Happy Mother's Day!

How could Mother's day not be great when I have these two angels? Meg is growing like a week - 18 lbs 6 oz and 26.5" at 6 months (yesterday!) and Annde's blowing us away with her reading skills. I got not 1 or 2 but 4 cards from her this year! (too bad she forgot to Meghan's name on all of them! :) ) It was a laid back holiday, complete with a trip to the park and a bbq rib and sweet corn dinner. Yum!! Here's some pics from the day:



And, then, because I'm a scrapper, I did a page for each of my girls' albums too! These were done with this really cool prize I won from Express the Moment! I love the pages because blue is traditionally boy and this paper was sooo cool!! I mixed in some scrap paper and embellishments from my bag and viola! Thanks for picking me!! Have a great week everyone!! And, to all moms, here's to another great year!

Apology and some pictures

I am not the best friend or sister.
I know, I know... it's a shocker?!?!
But, I am notorious late at sending cards/gifts, I suck at returning phone calls, and I forget about things unless I write them down.
I do try to be there for my friends and family when they need me, but I find that life has a way of sucking you in so that it's hard to focus on something that's not "critical".
Take last night for example... my sister called in the middle of child number 1 throwing a tantrum because she "wasn't sleepy" (at 9pm), child number 2 crying because her teeth hurt, and the soup on my stove boiling over (which is supposed to feed at least 25 for today's Soupdown). Got child 1 back to bed and asleep while hubby dealt with #2 and the soup got turned off until the crisis was avoided. However, I didn't end up calling my sister back. It's the second time in a week or two that I have missed the boat on that task. I am publicly apologizing to her now because it's not that I didn't want to talk to her- I just got sucked into the drama of life.
I think we all have drama in varying degrees.
I think that it makes our lives interesting.
Without drama, each day would be the same and boring. So, I welcome the entertainment in my life.Unfortunately, that means that I don't call my parents like I should, talk to my sisters and brothers like I should, contact my friends like I should.
It's not that I don't appreciate each and every one of you - I do... I have the perfect family for me - with all the crazy, mixed up, loud people that make up the Giesler/Vlk/Patterson clans.
Forgive me if I don't call you right back or send a card late.
Susan, I will get back with you sometime this week... Mondays are very hard with the craziness of school/dance/etc.
For your viewing entertainment... a few more Take Annde to the Navy Yard pictures...

This was taken in one of the rooms on the USS Barry. We're touring with Mattie and another little girl.
Here's us at lunch...
And in the park before the dog exercise...
And, because it's freakin' cool - here's the hot dog getting electrocuted. How awesome is that?!?!
Off to work now... Have a great day, everyone!

For the Non-Facebook users (warning - lots of pics!)

Hey - for the family, here's some recent pictures of the kids. Things have been super hectic around here with all of Annde's activities, multiple birthday parties, and my recent trip out to San Diego for a week (yes, Steve survived!)
Cherry Festival (Downtown DC) - We were lucky to have our friend Kevin join us for the weekend of Easter...Easter Day

Take your kid to work day (Navy Yard)

Misc Pictures of Meghan... can you believe she's almost 6 months old?

And some of Annde too...

I'm not environmental friendly...

I like to drive...

I really do.

Since I moved here, I stopped doing it.

First, I took the metro. It seemed easier since I took me almost to the door of work. I would have to leave at 6am to get there by 7:30ish and it would take me almost 2 hours to get home. But, I didn't have to learn how to get to work... I could just drive to the station, park, and ride.

Problem: cost and time. How much is your time worth? Work would pay for the actual metro fares ($180/mo) but not the parking ($25 per week) or gas. No problem. Still a deal, right?

Then you bring in the fact that it was making me sick, physically. Being pregnant (where you puke all the time normally) isn't too grand when mixed with the rocking & swaying, tight conditions, with people smell in an enclosed area. Add on the lack of bathrooms for over an hour and yep, that choice went out the window.

Then I started commuting with a co-worker. Don't get me wrong, she's really nice. I would have to say that she's been one of my better friends since I moved here. For a while, it was fine. I would still leave at 6am to drive to her house... then getting into work would be around 7:15. Not bad, quicker than the Metro. But, she drives a little Honda. And, since she always wants to drive, it cuts down on the cost of gas.

Problem: time, comfort, and ability to dictate my hours. She drives VERY conservatively. (aka she would not survive in Detroit) While the conversation and friendship is great during the commute, it frustrates me not to drive my car - which is much more comfortable for my tall frame - and quicker since I drive over 50 mph. And she's apparently a horrible backseat driver so she ALWAYS drives. Always... unless she's sick. And we work the hours she wants to work, not the hours I want to work (if I need to stay a few extra minutes, I feel bad about holding her up or adding to the commute).

Then, she went to St. John's for a vacation (before Meg's birth) and was sick for several weeks recently. And I drove. And... it was awesome! I have the GPS so I don't get lost. (even though I now know the way) I leave at 6 and get there at 6:45 or 7 on a bad day... which means I can leave earlier if I want. I am not dependent on anyone if I want to leave early or stay late (another problem with sharing a ride).

So, screw the environment -
I want to drive to work, by myself, in my SUV.
I want to sing along with the radio as loud as I want!
I want to have the windows down and the sunroof open when I am coming home and it's a nice day (not done in her car).
I want to drive fast - as fast as traffic allows and is safe (no tickets please!) - and change lanes.
I want to get home 15-30 minutes earlier since I don't have to drive all the way back from her house.
I want to enjoy the awesome sights of the monument and memorials rising up in the morning with the cherry trees in full bloom as the sun slowly rises.
I want to drive...

Sorry, carpool friend, I don't think I will be carpooling with you too much in the future! Any ideas on how I break this to her, gently?

We're on our way to the Final 4, again!

We're very excited here in the Patterson household... MSU is on it's way to the big Dance for the 2nd year in a row... Even Meg's geeked! Here she is (Mom, close your eyes on this one) watching last year's Semi-finals... getting geared up to go for today's Big Game against Tennessee...

Of course, we're all decked on in our MSU gear (except for Annde who didn't want to get out of her PJs today... Meg's excited to pull off her socks on a minute-by-minute basis...

Here's her and Dad on the couch. I don't know who was yelling louder through the game. V for Victory, Meg!
Here's Annde's sign. She made it after seeing some of them during the game. She spent the last 10 minutes waiving it around and cheering...

... like this...




And to think, last year, April 4 and 6th, 2009, we were there... and that weekend completely changed our lives. What a great way to celebrate this year!

Pictures of DC fun

So, here are some pictures from last week... Annde playing soccer (She's in the brown shirt and pink sweat pants. She got knocked down about 15 seconds later so I didn't take many other pictures)...


She didn't mind when she wasn't playing - apparently there are a lot of wild flowers (read "weeds" here) in the field which she was collecting between her turns on the field. :)

We have been spending a bunch of time down at the Memorials. Here's Annde at the WW2 Memorial...


And the 3 of us in front of Lincoln...
... and Dad and Annde walking down the tidal pool...
Meg just wanted you to know she loves food - any kind that you put in her mouth - as long as you put it in her mouth at a high rate of speed. She likes rice, oatmeal, carrots, pears, peaches, bananas, squash, and sweet potatoes. She loves to eat... a lot!
Well, I forgot to post this the other day... So, I am going to hit a quick publish and then upload some more stuff!

Weekly Update from Patterson land.

So, it's been a pretty busy week around the Patterson household. Besides the normal daily work/school and after school stuff, we attended our first Girl Scout function - a trip the Air & Space Museum for GS day. Annde and I got to try a lot of experiments, listen a female astronaut, meet a female pilot from WWII (WASP 43-7), and of course, spend a lot of time with our friends. I was happy that Raenise and her mom, Katrina could join us. Raenise is a new addition to Annde's daycare and it's wonderful to have such a nice young lady to hang out with after school.
Here's some pictures:
I totally dig those aviator glasses, don't you?
Learning about take-offs and landings and how the air can affect them...
I also scrapped 2 nights this week and came out with these two pages among two others partially finished.

The first page was using a picture I took of Annde at four months (in 2004) and one of Meghan that I tried to duplicate Annde's picture. Meg's only 3 months, though... It is amazing how similar they look to me.
And then, because a baby book would not be a baby book without a bath page, here's the faces of Meg during a bath. She's so expressive with her emotions.We're looking forward to the end of the month: Steve and Annde go to the circus, we are all going down the National Kite Festival and the National Cherry Tree Festival, and Uncle Kevin comes in for a visit and a chance to meet Meghan for the first time...

Speaking of Meghan - she's grown a lot this month and I do mean ALOT. 1.5" and 2 lbs. Her doctor was surprised and commented that Meghan is "definitely ready to be on table food" due to her formula consumption. So, Meghan's officially on rice and oatmeal now. We get to wait 2 weeks and then start her on fruits and veggies. Our little beefcake! :)
Here's her at 4 mos. Our big girl is now wearing 9mo and 12 mo clothing (this is a 12 mo outfit). Isn't she so cute?!?!
And, for your viewing entertainment... it's "Where's Meg?" Watch out, she can screech pretty loud so turn down your volume a bit...