsoever)


The cupcake cake. Yum! (looks like a tree...supposed to look like a big cupcake, LOL)




Eli opening up his present from Aunt Ashley- shoes!



Mommy and Eli


Mommy and Rowan


Mommy and Joey


Mommy and Joey being silly :)



Waiting anxiously for Daddy to open their picnic table from Mema


Why is Rowan giggling?



She's playing peek-a-boo with Papa! (I have a super cute video of this I'll share)




They just waneted to dive right in. Oh wait, Rowan did! Unfortunately we didn't get it on video or any pictures of it though. So bummed!



Eli


Rowan


Joey (I have no clue why they all have this glazed over look! LOL!)


My 3 "cupcakes" :)