Madeline Grace

She is here!!! Madeline Grace Shaia was born 11/5/10 at 1:15 pm. She weighed 6 lbs, 12.5 0z, was 21 inches long, and has a head full of dark hair like her Daddy! She has been such a good baby. She nurses great and has been giving us 4 hours of sleep at a time a night. Chloe is very excited about being a big sister. She asks to kiss and hold "Maddie," and loves to help and be a part of taking care of her little sister. We are so thankful for this healthy, precious little blessing!

40 weeks pregnant and heading to Northside:

Our first picture together:

Daddy meeting his little girl:

6 lbs, 12.5 oz

Her name reveal :)

Big sis meets little sis!

Our family of FOUR!

Getting to know each other:

Our sweet girl

Heading home!

Halloween!

I just realized I never posted pictures of Chloe in her sweet Halloween outfit! We have had a BUSY last couple of weeks :) For Halloween this year, Chloe was Minnie Mouse. She has the cutest little costume that "Aunt Megan" gave her for her birthday, so she wanted to wear it this year. She still LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and is super girly, so the outfit worked out perfectly. We got together with all our neighbors and went trick or treating around the neighborhood together. Chloe was in heaven with all the candy, and after it was all over she said "I go trick or treating again...maybe tomorrow?!" :) It was a fun day!

Pumpkin Carving!

Last week, we had our friends Megan and Dan over for our annual Pumpkin Carving evening! We always have a great time. They carved the Re/Max logo into theirs in honor of Megan's business.

This was our pumpkin this year...very appropriate since we are still waiting on the stork over here! I am 39 weeks today, so it shouldn't be long before we meet Baby Shaia #2! We are so excited about her arrival!

Pumpkin Patch!

A couple of weekends ago we headed up to Burt's Farm with our sweet friends, the Stephens family! We took Chloe to Burt's last year and she absolutely loved it...this year was no different! She loves climbing all over the huge pumpkins, and playing with all the smaller pumpkins, squash and gourds! This year was especially fun for her since she had her little friend Owen there to play too! We had planned a picnic lunch afterwards, but ended up deciding to do lunch at the Smith House (a restaurant nearby) instead. Russ suggested it and it definitely did not disappoint! It is a yummy family-style country cooking restaurant. If you make the haul up to Burt's this year, we highly recommend!!! :)

Here are some of the MANY pictures we took:

Russ, Jenica, Owen and Lily Kate

Helping Daddy carry out her "picks"

How cute are these two?! :)

Loving on Daddy!

We had the best day and decided we would try to make the trip an annual tradition! Hooray for Fall! We LOVE this time of year! :)

2 year pictures!

We finally had Chloe's 2 year (really 2 1/2 year, but she's 2 for a whole year, right?!?!) pictures taken last month. I thought they turned out pretty cute - especially since Chloe was NOT feeling a photo session that day and would hardly smile for us! I can't believe she's almost 2 1/2! She looks like such a "big girl" in the dress-up pictures! Even though its sad to see her growing up so fast, it's also getting more and more fun! She is SO sweet, talks all the time now and always keeps us laughing!

Here are a few fun, updated facts about our girl:

Height - need to check on this one!

Weight - 26 lbs

Favorite Foods: noodles (macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, etc), pizza, chicken nuggets, cheese quesadillas, edamame, rice, waffles, pancakes, cheerios, fruit snacks and, of course, the always popular yogurt melts

Favorite Books: Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Llama Llama books, Children's Prayer Book

Favorite Songs: ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Favorite Toys: Mr. Potato Head, VTech toys, Little People toys, balls, puzzles and art toys (paper, coloring books, crayons, stickers, play-doh, etc)

Favorite TV Shows: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, Super Why and Backyardigans

The sweetest sound

Chloe looked up at me tonight and said "I Yove You, Mommy." It was the sweetest sound EVER. I am so thankful for this precious Bug of mine :)

College football: A house divided ;)

So, football season may end up being a source of confusion for Chloe Bug as she gets older! Jeremy and his family have all gone to Auburn University and are Tiger fans. My family is filled with several Georgia Tech alum (my brother Taylor is actually there now) and I grew up a Yellow Jacket fan. And then, of course, Jeremy and I both graduated from the University of Georgia and also cheer on the Bulldogs. Between all of this, Chloe has quite an array of college football apparel in her closet right now. She has really enjoyed wearing it all and from the looks of things, we may have a little cheerleader in our future ;)

PRESCHOOL!

Today was Chloe's first day of preschool! Last week we had parent orientation one night, and Chloe's "Meet and "Greet" the next morning to meet her teachers/friends, so we were definitely ready for today! Jeremy took the morning off of work so he could be there with Chloe on her "big day!" :) We woke up early this morning, got Chloe's breakfast and school bag ready, and headed out! When we arrived, Chloe was excited to go in, but as soon as we got to her classroom, the tears started flowing. She was holding onto my legs and yelling "no, " so her teacher encouraged us to make the transition "short and sweet." We left quickly and went out to the car. After a few minutes, we snuck back inside to her classroom and peaked at her through the window. She was still sniffling, but was busy playing with blocks and little cupcake stacking toys. I was glad to see she had calmed down...I'm not sure if the whole process was harder on her or her Mommy ;) Finally, Jeremy and I left and headed to Goldberg's for breakfast. I was also able to run a few errands and get some things done today, so that was nice! When I went back to pick Chloe up, she was having fun playing instruments and singing with her friends. Her teachers told me that she did great, but "ran out of gas" around 11 am! I (seriously) have never seen her so tired! I was so glad she adjusted and enjoyed her first day! I just can't believe my baby girl is in school now!!! Where did the time go?!?!

I'm a Hat Girl! :)

Just a few pictures of Chloe playing in a couple of her cute hats (out of her array of headwear)! I love that she'll actually wear them for more than 5 minutes now, since we have several cute ones :)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday and it was a great one! He decided he wanted to go to "Flip Burger Boutique" in Atlanta to celebrate. Since it was a pretty inexpensive place, we definitely went overboard and ordered entirely too much food. From the burgers, wedge salad, fried pickles and fries, to the Krispy Kreme milkshake, everything was SO yummy! BUT, WOW, we definitely left there stuffed. It was fun to try something different. I had made him a cake, but we could hardly eat any of it when we got home. We still sung Happy Birthday to him and had a little sliver, so we could light the candles for his big day! We love you, J! Thank you for being the wonderful husband and daddy that you are! :)