What is a parent?

A parent is someone who....

Lets their child be independent

Tapes the "gas" down so their child can go because they won't push the button themselves. :)

Allows their child independence, to do things their own way.

Allows their children to feel the wind in their hair.

Lets go and doesn't hang on too tight. :)

Hee hee what a goof... So I posted a while ago about how we bough Madi this great gift (or so we thought) but she wouldn't push the button because it scared her. Well a few months later she liked to ride the thing but I had to push the button for her.... Not all that fun for me... So Brian had this great idea to tape down the button... OH MAN. I wish I would have done that earlier. Madison had SO MUCH FUN! Oh my... just in case you can't tell by her face in some of these pictures she was having the time of her life. There were a few times I got a little nervous... she would let go and stand up... "Look mom no hands!!" I blame that completely on her dad. ha ha ha ....

She had a little burn out.... Dad had to come and give a little push...

We do have matching boots I promise but I let her pick her shoes when we go outside to play and she loves to wear a pink and a brown boot... I don't know why...

This my friends is the face I see  very frequently.... Ha ha ha you see she has so much fun, runs around, and then when she gets tired she comes and tells mom... "I'm so tired can you carry me for a little while?"

After a small nutritious snack she was ready to go.. Ha ha ha

She loves to splash in the mud, and especially throw rocks in and make splashes... those splashes many times end up on her... THAT is what makes the splashes EVEN better!!

I tried to get them both to smile... It is really hard to coordinate... :) But i promise both of them LOVE the tractor. :)

After a long afternoon and lots of excitement it is time to head home

Hee hee... That is her daddy's helmet.. Obviously she really likes to be like him.

The latest Rowe news....

We have been enjoying some GREAT weather and have been able to take advantage of it. We have even got some farmer tans growing and we are loving life!! Being able to be outside makes all of us very happy!

Madison was directing the work. "You missed a spot dad!"

UGH! Just can't believe it! You aren't listening to me!!

Oh I guess with the glasses off it looks pretty good dad.. Good job. Carry on!

Words are not needed! ha ha ha she loves her sunglasses and thinks she is so cool when she wears them.... which of course she is so I guess she has a right! :)

Our walkway so we don't have to trudge through mud until the grass finally comes up!

Best friends

C'mon kitty open up!

Ahhhh so cute! She loves her kitty.

Again the real boss on site.... Ha ha ha I crack myself up!

Oh man I cannot explain how much fun this girl had in the water and mud! She loved it... LOVED it! Oh my she splashed and jumped and danced. She was thrilled.... and of course soaked afterward. BUT it was so nice and warm outside it was a great way for her to cool off. I feel like I have to add that because of how cold it has been and how odd it seems to have my child getting wet outside! ha ha so sad.... I think ND has cursed me yesterday I walked outside ( beautiful blue sky and sunny) with Madi in a sweatshirt and I had one in hand.... It was so warm but I couldn't feel safe without bringing the sweatshirts.. ugh....

She dipped the top of her head in water. For some reason that was so neat to her... dipping just the top of her head in water... so funny... I wish I could explain it better for you.

The next day we went outside and made bubbles... A very fun adventure but this time it was so warm and beautiful this time it was SO NICE!!!

Look at that! Shorts!!! SO nice!

She took off her socks and dipped them in the water and sucked it out. Little nerd... :)

I got her a cup so she could use that do drink the water or to pour the water... instead she went and got her shoe and used that instead.... So interesting how these little ones think!!

Yay! Grass is growing! :) If it dies because of some random snow storm or something I had to post proof! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Brian and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. It was a good weeked. He took a couple days off and we went to Montana and he raced on Saturday. Sunday we went over to South Dakota and took a beautiful drive through Spearfish Canyon, which was where we went right after we were married... (ahhh sigh) :). We stayed a couple days there and went to a waterpark and had some fun on the waterslides, and enjoyed taking some funny pictures while shopping...

This was shear boredom at the race. It was FREEZING outside and so inside my car watching people race was only fun for so long... P.S. it was brian's idea to take this picture.... I'm suppose to give him credit for it. ha ha ha

You see  here my hubby outfront leading! Yay for him... Even though it ws cold he said he had a good time.

These two battled the whole race for 1st.

Someone crashed and needed the ambulance... Well after an evaluation they decided he didn't need a ride to the hospital.. Always a good thing... But on the way back to the ambulance sitting spot they got stuck!! I thought it was pretty funny!

We needed to pick up one of these cushions for my mother-in-law... Boy I tell you what, I'm not sure they could come up with a worse way to hang those things... But oh man I laughed so hard and it made a good story! It took a good 5-6 minutes to get it down!!

We were going to take pictures in one of those booth things in the mall.. but we were too cheap and decided to take a picture with my camera instead... Is that cheating?

What do ya think?? Brian's new style... Probably not... We decided he has had the same hat for so long there is no changing it now.. unfortunately not many make hats like that anymore.

Ya that's another no go....

Dear Cabela's... Thank you for the laughs and funny moments.

Ha ha ha

Well I can't post without putting some up of Madi! Here we have a future Heisman! Ha ha I'm not sure why she does this... but she does it a lot.

This was a hat we found in Sears... Now that is a cool hat... multi-functioning!!

And here we have well I'm not sure... ha ha but hopefully I'll be able to post a video and you will see how funny she can be!

Look what happened when I came home!

I got home from New Mexico on a Wednesday... That my friends is a whole other story in itself... too long to even try to explain. Anyways Thursday was a beautiful day and Madi and I spent most of it outside! LOVELY! Friday was kind of a gloomy rainy spring day... nothing too crazy until about 7:00 that night the wind picked up and it started getting cold. We woke up Saturday to a full out blizzard. 75 mph wind and snow, and NO power. The power went out around 3:00 a.m. and we woke up around 7:00. No big deal right.. they will probably have the power back on by 10:00 or so... Then the reality hits. This storm has taken out all of the main power sources to the town. No one within a 100 mile radius has power! The storm lasted all day Saturday and Sunday was a much calmer day, but we still had no power. Monday was a beautiful day and we got power back that night. So 3 days without power... it was crazy.. gas stations couldn't pump gas.. grocery stores were out because they didn't have generators that could run all their refrigeration... and so goes on the list. It was a little crazy, we were fortunate enough to have a gas stove so we heated our house that way and were able to cook warm food and heat water, but I had a lot of friends in town whose houses ran completely off electricity... So we learned a lot from our little experience. It doesn't sound as bad as it felt but it was a good check up to see if we really were prepared. So here are a few pictures from our adventure. These pictures were taken Sunday morning, the day after the blizzard.

Did I mention the weather man called for 2-3 inches of snow... and not one mention of a blizzard... Oh but they did tell us we had high pollen alert. Seriously?

Just on our road we had 3 power poles broken and fallen... and almost all the rest were leaning!

The newpaper said the storm caused close to 1 million dollars worth of damage just in power poles.

Not sure how accurate our temperature gage was! :)

A little explanation about my life... :)

Where have I been you ask??? Glad you ask... Let me tell you...

As most of you probably know I am going to school still... someday I will be done and it will be glorious... I would assume. I don't know yet what that feels like but I'm pretty sure I will be very happy when that day comes. Anyways I bring this up because every semester I have to travel down to the school campus ( i'm an online student) and do my lab course work. So that is why I haven't posted in a while. It has been crazy and hectic, but I officially finished the semester on saturday when I took my last final! So I have a little break and then back to work for the summer semester. If you are interested I'm going to explain a little about what I did during my labs... if not the pictures I have posted are of things Madi did with her Gram and Papi while I was at school. Papi was there for only a few days.. but Madi was able to play with Gram the whole time, and she LOVED it.

I'm going to school to become a physical therapist assistant (PTA). I absolutely love the work and the schooling. I love everything I am learning and I am very grateful to be able to be in this program. It is competitive to get in and it is the only online PTA program in the U.S. So I feel very blessed that I am able to be a full time mommy and still pursue my goal of becoming a PTA. So what happens is the program is 6 semesters long and I recently completed #1. Yay!! But each semester we go down on campus to have our hands on lab instruction. It is packed full of infomation and learning. We learn all of the information beforehand but when we get on campus it is the "putting it into practice" portion of the classes. It was so taxing on my brain and body. I was so exhausted every day. But I am so glad to be doing this and so excited about the opportunity. Each day I was excited to go back which must be a good sign Right? I thought so. Anyways that is what I do for school. It is kind of different and thats why I thought I would explain it a little for those who didn't know or knew but didn't know how it actually worked... Ha ha ha let's be honest until a week ago when I got back I didn't really know how it was going to work... but the first time is always the hardest and now that it is over it is onward and upward and only 5 semesters left right?? :)

I didn't get to play much with Madi and Gram but I did get to hear all the stories so I'm going to tell you a few because some are just really funny!

1. Madison met the "REAL" easter bunny. Gram took Madi to the mall mostly just to go outside in the stroller and go for a walk. (Almost everyday was sunny and Madison loves to be outside-ND doesn't offer such friendly outside enviroments! ) So off they went walking when Gram noticed this great set up in the middle of the mall. Balloons and eggs lots of spring colors, and then there it was the most amazing easter bunny anyone has ever seen. Madison thought this bunny was pretty neat too! She became a fan favorite as well! It was a set up just like they do for Christmas where kids come and take pictures with santa but this was with the easter bunny!! (Yes we had to be there over easter) Madison was so impressed she watched him for a while and got a little closer step by step.. and then she was sitting on his lap and they took the CUTEST picture ever!! It was so cute because she is smiling from ear to ear just thrilled! I'm really glad my mom took her and found the "real" easter bunny... Needless to say Madi had a hard... very hard time leaving and seeing "her" easter bunny with other children. But we have a very cute picture as a reminder!

2. We found the coolest library ever! They have the most amazing library! Hopefully I will be able to post some of these pictures soon! Very well set up and there is an area just for little ones with a HUGE story book door that leads to a theater area for story telling. SO MANY BOOKS!! A magnificent waterfall outside the building and very fun green grass hills to walk up and run down. Madison thought that was the greatest thing! Walking up and running down.. over and over and over!!

3. Coldstone! We got to taste some of the most heavenly flavored ice cream ever! I love coldstone and it was a very special treat! You have to try cheesecake ice cream with ghram cracker crust, raspberries, and oreos.. pretty yummy!! :)

I could go on and on but this is getting really long! All in all we had a lot of fun. My head was spinning most of the time but it was such a great blessing to have my mom there with Madi so I didn't have to be alone! :) It was great for them too... pretty sure Madi knows who Gram is and that Gram is really fun and will do what Madi needs her to do. Madi says Grammie jump.. Grammie says  how high?? :) hee hee  It was a good time. I will add more pictures later.. it is taking forever so we will try later.

These next pictures are from the science center for kids. It was so fun for Madison.. well and us! There were all kinds of  "stations" for kids to experiment with all sorts of things! VERY FUN!!

 These were just a bunch of those pool noodles hanging from the ceiling!! She loved running in and out!

 Music made from nickel core samples!! How fun right?