Good days

Maddie dressed herself today...and found a cozy place for her baby.

Don't mind the panties...
Maddie has always been an organized player. She likes to collect random treasures and stack them, line them up, put them in bags etc. After her toy line up she decided she would use them as stepping stones. Wouldn't you?




Here' s a good story...

About 3 years ago we went to Disney World with Jim, Kris and Rachael (Jonathon's family). We were in MGM when we passed by one of those Delicious Disney Bakery's. You know the ones...where they have GIGANTIC rice-crispy treat mickey's and HUGE Carmel apples displayed in the windows to lure you in.

Well, I LOVE a good caramel apple so as we passed I mentioned how yummy they looked. Being the amazing father-in-law that he is, Jim went right in and bought me a scrumptious caramel apple. I waited to eat it until we got back to the hotel. All of us were sitting around talking so I got my caramel apple out to eat. I took a huge bite and I was in HEAVEN. The caramel was just the right stickiness and the apple was tart and juicy. (I wouldn't expect any thing less from Disney, right?) Seriously, it was amazing. During the entire time I was devouring this apple I kept commenting how delicious and perfect it was. Over and over.

It wasn't until the next day that I learned how much Jim LOVED caramel apples too. He just couldn't eat one because he just got braces on his teeth. I felt like the biggest LOSER! Here I was going no-stop about how amazing this caramel apple was and Jim, who bought me the apple, was just listening wishing he could have a caramel apple too.

He was such a good sport about it. I've gotten lots of teasing about it since. Rightly so.

So I vowed that as soon as he got his braces off, I would send him a caramel apple. They are certainly not as good as Disney, but it's the thought that counts, right? :)

The kids helped me. Uh, MADDIE helped me, Lyndon just did this:

Maddie, waiting for the caramel to melt...








I HAD to make myself one too. I like them with chocolate and nuts. (Jim and Kris: I didn't know how the chocolate would do in the mail so that why you just got a plain old caramel one. But I would be MORE than happy to make you one with Chocolate. Is that enough to lure you to Texas?)



The finished product...3 years in the making!

It rained for a few days last week so our backyard is looking even shabbier than normal. Maddie, being the optimist that she is, looked out and said, "Oh, look at the beautiful bushes and flowers that we're growing! Isn't it wonderful!"

And all I could see was over grown grass and weeds. Bah Humbug.

Just a few pictures of the kids playing on the back porch...

Yes, he's jumping. He doesn't ever slow down.

Maddie gave her first actual talk in primary yesterday. She was SO EXCITED. She got to choose the topic...she choose "Easter", of course. I'm sure she wanted to talk about eggs and candy but we focused more on the resurrection side. :) I wrote out her talk and drew pictures so she could remember what it said. Jonathon and I were sitting in the back of the Primary room until it was time for her to talk. She sat on the "Talk" chair up front. Every 10 seconds or so she would look back at us with a huge grin and flash us 2 thumbs up. She was pumped.

When it was her turn to give the talk she promptly walked right up, pulled out the stool, stepped up and then pulled the microphone down to her mouth. Just as we rehearsed. She needed just small prompts with each line but other then that she remembered what to say. At the very end she said, "I love Jesus, I love Easter...pause..." and then she leaned right into the microphone and said really fast, "I love Jack and Sally and the Nightmar Before Christmas!"

That's our girl.