Happy Birthday Madigan!

Well, it happened. Tuesday came and my baby turned two years old! She woke up in quite a good mood... at least as soon as we started singing "Happy Birthday" to her :). Here's a picture of her on Tuesday in her "Birthday Girl" tiara from Gramps (aka "Gimps") and Grandi. Thanks again for that...


I had to work on Tuesday, so on Monday night we made cupcakes for her to take to Mrs. Laura and Jenna's house. She was very excited about that! Then, I got off early, took her shopping at Kohls (where she got a new outfit and some light-up Princess shoes!), and then we went out for ice cream. After that, we met Daddy at Madigan's favorite restaurant for dinner... McDonalds. (I'm hoping that will change at some point and we can celebrate her birthday at places like Chili's, Olive Garden, or Outback!) All in all, I think she felt it was a really good birthday!
We spent the rest of the week getting ready for her party on Saturday. Since we had lots of friends and family who were going to be able to come, we decided to hold the party in the family center at church. After a lot of thought, we finally decided on a "crayon" theme for her party (which I thought was better than Madigan's other suggestion of a "pink" party). Crayons were fun because in addition to colorful decorations, we were also able to set up activity/craft stations that entertained the kiddos really well.
Here's a video Ted took of the party fun.


Even though we had practiced blowing out candles before the party, Madigan was a little overwhelmed when everyone started singing to her and staring. So, she just stared at her cake like this :)
She soon got over it though and dug into the cake...We also had a pinata that the kids hit with the inflatable crayons. It was quite entertaining, to say the least!
We were very excited that Pa and Gee Gee and my brother and his family were able to come in for the party. I actually got a lot of pictures of Madigan with them all after the party, but I'll save those for another post. But here's a cute one of Madigan with her cousins and Aunt Susie from the party. We had a lot of fun and Madigan was so excited all of "her" friends could come party with her. Thanks to all of you for coming and making it a special day for her.

I couldn't resist posting these last two pictures of my big girl with some of her new birthday toys. Here she's practicing putting on her lipstick...
and here she's cheesing it up in her cheerleader outfit from Uncle Matt, Aunt Susie, Avery and Ella. My hope is that this will be the ONLY cheerleader outfit she ever has on...Happy Birthday Madigan! We love you so much and look forward to watching you grow every day of your life.

Hola, West Texas!

Madigan and I spent last weekend visiting the land of my roots, West Texas. While the landscape is not much to look at (if you like trees, that is :)), the trip was incredibly special and I am so glad that we got the opportunity to go and see my family.
We stayed at my granddad's (my dad's dad) house in Levelland, but my mom's parents made a long day trip from Graham, TX to come see us on Friday. So, not only did I get to see all of my grandparents in one day, but Madigan got to be spoiled by all three of her GREAT grandparents at once! It was a very special time for us and of course, I captured it with lots of pictures :)

Madigan entertaining her great-grandparents by "flipping"
Papa "getting" Madigan

Playing puzzles with Mema

Reading with Mema
(Look at the concentration on Madigan's face)

I love this picture - Pa called to check on everyone and Madigan wanted to talk to him. Granddad held out the phone and so Madigan cuddled up next to him to talk to Pa!
Thanks Mema and Papa for making the trip to come see us. We had a wonderful time!

While in West Texas, we also got to see several of my cousins and their kiddos. We met my cousin Brady, who is a student at Texas Tech in Lubbock, for lunch one day.
Also, my cousin Cary and his family came to visit us at Granddad's. Here's a picture of Madigan playing with her 2nd cousin Cary.She also enjoyed playing with her 3rd cousins. This is Tyler, who is 4 years old...and this is Jackson, who is 3 years old. Don't these two look like they're up to something?!
We also visited the "castle park" in Levelland again. This is a really neat park that has something for kids of all ages. Here's the princess waiting for her prince...Going for a quick ride on the horse...I just like this picture because of the hair. Can you tell there was some static electricity?Obviously, we had a wonderful time and I'm very grateful everything worked out for us to make this trip. I've been blessed with an amazing family and it means the world to me to share them and their love with Madigan. We love you all and hope to see you again very soon!

My Big Girl

Madigan and I traveled to West Texas this past weekend to see my grandparents. We had a WONDERFUL time, but I have too many pictures to sort through to post about the trip right now... so instead, I'm going to lament about what a big girl my baby has become. Madigan will be turning two next Tuesday and I can't figure out where the time has gone. But not only am I dealing with her being the big 2, I'm also in awe of all of the "big girl" things that she's suddenly doing. So, I thought I'd share a few of them with you :)

Potty Training

I decided this summer we were going to take a stab at potty training while I was home full-time and just see how it went. Madigan took to it very well (with a little help from some candy) and I am now happy to say that we have been accident-free for almost 3 weeks. That even includes airplane rides, shopping trips, nighttime/naps and outings to the park. Way to go Madigan!!

(Yes, I do realize this is one of those pictures that she's going to hate me for when she's a teenager. I'm okay with that.)

The "Big Girl" Bed

I finally took the plunge today and removed the rails off of the crib to make it into a toddler bed and suddenly, Madigan's bed is the coolest thing ever! She's been so excited to sleep in her "new" bed. I've been pleased because so far she has stayed in the bed and actually slept when she was supposed to. We'll see how long that lasts...

Pretending to "sleep" - very believable, huh?!Who knew this bed could be so much fun?!!

Big Girl Vocabulary

Madigan loves to talk and often simply talks to hear her own voice. It's been fun to watch her progress from one word statements to sentences to stories. Yes, that's right - she now tells stories. She's picked up the basics of it from our bedtime Princess stories. They go something like this - "Once upon a time in a land faraway, there was a Princess named _____ (she always inserts "Madigan" there - imagine that!). One day the princess decided to go _____ and ____ happened. (insert fun story) When it got dark, she came home and gave her mommy the Queen and her daddy the King a kiss, went to bed, and had sweet dreams. The End."
Fast forward to the airport on Thursday... Madigan and I were passing some time waiting to board our plane and she said, "Once upon a time". I said, "What happened?" She thought for a minute and said, "Once upon a time, Mommy saw a yadybug" (that's ladybug when you can't say your L's). A little surprised, I said, "What did Mommy say to the ladybug?". She again thought for a minute and said "Mommy said, 'Hey Yadybug!'" She was quite pleased with herself :)

So, since it appears that I can't keep her from becoming a "big girl", I guess I'll just sit back and enjoy the fun! I'll keep you posted so you can enjoy too!

Art Project

Before anyone who knows about my artistic skills (or lack thereof) starts snickering, let me emphasize that this was an art project for Hadyn and Madigan, not me. In my effort to find things to keep the girls occupied this summer, I decided to let them paint the old and pretty worn out picnic table in our backyard. They seemed a little surprised when I handed them paintbrushes, paint and told them to start painting. :) But, it didn't take long for them to get into it...It also didn't take long for Madigan to decide that there really was no need for a paintbrush when you have 10 perfectly good fingers...
The girls worked diligently on this for several days and had a little bit of fun in the process.

The artistsShowing off the final product - so colorful!

And, of course, just being silly...

They did a great job and are very proud of "their" table now :).
Today is actually our last day to have Hadyn and Harrison stay with us. We're definitely going to miss you guys! Thanks for all of the fun this summer!

The March of the Ducks

On Friday, Laura and I ventured out with all 4 kids and took them to see the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel. For those of you not familiar with the Peabody, they have ducks that live in their own suite in this fancy hotel. Promptly at 11:00 each morning, the duck master parades the ducks onto the elevator, rides them down to the lobby, and leads the ducks along the red carpet, up stairs, and into their fountain. The ducks stay there all day and then at 5:00, they do the duck march in reverse and the ducks go back into their house upstairs. It's quite an ordeal!

Waiting for the ducks
(Can you sense the excitement?!)

Trying out the red carpeted stairs...

Harrison - just chilling

Here's a video of the duck march...

In order to get to the Peabody, we rode the trolley into downtown. The kids loved this and Laura and I enjoyed the air conditioning after toting the kids around in the Arkansas summer heat!

We had a lot of fun and the girls took a 3 hour nap when we got home! Now if I could just find other things to do that wear them out that much... :)