So, what's new?

For those of you that did not give up on us, this post is for you...

We've been thoroughly enjoying every day with Madeleine. She's growing and changing so fast!

We bought a new (to us) piano. It's a 1910 Ludwig and Company upright grand piano. It's made out of mahogany and is very good looking. It definitely needs restored, but it sounds really good considering it's age! We bought it from a guy on Craigslist. We also paid to have it moved since it weighs around 850 pounds! That's a little too much to call in favors for!


Madeleine got Baptised. We had some family down for it and had a small reception afterwards. It was a good day.


I worked on Christmas Day this year. It was my first Christmas to work in my 11th year as a flight controller, so I guess I can't complain much. A couple days after Christmas, we headed up to Indiana to visit family.

Maddie got to go on her first plane ride. She flew really well! We were really nervous, but as it turns out, we shouldn't have been. Then again, we really did a lot of preparations for the trip, so perhaps our nervousness did pay off in the long run.


While we were in Culver, we got about a foot of snow and the temperature dropped to about 0 degrees F, so we had to bundle up Maddie a bit. It cracked us all up...!


Back in Houston, we've been experimenting with feeding Maddie some solid foods. Right now it's just single grain rice and a little apple sauce. It's mostly to get her used to it and practice swallowing a bit. She doesn't totally hate it, which is good. And we think she may even be swallowing some of it!


This weekend Molly set up a picnic for her group (ADCO) and their training counterparts (MCG). It started out wet and cold, but warmed up and actually became a good day for it. Here are some pictures from the day.


I found a very cool music website called Pandora that I have to mention. Actually, I believe that Christina told me about it. Anyway, you put in an artist that you like (or song), and the site builds a continuous playlist of similar artists and songs. It's all free too. Very cool!

So, we're going to try to be better about putting these together. Keep us honest on this one!

Madeleine Update

Posting a couple updated pictures of Maddie. The first one Molly snapped at a particularly opportune moment! The second picture is Maddie and I on my John Deere tractor that I got for my 4th or 5th birthday. My parents had it redone, and it's better than ever!

Arrival of Madeleine Claire Allyn

So, we have been pretty darn busy for the last several weeks. At 9:05 AM on August 25th, Madeleine Claire Allyn was born! She weighed in at 6 lbs. 7.7 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.

Here are some pictures over the last 3 weeks.


So, who would have thought you would be so busy just hanging around the house taking care of a newborn? Ha! Well, we can attest to the fact that you do stay quite busy. It's been absolutely fabulous so far! Madeleine (Maddie) is quite an easy baby to manage... so far anyway.

Of course I was on console for the night shift when Maddie decided to get started on the labor process. I got the call from Molly about an hour after I arrived at work, so about midnight. Molly wasn't very far into labor, so she was able to drive herself to work. I know that sounds horrible, but she insisted that she was fine to drive! Plus, it really does need to be an emergency to leave a national asset untended. I had to work on getting the on call personnel (3 of them) in to replace me. Remarkably all three of them showed up pretty quickly (thanks Jude, Todd, and Roger!). I showed up in the hospital room only about 10 or 15 minutes after Molly at about 12:45 AM. Just over 8 hours later, Maddie joined us in this world!

Here is a one-of-a-kind birth announcement and congratulations from the International Space Station Expedition 15 Flight Engineer, Clay Anderson.

Clay has been stationed on the ISS for right at 100 days now - he'll be returning soon, but I can't remember when exactly.

I (Mike) have taken off 4 weeks from work. Alas, I'll have to go back soon. Molly will be back in a few more weeks. I have enjoyed getting to know Maddie so much that I am absolutely not looking forward to going back to work.

As you can see from the pictures, we had visits from both sets of grandparents. It was great having them down to visit. It's hard to put a value on all the help they provided. In fact, Molly and I can now get both of our cars into the garage because my dad and I cleaned and organized the garage! Check it out:

That's about all there is to report for now. I'll try to post regular updates now that we're settled in.