What Do You See?

Yesterday when she got home from school, Madysen proudly announced she had done a water color painting. I was of course the good exstatic mom excited to see it! ;) So I looked at it for a minute trying to decifer what it was. Then she huffed, and took it out of my hands, turned it right side up, and gave it back to me. She raised her eyebrows waiting for me to clearly see exactly what it was. The beads of sweat were about to over flow. I felt like a prisoner being interogated. I choked and finally said, "It's really pretty honey! But explain to me what's going on in your picture." She bought it! Whew

Here's the riddle...I am going to let you try and figure it out! Let's see if any of you can come up with a better answer than mine. I triple dog dare ya!

Good luck!

Who's the Man?!?

Oh Thursday morning I decided it was time to potty train Juddie. We had a lot of accidents the first few hours, but I knew if he could just do it once he would be rockin! After he napped we finally had our first success. It was off and on through the day but encouraging. Friday morning he woke up and decided he was into the potty thing and has been doing fabulous ever since. We have had about one accident a day which I think is pretty dang fabulous considering its been 4 days since the whole concept was introduced. Hard to believe that we will be living 100% diaper free after 7 consecutive years, but I can feel its close hehe!

Everytime he has a success he gets a sticker for his chart. When the chart is filled up, Mom and Dad will take him to dinner. I have never seen a kid more motivated by dinner haha!

Good job Juddie! We are all so proud of you!

You always keep us laughing Judd. We love you a ton you silly goofball!

Once there was a snowman

On Monday my kids were desperate to play outside in the snow. It hadn't snowed in a while so the snow had been yucky, but since there was a new layer, small as it was, I agreed they could go for it.

I love how he only has a sliver of vision available. James seriously lasted maybe 2 minutes haha

Judd on the other hand couldn't wait to get out there. He hated snow at the beginning of the season, but once we got him some waterproof mittens he's been game for playing in the snow any time!

Cooper looks like an eskimo with ginormous hands...haha

Then we brought out the sleds. Poor Madysen was the only one strong enough to give rides so that was soleley her job. She was an awesome sport though!

It clearly takes 20 minutes to get the kids all bundled up, but other than James, everyone stayed out for hours which was a first. Wanna know the secret...

Send out DADDY!!!!

Matt is such an excellent Dad! He seriously played outside with them for hours building snowmen, and then making them a hill for sledding! I think Matt was more proud of his snowman than any of the kids. It took them quite a while to find all his articles of clothing. Let's see...he had the typical carrot nose, green licorice eyes, red licorice mouth, marshmellow roasters with gloves for arms and a beanie and scarf. Now that is creativity hehe!

All the kids had such a good time. It was a beautiful day outside (as long as you didn't notice the terrible pollution) and just warm enough to make it fun. Thanks Daddy for playing so long with us and making memories! We love ya!

A League of our own

In the spirit of a vacation at home, we took our kids bowling Saturday night at the brand new Sparetime. I think Madysen and Cooper have been once before but it was a long time ago. Sparetime was nice and clean and had all kinds of features that our kids appreciated. They were tired after a day of swimming but truly they did really well until the 9th frame.

 Cooper had his very own style! But in the end, he did really well!

My nephew James is one of the most adorable kids you will ever see! I am not sure he understood the game entirely but he had a blast!

My nephew Spencer loved this metal rail that guides the ball. To be fair, none of the kids but Madysen could get the ball as far as the pins without it haha!

All the kids were a great support to each other...mostly because they wanted it to be their turn haha!

Yeah I know you are jealous of my bowling milkshake!

Uncle Brian and his left handed spinner!

Please don't be jealous of my hair. Not everyone can look this good ALL the time. Just let it go!

Aunt Leah had a great bowling night. If we were playing a game with 2 winners, I would won as well as her ;)

Juddie was very proud that Aunt Leah conquered those pins

Madysen got a spare and simply couldn't stop cheering for herself!

Even a 6 pound ball is quite heavy when you are only 3...but Judd is a very independant child and does everything himself!

Yeah Judd Bugs! Anytime he knocked over any amount of pins he was very excited

Lil Miss Madysen has quite the form don't ya think hehe

James threw his ball without the rail and as it took its time getting down the lane, he decided  to lay down and wait for the excitement. Honestly, he is so adorable!

Matt is so cute! That's all

The final scores!

Yeah pretty much the kids beat both Austin and Kiki! Haha

Seriously we had such a fantastic time. It was really nice to not have an agenda for the weekend and just hang out together and do things as a family! We are so lucky to have our best friends and our kids best friends be part of our family! Nothing better than cousins and fun!

A Vacation At Home

Matt and Madysen both had a four day weekend for the holiday so we decided to have a vacation at home. We started off Saturday morning by taking the kids to Clearfield Aquatic Center for swimming. We had an absolute blast! The kids were able to swim and do the indoor waterslide!

Cooper seems to always be afraid that he will get any water at all in his face!

Looks like same goes for Spence hehe

My neice Brynlee is hilarious! The moment her feet hit the water, her giraffe tongue comes out. It was so funny to watch we cried laughing. Her tongue would get so long it would pass her chin. Then when you pulled her back up out of the water it would reel itself back in. Too too funny!

Cooper and Daddy shooting down the water slide! My kids are so lucky to have such a fun Dad!

My kids were really meant to be born fish! The minute we said we were taking them swimming they squealed with delight, and when it was time to go squealed with unhappiness!

I know you are all sad there are no pics of me in a swim suit. Consider yourselves blessed that I am the photographer! Hehe

One Happy Customer

So now that Judd is 3, I am finally getting around to decorating his room. I wasn't sure if I was going to put him and Cooper together and have a toy room, so his room has been a plain white empty slate for years now! But since the basement now holds all our toys, I decided it was time! I found a great deal on a bed and an adorable hand stitched quilt that I fell in love with! Once the seed was planted, I clearly wasted no time! Yesterday I went and picked up the bed and bedding, came home and painted with Matt and then put the room together! The room isn't done, but having a big beautiful bed and paint makes a huge difference in there! Haha! And of course...he is in love!

It still needs lots of decorating but he is loving it! Gotta love a happy customer!

Happy 3rd Birthday Judd Bugs!!!

Wednesday was Judd's birthday and we had family over for cake and presents! Judd having such a severe milk allergy is unable to actually have cake, so I made him a rice krispies peanut butter cake and decorated it with Skittles...where there's a will there's a way! This is supposed to look like a train (use your imagination)

Judd had us all rehearsing throughout the day for his happy birthday song! He gladly sang along with us all!

He had no idea how to blow out the candles but watching him was hysterical!

Time for presents! Aunt Kiki and Nonna and Papa gave him huge boxes of the love of his life, fruit snacks! He wanted to tear them all open immediately!

Spencer, James and Brynlee always have the best presents! Judd received an imaginext robot that shoots discs! Judd has played with it every day since! ;)

Grandma and Grandpa Dazee gave Judd a huge box of Legos! It was an instant hit with everyone there! Judd loves to make towers out of absolutely anything so this was the perfect gift for him!

Mom, Dad, Madysen and Coop gave him a shopping cart! He has always loved using the shopping cart at discovery gateway and anywhere they have these so it has been pushing around the imaginext robot all day everyday! He is so darling!

All good parties end with a nerf gun fight! Judd loves to freak you out by getting close enough that even a styrofoam dart will sting! He thinks its hilarious that people shirk and squeal everytime he does this! Naturally whenever we have anyone over he runs for his nerf gun!

Overall, we had a fun party! Judd was super happy to have everyone over and sing his birthday song! It was adorable because while he napped I decorated with balloons and banners etc and from the moment he woke up he kept saying, "Is it time for my birthday yet Mom?" It seemed that after dinner was an eternity away for him. Alas, he survived and had a super fun time! Thanks to everyone who came and brought him a gift! We love having you all so close and are so grateful to have you all be a part of such fun events as these!

Most of all, happy birthday to our darling boy! You bring us so much happiness with your sweet and fiesty personality! We never know what is going to happen next with you around! I hope that this year is a better year for you now that we have your allergies more under control! We love you very much Juddie!!!!! ;)