Maddie's Half Birthday

Maddie is 6 months old today. She is such a sweet little baby girl with lots of personality. She is starting to like her rice cereal, loves rolling everywhere, and is sitting by herself a little longer. She also likes playing peek-a-boo -- she squeals and laughs everytime, especially when Allie or Collin does it. She has outgrown bathing in our bathroom sink so she now uses a small little blow-up tub. She loves sitting in it!

Happy Birthday, Lorraine!

Happy Birthday to the best mother-in-law! Once in a while I hear some crazy, terrible mother-in-law stories, and I am grateful that I don't have any to share. But I can share some good reasons why she's so great.

- She loves her kids and will do anything for them. That's why they all love her so much! She was here for us when Collin and Maddie was born. I especially appreciate those times!

- She is good to talk with. Thank you, free long distance. Otherwise, I would have to switch my cell phone service over to Verizon so we won't burn too many cell phone minutes.

- She (and Jack) and my parents get along well. It is such a special thing when they have come and supported my parents in just about every wedding and reception in my family.

- She is a great homemaker. Her home is immaculate and beautiful (she has a great eye for decorating). Since I love decorating too, we share ideas, go on decorating trips, etc. It is a lot of fun.

- She is fun, friendly, cute and fashionable. She has this fun little voice, fun personality, and a great laugh. She doesn't look a day older than when I first met her (...she begs to disagree).

- She is the best nursery leader there is. She's been in RS, YW, and Primary Presidencies, and she spends just as much time on her nursery calling as any other callings she's had. Her nursery box is filled with a lot of good stuff - you just know the kids are going to have a ball.

- She is a great grandma to all her grandkids. They all like staying over at her house. Allie loves chatting, painting nails, and getting a little bit of Grandma's special makeup.

I hope that someday my daughter(s)-in-law will love me as much as I love her! Happy Birthday!

Memorial Weekend

Instead of burgers and barbecue, we spent our rainy Memorial Day cleaning out our big shed -- it hasn't been organized since I got pregnant with Maddie, so as you can imagine, it was ... very overwhelming to clean up! We worked for 10 hours! - But the end result is great - we got rid of over half the stuff! One shed down, one more to go! The kids rummaged thru the yard sale stuff and found long-lost stuffed animals, etc. Allie found a cute green shirt from my little sister's old stuff. She was so excited about her find (see her shirt below). And while Kevin and I were organizing they thought it would be fun to do this:

Maddie enjoyed the ride! It kept her quiet and entertained for quite some time.

Kevin took the kids out on a drive to Mt. Nebo. Archie was in town for a friend's wedding, so he went with them; my back hurt from working all day Saturday, so I stayed home with Maddie. They had a bunch of flowers for me when they got back. It was so sweet.

Happy Birthday, Pappi!

Pappi in 2003 (Love the wig??)

Pappi (my Dad) is celebrating his 61st Birthday tomorrow, May 26. He doesn't look old enough to be in his sixties! So since it's his birthday, it's fitting to highlight a few of the things that make him a one-of-a-kind Dad.

1. He loves to garden. We like it when he comes over in the summer - he will spend all of his vacation just working out in the yard. He has weeded, mowed, planted and fixed up our planters. Thank you!

2. HE CAN STAND ON HIS HEAD! He exercises every day of the week. He has been doing yoga about 20 years ago, before we even got to know the term "yoga". We all think he's crazy, but you gotta hand it to him when he can do this when he's 60. :)

3. He makes up a funny dance or gets his front-tooth denture out to make people laugh. Butterfly knees, chicken dance, etc. - he's got the silly moves down pat.

4. He picks flowers for my Mom and wraps her presents in newspaper so she wouldn't know he's up to something.

5. He spoils the grandkids. Maybe this wouldn't be good if they lived right next door, but since it's only once or twice a year, he and my Mom can go to town with this one!

6. He's a big fan of BYU - education that is !!! He sacrificed a lot to raise his big family, and worked so hard so that each of his kids can have a great BYU education. To date, 5 of the 6 kids have graduated from the Y, and by 2010, the last of the bunch will hopefully be done.

7. And last but not least, he's a great example of faith and testimony. He faithfully holds Sunday meetings at his home, eventhough it's just him and my Mom. Yup, the full three-hour block. What a great man!

We're lucky to have a Dad like him!!! Happy 61st Birthday Papa!

Silly Girl

Maddie has been so silly lately. She's been so curious about everything around her, she can't nurse without checking out her surroundings every few minutes. She's not a very big fan of rice cereal. When she's not interested in it, she will look at you with a playful look, spit it out (and it splatters everywhere!), and then smile really big. I think she'll be a handful when she's older.

It tastes good!

Miss Maddie's new favorite thing is her big toe!

My Favorite Sub

On Friday, Kevin came home with a sub from my most favorite sandwich shop, Jimmy Johns, which I did not know opened in Lehi recently (or maybe a while ago, and I just didn't know it!). My #4 Turkey Tom was gone in a flash, literally. We will have to drive up to Lehi to go get some more. Such a good surprise!

The Lady, The Builder, and The Little Roller

Allie is our little lady. She is growing up too fast -- she is almost 8, and loves anything girly. She loves to do her hair, change her earrings to match her outfits, and paint her nails. Her best friends are Karly Roney and Hallie Knight, aka the "Girly Girls". I will have to blog about that separately.
Collin is our builder. He is so creative and loves to play pretend. His Lego creations are getting more and more detailed -- he looks at pictures of trucks and actually comes up with a Lego model that looks pretty close to the one in the photo. Amazing! He thinks up all kinds of creations -- check out the SUSPENDERS he made out of 3 belts:

Maddie has found a way to get to things and toys she wants to check out -- rolling! She is also quite the squealer and she babbles so loudly. When she slept thru Relief Society on Sunday, a few came up to me and said they couldn't believe she was so reverent! :)

Sporting glasses from Build-a-Bear

Mother's Day

I am so blessed to have 3 beautiful kids and a wonderful husband to share Mother's Day with. They do and say the funniest and sweetest things to brighten up any day, even crazy days. The kids and Kevin gave me homemade cards and flowers. So sweet! Allie also gave me some good cookie mix in a jar that she made at Activity Days with her friend Hallie (Hallie turned 8 a couple of weeks ago, and invited Allie to go with her). The kids made the cookies with Andrea while Kevin and I were out on a drive around Provo. We came home to yummy M&M oatmeal raisin cookies.

Chopping green onions (a little strong for her eyes!) and "cozy feet for cooking". You have to love the cooking outfit!

I did most of the cooking, as the kitchen is not Kevin's place of expertise (he makes up for it in many other ways, of course). We had grilled porkchops, scalloped potatoes, and strawberry shortcake. FHE was fun (we do FHE's on Sunday nights, since Kevin is away on Monday nights); Allie gave a great lesson on keeping promises. She is quite the planner! Then we called our Moms before it got too late -- Mother's Day wasn't complete until we called them and wished them a Happy Mother's Day.

Our new matching aprons

A funny side note: Kevin's mom sent me a present for Mother's Day, and also sent a pretty bag and tissue in his backpack to wrap it with. I also sent a present for her last week, and asked Kevin to make sure to get it wrapped. He assured me that he's got it taken care of. On Saturday morning, Kevin's mom called to make sure Allie got everything out of Kev's backpack -- and found out the bag and tissue didn't make it up here! Kevin had decided to use the bag and tissue to wrap our Mother's Day present for his mom. He sure got the present all cute and pretty! - but he couldn't find anything in the house to wrap my present in, so he and Allie decided to use a Brick Oven bag. Funny!

More of Maddie

Maddie:

- ate her first rice cereal this week

- uses her arms to sit up, but falls over quite often!

- loves looking at her painted toes

- is so curious about her surroundings

- loves to play with her rattly toys

- still likes to sleep in her car seat

- loves to snuggle with her pink fuzzy blanket

- still won't take a bottle!