Our first Christmas at home

Before Madelyn was born, we decided to give each of the new grandparents one Christmas with their first grandchild and then we would start celebrating Christmas at our house. It is time that we start our own traditions and don't put so much pressure on ourselves to go somewhere. Traveling is such a pain with little children! So, Madelyn's first Christmas was spent with the Cobb grandparents and her second Christmas was spent with the Rhodes grandparents and they were both great! However, this year was our first year that we spent at home. It was a good first year, but we have some room for improvement! Ben came down with the flu on Christmas Eve and after getting up and opening presents with the rest of us, he spent most of Christmas day in bed - poor Ben! So we postponed Christmas dinner for the day after Christmas so that Ben could enjoy it with us. While Ben was in bed, Madelyn, Greyson and I had blast playing with toys and cooing. It was too bad that Ben had to miss out on it. Greyson didn't get much because he has pretty much everything he needs for the next year plus some. He did get a few new toys, a couple of outfits, a embroidered blanket with his birth stats, a quilt and an Easter outfit. The Easter outfit is so cute! It has a little buttonup shirt with a sweater vest and tie. He will be the handsome-est baby in the nursery! Madelyn really made out this year though! She got a Magna-doodle (Ben's favorite gift of hers!), a baby stroller and a new baby, some block toys, playdough, puppets, a little rocking chair (it was Ben's when he was little), a huge rolling backpack FULL of dress-up outfits (see pics), a quilt, and a sled. I know there was more but I just can't remember it all right now. She also got money from Ga-Ga to buy a tricycle in the spring. So many presents! Now, we have so many thank-yous to send! They will get out this year, I promise. They may not be very timely, but they will be sent!

Even though dinner was a day late, it ended up being awesome! I think that we made the best turkey that I've ever had! Moist and juicy! We didn't want to overdo dinner; we kept it pretty easy - turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and sliced pineapple. It was wonderful! We made a 12 lb. turkey; there was so much left that I took half our leftovers to a neighbor after we were done!

We also went sledding with Madelyn the day after Christmas. We have a really nice sledding hill about a half mile from our house, so we bundled ourselves and the kids up and walked down there. Madelyn had a blast! We thought that she wasn't going to want to go down by herself at first so I was all ready to take the first trip with her and she refused to get on the sled! She was saying, "Madelyn's sled!! Get off, Mommy!" So I sent her down herself and she laughed out loud all the way down! It was so fun! She took about six trips down before she lost her grip on the sled once and it scared her, so she took a break and then asked to go down again. She took another few trips and didn't want to stop to head home. Just another thing to prove how much of a daredevil we have on our hands!

I got a wonderful Christmas gift this year - a lot of time with Ben! He is off from school and because he was sick, he decided to lay low this week, so he stayed home from work almost all week! It was so nice to have time to spend with him talking and laughing. It seems that lately we spend so much of our attention on the kids or just trying to be quiet after they go to bed. But this week I was able to have a little fun with just my husband and it was wonderful!

The Rhodes Thanksgiving - continued

Here are some more pictures from our Thanksgiving trip. ENJOY!


It was really fun to see Stacy. She is one of Ben's great friends from college. They met at the Baptist Student Union there. Here she is with Ben holding Greyson. She and I both owned up to being in crabby moods as soon as we arrived at Ray's PeGe to visit over ice cream. Hers was due to having to be on-call for the holiday weekend and mine was due to the last 3 (almost sleepless) nights. But ice cream must make everything better because as we ate it, we actually laughed some and had a good visit. Ben's eyes are a little wierd in this picture because the dork blinked as I was taking the picture. Oh well....

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. The women in the picture is Ben's sister, Christina. She and Madelyn get along great. Christina loves to play with her. Madelyn is trying to tickle her with a long piece of grass in this picture (and I guess she is succeeding). The background is Ben's Grandfather Thurlkill's land (on his mother's side). They call this "the back 40" because it is a 40-acre piece of land that is connect to the rest of Grandfather Thurlkill's land by a skinny dirty road. Ben seems to loves this land! So the family decided to walk it while we were there. Behind Christina and Madelyn you can see the pond that we stopped at.
Here is a picture of Ben and I (and a bundled up Greyson). This is also out on "the back 40". Nothing more...
A picture of four generations on the Thurlkill side - Grandfather Thurlkill, Momma Susan, Ben, and our kids. The picture was taken in Grandfather Thurlkill's gas station/store. We got there in time to have breakfast and he fed us some the best brekfast biscuits I have ever had!
And to round out our trip, we stayed at Christina and Brandon's house in Dallas before flying out of Dallas the next day. Also meet their dog Cooper. Madelyn and Cooper were good long-distance friends. Madelyn loved Cooper as long as he couldn't get to her, which made Cooper sad because he wanted to play with her! It was great spending time with Christina and Brandon and seeing their house for the first time. They house is beautiful! Also, staying at their house was a great relief after 4 relatively sleepless nights. We had a sleeping setup at their house that separated us into two bedrooms that worked really well, therefore we got a pretty good night's sleep - finally!

Well, that's all for now, folks!

The Rhodes Thanksgiving

This Rhodes Family really had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was an adventure though! Several months ago, Ben and I decided that we would take our family down to Louisiana to the extended Rhodes Family Thanksgiving. This is where Ben's Grandparents Rhodes and their children's families get together every year to celebrate Thanksgiving. We aren't able to make it every year, but we try to make it every other year. This year was the year we were supposed to go and we figured that traveling with a 2-yr-old and a newborn would be do-able, so we bought tickets way back in the summer time. Well, we weren't too far off. The kids really did great during the trip and it was REALLY great to let the extended family see them (and meet Greyson for the first time). There were some sleepless nights due to some less than ideal sleeping arrangements, but all in all it was a good trip. Of course, there was Sonic which always makes a trip to the south worth it! Here are some pictures of our trip:

Here's a pic of Madelyn by the fountain in the middle of the quad at Louisiana Tech (Ben's and my alma mater). We visited Ruston and Tech when we arrived to the area. It was a perfect day! Warm and beautiful!

Here is the "cool kids" table at the Rhodes Thanksgiving. They have already accepted Madelyn to sit with them (haha). Here is Grandmother Rhodes holding Greyson. I know that he looks slightly concerned but Grandmother really was very good with him. He loosened up and did a lot of cooing and smiling for her too.(I have more pictures but can't seem to get them to show up on this post coreectly so I will put up another post with them.)

Now, since we were celebrating Thanksgiving, I guess I will tell you what I'm thankful for. There is SO MUCH to be thankful for right now! Too many to name everything but I want to name a few specifically -

• My family! With our new addition this year, Ben and I have a ton to be thankful for.... starting with a healthy baby boy who is a dream second child and a little girl who keeps us on our toes!
• Extended family. We have had an awesome time over the last six weeks seeing and spending time with our extended families. It has just been awesome to show off our children!
• Friends. Ben and I have been so blessed with wonderful friends. They really are our family when "real" family can't be there.

The Rhodes Thanksgiving Adventure

I just found this post in my drafts. I think I decided not to post it because it was so negative and posted a more positive post instead (the next one), but I'm going to post it now anyway. These are definitely strong memories of Thanksgiving 2006. Keep in mind that Madelyn was 2 and Greyson was 3 WEEKS.

Thanksgiving of 2006 will be an occasion that I will remember for a long while... for good and not-so-good reasons! Let's name a good one first - the kids were awesome!! I couldn't believe how well-behaved Madelyn was and how great Greyson did! I was relieved because you always want to show off the best of your kids, especially when it is family. I only really have two not-so-good things that I will remember - 1) the Dallas airport (enough said?) and 2) all four of us sleeping in the same room for 4 nights in a row.

So we started off our trip by flying non-stop to Dallas on Tuesday morning. I can't complain about the flight at all. We got checked-in fine, through security fine (with two kids, stroller, carseat, backpack, diaper bag, camera bag, plus having to remove all our shoes and empty our pockets - it was probably a trip to watch!), and then to the gate fine. We had a great flight with well-behaved children too. Everything was going great and I was so thrilled to be done with what I thought would be the worst part, then Ben and I decided to split up, Ben to get the bags and me to get the rental van. I assumed that we would only be split up about 30 minutes.... Only one problem with this scenario - I didn't take note of what gate we flew into to. This may not be an important piece of information at most airports but it IS at DFW. You see, each gate has its own baggage claim area and door to leave the terminal. So, now I was trying to backtrack and find Ben (and a hungry Greyson) and had no idea of where he was.... Not only that but the rental car hub was outside the airport and I couldn't find my way back into the airport either. I drove up and down the service road a couple of times trying to decipher the signs to figure out how to get in the airport. This is when I broke down and starting crying. I had Madelyn in the van with me and she was saying from the backseat, "Okay, Mommy" like when I tell her to say "It's okay, Greyson" when he is crying. It was sweet but I felt like such a doofus with my two-year-old trying to console me, the mom. I've finally found my way into the airport and it is just at this moment that I realize that I have no idea where Ben is waiting for me (and Ben, the anti-cellphone dweeb, can't help me). I stop to talk to someone at a gate and he takes pity on me (since I'm sobbing at this point) and tells me that NWA flies into terminal E, so I go to terminal E hoping that I will see Ben on the curb... So after lots of searching and driving in circles, almost two hours after Madelyn and I left my husband and hungry baby to get the van, I find them! Looking back, I wonder how much of my break down was frustration and how much I should attribute to the post-partum hormones... anyway, it was good to get out of that God-forsaken airport!

Note to Self - if you are picking someone up from DFW, take note of what gate they are flying into.

Maybe I should go ahead and write about the other not-so-good thing to get it out of my system.... The four of us, Ben, Madelyn, Greyson, and myself, slept in the same room for four nights of our "vacation". I would not suggest this for a family that has a 3 week old baby. I don't think any of us slept well any of those nights. I think Madelyn slept the best and Greyson probably slept okay, but Ben and I had a really hard time sleeping while Greyson was snorting and grunting. I think he started battling some awful gas pains on the second night and was grunting more often and more loudly! I actually would have slept a whole lot better if I hadn't been afraid that Greyson was going to wake up Madelyn! So, by the fourth morning, I was more than ready to move to different sleeping quarters.

Note to Self - make sure to have two rooms for your family to sleep in when traveling with a newborn.

Now I really should spend some blog space on things that I am thankful for from the trip (it was thanksgiving after all). I will list them in chronological order for you:

• Spending time with Ben's sister and her husband at their home. And I'm also thankful that they have two rooms that we were able to use while we slept there!
• Children that traveled well on planes and in cars
• Sonic (Man, do we love Sonic!)
• Spending time with the Murphy family in Ruston, LA

Okay, now that I have that out of my system.... we then left the airport to go to Ben's sister's house. Of course, we also had to stop by a Sonic on the way for food and beverages. We love Sonic! Once we got the house, we settled in and spent some time with Ben's sister and her husband, Christina and Brandon. We spent the night there and Madelyn got to sleep in her own room that night. Looking back, that was our last good night of sleep for several nights. The next morning, the four of us headed out to Ruston, LA - a surprisingly wonderful 3 hour drive. Once we got there, we visited Sarah's grave and Tech's campus and ate dinner with a couple of my friends from college that still live in the area. It was wonderful! After dinner, we left the Murphy's and headed up to Lake Darbonne State Park. That is where we stayed for the next 4 (long) nights.... more to come...

Just for you!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I have put more Greyson pictures out on Webshots - http://community.webshots.com/user/moncherie76. Also, Ben has put his thoughts (and a couple pictures) out on his blog. Enjoy!

Pictures of Greyson

Well, here are a few pictures for you to enjoy! This first one is of Greyson, of course. He is such a cutie-patootie! He has been such a good baby. He is doing everything that we can expect for him at this point - napping, learning to nurse, and entertaining us some when he is wide awake. If you can believe it, he is nursing well enough that he drew my milk in within 48 hours! It was amazing and the nurses thought I was crazy when I said it. But sure enough, my milk was in and he was getting a full belly of it. I think Greyson might end up being ultra efficient like his daddy.... This second picture is of Madelyn holding Greyson and giving him a kiss (you can go ahead and say it - how cute!). She has really been so good with him. She has welcomed him home with open arms. I have been so impressed. Her behavior is a little different than it was before but not in such a way that is going to be problematic - I think. Disclaimer: The pacifier was my savior! He wanted to be nursing all the time and my poor breasts couldn't take it. I do not think that day old babies in general should be given a pacifier...
Here's the background on this picture: I had been waiting for Greyson to come for days and had come to the conclusion that I was going to have to be induced. My induction was scheduled for Nov 1st and Madelyn was having a costume party at school on Halloween. So I made a costume for myself to go to the costume party in - one of Ben's t-shirts with a pumpkin drawn over my round belly (so maybe it was really a costume for Greyson?!). BUT...as you have all figured out by now, Greyson decided to arrive on Halloween morning before the costume party. So, Greyson was able to wear his costume all by himself!
Although I don't like this picture much, it is the first and only family picture we have. Enjoy!

Greyson Alan Rhodes is born!!

Happy Halloween! Our little boy, Greyson Alan, was born today, October 31st, 2006, at 7:30am. He was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches long. Labor was pretty quick - starting at 3:30am; I like it that way though. It was the same length as the one with Madelyn. He is sleeping, nursing, and peeing/pooping wonderfully, at least so far. We'll see how tonight goes. My parents are in town and they are taking care of Madelyn while Ben stays with me. Madelyn visited tonight and didn't seemed to mind the idea of another baby in mom's arms. We'll have to see how it goes when we bring him home!!

On another note, I had no idea that afterpains in the uterus were worse with a second child. I have been miserable periodically today trying to deal with them. It is especially bad when Greyson nurses....of course. Hopefully the pain won't be this intense for very long.

By the way, Ben and I were hoping that Pipsqueak/Greyson wouldn't arrive on Halloween but he was insistent. Neither of us really appreciate this "holiday" very much. Ben mentioned last night that on a positive note, we can have a costume party for birthday parties.... does anyone else have any positive thoughts/ideas about having a Halloween baby?

UPDATE: If you think you saw this post spell our new baby boy's name like "Grayson", you are not going crazy. Yesterday, Ben and I agreed on the spelling "Greyson" and the middle name "Alan" (after my dad's middle name) - so Greyson Alan Rhodes is his name!

Still prego... and impatient!

Okay everyone, I'm officially ready to have this baby! Whatever it takes! I'm SO tired of being pregnant! My induction date is Nov 1st, but I really don't want to be induced.... I'm hoping that I will go naturely before then. Also, that is so far away! I don't want to wait that long! Enough complaining. I just thought I'd let my blog friends know that I don't have this baby in my arms yet. (I do have blog friends, don't I?)

GramBunny passed very peacfully...

It has been a sad day... My GramBunny passed away at about 8am this morning. She was surrounded by hers and my family and from what I understand, her passing was very peaceful. I praise God that she was able to go in such a peaceful and non-painful way. As I talked to my family today, I realized that they were in the "sigh of relief" stage. They had witnessed GramBunny's slow decline in the hospital. They were instead praying that she not linger. I, on the other hand, was not in that frame of mind this morning. Unfortunately, it was this morning that it hit me that I would never see her again. That she would not be there the next time I went to visit family in Alabama. That she and I would never get into it over whether or not she should help clear the table or not. That I would never be able to watch her with my children again. That she would never be able to meet Pipsqueak and Pipsqueak would never be able to meet her. Today was my day of grieving my grandmother. I miss you GramBunny!

GramBunny isn't doing too well....

My GramBunny was admitted to the ICU a couple of days ago. Day before yesterday, her vitals were returning to normal, especially her white blood cell count, and she seemed to be doing much better. However, yesterday, her white blood cell count started to rise again and they have discovered that there is a portion of her digestive tract that is not working properly. This requires a surgical procedure to repair but GramBunny is just too frail to undergo surgery. She has become more and more frail and forgetful over the last couple of years. But as think about her these days, I am drawn to the memories that I have her. GramBunny is my step-grandmother and entered my family about 15 years ago. She was widowed and has a large family of her own, but when she came into my family, she took us in as her family too. She filled in as grandmother wonderfully, as my grandmother had died a couple years before. She was, and continues to be, one of the sweetest, yet feistiest, women I know. And she has had a wonderful impact on my family through my Grandpa. Before GramBunny, he was gruff, tough, and reserved. But with GramBunny by his side, he has become more open, gentle, loving, and able to laugh and joke! It has been wonderful to see this side of him unlocked by this wonderful woman. Recently, she has also proven herself to be an awesome great-grandmother with Madelyn. Madelyn absolutely adores her! They can play for an hour at a time – reading, singing, cuddling – it is so sweet to watch! GramBunny has brought so much to our family!

This brings me to my sadness…. Being 36 weeks pregnant, there is no way that I can go and be with my family right now. The only thing that I can do from afar is pray earnestly. So, will you pray with me?

Can you pray for:

• GramBunny, that she be as comfortable as possible and for healing
• Grandpa, for it is his birthday today and I know that he could use some supernatural uplifting
• My Mom, for she is helping in GramBunny’s care and in organizing all the details that come with an elderly family member being in the hospital. She is also stressing because she was planning to be in Minnesota with me soon…
• The hospital staff, that they be sharp and act appropriately to the information that is presented to them
• The rest of my and GramBunny’s families, that we all cope well with the uncertainty that this brings and help in bringing comfort to GramBunny at this time

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

I hope Pipsqueak is comfortable!...

because he is making me VERY uncomfortable these days! As Christina put so gently (haha!) in a comment to the last post - I am HUGE! My maternity shirts don't fit over my belly! And my pants.... well, the low-rise maternity ones show my belly (because my shirts don't cover it!), the ones that have the panel that go over my belly bother me because you can see the panel (and that just seems wrong) and the kind that are supposed to fit around your belly just don't work... gravity and the roundness of my belly work against me here. And now I have the additional issue of the weather deciding to turn cold - very cold - and I have no idea what to wear anymore! I think I might just wear my yoga pants and Ben's t-shirts for the next 5 weeks....

Anyway, enough complaining.... I am happy that things are progressing well in this pregnancy. I'm not taking it all for granted. Stopping to thank God for the blessings of another child and a relatively "normal" pregnancy is a pretty common thing. I do ask that He soothe Pipsqueak and calm him some too, though! Pipsqueak is SUCH an active one! He likes to move around A LOT, especially when I'm reading before I go to sleep. Last night, I was begging him to stop punching me in the hip - it hurt so bad! Sometimes I ask Ben to have a talk with him.... but I think Pipsqueak knows that he has the upper hand.

Ben and I have decided on a name strategy for when Pipsqueak is born.... The first name is pretty set but the middle name is still up in the air. We have two that we like and we have decided to playing a simple game of chance to choose between the two names after Pipsqueak is born (like flipping a coin or drawing straws). And JUST IN CASE, we have a girl's name picked too. Don't ask what they are though, we're not telling.

Yesterday Ben reminded me of some of the things that I need to do before the impending delivery, like pre-register at the hospital, check over my birthing plan, pack a bag.... this was all stuff that was done way too early with Madelyn but hadn't even entered my mind this time. What does that say about me? Maybe I'm more comfortable than I think. Or maybe I'm in denial! Five more weeks to go!

Is Madelyn a big girl?

Well, seeing that Madelyn has turned two AND that she has a baby brother that will be taking up residence in the nursery, Madelyn is soon moving into her new bedroom. Hopefully it will be as easy as it sounds (more about that later). However, setting up the room has taken some work and a lot of obsessing by her mother.

So, first, Ben and I had to move out of her room! We had been sleeping in that room ever since we moved in the house a year ago. It was never supposed to be our room even from the beginning but we moved in there to keep the master bedroom free to paint. One year later, the master was still not painted and we were still sleeping in the wrong bedroom....so, after some work (mostly on Ben's part) to paint the ceiling in the master bedroom, we moved in. We still have to paint the walls but that can come later.

Second, we had to paint the walls in Madelyn's new room. We decided to use a spring green on the two outside walls and a beige on the inside walls. I think it looks nice! The beige offsets the green so that it doesn't look too dark and the green gives it some color so it doesn't look too drab. Plus, these are two colors that we already had laying around the house.

Third, I created a diagram to figure out how it should be arranged - okay, so this is where the obsessive mother part comes in! But I did! I created a grid layout of the room and then made grid paper furniture pieces to scale. It helps, really! So once I figured out the room layout, we put the bed and toybox in their places and starting look for area rugs and dressers. The rugs are to cover the not-so-pretty old and torn-up wood floor and to give Madelyn a place to play. We got them cheap at Home Depot. The dresser we picked up at IKEA. It took us almost two hours to assemble, but for the price ($149) it was worth it!

Fourth, Ben's mother (Grandmomma) offered to supply/make the bed linens and the window treatments! I was excited to hear this because now I didn't have to find anything! Grandmomma had found some fabric that was perfect and all I had to do was take measurements and give her a timeframe to be done in! How wonderful! The stuff arrived last Saturday and Madelyn helped unpack the box and to her surprise, there was a little (or big) something extra in there! A doll!! She calls it "daw-ie" and LOVES to drag it around the house! She can't carry it very well seeing that it is a good foot taller than her! She would love to sleep with it, but we are keeping it in the new bedroom so that maybe it will become incentive to sleep in the "big girl bed" when the time comes. Back to the bed linens and window treatments...they have the cutest fairies on them!! Madelyn was attracted to the fabric immediately. So the bed linens were put on right away and Madelyn immediately got up on the bed and started to fake sleep on it - good sign! We decided to wait until Madelyn was asleep to put the window treatments up. Grandmomma had made roman shades and sheers. Solid colored purple satin shades with the fairy fabric as sheers over it. It looks so nice!




I still have some more decorating to do - a lamp for on top of the dresser, maybe some hooks to hang stuff on and a bin to throw stuff in....a picture maybe....I still have that to obsess over. But I think we still have another harder challenge in front of us! We have 7 weeks to get Madelyn settled in her new room....can we do it? It would be nice to have her transferred over soon so that I can concentrate on getting Pipsqueak's room ready for him. I'm hoping that she will be one of those kids that once she understands that her new bed is her new place to sleep, she will take to it quickly. I have heard stories of other kids that once they had the freedom of a "big girl/boy bed" they had trouble staying in bed. Please pray that we don't have to fight that battle!!

NOTE: Last night was our first attempt at the new "big girl bed" and it went much better than expected! Madelyn was VERY excited about laying down in the new bed and holding her dollie and reading books there before sleeping. However, when she realized that this was where she was going to sleep for the night, she wasn't sure what to think. She got out of bed once and I put her back telling her it was bedtime and she had to stay in bed. She didn't leave her bed again but she wasn't ahppy about it either.... But in the end I think it was successful! She took about 20 minutes to fall asleep and she slept there all night! We'll see how tonight goes!

It's been awhile....

I would have written sooner but it has been pretty tame around our house. As I look back, there are definitely things-of-note that have occurred - Ben's birthday celebration, Madelyn transition to her next class, and putting the panel up behind the bar in the kitchen. (Note: There is one more major change in progress - moving Madelyn to her new bedroom. But I will leave that to the next post.)

So here we go! For Ben's birthday celebration, we went to a swanky restaurant downtown called Ruth's Chris Steak House. The atmosphere was good and the food was great! There is something about a waitress scraping the crumbs away before placing your next course in front of you that makes you feel....pampered! After Ben ate a salad and I had some very tasty Louisana Seafood Gumbo, Ben had a HUGE ribeye and I had a filet and we shared family-size portions of mashed potatoes and sauted mushrooms. I have to say that I think that the mushrooms stood out the most - they were awesome! Then our waitress mentioned "Since it is your birthday, dessert is on us." It would have been nice for her to mention that earlier...at this point we were full to bustin'! But Ben got the Banana Cream Pie and it came with "Happy Birthday" on the rim of the plate in chocolate! He thought it was very good. After dinner we went over the totally new Guthrie Theatre - not to see a play but to see the new building. They built their new building on the Mississippi River and built an overlook over the river that is open to the public. It was very cool! You can't really see it in the picture, but it is a pretty good picture of Ben and I regardless. Then, because Madelyn was sleeping over at a friend's house, we headed home to a quiet house and we were able to sleep until we woke up the next day! Happy 30th Birthday, Ben!

Madelyn's transition between classes at school (day care) went very well! Today is her first official day in the Transition 2 class. Transition classes are for 2-year-olds and is truly a time of transition - learning how to drink out of a cup, serve your own food, use the potty, stand in line, etc. The teachers she's had for the last year have said that she is definitely ready for the next level of learning and interaction. She spent 4 half days in the new classroom in the past two weeks and is already comfortable with the room, teachers, and other children. She especially loves the new classroom's toys! So it is "see you later!" to Madelyn's toddler friends, especially Frankie, Joseph, and Ruby, and "hello again!" to Talia, Ryan, Jack, and Benjamin in the new classroom!

Well, we FINALLY put up the panel behind the counter-high bar in the kitchen. We still have to trim it out but at least the panel is up! We don't have to look at the back of our cabinets or oven anymore! Recently, we also put up the toekicks and quarter-round under the cabinet fronts too, but there is still quite a bit to do in the kitchen. If you can see the missing trim under the wall cabinets and around the window, these are two things yet to come. We also have crown molding to do on the pantry cabinets and baseboards waiting to be installed too...so much to do, so little time. BUT THE PANEL IS UP!!!

Madelyn's Birthday Party Pictures

This is cute Madelyn and Ben getting ready for the party. She tried to blow her own balloon up but had to give up and let Dad do it. She loved watching him!
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Ben, Joel, and Isabel playing a before-dinner game of crouqette. Here is Caleb about to take his swing playing crouqette too.


Beth Marquette and the rest of her family came to the party. This is Beth and Ebrina. The baby sling is GREAT invention! I am gonna have to get one for carrying Pipsqueak around. Prego Melissa....


Madelyn opening her cards and gifts. She loved everything and wanted to open all the packages and start playing with the toys right away!


When Madelyn saw the cake with candles on it, she started singing "Happy Birthday to Madelyn". She tried to blow the candles out on her own but Mom ended up having to help. She also did a good job sharing her cake with Lillian. Yum! The last picture shows how much cake Madelyn ate. She ate A LOT of her cake, especially the parts that had frosting!


Ben (and family) blowing out the candles on his cake, since his birthday is August 20th. Don't try and count them, they don't add up to 30! It was hot enough with only 24 candles on it! And isn't this the cutest family you've ever seen?!


Madelyn LOVES to dance to music. She's figured out how to turn on the TV, unfortunately, and after the party, she turned on the TV and this was on. She just started dancing to these four old men singing barbershop-style. It was cute!

Madelyn's Birthday Pictures

Here are some pictures that Ben and I took yesterday for Madelyn's birthday. There are more to come after her party on Saturday.

Madelyn and Daddy start off the birthday with smiles!

Here is Madelyn blowing bubbles with Mommy and her classmates. She loves having control of the bubble wand... doesn't want ANY help! But she seems to have gotten the hang of it!

This is Madelyn with her favorite birthday gift so far.... the birthday balloon, or as she says "irt-day alloo"

Daddy reads Madelyn and her classmates a book. I find this picture particularly funny because you normally wouldn't find Ben on the floor with a bunch of children ANYWHERE except maybe at home!