January's Ten Things

January went fast.  But I think every month does.  January was a month of FREEZING cold with lots of snow and lots of sickies around here too.  But the worst of the sicknesses are over now (I hope!) and there are always things to smile about!

1.  Cooper's four month photos

 2.  I went to a salon and had 8 inches cut off my hair!

 3.  I enjoyed a girl's night out at The Cheesecake factory

4.  Cooper laughs at all sorts of unfunny things!

5.  Madeline turned five

 6.  Cooper's hair craziness

 7.  Matching dresses

 8.  Ethan lost tooth number 3

9.  I feel really blessed that Cooper's well check doctor's appointment just happened to be two days after he got sick.  He had ear infections and was able to get the meds he needed.  I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to figure out it was more than a cold, but I sure smiled when he perked up within 24 hours of taking his medicine.  I'm soooo glad he's doing better!

10.  Chocolate pudding - my hubby is shaking his head at this one because I'm obsessed with treats.  But hey, they really do make me smile...and chocolate pudding, homemade... is soooo good.  It's hard not to make it again tonight even though it was just last night when I made it.  :)

Madeline's Birthday

Happy Birthday Madeline!  How old are you again?  5!?!!  A whole hand?!?!  Wowza.  Must be spoiling time!

 My father-in-law hit the nail on the head when he said, "Now we know why there is a shortage of pink in the world, it's all at your house!"  Lol, so true.  Starting with pink pancakes:

 This princess had a party all day

 Opening presents

 Playing with new toys

 Riding the Ferris Wheel at Scheels (which was after going to McDonalds on a Daddy Daughter date) followed by free birthday ice-cream there

 Then more opening of presents and more playing with toys.

 Ethan gave her a Prince Ken doll . . . didn't take long for the kiss . . . don't worry though, she informed me that they are married!  haha!

 Then it was pizza and Piñata time.  And cake, of course!

The piñata was a lot of fun.  I did videos but wish I had done a picture or two as well.  Oh well.

Overall, the day was just fun from morning til night.  And I can't believe my girl is five.  I had a dream last night that she missed the first two days of kindergarten because we forgot!  It was very concerning to me in the dream, as you might imagine.  Like I could forget my baby girl starting school...but seriously, how can she already be school age?

I sure love my Madeline!

Happy Birthday again to my five year old!

Under the Sea Party Details

Every under the sea party should have an ocean 

 and lots of fish

 and jellyfish too

 and Happy Birthday signs with mermaids on them

 and that ocean I mentioned, is even better when a girl opens a PINK mermaid costume and puts it on and swims in it!

 dont forget a mermaid cake

 a seahorse piñata

 and playing "pin the tail on the mermaid"

Whew!  What a fun under the sea party we had.  Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the seashell centerpiece...

Dresses from Nana

I was planning to post about Madeline's birthday today, but then she got dressed and I squealed and took pictures and that was the end of that!  More on her birthday tomorrow.  Today you get to enjoy the lovely dresses made by Todd's Mom that totally won my heart:

 Part of the magic of these dresses is that before Christmas, I was looking longingly at this Christmas nightgown for Madeline that came with a matching doll nightgown.  It was too pricey though, so I left in on the rack and opted for something less expensive but still cute.  Then came her birthday and Nana surprised us all with the darling dress and matching doll dress!

 I'll openly admit that I was a wee bit more excited than Madeline.  But once the birthday opening present excitement subsided, she was just as excited as me.  And when she put the dress on this morning, the first words out of her mouth were, "Oh!  Don't I look beautiful!"

Indeed you do, my darling girl!

Thanks Nana!  The dresses are a perfect fit.

Mermaid Cake

Madeline's birthday was fun from the minute she woke up until the minute she went to bed.  What a day!  I'll post pictures from her under the sea party and more about the day soon.  But for now, here is her mermaid cake!  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  And she loved it too!  It was really fun to decorate.  I forget sometimes how fun it is to pipe frosting.  

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Madeline!

I can't believe she is already 5 years old!

She captured my heart from the moment I saw her.

And so many other's hearts too, with her magic self.

Endearing.

Creative.

Feminine.

Imaginative.

Giver of joy.

Laughter like a song.

A walk like a dance.

I'll love you forever, and a day.  And then one more after that.

Happy Birthday!

Laughter of a Four Month Old

Todd said Cooper might need to work on his sense of humor, because he was laughing last night at all sorts of things that just weren't that funny!  But he sure thought they were, and we all enjoyed the fact that he did!

Ethan's Headboard

A little headboard story:

When my mom was a girl, she had a headboard.  It was off-white vinyl.  Then one day she had a little girl who loved purple and so she decided to recover the headboard for her girl to enjoy:

 Fast forward 20 years and you guessed it, that same purple headboard was still hanging around hoping to find a loving home more neat than the storage room.  Once again it got recovered, this time by the little girl (now grown up but who still loves purple) for her son:

The end.  

I did say it was a little story . . . 

I'm happy with how it turned out.  It was fun to recover and looks really nice in his room.  I wish he could have a brown and blue quilt set with matching pillow shams from Pottery Barn kids, but who am I kidding, it's not like his room will ever look like a magazine.  His bed in never made for more than an hour and his room is always covered with drawings.  As it should be!  The only real important thing is...

that Ethan loves it!

Hooray!

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I'm glad it's today

Yesterday was a rough little day!  Madeline barfed from morning until night and while I'll spare you the details let's just say she's not the best at aiming.  Needless to say, I did 9 loads of laundry yesterday and sanitized a lot of surfaces.

Today is much better.  She's already eaten two popsicles, 15 Kix (I know, impressive!), and a cup of apple juice.  Yesterday she kept down half a popsicle the entire day.

And my boys are still healthy.  Knock on wood.

In other news, Cooper reached a new level of awesome last night.  He was wide awake and laughing when he finished his night bottle.  I couldn't help laughing too, but it was odd because he ALWAYS falls asleep eating at night.  I just kissed him and said good night and put him in his crib.  I fully intended to go back in when he got crabby and rock him to sleep.  But he just chattered and then fell asleep on his own.  Not even a little complaining.  Sweet!  I can tell he is getting better at sleeping and comforting himself and knowing when it's time to sleep.  Yay!  He still usually wakes up twice a night, but lately I've only had to be in there 10-15 minutes each time.  I can totally do that.

And Ethan's bed has an awesome new headboard.  It turned out really good.  Maybe I'll post some pics of it tomorrow.

The end.

Four Months Old

I can't believe Cooper is already four months old!  My favorite things about him:  How he stretches in the morning, that he grins and adores himself in the mirror and when he squeals with delight every time he sees me.  LOVE IT!

Here's his four month photo shoot:

Half

Madeline was in the bath and I was halfway done getting the dinner ready to go into the crockpot when Cooper absolutely was ready for his nap.  I stopped the dinner prep and took him in his room.  I was rocking my baby when I thought about my morning and couldn't help but chuckle.

Cooper waking up early from his morning nap made me stop shoveling snow when I was only halfway done with the driveway.

I was halfway through making dinner. . .

Holding my half asleep baby,

With my daughter halfway done with her bath downstairs.

The washer was complete but I hadn't transferred the clothes to the dryer yet . . . the load half done.

Hair done, but no makeup - halfway ready.

I was halfway done with my Relief Society stuff I was working on for church.

And I wish that I could say my house was halfway clean, but that would be wishful thinking.

Hmmmm, I'm not getting anything all the way done.  But maybe all the other halves will find a way to be completed as the day is only halfway over.

And if they don't, who cares anyway.  I was rocking my baby.

An Update

I haven't done a whole lot of blogging lately.  I sometimes wonder how I used to blog five times a week.  Not sure what I said!  But here is a little update:

Ethan is enjoying being a paleontologist, though the spine has been a challenge to get out and certainly has slowed down the process of excavating the t-rex!

 Ethan's new bed he got for Christmas broke!  The board seen in the background split the entire length of his bed and the whole bed fell to the floor.  Ethan was devastated but we have since remedied the sleeping on the floor situation, and an upholstered faux leather headboard is in his future.

 Cooper is learning to sit in his bumbo seat.  His head is a little wobbly still for longer than a few minutes, but he seems to like sitting.

 He's definitely a happy little guy the majority of the time!

 And then there's poor Miss Madeline.  Her face met the sidewalk yesterday.  The whole red area on her nose is raw and stings really bad.  So she's coated with Neosporin and is enjoying the princess bandaids santa gave her in her stocking.  She doesn't need bandaids on her lip anymore, those sores have scabbed over now.  OUCH!

Then, to make matters worse, she tripped running into ballet today and now . . . her knees match her face!  My poor baby girl.

She's in good spirits now though.  She's been singing songs while playing barbies for the last hour.

The way Madeline sings when she's playing will forever be one of my favorite things in the entire world.  Someday, when she doesn't do it anymore, I'll be sad.

And me . . . I'm doing good.  Todd is too.  And we're going out this weekend.  So hooray!

xoxo

December's Ten Things

There were way more than ten things to smile about this past December.  It was one of the best!  But here are ten of my favorite things I smiled about:

1.  Cooper was blessed by Todd at church:

2.  I sang in Christmas concerts and fell in love with the Alfred Burt Carols
 
3.  Ethan had his birthday!  And requested a Christmas birthday, which really made me chuckle and it just turned out to be a really great day.

 

4.  My little guy turned three months old.  And now he smiles constantly and is ticklish and loves chewing on his fists and whacks toys and is just plain fun.

 5.  I made massive amounts of Christmas treats and enjoyed eating them.  a lot.

6.  Madeline performed in her first dance recital.  It was so darling.

7.  We also enjoyed watching Miss Madeline sing in her Preschool Program.  She knew all the songs and poems and actions so well.

8.  Todd's family was all together.  His siblings were all in the same spot for the first time in years.  It was so much fun.  So wonderful.  I loved being a part of the big group!

 and we had another family pic taken too.

 9.  Christmas Eve was splendid.  And fabulous!  And it snowed, which makes it even better!

10.  Christmas.  Of course Christmas made me smile.  Every.  Thing.  About it!