A Beautiful Day to Play

After two busy days of doing the garage sale, we were ready for a relaxing day to play! We went to the church for the Preschool play day on Saturday morning (I can't believe I didn't take my camera...what was I thinking?!) and then we spent most of the afternoon playing outside in the backyard. As you can see by this picture above, we were ALL having a good time on the swing set! Uncle Clint came over and he and Mackenzie played ball for a while. I said, "Mackenzie, you need a softball glove!" Well, about 10 minutes later she ran into the house and came back wearing a mitten. It was too funny! I don't think she knows what a real softball glove is. =0) It worked for her! The girls also had a great time looking for ladybugs with Uncle Clint. Thank you, Lord for such a beautiful day, to spend with family!
See...her mitten works as a softball glove, just fine! I have never seen a child that loves to swing so much! The girls like to trade places on the swings now...Madison gets the big girl swing and Mackenzie takes the baby swing. She was having a little trouble getting up there by herself! Looking for Ladybugs with Uncle Clint! Or as Madison likes to say, "E-bug, e-bug, e-bug!" She gets so excited when she sees a "e-bug". She also calls flies and all other bugs,"a Bee! a Bee!" She continues to say it over and over until we say, "Madi do you see a bee?" and she shakes her head and says, "es!" It's like she's just waiting for someone to acknowledges her! This is serious business!

Garage Sale Time

We decided to do our garage sale in April this year instead of waiting until August. It was so much better, because it wasn't so hot! Grandma Baldwin came up and spent the night with us Wednesday night and helped on Thursday, and then G-Ma came up for the rest of the weekend. Grandma Baldwin even made muffins and brownies for Mackenzie to sell. (We ate most of the brownies ourselves, though!) Mackenzie was at ELP on Thursday, but she sat out in the garage with us on Friday and tried to sell some more muffins and brownies. How could anyone possibly say no to her?! It was so cute...when people would come to the garage sale she would just sit there real still and wait to see if they would buy something from her. It was really very sad when they didn't...I will definitely be buying lemonade or cookies or whatever the kids are selling at the next garage sale I go to, even if I don't want it! She ended up selling quite a few things though, and ended up very happy. (G-Ma was her best customer, I think!) Aunt Barbara spent several hours with us on Friday and the girls loved playing with her. I love it that we live so close to several family members, on both sides of our family. We are blessed!

We made over $1150! Wahoo!!! That was mostly thanks to G-Ma and Pa for bringing up so much of their stuff for us to sell. They were just wanting to get rid of it, and it helped us out a lot. They have been doing a lot of remodeling, and Pa cleaned out his garage so they had a LOT of stuff! Uncle Clint brought over some things too. We always count on our garage sale money to help pay for our vacations. Madison's favorite part of the garage sale was sitting out in the garage with us, wrapped up in her blanket, eating powdered donuts! We only opened on Thursday and Friday, and decided not to do Saturday. Instead, we just spent time together and played out in the backyard with G-Ma and Uncle Clint. It was a great weekend, and I'm SO glad the garage sale is over!

Madison sat on my lap and drew pictures during the garage sale...this one is of Dora, Boots, Backpack and Map. I asked her what she was drawing and she said, "Dor-da." Then it was "Ba-Pa" and "Boo-s" and "MAP!" She is a future artist for sure!

Then she wanted to trace her hands!

Dance Pictures & Observation Week

Mackenzie had her dance recital pictures & rehearsal in the studio this past Monday & she looked precious! We spent $40 on 1 5x7, 4 wallets, and a group shot...seriously?! It was definitely expensive, but I am glad we have the pictures. She hopped right up there and struck a pose when it was her turn...imagine! She was so excited about dressing up in her outfit, and even more excited when we put glitter and mascara on her!

I don't really know why, but for the past several weeks Mackenzie has cried before dance class, saying that she just wants to stay with mommy, and that she will miss me. I am really baffled by this, because she doesn't do this anywhere else. Also, I am standing literally 6 or 7 steps from her on the other side of a window that she can see through. I don't get it! I just hope she does okay at the recital in a few weeks. She loves dance class, but just has some kind of separation anxiety when we go there. Once she makes it through the first 5 minutes or so, she calms down and has a great time. The first 5 minutes are kind of hard to watch...she cries and dances without missing a beat. I don't know whether to laugh or be sad for her! Some of her favorite songs to dance to are the Bear Hunt, "Move It, Move It," Strawberry Shortcake, and the Dora theme song. Ms. Casey is wonderful! I have to say, I am kind of looking forward to a break from dance class over the summer. Mostly because chasing and entertaining Madison for an hour is exhausting!

After taking pictures, the girls danced for about 30 minutes and we got to sit in to observe. That made Mackenzie very happy! Everything was going great until she hit her knee with her tap shoe...major meltdown at that point. I was video'ing her when it happened, so you can see it on one of the video's below. Poor little thing! I can't wait for our family to see her in this costume. It's going to be fun!
Mackenzie was originally assigned #4 for her recital spot, which she loved because she is 4 years old. Well, then Ms. Casey moved her to #6 and she was upset about it. When I realized this was a problem, I convinced her that 6 is a special # too, because she is 4 and Madison is 2, and that makes 6! It worked...now she likes spot 6!
"That's My Baby!" (One of her recital songs!)Love the hands on her hips! Uh-Oh! This is where the accident happened. She really hurt her knee with her tap shoe...how it happened exactly, I'm not sure. She kept on dancing though!
Oh, this makes me sad! She came and sat with me for a second while she recovered, and then hopped right back up there.
Still trying to get over it!

Here are a BUNCH of video's...I basically video'd the whole thing because Brian couldn't be there to watch it!

This is the fatal knee accident...

Going on a Bear Hunt!

Terrible Two's

We are definitely going through "Terrible Two's" with Madison right now. What am I gonna do with this ornery little girl? She has spent quite a bit of time in the corner lately. We are still trying to figure out what form of discipline is going to work best with her. When we give her spankin's, she just looks at us like, "Is that it?" She is very sensitive when it comes to us getting onto her with words. Sometimes, when we aren't even getting onto her, she thinks we are, and she starts crying like it breaks her heart.

The biggest challenge with Madison right now is just getting her to obey when we tell her to do something. Like when I say, "Madison, come here." she either just stands there and looks at me with a grin on her face, or she takes off running the other direction, laughing. When I catch up with her, she will just lay down in the floor, and become limp so that I have a really hard time picking her up. (argh!) This is especially fun when we are at church and have people watching us. I find myself very frustrated at times, but I try to remind myself that she is only 2 and that she will grow out of this at some point.

She is finally starting to talk a lot more, and the first word out of her mouth in the morning is "Eee!" (eat) Then she goes right to the pantry and says, "Nacks!" (fruit snacks). When I tell her we don't eat fruit snacks for breakfast, she immediately begins crying. Why we have to go through this every morning, I don't know! I guess she thinks I might change my mind one day. As ornery as she is, she is also sweet as can be! She is a cuddler for sure. Sitting on my lap, playing with my hair is her favorite place to be. She loves to "daw!" (draw), and watch "Dor-da" and other "show!" (shows). Naptime is still a favorite time of the day for her (and me!). When I tell Grandma Baldwin Madison stories, she just laughs...I think she went through all these things with Brian when he was little. The other day, Brian said "Madison is definitely my child!" I know one of these days, when she is older, I will look back and miss these times...I don't think I'll be as exhausted then though!

Is this sad or what?! I don't remember what she did, but she looks very sorry.

A Rainy Easter at Lake Eufaula

It seems like the bigger our family becomes, the harder it is to get us all together at the same time. We had a great day at the Lake (inside) on Easter. The kids played non-stop and Bailey and Mackenzie were just devastated and cried when it was time to leave. I think Mackenzie cried until she put herself to sleep in the car. They love each other very much and have so much fun together. We had dinner and then Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids each an Easter bucket filled with candy, stuffed bunnies, kites, and a cute outfit. Grandma made her traditional Bunny cake & I took cookies, so the kids were all loaded up on sugar. Madison was still very clingy because she still felt sick. Aunt Amy finally won her over by letting her play games on her cell phone! I wanted to get a really good picture of the girls in their Easter dresses, but it just wasn't going to happen. After our busy morning, it was nice to get to relax for a while. Both of the girls fell asleep not even five minutes after we headed for home. It poured down rain on us the whole way. Easter was a LONG, fun day. Maybe next year the weather will be pretty and the kids can hunt eggs outside! Grandma and Grandpa had a surprise for us all when we got there...they built a new sunroom where part of their porch used to be. It is awesome! I found the girls' dresses at Kohl's on Friday before Easter...nothing like waiting til the last minute!Love Madison's face...she pretty much just wanted Momma! She had enough of Daddy at church that morning. =0) Our attempt at a family Easter picture. What do you know...Madison's playing with my hair! When I bought the girls' Easter dresses, I even got Daddy a new shirt, and I got a new dress. New clothes for everybody!I can definitely tell I was tired in these pictures.Madison ended up with Mackenzie's kite, which caused a little sadness, but we got it straightened out!Mack got a pink bucket with pink eggs, and Madi got an orange bucket with orange eggs!We love Grandma Baldwin! She makes this cute Bunny Cake every year at Easter! Mackenzie wanted to eat part of his green bow tie.I think Mackenzie's been spending too much time playing with boys at school or something...she had this knife and pretended to stab Madison with it. Look how sweet she looks though!Completely exhausted!This is so funny...Mackenzie doesn't hardly ever fall asleep in the car, so I knew she was exhausted. We were hoping they would stay asleep when we got home and we could just carry them in and put them in bed, but of course that didn't happen! It was still raining and we had to go in through the front door since our garage was full of garage sale stuff. They ended up back in our bed...this seems to be happening a lot lately!It was a very Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! He Is Risen!

Looking back, Easter morning was kind of a blur. At STBC on Easter, we have "Portraits, Pastries & Praise" and I was asked to be one of the photographers again this year. I was hesitant to do it, because it really makes things kind of crazy for me, but I went ahead and said yes. I was a little overwhelmed, because Madison was still running a fever and couldn't go into childcare. So, Brian, being the SuperDad that he is, took care of her all morning. I don't know who enjoyed that the least...him or Madison! The poor little thing cried for me practically the whole time he had her. Before leaving for church, we gave the girls their Easter baskets. We didn't really pretend that the "Easter Bunny" came, but just told them their Easter baskets were from us. We really don't want to make them believe something about Easter that isn't true, when really the TRUTH and the reason we celebrate Easter, is that Jesus is ALIVE! I may have overdone it on filling their baskets...but hey, they weren't very big to start with. Easter baskets are like stockings at Christmas...they are just SO much fun! We were so glad that Danny and Amy and the kids came to church with us on Easter. Mackenzie even went into the church service instead of going into her class, since Bailey was there. After church, we grabbed a quick lunch at Sonic and then headed to Lake Eufaula for the day. Did I mention that it pretty much POURED down rain, all day long?! Maybe that was God's way of reminding us that Easter really isn't about hunting eggs, but about celebrating Him!

Mackenzie drew this picture during Choir the Wednesday night before Easter. She drew Mackenzie, Madison, Daddy, Pa, Mommy and G-Ma. I love how she wrote her name down below...when she ran out of room, she just finished her name up above the first letters!Hallelujah! He is Risen!

Madison loved her ladybug ball!Mackenzie loved her puppy & new "Squinkies!"They had about 2 minutes to see what they got, then we dumped all of their goodies into Wal-Mart sacks and took them with us in the car. We were running late! I didn't even have a chance to get a picture of the girls together in their matching dresses. Eating "Pastries!" Mackenzie loved it that they had donuts shaped like little chicks...and they were pink! What more could a girl ask for?!Madison didn't care anything about eating a donut...she still didn't feel good. Mackenzie really loves "Pastor Ted." They bonded over that TV commercial! After church, Rhiley Smith and her parents brought a baby duck for the girls to see! Of course, they loved it! I'm just glad it went back home with the Smith's instead of coming to our house. Grandma Baldwin jokingly said they almost got us rabbits...I'm glad she was just joking.Madison wasn't sure at first, but finally stuck out her little finger to touch the baby duck!The girls got several Easter cards in the mail. G-Ma picked out REALLY cute ones! They got a package from Pa & G-Ma about a week before Easter, with new panties for both of them, little bunny rabbits, and these cute cards!
G-Ma even drew special pictures for them! They also got cards from Poppa Jim! I think it is so sweet that he sends them both the same card, and he drew pictures for them too!I remember Poppa drawing this bird picture from when I was little. Uncle Stephen & Aunt Tamara sent cute cards too!