Springtime!

Spring has sprung here in Fresno, and while we're still hoping to get a lot more rain to help with our current drought conditions, we are also enjoying some really nice sunny, warm days. Norah and Maddie love playing outside this time of year... they were nice enough to slow down for a few minutes so I could get some pictures of them with the blossoms.

Dan, Norah, and Maddie also took advantage of the nice weather by running in a race this past Saturday. Norah and Maddie did the 1/8 mile kid's race, while Dan (joined by Maggie, Jake, and Laura) did the 10K. Both girls did great! Norah took a bit of a spill while trying to navigate the crowded starting line, but she hopped up, wiped away the tears, and completed her race. Maddie - as the youngest competitor in the field - was the last one to cross the line... but she ran with determination from start to finish. They both had a lot of fun and were very proud of the medals they got at the finish line. (The adults did great, too, even if their race didn't draw quite the same crowds of spectators as the kid's race did.)

Norah is cruising along through her last few months of preschool (sigh...). She has made some good friends, some of whom will be continuing on with her at St. Anthony's next year. Maddie has been ramping up her vocabulary the past few weeks. She has a few obvious favorites (no, doggie, ball), but also some harder words that are obviously very important for her to be able to communicate (cookie, swing, dinner ["ninner"], sister, yucky, stinky, gunk, shoes, and balloon ["manoon"]). She's even realized that she can convey attitude with her words ("um, no")! It's very cute, and she is surprisingly patient with us as we try to figure out what she's saying.

We have also started preparations for our new arrival, with cleaning closets and organizing cabinets first on my list of to-do's. Maddie will be moving out of the nursery into what we have been using as our office, so there are a lot of things to relocate. As I was moving some boxes of old keepsake clothes from my childhood, I couldn't resist having a dress-up session with Maddie. I was also able to find of picture of myself in one of the outfits (along with some very stylish ladies, I might add!).

Next on the nesting list is wallpaper/texturing removal, retexturing, and painting. Luckily for Dan, I think we'll be hiring a professional on this one. I'm sure we'll think of plenty of other things to keep him busy, though! Happy spring to all!

Shiny & New

As usual, we have lots to catch up on, but we just wanted to do a quick post to talk about two new things at the McCoy house. First, we got a shiny new 2014 Toyota Highlander last week. (Okay, actually KRISTIN got a shiny new Highlander last week, but don’t worry – Dan wasn’t entirely left out of the excitement!) Dan’s car had been slowly dying for the last year or so, and considering that the cost of the necessary repairs was more than the value of the car (who really needs an anti-lock brake system anyway?), it was time to make a change. So Kristin got the Highlander, Dan got Kristin’s RX 300 (still going strong at almost 200,000 miles and 15 years old), and Dan’s Grand Am is on its way to CarMax for auction.

New car!

Farewell Grand Am!

Dan's sweet new ride

A HUGE thank-you to my Uncle Tom, who connected us to Toyota of Clovis where we got a great deal on the car. I’ve never actually bought a car before – so I have no point of comparison – but I have to say this was probably the easiest major purchase experience that we’ve had so far. (Certainly the car was easier than our recent dishwasher and couch purchases, which should have been much smaller deals but were actually somewhat torturous – at least as far as Dan was concerned.)

Norah and Maddie enjoying the spacious interior

Norah loves the new car, especially the third row seat. The third row was the main reason we had put off the car purchase for about a year, since we knew the Highlander was being redesigned in 2014 to add a third seat and more legroom to the third row. That – plus the added trunk space in the redesign – does not disappoint. And while we might not have a lot of occasions where we fill the car to its eight-person capacity, we will soon need regular seating for five. Which brings us to new thing number two… Baby McCoy #3 is on the way! He or she will be arriving on the scene in late July, and we’re all thrilled. Actually, Maddie hasn’t yet weighed in on her new status as big sister/middle child, but we’re guessing that she’s (generally) going to love having a new friend around. I’m finally starting to feel better and get my energy back, which means Dan is off dinner duty and on to nesting duty. He was such a good sport during the first trimester, when he was in charge of all the cooking, shopping, cleaning, and night-time child caring – in addition to his regular responsibilities at work. The downside of my decreased morning sickness, for him anyway, is that I now have more energy to start planning all the projects that we need to do around the house before the baby arrives. Since I’m home a lot more now than I was when I was pregnant with Norah or Maddie, I have more time to notice things… so the list is growing longer by the day.

We feel so blessed to be able to bring this child into the world, especially considering our amazing support group of friends and family. We look forward to introducing him or her to you this summer.

Long-Lost Blogger

After a couple of months of serious slacking - blog-wise - I'm going to try to get caught up on our news and happenings of the fall...

Norah has completely settled into her school year as a Panda (her class is the Prayerful Pandas). She and her classmates are flying through the letters and numbers and are busy practicing writing and pre-reading skills. Last year, they worked mostly on capital letters, but now they're working on the lowercase ones as well and talking a lot more about how letters are combined together to make words. Outside of school, she decided to take gymnastics this year instead of dance, so she's working on her balance beam and cartwheel skills instead of her shuffle steps. She loves the trampoline, bars, and air track (see below).

In other Norah-news, we finally got her first haircut! As you can see, the change was less than dramatic... but at least we got a much-needed clean-up of the ends.

Maddie continues to find new ways to be curious. She's a forward-facing car-seat rider now and is finding new ways to communicate with us every day. She's still not using a lot of words (though "uh-oh" and "baby" have become early favorites), but she has mastered the art of showing both excitement (usually some combination of point, smile, laugh, scream) and displeasure (vigorous head-shaking, animal-like roar, body rotation [away from sister trying to take toy], throwing of self on floor). She has, after all, spent the last fifteen months watching her sister and learning how to act... so cute (or not so cute, depending on the day!).

Our biggest event of the fall was Maggie and Jake's wedding! Maggie, Jake, and my mom planned a really beautiful weekend and it was so fun to have lots of family members in town to celebrate. Maggie and Jake got married at the parish in which we grew up and went to school - St. Anthony's - and had the reception in the garden at San Joaquin Country Club. Norah got to be a flower girl, a duty which she took very seriously. She had lots of fun playing with all the other kids in attendance (Jake has ten nieces and nephews, and my cousin Julia was here with her boys Liam and Owen). Of course, we've been honored to include Jake as part of our family gatherings for many years, but now it's official. We're really happy for Maggie and Jake as they start their married life together. I didn't take many pictures myself, so I'm borrowing some shots from Laura and Maggie's friend Adam (amazing photographer!) to include below.

 

Post-wedding, we shifted to Halloween mode. First on the agenda was the pumpkin patch. We have our old favorite patch, which is a u-pick farm on the outskirts of Fresno. Norah remembers all her favorite traditions there (corn maze, hay ride, etc.), and Maddie had fun getting to help pick and cut her own pumpkin this year.

 

Norah and Dan even carved one of her pumpkins into a jack-o-lantern, a project that apparently grosses Dan out...

Next up was costumes. I usually start on the girls' costumes by mid-September, since a) it takes me forever to figure out how I want everything to work and b) I get interrupted A LOT. This year, though, two and a half weeks would have to do. I ended up having plenty of time (if you count finishing the costumes the morning of Halloween as plenty of time), but luckily Norah chose a pretty easy assignment this year - peacocks for both - or we could have had a major costume disaster!

Norah and Maddie had lots of fun trick-or-treating together. Norah was such a good big sister, taking Maddie by the hand and showing her how to hold out her candy bag. Maddie got the hang of things pretty quickly, and both of them ended up with lots of candy. We did let Maddie have a small taste of a candy bar, then quickly confiscated the rest of her haul for consumption by Mommy and Daddy.

Yesterday, we had the honor of celebrating Veteran's Day with Dan.  We took him out for our traditional Veteran's Day lunch, but he also took advantage of some Veteran's Day freebies this year, treating himself to breakfast at IHOP and dessert at the CVS ice cream counter. We're so thankful to Dan and all the others who have served (including our grandfathers and a few uncles and cousins) and continue to keep current service members and their families in our prayers.

Dan's first deployment to Iraq... with his friend Blair Nahm

Dan's second deployment to Iraq... with his friend Dennis, commander Col. Mitchell, and an Iraqi General his team was advising

Dan's second deployment... he was part of a small team of advisors to the Iraqi Army

Finally, since the timeliness of my blog posting has been poor lately, I'm going to go ahead and wish Dan a happy 9th wedding anniversary in advance of the actual day tomorrow. We've made a wonderful life together, and I'm blessed that he promised to be my husband nine years ago. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

Maddie's Newest Adventure

After several weeks of taking a few hesitant steps at a time, Maddie is walking! It is so fascinating to me how quickly one or two steps becomes all-out walking, but once it clicked, Maddie was off. She's excited to be able to keep up with her sister more easily and is having fun practicing her new skill.

We're all settling into our fall routine. Norah loves her new teachers and is making some good friends at school. Maddie has been a good sport about being my running buddy as I attempt to get back a workout rhythm. And Dan is, as ever, busy at work... but definitely still finding time to prepare for the upcoming ND football season (that is, he reads a bunch of football blogs) and to play the occasional round of disc golf.

I was lucky to be able to spend a wonderful weekend a couple of weeks ago over at the beach celebrating Maggie's bachelorette party. It was my first overnight away from Maddie, but both she and Dan survived with no problems. (Thanks to Grandpa and Jake for the assist!) Maggie wanted a (mostly) low-key affair, so we stayed away from the usual activities in favor of wine tasting, eating, an art party, and some good stories. We're looking forward to Maggie and Jake's big day in a little over a month! And thanks to Maggie's friend Adam for some great pictures!

Laura and I toasted Maggie with some Middle Sister Sangria

Bachelorette cookies - this was as racy as the party got!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and go Irish!