Cute as a Cupcake...you betcha!

Our little Madie turned one November 17th. My where has the time gone. She is so full of life and I sure love having her in mine! Madie loves to smile and make faces. She is so cute when she folds her arms for the prayer and smiles because we are so proud of her. She is determined NOT to walk and that's alright with me. I'm definately not ready for her to grow up any time soon. She loves to play with everything her brother and sisters play with (which they don't always like) and definately loves for them to play with her and make her laugh. She is definately a Mommy's girl and I LOVE that she still cuddles with me. She does not have any teeth yet but is really interested in the foods we are eating and gums everything to death. She finally said "Mama" for the first time a month or so ago. She thought it was the funniest thing to have us try to get her to say it. She either laughed at us or gave us a big smile...it was worth the wait to get to see and hear all her sweet joy!! Her favorite stuffed animal right now is a giraffe we call "Rafie". It's a baby giraffe with BIG sweet eyes and we often find her playing with her after she wakes up in the morning or after her naps.
Madie weighs 18 lbs and some odd ounces, so she's still not quiet big enough to sit forward facing. She doesn't seem to mind though since she has the girls to entertain her from the back seats. She has finally stopped spitting up so much which is HUGE. She does a little sometimes, but NOTHING like she used to. Madie's hair has really grown over the past few months it seems. She has this one area on top that has a cute curl to it and I just love it. The back seems to have a little curl to it too, but the rest is straight.
For Madie's birthday we celebrated with the Voorhies family!! The kids were so cute with Madie and I think Madie felt very special thanks to Cailee, Abby, Brandon and the Voorhies kiddos! They even dressed her up at one point in the night! She was pretty hesitant with her cake and only ended up eating a tiny bit, but LOVED using the frosting as body paint! By the time she was done it was all over her forehead and tummy...I just love it. We did a cupcake theme...it just seemed so fitting. When I was pregnant two of my great friends threw a cupcake theme baby shower and I just fell in love with the idea of cupcakes and now Madie's thing is that she's cute as a cupcake!! So her cake was a flower made out of cupcakes and I made a giant cupcake for every one else. It was a lot of fun!!

We all LOVE you so much Madie!! Happy 1st Birthday!

More of Madie's fun faces!

Madie is so funny. She has a lot of faces she LOVES to make and this is one of them!

This is her "surprised" look, but she uses it for more than being surprised!

The toothfairy and the dentist

I tell you a tale of a little girl named Cailee. She longed to have a loose tooth due to the fact that a lot of her friends were losing teeth. One day she came to me and said she could wiggle one of her bottom teeth. I didn't see it move much, but a little. I told her it would take a little time for it to be loose enough to fall out. So time went on and one day, this sweet little girl had a toy fall on her and hit her in the mouth. While her daddy was investigating the fall, he discovered something white in her mouth behind her two bottom teeth. Low and behold....a tooth. Her tooth had grown in behind instead of pushing her baby tooth out. So as the story goes, a phone call and a visit to her dentist brought two baby teeth home for the toothfairy. She was brave and the toothfairy rewarded her! She was so happy to have money "of her own"! She was so proud to spend her money when she found "just the right thing".

Pick a pumpkin...

Abby's preschool has a family outing once a month and this month we went to Studt's Pumpkin Patch to pick a pumpkin! I think the kids had fun. It was REALLY windy and that made the dust really fly, but other than that I think they had fun trying to find that perfect pumpkin and trying to pick them up!

What do you get when you mix...

A Princess, A butterfly, A ninja and A fairy butterfly?? Really cute kids on Holloween night! We had a fun night of trunk trick or treating at the church. I love being able to go there and when we are done there come home and be done for the night. The kids had fun going trunk to trunk getting candy and by the time we had gone through everyone were freezing. Worked out perfectly!!

Brandon trying to be a "tough" ninja! There was a mask, but he wouldn't wear it for anything.

For the past year (yes I said year) Cailee has been talking about being Jasmine for Halloween and do you think we could find a costume for anything? Thankfully a friend of mine was Jasmine in a play when she was younger and had her mom send the costume! Thanks Nicole, you saved the day!

Abby didn't feel so good most of the day, but managed to drum up the desire to go trick or treating. She was a very beautiful fairy butterfly!
And then came our little butterfly! Madie came for part of the trunk or treating and then attempted to make an escape out of the stroller and attempted a nose dive onto the concrete. Thankfully one of the straps held her in from face planting. She spent the rest of the time with Daddy passing out candy!

Phantom of the Opera

Blake and I went to a Halloween party the night before Halloween and had a great time! Darcy and Darrin had a lot of fun activities for us to do but I have to say that thinking up the costumes and finding everything was a lot of fun. I came up with the idea to be the Phantom of the Opera and Christine this year. In all eight years we have been married, I've never dressed up for Halloween, so this was fun! The dress was most definately the hardest to find and thanks to my awesome friend Kristen, I was able to finish off the costume! Blake made an awesome phantom if I say so myself...and I do!! This year I decided to take on the task of making a cape and was pleasantly surprised that it actually turned out kind of nice! I haven't sewn in a REALLY long time and didn't really even know how to thread my sewing machine so this was a great accomplishment!

There were a lot of fun costumes at the party and we had a great time. Here is us!

"Abby got into Preschool"

was a phrase heard very loudly the day I got a letter in the mail telling us she got into Preschool at RimRock where Cailee goes to school. My sister was here visiting and had fallen asleep on the couch. She was wondering what was going on...it was pretty funny! We were very excited to say the least. Abby loved joyschool so I knew she'd be so excited. Her teacher, Miss Tina, seems very nice and I think Abby will love her. The first day of school was a completely different experience than Cailee's. Abby is so much more outgoing and not as shy. I had a harder time leaving her than she did having me leave. We got her all signed in and went outside to play. I took some pictures, gave her a hug and said goodbye. I thought she'd ask for me to stay, but I barely got a goodbye from her. I think I said goodbye a few more times before I actually left. Wow is she growing up fast. Brandon had a really hard time leaving Abby there at school. When I told him it was time to leave he said, "We can't leave Abby here. She has to come home with me." He cried all the way out to the car. He did not want to leave her there. It was sweet.

The sun was so bright and shining right in her eyes. She couldn't look up.

Signing in her shape and name!

She loves to slide...

but her favorite thing to do is play in the sand!

1st day of 1st grade

I can't believe that Cailee is old enough to be in first grade. I don't think I was as ready for this day to come as I thought. It was a little bit hard to leave her that first day knowing that I wouldn't get her back till four that afternoon. How crazy is that. It seems like such a long day. She was really excited that morning...and a little nervous. She wanted to have a fun hair do for her first day of school. She was excited when we were done. I took a picture so she could see the back. She picked out her "outfit" the night before so she was all ready for her first day. When I picked her up after school she said she had a great day. She has a wonderful teacher who is new this year and since I've gotten the opportunity to get to know her a little more am very glad that Cailee has her for a teacher!
Pictures of the first day of school!

I'm a little tea pot!

Madie's favorite song is I'm a little tea pot. Anytime she's upset or crying we can start singing this song and instantly she stops and smiles! She loves for us to make her the tea pot and we couldn't resist getting it on video. She the cutest little tea pot I've ever seen!

Darcee's visit to Colorado!!

WE LOVE AUNT DARCEE!
My sister came to visit us before she heads off to college! The kids LOVED having Aunt Darcee here to play with and I LOVED having her here to visit with, shop with and have a great time. Although she spent a few days sick, we had a really great time! Some of the main highlights of her stay were going to the pool one day and Highline Lake another!! I don't think any of us will ever forget highline though. Crazy story:
Darcee and I had taken Cailee and Abby out a little further on two floaty tubes. I had Cailee and Darcee had Abby. Darcee asked Abby if she wanted out and before she knew it Abby flipped her arms up and was out of the tube. Of course she couldn't swim and went under. Darcee flipped the tube off of where she was and grabbed her. Panicking, Abby kept pushing Darcee back under, which is when I turned around to see. Once it clicked that she was in trouble, I grabbed Abby until Darcee could grab the tube and put Abby in it. SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH and DARCEE TOO. Thank goodness Cailee is scared enough as it is that she wouldn't go out of the tube so she stayed put during the whole thing.
After we got back to dry ground Abby said, "I couldn't talk or scream under the water. It was scary." To say the least. We were just happy she went back in the water after that. All in all though the trip was great. The kids had fun playing in the sand and water and we had a great time doing the same!
Here are a few pics from her stay:

I feel like a domestic diva!

This year I decided to can peaches, pears and tomatoes. My kids went through the pears that we canned last year like crazy. I always kept that "last jar" on the shelf because I couldn't part with it. Silly I know. Anyways, so this year I decided to can more!! Thanks to my wonderful husband we really made out great with peaches and pears! Unfortunately the peaches I got weren't the best and when I opened the boxes had to toss some of them:( But with the other peaches that I couldn't can because they were a little too soft, I made freezer jam! YUM YUM. So we have enjoyed having that. It was a lot of fun canning with my husband. It was great to visit and he was so awesome to stay up with me into the late hours of the night so that I wouldn't be even later going to bed. I sure am lucky to have such an awesome husband! The tomatoes this year came from some fun picking out at a place that gives them to you for a lot cheaper if you pick them yourself. So, a couple of friends and I went and picked tomatoes one day and canned the next at my house! We had a great time even if we did smell up the whole house. The kids played and we canned. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the kiddos enjoying fresh fruit before I canned and also Madie getting into the tomatoes...she had fun! I took pictures of the stuff I canned, but I don't have any of the peaches. I thought I had gotten some, but I must not have...oops.

Sleepy time or meal time...or both

When my sister was here visiting we had gotten back from church and starting eating lunch. Madie aparently was ready for the nap part a little sooner than later. The older kids thought it was the funniest thing and I have to admit I couldn't resist getting out the video camera! I promise we took her out and put her down for a nap right after the camera went off. You have to admit though, it's pretty darn cute!!

Updates...

I'm trying to update my blog and get caught up as best as I can, but I want the posts to be dated close to when they occured and since I'm behind, there will be some posts that won't pop up as recent. I've currently updated Cailee's birthday party (dated July 16th) and Independance Day (dated July 4th). This is a great way to journal and I'd like to keep them in order of when they happened!

The "Island" Makeover

This summer...

In our backyard we have what we call an "Island" where we have huge shade trees in the center of our yard. The wood that surrounds it was rotting really bad an exposing large nails and we felt like it was time for a makeover. So Blake mostly and I redid the wood and I think it turned out great! I'm sure our neighbors were glad when the project was over (as were we) so they wouldn't have to hear the hammering anymore. The nails we used were more like stakes, infact, they may be called stakes, I don't really know. I think it just turned out beautiful!! We are so happy with it. We also added fun solar lights and a fun lamp post light to the center and have enjoyed a few nights sitting on the patio with the lights on. It sure has added a new fun dimension to the backyard!

From the mouths of the babes...

We barbecued hamburgers the other night for dinner...
Abby: "Mom, you are making me sick."
Me: "Why am I making you sick?"
Abby: "Because you stink."
Apparently she's not a fan of the smell of the BBQ.

Abby: "Mom, I want some sizzling sauce." (aka seasoning salt)

When my mom was here visiting... Abby was sitting on her lap rhyming:
Abby: "Itchy, witchy, b*****" oops (you get the point)

Brandon was playing peek-a-boo with Madie...
Brandon: "Geek-a-boo Madie...Geek-a-boo"

Blake to Cailee: "What kind of eggs do you want?"
Cailee: "Cooked."

Blake was trying to make Abby smile and was spinning a cup on the counter.
Cailee: "That was a bad one Dad."
Apparently he didn't impress her at all.