Snow day

Today we had our first snow day of the season. Maddie was so excited to look outside the window and see the snow falling. She wanted to get dressed and go outside immediately! I then realized that we are sorely under prepared for snow since she grew out of all of her snow gear from last year... But we did the best we could!

Maddie loved helping me build a little snowman that she immediately named "Olaf." She then wanted to build snow versions of Christof, screen, Anna and Elsa. She has a lot of confidence in our ability to build things out of snow!!

We were so lucky to get a visit from Uncle Paul this afternoon! He helped tune our guitar, had hot chocolate and raisin toast with us and even walked the dogs for me. What an awesome uncle. He also learned that my life is currently filled with changing diapers, calming crying kids, watching My Little Pony and feeding Carson. Haha!! We hope he wasn't too bored and comes to visit more before his mission!

One more cute story: Maddie was coloring some My Little Pony pictures while watching the show today, and when she finished each one she would declare "it's perfect!" I love her confidence.

A day at home

Today was a day spent at home doing chores, watching My Little Pony, and playing in the living room. It was pretty chilly today and tonight the temperature is supposed to drop into the upper 30's and there's supposed to be some snow! I'm so excited! But it also means that I didn't feel like taking the kids anywhere today.

Maddie got caught trying out Carson's "didi" (binki) and didn't want me to take photographic evidence of it. Haha!! She's starting to get so sly with the looks she gives me and the things she said. Part of her lunch today was a cheese stick that I had broken in half so it would fit in the compartment on her plate. Near the end of lunch I told her that she could have some fruit snacks if she ate at least one of the cheese sticks. She picked one up, took a tiny bite, put it down and said "one" while giving me a sly smile. Haha! Such a goof.

I brought up Dave's out of tune guitar that I have no idea how to play for Maddie today. She loved plucking the strings to play songs for baby Carson. She then would want me to "play" the guitar fast so they she could do her crazy fast dancing. She gets these crazy big eyes and a big smile when she does her fast dancing, it's too funny.

While I was prepping dinner (we had baked potatoes with chili and a side of broccoli) I looked down and saw this scene. It makes my heart so happy. Maddie kept saying "baby Carson so cute! Little belly button!"

After dinner Dave put on Frosty The Snowman for Maddie and somehow both kids ended up on my lap. I'm not complaining though... I'll take all of the snuggles I can get!

Maddie loves friends!

Today we had a few friends dates! This morning we spent a few hours with my friend Becky and her son Eli playing at their park. Maddie loved the slide and the swings and holding Eli's hand. Haha! It was cute.

Tonight we met up with two different families for dinner, both who have girls around Maddie's age. She had a blast playing with "my girls" Lucy and Jo Jo. At one point the other girls needed to go potty (they're both potty trained) and Maddie decided she needed to go too. You know, gotta keep up with her girls! Haha!! On the way home she kept talking about Jo Jo and lucy coming to Maddie's house. I guess she needs some more playdates with friends!

I love these cute kiddos of mine! I'm such a lucky mama :)

A picture a day

Today I have decided that I need to use this blog more to record memories from this fun time as a stay at home mom to my two cute kiddos! And to keep it easy, my goal is to post at least 1-2 pictures everyday to represent each day's adventures.

Today Maddie kept talking about the birthday party she went to on Saturday night while she was playing with her little nativity set. So with that combination we talked about how Christmas is Jesus's birthday, and some how ended up wearing a birthday hat while carrying around baby Jesus saying "happy birthday, Jesus!" Haha! Such a goof.

Little Carson is 5 weeks old right now and is such a snuggler. Most of the day he just wants to be held. If he's down too long he'll start to get fussy, and a lot of the time Maddie will try to help him by saying "it's OK baby Carson" while rubbing the corner of his blanket on his nose (which is how she self soothes.) It's so cute!

Ok, I really am going to try to post once a day with different memories and pictures! I'm excited to capture it all :)

All about Maddie

I'm getting closer to the year mark from when I last blogged, so I thought I better get on this and write an update! I really need to be better about updating this thing....

As you can tell from the title, this post is all about Maddie! She's the most interesting one in the family so she deserves her own blog post ;) so here are some tidbits about her!

1. Maddie's favorite book right now is Llama Llama nighty night, but she really likes all books. She also really likes a Christmas counting book and will point out the dog (gougou), kitty, baby and on the page for number 5 she'll want me to help her county the five stars every time. She loves pointing out the numbers to me and will now find them everywhere to point out to me. Every time she sees a number she points and then yells "nine! Nine!" Every number (and sometimes letters) are nines right now ;) but it's pretty funny to be driving and have her suddenly start yelling "nine" because she's seen numbers on signs.

2. Maddie loves Curious George. She calls him "ah ah" (from the sound ooh-ooh ah-ah) and will occasionally point to the TV saying "ah ah!" Since she likes watching his show. She owns a couple of stuffed monkeys and they are both "ah ah."

3. Maddie's most used words right now are "no no," "bye," "mama" and "Dada." Her communication skills are really picking up, even if the majority of her words kind of sound the same. She's very good at letting us know when she doesn't want help or letting us know when she doesn't want some food/drink with her very firm "no no!" She also likes to tell the dogs no no when they even look at her while she has a snack in hand. In her defense, the dogs have stolen a lot of her treats... Haha! She also loves to grab her sippy and some keys and yell "bye!" while making her way to the door. It's really heart warming to see your toddler already trying to leave you... Hehe!!

4. Over this past month Maddie has decided that baths are terrifying and will scream the entire time she gets a bath. Sometimes I even just quickly clean her off while she stands there trying to get herself out. I'm not really sure what has happened because she used to be such a fish and loved water! Hopefully it's just a phase and she'll get back to loving water.

5. Maddie loves looking at the quiet book that Andrea made for her. Her favorite pages are definitely the ones that have pictures of our family. Whenever she sees pictures of David she'll get excited and yell "Dada! Dada! Dada!" while pointing to the pictures and David. So while it keeps her entertained, it might not be the quietest book. Hehe!! The funniest part is that she will not only yell "dada!" when she sees pictures of David, but also when she sees pictures of Jesus. We're not really sure how she's made that connection in her head, but it's probably because David is so amazing and she knows that her dad is so Christlike. ;)

6. This one is probably TMI, but we're making progress on her pre potty training phase. She tells us a lot of the time when she needs a diaper change and still likes to sit on the potty on occasion. She's gone pee pee in the potty a couple of times, but mostly she'll just sit there and laugh and then want off. She'll then want toilet paper so she can "wipe" herself and throw the paper in the toilet. If you ask me, that's the only reason she ever wants to sit on the toilet... Now I'm just hoping that she never thinks of putting other things in the toilet.

7. Maddie is learning pretend play right now. She likes to feed her baby doll bottle to the baby, to her monkeys, to her toy gou gou and to herself. She is also picking up on pretend sleeping. She'll say "nigh night" and then last down and close her eyes really tight. David brought her into bed with us this morning, since we get lazy Sunday mornings with our 1:00 church time, and she kept snuggling up and pretend sleeping. She'd even do a fake snoring sometimes and then giggle at herself. It's so cute! I love seeing her figure out pretend play.

8. Maddie is definitely all girl! She loves bows, necklaces, bracelets, pretty dresses, shoes, putting on makeup and painted nails. I have NO idea where she gets this girliness from ;) Whenever she has her nails painted she'll look at them over and over and say "booOOOoo"  which is her word for beautiful. She also likes to accessories herself with pretty interesting finds. This morning she put my necklace on, then a sports bra around her neck, then wanted her vest put on inside out and Dave's snow mobile goggles on. When I took them off of her so we could go to church, she wasn't very happy. She sure is a funny little diva.

Here's our fancy diva this morning

And here are more pictures from our happenings as of late!

Maddie wasn't a big fan of the snow

I'm so spoiled to have my own personal hair stylist!

I love seeing these cousins play together 

So many cute kiddos

I always force my child to pose for me

Happy birthday cousin Hannah!

Teaching the art of the selfie... With the photo bomber in the back

Cute Andrea and Alicia with two cute kids!

I loved having you all here!

Look at that glowing pregnant lady!

Posing with some presents from their baby shower

Mom, grandma and Poppa

Aunt Cheryl is the best!

Cutest little nail customer

Crazy nail aunt making her nails all pretty!

Sharing a Christmas eve dessert

Family Christmas eve picture

What it's really like taking pictures with a toddler

Santa came to our house! David was sure to put the fireplace on

Maddie has a weird obsession with these flavored mints

Playing with her new choo-choo

Santa bought Maddie a slide and she loves it

Feeding her baby

Family dinner

 Trying on Dada's shoes

Hanging out with her cousin McKinley

Maddie loves Uncle Tall Paul

Enjoying some cereal after work/daycare

New year's goal... Food prep for lunches

So stylish

She's such a talented make up artist

She's saying "bye bye!" While waving to me

She's on her way out

Pushing her stroller around at the outlets in Lehi. She did not want us to help her

Pizza with her cousins Devin and Ellie. She had to sit at the table like a big kid

Smiles before church

I love this goof!

Alright, I'm signing off. I'd say that I promise to be better at blogging, but I've been told they I shouldn't make promises that I can't keep ;) but I do want to be better, so I'll try!

Much love, Rachel