No Shave November

Well I thought I'd post a few of these b/c I know Jason is proud. Jason and some of his buddies declared November as NO SHAVE NOVEMBER!! So here is the first day and the last day of his "No shave November" and there are a few of pics of some things he was doing to be funny as he was shaving the beard off.

First day of no shave

Last day of no shave

Goatee

Handlebars - his uncle Brian would be proud

The crustache - And with this one, his Daddy would be proud

The pencil thin mustache - Gomez Adams....... No pun intended

And then, the man we know and love! Boy I'm glad to have him back!!!

Playing catch up

Well what can I say I really suck at keeping this thing updated. But maybe after all the chaos of the holidays, I can get back into the swing of things and keep things rolling like they should on here. Like the title if this blog, this is pretty much just a catch you up kind of one.

What's new with the kids? Well of Fri the 28th(day after Thanksgiving) Jonas cut one of his top teeth and this morning(the 2nd of Dec) he cut the other so soon enough he'll officially have 4 teeth. Besides that he is starting to talk or babble more with finally the occasional DA-DA. He's getting better with his"cruising" and trying to stand all on his own. He seems a little more advanced in this area than Maddie was at his age but Maddie definitely had him beat in the verbal area. But he seems a little more laid back than Maddie was or is so I'm totally ok with that. Maybe he'll stay this way and when he's 2 I'll get a break unlike what his sister is doing to me. But I'm so lucky to have two great kids.
On Dec 15th, Jonas will be going to the Ped. Ophthalmologist due to the fact that we haven't seen any improvements with his eyes. He has a condition called ptosis or also known as lid lag, which makes him look like he is sleepy all the time. And we get many of those comments but we are taking him to see what needs to be done. This appt is only a consultation so once we find out something we will let you all know what she says.

Now as for Madison, not much has been happening really. She's excited about Christmas. We took the kids to see Santa last night and Maddie enjoyed that. She walked up to him and in her very rare shy voice she said I want a castle. I thought it was funny b/c it was the very first thing she said to him, not Hi or my name is Madison but I want a castle. She was scared of him at first, so she just stood beside Jason and I and talked to him. Then after a bit we let Santa hold Jonas and then she wanted to sit with Santa. He was a very nice Santa. We were able to talk to Santa for a long time b/c no one else was there, surprisingly. You could tell that he enjoyed being Santa and loved talking to the kids. Funny thing was that when we told him Jonas' name he said, that's a great name, I love that name. Then when Maddie was getting her candy and book, Santa told us that his name was Jonas as well and that it was his father's name and his son too. We thought that was funny b/c we only know of two other Jonas' but now we know 3.
Jonas wasn't scared of Santa. He liked pulling on his beard. Maddie told Santa everything that she wanted. But the real Santa is missing two of those so I don't know what "HE" is going to do b/c "he's" all done and out of money. But I guess that's ok b/c Santa didn't bring me everything I wanted for Christmas when I was young either. Maddie and I had written a letter to Santa and she gave it to him. It was a cute letter. It talked about how she has been a good girl and listed some examples of why like, she's a good big sister and she helps Mommy with Jonas and she plays with him and that she's good when we have "school time" and she likes to learn. And she put some things that she has learned like ABC's, count to 15, colors, shapes and some songs. We put that she is a big girl now and use the potty and wears big girl panties. She also makes her bed in the mornings and sets the table for dinner. So from all that do you think that Santa will think that she's been a good girl this year and stop at our house on Christmas Eve? I DO !!! In her letter so also wanted to tell Santa that Jonas is a good boy so he needs presents too. She said Jonas can't talk so he can't tell us what he wants but you can bring him some big boy toys. When we were writing the letter, we talked about some things to put in it so I wrote all that about the why she's been a good girl and then I helped her write her list. We only wrote 5 things b/c it could have went on and on but then that's when she told me to write that about Jonas. It was fun. I think Christmas is so much more fun now that we have kids especially now that Maddie is starting to understand more.

Well a few other things that I want to tell you about Maddie. The other night we were putting Maddie to bed and she was talking to Jason and she said Daddy you have stripes like a zebra. She was commenting on Jason's deep forehead creases. Jason and I just looked at each other and laughed, oh it was funny.
Another funny thing she did was...she has this baby doll that has a little potty that goes with it and the other day we were watching America's Funniest Videos and there was a clip of a little boy peeing in a little toliet from a little dollhouse and so can you guess what she did? Yep she peed in her baby doll's potty. Jason had walked into Maddie's room to get her ready to leave, we were heading to the store and when he saw her he said, OH Lena, come in here right now, come here, come here!!! When I went in Maddie was starting to stand up and that's when Jason saw the potty b/c at first he thought that she was just peeing on the floor. LOL Not that this was actually going to be any better or at least that's what we thought but when we looked, she had peed right into it and didn't even drip anywhere. I just turned away and laughed, quietly. Then of course scolded her and took it away. But we couldn't believe that she did that and then on top of that, there wasn't a mess. I mean this thing is smaller that a CD. BOY, am I glad that it was just pee she was trying. LOL

Well that's all for now but I'll see what else I can think of.

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch

at Briley's Farm


On Saturday, November 1st, though the pictures say Oct 31st, the kids and I went to a local Pumpkin Patch. Jason was on his way with the team to Florida for the game that weekend. I had been wanting to take Maddie since she missed the chance to go with our church play group last month when she was sick. This pumpkin patch is the same place that we went to in the spring to pick strawberries. It's really nice and has a lots of cool things to do. It's called Briley's Farm and there they have a small petting zoo and 5 nice swing sets. Since it's fall at the moment, they have some things for adults like corn mazes and they have a hay ride which we rode down to the pumpkin patch on which was pretty much empty. They had some crates that were full of pumpkins and other gourds and things.

So let me start off by telling you what it was like trying to find this place. Well like I had said we had been there before in like April to pick strawberries so I thought I knew how to get there but I thought wrong. On the way there both kids fell asleep which was great b/c I ended up being totally on the wrong road. I drove up and down this same road I don't know how many times looking for the road it was on. Any way I drove around that part of Greenville for like an hour and then decided that it had been long enough and that the kids had had a good enough nap so I finally stopped and asked someone and I had been only one block over the whole time. Anyway so we finally got there!!!
We went to just ride the hayride and see the animals and pumpkins. I had heard that the hayride was free and was disappointed when we got there and discovered that it wasn't. I had even looked on the website but it didn't say anything about it. Well I wasn't sure if I had any cash b/c I like NEVER do but luckily I did have a few dollars and some quarters, enough to ride. So here is a picture of her running to the tractor with her ticket in her hand.



She was so excited. As she was running she said, "Madison likes tractors. I ride Papa's (Avery) tractor." Then she hands the driver our tickets and climbs on and sits down. Then she says that she likes to sit on the hay. She thought that was pretty neat. So we started off with Maddie on one side and then she wanted her lil brother to come sit with her so here are some pictures of them riding on the hayride.
See how sweet she is? She was holding on to her little brother. They're Buddies!!!

Notice their shirts...they say Monkey say, Monkey Do, Monkey get in trouble too!! Maddie LOVES this shirt. She thinks it's funny and she likes that her and Jonas match. It's cute the way she says it too if you ask her what her shirt says.

Look at my poor baby's rash around his mouth. He's just such a drooler!!



Both playing with the hay here.

Jonas was eating the hay and so Maddie thought she'd help her lil brother out. So she start feeding it to him. I don't know what she was thinking. LOL


Look at that smile, that just makes me melt. Ohhhhh, I love him!!


Well here is a picture of the pumpkin patch. It's pretty pathetic but what do you expect in November? They've all been picked over.



Here's Madison as we ride by the strawberry patch, checkin' it out.


This is Madison after I told her that we'll have to come back and pick some when they are big and red. So if you can't tell, she's excited!!


Well after the hayride we ran into a pretty scary but awfully cute ghost and we were able to catch a picture of it.


After we ran into the frightening ghost we happen to cross paths with a troubley silly scarecrow.


At the end of our outing, we came to the area that was full of crates with pumpkins. Here's the biggest one that we saw there. Someone had already carved it though but it resembles someone I know. How about you?


Here's the kids, holding what Maddie called "silly pumpkins" b/c she said they look like they have tushies!! Oh how funny that was!



Here are some of the kids sitting amongst the picked pumpkins. I wish we had gone to the patch before they had picked them all but at least I have these.
Isn't that a sweet little smile??


Jonas is hiding in the pumpkins, can you find him? Like Where's Waldo?


Maddie hangin out on a pumpkin. She thought it was funny that Jonas was...well see for yourself...


Eating a little gourd. Seriously, he tries to eat everything!



Here he was banging on the pumpkin like it was a drum, a typical boy.



Maddie looking sweet. She's just so pretty. She's my baby girl and I love her!!!!



Here's Maddie in the little kids maze, she didn't quite get the hang of it. She was looking at me like Mom how do I get out of here.


Like I had said in the beginning, they have a petting zoo but unfortunatly it was roped off due to some e-coli scare or something, I'm still not clear on all of that. Maddie was not happy about not being able to pet and feed them but I got her distracted with the playgrounds. Here she is on the slides.



Well that was our trip to Briley's Pumpkin Patch. We all had fun and can't wait until it's strawberry picking time and hopefully we will be able to pet the animals.

So which Princess are you now?

So as most of you know, our little Maddie LOVES the Disney Princesses. She loves them so much that every day she is at least one of them, and I said AT LEAST one of them. On this particular day she was ummm...like ALL of them, ok maybe not all of them but pretty much. Well just take a look you'll see what I mean...

Here is Madison Joyce sporting her Cinderella dress. Not sure why out of all her dresses she chose this one as her "Cinderella dress", maybe b/c it's her biggest and poofiest one. IDK, but here she's dancing. And then she stops and says (in her words), Madison's prince not here. I asked her, "well where is he?" "Daddy's at school." Then I asked her, " so is daddy your prince?" "yeah and he has my shoe" she said. And after that she runs around saying, " I hear the clock. Oh no, I lost my shoe." Oh how fast she caught on to all of this. My girly girl, I love it!!

Moving on now, here's Madison still dancing and this time she's posing as Aurora or otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty. This is a costume that I bought for her from a 50% Halloween Sale and even though it's not Princess Aurora's dress, with her imagination it is!

Tale as old as time, song as old a rhyme, Beauty and the Beast!!! Yep, you guessed it. This is Belle!!! And her Daddy is also the Beast who ends up becoming the prince too. Isn't she just adorable? Now why she chose this dress for Belle, I do understand. Dancing here as well. She also grabs her dress and curtsy. It's almost like watching a play when she plays dress-up.

In this picture she's Tinkerbell and this is why she now has wings. Tinkerbell isn't actually a princess but Maddie loves her b/c she's seen pictures of when she was Tinkerbell for Halloween 2 years ago. She likes to think that she can fly too.

So of course if you have Tinkerbell, you must have a Peter Pan and a Captain Hook. So here is Peter being tortured by Hook by stealing his paci.

Well Tink found it funny that Hook was using the "hook" to steal Pan's paci so she wanted to try it out and she was trying to unzip little Peter Pan's Jammies with it. Boy, that Hook sure is cute but evil ;o) !!!!

Well here is Snow White and minus the 6 dwarfs. Maddie is dancing with Dopey and talking to him like he is going to talk back to her.

Maddie is wearing one of my shirts that she likes to pretend is a dress, her Snow White dress of course. Now she's all done with her dress up though she is still waiting for her prince to come home and dance with her.

Busy Mom!!

I just wanted to make a short blog to apologize on how slack I've gotten with my page but it's hard to find time to sit down and blog. Jonas is diffinitely on the move now so with that and our active little Maddie, I'm always busy with something. And because I don't really get a whole lot done during the day with them awake, my usual blog time was naps and bedtime but now that's consumed by the daily house chores soooooo now you see why it's hard to check a minute of blogging time. Well please forgive me and I'll see if I can get a little better.

So what do you think???

Well Jason and I and some family have been talking. And some of us think that Madison is starting to look more like me now. So I have posted a picture of me when I was 3 and a picture of Maddie that I just took (excuse the cheese on her face, she was having Ham and Cheese). So tell us what you think. I wish I had a picture of Jason at that age as well but I don't. Maybe I'll get one and repost with a picture of Jason and Maddie and I then you can really compare. Oh well for now this is what we've got. So what do you think???

(oh sorry about the picture of me, the cutting is from when our house burnt down in 2000 and the burnt edges were cut off.)

Guess who has tooth #2!!!!

JONAS!!! His second tooth on the bottom broke the skin yesterday. Ever since he has been cutting teeth, he has not been such a good boy. He's very whiny and clingy. I hope it's just b/c of his teeth and not b/c this is the NEW Jonas. I have patience with him b/c I just keep reminding myself that he's in pain but sometimes Jason and I both want to rip our hair out. But regardless we love our little boy. I do feel bad for him though. His first tooth is only like half way thru and now he's cutting this one. He doesn't even get a break. Maddie was like that too. Just one right after the other. Though I guess if it's that way, they are actually done teething faster. Well I guess that is that. Just wanted to inform you guys so you know what's going on at our house.

Fascinate-U

So while we were in Fayetteville we went to the Children's Museum called Fascinate-U. I had heard about it through a friend and I wanted to take her while we were in town. I'm glad that things worked out and that we were able to go b/c it was something different for her to do and she seemed to have had a good time. Jason and I even enjoyed it too.
What is it you ask? Well it has lots of different things or places that would be in a city. For example, it had a post office, hospital, a dentist office, fire department, a bank, and a grocery store etc. So here are some pictures and a little story to go along with them...
Maddie and Jonas working hard (or hardly working) on the construction site.

This here is Dr. Adams and she'll be scrubbing in on your surgery. I know she looks young but just lay back and relax...There's NOTHING to worry about!! ;o)

This here is Dr. Adams as well (twin sister). Dr Adams is showing us the proper way to brush our teeth and get rid of the cavity bugs to keep our teeth healthy and clean so we don't have to go through what that guy is having to. Geez, if that was a wisdom tooth then I'd say that he's probably pretty dumb.

Here she got to do experiments. Luckily she didn't blow up the place. (mixing colored water together) Yellow and Blue make Green!!

Here is Maddie doing one of her favoritest things to do!! Play dress up!!! I'm not sure what she's wearing but she still looks cute to me.

Yes that is a real snake and she is touching it. You won't believe what she did? She was in this snake's face acting like she was rubbing noses with it. SICK!! What was she THINKING??

Here's Judge Maddie and you'd better listen up b/c I hear that she's pretty tough. And then there's Mail Lady Maddie with a letter for you.

Yes it is true!! This girl can do everything. Here she's answering 911 calls but she asked them to hold on b/c she needs to get her Mommy.
Well not only does she answer the call but she actually has to go out on the call too. Firefighter Maddie has a little fun sliding down the pole before suiting up and then heading out . She made a call for back up. Good thing her brother is always there for her.

Here's our future football player and if Jonas keeps growing as fast as he has been then this helmet will actually fit him before we know it.

These three pics are of Maddie doing some shopping. It was funny to see what she chose to put in her shopping cart. She first saw the pastry section and grabbed all the doughnuts they had b/c she LOVES the powdered doughnuts in a bags. She then got a carton of milk, box of juices, a box of cookies, a box of fish nuggets which she thought was chicken nuggets, a lobster b/c she loves to watch them in the tank at Wal-Mart, some shrimpies as we call them b/c she LOVES shrimp just like her Daddy, and last but not least some healthy stuff...Oranges. Well after she finished up her shopping, she headed to the check out where she seemed to know the Cashier pretty well as you can tell. And just like a woman she decided to just do it herself and then left me with the bill. Go Figure!!!!


Lieutenant Adams was called in on a Special Ops Stake Out. Here she is seeing if there's anything going on down below.
Now after a long, hard day of work, she finally can get some rest.