Tornado Watch!!!

We had a pretty good thunderstorm here today. We had rain and hail mixed and lightning with booming thunder. It's so fun to watch the rain and hail falling but I'm too scared of lightning that we didn't watch for very long. I had the weather channel on all afternoon checking on the weather forecast. It's pretty disconcerting to see that red outline around the area that you live in. This is the first time since we've been here that I've seen the Tornado Warning on the news. I've been on edge all afternoon. Last week I started looking into tornado preparedness online. I was just getting nervous about what to do and would I even hear the sirens if they went off in the middle of the night.. They ought to give a crash course on tornado's when you move here.

Madi is such a little character. She really wanted to come outside but I'm too chicken. So she just watched from the door. What a silly willy.

Poor Brett had to leave for work right when the rain was falling the hardest. I told him he could use my umbrella but it's a little too girly for him. I would have taken some pictures of the rain and hail coming down but the lightning had me too scared. I did go out when it was all calm and took some photo's. The sky just looks so ominous. While I was outside I heard a bang or a loud pop that made my heart jump. The neighbor up the road a little ways either shot a BB gun or lit a firecracker to scare the birds. I'll tell you what it scared the birds and me too.. Yikes! The birds were going crazy though so I guess I don't blame him for being annoyed.

I called and talked to Tifany on the phone and she said that she will probably have a heart attack every time it rains here and I would have to agree.

Mommy and daughter time

Madi has been sick the last few days and hasn't really had an appetite. Around 10:30am this morning she said that she wanted something to eat. Kimber was in her bed taking a nap so we had the kitchen to ourselves. Madi ate her entire Gerber meal of mashed potatoes and gravy with chicken and carrots. Then she asked for some bread. When she was finished with that I remembered that I had a bag of apples in the refrigerator that I bought the night before. I cut the apple up and gave her a piece. Then I saw some bananas and that sounded really yummy. We sat at the counter eating our apple and banana together it was really sweet. I remember as a kid coming home from school and my Mom cutting up an apple and banana for me and either pouring milk over the top or putting a dollop of yogurt on top. It was such a fun treat after school. I remember that time feeling like it was just me and my Mom around even though somewhere in the house were my little sister and two younger brothers. It was just really special to me to have that little alone time with my Mom since we always had such a full house.

Not a happy ballerina

Just after the beginning of the year we decided to put Madi in a ballet class. She loves to dance around and act silly so I thought it would be a perfect outlet for her. There was a dance class for 3 - 4 year old girls that had started in June but they would let Madi in. I should always go with my first instinct. When we met the dance teacher I thought she seemed a little... Umm... strict I guess would be the best way to put it.

The first day of class Madi was so excited to wear her pink leotard and ballet slippers. She pranced around the house and twirled around around. When we arrived at the dance studio I found out that I wouldn't be able to watch. I mean they shut the doors and there isn't even a little window you can watch through. I haven't been to many dance schools but the one that I danced at had a big window in the foyer and I remember people being able to sit in the dance studio and watch. Anyway, I was a little bummed I had dreamt of taking pictures while Madi danced around. When the class was over Madi came out and she was very subdued. If you know Madi you know that's not normal for her. While I was putting her coat and shoes on she told me she didn't like it. Then when I asked her again she said that she did like it so I didn't know what to think. I thought she was just being silly. So we kept taking her to ballet class for the next few weeks and it was almost like pulling teeth. She really wasn't that excited about it. During the classes I would stand right next to the door and listen to what was going on inside. I could also kind of peek in and see a little. I didn't want to look like a total freak so I didn't look in the whole time. I thought that since Madi started the class later than the other girls maybe I could help her practice if I knew what to show her to do. One time when I took Madi to class I had to go to talk to the dance studio's secretary to find out if Madi's ballet slippers were in so I had to leave my normal post right outside the door. When I finished my business with the secretary I returned to my post right by the door. Shortly later out of the corner of my eye I saw a little girl with one of the dance class helpers walking towards the door. When I looked closer I saw it was Madi. The dance class helper (who is probably in JR. High) told me that Madi needed to go to the bathroom. Right away I knew that something was amiss with Madi. She did not want to go back into her class. So I thought quickly and said, "Hey! I got your new slippers do you want to put them on?" Oh and by this time there is like 5 minutes left of class. Madi was way excited to have her slippers that were just like all the other girls. So I go about trying to put them on her. Then the door opens and it's the dance teacher. She takes Madi's hand and takes her back into the class. I felt a little weird about it because when you know your daughter isn't happy you want to figure out what's the matter. So 5 minutes later class gets out and the teacher comes and tells me that Madi sat down during class and if they don't participate they don't get to "jump over the river" at the end of class. Jumping over the river is when they have this long sheet that they hold across the floor and the girls get to jump over it. She also said that they don't get to have a stamp on their hand at the end of class. At first I was like oh no Madi you have to pay attention in class! Brett and I kept trying to get Madi to show us what she learned in class and we kept trying to help her understand that she needed to pay attention in class but she just wasn't that into it.

A couple of weeks later I found out that the class for that day was observation day. I was so excited that we would get to go in and see Madi dancing. I talked Brett into going (he ended up being the only Dad there) so I thought it was going to be a really fun thing. The first 15 or so minutes we were in there the dance teacher was explaining the makeup for the dance recital and how they want the girls to wear their hair blah blah. Anyway, once the class got going Madi was just kind of messing around, she watched us and played with the skirt on her leotard. She looked really really grumpy. Then there was this taller girl that kept giving Madi a little push. So that didn't make Madi happy at all. I don't think the girl was trying to be mean I think she thought she was helping but it was just the wrong thing to do with Madi. It just made her mad.

(See how sad she looks in this picture.)

After the next weeks class I was ready to take Madi out. I was getting annoyed at hearing (through the door) the teacher call out to Madi not to do this and that. It just rubbed me the wrong way and why couldn't it be fun. The teacher had decided to introduce these little towels that she wanted the girls to hold for the dance recital. Can you imagine what's going to happen when you hand these 3 and 4 year old girls something to hold? They are going to play with it. As far as I'm concerned if you don't want them to do that don't give it to them. Again I'm asking myself why can't dance class be fun. That's why we put her in class after all. I know I'm sounding a bit like that crazy Mom that doesn't think my kid can do anything wrong but come on these are little girls of course they are going to want to play around.

So finally Brett and I decided that we were just going to take Madi out of that class and maybe put her in later. Or better yet put her in a tumbling class or something that she won't get chastised for playing around. So now all I had to do was let the dance school know I was taking Madi out. That night the phone rang and it was someone from the dance studio. They were calling to get Madi's measurements for her costume. They hadn't even ordered it! So I took the opportunity to tell the secretary that we were taking Madi out of the class so they didn't need to order the costume. She wasn't rude at all but she told me that the dance teacher doesn't allow "drops" after January. ?!? I just explained that we only put her in the class in January. She just told me that she would have the dance teacher call me. After I hung the phone up I started wondering what they were going to try to make me do. So I want to take my kid out of their class are they going to try to force me to pay for the remaining lessons? I was just a bit annoyed. A few days later I happen to be out and the dance teacher called and talked to Brett. It ended up being no big deal. She told Brett that she kind of figured that Madi wasn't having much fun since she started so much later than the girls. We are still going to get the costume so Madi will have a little yellow polka dot bikini to play dress up with.

The morale of the story... Go with my first gut instinct. I should have just put Madi in the tot tumbling class at the YMCA.. Oh well, lesson learned.

An awesome award!

Becky over at Babes in Hairland gave me this awesome award for my bow blog and I thought I'd show it off on here too!

"I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" Thank you so so much! What a fun thing to get. I really try hard to be creative so it's so nice to get this award. I hope that I can live up to it.
I'm supposed to list 7 things that I love and then pass this award on to 7 blogs that I love so here it goes.

7 things I love in no particular order:

1-My little girls
2-My cute husband
3-Spring time (it's not coming soon enough)
4-clean laundry
5-Chatting on the phone with a good friend
6-the ocean (so why do I live in Iowa again?)
7-Photography

Here are my 7 blogs that I love:

1- Today's Creative Blog - If you haven't seen this blog you have really been missing out. I just love all of the fun things that she posts on her blog. Talk about Kreativ! It's right in the title of the blog.
2- Tip Junkie - I just need to figure out how to stop time so that I can catch up on all of the fun projects on this blog. Love love love it!!
3- Jaimie Haley Photography - My friend Jaimie takes the cutest darn photo's! She has such a talent to capture that prefect moment. If only we lived a little closer to each other I really want her to take photo's of my little girls.
4- Picky Palate - Mmm Mmm Yummy!! Come on she was on Food Network! How much more do I need to say about that!!
5- Make it and Love it - Another great blog with so many cute projects. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop time so I can sew sew sew.. Love this one!
6- She does Hair - Of course I had to mention some of my favorite hair blogs. I've tried some of her ideas and they are so cute. I just need Madi's hair to grow out so that I can really go crazy.
7- Then last but certainly not least Babes in Hairland - I know she is the one that gave me the award but she really deserves it right back. I love that she posted instructions of how she gets her girls hair to look so smooth without fly aways. I never thought about putting a bit of product in Madi's hair to help it to behave. Also she is so talented with braiding hair. Do you hold hair braiding clinics?

Well there they all are I hope you enjoy looking at my favorite blogs.
Now to all of you that I have nominated go and nominate your favorite blogs. It's so much fun! Make sure you copy the award and show it off proudly on your blog. Have fun!

I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard...

The weather here in Iowa has really been teasing us the last couple of weeks. We had some really pretty days that got up to the so hot 50 degrees outside and it felt like we were somewhere tropical. Today we were so blessed to get some freezing rain so the roads and everywhere are covered with this lovely sheet of ice. It is terribly slick outside. The temperature is 10 degrees but it feels like -11 with the wind chill. BRRRR!!!
I know I've mentioned our sweet little neighbor Katherine before. She is 94 years old and very active. When it's snowy or icy I get her mail or take her trash can back in so she doesn't have to walk out where it's slick. She really likes to do stuff for herself but I've told her I would feel so bad if she fell. She behaves for the most part but I've seen her outside shoveling a little path to get to her squirrel feeder. Her trash pickup was today but since it was so slick I thought that I would wait until tomorrow to take her trash can back in. The wind is blowing like who'd a thunk it outside so her trash can was knocked over. I was sitting in the kitchen feeding Kimber and this is the dialogue that Brett and I had.
H, "Her can is blowing away!"
B, "I'll go out and get it."
H, "You better hurry before she tries to go get it."
B, "It looks like her garage door is opening."
H, "Hurry so she doesn't go out there!"
So this whole time I'm sitting feeding Kimber and then I look out the window to see what's happening. Brett is shuffling along in bare toes in flip flops! I don't think his coat was zipped up and he didn't have a hat on. I'm not sure how hard the wind is blowing but it gave me a good push when I was out in it a little earlier. I opened the window and yelled out, "ARE YOU INSANE?!" And Brett replied, "YOU TOLD ME TO HURRY!" I was laughing so hard! I thought that he would at least put some shoes on not flip flops. He made his way with the trash can and then started back for the house. The beginning of our driveway is a pretty good slope so picture this, a guy with naked toes in flip flops with his arms stretched out for balance trying to get some traction while walking up the driveway in freezing temperatures outside. He almost fell down with every step that he took. He had this huge smile on his face and I could see that he was finding it pretty funny. I on the other hand was laughing so hard that my face and stomach hurt. You probably had to be there for it to be funny.
When he got in the house he said that his feet weren't what were cold it was his face. I guess when I say jump I know that Brett is all over it.

Funny things that sleepy Daddy's say

The other night Madi was sitting at the counter eating her dinner but not eating her dinner. Brett and I were trying to talk her into eating her dinner and she was being her silly three year old self. Brett finally said to her, "Eat your dinner or I'm going to send you to bed without any sleep." Of course he meant to say without any dinner. Funny things always come out of your mouth when you're sleep deprived. We had a good little laugh about this one.

A glimmer of hope...

So, I feel like I've been working with Madi to get her potty trained for forever and ever. When I found out that I was pregnant with Kimber I was determined to get Madi out of diapers so I wouldn't have two bums to change. Well, any of you that have tried to potty train a very spunky little girl know that it has to be their idea otherwise it just doesn't work. You may remember this back in July. We have been back and forth, up and down with this potty training. Madi has times when she will go into the bathroom very willingly and other times that she fights tooth and nail to go in. I've put her in pull ups and then back to diapers and then tried big girl training pants. It's just a vicious cycle.
Just recently I decided that I would put her in the training pants with a plastic liner in hopes that she would start to understand that she doesn't want to wet her pants. After a week of having to wash her bed sheets everyday I decided to get more of what we call the "crutch panties" pull ups for her to wear at night. We have pretty much caved and she is wearing her "crutch panties" all the time. The other day I had a doctors appointment so I took the girls over to hang with Tifany and the girls. I dropped them off around 11:00am. After we left their house around 12:30pm we went to Walmart and McDonald's and then home. When we got home Madi tells me that she needs to go potty. Her "crutch panties" were completely dry! I couldn't believe that she had stayed dry that whole time. I had to call Tifany and ask her if she had to change her. She hadn't! She totally stayed dry and went on the potty! Woo Hoo!! It's been so great! I am starting to see a light at the end of this very long and agonizing tunnel. She really is doing such a great job and I couldn't be more proud of her. Way to go Moo Moo!
Funny little side note. Today Madi was sitting on her potty and she had finished her business. She looks up at me and says, "Can you smell that?" Silly Willy!

Sweet baby girl

This afternoon when I went in to get Kimber from her nap she was standing up holding onto the rail with her hood pulled over her head. I just had to take a picture.

Are you kidding me?!

With Brett's work schedule he comes home for lunch usually around 11:00PM. Tonight was just like any other he came home and ate his food watched his shows on ESPN. When it was time to leave I was sitting on the couch holding sleeping Kimber. I heard Brett shut the door and then heard the door to the garage shut and then... BAM!!! I was already on my feet because I was on the way to put Kimber in bed. At first I thought that Brett had somehow fallen down the stairs. It was really freaky for a minute and then I found out what made the loud bang. The garage door in this house has two large coils on either side (right now I can't remember how the new ones look but this one is old) and one of then broke loose and smashed down to the ground. Ahhh!! Brett has a huge HUGE guardian angel that kept the coil from hitting him. I'm really amazed that he didn't get hurt. Ahhh!! So scary! I just don't want to even think about all the what if's... Yikes yikes yikes! So after a moment of us both being stunned I went and put Kimber in bed put my boots on and a coat so that I could try to help get the heavy door open so Brett could go back to work. We thought that maybe we could just lift it since the one side was still connected.. Nope, wouldn't budge. So I pushed the button as Brett lifted the door and that worked for a foot or so and then I had to hit the button twice to make it reverse then start back up again. We did that a few times and then got the door open. What a serious pain in the butt. So now I'm thinking, "How are we going to close it now?" and I said that out loud to Brett and he said that we were just going to leave it open. I'm so glad that we don't own this house and that we are just renting it. Talk about problem after problem. Since we've been here we have moved the one, THE ONLY plug in the kitchen so that it wasn't hidden behind the counter top (Duh!) and we remodeled the bathroom (well partly) we installed new locks on the entry doors fixed some plumbing problems oh and we dealt with some back up from the sewer (thankfully no sewage just bathwater) and that happened twice and oh yeah the furnace stopped working when it was in the negatives outside. NICE!!! Oh well, at least our landlord had someone come fix the furnace and clean up after the sewer overflow. Such drama!
I'm still a little freaked about the garage door coil and how it missed hitting Brett. It also somehow missed hitting the car so that's good too but I would take it hitting the car over hitting Brett. The car can be fixed but I only have one of Brett. So scary! Ok now I'm going to go to bed and say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father was watching out for my Bretty.

Kimber 11 months old

Today Kimber is 11 months old. I haven't really given an update on Kimber for a while.. I'm such a slacker.. Oh well, it's time to try and catch up.

Kimber has been crawling for a few months. She is all over the place. She can stand up too. I've had her stand without help for a few seconds so she is getting really close to doing it all by herself. She has two teeth that popped up the same day (February 2, 2009). I was worried that with the new teeth I was going to have to stop nursing but she has only bitten me once. Ouchy! Sorry too much information.

She just loves to follow Madi anywhere she goes. Last night Kimber had been down for a nap and I put Madi to bed while she Kimber was still sleeping. Kimber woke up about 30 minutes after I had put Madi to bed. I fed her some dinner and then went about hanging up the laundry. While I was gathering some more hangers out of Kimber's closet she crawled down the hall to Madi's door. It was too cute she slapped the door a few times and cried out (not really crying but kind of calling out for Madi in her baby talk). She really wanted to be in there with her sister and she wasn't happy that the door was closed. After she banged on the door for a little bit I could hear Madi talking from inside. Kimber and I went in and I let Kimber give Madi a love. They are so sweet to each other.

I think Kimber just has a thing for banging on doors. Whenever she is on the floor crawling around and Brett is in the bathroom she crawls over to the door and bangs on it. Brett always knows who it is even before she makes any other noises. Yesterday Brett woke up a little too early and decided that he was going to go back to bed for a little while. Kimber crawled over to the door and started slapping it. It was so cute but I didn't want her to wake Brett up. He was up and at em shortly after that. She loves her Daddy!

She also does this really funny face. It's not really the bitter beer face.. How to describe it.. Umm.. She scrunches up her nose kind of lifts her head and perches her lips while she squints her eyes and sniffs. I'm trying to get a photo of it but she isn't very willing to do it on demand.

Since she is more mobile now she isn't really interested in sitting still for very long. She used to be my little cuddle buddy but now she just wants to go go go. I can sneak in a few cuddles if I'm willing to stand up. I don't know why it is but if you hold her while standing she is usually much happier. Maybe it's because she feels tall.

This year has just flown by and it's hard to believe that she is already going to be a year old next month. Whew! Where does the time go.

Bedtime drama

Some nights Madi will go to bed really easily and other nights we have a little drama. Either she isn't happy having her teeth brushed or she wants different pj's or I'm trying to get her to use the big girl potty it sometimes ends up with us all being flustered and Madi in tears. The other night she went to bed without a fight and everything was well with the world. Around 12:30am I went in to check on her. The last few days I have found her with her body parallel to her head board so I move her back to where she should be and she just keeps on sleeping. Well, this particular night she woke up and wasn't pleased about it. She started wailing and in a crying, hysterical voice kept on saying, "Mommy! I need some juice!" "Mommy, I need some water!" Over and I over. (I'm trying to get her to stop wetting her pants at night so I didn't want to give her any water.) Then all the sudden she changed her voice to normal and said, "Is Daddy here?" And then started crying again. She is as Brett would say a Daddy homer (I think the homer thing is sports jargon). It was just too funny that she went from completely hysterical to completely calm. It's no secret that she prefers her Daddy to me. Now I know how Brett felt when she was little and wanted me all the time. Now that she is older she has figured out that Daddy is fun and she can try to get away with stuff with him. She does come to me when she needs some loves because she is sad and sometimes she will come and snuggle with me. She is such a little sweetie and I wouldn't trade her for anything. I couldn't find a recent photo of Madi in her pj's but this one is too cute. She was just learning how to walk. March 11, 2007

Just for fun

My friend Stephanie is doing this on her blog and I thought I'd join in on the fun.

This sounds like fun, so I thought I would try it. Not that any of you will find it as fun, but who knows, right? The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done this year (hopefully sooner than later.)

4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. :)

The catch? Oh the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me (Well, hopefully fabulous)!

Ouchy!

Wednesday I had to run some errands around town. Since Brett sleeps during the day I can sometimes put Madi down for a nap and run to the store or whatever I need to with just Kimber. So Kimber and I ventured out to go run my errands. I needed to send a couple of packages off at the post office so that was our first stop. When we arrived at the post office I pulled Kimber's car seat out of the car and gathered up my things. I just parked on the side of the post office so I didn't have to cross the street so it wasn't that far to walk. We started making our way across the sidewalk and I tripped a little bit. I thought I could stop myself from falling and then all the sudden bam, I'm on the ground. My wallet and packages went flying. I didn't even think about them I was so worried that Kimber had been hurt. She was crying and not very happy but didn't seem hurt. I was totally in a daze and I picked her up by her body and not the seat so that I could see if she was alright and try to comfort her. Then I heard a lady running out of the building telling the person on the phone she had to go help someone so she would call them back. She stopped and asked if Kimber was ok and then ran after my money and receipts that were blowing away. I don't know how long I was on the ground but it felt like forever. I noticed pretty quick that my knee didn't feel very nice. I picked myself and Kimber up and the nice lady carried my packages into the post office for me. I'm sure she didn't want to see me fall again. I really felt like a dork and was shaking all over. I was really panicked that Kimber was hurt somehow so should I run her to the emergency room. She had stopped crying when I picked her up so I thought that was a pretty good sign that she was ok. I mailed my packages made a quick stop at the store then went home. I woke Brett up and told him what had happened and asked him if he thought we should take Kimber to the doctor. By then she was totally happy and acting like normal. I handed her to Brett and he looked her over then put her on the floor and she went off crawling. Thank goodness she wasn't hurt and that's because of the carseat. I just think about all the what if's and I'm glad she was safe and snugly in her seat.
So my knee. Well, it doesn't need to be cut off or have a cast or anything but ouchy! Do you remember when you were a kid and you skinned your knee really bad? It feels like like that. Every time I bend my knee it burns so I just try not to bend it. The last time I remember falling and skinning my knee was probably in junior high school. Anyway, I don't suggest falling ever it doesn't feel nice. All in all I'm just glad that Kimber didn't get hurt because my knee will heal but babies are delicate precious little creatures. Scary scary scary what could have happened.

The housing crisis

Our good friends Ryan and Tifany Wright moved to Le Mars from Arizona just after Thanksgiving. We've been so happy to have them here. Things haven't exactly gone according to plan. It's been one upset after another.
They decided to buy a house and not rent like we did. They found a really great house that Tifany fell in love with even before she saw it in person. The house was being rented out until it sold so once they put an offer on it they had to wait 60 days for the renters to vacate. Ahhh!!! So they rented a little two bedroom apartment without any real furniture. Their Realtor was awesome. He had some extra furniture that he loaned to them and we gave them an airbed to use. I tried to get them to come and stay with us but it probably would have been too cramped. Anyway, they moved into the apartment until they would be able to move into their house. Since they had so much time to get everything in order with their loan there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. Well.... They still own their house in Buckeye and decided to rent it out. That ended up being a nightmare. The people that moved in who according to their background check seemed to be perfect decided not to pay rent. Lovely people. After fighting with that for a couple of months they finally got them to move out. Now some friends from our ward in Buckeye have moved in. Yeah!! Now we know for sure that the house is going to be taken care of by trustworthy friends.
The date for closing on this house in Le Mars had been set for the 13th of February. I hadn't ever realized that it was a Friday. I guess that should have clued us all in. Well, their wonderful (sarcastic tone) lender that worked so hard (NOT) on their loan let the ball drop. They had such a nightmare trying to get in touch with the lender to make sure that she had all the information that she needed. Right at the last minute she (the lender) let them know that she needed a ton of stuff. Then Thursday night at 5:00PM the night before they are supposed to close the lender lets Tifany and Ryan know that they will not give them a loan and there is no way that they will. Ahhhhhh!!!! It turns out after all of these months they just now decided that their rental property in Arizona cannot be considered as income. So dumb! So now the new crisis is that the movers were already on their way to deliver their household goods and what to do with it all. Ryan and Tifany's awesome realtor worked it out so that they could go ahead and move in until they were able to get their loan worked out.
I waited until 10:00AM to call Tifany to find out what was happening. I could hardly make myself wait that long. When she told me that they were moving into the house and I could come over if I wanted I was almost in the car before she said I could even come. Poor Tifany was so stressed out. She was at the house with the girls while the movers unpacked their stuff. It was hard for her to feel happy since things have been so crazy. Ryan had been on the phone talking to Wells Fargo (a different bank from earlier) and they promised him that the loan could be made without any problems. Hallelujah! A ray of sunlight! Tifany perked up after hearing that news. It was hard to feel happy about moving into the house when it hung over their heads that it might not be theirs. So much drama!!
Yesterday I took the girls over so that we could get the house cleaned. It's an old Victorian with lots of stairs and hard wood floors throughout. The first thing that Tifany and I did was pull up the carpet runner on the stairs. There was so much dirt. Ewww! As we were pulling it up Tifany said that we probably should be wearing masks. I'm sure we should have. Oh well! Anyway, now that things are getting into their places and it's getting cleaner it's feeling more like home they are all in better spirits.
Wow! That was quite the story! As for the lender that was mentioned earlier, Countrywide... I just want to take a moment and tell all of you that if you are looking for a loan now, don't try Countrywide. They Didn't help Ryan and Tifany one bit. Instead of letting them know about the rental house being a problem two months ago they strung them along this whole time to tell them that it wasn't going to work the night before closing. Thanks for nothing you jerks (I'm talking about Countywide).
Anyway, hopefully now everything will go smoothly. Maybe if you all could remember them in your prayers. They really don't want to move again and they really don't want to be homeless. Not that they could ever be homeless we would force them to move in with us. Thanks for listening to this most recent drama.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday morning Brett brought us all roses. Each of the girls got their own rose. He also brought us sweet cards and a box of chocolates. What a sweetie he is. We went out for dinner, well we drove through at Hardees. We were all kind of tired and just wanted to get something quick. I'll have to tell you though that was a very yummy cheese burger. We went home and ate our cheese burgers around the table with the roses. It was a great Valentine's Day.

Brett and I were talking earlier this week as we were watching TV and a commercial for flowers came on. I said something like you better not send me any. I used to love to get flowers and I still do but not when you have to spend $80 or more to do it. He told me that he just about had ordered some the night before. What a sweetie!

Things that make you go Hmm...

Madilynn will get up in the middle of the night and change her pj's. It started with the footed pj's. She hates, can't stand footed pj's so anytime I would put them on her I could pretty much bet that she would be up changing into something else. It was pretty funny to me when she first started doing the middle of the night change. I would go in to check on her and find her wearing something completely different. Some nights I could hear her get up to make the sneaky change. When I would go in to find out what she was doing she would get very annoyed with me. Who knew that what pj's you wore to bed was so important.

Mommy I'm scared

Last night Madi got out of bed and came to me and this is the conversation that we had.
Madi "Mommy, I'm scared."
Heather "What are you scared of?"
Madi "Oh, probably monsters."

Little Miss Kimber Boo Boo

Well, our sweet little Kimber has two teeth. The poor thing has been working on the darn teeth for weeks. I'm such a slacker I haven't written about any of her milestones. She is crawling all over the place and has been for a couple of months. She can stand next to furniture and walks around furniture. She is a very busy little girl. The other day I noticed she was bouncing to the music on TV. She loves to sing along when anybody is singing. It's really cute at church because she sings along, "Ahhh, Ahhh!" So cute and last Sunday she even looked like she was trying to lead the music.

Don't talk backwards to me again!

Our little Madi is a feisty sweet little thing. She is our little Sass-a-frass. Brett and I keep saying that three is the new two. She has developed this bad habit of talking back. Of course she has heard us say on too many occasions, "Don't talk back to me." Today I don't know if she was saying it to me or to her imaginary friend but I heard her say, "Don't talk backwards to me again or I'm gonna spank your bottom!" Oh my! I couldn't help myself but to laugh. Don't talk backwards? Funny girl! I just love her!She is totally sassing me in this photo. Gotta love the bed head. Sheesh why didn't I try to brush her hair before I took this photo.

Happy Ten Years!

Wow! Ten years ago today! It's gone by in a flash. We've been through a lot together and I wouldn't change a thing about any of it. These are all the things that have made our life together what it is and I am so grateful to have you for time and all eternity. Thank you so much for putting up with me over the years. I love you infinity!

Ten years!

Ten Years! TEN YEARS! Ten YEARS! TEN Years! (I was trying to recreate the scene from Grose Pointe Blank. You know when he runs into his buddy and he keeps saying ten years over and over in a bunch of different ways. Anyway, Brett and I keep saying it to eachother.


It's so cute how after being married for ten years we picked up some of my sayings like tootsie (for toes) or lippy (for chapstick) or boinky (for hair stretchy.. What are they really called anyway?). I really just love to hang out with you. You are my bestest friend. Love you honey!

It's a bow giveaway!

Duh! I should have posted this a few days ago. Ok! So I'm doing a giveaway on some of my bows so you all better come over to my bow site and put your name in because you could win. www.madibubows.blogspot.com Don't wait because the drawing is going to be Tuesday February 3rd. Good luck!

Dr. Madilynn

A few weeks ago I found this cute little doctor bag at the store. I knew it was going to be a big hit with Madi since she is always pretending to be a doctor.

Yesterday as I was busy chatting with Tifany I turned around and saw this...

New bows!

www.madibubows.blogspot.com

Since we moved I haven't been doing anything with my bow blog. Well, I'm back at it! I changed some things and added some new things. Go check it out and if you know anyone that needs little girly bows send them along!

Sending Daddy off to work

Tonight as Brett was walking out the door to go to work this is what Madi said to him.
"I love you Dad! Drive carefully! Make sure you don't trip yourself!"

Play time!

Last night Tifany brought the kids over to play with Madi and Kimber. We stuck the big kids in the basement to jump in Madi's bouncy house. It was so nice to put them in the basement because they could scream all they wanted to and it didn't bother us much. They just played and played and had a lot of fun. The baby girls were playing upstairs and would crawl together all over the place. It's really cute to watch the babies together.
Well, at some point during all of the playing Payton came upstairs to get Madi a drink of water. She walked into the living room with a little plastic cup and filled her cup up with water (pretend water) from Madi's kitchen. Tifany turned around and asked Payton what she was doing and Payton replied, "I'm getting Madi some water." Then she turned around and went back downstairs. We had a good little laugh that Payton went all the way upstairs to get Madi a pretend cup of water. Silly willy!

Silky

Madi has a most prized possession, her silky. I'm embarrassed to say it's an old garment top cut up. She just got attached to it when she was a baby. When she was tiny she always tried to put her hand down my shirt to hold onto my garment top. Silly willy! Well, one night in a desperate attempt to get her to go to sleep I gave her one of my tops to hold onto. Well, it turns out that it worked like a charm. Long story short I cut an old top up and gave her the pieces. We lovingly named it her silky.
She cannot go to sleep without her silky. She tries to carry it around with her everyday. I've tried to make the rule that she can only have the silky when she is in bed but somehow she always has it and has many of them. I need to count all the silkies we have. I know that there are a lot of them and she always seems to have them all. I think she sneaks them out of the laundry basket when I get them out of the dryer.
Madi’s attachment to the silky has been good and bad. When we are driving in the car and she just can't take it anymore I give her a silky to hold onto and it makes the trip a lot nicer for everyone. It's bad because sometimes in the middle of the night she will wake up crying that she can't find her silky. Ok I guess that's really not terrible it's actually kind of cute. Someday soon I hope to be able to get rid of the silky.
Today she was dancing around in the living room and then turned and saw one of her silkies hanging out of her toy box. She yelled, "Silky!" Then ran over to the silky picked it up and said, "Yep! It smells like my silky!" I just started laughing she really is funny.

Clean up! Clean up! Everybody clean up!

While I was in the kitchen feeding Kimber I asked Madi to go and pick up her toys. This is what I heard her singing...
"Clean up! Clean up! Everybody clean up! Clean up! Clean up so Mommy won't get mad!"
I'm not exactly sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that she knows that I'll get a little upset that she doesn't clean up when I ask her. I guess maybe it's good because she actually did it without having me right there making her do it.
It was also pretty funny to hear her put that into her song.. I think she wants to be a songwriter like her Dad. Little cutie!

Wild child

This morning Madi came into my room and jumped into bed with me. She laid her head on my stomach and started telling me a story. She had one arm in the air and was just waving it all around. She said that she spun around and around and around and then fell down. I guess this morning she was spinning in the kitchen and she fell. Brett said that she was running around like a wild woman.
To watch her telling me the story was so funny. She is just so animated. She would pause every now and again and put her hand on her chin and say, "Soooo..." like she was really thinking hard about something. She makes me laugh.

Airplanes

I have two brothers’ who are airline pilots. I am so very proud of both of them and I know that they are both wonderful pilots. I also am terrified that they would be put in a difficult situation such as what happened in New York a few days ago. I know that if they were in a difficult situation that they would be able to keep things under control. It's just scary to hear news of a plane going down and especially scary when it's the same airline one of your brothers works for.
The last time I went to visit my brother Steve he took us up in one of his planes. It was one of the smaller four passenger planes. He flew us all over the Bay Area. It was a lot of fun. As we were flying over San Francisco we hit a pocket of air that made us drop quickly. It was scary for a moment but I was so impressed with my brother. It was really cool to watch all of the things he had to do to get us back in order and how quickly he moved. What was really funny was my nephew in the front seat that slept through all of the commotion while Brett and I hit our heads on the roof.. Silly little Jason!
When my brother Boyd was a pilot in the Air Force there was a time when he was flying and the cabin lost pressure. Sometimes that happens and the pilots pass out because they don't have any air. It was pretty scary but he had his oxygen mask and all was well.
What a huge responsibility it is to be in charge of so many people lives while they are passengers on the plane that you operate. I'm so glad that there are these incredible pilots out there that are capable of pulling off something so awesome (for the lack of a better word).
This is my little salute to all the great pilots of the world especially Captain Sullenberger and my two brothers, Captain Allen and Captain Fairey.

I giggle a little bit about my brother, Captain Fairey.. Isn't that awesome? Fairey! Ha ha ha!! Love ya Boyd! He has wings! Ha ha ha!! Ok maybe it's not that funny...

Regis and Kelly

Ever since we moved to Iowa I haven't been able to find Regis and Kelly on TV. It's one of the fun shows that I like watching. They just crack me up. Anyway, in the past I would set a timer to record it so that I could watch when the girls were taking their naps. It's not like it's the end of the world if I don't get to watch it I just find it interesting that we don't get it here.
Tonight I decided that I would call Dish Network and see if I could add a station out of Denver that has it. Did you know that you could do that? When we lived in Colorado we added an extra station out of Los Angeles. They call it a la carte. I guess it's also kind of cool to get the Denver news since we have friends there. Oh and I bet that had I done this sooner Brett would have been able to watch the Bronco games. Ooopsie!
So for all of the people here in "Siouxland" you know what you can do to watch Regis and Kelly. If you care to that is. And the rest of you... I guess now you know that I like to watch Regis and Kelly... I don't know I'm silly..

Madi's magazine cover

You knew I had to make one for Madi too.

Our little cover model!

I know you're probably sick of this photo but look how fun this is. Go to http://www.parenting.com/article/Toddler/Activities/Make-Your-Own-Parenting-Magazine-Cover to put your little darling on the cover of a magazine.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

A little while back I down loaded a 30 day trial of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I have an older version of Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home edition that works pretty well to change photo's up a little. I really don't know what I'm doing and it would help if I would actually read the instructions but this new program is really cool. I was just clicking around and changing this and that and I love what I ended up with. The second photo is what I had done in my photodeluxe program and the third is what I did in the lightroom program. The fourth photo was also in the lightroom program and I just tweaked it a little more. So cool and can you imagine if I knew what I was doing..
Anyway I really just loved how this picture turned out. It's also fun to see what a photo can change into with a little editing.

(Sigh)

My little Madi is such a dolly. She is such a good little helper. She is very loving and has a very cute personality. I love everything about her even the things that drive me nuts. It's all what makes her who she is.

The other night I was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. Madi was playing and moving between her bedroom and the living room. My back was turned a lot of the time so I didn't witness what was going on. At some point I looked over and saw that Madi was holding a string. Pretty quickly I recognized what it was. She had a string from one of the snow flakes off of my Christmas tree. I know what you're saying, "Your tree is still up?" I told you I was a slacker about putting it up and since I put it up on Christmas Eve we wanted to enjoy it for a little while. Anyway, back to the snow flakes. She was kind of standing there in front of me almost taunting me with this string that had obviously been broken away from the ornament. When I reached the spot where she was I saw them, all over the floor in the hallway just hidden enough from view so that I didn't notice them earlier. It upset me to see that she had broken my ornaments and I didn't want to react so I just walked away.

Today we had a few disagreements and finally when it was bed time I felt like I would finally get to have a minute to myself. So, we walk into her bedroom to find that she has dumped everything and I mean everything even the drawers out of her dresser. I just don't know what she thinks about when she does this stuff. I talk and talk to her about not doing this stuff and take things away trying to help her understand that she needs to treat her stuff better. Well, when I saw the mess and it's probably the fourth or fifth big mess today I had met my limit. I just told her to get in bed and not very nicely and I went out of the room. I am proud of myself though that I did tell her that I love her before I turned the light off. I'm just so frustrated with how our relationship is going lately. I know she is only three and she doesn't know any better but I feel like lately she is really starting to act out.

So I took a few minutes to myself before I went back to talk to her so that I was completely calm and also so that I could call and talk to Brett. When I went back to talk to her she just listened to what I had to tell her. You know how you kind of reach the point of frustration that you just cry because you don't know what else to do? Well, I just started crying and the look on Madi's face was so cute I'll remember it for always. She saw that I had tears on my face and she looked sad then reached an touched my eye. She said, "Don't cry Mommy. It will be ok." She is such a sweetie. She gave me a big hug and told me that she loved me.

(I wrote this a long time ago and for whatever reason I didn't publish it but reading it now just touched me. Madi is really a sweetie I love her so so so much!)

Too sweet!

I just love this picture. Madi wanted to hold Kimber and help her drink her juice. She always says, "But Mommy I have to help her!" She is such a great big sister. They just love to hang out with each other. Do you think that Kimber kind of looks like the baby in the movie Willow? I don't know something about that first photo I see the baby in Willow.

I'm so so so behind!

Ahhh!! So annoying! Last night I sat down and started writing a blog and didn’t finish. This morning I finished it and then my spell checker wouldn’t work. I thought, “No problem, I’ll just copy it and check my spelling in word.” Well I hit control V which is paste and my whole thing went away.. Ahhh!! So instead of looking for a fix I closed it and then re-opened in the hope that it hadn’t saved yet. No luck it saved right away. I later found out that I could have hit control Z to undo it. Dang it! Oh well. I think I can mostly re-create what I wrote. Just excuse this little side note.

Do you ever get in a funk and can’t get yourself to do anything productive? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately so I haven’t been in the mood to write anything on my blog. I’m so behind and have so many things to write about. So in the attempt to get on a better track and change my attitude here is what happened in our house today.

Kimber just loves to stand by the bathtub. That’s right stand! See what I’m talking about I need to write about Kimber crawling all over the place and standing up by furniture and other objects. Anyway, today while I was at the sink brushing my teeth Kimber was behind me hanging onto the side of the tub playing with the curtain. Then all of the sudden I briefly saw feet in the air and heard a bump. She had leaned too far forward and fallen head first into the tub. Poor baby! She wasn’t very happy about it but recovered quickly. Thankfully there wasn’t any water in there. Whew!!

Madi started her ballet class today! She has been so excited about it. She wants to wear her leotard all around the house and she makes up the best dances. Usually she just twirls around and kicks her leg into the air. Funny oney! Brett stayed at home with Kimber and Madi and I went to class. I thought that maybe I would get to watch but that’s not how they do it here. I was a little disappointed at first but it’s actually probably better that way she doesn’t act silly because I’m in there. Anyway, I think she did really well for her first day especially since the other girls have been in the class since June. When she came out she had a funny look on her face. I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t tell if she didn’t like it or what had happened. While I was putting her warm clothes back on she said, “Mom. I want to do it again.” Silly little munchkin! She wanted to keep going. I guess 45 minutes wasn’t enough time. I quickly told her that she would get to do this every Wednesday and that made her happy.

You know what I think I like how this turned out better than the first attempt. I don’t know what I was complaining about. Silly me!

Merry Christmas!

Every year right after Thanksgiving I pull out all of the Christmas decorations and set everything up. This year I pulled out the stuff that I put on shelves and tables but I didn't get the tree set up. Brett asked me a couple of times when I was going to set the tree up and I told him soon. I did have a couple of little trees in the living room so that was kind of working. I had originally planned on putting the big tree in the basement where nobody would see it anyway so I guess I figured what did it matter when I put it up. Well, as the month rolled on I decided that it would be fun to put the tree up on Christmas Eve after Madi went to bed. That way when she woke up in the morning she would come out to a new Christmas tree. I thought it would be like Santa brought it with all the toys. When I told Brett my plan he was all on board.

Christmas Eve night I decorated the tree and placed all the gifts around it. Madi woke up around 5:30AM. Brett and I were already up I think we were just as excited about Christmas as she was. I really just wanted to be there when Madi came out and saw everything. I'm so glad I was because the look on her face was priceless.

Madi was ready to start ripping into presents but we talked her into waiting until we got Kimber out of bed. They both had so much fun ripping and tearing into their gifts. Kimber mostly pulled the bows off and played with the bows so Madi helped with actually opening the presents. It was so much fun just watching how excited they were about their new toys. When we finished opening gifts the girls played for a while and then it was time for a nap. I think we all crashed until 10:00AM. When we woke up we called the Wright's to have them come over for breakfast. One of my gifts this year was an egg poacher so that I could make our traditional eggs benedict. Yummy!!!

Later that day the Wright's came back over for Christmas dinner. Tifany made the yummiest sweet potatoes. They had coconut and pecans on top of them. It was kind of like eating a Girl Scout cookie. You know the coconut macaroons with caramel? They are my favorite. Anyway the potatoes were delicious along with everything else!

After dinner it was time to veg out. The kids ran around and played while the old people (just kidding) played our favorite card game BIG! I started out loosing but was making a comeback right at the end but I still lost. I don't remember who won.. It might have been Tifany. It was a lot of fun.
It was a great day and we had so much fun! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas.