Happy Birthday Whitney

Happy 1st birthday sweet Whitney! Today Kate and I enjoyed a great visit with Whitney, William and Taylor at Whitney's 1st bday party! Two parties in one weekend...needless to say Kate has been sleeping soundly since the moment we walked in the door tonight! Whitney is already walking like a champ and is as sweet as can be! William and Kate have become fast friends and get so excited to see one another now! By the end of the party, Kate and William were playing doctor as you can see from the pictures! We won't tell Daddy...

Ryan stayed back at the house while Kate and I played with the Barbers! He was busy setting up much needed office space in our den. After several long months of stress and hard work, I finally heard on Friday that I received a promotion at Abbott and am now a district manager in the primary care division. I am excited beyond words and look forward to all the challenges ahead. My territory is very small (Louisville, Lexington, and N. Kentucky) and from what I have heard, the reps are great! I couldn't ask for a better situation! I will keep everyone posted on how the transition goes! The best news is that this keep us in Louisville for many more years than we thought! We had anticipated moving to Chicago for a few years but with this position, we will be here and Ryan can continue his journey with UPS!

Take care and again, Happy Memorial Day!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/WhitneyS1stBirthday

Happy 4th Birthday Sawyer and Happy Memorial Day

As always, I hope this posting finds everyone doing well and enjoying the extra day off work! We have had a very busy yet FUN weekend! My neice, Sawyer Grace, turned 4 on Friday and we celebrated with a big bash on Saturday with family and ~8 of her classmates from school! What a time watching about 8 4-year olds and 2 2-year olds! They had so much fun climbing on Sawyer and Cameron's new swingset and jumping in their blow-up jumping thing (I am sure there is an official name). Sawyer was so cute and Judd and Jen pulled off a perfect party on a perfect Saturday afternoon. After Sawyer's party, Jo was nice enough to watch Kate for the evening and we visited several of our friends at a Memorial Day cookout! As you can tell, there were tons of kids there too, all enjoying a fresh baked cupcake with blue icing! Kate missed out on the blue mess but I know she enjoyed her few hours with her Nana.

Today started with a great visit with Jo and joy ride on the 'motorcycle' at her house! Kate cried for her Nana all the way home so hopefully we can get another visit in soon!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day!
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A week full of counting and jumping

Trying to catch up on the blog often requires several postings in one day!

I was lucky enough to attend the Go Red for Women's luncheon this past Thursday, which is the American Heart Association's campaign for women and cardiovascular health. Since I currently sell products that treat cholesterol, I have started to become more and more involved with the AHA and love all the events they support in honor of women. The luncheon was one of the most moving events I have ever attended, primarily due to the Macy's sponsored fashion show of 25 survivors of various types of heart disease. These 25 strong girls and women (age 4months to 74 years old) were such an inspiration that I hope anyone who ever has the chance to attend one of the Go Red events is able to go. One of the little girls in the fashion show was 2 1/2 years old and had the same heart condition that Kate has...a PDA which in laymens terms is a small hole in the heart. This little girl just had her hole repaired without any complications. It reminded me so much of Kate and just how precious she is! We follow up with her cardiologist in July and will get an update on her condition. They said last year that she will likely not have to have it repaired and it should have no effect on her life! I will keep you posted!

There are also several pictures of Kate trying to jump rope with a jump rope that I received at the Go Red event! Even though she is no where near jumping rope, she loves to jump. And as you can tell from the several video's, she LOVES to count! She needs a little help at times but generally she is counting to 10 without any problems! It doesn't come out as clear on video but hopefully you can tell what she is saying! I am going to try and catch her singing the ABC's next. She has a toy on the refrigerator that sings the ABC's and she tries to sing along. It is almost as cute as her counting.

Several weeks ago, Ryan took a bath with Kate and she thought this was the best thing that has ever happened to her. He decided last night to do it again and again...she loved it. I took a minute of video in attempt to capture the joy she felt! Hopefully it, along with the other videos, comes through okay.

Lastly, there are a couple of pictures from our visit with The Barber's this morning. Michele and Will's neighborhood had a neighborhood-wide yard sale so we went over to visit and look around. Kate and Will enjoyed playing with all the toys at the houses! We found a few used books that we just read before nap!

We are off to our 2nd haircut this afternoon! I hope everyone has a great weekend!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/May2008Misc

Happy Belated Mother's Day

Here are a few more pictures from our Mother's Day celebration at our house last Sunday. Ever since Sawyer and Cameron left, Kate has been crying for them. Luckily we will see them again next weekend for Sawyer's 4th birthday! Speaking of which, it is so hard to believe that she is going to be 4 and Kate and Cameron will be 2 in just about 6 weeks. Time flies even faster with kids!

The video attached is one of Kate's newest talent...counting. She can count to ~15-18 depending on the day and how much help she receives. Hopefully the video comes through okay!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and all the mothers out there that check this blog had a wonderful Mother's Day!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/MothersDay2008

Happy Rainy Mother's Day

Not many pictures this week...sorry! On Saturday Kate and I met John Riley and Jennifer for a date at the Backyardigans at the KY Theater! It was our first show and Kate seemed to really enjoy it. I was a little worried about it keeping her attention span but it was short enough that she seemed to enjoy the whole thing. One thing I question though is why these shows have an intermission? One session without a break is hard enough to keep them still but 2? Oh well, they were both great. The picture is the two of them on the way to the show. I accidently forgot the camera in the car so I didn't get any more pics. Oops. We ran into William and Whitney (and of course Will and Michelle) at the show! Hopefully there will be more of these shows in the future!

There are also a few pictures of Kate in my van. She loves when she gets to play in the drivers seat. This week she discovered the rear view mirror and the horn!

Well, off to enjoy my Mother's Day! I am sure I will post a few more from our visit this afternoon from my family and Ryan's mom, Jo. We are off to a rainy start as you can see from the picture of Ryan and Kate in their rain jackets. Hopefully it will clear up for a walk later!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/BackyardigansAndMisc

The never ending weekend

As if Friday and Saturday were not busy enough, we somehow fit in another jam packed day today! This morning started off with a play date with William and Whitney. I didn't take many pictures but I did catch a great picture of Kate and William's favorite activity...jumping on William's bed! I think they could do this for hours if we let them. There will be another play date next Saturday for the Backyardigins concert and hopefully I will get a picture of precious little Whitney!

After our play date and a nap, Kate and I drove to my mom's for Blair's birthday dinner. All the kids enjoyed the time fishing on the pier and my mom came out on top as the only one to catch a fish today. The best part is that she was using Sawyer's princess fishing pole! I hope you enjoy more pictures from today! The last two from the fishing group are the best...it is what you look like when you are two and have had a weekend like we had this weekend!

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/PlayDateWithWilliamWhitney

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/FishingAtSueSuePeePawS

Take care!

Happy Derby Day

What a great time of year to live in Louisville! Saturday was the running of the 134th Kentucky Derby and what a race it was. We were pulling for Big Brown, not only due to its ties to UPS, but also because Ryan has his name in the small wager we had going on at the Wiggins's. Luckily for us...he won and appears to be quite the horse! Hopefully a triple crown will be in his future! It is just a shame that the excitement of the race was tarnished with such sad news of Eight Belles. I know injuries come with the game of horse racing but it is never easy to take when these beautiful animals get hurt.

Leading up to the big day, Kate had a week full of activities at school, including PJ day, "Run for the H2O", a boat race in honor of the annual tradition on the Ohio River, and a Derby Hat Parade! As you can see from the picture, she looked too cute for words in her Derby outfit! She was very proud of her outfit as she strutted into school on Thursday! It was so much fun to get her dressed this week! We are lucky too to have such perfect weather all week!

We had our friends Jessica and Bob in for the weekend to help celebrate! They were able to enjoy a rainy but fun day at the Oaks on Friday and then we met up with ~8 other couples for dinner and drinks later that night! It was so much fun to see all of our friends and meet several new couples! It is just a shame that the weather was so bad that night...RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. I guess when you have great weather all week you can accept one day/night of rain. I am just glad that it was beautiful again on Saturday for the races.

If Saturday was not busy enough with the Derby, Aunt Granny, Uncle Pal, Judd, Jen and the girls all made the trek up to Louisville to enjoy a BEAUTIFUL day at the zoo! As you can tell from the pictures, we had a big time looking at all the animals, eating snacks, and riding the merry-go-round during our annual family trip to the zoo. We bought a membership so we can enjoy it as much as we want. Kate was much more into the animals than last year and can say most of them now! Despite not napping between the zoo and the Wiggins' derby party, Kate had a big time then going and playing with Luke and Maddux. Needless to say, she was beyond exhausted at 8:00 that night!

Whew...what a fun weekend! Thank you to Janet and John for watching Kate while we enjoyed a night out on Friday and then for making the drive on Saturday to meet us at the zoo. Also thank you to Judd, Jen and the girls for driving up and meeting us at the zoo. Kate loves being with her sweet cousins! It is so fun watching her mimick everything that Sawyer does and then Cameron mimick everything Kate does. The 3 girls are so much fun!!! Enjoy the pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/DerbyWeek2008
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