Here's a few of my favorite pictures from Madi's birthday. Before the party started, Madi decided she wanted to pick rasberries, which she loves to do. Her cousins from Arkansas called to wish her a happy birthday. The first picture is Madi talking to her cousins - you can see a little smidge of rasberry on her cheek.

Madi eats more rasberries than she collects.

I tell you what, my kiddos love to read and Grandpa Noal has had plenty of practice reading the both Madi and Gabe. Here, Madi and Gabe are reading The Lorax with Grandpa. Madi loves The Lorax. She liked the movie, and I like that it is only 30 minutes long. She even has a Lorax toothbrush.

Madi was great to share her new things with her brother and cousins.

Madi loved her clown cake. Weeks prior to Madi's birthday, she was asked what kind of cake she wanted Grandma Valerie to make and each time it was different. She wanted a bus cake like Gabe's, a spider cake with no spiders, and even a tree cake. The day before her birthday she made the decision to have a clown cake and it turned out great.

Birthday Cake

Here's a peak at Madi's birthday cake.

Happy Birthday

Bird Identification

If you ever need help identifying birds, just ask Gabe. This book is his all time favorite and he can correctly identify the animal on each page as "Bird". Wait, I guess I should give him a little more credit, he can recognize an owl and duck. I wonder if I have a genius on my hands?

Gabe can look at this book from cover to cover and he takes it from one person to the next for help in turning the pages and identifying the birds. He will repeat every name after you. I'm sure Gabe would love to share his knowledge in bird identification with you.

Love

What do you remember about me?

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! (You can play this even if we're just blog friends... something that you remember from the blog)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what memories people have of you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.So PLEASE post something - I don't want to look like a total looser who no one has memories of :)

Come to earth Curtis

Madi asked: "Where's Curtis?" Mom: "In Alabama, going to school." Madi: "I miss him. I wish he would come to earth."

10 Years

This is what we were doing 10 years ago. Happy Annivesary.

Madi caught her first fish....

One week ago today, Madi caught her first fish..."it was a big one".

Mike took the kids fishing and they had a great time. It was hot and they didn't stay long, but it was long enough for Madi to catch her first fish. She was so excited to have her picture taken with her fish. She told me that after they caught it, she had her picture taken, held it up like this and said "this is my first fish", rinsed it off, cut it up, cooked it and ate it for lunch. I wish it were that simple to clean a fish. Mike made a wise decision not to put a hook on Gabe's fishing pole - I'm sure it would have led to a trip to the emergency room to pull a hook out of something if he had. But none the less, Gabe had a good time too.

Do ya get it?

What flower roars? ... A dandylion

What did one icicle say to another icicle? ... Hang in there

What animals are the coldest? ... Mice (take away the M and it's all ice)

"Do ya get it?"

These are the jokes Madi has been telling lately. She found them in the Friend. Amazingly, she can remember the jokes well enough to share them with others and boy does she thinks she's clever. She always follows up with "Do ya get it?"

July 4, 2008

Thursday night we had our own little fireworks show. Madi really liked all the colors and sparkles. Gabe, he liked the colors, but the noises terrified him. We only finished half the fireworks we had, not just because Gabe was afraid, but Madi was tired and wanted to go to bed. Who's going to argue with that. It has become a tradition that we spend the 4th of July at the cabin, and this year was no exception. It's obvious we need to cut the grass. The grass is as tall as Gabe.

Hats and Shoes

Gabe absolutely love hats.

His choice of hats include a vass arrangment of things: bicycle helmets, drums, baseball caps... really just about anything that will stay on his head.

Shoes are another of his obsessions. The only problem is that he tends to like girl's shoes, especially pink ones.

July is Madi's Birthday

This morning in the car on the way to the sitter, Madi piped up and said:

"Mom that man just said it was July - that means it's my birthday!"

If you could have heard the excitement in her voice, you would know just how happy she was to know that it is her birthday. It's too bad I had to burst her bubble and remind her that today is the 1st and her birthday isn't until July 22. Needless to say she still can't wait.

I am so proud of my little Madi. I think it's safe to say that she is completely potty trained. She even sleeps in her underwear at night - and hasn't had an accident in over a week. Her last accident was a night-time bed wetting incident. It is so nice to only have one in diapers now. WAY TO GO MADI!!! Check out those Curious George undies.

A quick break to stretch...

Taking a quick break to stretch legs.

A couple of weeks ago we went on a four-wheeler ride with some friends. The plan was for me to ride one four-wheeler with Madi and Mike to ride the other with Gabe. Half way there, we realized we only brought one four-wheeler key. So much for planning. We still had a great time. In fact, I think I liked it better all piled onto one bike.

Gabe looks lost. Thank goodness he has licorice to hold him over until he's found.Gabe loves to ride the four-wheelers. I honestly think he could ride all day. Except the second half of our trip, he was wedged in between Mike and I, and didn't seem to enjoy the ride as much. I think he enjoys the wind in his hair.