Madelyn Violet is Here

Most everybody has probably already heard the news. But, Madelyn Violet joined us at 1pm on March 23. She weighed 6lbs 11oz, and was 20 inches long. These pictures are from the day after. Brendan is a very proud big brother, and loves to hold her (so far). She doesn't really cry (yet) and Brendan is interested to see what is going on everytime she squeaks.

Geocaching

Today we tried something new and different. Geocaching (www.geocaching.com). It was a sport designed to test and practice your navigational skills. In a nutshell, it boils down to people hiding weatherproof containers with goodies inside (their cache). There is usually a logbook and other toys and trinkets. You can take something, if you replace it with another item. The owner of the cache publishes GPS coordinates for the cache at www.geocaching.com.

It is not as easy as it may sound. Punching in GPS coordinates and walking to it. Once you get close, the GPS accuracy can be off by 30 feet or more. That makes locating the actual container more difficult than it seems. We used a combination of the GPS with a compass, and were able to find our first two containers pretty easy.

Of course, we tell Brendan that we are Treasure Hunting. Here we are at our first cache, on a nature trail in Troy.



















Brendan exchanged a matchbox car for a orange-haired mermaid.
























Our second treasure of the day was located in a park in Royal Oak. This one was pretty well hidden between stumps and leaves, but Jen found it.
























Here Brendan exchanged a truck for what we thought was an action figure. Turns out, the action figure was a travel bug. Travel bugs basically have a serial number on a dogtag used for tracking its whereabouts. This one has been from New York to New Mexico. We have to hurry and return it to another cache so it can continue its travels.
























We are considering making up a new cache to place locally next weekend. So, look for more updates on Brendan's treasure hunting.

Ultra Sound

On February 22nd Jennifer had another ultra sound done to check the position of baby.
Here is the photo that we got. It is really hard to make anything out but it is her profile with her hand on her forehead. The nurse thought that it was cute that she was making a dramatic pose but Brian said that anything this baby does is going to happen with a dramatic flair. I wonder where she is getting that from? Hum.
One the picture I tried to draw lines to help point things out. Just above the Face arrow is her eye with her nose being the first bump under her hand and her lips sticking out being the next two. You may have to look at it for a minute for it to make sense.

All About Brendan

While we are getting ready for Brendan's little sister to join us we are also taking time to be with Brendan and to be sure that he is prepared for his little sister's arrivale. So we took Brendan to a Big Brother/Big Sister class at the Hospital where we will be having the baby. Brendan got to tour the floor and see what the rooms look like, look at the nursery and also see the baby's up close at the nursery window. Back in the class room all the children got baby's to pratice holding, feeding, changing, and wrapping up their baby's. Brendan was able to change his baby with very little help but his baby was dropped a couple of times, this we will have to remember.

Also later this Spring Brendan is starting to play soccer with one of his friends that we know. So there will be plenty of photos coming from that. Brendan has the whole list of what he needs to buy all set: shoes, socks, pads, a ball, and shorts. He came up with all of that on his own. I did have to tell him that he didn't need a new shirt because he will be getting one from his coach.

Will keep you up dated on the progress of baby. Keep those phones handy.
-Jennifer

LongHorn Rodeo - Friday 2/17

On Friday night we took Brendan to the Longhorn Rodeo and the Palace of Auburn Hills. Brian's company has a suite there, and we got tickets from them to go.

In the lower left corner of this photo, you will see the smaller steers they used for steer wrestling. The first thing Brendan said when we got there was "Me ride one of those!" Oh god, we are in trouble.


Here a photo of the cowboy himself. We had a pair of binoculars with us, and sometimes he used his hands to pretend he has a pair. That is what he was doing with his left hand here.


Of course he had to ride the kiddie mechanical bull. Hand in the air and everything.


More bull.


Just before he fell off :)

Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 5

We spent Super Bowl Sunday at our friend Jason & Jen's house. And this is how you sled in Michigan if you have a large yard.....Jason also has a couple of large hills for all the kids to slide down and here is a picture of Brendan from inside the house. It was too cold and too much snow here for me to go walking in my tennis shoes, which happen to be the only ones that I can tie right now :).We watch the first half of the game and the half time show (wasn't too impressed) and then headed home. Who won again? JK, go the "Bus" or what ever they call that Steeler player from Detroit.

Saturday Feb. 4

We went up to visit Uncle Dan and Aunt Nancy for Jacob's first birthday. Brendan and Zachary had a great time playing together and being boys. They were heard saying "your turn" and upon investigation we found that they were smushing each others head in a laptop type of book. Great.And Jacob was just the cutest. He loved all the attention from Brendan and Zachary. He had no problems tearing into his birthday cake. He even managed to get blue frosting all in one of his ears.

Georgia Aquarium

While in Georgia we went to visit the new GA Aquarium, the largest in the world I think. I was blown away by the size (and crowd, jeez) of this building. We went and saw everything. There were different rooms that held different tanks, a coral reef, the whale sharks, otters, penguins, and lots more. Brendan got to touch a baby shark and sting ray, shrimp, star fish, and a couple other things. The whale shark in his tank. The glass viewing area was the size, if not larger than an Imax movie screen. And there was also a tunnel that you walked through to see more of the space and the shark up close when they swam over you. Their were two whale sharks and some hammer heads, saw nosed fish and a lot more that I have no clue what they were. Brendan was playing in the different child areas that they had set up through out the building. Papa Tatz went with him into all the areas as well, we just didn't know which one was going to be harder to get out, Brendan who didn't want to leave or papa Tatz with his back having to bend way down to fit into some of these places. But it was all fun and smiles for Brendan and papa made it out with no problems. :)

Popcorn

Brendan and Aunt Ashley had a great time together while in GA. Papa Tatz was even a little jealous about all the love that he gave to her. But mommy and daddy like the break because for once Brendan did not really want us for a week.Here is Aunt Ashley teaching Brendan bad (but cute) habits. He was tossing pop corn into her mouth. It is a good thing that she has a big mouth and that Brendan has pretty good aim. JK. It was very good entertainment for the evening though.

Christmas In Georgia

Once again we drove down to Georgia to have christmas with Jen's family. And this year was extra special because Aunt Ashley was going to be there too with her boyfriend Mike. When we got to Georgia Papa Tatz had a load of lumber in his driveway because he was having a deck built in the back, but when daddy saw the pile he got all excited thinking that he was going to get to built something. But his bubble was busted when we found out their was a small crew (2 guys) doing all the work. Oh well maybe in the summer when we come down.But back to Christmas and opening presents. Brendan once again helped to pass out presents to everyone and he had Mount Everst going on in his pile. So we had him go first and open them all. That took at least half and hour and the kid is fast. But he got some cool toys: a large fire truck, a ton of little cars, a paint ball game for the t.v., punching bag and gloves, a movie, and tons more. Brian was all excited because he got enought in gift cards to Home Depot to buy some new power tools, and I got lots including some girlie bath stuff (now I just need help getting in and out of the bath). And of course their was some girlie baby stuff from Aunt Ashley who was the only one that new the sex of said baby.

Christmas In Flint

Brian and Brendan had Christmas in Flint while I was in the hospital with Kindey Stones, again. But Brian took some photos for me and Brendan came home with alot of toys. I was told that Brendan was the little helper, passing out all the presents to everyone. Here is a photo of him getting ready to tear in to a present himself.

Sledding

This past Sunday Brian and I took Brendan out sledding. There is a hill (man made) at a park that I found over this past summer. It was the perfect day to try out Brendan's new inner tube sled. And Brendan just loved it. We started out just half way up to get use to the idea of Brendan flying down a hill on nothing but an inner tube, but he did great and held on tight so it was to the top of the hill. Which was nice because they had steps with railings on both sides of the hill and even two different hills. We kept with the simple one. Brendan loved it. He said weeee and everything.
One the way home Brendan said go to Papa Tatz' house big hill, but we had to tell him that Papa Tatz does have a big hill just no snow.

Visit with Santa

Brendan got to visit with Santa this year at Berkley's first annual Holiday Lights Parade and Berkley Junior Women's Club annual Tree Lighting on Dec. 3rd. Having escaped from the hospital just hours before (okay they let me out) we were able to go and see the parade with Jim & Sharon, and thank goodness too because mommy was busy helping present flowers to Miss Michigan and an award to this years Parade Grand Marshal, while daddy was taking pictures of course.

But Brendan got to visit with Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas (I am not sure what he said).

Dishes

Brendan loves to help out and right now that I can no longer see my feet this is a very usefull thing. Well Brendan's new favorite thing is to do the dishes. And he is really pretty good at doing them too.

Feast Day

Yestorday was Feast Day in Brendan's pre-school class. The dad's had to wear black pilgrim hats while the mom's wore white collars and kids were dressed as indians. It was so cute.All the children stood on their circle time rug and put on a little show for all the parents. Now you know Brendan and you can probably guess where he stood, right in the center in the very front.The children preformed a couple of songs and then we had our feast, every child (or parent as the case mostly is) brought a small snack item for the feast. We had juice, popcorn, raisins, cheese cubes, crackers, turkey slices rolled w/tooth picks, veggie tray w/dip, brownies, and pumpkin pie to name a few. Brendan had a great time and can even say cornucopia.

Brendan

Brendan hasn't been up to much these past couple of days. He isn't feeling too good so I am taking him to the doctor this afternoon. It seems everyday he wakes up with something new. Yestorday he seemed fine and better so we let him go to school and when I picked him up his voice was horse. So maybe school wasn't the best idea.

So I will keep you updated on his poor little majesty. But I do like all the cuddle time I have been getting, but he does want my hair a little too much now. Oh well can't have both.

Fall Leaves

Fall is upon us here in Michigan and that means most Fall Leaves. And boy do we have some. We have not one or two but three large trees that just love to dump their leaves out at different times. So we spent all of November raking leaves. But the nice thing about being pregnant this year is that Brian will get to do most of the work.But while he is away this weekend (getting ready for deer season in the U.P.) Brendan and I decieded that it would be fun to go out and play in the leaves for a while. So after raking together a large pile (that took all of five minutes) Brendan had fun jumping, falling, and running in his leaf pile. Over an hours' worth of fun. So this is what we did on our windy Sunday afternoon.

FINALLY - Brendan's 3 Year Old Photos

We are a little late in getting Brendan's official 3 year old photos done, but we finally did them. To check them out click here.

Trick - or -Treat

Brendan went Trick-or-Treating monday evening with mommy & daddy. He got so much candy that he said his bag was tooo heavy. Poor thing. So daddy started taking handfulls out and putting it into his coat pockets.
One of the greatest things about Halloween is when people decorate. And there is this one house that just goes all out. It is called the "Berkley Boneyard" and Brendan just loves going an visiting it weeks before halloween. And on halloween they have pictures taken with the vampire (who own's the house).And as for our pumpkin this year, we bought them early (on our way home from Westbranch). But didn't have time over the weekend before halloween to carve them. So mommy started cleaning and carving at about 3 in the afternoon on halloween, thinking that Brendan would wake up from his nap any minute now. He didn't, he miss the whole thing. Oh well maybe we will have more time next year. Oh yeah and extra help too.

Halloween Party at Jason's

On Saturday, our friend Jason had a halloween party at his house. He lives in Holly, and has just over 16 acres. They always go way out, with way too much food. He also does a haywagon ride for the kids, and a really cool haunted trail through the woods. Here are some photos.

Brendan as tigger. His make-up did not make it to Jason's house.


Brendan was the talk of the party when he just decided he had to go pee, and went in the middle of the yard in front of everybody! I was too slow on the camera with this one : )


Brendan and Jen on the hay wagon.



Jason's haunted Trail.