Girl's day!

Can I just say that I LOVE having a daughter!?! :) Seriously! She is soooo much fun and spending time with her is like hanging out with my little sister! She cracks me up with her witty little self! Her teacher told me the other day that Maddie was helping clean up the class after nap time and putting books away and said, "these books are making me nuts!" I have to say....I think she's heard Marty and me say that a few times before! Woops! LOL!!!

Another thing she said that caught me off guard was when we were at the grocery store the other day in the checkout line and I was looking at the magazines, trying to find one with Rob Pattinson on it, (I know...I have a small crush) and she pointed to one and said, "here's the Jonas Brothers." What?!?!?! I did a double take and said, "how do you know who they are? Where have you heard of them?" Because seriously, we are very selective to the shows she's allowed to watch on TV and we don't listen to their music....so, for her to point to their picture and know their names...I was SHOCKED!!! A mom with some teenage daughters was standing in line in front of us and looked and me and laughed and said it was bound to happen sooner or later! For REAL?!?!? She's 3!!!!!!! I haven't told Marty yet! :)

Well, those are just a few of the things that convey my interactions with this silly goose God gave me to raise....boy, do I love her! I thought we needed some time just the two of us, so I scheduled hair appointments for both of us back to back with my new hair stylist...Emily....LOVE HER!!! She's a daughter of a lady that was like a grandmother to Maddie at childcare at church, so I thought we'd try her out. Ms. Pam is so sweet and I knew her daughter would have to be too....sure enough...she is! And she's awesome at hair and was patient with Maddie to boot! Anyhow, Maddie got her haircut first, and she was such a trooper! She's only had 3 haircuts in her life, 2 of them done at kids hair places, and 1 by my friend's mother, so I didn't know how she'd do with going to a real, proper salon and having her hair washed, cut, dried, and styled. But she did awesome!!! She was so funny and talked the whole way through....I know you're all shocked by that! :) I packed a bag of coloring books and colors, snacks, and a drink to keep her busy while I got my hair highlighted and cut. She was amazed at how much hair was on the floor after her cut and said, "that sure is a big mess of hair all on the floor....someone should clean that up." A girl after my own heart!!! Here are some pics of the process and a look at my pretty little lady afterwards! And thank you so much Krista, for watching Isaac while we went for some pampering! Next time, it's your turn. :)





Later that day, we met up with some good friends at a mall for the girls to play in the play area since it's been raining so much around here lately. This was on the way out to the car, and they couldn't resist this puddle! So, we let them...why not?! Perfect ending to a great day!

Easter pics!

We had a great Easter with the family again this year. It is always nice to have an excuse to get us all together and hang out and let the kids entertain....which they do! Marty and I took a lot of pictures this year, so here's a sampling! Enjoy!
P.S. The Easter dress Madeline is wearing was mine when I was a little girl!

Isaac and Maddie are dressed in their Easter duds.... sweet babies! Also, Isaac loves his cars these days and loves to play with them on Mimi and Grandaddy's old folded futon! So cute!




Maddie showing off her lipgloss that Daddy and I got her in her basket:


Our beautifully decorated table, courtesy of Aunt Lauren and Mimi:


Madeline on an egg hunt in Mimi and Grandaddy's backyard, with the help from her cousin, Piper:





Isaac wearing the "Orbitz gum" hat, being a silly goose:



Maddie and Daddy dying Easter eggs:

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

Okay, so I've gotten some negative feedback from a few of you about not being able to view the blog with the new privacy settings, so I'm going back to having an "open" blog again. My friend, sweet Erica, told me about something I can add to help me have a piece of mind with an open blog, so that's what I did. Now, I can see who's viewed the pages and if any creepers come crawling, I'll switch back to closed/private/whatever you wanna call it! :) Hope this is the last of the changes to the blog for awhile. Sorry it's been hard for you to get on to see what's been going on, but you haven't missed much, as I've been so busy with work and tying things up for the end of the school year, that I haven't had time to post anyhow! I promise to do better over the summer though. For sure! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Security!

Okay, so I've been nudged a little by some friends on protecting my family by adding an extra step to be able to read our blog. Previously, anyone could get on and search our name and find our blog easily. Now, you'll have to be "invited" to view it by emailing me for me to "approve" you. It sounds terrible to have to do, like we're some part of an elite group that only the chosen ones can view. But, it's safest for the kids. For instance, one friend of mine knew of 2 different people that were "hacked" and had fake Facebook accounts created for them, with pictures of their family and all....all of which, someone got from their blogs. Scary! Also, another friend of mine is a police man's wife and she said I was crazy to start a blog in the beginning just for the fact that I was putting our family out there. I try not to think about the bad things that can happen, but when we live in a world like we do and I've been warned a couple of times, I figure I'd better start listening before something does happen. As a side note, the signature on our email has our blog address on it, inviting you to pop by and see what we've been up to, and Marty ALWAYS forgets that it's there and sends emails to anyone and everyone without deleting it.

Hopefully you all understand the need for this and keep following along this journey with us. I'm sorry I haven't been better at posting on here like I should. I've gotten caught up in work, house work, and Twilight! I promise to be better this summer when things slow down a little! :) Love you all!

My Personal Papparazzi

So, yes, I've been MIA lately but have good reason. We are getting ready to list our house for sale and hopefully move in the next couple of months a little further north of us to a "newer" home with better schools. We've been busy as worker bees trying to de-clutter (me) and home improvements (marty). A list of a few of the things we've been doing: new countertops in the kitchen, new paint throughout the house (including the ceilings), new tile backsplash in kitchen, till the front and back yards, make new flowerbeds out front, lay sod (this Sunday that will happen), new mailbox, de-clutter, de-clutter, de-clutter, new carpet to come soon, oh yeah, and did I mention de-clutter?!?! So, we've been working on little "projects" during our days off and evenings, so I apologize for being a little out-of-the-loop lately. All this, while trying to keep up our jobs, friendships, and entertain our kiddos too. It's been fun! :)

During these times, we've left the camera handy to take some before and afters, to be posted when all is complete! Well, little miss Madeline found that she wanted to try some picture taking herself. She's surprised me with a few of them, how good they are. I apologize for the scared look on my face...she called my name, and that was me looking over at her! It was funny, so I went ahead and posted it. It's been neat to see life from her point of view. She may have a future in paparazzi...she was pretty quick at pointing and clicking....all the while, calling out everyone's names!!!!! Gees!!

There's a cute one of Marty's mom, "Mimm," and her poor dog, Maggie, who Maddie caught peeking in the window. There's also a few of our friend, Bob, who came over to measure our counter tops. Our poor dogs, Roman and Moses, are often her target too. Moses doesn't like to look at the camera though, so Roman tends to get more pics taken of him. And of course, baby brother is always a favorite target!!! Oh yeah, and the toaster. Nice!

New Years Eve

Okay, so here are a few pics from New Years Eve at our friends house. There was a huge crowd and the kids had a blast! We stayed up way too late that night, but I guess that's what you do that one night a year, right? We played Guitar Hero on their new Wii they got for Christmas....which was soooo much fun! I laughed so hard watching Marty, who is rhythmically challenged, bouncing while playing the guitar! He just bobbed up and down the whole time! Don't have a pic of that, but wish I did!
There's a pic of the whole gang right before midnight. Also, there's some pics of Maddie and her girlfriends. And Isaac playing with some strings from a pom pom. He sat and played with those for quite awhile.
After this post, I can finally post some stuff from this year! :)

Christmas....better late than never :)

Okay, so I'm just now getting to posting our Christmas pics, but had a couple of cute ones, so I thought I'd go ahead and do it. We had a great Christmas, with the kids full of excitement. It was neat to experience it through their eyes. This was the first year that Madeline was really into it.
Last year, we started a tradition with the kids of having a birthday party for Jesus with friends a couple of days before Christmas. We go to my friend, Kimberly's house and she tells the story of Jesus' birth while acting it out with help from the Fisher Price nativity set. The kids get really into it and sit quietly waiting to sing happy birthday and eat birthday cake. Here's some photos from that day:



The night before Christmas, we went in the front yard and sprinkled "reindeer food" on the front lawn. It was a mixture of oatmeal and purple glitter. Madeline was so excited to do that....she couldn't wait for the reindeer to come. She was happy about reindeer coming, but didn't want Santa anywhere near the house. She kept telling me he didn't need to come and that she didn't want him to come in her house while we were sleeping. I have to admit, that does sound a little ooogy, if you think about it. I assured her, it was okay and that she wouldn't even hear him or see him. This made me seriously rethink our Santa beliefs in this house, but I gave it a go, for this year at least.


On Christmas morning, Madeline came and woke us up and we went and got Isaac up and went into the living room to open presents. I decided we needed to start another tradition of the kids only receiving 3 gifts each from Santa, just as the wise men brought Jesus 3 gifts. I heard this through a friend at church, and thought it was a wonderful way to tie Santa back to Jesus. Of course, they were both fine with this and didn't even realize they only had 3 gifts. Maddie had asked Santa for cowgirl boots, a jump rope, and kid scissors. Isaac got a Fisher Price Noah's ark set, a leap frog drum, and a leap from radio. Madeline didn't like her cowgirl boots, but we managed to get a picture of her in them before we took them back. She's such a silly goose. Isaac was happy with his new toys and got busy playing with them right away.



My parents came over and Marty's mom too, so they could give the kids their gifts. My mom and Madeline have been cooking together a lot lately, so they got Madeline an apron and chef's hat with her name on it. Also, they gave her a huge cupcake making set and Paula Deen's kids cookbook. Starting her young! Here she is in her apron and hat. Too cute!