Fourth of July Weekend

We spent our 4th in St. Johns this year. The 4th is also my dad's birthday, and this year was his 50th birthday. So we decided to throw him a party, and I'm very surprised that he agreed to go along. It was at my sister's and her husband's house in Lakeside. They have such a beautiful property: two acres with a catch and release pond (slash doggie swim hole), horse corral (no horses), fire pit, picnic benches, three tire swings, and just wide open space. We spent the day just hanging out then guests arrived in the evening.
While is St. Johns we went to the fireworks show up in Springerville, which I think I was watching the blazes on the ground more than the actual fireworks. We also attended the Springerville parade. Maddie was all waves in hopes for some candy. The BBQ and foot races at the park are always a favorite; so Americana. Maddie of course refused to race, so we sat around in the hot sun and eventually got a snow cone and headed home.
That night we had a cookout at my mom's then Casey and I decided to head back home...sans Maddie. My mom kept her for the rest of the week. It was nice to be able to get fully moved into our new home (pics to come eventually). We get to pick her up today and we are more than excited to see our little girl. I feel so lazy and bored without her around to entertain all day, but I have enjoyed the lazy tv watching and sleeping in.

Mother's Day

I'm a bit behind, but here is my Mother's Day...
I awoke to a very excited child bringing me a present in bed. Maddie and Dad had worked hard to make me a very beautiful flower brooch. I was so impressed with them both and proudly wore it to church that day. I was also very impressed with my husband's culinary skills as I watched him make me eggs benedict for breakfast. you can see the pic below where he is very carefully poaching the eggs. Breakfast was the best I've had in a long long time. Grandma helped Maddie with the giant cookie to give to me. Maddie is the world's best gift giver. She is always so enthusiastic and sincerely excited to give gifts; I love it.
I've been contemplating some of my favorite things about being a mother...Although it's very hard at times, it truly is so rewarding to see your very own child grow and play and just be them. So here is just a glimpse of some of my favorite mothering privileges.
1. Maddie is insistent that I put her to bed at night (I actually get a bit burnt out of this) but before climbing into bed to hear her stories, she always grabs a stuffed animal to sleep with, but she also brings one to me. Sometime in the night she always climbs into bed with us, and she always brings that same animal for me to sleep with. She is so sweet and thoughtful about it.
2. I love to listen to her in her bedroom talking and playing with her dolls and toys. I seriously could just sit and listen to that with no need of any other entertainment.
3. She is a wrap-around-the-neck-teeth-gritted hugger. She will randomly fall on top of me with one of these hugs for no reason.
4. She is obsessed with playing with my hair. I usually have to pry it out of her hands at night when she falls asleep.
5. She is so excited about the new baby and talks about him a lot. She is going to be a stellar big sister, and I can't wait to see how they love each other.

Thanks to my wonderful husband and daughter for the best Mother's Day!

Easter

Easter at our place was pretty low key. I woke up early and was out watching TV when I heard some movement in the kitchen. I waited a few minutes before going to see who was up. There stood little Maddie in her pajama shirt and diaper (she is particular of her pajama outfits) just looking, but not touching her Easter basket. She had set out the empty basket the night before for the Easter Bunny to fill, and she also left a carrot from the garden. I told her it was okay to open it. She was most excited about her Ni-hao Kailan band-aids, but I'm also very happy that she was excited to get her own little Book of Mormon and Jesus bookmark. She's not much of a candy girl, but she did get a chocolate bunny and nasty Peeps.
We later dyed some eggs and let Maddie color on them with markers. We only did 12 between the 3 of us; we were pretty tired that morning. We then hid them in the yard and Maddie very unethusiastically found her eggs. Raheem helped out and ate one of them, at least he was excited.

Maddie Ramblings

Little Miss Maddie will be 3 soon, and I need to reflect on her 2 year old self for a while.

We've been on and off potty training for about 6 months now, but it's just not coming along. I was really worried she wouldn't be trained by 3, but I honestly don't care at this point. I've realized I'm much too lazy to take her to sit on the toilet every 30 minutes, and I doubt she'd cooperate with me anyways.

She does make trips to the bathroom every 30 minutes to get her band-aid fix though. Seriously, this kid is obsessed. I had bought some Hello Kitty ones for her and quickly found that those were far too expensive for her usage.

She loves playing outside in the garden, and the other day while picking spinach, I found a little caterpillar. She quickly took a liking to him, and 3 days later he's still living in a jar in her room. His name is Woggy. She often makes up words, and this name was one of them. As well as her Barbie horse named Fance Fance.

She is long done with naps, and we're okay with that because if she does nap, she's up till midnight in our bed. We often have to keep her awake in the car if it's after 4pm or she'll quickly drift off. Otherwise, she will usually go down between 7:30-8:00, but not without a miserable fight.

She loves to play computer games every chance we let her, and she now can navigate around the page well enough that if she doesn't understand or like a game, she can find another. It's a wonderful time for me to get some laundry folded, or more often, rest on the bed next to her.

The last two pics on here show her sense of style. I used to get quite peeved that she wouldn't wear the cute clothes people bought for her, and we would very often (very often) get in fights over getting dressed. I've learned this battle is one I'm okay with losing, and I actually am quite fond of her crazy attire each day. I am not fond of her not being able (or willing) to dress herself, because she does about 5 wardrobe changes a day.

She's super smart and loves asking all kinds of questions to figure out the world. We watched Bambi the other day, and she was quite focused on why Bambi's voice was different when he got bigger. I tried to explain that when we get older our voices change. She just wouldn't believe me that her voice was going to change someday. She also wanted to know why Bambi's mom died, and I told her that people eat meat, so they hunt animals. I then told her that we eat cows and chickens and pigs (hoping I wasn't scaring her away from eating meat). But she listened and seemed to understand and just said, "Oh." At this rate, I need to make sure I'm well read and know a lot about the world, because she's definitely going to be one who will ask me.

4th Anniversary

Four years together and we finally get a weekend getaway! My mom came and picked up Mads on Friday, and we left directly to Sedona. It was wonderful to spend alone time with my Love. We ate out (yummy Indian food), slept in (kind of), I took a bath, took a nap, went on a 5 mile hike (my poor body hasn't seen that much effort in a long time), ate some more, watched movies and just relaxed. We enjoyed the atmosphere of Sedona and had many giggles and eye rolls over vortexes and aura readings. We definitely could have used one more day, but we were excited to see our little girl.

This first picture is a sand painting done by some monks. First of all, I only thought Native Americans did sand paintings, so I was enlightened on that fact. I was a little disappointed in that I thought it was going to be very large and on the ground, but I'm still so impressed with the patience and time this took. We weren't there when the swept it up and did the ritual, but I'm glad we got to see it.

Why do I always look so much larger than my husband? Okay, yes I am larger, but he IS taller than me.

Oh la la.

February Birthdays

February is always fun because Casey and I share such close birthdays. We always enjoy all the freebies that restaurants offer, and this year took advantage of: Benihana, Rubios, and Souper Salad. The day of Casey's birthday, I had to babysit, and Maddie was mega sick. Like, the sickest she's ever been. I managed to get over to the house and make his crepes for breakfast, then took both kiddos with me to the doctor. Turned out that Mads had RSV, a double ear infection and a temp of 101. Casey tended to her all day until I got home around 4pm. I then attempted to make his birthday dinner and cake all while trying to comfort my sickly child who only wanted to be held. It was stressful, and I felt bad that Casey took second on his birthday, but he's a good dad.
My birthday was less stressful, and we enjoyed Panda Express at home. Casey made me a strawberry cake with purple frosting. It looked like an Abbey Cadabby cake, and Maddie still talks about it; it was yummy of course.
I now look forward to Maddie's birthday where I can go all out, or at least as far as our budget will take us.

Miss Maddie Modeling

Maddie is usually a stinker about letting me take her picture, but on this night that's all she wanted to do. She kept going to different locations and doing different poses. She would immediately want to look at the picture after I took it. I think we have a future model on our hands.

Showing off her new "Valentine" tree (we had to improvise to get her to take down all her Christmas decorations and tree).



Future Mousekateer.



Katie Kangaroo and Baby Joey. An exotic shoot in Australia.



Sneaking a peek.



E.T. impersonation.



I think she's going for "saucy" here.



This is her vogue pose.



Mona Lisa smile