Emma Walking

Fighting

Do you know what it is like to fight with a 23 month old to take 3ml of medicine? It is all in a days work here in the Janetzke house. Maddie has been on antibiotics since Monday and I haven't had any problems with her taking her medicine until this morning. She was actually running away from me not wanting to take it. I tried to bribe her with her nuk. I told her she could have it back if she took her medicine, well that didn't even work. For those of you who don't know, Maddie is pretty attached to that thing. We are trying to get her to not use it, but then this week when she got sick she hasn't been without it. She would have rather not had the nuk for the last hour and a half than take her medicine and get it back. She has finally decided to take the medicine and get her nuk back.

Grandma H. just called to say that her and grandpa are coming in two weeks. They are coming on Mother's Day weekend.

The Brewers/Astros again this weekend. Hopefully the Brewers can take 2 out of 3.
GO BREWERS!!

Not Again

That's right, Maddie has another double ear infection. She woke up yesterday with a temp of 102. Chad stayed home from school. We were doing alright. She wasn't her normal busy self. She went down at about 1:30 and then about an hour later she woke up crying and also gagging. I took her into the bathroom, in case she was going to through up, she never did. Then I checked her temp. again, this time it was 103.9, so off to the doctor. He said along with her ear infections she has a sore throat, so that is what is making her temp so high. We are now on antibiotics and also have another appointment next week to check her ears again. So that is what we are battling here. Emma is doing just fine, I am just trying to keep her from not drinking out of Maddie's cup, I don't need her with a sore throat.

Besides battling illness, things here are good. This weekend was a pretty lax weekend. We had people over on Friday for the Brewers/Astros game. I couldn't believe they lost. Then we watched the next two games and were very pleased with their outcomes. I did think they were going to blow it on Sunday, but they proved me wrong. Then last night to pull out the win at Wrigley in the 12th. We are on a roll. I haven't said anything down here about last weekend, but after this weekend if we take the series, then I might have to give some people a hard time. I don't think we are going to get any of the games this weekend. We did think about it, but now with Maddie's ear infections, I don't need to be downtown and her temp spike up or something.

Chad is getting summer baseball stuff in order. That is what is taking up most of his time now. It is nice to have him home before 6pm and to actually eat dinner with him.

I better get back to Maddie. She is contently watching Sesame Street right now, so maybe I can get the dishwasher unloaded.

Sorry I don't have any recent pictures to post. Things have been crazy and the couple times I wish I had my camera, I didn't have it with me.

Steps

That's right, Emma took 2 yesterday. That was the first time she did it and Chad was even home to witness it. She has been taking a couple and then diving at whatever is in front of her. Emma will be running after Maddie sooner than later.

Our Third Spring Break

Anne was here from Florida this past week. She and Maddie spent some quality time together. Anne even went home knowing Go Diego Go, The Backyardigans, and of course Blue's Clues. We did have a lot of fun with her here. She got in on Tuesday in the evening and left on Saturday morning, probably a little later then she would have liked, but I think the lateness was worth it. We did a lot of playing and we even managed to get to a game at school. We headed to the JV game on Thursday, which ended up being parents night because of some schedule changes. We also got to Harris County Smokehouse by Anne's request. We will be seeing Anne in July when we go for the Youth Gathering, so that is just a few months away. Thanks for coming and visiting. You know you are welcome here anytime.

Other news: Emma did get to the doctor last week for her 9 month check-up. She is finally on the curve for weight, but still off of it for height. The doctor thinks she might end up being taller than Maddie. Right now she is 22lbs and 29inches. She is starting to cruise a lot faster along the furniture, but still no steps. I'm sure they will be here soon.

Maddie is still Maddie. She is saying more and more words each week. She is loving that Emma is so mobile now. They have begun wrestling. It is usually Emma trying to get to Maddie who then flips over to get away and then they start laughing hysterically.

Baseball is over this week, so that means that we will have Chad back with us. I won't go into details, but it is probably good that the season is over. This weekend is also Prom. He has to supervise, so he gets to spend his Saturday night with high schoolers at prom. What fun, right?

Hope that you enjoyed your snow last week. It sounds like it is pretty much gone, hopefully Spring will makes it way in and stay.

Easter Pictures

Good Thing We Live In Texas

If we didn't live here, we would have most likely been spending Easter in Wisconsin and it seems that at the Heffelfinger house there was a flu that was going around. So I am thankful that we weren't there and didn't catch it. Even though there were some sickies it sounded like some of them still made it to the Brewers game. Ben went to the game and kept saying how much fun he had at the baseball game. We hope that everyone is feeling better today and are able to get back to normal. I think everyone but Mike was at work today. So hope you are feeling better Mike.

Our Easter was pretty fun filled with egg hunts and wiffle ball. Saturday we were at church for the egg hunt there. There were a lot of people in a small place, but we managed to have some fun. Sunday morning was church and then we ate breakfast with Karner at Denny's. We had some good laughs and a lot of fun. We went home the girls took naps and then we headed over to the Brennan's. We got there had our own little egg hunt, ate a really good meal, played some wiffle ball outside with the kids and then it was home to sleep. We had a great time and are thankful that we were able to celebrate Easter with some friends from school.

Today Chad had practice and I have been getting the house back in order. We got to great Easter packages. One from grandma and grandpa Janetzke and the other from cousin Luke. The girls loved everything that was in both of them. Thank you so much. Now we are just trying to get through the next two weeks of baseball and then it will be Prom(which Chad has to supervise), then the musical, and then finals. We are always trying to get plans for the summer straightened out. It seems that once we think we have final plans, someone else calls and has something else for us to do or some invitation to something else comes in the mail. We will have it all figured out soon, I hope.

We Found Dad!!

Daddy was hiding in the tent. Okay he really wasn't but it has been so much fun having daddy home for the last few days. The girls have been playing and running circles around him. We have been keeping ourselves entertained despite the cold weather. Hey for April, 50 is cold. We did get to the Easter Egg Hunt at church yesterday and Maddie had fun playing the fishing game. We are going over to some friends' house later today. I will make sure to post some more later today or tomorrow with more pictures from this weekend. We just wanted to let you know that we did find dad.

Have a Blessed Easter!!

Have You Seen Our Dad?

Our daddy was last seen on Sunday bedtime, can you help us find him? We miss him a lot and hope that he can tuck us in tonight.
Love, Maddie and Emma

Chad has had three games in a row this week, so that means that he hasn't seen the girls since we put them to bed on Sunday. Or should I say the girls haven't seen him, because he does go check on them when he gets home from his games. Usually they play only Monday and Tuesday back to back, but with today being Maundy Thursday they moved today's regularly scheduled game to yesterday. Tomorrow and Monday are no school, so I think Chad is looking forward to having this little break. I haven't really talked to him in three days either. Monday I did wait up, but both Tuesday and yesterday I was sleeping by the time he got home.

I'm sure we will have some pictures after this weekend. We have the Easter Egg Hunt at church on Saturday and so we have signed Maddie up for that. I think that she will have a blast.

We are having another visitor next week. Anne is coming from Orlando because she is on spring break. So the girls and I will get to hang out with her for a few days next week.

If we don't blog before then, we hope that everyone has a Blessed Easter!!

A Spring Break of Sorts

No one that was here was actually on spring break- but it was kind of like having two spring breaks. Last week the Chapman's were planning on coming down, but Ben got an ear infection and they didn't want anything to happen to his ears with the plane ride. We missed having them here and hopefully they will get a chance to come and visit soon. Grandma and grandpa Heff were coming too, so we got just the two of them. We still managed to have some fun even though only half of the group was able to come.

They flew in on Tuesday and the girls and I headed to the airport to pick them up. Tuesday we were thinking about going to Chad's game, but it ended up being away because our field was too wet, so we just hung out at home and played.



Wednesday we headed to the Zoo, it was a whole lot of fun and wasn't anything last spring break's trip to the Austin Zoo. We will have to take Chad back since he was at school. Wednesday night grandma made dinner, which was shrimp for her and Chad (gross) and chicken for grandpa and I. Chad likes shrimp, but we never have it because I think it is gross.

Thursday we left grandpa at home and he painted a dresser for Maddie and fixed a couple of boards on our fence. Grandma, I and the girls went to the outlet mall and then got lunch on the way home. We went to Jason's Deli. First off it was really good, but it wasn't the sandwich as much as the service. It is actually a place where you order at the counter and then you go and sit down and they bring you your food. Well we were sitting looking at the menu and the manager asked us if we needed a high chair and so I told him two, then he said that we should go sit down and he would take our order and then bring us our food. It was very nice of him to do that. So thank you manager guy at Jason's deli in The Woodlands. Thursday we went and picked Chad up at school and went over to Harris County, sorry you had to miss it Joel. We then went back to school to hear the Martin Luther band. They were on tour in Texas and that was actually their last concert.

Friday we went to the mall and looked at a sewing machine. Yes, I am trying sewing and actually am pretty confident that I will do okay. Then we headed home and let the girls get a nap in. Grandpa and I went to Chad's game that night and after the game Chad and I went with some of the other coaches and the softball coaches over to a bar to hang out for a little while.

Saturday was just spent mostly at home. Chad and I did manage to get out to a movie and dinner while grandma and grandpa hung out at home with the girls. We went and saw Reign Over Me. It was a really good movie. We then went to Borders, mostly because we could, but also to check a couple of things out.

Sunday was church and then grandma and grandpa had to get to the airport. We all came home and just crashed. I did get the grocery shopping in and a nap too. We went over to Wilke's last night for Phill's birthday and also for Opening night.

This week is a short week of school, but there are still three baseball games. We are going to church's Easter Egg Hunt this weekend. Then I think we will be just doing some relaxing. I'm sure we will be watching baseball too.

Happy Opening Day. GO BREWERS!!!

2 new CLHS babies

The Sommermeyer's welcomed their newest addition to the family into the world on Wednesday. Aurora Janice was born after 12 hours of induced labor. She was 9lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. Everyone is doing great. Aurora joins big brother Gabe.

The Straub's also welcomed their newest addition. Nicole Joanna was born today and is 8lbs 10oz and 20 inches long. Everyone in that family is doing well also. Nicole joins her big sister Haylie (I might have spelled that wrong).

We are praying for speedy recoveries for everyone.

Life Soundtrack

So I took this off of Pete's blog, but I thought it was a good idea.

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your mp3 library
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool.
7. Don’t skip songs.

My Movie:

1. Opening credits: Love the One You're With- Crosby, Stills, and Nash
2. Waking up: Wrapped Up In You- Garth Brooks
3. First day of school: Good Things- BoDeans
4. Fight song: Crazy Game of Poker- OAR
5. Breaking up: Crash Into Me- Dave Matthews
6. Happiness: Yellow- Coldplay
7. Life’s okay: Sex and Beer- Pat McCurdy
8. Mental breakdown: She Will Be Loved- Maroon 5
9. Driving: Grow Old with Me- Adam Sandler
10. Flashback: Under the Table and Dreaming- Dave Matthews
11. Getting back together: If I Could Hold You Tonight- BoDeans
12. Wedding song: Add It Up- Violent Femmes
13. Birth of first child: A Whiter Shade of Pale- Van Morrison
14. Final battle scene: The Joker- Steve Miller Band
15. Death scene: Hey Ya- Outkast
16. Funeral song: Say Goodbye- Dave Matthews (I didn't cheat on that one)
17. End credits: Is This Love- Bob Marley

Spring Break 2007

It has been here and gone. We had a lot of fun with dad being home and being able to play. After the excitement we had this week, I think Chad would have liked to call in sick today, but he had to get back at it.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights were all filled with hanging out with friends and watching the tournament. Maddie did get to pick her bracket this week. Granted as of yesterday, she is out of the south bracket it was a lot of fun watching her pick. We showed her the pictures of the teams mascots and that is how she picked her teams. She had Miami (OH), Duke, Texas Tech, and North Texas in her final four and had Miami (OH) winning the whole thing.

I got in some garage sales with Christa and Jan on Saturday. Jan and Steve have 2 boys and a girl. Kaylie just turned 2 and the boys are a few years older, but all the kids love to play with everyone. Shane and Seth can always make Emma laugh, so that is good.

Yesterday was a catch up day. We went to the mall in search of sandals for Maddie. We were successful this weekend. I ran to target later in the evening and ended up finding sandals there too, so I will be taking the ones from JCPenneys back. Maddie had been going for three days straight and it finally caught up with her last night. She fell asleep a little before 6pm and woke up this morning at 7:45am. She is back to her normal self already today and has been recharged for the week. This week starts district play for Chad, that means games on Monday, Tuesday, and Fridays.

I will be cleaning the house this week as we have visitors coming next Tuesday. I know that the warmth will stay, we just hope that rain will stay away. I am also trying to figure out all our plans for summer and think that I have most of everything figured out. We are also trying to figure out what we are going to do for Maddie's birthday.

Chad beat me to a blog this week and the pictures from this week are on his blog, so I won't bore you with the same pictures. Have a great week!!

Teachings of Maddie

I know that Maddie being the "big" sister is going to teach Emma some pretty interesting things. Especially for as wild Maddie is, most days I think that Emma is just taking mental notes on how to do things. Here is an example:










Step 1: Starting












Step 2: Almost there












Step 3: Got there

Maddie was so nice to put the stool next to the fireplace in order for Emma to use it to climb up it. I'm sure this is just the first of many attempts to be like her big sister.

Here are some other pictures from this week:



















Emma just hanging out- she is starting to be a whole lot more fun. Emma is getting more brave with standing and trying to climb on things. She has started taking just one big nap(2 1/2 to 3 hours) and that seems to help with her crabbiness. Even though she is usually up between 6:45 and 7am, she is content to just lay in her crib and either talk to her stuffed animals (another thing she gets from her sister) or just talk to the ceiling.
















Here is Emma's redneck picture, at least that is what Chad says. We were getting ready for bed and she decided that she wasn't finished playing. Chad got a kick out of the fact that she had no shirt on and was checking under the hood of her car.
















Maddie just singing her ABC's in the kitchen looking cute. We are saying more and more words each day. I'm still waiting for all of her words to just spill out and her to not stop talking. She constantly is making noise and so we decided that when she starts talking we are going to put her and Michael Wilke in a room and they can just talk each other out.















This is Maddie wanting to play on dad's team. I think that somedays he might want to take her up on it. She might need a smaller size jersey.

Chad had a game this evening and still isn't home (10:30). The Wilde's are coming tomorrow and it is suppose to be a great weekend. Spring Break has begun and so I'm sure that Chad will be ready for doing a whole lot a of nothing for the next few days.

We will have a full week after spring break and then the following Tuesday we have more visitors coming. It sounds like grandma has lots of stuff planned for us to do.

Have a great weekend!!

Pickles, Bruises, and Baseball

What a combination of things in our house. Nothing seems to surprise me anymore. Those are three things that have been in abundance here. Maddie is really into eating pickles with everything. I actually have to hide them in the back of the fridge so she can't see them. If I would let her, she would eat one any time the fridge gets open. Bruises are always a constant in our house. When you have a kid like Maddie, they are pretty common. This time it was Emma who got her first major bruise. She was pulling herself up on the toy box and tried reaching in and lost her grip and bumped her cheek and the side of it. She is getting tougher. I think that letting her and Maddie "play" with each other on the floor is helping. Of course baseball is all around us. This past weekend was the Cleveland ISD tournament. Actually the Rotary Club sponsors it, but it is at Cleveland High School. Cleveland is this little podunk town about an hour and 10 minutes from here. The girls and I headed out to the game on Friday afternoon. It was a really good game and they came back and won it, which put them in the championship game on Saturday. We'll just say that the championship game didn't go as well as the game on Friday. The rest of the weekend was just catching up on things here. We cleaned up and pulled some more stuff in the backyard. Today is another baseball game. It is a home game and starts at 6pm, so maybe Chad will be home by 10:30pm, but I'm not holding my breath. Next week is spring break, Chad said the kids are already on it. He is ready for it and I think just a couple of days off from baseball too. This weekend the Wilde's are coming for two nights to see us and they are going to go to NASA on Monday.

Have a great rest of the week and don't forget to set your clocks on Saturday night. Don't worry mom, I know that church is at 8am, not 7am.

Welcome to the Family

Congrats to Jana and Mike on their engagement. More wedding news to come later. This is the only picture that I have of the two of them. We can't wait to have Mike be part of our family.
Congratulations!!!

Advertisement

If you someone who reads my blog, but not Chad's, you need to go to his blog. (link on the right hand side of my blog) There is a very funny video of the girls in the bathtub. Just make sure that you have the sound on.

Hope you are having fun digging out of the snow. We are enjoying another day of mid 70's and sun.

The Last Two Days

Here are just a few pictures that can tell the story of the last couple of days. Monday was a pretty normal day in our house. The girls and I hung out and got to play outside in the near 80 degrees. That evening I went to a Pampered Chef thing with Christa. It really wasn't a party. It was like a thank you to people who had hosted a party and you could bring guests with you. Since Christa had hosted a party she got an invitation and then asked if I wanted to go. So her and I went for a couple of hours and it was fun. Yesterday Chad had a baseball game, so we took him to school in the morning and then had a pretty normal day at home. We headed up to school at about 3:30 and got to play again, in the warm sun and weather. Hannah (one of the boys' sisters) loves to play with Maddie, so we always make sure we have a ball for them to play with. They had lots of fun playing and Emma just watched and crawled around them. Michael Heiden (Ben's brother) and his girlfriend (who actually graduated from CLHS) came to the game so we could hang out. They headed home during the game, but then came over after for some pizza at our place. Not too much going on the rest of the week. Chad has another tournament this weekend. The last one, so depending on how they do will determine when they play. Tomorrow they play at 10am, so today is really his last day of school for the week, because Friday is an in-service day. He has just next week of school and then spring break. No big plans for the break, but I think on Monday the 12th we are heading to Texas Lutheran for their baseball game because they are playing Concordia Seward. Here are those pictures. Enjoy!!

Note: if anyone has been trying to call us, our cell phones have been out of commission for whatever reason, so hopefully that will be resolved either later today or early tomorrow.


Here is Maddie doing what she does best- take off her clothes.(she is even getting the hang of taking off her shirt.) I have figured out that if she has shorts on, she leaves those on, but not pants.


Maddie playing with the ball at dad's baseball game


What Maddie took home from the baseball game. She didn't cry, just got back up and started playing again.



Emma just hanging out on the floor.



Trying to get close to the camera- most likely trying to eat it.



Another look at those skinned knees.




Emma pulling herself up- she can even do it one handed.


Emma watching Maddie and Hannah playing at the baseball game.

Four-Wheelers, Waco, A New Bike and Badminton

THE FOUR WHEELER



















So here is Maddie and "uncle" Phill on the four-wheeler at school. Friday and Saturday was a baseball tournament at school. They played their games on Friday and we were even home before 10pm. So Saturday morning we awoke to a steady rain and headed to school to check on the field. We got there and the field was doing pretty good. Chad, Phill, and Steve started to rake and turn over the dry dirt from underneath and that is when the big guy upstairs thought it would be funny to just let it down pour. It continued to pour on and off for awhile and so Chad decided to call the tournament for Saturday. While waiting to see what they were going to do, Maddie got to take a ride on the four-wheeler around the baseball field. I think she had more fun just sitting on it and listening to the engine rev. So with the baseball tournament canceled it was off to...

WACO
I don't have any pictures from Waco. Even if I would have taken any, the camera would have probably blown out of my hands. We (Chad, me, the girls, and Steve) headed up to Waco to watch the boys soccer team in the state championship. The game was at 1:30, so we had to quickly get ourselves together and get ready to leave. We were on the road by 9:50, which was pretty good. The drive to Waco is about 3 hours. We grabbed lunch on the way, got to Baylor and got to the soccer field- it was the wrong one. Luckily the one we needed to be at was just a couple of blocks away. So we piled back into the car and got to the game as the National Anthem was ending. It was really windy. There were even a few times that Isaac and Maddie got blown over. So we spent the first half playing ball with Isaac. The soccer team ended up losing 4-0. The refs were consistent in their calls, mostly bad, but at least they were consistent. I don't think that the other team was a 4-0 better team than us, but it was fun anyways. We then got back into the car where both Maddie and Emma soon fell asleep. We got home, Steve stayed for dinner, watched the MSU game and then played some Phase 10.

A NEW BIKE
After church on Sunday we came home and cleaned up the backyard. I had been pulling bushes and such all last week. The most being the 7, yes 7, rose bushes I had to clip and dig up. So then after that we went to the mall to try to find some shoes for Maddie, no luck. We headed home- the girls of course fell asleep, so we stopped at Sonic for a Cherry Limeade. When we got home Chad got to put together his first bike. (note- see Chad's blog about it) So after Emma ate her dinner we all went outside in the driveway and Maddie got to test out her new bike. We ended up taking out every ball in the garage, the wagon, and anything else Maddie could find. Emma just sat and watched as Maddie was doing this all. I swear she was taking mental notes on how to make a complete mess of everything. We also have a driveway "net", if you call a volleyball net that. So one of the things she took out was the volleyball/badminton set we received as a wedding present.

BADMINTON

Maddie just thought everything about badminton was just so funny. She would laugh every time the shuttlecock would fly in the air. She would laugh whenever she would try to hit it and miss. She would laugh when it would fall off her racket after one of us put it on. She was just having a fun time out there. It was a lot of fun to watch her.

Then we started to play a game actually over the net and she couldn't decide what team she wanted to be on. She kept switching sides. She was trying to get the hang of it and was having fun at the same time.



















Meanwhile, Emma just took the opportunity to crawl all around. She decided to try to see what leaves taste like. I don't think she enjoyed them too much. She was giggling right along with Maddie when Maddie would start giggling.

So all in all, we had a really fun weekend, with some really nice weather. I heard that there was snow up in Milwaukee and other areas of the Midwest. It would have been just as fun if we could have gone sledding. But we wouldn't have gotten any of our yard work done.

Here are just a few pictures of the girls from this week. The one of Emma is her pulling herself up. She has gotten up to her feet a few times, but that is a whole lot harder than just going to her knees. The first one of Maddie is with her first haircut. I had to cut her bangs since they were hanging in her eyes. Now she actually looks like a little person. She now has a hairstyle and her curls are back after taking a leave of absence while we were in Wisconsin. The bottom one of Maddie is at Chad's game last Saturday. She decided that she wanted to bat. This was after the game was over and she was going around picking up equipment and putting it on.

This week has been so nice out. Right now it is 80 degrees outside. The sun is totally out too. So that means that we have gotten outside everyday this week. I have even got some yard work done in the back too. Chad had a game last night. That's all I'll say about it. We didn't go, but I got the run down this morning before he left for school. This weekend is the Concordia Tournament. Each year it seems to get rained out on Saturday, so we will see if that is a trend that continues. There is only about a 30% chance of rain for Saturday. It is suppose to stay in the 70's for awhile. I have a feeling that our cold weather is behind us.

We have a couple of weeks until Spring Break. Since Jana and Mike aren't able to come down now, it looks like we will just be hanging out at home. Maybe that will give us a chance to get some things done around the house, especially the yard.

Now that baseball is here, it makes my life seem so boring. We spend a lot of time at home just playing. We have been going to the park more now that it is warmer and Maddie seems to love the swings even more than before. Maddie also loves to take off her clothes. It will be no more than about a half hour before she is pantless. She usually keeps her shirt on, but I think that is because it usually gets stuck on her head when she tries to take it off. She can put her pants back on all by herself, but prefers to keep them off. She will still be out daredevil and risk taker. You can already tell that between the two of them. We are hoping that Emma is getting another tooth, otherwise there needs to be an explanation of all the extra drool and crabbiness.