Lake House Fun!

Last weekend, we spent some time with our dear friends, The Kolendos at their lake house.

Claire got to ride on a boat and swim in the lake for the first time.

Here are all the girls in the water!

The boys had fun with the kiddos on the boat.

Crystal and I are really excited that our 2nd babies will be close in age. She's due in September and we are due in January. Fun times ahead!

It was really relaxing for all of us...

including Myko!

We had a great time, and we look forward to more memories with friends!

Daddy's Girl

Well, I knew it was coming... Claire has said her first words. "Da-da." Well, technically, she's been saying da-da and ma-ma and other things for awhile, but yesterday Claire said "da-da" to Mark as soon as he got home from work and greeted her. Precious! I mean, she has a great daddy, so who can blame her. She is so lucky to have such a wonderful daddy, and she just loves being with him. So do I!

Blue Eyed Baby at 8 Months

I can't believe our sweet girl will be 9 months old in a week. Crazy! We went to the lake house with The Kolendos last weekend (more pics to come) and I captured some outdoor photos of Claire. She's the easiest baby to take pictures of because she has such a joy about her that will brighten your day. What a blessing this girl is to us! Love you button!

5 Year Anniversary

I can't believe it's been 5 years since Mark and I got married. Time really does fly! It's really neat to look back and think about some of the amazing things that we have experienced over the past 5 years. We feel so blessed that we have had this time together. We are looking forward to many more!

Here are some of my favorite moments in our 5 years of marriage...

Our wedding...

Our Honeymoon in Mexico...

Our first Thanksgiving... in London!

Our 1 Year Anniversary, eating the top of our wedding cake!

Our ...

Trip...

to Europe!

Buying our first home!

Bringing home the Myks. (I don't know if Mark would count his as a "favorite moment," but we were really excited!

Christmas in Chicago...

Our trip to Lake Tahoe

Finding out that we were going to have a girl!

Preparing for Baby Girl...

Claire's Arrival...

Our First Thanksgiving at home. With baby...

Watching the Lord heal our baby girl...

Special...

Moments...

With Claire!

Finding out about McBaby #2!

Excited about the road ahead. May we be blessed with 5 more years, plus 5 more, plus 5 more, etc...

Mobile on Land and Water

She is starting to master the land...

Well, as I posted earlier, Claire is crawling now! So fun!

Here she comes!

See me mommy?

How about now?

And now, the water!

Claire is a fish. A dolphin. A sea creature, perhaps. We started swim lessons this week and will continue next week. We had a great time. I think that I was more exhausted after the lessons than she was. Ha!

The point of these lessons was really just to get the babies acquainted with the water by kicking, splashing, and blowing bubbles in the water. Claire was really great at kicking her feet and splashing her arms. It's a lot of fun! Mark was off the day of our first lesson, so he was able to come and document all of her hard work. Here are some more pictures of our little fish, Claire!

On the boogie board!

Our little noodle with a water noodle.

Going after the swim toys...

Scooting off of the lily pad.

We had a good nap after our first lesson! We are excited to see how C does the rest of her lessons and how much she learns every time. I don't quite know how I will do this with 2 babies, but I'm sure I'll figure it out! Happy Summer to all!

McBaby #2

Well, I am starting to feel MUCH better, and the first trimester is really close to coming to a close. Mark is glad that I am starting to feel well enough to do dishes and cook a little, and Claire is happy that Mommy can play during the day instead of nap and be sick. :)

Here is a belly shot at almost 11 weeks. Now, for all of you "1 child mommies," let me just warn you... the 2nd time around you wake up the 3rd week or 4th week of pregnancy the 2nd time and boom. Nothing fits. I mean, your body is like, "been there, done that." It is crazy! I just popped right out!

Claire wanted to help show everyone how big her new brother or sister is, so she added a visual...

In this pic, she is saying, "Mommy, the baby is a bit bigger than this grape. Can I eat it?" Um no, sweet girl, you'll choke and mommy will have a heart attack, which will harm the baby. This is for a picture only.

But don't worry sweet girl, you are my first baby, and of course I will let you have grapes one day. Oh, and I love you very much.

Kisses for mommy...

Love both of my babies!

Crawling Claire

Guess who's ready to go???

This was Claire's first attempt at crawling or "scooting" about 3 weeks ago.

And look at her now! This was about a week ago. There's no stopping her now! She's getting so big. Time to baby proof our house, huh?