A Lot of Happenings

It's been less than a week since I blogged, but we have had a LOT to write about. So, settle back and grab some popcorn - this will probably be a long blog. :)

Spoiled Rotten - Part 2

Grandi and Gramps (Ted's parents) arrived on Thursday afternoon and were able to stay until Sunday afternoon. Madigan LOVED it! Along with a lot of attention, she also received some more Easter "treats". They gave her a bunny purse, a book, some adorable outfits, and Grandi's favorite - lots of shoes! Madigan kept reaching in the bag and excitedly screaming "more shoes!". One pair of "shoes" was actually a really cute pair of frog rain boots that came with a matching rain coat. At first Madigan only wanted to put them on Daddy's feet. However, the next morning, the first thing she said was "boots"! So, we put them on with her pajamas. Nice outfit, huh?!We got to do some extra celebrating this trip. Grandi's birthday was on Friday! We went to Chili's for dinner and topped off a great dinner with a Molten Lava Cake (yum!). That was just "okay" in Madigan's opinion - the real fun didn't start until Grandi got to open her present. Here's Madigan giving her a card:
The only problem - the card had Dora and Boots on it. So, after it was opened, Madigan claimed it for herself again..."Whatcha got there, Grandi?"All in all, it was a rockin' good time for all :)However, I have my suspicions that what was in the gift basket was NOT Grandi's favorite birthday present. I think it was the moments spent doing this...
And as always, Grandi and Madigan spent quite a bit of time bonding over their books...
Before you start feeling sorry for Gramps, let me assure you that he got plenty of Madigan time as well. Here they are having fun in the sandbox.And here they are playing with some fun Easter toys while watching some basketball (it was March Madness, you know!)I would try to explain why Madigan has no clothes on, but I don't know. This is what happens when I go to work for half a day! (Trust me though, Madigan had no complaints!)And here's Madigan reading her Bible to Gramps. "God made Me!"Also while they were here, Gramps captured this video of Madigan and Jenna that was too good not to post! Note the difference in their "dancing" styles


As always, we had a wonderful visit and are so glad Grandi and Gramps got to come see us. Thanks for everything!

Daffodil Festival

Also while Ted's parents were here, we went to see the annual "Daffodil Festival" at Wye Mountain (about 30 miles west of us). It was beautiful! There are 7 acres of nothing but daffodils - perfect for spring pictures!

Madigan was much more interested in being Miss Independent and running around freely than sitting for pictures, but we managed to get these few family pics...
Madigan liked the flowers, but by far, her favorite part of the trip was an old tree that made a perfect "chair". Check out her hair in this picture :) Did I mention the wind was blowing a lot?!

Easter Sunday

I was excited to see how Madigan would do this Easter. Last year, she was too young to get into the egg hunts or even eat any of the candy (she's a pro at that now). We had the Easter dress and shoes (thanks GeeGee) and Daddy had bought her and Easter basket, so we were ready to roll! Our church's "Bible Hour" hosts an Easter egg hunt and Madigan quickly picked up on what she needed to do. Here are some of the pics :

Ready, Set... GO!

"Can I get some help here?!""I found another one!""Did you know there's candy inside the eggs?! What a great holiday!"

"Come on Jenna - you don't want to miss out on this!"Here's a video of the fun

Once again, she wasn't in the mood for family pictures, so we just snapped them where we could!
Visiting the Cousins

Madigan and I made a quick trip to Tennessee to see my brother's family. We were able to take Ella (my 4 year old niece) out for lunch on Monday and eat lunch with Avery (my 6 year old niece) at her school on Tuesday. Of course, the first thing Madigan wanted to do was drive the Jeep!

The girls tried to figure out ways all three of them could ride at once - Ella across the hood...Avery hanging onto the back...Madigan also had fun with some of their other toys. She wasn't too sure what to do with this, but she thought she'd give it a try.Sidewalk chalk is fun wherever you are!
Here's a video of Madigan drawing her ABC. No, that's not a typo - I really mean her ABC and not her ABCs because the only letters she knows are A, B, and C. She used to say A-B-C-C-C-C... Now she's decided just to repeat A-B-C-A-B-C... Either way, it's pretty funny!


And yet, with all of those toys, this was by far Madigan's favorite part...
She went up and down and up and down and... you get the picture.
Madigan also decided that after a day of running from and fussing everytime their dog would come in the room, Murphy actually made a good friend. On Tuesday, she followed him around petting him and saying "Hey Dawwwwwg"
Thanks to Matt, Susie, Avery and Ella for letting us come visit. We had a wonderful time!!

Baby Fun

Last but not least, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of Madigan and her friend Cooper (or Curper as she says). Cooper came to stay with us for a few hours last night and Madigan had a blast.

I kept telling her to only bring him BIG toys, so she'd find something from her box, hold it up to get approval, and then give it to him. At one point, he had quite a bit around him so I told her that he probably had enough. She looked up and seemed to be thinking for a minute and then said "Bible", disappeared and returned with one of her baby bibles for him. Apparently she thought there was something he needed to read!
Thanks Justin and Emily for sharing Baby Cooper with us!

Spoiled Rotten (Part 1)

Yes, that's right. We had another grandparent visit last weekend. And to make the "spoiled" factor worse, more grandparents are coming to visit this weekend (followed by two aunts, an uncle and some cousins over the next month). I'm not sure we'll ever straighten Madigan out from all of this spoiling!
GeeGee (my mom) got to come visit this past weekend. (Unfortunately, Pa had to work :( ). She got here in time for dinner on Friday night and brought with her an Easter basket. Have you ever seen so many goodies?!Madigan hadn't. I think it's bigger than her. She LOVED it!!! Especially the candy...But, the fun did not end there. On Saturday, we went out and did what GeeGee and Madigan love to do the most (and Mommy just barely tolerates) - we SHOPPED!! GeeGee wanted to buy Madigan an Easter dress, so we went to Kohl's and found an adorable pink polka dot dress (I'll be sure to take pics on Sunday and post them soon). Then, we continued shopping and somehow Madigan made it home with THREE new toys. She wasn't sure what to think. Mom said she kept picking out things and then a few minutes later putting them back on the shelf. I told her that's because that's all we let her do when we go to stores! One new toy was a baby that goes to sleep when you feed her her bottle. Madigan and GeeGee had lots of fun playing with the baby. I thought this video was too cute not to post (so I'm going against GeeGee's wishes!!)

Madigan also got a new Backyardigans toy that sings Ted's favorite song (I'm being extremely sarcastic) and a Diego bath toy. As you can see, she had a blast with them.And yet, the fun STILL wasn't over. On Sunday, Ted and I had a meeting at church, so GeeGee picked up some lunch and brought Madigan home. Instead of doing the normal "sit in your seat and eat at the table" lunch, GeeGee let her have a picnic in the living room! She got to eat, play, eat some more, etc. Man, GeeGee is so much cooler than Mommy.And to add to her coolness, GeeGee didn't make her drink that nasty milk or juice. Nope, GeeGee gave her SPRITE to drink. Now every time she sees a drink with a straw, she says "Madi's juice". Nice...Can you tell we had a fun weekend?!!Not only that, but while GeeGee was here, she and I went to the gym to work out. It was a lot of fun. Also, she cleaned my pantry and refrigerator - I PROMISE I didn't ask her to. She just does things like that! :) Thanks GeeGee for a wonderful visit!!!

I also thought I would post some pictures of Madigan's latest hobby. She constantly asks to color and loves her crayons and paper. One day, however, she decided she'd handle things herself and this is what I found...
That's my work planner and a pencil. Not the optimal place to "color", but I have to admit, it makes me smile to find her artwork in my planner on my busy workdays. :)