Madison's Birthday Party (June 27)

Sorry that it took me this long to post all this but here it is finally. I have already blogged about Maddie's birthday which was June 23, so if you missed that just scroll down and you should find that. Maddie's party was on Sat. June 27th and she had a ton of fun. The day started out with breakfast and doing a few things here and there to get ready for the party. Maddie wanted to have a dress-up party with her friends so she get dressed in her Cinderella dress that morning. Her hair was still in curlers from the night before. I had a little surprise gift for her to open early. She had been wanting some glass slippers so I had gotten them for her and decided to let her open them before the party so she'd have the whole outfit from head to toe. Here she is after opening them.

As the day went on, we had our family members arriving. We had a house full. Grandad and GiGi (my parents) and my sister Laura came. My brother wasn't able to make it. Then Jason's side of the family came. Grandaddy, Tresea, and Morgan brought along with them Grandma Joyce and Great Grandaddy. Grandma and Oma (Jason's mom and her mother) were there too. Regretfully, I don't have any pictures of our family members at the party. I guess I was busy trying to get everything together.
Shortly after our family arrived, Maddie's friends started arriving too. Her friend Isabela came and Maddie was excited b/c Bela played dress up with her. Here is Maddie as Cinderella and Bela as Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).

Here are all the kids playing outside in the pool and in the MoonWalk. We had Bela and Emily who are from church and also Lucas whose parents we know from the PA program. And then our two of course, Maddie and Jonas.


After playing outside for a while, we came in and started with the cake. Maddie asked for a Princess Castle Cake. So here she is blowing out her 3 candles. Check out those CHEEKS!!!

Here's what the cake actually looked like...



Maddie waiting for her piece of cake.


Jonas enjoying his.

**We seemed to have not gotten a picture of Maddie eating her cake so if any of you did catch one please let me know so that I can get it from you.


Here is a picture that I took of Maddie when she woke up that morning and she saw the cake for the first time. She ran up to me and said with a gasp, " Oh, Mommy it's so pretty!!!" This is also the only picture that you actually get to see her curls b/c after the heat and pool, the curls were no more.



I also added this picture b/c I thought it was just so cute of a (cupcake)cake. I didn't make this, I picked it up at my local wal-mart store. Maddie had a little party at her pre-school the Thursday before for birthday and we took in this cake. I loved it so much of course b/c we call her bug and it just fit. Maddie loved it and so did all the other kids at school. But I thought I'd add it so you guys could see just how cute it was as well.

Cake Drama!!!

I have already posted a blog about Maddie's actual birthday which was Tues June 23 and also about her party that was on Sat June 27th. On Fri the day before her party, I sponge rolled her hair again and then sent her to bed. I had a lot of things to do to get ready for the party. My biggest task was to finish the cake. So about this cake...I had decided years ago that I wanted to make my own cakes for the kids on their birthdays until they were old enough to say that they didn't want me to make them anymore b/c they were to embarrassed of them. I will say it and I'm not ashamed to, but I'm not a cake decorator. It just simply isn't a talent that I have. I hope to gain it someday but I haven't yet. But I did ask Maddie, months ago, what kind of cake would she like for her birthday. I knew it was going to be something to do with princesses, and it was. She asked for a Princess Castle Cake. I thought OH BOY!! What am I going to do. Well luckily I had lots of time to research this and try to find something that I thought I could pull off. You wouldn't believe how many of these I looked at and how much time I put in just trying to get some ideas. I was so nervous about doing it but finally I was feeling confident enough that I was getting excited. About a month before, I drew up my ideas and then wrote out everything I'd need to purchase. Of course along the way somethings changed from what I orginally had and also as I learned more about all of it, I realized that this and that wasn't what I was thinking. This leads me to the Thursday before the party. I went ahead and made to cakes. I know how things go sometimes and I wanted to start early enough that if I needed to go to plan B I would still have time. So Thursday I baked the cakes...5 cakes to be exact. 2 square ones, 2 (6 in) round cakes, and one large muffin/cake. I went ahead and icied what I could then went to bed. Then Friday came and I started on the rest of the icing. It took me almost all day just to "dot" half the bottom layer. I had to stop to do this and that for the kids and b/c my hand would cramp up and b/c the icing would turn into mush. OHHHHH, it was so stinking time consuming. I was thinking, this better be worth it. So Friday night after the kids were in bed, I asked Jason to come and help me so I could get this cake finished before the next morning. He did do the rest of the "dotting" which was done by a piping tip. The reason I was doing it this way was to get the look of stone, I don't know if anyone could tell that that's what it was suppose to look like. But oh well!!! So about this "dotting"...ok we all know that men and women are different but geez!! I did appreciate Jason helping me and in the end I guess it didn't really matter but he didn't do it the way I would have liked. I was taking my time so that it looked smooth and nice but Jason was just squeezing it on there and being all messy. But that's a man for ya, and like I said I don't think anyone really even noticed with all the other stuff on it. So after all the "dotting" was over I melted vanilla chips and dipped the sugar cones in it and rolled them in pink sprinkles and added them to the other ice cream cones. Then I rolled out the fondant and colored it and cut it into the shapes that I needed. It was actually the fun part of doing the cake b/c it was like playing with play-doh. Fondant doesn't taste very good but it is edible. I only added fondant windows and the door and a big number 3. Then the last thing I did that night was adding the peeble walkway. I was up until 3 am that night and boy was I exhausted. I was so exhausted that I just collasped on the couch and then I was up at 7 am finishing up on the small things like adding the coconut for grass and the flags and Princesses. After all this and all the time it took to make it, it was so worth it after hearing Maddie says, Oh Mommy it's so pretty!!! So I guess it'll take on another one next year. Or maybe I'll do something for Jason's b-day in a few weeks.

4th of July (Part 2)

After Fantasy Lake, we went back to our friend's house for showers, dinner and naps. Then that evening we headed to the Hope Mills for the tradtional fireworks show. This was the first year to have the fireworks over the HM Lake again since the repairs started on the dam there. Needless to say it was packed but it was nice to be there with our friends. Here's some pics of us there. If we don't look very excited it was b/c we were all tired especially the kids.


Me and my babies...I love them. Maddie snuggling with me. Jonas was so antsy, he just wanted down. I thought it was a funny picture.

Maddie with her daddy. She liked the sparklers but was more excited about the fireworks starting.


Here's the kids enjoying the fireworks. And this last picture just cracks me up. We definitely weren't all on the same page here when it came to camera time. Jason was the only one that knew what was going on and it's a great picture of him. The rest of us were in our own little worlds. Maddie and Jonas' faces are hilarious!!!

Well that was our 4th of July this year. It was a long day but lots of fun. We stayed the night at our friends house, the Bremmer's. Thanks Cristina and Elisha!!! It was fun!! We went to church at our old ward, with the rest of our family and the Bremmer's . After church we hung out some more with the Bremmer's and that's when the kids really started to have fun. Ethan and Maddie would do silly things and just laugh at each other. It was cute. That pretty much wraps it up.

Our 4th of July

On the weekend of 4th, we were in Fayetteville. That Friday we stayed at David's (Jason's Dad's house) and went swimming and hung out. Then Saturday we joined some of our friends at Fantasy Lake. For those who don't know what that is...it's a water park on a man-made lake with rope swings/trapezes, slides and stuffs. I had only been there once before but that was years ago before any kids. This trip was a little different since I stayed on the kiddie side of the park but still fun and relaxing. I had fun seeing the kids have a good time. Here are some pics of them through out the day.

Kids on the swings. Another little girl pushed Maddie while I stayed with Jonas. Then Maddie came and pushed Jonas in the swing. She liked doing that b/c it made her feel like a big girl. Jonas enjoyed the swings, especially when his feet would skim the water and splash.





Cute little Maddie running to play with her brother. Jason and Maddie doing what they do best together...Cheerleading!! Maddie LOVES it!!

Jonas had a lot of fun. He liked it b/c it wasn't deep so he could just run and fall and roll and splash, to him it was just a huge kiddie pool.


Maddie and Jonas went down the kid slides. Maddie liked it but Jonas not so much. Jonas totally freaked out. Poor Baby!!! You should have seen the look on his face. When Jason caught him, Jonas just latched onto him and didn't let go for a while.


This first picture is Jonas clenched onto Jason after the slides. But then he started having fun again with Daddy.



**Just incase you were wondering...I did really go. I was there but someone had to take pictures. :o)

Us girls got our hair DID...

So about 2 weeks ago I decided to chop my hair off. It seems that I do this about every 2 years or so. You know, I just get bored with it and up and decide to cut it off. I mean sure sometimes I regret it but hey it's just hair, it will grow back. This time around I took a picture of my friends' hair cut that I liked but as usual, it didn't come out exactly like I was wanting but I still like it alright. Maddie went with me and she just keeps saying how much she loves my short hair.
Well b/c she was also needing a hair cut and she liked my short hair, I cut it short too. She loves it!! She now says "Mommy, we look so pretty." I will admit that it's shorter than what I was planning on but she wouldn't hold still. Well here we are...2 Girls and 2 Bobs!!!

Madison's 3 rd Birthday

Maddie's birthday was June 23rd which was a Tuesday. Normally on Tues and Thursdays she has Pre-School but just so happen that that week was summer break so we had that whole day to do fun stuff. The night before, I sponge rolled her hair. Here's a pic with her rollers in. She liked having them in her hair.

So the next morning when I took them out and styled it, this is what it looked like.

Before we started on her hair, I asked Madison what she wanted for breakfast, Jason was gone by this time so it was just for me and the kids. I told her that I would fix her anything that she wanted and surprisingly she picked something super easy. She wanted muffins. So we had blueberry and banana nut muffins with chocolate milk(choc.milk is a treat at our house).
Here in Greenville they have a summer movie program that 3 times a week they offer two older movies for free. So around 9:30 we left and headed to the movies. We saw Charlotte's Web which Maddie really likes, so she enjoyed it. When the movie was over, I let Maddie chose where she'd like to eat for lunch and she choose McDonald's. So we went there to eat and let kids play for a little while. Then it was nap time. (A few pics at McDonald's)

On Tues (during this rotation), Jason gets home around 1pm. So after naps we all went to Jumping Monkey and the kids had a good time playing. Here's some pictures of them there:

Maddie playing in a little house and playing "mommy".
Jason playing with the kids.

Maddie coming down the slide and jumping in the Castle jumper.

Driving with her baby in the back seat. LOL Playing in the house again.


Jonas and Maddie on some ride-on toys.


After Jumping Monkey, we came home and had dinner and ice cream.

Before bedtime, we let Maddie open a few gifts. She got a couple of sets of new PJ's, a princess toothbrush/paste, some books, and a new Hello Kitty shirt and dress.

Maddie opening her gifts. Books and her owl jammies.



Maddie showing off her new princess nightgown, and her new princess pillowcase that I made for her.

It was a good day for all of us. We had a lot of fun. And now our little Maddie is 3.

Our Baby Girl is 3!!!

Well today is Madison's birthday. Our first precious baby is three now. It is amazing all the things that happens in a child's first few years. After having carried my first born for the short 9 months but seemingly long at times, and reading all that occurs in those 9 months I found that every time a healthy child is born, it is truly a beautiful miracle. Jason and I have been very fortunate throughout the 6 years we have been married but nothing compares to the two miracles that have been given to us...Our precious Madison and our sweet boy, Jonas. There's nothing like looking at your own kids and knowing that they are yours forever. I can't imagine my life without them, and luckily no matter what happens here on this earth, I know that I can always be with them. I can remember my very first day as a mother. It was something that only happens once, no matter how many children you have, you never have that day like that one again b/c from that point on, you are always a mother. I remember when they handed her over to me. I stared at her and checked her like I think all mom's do. But after a few moments, I rememeber feeling guilt b/c I just didn't feel like she was mine. I didn't feel like I was her mother. I loved her but I didn't LOVE her. Well I guess it was more like I had love for her but I didn't truly love her yet. I hadn't fell in love with her yet. Oh how three years changes all that. Of course it didn't take 3 years, I don't think it even took 3 days. It was a love that grew faster than anything that I have or ever will experience in this life. A love for your children, I believe that is a miracle too. Just how a mother can start to love a little stranger in just a matter of minutes. I'm so glad that I have been blessed enough to have children and to have a relationship, bond, and a love with them that you can't have with anyone else.
I know that Maddie can't read but this is for her. Maddie girl, I love you. I love you so much that even that isn't enough. But you'll understand one day when you are a mommy. I'm so glad that you are the one that Heavenly Father sent to me b/c you make me so happy. I love the way you smile and when you are silly and funny. I love your hugs and kisses and it makes me so happy when you tell me that you love me. I can't wait for the days that we can talk about your day and you can depend on me when you need someone to listen or just a shoulder to cry on. I will hold you until your last tear has dropped. I want to be your friend but mostly, I want to be your mother. You are like no one else. No matter how many brothers or sisters you may have, always know that you are important and loved. I will always need MY Maddie in my life. Well I could go on for days about how much I love you and what you mean to me but I'll save it for next year maybe.

For my blog readers, here are pictures of Maddie on each of her birthdays.

I'm sure you can tell that this was taken on her BIRTH day. Just minutes old!


Madison's 1 st birthday and party!! It was on a Saturday so her party was actually on her birthday.

Madison's 2nd Birthday Sad to say, I didn't take any pictures of her on her actual birthday but this was taken at her party (June 21).

Happy 3rd Birthday, Bug!!
Mommy loves you!!!

AHHHHHHH!!!

Well today is the day...I found my first official GRAY HAIR!!! I thought in the past a few times that I had found one but after I pulled it out I realized that it was just a blonde hi-lite and not an actual gray but today that wasn't the case. It was gray. It was right in the center of my head, thank goodness it wasn't that crazy wiry kind. It was brown from the bottom up half way and then just gray from there to the root. I feel most people dread this stage but honestly, I really don't care. I'll be the BIG 3-0 this year and I'm finally just feeling my age. I mean isn't gray hair suppose to make you more mature and distinguished, who doesn't need that? ;o) This is probably the first year in my life that I have actually felt my age. Isn't funny how when you are young you want to be older and when you are older you just want to be young. Well that was the story of my life until recently. I think my kids have just sucked out every bit of energy I had and now I feel 30. I mean just last year Jason and I were talking about how we felt like we had just graduated HS but it was really 10 years ago or more. Well I guess it's good to know that I still don't look 30 b/c last night when I was at Wal-Mart I purchased some sparklers and I got carded. Then when I showed her my ID and she was like," OMG, I can't believe you are even 20 much less almost 30." Though I finally feel 30 I guess it's nice to hear that I don't look it. So even though I thought I'd write this down(blog it), finding a gray hair isn't that big a deal but it is the first of what's to come.