Mother's Day 2013

This year we hosted a Mother's Day gathering at our house for the first time. It wasn't a brunch, because it wasn't between breakfast and lunch. Linner? Is that a word? Yes, I believe we had a Mother's Day Linner.

Anyway, we all had a great time- Katelyn and Madelyn, especially. They were completely spoiled with attention from all four grandparents, and all three uncles. Needless to say, I think Katelyn was asleep before I even closed the door to her room. Nothing like a day full of love and playtime to tire a girl out.

Lots of pictures here, and you're going to notice a theme- lots of pictures with Maddie, not so many with Katelyn. We've reached a point where getting K to sit still for pictures is beyond challenging. So almost everything with her in it is an action shot- even if I didn't want it to be;) Maddie is still at that co-operative/has-no-choice/is-being-held-hostage stage. We like it.

Maddie and Grandma

With our newest sweetie pie. Note the hand in mouth. This girl is bound and determined to become a thumb-sucker! I'm collecting evidence and will include it in a later post;)

Love snuggling with this little one:)

 Two out of three looking at the camera. Not bad. And if I'd ever managed to get a shot of their shirts clearly, you'd see that they said "Big Sis" and "Lil' Sis." These were super-cute gifts from my girlfriend Ann Marie. I need to return the favor- she's about to have her second girl in mid-June. Girls are so much fun to dress up!

This scene repeated itself throughout the day. Katelyn loved having continuous access to chips on the buffet table.

A mix of pretty flowers from my in-laws and parents:)

Maddie and Uncle Jimmy

Maddie and Uncle Nathan

Maddie and Lola. See what I mean? I pretty much could have titled this post "Maddie and Company on Mother's Day!"

And could we please all take a moment to pay homage to these thighs? I know Maddie is going to hate me for this in the future, but I seriously cannot get enough of her chubby legs. I think it might be because Katelyn never really had that going on. In fact, her legs were more like skinny little bird legs. So I marvel at Madelyn's thighs all the time. Love them.

Ring around the Rosie with Uncle Nathan.

Hey, Nate, while you're here, mind helping us move out this heavy-as-heck entertainment center? Thanks.

An impromptu under-the-table My Little Pony party. Uncles are the most fun.

And finally, snuggles with Uncle Tim. Whew, this girls gets around!

And, in the interest of Mother's Day love and catching up on posting pics from the days when we went dark (at least from the www) I'm going to throw in a few more pics. Some of these are from last year, a photo session with Laura Polen we gave my mom for her birthday. It was a pretty big one... I'm not going to reveal her age, but let's just say it was more than 50 (sorry, Mom) and less than 70. But she looks 40, so we'll just leave it at that! The other pics are from a recent photo session with a local photographer named Barbara Pennington. She donated her time to the residents of the Village of Boston Heights (where Brian's parent's live) and did a mini photo session for free! Very sweet lady, and we appreciated her time and talent very much! I think she got a kick out of Katelyn- both her sense of style and sweet disposition. Sweet and spunky. Just how we like her;)

 This girl loves to run!

Well, that's a lot of pictures! If you made it to the end, thanks for hanging in there! I have a feeling a lot of posts might be long like this, at least while I try to dig out of the hundreds and hundreds of photos from the past year (+) that I need to share and journal about. 

One final Mother's Day note: To my mom and mother-in-law, I wouldn't be able to do this mothering thing without you both. I hope you know how loved and appreciated you are, both by me and your granddaughters. You make being a grandmother look fun and easy, and I can't say 'Thank You' enough! And to my sweet, darling daughters- without you, I wouldn't be a mommy. You have enriched my life in ways I only imagined, and even on the rough days, you make every day brighter. I love you with my whole heart, and pray every day that I will be the best mommy I can be, so that you with both grow to be the best Katelyn and Madelyn you can be. Love you forever!