Seasons are changing

Happy Fall! I love the autumn season, I would have to say it's my favorite. I am loving this new place we live and how we are able to enjoy the fall season! It has been fantastic so far... I don't feel like I was cheated out of the season. :)
Well October is a very exciting month in our household!! Dear Miss Madison turned 4!! It seems crazy that 4 years ago we were adjusting to being parents and now here we are 4 years later still trying to figure out parenthood! :) Madi seems like a pretty happy girl, so I think we may have done an okay job. Her birthday was bitter sweet... well I think the bitter was on our end. Let me explain, I decided because she was going to preschool, it would be a good year to have an actual party for her. Like invitations and the whole sha-bang.... This is very out of my comfort zone as many of you I'm sure know... I'm not a party thrower, but I was going to make it happen for little miss Madi as I was sure that's how she wanted her birthday to be. Well after handing out invites and some people RSVP'ing I was excited and I had told Madi a little about what would be happening, and she was so excited to share cake with her friends... Because after all, the cake is what makes a birthday right?? SO I bought some decorations and the night before the party Brian and I put balloons and streamers up all over the house after she went to bed, I got all the signs up and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.... And I was actually even happy when my dear daughter woke up at 2 am and came flying into our bedroom to let us know that "there are balloons for my birthday!!!" When it was finally an acceptable time to get up, we made pancakes for breakfast and had a fun day. When it came time for people to start showing up for her party I realized there was a possibility of no one showing up, and that is when I realized I probably should have never told Madi her friends would be coming over to share cake with her and sing happy birthday... Well no one but grandpa showed up... technically the neighbors came over to drop off a balloon and say happy birthday, and one girl from preschool dropped by to say hi, but that was it. No one could stay for cake and sing happy birthday. :( I was sad for Madi.... I don't think she minded too much because she hasn't ever really had a party before... but still kind of sad. So she got to spend her party with her parents and brother and grandpa! They were good sports and made stick horses with her and had a race or two outside with them, and played pin the tail on the donkey... and we sang happy birthday to her, that made everything better. She got to blow out candles and eat cake... and I was again reminded that party or no party, as long as there is a cake, some candles and a few voices to sing happy birthday, it is a birthday! :) Here are some pics from the party:

That frosting is dye free! Thank you thank you very much pureed beets! :)

Her hallway entrance to a birthday bash. ha ha ha

Because it was a cowgirl theme... we made "stick horses" and had races. Hilarious... some of them turned out great. Brian and Grandpa were super creative, and Madi added a little touch up on all of them!

With the baby toys in the background it looks more like a baby party? Ooops...

Birthday girl!!

We got Madi a gerbil ball for her birthday. Hilarious.... she loved it... Someday hopefully I will download the pics I took on my camera, some are super funny, especially when her feet are pointing up... good times

Mason has hit 7 months now, and he is officially on the move. He sits up pretty good by himself now, and has started the army crawl. It never ceases to amaze me how no matter how cool or how many toys you have for the infant, they will ALWAYS... and I mean ALWAYS go for something else. Preferably a light socket or cords... even dvd's are better than their toys. I remember thinking this with Madi, but wow, it's amazing what we forget in a short time about infant behaviors. Mason is eating the pureed food and has had squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, beets, pears, bananas, apples, peaches, avocados, plums, prunes and blueberries. Pretty sure pears are his absolute favorite, but beets are pretty good too. Avocados don't set as well, the first time I tried them he puked after just a couple hours... the second time he made it to the next day, but puked... Not 100% sure it was the avocado, but we will hold off for a little while longer.

7 Month pic... he was the same size as that giraffe when he was born. :) Thanks Auntie Keisha for the Giraffe! It has been perfect for these pics!

Beets! say what?!?

Madi's witch hat.

Madison is getting so excited for halloween! She has this countdown for the last quarter of the year... first her birthday, then halloween, then mommy's birthday, then thanksgiving and then Christmas!! It is super fun because she is starting to get holidays figured out, and how they can be exciting, and that makes them more fun for us. But for Halloween I asked her what she wanted to be... she told me a cowgirl, no no a witch, no no a punkin... (yes that is how she says pumpkin) So I compromised and said how about a cowgirl witch? She agreed... so we will see how the costume turns out... or if that is even what she wants to be, come halloween... but until then she has a witch hat with green pigtails and rides on her horsey all over the house. Just tonight we put her to bed, then 3 minutes later she came out with her dora nightgown on, with her witch hat... very casual came down the stairs, told us she had to go potty... went to the bathroom, and then as we were just watching her, she tells us, "Don't look at me!" Brian tells her, "It is hard not to stare at you with your witch hat on, and dora nightgown tucked into your undies..." She is so funny... things like that happen all the time and it just makes us chuckle.

This is Madi at daycare... I send a pic to Brian of what clothes she wears so we can hopefully come home with all the clothes and the right shoes.

Just another day in Paradise

Watching conference. I stole this idea from a friend and put words on the cups and every time someone would say that word she got to choose a treat out of the cup... Turns out she hears much better than she lets on.... Especially if it is the chocolate covered raisin cup.

I totally love this picture, because I think it shows a lot of who Madi is and her personality.

I'm getting our house put together. I have some pictures to post of some of it. Our bedroom and all the extra space upstairs is still chaotic, but the other bedrooms and bathrooms are at least unpacked and organized. Still don't have much up on the walls... I'm having a hard time putting holes in the wall. So I did hang some pictures, but I only hung them because I found holes the previous owner had already put.... ha ha ha But it totally worked! :) Nice and centered and I didn't have to do the measuring!

Here is my kitchen... and I LOVE it. I really like the space and the way most things are set up. I need help figuring out what to do above my cabinets, so if you have some ideas give me a shout out! :)

Looking into the living room from the kitchen. I bought the butcher block from a used furniture store. I was pretty pumped about it!!

That door heads out to the back yard.

This room is off of the entry way.

My little bench was also a used furniture store find.

Apparently I don't have any pics of the living room... and so upstairs to Madi's room we go:

Can you find her? She is in there.

 So obviously my walls are still bare, fortunately I've put a few things up since I took these pics... and once I get the other bedrooms a little more organized I will take pics and post them. Until then hopefully this will pacify those that have wondered. :) Nothing glorious but we LOVE it!!


St. John's gave me free tickets to the zoo. So we decided to go... and while the animals at the zoo were not all that spectacular the landscaping was awesome. Because it is fall the leaves were changing and I LOVE fall.... Have I mentioned that yet? Here are some pics...

Our very own tour guide

She may, or may not, have been very good at reading it.... ;)

The boys, who were oh so happy to pose for pictures.

This is how it went most of the time.

Yay for fall days!!

I love this sequence of pictures.

These bald eagles were flightless, they had been injured in nature, so there was no net or anything around them.

And the zoo had a park! That was apparently the best part according to Madi.

Madi actually let the peacock eat out of her hand... And I totally love the way she says peacock. She calls it a "pea-hawk"

One huge pumpkin!

Madi thought this "kitty" was real...

She still wasn't quite sure she could believe dad.

And then we went pumpkin hunting... ha ha ha well we picked out pumpkins from the pumpkin lot at the first alliance church. :)

I love fall and I will continue to enjoy it until the freezing weather comes! Happy fall to you!

Our babies are growing up!

Well September 1st... Today Mason is 6 months old! Crazy how fast that has gone..... And our little Madison is going to start preschool on Tuesday. She is so excited to go to "stool". Still working on that "sch" sound.

Sweet boy... I still love to just look at him while he sleeps.

Madi getting ready for daycare.... I'm learning to let things go and let her dress how she wants to... doesn't really matter does it? While many times it goes against every fashion rule that I have (and lets be honest, we all know I don't really have much fashion sense) I am learning to let it be.

With Mason hitting 6 months here are some milestone markers:
He rolls over! Yay... seriously started consistently doing it 5 days ago... Really dude? I was a lot concerned but I am trying to remind myself, he is a lot more easy going and passive than Madi was. And no 2 kids are the same... as cliche as that sounds I am finally learning this.
Mason started eating pureed food... that is always a fun thing to start! Well the facial expressions make it fun...

This is my own pinterest moment.... (I make my own baby food - cheaper, less chance of chemicals and garbage getting in, whatever) BUT... i hated trying to get the sloppy mess into the ice cube trays... well simply pour it into a ziplock, cut the end off and voila! I was proud of myself... I'm sure someone else has already thought of this... but I came up with it all on my onsie... Made my life much easier. :

Avacado...... Ya it took a week and a half before he liked the texture of the food...

 So as of today, Mason has eaten yams, avacado, apples, and pears. Pears are the favorite, but I think it has to do more with getting used to the texture, because he was pretty anti yams when he started, but doesn't think they are all that bad now. :)

The last couple of weeks have been so chaotic but we somehow survived... I started my new job at St. John's and I love it. I couldn't have asked for better co-workers or patients/residents. It is so great, and I feel so very blessed that I found it. But the first 2 weeks I was in training so I worked every day... Normally I will only do 2 or 3 days a week... It pretty much kicked my trash.

This is a glimpse of the grounds where I work. This is the pathway to a cottage. Each cottage has 12 rooms, each room is private so the resident has their own bathroom and doesn't have to share. There are at least 7 cottages, and then there is the main building that has assisted living, long term care as well as transitional care. It is divided up into wings, and I am unsure as to how many rooms are on each wing... but I would guess 14-20 rooms, some are private and some are shared, and there are 7 wings maybe? And a whole other building that is independent living and our rehab team has a gym and space for the home health that is provided. There is also an outpatient building that is south of all the cottages.... I haven't made it that far yet... Still learning my way around, the campus is large... if you catch my drift. :)

The grounds crew does such an amazing job, the whole campus is beautiful and well kept and just so nice!

Did I mention that the flu hit our house my first week of work? Oh ya... it was a pretty intense 24 hour bug that wiped us all out.. one by one.

Not fun when your kiddos aren't well.... :(

Over all the first 2 weeks went well but I think we were all ready to be in a more normal routine.
I was so exhausted and the M&M's were feeling the strain of being at the care of someone else for 2 weeks. Well... Madi I don't think minded it too much, in fact every morning she asks me if she gets to go to "the place with the boat and the animals". Her daycare/ preschool is called Noah's Ark, so the building has a fence around the outside that they have made look like a boat and then they added animals all over. It's pretty cute and she really likes going to play with kids. She is so worn out by the end of the day... we are trying to keep her up so she can just go to bed and 7:30 or 8:00.. but it's hard to keep her awake past 4. :) Madi's daycare is in Hardin, and Brian goes to get her around 3:30 when he gets off work, and because they don't take kids under 2 Mason goes to Billings with me and I found a great lady who has a home based daycare, and he gets to hang out with her. As far as I can tell he likes it... he is so easy going, and she does a super job with him. But alas it was a lot of daycare and very different from what we were used to... so we were all excited to see the training period end.... :) So onward and upward from here.

As for our house...

Here it is- Ta da!! It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath and we are loving the space and the backyard!
We are still not unpacked and we are gradually getting settled in, but I feel we have quite a ways to go still. We did go furniture shopping last weekend and got a few things. Hopefully our couches will be here tuesday. For a month we haven't had anything to sit on except for a piano bench, kitchen chairs and our beds... Well we do have a rocking chair in Mason's room...
But we are pretty excited to have couches and somewhere nice to sit... (fingers crossed it happens tues!!) I did score a deal on a butchers block and a papasan chair. I've always loved the papasan chairs and now I have one! I have high ambitions of making a cover for the current cushion or making a whole new one.... but we will see if I can actually make that happen.... I am setting the bar of expectation low, so that if something were to happen it would be a pleasant surprise. :) So as we get more into a regular routine.. (little Madi does have school now! Every tuesday, wednesday, thursday... so we won't be able to run amok as much, kinda excited) I will post pictures of our house as we personalize it to be our home... right  now there are a lot of empty book shelves and boxes. Oh yes and lots of plain walls... hopefully we can change that. :) We are really excited about our house and look forward to it being our home base. :) We have been pretty transitional and so it feels good to have a place to go to call home... Even if the walls are bare right now. :)

Last but not least the latest Madi-isms :)

On a road trip, it was towards the end, "Mommy!! (screeching mind you) Mommy! There are no stretches coming out. My stretches aren't getting out!!!" I hear ya kid, I hear ya...

"When I get older, I'm going to buy a new mommy" :( Obviously I wasn't the favorite at the moment.

We were driving past a farm with some sheep  "Oh sheeps! Oh sheeps!! (Brian and I kinda chuckled) NO! It's not funny! It is just oh sheeps!"

Okay no judgement on this one:
"Mom what does the poop say when it's inside me?" "Uhhh... I want out?" "Mom what does the poop say when it gets out of me?" "Uhhhh... I'm finally out?" "Does the poop want out so it can see its familwee(family)? Mom do you look at your poop?" "No Madi I don'......" "I look at mine, I like poop." "Well I think poop is gross and it belongs in the toli......" "Well I like it. My poop is happy now she is with her familwee".
*I didn't really know how to respond. :)

We have a pretty good routine with Madi that when she is done with a meal she takes the leftovers and puts them in the garbage and the plate and utensil go in the sink... Well one day I put lunch out for her, she was on a little toot and upset because it wasn't popsicles and cookies, so she picked up her plate  looked and Brian and I proceeded to walk over to the garbage, scrape it all off and throw her plate and fork in the sink... all while frowning the most furrowed brow a 3 yr old can make. Both Brian and I trying not to laugh... but Brian asks, "Madi, why did you throw away your lunch? Mom made that for you." "It's otay dad, I'm just going to make myself different food." "What are you going to make yourself?" "Mommy will make me a yogurt." (I'm having a hard time containing myself at the sink, my shoulders are shaking and madi comes up behind me, "Mommy are you sad? What's wrong? Don't be sad because I threw the food away, you can just get me new food... It's otay, I'll give you a hug. I didn't want that lunch, I wanted a snack. Can you get me a yogurt?"
Needless to say she didn't get a yogurt and then she got more grumpy.. but wow... too funny how matter of fact she was about the whole thing. It made us laugh... But we had to try and pretend it wasn't funny and you can't just throw away food you don't want to eat.... ohhhh she's too funny.
Another one on this note, just last night we were finishing up dinner and she had eaten pretty good, still had some veggies and potatoes left, and I asked her if she would like to help me make cookies later for dessert, she hops down from the table quickly takes her plate to the garbage and scrapes off the food and throws the plate and fork in the sink. "Ya mom! I'm ready, can I eat some of them?!?" It was so fast we didn't even have a chance to ask her to finish her veggies... so I asked her, "Did you finish your dinner?" "She looks down at her feet and all around, then says "yep! I ate it, and I put the rest in the garbage! So my dinner is all gone... so I can have a cookie" (Mind you she is nodding her head up and down in the yes like fashion as she is speaking.)  Huge grin on her little face.


Last one: Just this morning - She likes to come and sit on the bathroom counter while I get ready... She makes funny faces at herself in the mirror.. Well she is pulling her eyes down and all of a sudden gets real serious and looks at her eyes really close (which I'm not sure how she could see real well, ususally that distorts the view, but apparently not for her) and she says, "Mom!! Do you see the cracks in my eyes?!?! My eyes!! Look at them! They are just like a dinosaur."
Hmmmm okay then. :)
That is what we get to laugh with everyday.
We are blessed and we try to be ever grateful. Until next time!