Happy 7th BIrthday, Madelyn!

You are growing up so fast!!! I love you!

The Balloons
This has become a tradition to wake up with balloons outside your bedroom door.


Because we are leaving to go camping for three days this afternoon, we decided to treat this girl to a breakfast party.  It seems appropriate since we all know that she is the "breakfast monster"!

The Presents








The Breakfast preparer (at 7am)




The Breakfast
Madelyn made me repeat her order back to her about a dozen times in the last three days - two fried eggs, mixed blueberries and strawberries, fried hotdog slices, and cinnamon toast.  I added the cupcake in the middle and turns out she didn't mind. :)




 
Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl! 

a mama's pride

Madelyn turned six today - actually yesterday now.  I still can't believe it.  Where did the time go?  When did she turn into such a lovely, smart, thoughtful, precious, talkative, bossy, forgetful, and clumsy kid?  (This mama isn't completely blinded!)  What she did today though was really amazing.  She woke up today and before she even came out of her room she was dressed and had her bed made.  Then she found out that instead of getting everything ready for her party, we had to take her brother to the doctor.  She then found out that her extended birthday celebration of dinner, movie and sleepover were going to be curtailed by her brother's symptoms of strep. (We don't like getting our friends sick!)  And she did all of this without complaining and whining!  But what I'm most proud of is that she chose a week ago to take her friends to Feed My Starving Children to celebrate her birthday.  I wondered how much of that choice was because her dad and I chose to celebrate our birthdays that way.  Then I heard her talking to her friends on the way to pack food, and she told them all about how there are children in the world (and she mentioned Haiti specifically) that don't have food all the time and that they will be packing food for children like that.... my heart smiled.  I'm immensely glad for Madelyn's developing servant heart.

Madelyn's milestones - Six years old marks the start of self-directed, solo baths (and a very sad Greyson).  It also marks the start of using a bed light for reading after bedtime.  She reads so well and is so excited about having this time for reading to herself.  She also received her own portable stereo and some headphones for her birthday and is VERY excited about those too!  Can't wait to see what the next year brings!

"Baby Isaac's come out!"

Greyson has been calling Isaac out of his Aunt Christina's belly for about a week now. Well, as of 12:30am today, Isaac Aiden Ritter made his first appearance, weighing in at 8 lb 4 oz and roughly 21 inches in length. WooHoo! We love you, Aunt Christina, Uncle Brandon, and Isaac!

Ben's Bday Outing

Feed My Starving Children was great! We had a great time visiting over filling bags of food for starving children. I was also surprised at how well Madelyn did with helping! Afterwards we came back to our house for homemade pizzas (one of Ben's favorites). Yum!

Madelyn's Bday Dinner

In case I left you hanging, Ben and I decided that Chuck E Cheese is mostly the same as it was when we were kids, except it's not as dark. Just so you know....

Madelyn and Katie (and especially Greyson!) had a great time at Chuck E Cheese playing, eating pizza, opening presents, and then playing some more. Madelyn made out on the presents front - a scooter, 3 Barbies (one a mermaid and two with the requested purple hair), a bunch of craft supplies, a snow white polly pocket, and a tinkerbell puzzle. Very exciting!

No way.... Madelyn's 5?!?!!

I can't belive that my girl is 5 years old. The years have gone by faster than... I can't think of anything fast enough. Madelyn has grown into a lovely, intelligent, beautiful girl. Ben and I had decided that we would give Madelyn the choice of birthday party or a dinner out and a big present from us. She chose the dinner out and present. Fortunately for Madelyn, though, the Como Park Carousel was running for free today. Como Park is an awesome place, truly. It has a zoo, a conservatory, an amusement park, a huge playground, mini-golf, a carousel, a golf course, and more. We met several of her friends (and their parent and siblings) and went to the zoo and the carousel. It was so much fun to see her interacting with them and she had a great time, except for 30 minutes where she was having a hard time holding it together. That 30 minutes reminded me of when she turned one and cried the WHOLE day. Her daycare teacher told us that she surmised, "It's her birthday and she'll cry if she wants to!" The cranky mood was broken by the two girls that are holding her hands below. I told them to hold her hands and make her laugh... and it worked! Even though it wasn't a party, just an outing, I brought cake and juiceboxes for everyone's snack. That doesn't make it a party, does it? Tonight we're going to Chuck E. Cheese's with one of her friends, who will then spend the night. I don't think I've been to Chuck E. Cheese's since I worked there in high school. I wonder if it's changed any.


The birthday balloon (a family tradition)


waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive


beautiful girls


playing in the zoo


Madelyn refused to be in this pic... it is a great pic of several of her friends though.


The girls that cheered up Madelyn


On the carousel


Snack time


Happy 5th Birthday, Madelyn!

August Birthdays

Our family has a habit of having August birthdays. It was "just" my mom, my grandma, my daughter, and my husband within eight days of each other causing me birthday overload. But things change. I lost my grandma three years ago. Since then though, my nephew was born in August and my sister's serious boyfriend (meaning - it seems he'll be around for a long while) not only has a birthday in August, but it is the same day as my husband's! [Sidenote: My sister, Liz, called me just two days ago and said that she had just realized it and was completely weirded out by that fact that our husbands were born on the same day. Truth told, I am a little too.] All this to say - I am in birthday overload again! I can hardly even think straight to keep the details together. I'm hoping writing this will help me get my head together.

My mom will be coming to the cities end of this month with my dad. It is her 60th and I know that I need to come up with something super. I got nothin'... yet. I will. Promise. I did make her a homemade ecard for her actual birthday yesterday. You can see it below.

Madelyn has chosen to keep her birthday pretty low-key. No party, meeting a few friends at the Como Park, Chuck E. Cheese for dinner with a friend that sleeps over afterward. It has been a little hard for Madelyn to stay quiet about the sleepover. She doesn't quite understand that it is rude to announce that to your other friends...

For Ben...he would like to go to Feed My Starving Children for an outing and then to a nice dinner. I'm trying to figure out when and with whom.... just us, wait until my mom, dad, sis, and her boyfriend arrive in Sept, with local friends, or ??? I am also eyeing a couple of things for gifts too. i won't disclose them here for secrecy reasons.

My nephew, Sam, will be turning one this year. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. I will send him a gift. I need to get it off soon. Steph, any ideas?

And Nick, the boyfriend.... I think a card will work for this year. Don't you?

Whew... thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Madelyn's 4!!

About a month ago, Madelyn turned 4 years old!! She had decided she wanted a butterfly tea party to celebrate, so we invited 5 of her best friends over the day before her birthday. We were sad that one friend ended up being sick and couldn't make it, but it was a lot of fun having Madelyn's four other friends over to visit.

Here is the setup for the tea party.

Singing/teaching "I'm a Little Teapot"

a spontaneous game of ring-around-the-rosies

Joseph getting ready to help read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

An enacted version of the book (the child has something the handpuppet catepillar eats)

Opening presents (with friend Jack)

The birthday girl and her guests

The birthday caterpillars eaten at the tea part of the party with ice cream shaped like butterflies that they decorated themselves. It was SO cute, but unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the tea party...

After the party, Madelyn took a LONG nap (she was exhausted) and while she was asleep, we got a call from some good friends from church asking if we'd like ot meet them at a nearby mini-amusement park. We had never been there so we decided to go. Madelyn and Greyson had a blast!!! I think it went especially well since our friends have an older girl and boy that wanted to take her on the rides. Here you can see Madelyn on a couple of rides having a great time!

11 years ago....

It was actually 11 years ago yesterday. I'm quite ashamed that I forgot.... Yesterday was Sarah's birthday. I remembered earlier in the week and thought about doing a cake in remembrance. I thought about starting a tradition to give my kids some way of knowing her and giving her a "place" in our family. I was having trouble with figuring out a good way of introducing the whole thing... then I mentally put it down... and promptly forgot. I'm so ashamed of myself, I forgot my Sarah's birthday. I know that it is a good sign that I'm not caught up in the past and that I'm fully living here. I'm just having a hard time with the feeling that I let her down. No, that's not quite right. That I let myself down in remembering her and what she, and what she brought to my life, means to me. I don't want to forget her or the wonderful closeness that she ushered in between me and my heavenly Father. I don't want to forget.... but I did.

32nd birthday today....

Ben and I had our special lunch sans kids last Saturday at Bucca DeBeppo - yum! It was delicious! Today we're playing it low-key but I have to hand it to Ben because this morning he got out of bed early and made blueberry muffins - double yum! The big feat was keeping Madelyn quiet enough that she didn't wake me up! Now, that is *my* husband!

Thanks, babe, for the extra shuteye and wonderful breakfast. Luvya!

While, I was sitting here writing this, I got totally surprised by.... these! Thanks Mom and Dad!


Now, here's a special treat for the people who love my kids - Greyson dancing to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in one of my birthday cards. Thanks Grandmomma! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Greyson!

Greyson's birthday was great! We all woke him up with his birthday balloon (becoming a tradition at our house). He was very excited about his balloon too! Dad unfortunately had to go to work but Madelyn and I were able to spend the day with him.

After eating breakfast, we got dressed in our Halloween costumes for the day. Madelyn was a princess, Greyson was a monkey, and I borrowed a pair of Madelyn's bunny ear and drew whiskers on my cheeks to be a rabbit. Storytime at the library was fun with all the kids and some of the adults in their costumes checking each other out as the librarian read a few cute Halloweenish stories. the fun started again after Dad got home. That is when we opened Greyson's presents and then went out trick-or-treating to the immediate houses around ours. Greyson's loved most of his presents, even the Tickle-Me-Elmo, at least until it started flailing it arms and legs and then he got scared. We put that little tab back in that keeps it in demo mode. He likes it better that way!

Trick-or-treating was fun too. Madelyn kept saying "trick-a-trick-a-treat" and we would laugh everytime. Then she would look at us like, "What?" She was the prettiest princess tho. She loved the idea of the neighbors giving her candy and was sad to hear that they only did it one this one night of the year.

We celebrated Greyson's brthday with a party a couple nights after his actual birthday. We invited a few people over and made dinner and cupcakes. As you can see below, I think Greyson was a little freaked out by the fire on the big 1 candle that we put down in front of him. I had been practicing blowing with him all day, so he actually did help blow it out though!

Greyson had a blast eating/playing with his cupcakes! I think he may have eaten to much dinner tho, because he didn't eat much and ended up playing more with his cupcakes. He liked smearing it around until he got some of the frosting in his eye!! So into the tub he went to get all washed up. We really did have a lot of fun watching this little boy loving life!! Thank you, God, for such a loving, wonderful, gentle-spirited little boy!!

Madelyn's birthday pics

You can go out to the Rhodes' online pictures to see Madelyn's birthday party now. I am also working on August pictures. I can't believe how many pics I took in August.... never too many though. It just makes it a longer process to post them. Enjoy!

Madelyn's 3rd birthday

Well, I am now a mother of a 3-year-old. How does this happen.... What a wonderful day, though! Madelyn loved every part of it! The TinkerBell dress, the friends that came over, the presents, the cake, getting to stay up late... she had a GREAT time!!

Check out the glasses, the dress, the new doll ("jasmine") and the shoes. All birthday presents! You can also see Lilly with the new Viewmaster.

Blowing the candles "up and down".

The 3 yr old crew: (clockwise) Madelyn, Joseph (almost 3), Jack, Caleb, and Lilly.

Happy Birthday, Madelyn!

More pictures - Graduation, June, and July

Hit the "Rhodes Family Pictures" link on the right to see the updated pictures. As for a family update.... it has been a great summer. The kids are growing up WAY TOO FAST! But we are loving it. :) Birthday season is upon us - Madelyn's third birthday is Friday and Ben's 31st birthday is Monday. Madelyn is sooooo excited about her birthday. She has this set script that she says (self-created) whenever she is asked about her birthday. We got it on video and it is pretty funny. She say that she is going to "blow the candles up and down and out and then eat my birthday cake ALL GONE!" So cute! In comparison, Ben is little more laid back about his birthday but is uber-excited about the new Metroid Prime III game that he has ordered for his Wii. Hopefully I be able to get birthday pictures posted pretty quickly.....

My 31st Birthday

My birthday was three weeks ago, March 19th. I'm now 31. I don't feel 31 at all, maybe 25... no, more like 27. I would have let it pass without a post but it has been interesting that in the last three weeks I have gotten SO MANY comments about how young I look. Yesterday I got one that stood out in particular - "Look at you! After having two kids, you STILL look 15!" I didn't know how to take this one. I didn't know whether I should feel complimented or insulted.... I'm glad that I look young. It will come in handy when I'm 50 but ... I do not feel 15! My body, after two kids, doesn't feel 15 either.

I also thought I would tell you about the wonderful thing that my husband did for me. He sent me flowers at work! I was SO surprised! Flowers at work is not in Ben's forte, at least before three weeks ago. And I could tell when I picked them at the reception desk, that they weren't the normal arrangement. He went all out! The pictures I took don't do it justice (but here's one anyway). I called Ben right away to say that they were "beautiful!!" and he took the opportunity to say some really sweet things to me. He expressed how much he appreciates me. This touched me even more than the flowers. Man, it feels so good to be loved and appreciated by my husband! I love you, Ben!!

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!