impromptu photo shoot

We went to the park this afternoon to go on a "Park Scavenger Hunt". In the mean time we found this cool wildflower patch. I just had to take some pictures. Maddie's hair hasn't been brushed since yesterday and the sun was at it's worst for taking photos but I still like how they turned out. It helps that I think the two little models are just the cutest thing around.

Here comes the bride...and the flower girl!

Last weekend we attended an awesome wedding! Our neighbors daughter got married. And Maddie was the flower girl so we got to attend all the fun festivities. Before I go into the details of the wedding I first have to write about our neighbors, Mimi and Joe...what amazing people they are. They have such a warmth and kindness about them. They are willing to lend a hand, an ear, whatever the need might be. We love them! Maddie and Lyndon are head over heels for them. They are the kind of neighbors that every parent hopes their children will live next to if they live too far away.

So to start off the fun, on Thursday evening the wedding party and families got to go to Chic-fil-a for a special dinner. Mimi and Joe are friends with the owner of Chic-fil-a so he wanted to do something nice for them. Chic-fil-a is one of our favorite places to eat so we were excited! Good food and great people. Maddie and Lyndon had a great time. Lyndon was really putting on quite the performance for everyone. It's obvious that his idea of a good first impression is being as silly and energetic as possible. I heard many comments of "Wow, he had a lot of energy!" and "My goodness, he's just go go go!" Yes, both of those comments describe Lyndon perfectly.


On Friday afternoon she go to go get her nails and toenails painted at the salon. She chose purple with sparkles to match the sash on her dress.
Friday evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I took Maddie to the church so she could rehearse with the wedding party. She did fantastic. She was a little eager to get down the isle but Mimi patiently walked with her explaining what to do and how fast to go. She stood patiently up at the front during the entire thing. After the rehearsal we went back to Mimi and Joes backyard for a catered dinner from Rudy's. Oh how I love Rudy's! For those of you non-Texans, Rudy's is the best bar-b-que ever. Hands down. The brisket, the smoked turkey, the sauce the CREAMED CORN. all delicious. It was a lovely evening. They had is all decorated just beautiful, white twinkle light, soft netting, good music... Perhaps Maddie's favorite part of the evening came when she received a gift from Kidron, the bride. It was a build-a-bear gift certificate. For a week now she has been getting on buildabear.com patiently sorting through each and every animal along each and every article of clothing and accessory to find the perfect one. I found her making a list on 3x5 index cards or her favorites so she can check them out in person when she gets to the store. :)

On to the morning of the wedding...Maddie got to get her hair curled at another salon! These pictures don't show her true emotion but she was thrilled.

My Mom made her dress. Isn't is just beautiful? I had to hem it up a bit when Maddie tried in on. No big deal, I thought...but really, what a pain!! Even though I already so appreciated my Mom for making this, after I attempted to hem it I was REALLY appreciative of all her hard work! Thanks, Mom!

All dressed and ready to go!

She even got to ride in the limo with the Kidron and the rest of the wedding party! Holy cow, was this girl excited! She was so eager to go off on her own...without her dear old Mom. As soon as the limo pulled up Maddie excitedly turned to me while waling away and said, "Okay, see ya Mom. I got this."

Kidron and Sunny, her sister, in the limo...

I didn't take my camera to the wedding because I was sure if I could bring it in the church and I also didn't want to step on the toes of the other photographers that were there. I've done weddings before and to be there's nothing more annoying than a wedding guest trying to get in there and get the shots that you are trying to get! Hopefully I can buys some of the photo's from their photographer. The church was beautiful. The ceremony was beautiful. And seeing Joe as he was holding back the tears walking Kidron down the isle made me just loose it. It was a special moment. Maddie did great. She threw her flowers just perfectly and knew right where to stand when she got to the front. I gotta say though, my heart was pounding just before it was her turn to go down the isle. But I had nothing to worry about. Now if Lyndon had that job, well, that would be another story. :)

After the wedding I could tell Maddie was so proud of herself. She then informed me that when she marries Lyndon (she just doesn't want to let that one go!) she wants to get married the same place that Mommy and Daddy did. In the Idaho Falls Temple. What a cutie.


After the ceremony we went straight to the reception. It was held at a lovely reception center downtown Round Rock. The food was delicious! Because the kids were at their limit we had to leave right after dinner even though Maddie was planning on dancing the night away again with Jonathon (like at the Daddy Daughter dance) I was disappointed because I was looking forward to trying this amazing wedding cake:
But, lucky us, Joe brought some over to us the next day! yahoo! It was every bit as delicious as I imagined it would be.

And this was just the greatest idea...It was a table filled to the brim with every candy you could think of. They had little sack and scoops that you could fill up a bag with your favorite candy! How cool is that? Maddie and Lyndon thought they'd dies and gone to heaven!


It was truly a fantastic weekend. We are so grateful to Mimi, Joe, Kidron and John for letting us be a part of it. It's something that Maddie will remember for the rest of her life. Actually the kids had such a great time that now Maddie will pretend to be Kidron, Lyndon is always Joe and they have me pretend to be Mimi. Fun times.

LIttle munchkins

I've been organizing my office and I came across a scrap piece of paper that I wrote down something that Maddie said that made me laugh. It was from a while ago and I honestly can't remember if I blogged about it or not so I'll just share it again...

Maddie came up to me and said, "Mommy, I have some bad news... Every time I ask Lyndon to hold my hand he won't. It breaks my heart."

How cute is she?

After dinner we always read a few verses from the Book of Mormon. Maddie is really good about recalling what we read the night before and answers questions about it. Lyndon appears to just suffer through it. That is until last night when I read the line, "If they are naked, ye shall clothe them..." Lyndon immediately sparked to life and yelled, "Naked? You just said Naked!! Naked! Naked! Hahahaha. Mommy just said NAKED!" Glad to know he's gleaning something from the scriptures.

The little pink one...

Guess who Jon went to Prom with in high school???

Did I just hear someone say Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba?

You are correct!!

Okay, so she wasn't wearing her costume nor was she actually Foofa at the time. Her name is Anna Hundtoft and she is one of Jon's good friends from high school. I met her at our wedding reception. She is so happy and bubbly. Just as sweet as ever... perfect fit for Foofa. (For those of you with children older than 6 years old, Yo Gabba Gabba is an awesome kids show on Nickelodeon.) Maddie and Lyndon have always loved it. Maddie is looking forward to someday meeting Foofa, uh Anna, in real life.

How cool is that?

Too bad I didn't go with say, Brobee , to our Prom. Actually come to think of it, maybe he really is Brobee...

So much to blog about with so little time...Per request of the kiddos I put on "Secrets of the Furious Five". So I should have a good, what...30 minutes? Why didn't they choose a full length film?? Darn. :) Here it goes:


We spent an incredible day at Zilker Park (downtown Austin) last week. The day was just beautiful. Perfect weather and great friends to share it with. We started out riding the Zilker Zephyr. A fun little train ride through part of the park. Halfway through the ride we were serenaded with some live music performed just for us in true Austin fashion. Sitting in front of Maddie and Lyndon are Harry and Gwen--two of their bosom buddies.
Right next to the train depot is Barton Springs. It's a naturally heated hot springs. But I think it's still a little too cold for me. :) I like my pool water as warm as my bath and Barton Springs is far from that. Maddie and Lyndon staring at the swimmers. I wonder if they feel like fish in a tank?
Lyndon was obsessed with chasing all the birds. And there were a lot of birds. He was running all over the place...halfway listening to me telling him to not go so far. This picture makes me laugh. Can you see that poor guy resting his head on the picnic table trying to take a nap? He's probably wishing Lyndon would quit chasing those darn birds! btw, Lyndon has his shirt off because he dumped his whole water bottle down the front of him. He was LOVING the freedom of no shirt. he felt liberated. I'm pretty sure he ran even faster without his shirt on. (if that's even possible.)
There was a huge fun playground right next to the train. This picture just doesn't do it justice. The kids loved it. I liked it too except that it was somewhat of a logistical nightmare trying to keep track of Lyndon in such a large place. He could maneuver in and through things almost faster than I could keep up with him. ...almost.



Here are the kids Easter outfits. I threw this shot in of Maddie because this is her "I-don't-want-to-do-it" look. Eyebrows furrowed, hands clenched tied in a nice bow with a scowl. I felt it was needed to document this look. :)

AAANNNDDDDD....we're back to happy Maddie. Phew. Giving each other a hug.

I love her expression. She really does love him.

I felt this look of Lyndon's also needed to be documented. This is the "I'm-copying-Madaline-grumpy" look. He's got the fist clenched thing going on but he hasn't quite captured the eyebrow furrow and scowl. I hope it never comes...


Yeah, so these Easter outfit pictures just seem to be about their silly expressions. I can't remember why Lyndon is making this expression but this is one of love from him...putting his head in his hands like he can't believe something just happened.

Love those big blue eyes.

A rare shot of the two of them. They are BOTH looking at the camera at the same time. Miracles.

And another Lyndon expression. One of my favs.

Here's we're doing a little Easter craft.

fyi: Lyndon recently had his hair trim. I know. :)

Easter Party at the Library.
Before the little egg hunt the librarian read an Easter book to the kids and then announced that there were two families who would like to perform the hand bells for us. Hmmm, that will be kinda nice, I thought. One of the mother's stood to introduce them and also to say that they would be playing FIVE songs for us. Including, Edelweiss, 2 I'd never heard of and 2 hymns. My first thought was, oh brother, Lyndon will never make it. But we were already trapped behind too many people to leave so I knew we were just going to push through. As they started to play I could see that Lyndon was intrigued. He was watching and listening very quietly. Then after about the second line of the first song is started looking around. And then proceeded to clap to the v-e-r-y s-l-o-w t-e-m-p-o. But obviously it was way too slow to his liking because he started to clap faster and faster urging the performers to pick up the pace. After my disapproving glance he stopped but I could see his little mind thinking how much cooler HE could have made this performance.

He made it through all 5 songs. I was impressed. (I barely made it.)

Snacks after the eggs hunting. (A reward for sitting through the hand bells.)

Easter Egg Hunt at the Park
The city holds a huge Easter egg hunt at Old Settlers Park every year. This was our first year attending. It was pretty fun. The kids found some candy so they were pleased. After the hunt we waited in a long hot line so the kids could go inside the fire truck. But just as it was almost our turn the Easter bunny came hopping on over, got in the firetruck and they rode away with us just staring in disbelief. Who does that Easter bunny think he is? Ugh. The kids were confused but they pretty much forgot about the whole thing.

Lyndon just needs a dirt pile to kick around. He doesn't need to be entertained by a fire truck OR the Easter bunny. :)

Easter Morning!
Here are their Easter baskets. Big thank you to both Grandma's and Grandpa's for supplying the Easter bunny with fun things. We showed Maddie and Lyndon the things that Grandma and Grandpa gave him to deliver to them. They thought it was pretty cool that he got to meet their Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Lyndon got a spider man punching bag. He's pretty good. Lyndon is really into super hero's. Spiderman, batman, ironman, and wolverine. I gotta say, Jon and I are pretty excited that he chooses super hero undies over princess undies. for a long time weren't sure which he would actually choose. He does, however, call his undies "panties" but we're working on it.

Egg hunt!

Lyndon found this ball and it looked close enough to him.

On Easter Sunday evening we were able to spend it with some good friends. Lonna made cheesy potatoes and ham and Christa made a homemade cheese ball! It was perfect and delicious. They kids played, had ANOTHER egg hunt and crashed just as soon as we got home. Perfect end to the perfect day.