Easter

And now, the Easter pics...
Grandi bought Madigan a very cute dress and shoes. The coolest part was that it came with a matching dress for her baby! Madigan has been eagerly anticipating when she and "Baby" would get to dress up in their Easter dresses.
I think she looks huge in this picture (Madigan, not the baby). Where did my tiny girl go?!A close up...
Unfortunately, the Spring rains came to visit us on the same day as the Easter bunny. So rather than hunt eggs in a torrential downpour, the church Easter egg hunt was moved into the gym/ministry center. Madigan was in awe of all of the kids and the ridiculous number of eggs just laying around. So she just stood there, staring. Here's Ted trying to encourage her to pick up an egg. She finally got into the spirit and picked up 4 or 5 eggs. Then she said she was done. What?! We assured her it was okay to get more eggs but she refused. Until she saw how her buddy was doing across the room. Yes, that's Jenna claiming her pile of eggs. :)Not one to look away in the face of competition, Madigan picked up some more eggs and even posed for some pictures. Hey, what kind of candy ya got?Even Miss Mandy was there to have some fun. I thought this was a really cute picture of the two of them. All in all, it was a very fun Easter experience. Thanks Grandi and Gramps for the dress and to the Easter bunny for visiting us!

We Love Our Friends

I've got some Easter pics to get up, but Ted's using the camera at work today. I'll get those posted soon. In the meantime, I'll entertain you with some pictures of Madigan with her friends.

This is our newest friend - Baby Will! He is absolutely precious and Madigan is quite smitten with him. We talk about him a lot during the week and are SO excited when we see him at church. I personally think she's just excited to finally have a Prince at small groups...

He wasn't too happy in this picture and Madigan wasn't sure what to do with a crying baby.But it didn't take long for him to get happy again and then they had some very good conversations... And Madigan showed him all of her toys - one by one by one... He was enthralled, as you can see. What a cutie!

Another day, Madigan went to hang out with her older friends (the 3 and 4 year olds) at a Princess Birthday Party!! I had softball practice, so Daddy got to escort her to the party. I found that a little bit amusing :) (although I will add that I was 5 minutes late to practice because we spent nearly 20 minutes looking for the second Sleeping Beauty slipper. I did NOT tell my teammates that.)

Madigan as Sleeping Beauty (sidenote - if anyone tells her this is not a real Sleeping Beauty costume, I will hunt you down...)

Madi's friend that was having the party lives down the street, so she got to ride in her carriage.One of the highlights -they had a "Princess Parade" where each of the princesses were escorted into the room and introduced. (Excuse the last few seconds of this video. Apparently Ted didn't know it was still running.)

Madigan and her buddiesThe Royal Party guests (make sure you note the pirate in the back - that's the poor older brother who had to put up with all of the princesses!)Fortunately I made it for the end of the party and got to enjoy some of the yummy pink cupcakes! Thanks to Avery for inviting us all! What a great party and great friends!!

Grandparents Galore

Finally - the long awaited post!
As mentioned earlier, Madigan got the special treat of getting to spend time with all 4 of her grandparents in one week. Ted's parents came to our house for a visit the weekend before Spring Break. They got here on a Thursday and then flew back home on Monday. Then, Madigan and I went to my parent's house that Thursday and came home on Saturday. So, out of 10 days, Madigan had grandparents spoiling her for 8 of them. That was almost two weeks ago. We're still hearing "well, GeeGee let me do that" , "Pa said I could have that", "Gramps and I did that" and my favorite, "I'm going to call Grandi" when she's not getting her way. :)

Cute picture of Madigan with Grandi and GrampsPosing in front of the flowers with Grandi

A tea party with a glass tea set from Grandi

Make sure Gramps gets some tea...

I actually have a confession. I've gotten really bad about not taking pictures if grandparents are here and using their camera (s). I just figure they'll get all of the good pics and then I'll transfer them to our computer before they leave (the beauty of digital cameras). However, that only works if you remember to transfer their pictures before they leave. I kind of forgot to do that when Grandi and Gramps were here. The last few pictures are the ones they graciously emailed to me. Thank you! I will do better next time...

Onto GeeGee and Pa's house -

Coloring with GeeGee

Cuddling with Pa

Since we won't see my parents before Easter, Mom had Madi's Easter "treats" at the house. Plenty of sugar!
Isn't this a cute bunny? Yeah, I thought so too until Madigan found the "on" button on it's hand. Then it starts to sing, light up, tap it's foot and wiggle it's ears. Still sounds cute? Send me your address and I'll let you "borrow" it for a while. :)Madigan also got to practice hunting Easter eggs while at Pa and Gee Gee's. I don't think she could have done it without the tongue sticking out of her mouth...And the treat inside the eggs was...MONEY? What?! Where was the money in the eggs when I was a kid? She got over $10 in change from hunting eggs for 10 minutes. I'm going to have to talk to the Easter bunny about this. The rest of this is a little unrelated to the post, but did occur on the grandparent's week, so I'm going to include it here. Aunt Kate sent Madigan a light-up Princess shirt and jacket. Very cute.
However, the shirt was made to be form-fitting. So, when Madigan wears it she looks...well, chubby. Mom and I were laughing about this picture and then Mom said there was a picture of me about that age that looked just like her. I guess that means I was chubby. A bit of a blow to the self-esteem, but whatever.
Anyway, after looking through some of the other pictures from GeeGee and Pa's house, I think I've figured out why we're seeing some chubbiness. This is what Madigan had to eat as a bedtime snack...
But don't worry. Madigan is committed to getting herself back in shape. So, she tried out Gee Gee and Pa's Total Gym cycle. You know, it's a lot easier if you lay down while cycling...And if you get tired of cycling, just pretend the Total Gym is a dock and go fishing! That's bound to work off the extra pounds. All in all, we had a wonderful Spring Break week and are thankful to all of the grandparents for the fun, laughs, love, and yes, even spoiling. We love you all and can't wait to do it again!

Happenings

Yes, I planned on getting several posts up this week.
No, I didn't do that.
Before you start shaking your head in disappointment, let me defend myself a little. I did START a post on Wednesday about the week Madigan got to spend with her grandparents (Ted's parents first and then my parents a few days later). However, I was limited on pictures to use because in many of them Madigan was wearing a shirt that I couldn't post. No Uncle Matt, it wasn't inappropriate. It just wasn't time yet. Now that I've got your curiosity peaked, the unveiling...

Okay, Allison. It says "Big". She is pretty big for a 2 year old, but that's not that big of a deal.

Let's try again.Hand still in the way? Hmm... let's try this picture...


Does that say "Big Sister"? But why would Madigan be wearing a Big Sister shirt? She's an only child.

Wait a minute... Could she be trying to tell me something?That's right! Our family of 3 is soon (well, in about 7 months) going to turn into a family of 4!!
Baby #2 is due November 7th and we are VERY excited! Madigan requested a baby brother AND a baby sister, but fortunately the doctor ruled out that possibility on Wednesday. The doctor did say, however, that everything looked good and healthy. I'll be keeping you posted! (and grandparents, I promise to get your post up very soon!)

Little Rock Marathon

Well, Spring Break is almost over and I still have several posts I need to do. Stay tuned and I'll try to get them up on the next few days.

Two weeks ago, a group from our church helped with the Little Rock Marathon water stop. We've done this for 5 years now and love it. Plus, we get free T-shirts that say Little Rock Marathon so when we wear it the rest of the year, people think we ran the marathon (yeah right!) This was my first year to take Madigan along for the fun. She enjoyed it until the marathon actually started. Then we had a little freak-out moment. Thankfully, Mrs. Laura took care of her while I passed out water for the first few minutes. Then Madigan got over her fears and had a great time (and was actually a good helper...I'm thinking of renting her out.)

Pre-freak out

Breakfast of champions

Hangin' with her friends
This is what the kids did for fun after the runners came through - Cup TowersThis is what the big kids did for fun...
(Chad rocking the port-a-potty - WITH Dwayne inside. Gross!)

All in all, it was a great time. Thanks to Dwayne and Chad for organizing our group and making the Mile Four water stop the best! Counting down to next year...

Funny Stuff

Madigan has come up with some funny things lately. I don't know where she's getting half of it, but it's brought us some laughs.

1) Madi was doing a puzzle at the kitchen table. She gave an exasperated sigh. Ted said, "Madi, how's it going?" and she replied, "Well, it's not going good!"

2) Madigan was riding in the car with Ted yesterday and was trying to get a sticker off of the sticker sheet. She tore it a little and very annoyed exclaimed, "Now it's RUINED!"

3) Madigan was again working on some puzzles and I told her to do something. She replied, "Don't say that to me." Before I could light into her, she looked up at the ceiling and said, "Bad choice, bad choice, bad choice..." I had to finish hiding my laughter before I could get on to her.

4) Madigan on the piano - IMPORTANT - if you are sensitive to loud noises, you'll want to turn the volume down some for this one...



5) I've gotten pretty good at interpreting everything Madigan says even though she still lacks her "l"s. However, one day we ran into a slight communication problem...
I was cooking and Madigan came in the kitchen holding her pink cell phone. She said she was going to call Mema and Papa. I asked what she was going to tell them and she replied, "I'm going to ask if they have awake." Confused I said, "If they are awake?" She shook her head and said, "No, if they have a wwwake." Still not understanding, I said, "A rake?" Madigan rolled her eyes and said, "No, a WWWake. A POND!". Finally, I got it, "Oh a Lake!". She smiled, made her call and then came back to report that Mema and Papa did in fact have a lake and said she could come fishing in it.

6) And my favorite - I gave Madigan a kiss and said "I love you, Princess". She smiled and replied, "I love you too, Queen".


I'm still not sure what we're going to do with her when she's 13, but she' making us laugh these days!

Long Live the Spring Break!

There are lots of debates surrounding the best way to create a public school calendar. Do we move to year-round or leave the summers vacation? A week for Thanksgiving break or just Wed-Fri off? How early can we start in August and how late can we go in May/June (aka, how short can we cut the summer without a riot)? While I have my opinions on all of these options, I'll keep my mouth shut so long as they leave alone the SPRING BREAK. Oh, the Spring Break...I'd write a poem in honor of the Spring Break if only I wasn't so tired. Which brings me to WHO needs a Spring Break. Before working in the public schools, I thought school breaks were built in for kids. Ha! Our kids are doing great right now. It's the adults who are daily wilting away. So, we welcomed those two simple words - Spring Break! And now Madigan and I are enjoying some time at home and some awesome Spring weather. Here are a few pics I captured today.
And my favorite... (I promise, she pulled this out with NO prompting whatsoever!)Since I do have the week off, I plan to post several entries this week of things that have happened recently. Stay tuned!!

The New Dress

My parents came to visit several weekends ago (I'm a little behind on blogging) and brought Madigan a present. Shocking, I know. But this was no ordinary present. This was a bright, shiny, sequence-sparkling, fringe-dangling, neon PINK dress-up dress.



Picture a flapper dress from the 1920s.



Now imagine that dress on a 2 year old...



What do you get?

My daughter

Make sure you note the matching gloves/sleeves. This dress does not get put on without them. And yes, it also came with bright pink high heels. Because the outfit just wouldn't be complete without the shoes... Anyone remember Daisy from The Great Gatsby? I think she would be proud.

I'm not really sure what Madigan was doing in this picture, but it's pretty funny so I thought I would post it.

Thanks Pa and Gee Gee for turning my baby into a flapper! She loves the dress and loved seeing the two of you even more. We're looking forward to seeing you again soon!