My First Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there! I had a FABULOUS day today, and loved every minute of it. Macy slept till 6:30 AM, which was lovely, and I got some pictures of her in her Sunday dress with her GORGEOUS new sweater from Gabe's step-mom Ellie (and his Dad, Gary, :) with the tulips from Heather that arrived for me last night, and the roses I got myself last night. Little did I know Gabe had already got me a gift certificate for "the works" at the Chrysalis Spa. WHAT A WONDERFUL HUSBAND I HAVE! He also wrote me a card that I'm going to keep for my scrapbook of all the Mother's Days to come so I can look back and remember.

Have you seen that Hallmark commercial when the Mom opens her memory box and looks at all the cards her daughter has given her over the years? I love that idea! I'm going to start a scrapbook of a picture of Macy and I each Mother's Day and save whatever thing she gives me, or a picture of it. Even those funny little crafts... I am getting it started with this picture!

Macy's new trick. Sucking fingers palm up... harder than it looks!
So after our little photo op and church, we headed to my Mom's to help finish the turkey dinner Katie and I were making with a lot of help from mom! My grandparents came to join us and Craig and Sharon since their kids are in Wenatchee. 9 adults and Macy makes for a very fun Sunday dinner! Grandma VK hadn't seen Macy since Easter and got some hold time today. She told me she found my blog and has been reading so I wanted to post all of these adorable pictures I got of her...


Today made me miss my Grandpa Dale Van Kooten. He passed away almost 4 years ago, 2 months before Gabe and my wedding. He would have adored Macy Megan. My Grandpa Dale had a very special way with little girls and it makes me sad to think he didn't get a chance to meet my daughter and see how incredible she is. He was a wonderful man that I loved very much and miss more than I can say.

Grandma, I hope you know what a special and beautiful lady you are. Just looking at these pictures shows me how sweet your heart is and I'm so thankful we still have you in our lives! Macy loves you and so do I!
My Dad with his Mom. :)
Love this picture. Please excuse Macy's drool/spit-up on my shoulder. Doesn't phase me a bit. I'm a true Mother!
4 generations on the VK side!
My Grammy (Macy's "GG"), Mom (Macy's "Mimi"), me and Macy! 4 generations on the Shea side!

Dinner was a hit! Turkey, mashed taters and gravy, stuffing, rolls, brocoli salad, snicker salad & green beans! Yum!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Randomly, Gabe planned to take Dad and Mom out to Mexican food today and none of us realized it until we got there, but it's Cinco De Mayo! Katie came too, and we had an awesome dinner.

Dad NEVER gets anything but water when he goes out to eat. I think it's because of a budget book my Mom read once, that said you can save thousands of dollars over a lifetime if you only order water, so in my family, pop is a HUGE splurge. Gabe has been working his tail off on overtime and gets meal "chits" every time he works an extra day that some restaurants honor as gift cards. He has so many Dad asked him if he was allowed to get a drink. :) Here's Dad with a Sprite and Gabe with his Root Beer.
The waitress brought Dad and Gabe necklaces that lit up with Corona signs. :)

We had to add the blinking Corona to Macy's toys- she wouldn't stop staring at it!
Gotta love my family! Thanks for such a fun evening everybody!!!

Something funny...

Last night I took Macy over to my parents for dinner so my Dad could see her. It had been over a week and he missed her! Macy was being super funny all night and kept shoving her entire fist into her mouth. My Mom said she thought she could do that too, and... :)

Some more Wenatchee pics

We had to capture Macy's first sink bath at Heidi's! Look at that face!
We stuck to our new routine and Heidi took some great shots of Macy eating!

All the triplets watching the parade! Justine holding Abbie, Patti holding Annie (wearing MACY'S PANTS!!!! She is TINY!), and Debbie holding Ellie.
Here's sweet Jake, Andy's oldest son holding Macy. She loved him! Jake is a major kid person and loves babies. He works at Costco in Wenatchee but we all think he should be doing something with kids. He has a serious gift!

My awesome sister! Katie was so much help. Not only with Luke and the triplets, but with Macy. It is sooo nice to know Katie "has" her and she is safe and in wonderful hands that adore her when I'm not around. Thank you Auntie Kate for all your help! Too bad we didn't get the car rides over and back to chat!

The girls at lunch on the PERFECT day for Sharon.

Monday, Day 4 in Wenatchee

Every day Luke saw me he would say, "Hey! How's Baby Mace?" "Hey! Where's Baby Mace?" Or, "Hey Baby Mace!" He LOVED Macy! He played with her, made her laugh, sang to her, even read to her! Love that boy!!!!

Abbie watching her Baby Einstein movie.

This is Rachel, Heidi's Nanny/Mother's Helper. She is a wonderful girl, super fun and adores all the kids. Ellie is a little...notional, but really loves Rachel!
And of course, Macy loved Rachel too!

Sunday, Day 3 in Wenatchee

Ok, Sunday was Sharon's birthday and there are so many quotes and funny things to remember. First of all, she declared everything about this weekend...PERFECT! It became a joke, but really, everything couldn't have been better from the start to the finish. Except we really missed my Mom. Usually she would have been there too, but she hurt her back last week and a 4 hour car ride and weekend helping shlup babies wouldn't have been great for healing. We missed her terribly, but everything else really was...PERFECT! :) This pic was at the end of the night, but had to come first because Sharon summed up the whole day.
We all went to church in the morning! I have never seen such a production!!!! Up at 6 AM to leave the house by 8:20 AM. The girls (and Macy) had to be up, fed, changed, dressed, hair done, loaded in their car seats... It takes a village!!!! Sharon wanted all the girls (Heidi, Katie, Molly, Macy, Sharon, Annie, Abbie, Ellie) to ride in the Suburban and Heidi said we wouldn't fit. Sharon insisted we would, and WITH her coffee. No one believed it, but she did it! :) I'm telling you, only Sharon could have fit in that spot. It's not even a spot! So funny! Here's the back view...
Front view...
Four grown ups, four babies in car seats= suburban at full capacity!!!!
Abbie was the most intrigued by Macy. Every time she saw me all weekend, with or without Macy, she would look and me and say, "Baby!" Sooo adorable! All the triplets loved Macy, but Abbie by far the most. She looked at her the whole car ride!

I must make a side note here to say how incredible Andy and Heidi's church is! They had a Nursing Mothers Only Room in the back with dark windows, soundproof, that you could watch the sermon and there were speakers piping in the sound. The coolest thing I've ever seen! I met a great gal in there named Rebecca who had a daughter named Elise who was only 1 day older than Macy and the exact same size!
So after church we headed home to feed all the kiddos and put them down for naps, left Andy in charge of the girls, KC in charge of Luke, took Macy with us for the rest of Sharon's PERFECT day. Next stop? The best lunch I've had out in a long time. McGills I think it was called. We all had veggie soup, bear bread, and salad and it was delicious! Peanut butter pie and a sundae to share for dessert (...yeah, I was a little off the WW train this weekend) and had great conversation. Next, Sharon wanted to stop by a craft show and we all agreed to go.
I have decided (along with Katie and I think Heidi too) that craft shows are a big waste of time. They used to be fun, and you could always find something you want. Now? Best thing I've seen is the occasional scone for $7.00 a pop or something! No thanks! We were joking about this, and then I walk into a booth with stuff I loved! I actually bought this "Home" sign in brown and love it! Heidi had to get a picture of me actually finding something to buy at a craft show! Thanks Sharon! It was the PERFECT buy!
Macy's first craft show!
So as I'm looking at this picture, I almost wish I would have bought this hat! It was darling! I think the booth was seattlehats.com or something. They had adorable stuff, but I think this hat was $35.00 or something ridiculous. We're going into summer and Macy has several adorable hats already...but isn't it cute?
So after the PERFECT craft show, it was off to the nail salon! Sharon and I got pedicures...
Katie got acrylics... and Heidi watched Macy! So sweet of her!

Next up? Dinner and presents! Heidi and Andy made a feast! Tri-tip, baked potatoes, garlic bread, cantaloupe, & green salad. YUM!
Dessert (Birthday Cake) was Scotcharoos. KC was saying he loves these, but likes a little less chocolate. Heidi was saying she could just re-distribute the chocolate and I said, "Yeah! We could call them Just a Skiff Hump Ups!