you love her lots

MK,
Even though we are 35-40 minutes from Grandma and Grandpa now, Grandma still drives out to see you every chance she gets. She spoils us all and loves you dearly. You love her just as much! Yesterday she came out to see you and the two of you read books in the play room for quite some time together. You are so blessed with four awesome grandparents! I am thankful!
Love you sweet girl,
Mommy

just a cousin fun day

We were missing the girls around our house so I asked if they could come play at the house today. Marlo dropped them off a little after 10 this morning and we hit the ground running. The girls played in the playroom, watched about 37.6 seconds of Rapunzel, popped pop corn in the pop corn maker they bought MK for Christmas and then we painted.

All the girls had fun painting. It was pretty funny to see their staggered skill levels in the finished products when it was all said and done.

The girls were begging to go outside. After a near 80 degree day the day before, it was so cold outside. We bundled up and I promised them 15 minutes of outside time.

Grandma and Grandpa stopped by too after helping Luke move a few chairs out here. I am pretty sure that was the high light of the day for all of them. Grandma stayed for the duration and kept us all company!

Emily and I had fun sewing while the little girls giggled in MK's room. Then we made some hats and scarves while they napped. I've never made a hat before, but after looking at one of MK's beanies I thought we could do it. It definitely isn't perfect, but Emily thought it was pretty cool that she made her very own hat from start to finish.

We love the days we get to spend with these two!

rub a dub dub, a sweet girl in the tub

 

Different days, but same sweet smile!

a welcomed detour

Gigi was in East Texas for work yesterday and today so she made a  detour to our house. MK was super excited and loved playing with Gigi for a few hours. They fed the ducks (of course), ran around the backyard and enjoyed the new swing set.

I have no idea why she was pouting when this picture was taken, but it makes me laugh. She's a tad on the dramatic side (and completely covered in a powdery substance from the duck food).

They laughed and giggled and had a great time together.

She was sad to see Gigi go, but we all enjoyed the welcomed detour!

my favorites.

MK and Luke spent sunset on the dock.

Feeding the ducks.
20 minutes later.

A sweet high five.

I love spying on these two.

pine cone feeder fun

Madelyn adores animals. All kinds of animals. Since we've moved to the lake, she has especially grown fond of ducks and all sorts of birds. At any given moment you can look out the front or back and see beautiful, brightly colored birds. She loves Blue Jays and thinks hummingbirds are cute! So, today we made some bird feeders from pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed.

I remember making these in school and taking them home in ziploc bags. By the time they made it to my house, they were always completely crushed. I remember my mom walking me to a neighbor's house one time to grab a few pine cones out of their yard so that I could make another one! Oh, the things that stick with us.

Madelyn enjoyed "painting" with the peanut butter. In the end, we hung four pine cone feeders or "eaters" as she called them. It was a fun little thing to do together and super cheap too. We had the pine cones thanks to the massive pine trees out back, had just enough peanut butter in the pantry and bought a large bag of bird seed from Wal-Mart for $1.97. There is enough in the bag to make approximately 121 pine cone feeders. In other words, there's more than enough for future pine cone feeder making!

MK goes to the movies! Take one!

When I saw that Beauty and The Beast came back out on the big screen, I knew I wanted to take MK. She has watched it at home a couple of times and loved it! This morning, I asked her if she wanted to go to the movie theater with me. Of course, she said yes but had absolutely no idea what she was getting herself in to! Ha! I just told her it was a really, really big TV.

She ran off a little energy outside before we left. Once we made it to the theater, it was obvious that we may be the only ones at our show. I counted eight cars in the parking lot! We bought our tickets. She was free! That was a fun little surprise. Then we got our $1 popcorn and $1 drinks. Our local theater does that on Tuesdays. Our little date to the movies cost $10 and was so worth it.

We were the only ones seeing our show! She picked our seats and then we waited! The only thing I would have done differently was arrived about 25 minutes after the show time. I wasn't sure we were going to make it through the previews! I even thought some of them were scary. That being said, she played games on my phone until the cartoon previews came on right before our show started. After 45 minutes of previews, it started and she clapped.

It was so fun watching her smile so big as she watched! We took two potty breaks at scenes that I thought might scare her that I usually fast forward through at home. It worked out perfectly. She danced in her seat during a few of the songs. I couldn't believe that she actually sat through the entire movie and loved every minute of it.

After the movies, we ran in to Target and MK spotted this Belle shirt. I am literally allergic to character shirts, but then she said, "It's Belle! I loved Belle with you!" I couldn't help it! I had to buy it.

I loved Belle with you too, sweet girl!

uneventful, low key and fun

We had a crazy night last night. Here's the short version of how things went down but first you must know that the hubs and I were slipping in to bed at 9pm, a full three-four hours earlier than our normal bed time:

• distant gunfire (according to the hubs-any gunfire I can hear is too close for me)
• 30 minutes pass
• after being in bed for over an hour MK starts talking
• loud crashing sound in to house by our bedroom
• 911 call as we are not sure what it was (was so loud it sounded like a car could have hit it)
• hubs goes to investigate while MK and I sit in our bedroom on the phone with 911
• finds a large limb that crashed from the top of a very tall tree on to the house
• call 911 back to tell them not to come :)
• MK is wide awake and begging for "2 minutes of shows!"
• after 30 minutes of Lion King she's quiet and settled in her bed
• two whole seconds later her monitor starts making the freakiest noise ever and wouldn't stop
• freakiest noise continues
• hubs goes to investigate and brings back a yet again wide awake toddler to our bed
• we all slept off and on but I was awake for about four solid hours wondering what craziness would take place next

Moral of the story, I am never going to bed that early again!

I was determined today would be uneventful, low key and fun so I asked MK what she wanted to do after breakfast. Her response, "let's go outside and be super babies and save all the animals". I can do that.

She picked out her outfit, requested to two ponies (pony tails), agreed to wear shoes as long as they were Toms and grabbed her glasses on the way out the door. All this super baby is lacking is a cape.

Madelyn says the funniest things. I love it and wish I could remember them all, but here are some of her quotes from today.

"I'm going to wait right here until you are done taking my picture."

Obviously that didn't last long. Ha! Usually she doesn't care, but today she cared for all of 37 seconds.

"My shoe pooped off, Mom. I got it! I pooped it back on!"

"Super Baby to the wes-scue (rescue)!!"

"I love it here. I love the new house (she still calls it "new house" every time she speaks of it). I love the grass. I love the trees. I love it. I love it. I love it. Just like Punzel (Rapunzel) Mommy!"

"My glasses are awe-thum (awesome)!"

"I like it when we play hokey pokey! Want to play?"

"March two, three. March four, five. March six, seven. March. March. March!"

"I can't go on the bridge with out you Mommy! It's dangerous (her new most overused word)! Come on!"

We spent a solid four hours outside today and then she spent another few with her daddy this afternoon. The daylight is almost gone and they are sitting on the dock feeding the ducks.

It was a perfectly uneventful, low key and fun kind of day!