Our Little Artist

Madison loves sidewalk chalk. She drew 8 chalk people. It was so cute. She started filling in the circle before I could get a photo of it. Look at her..in a dress and slippers in our garage.......with chalk! I love being a mom. :o)

Finally...our search is over!

Kevin and I both DISLIKE car shopping. It is so time consuming. It is even worse now that we value our time even more because of our work schedules. We have looked for quite some time. But, finally our search ended last weekend when we borrowed a vehicle (a blue trailblazer) for the weekend (what a great thing for a dealership to allow). We loved it and when we took it back this past Monday we put an offer in. When the dealership gave us what we wanted for our older black blazer and worked with us on a price we signed. However, they had some minor things to do the the new vehicle so we returned home with the black blazer. We received a call on Tuesday that it was ready. On Wednesday (the day we were going to go pick it up) we received a call that it wasn't. They had to order a part for the console. So I am not sure what was going on. But, they informed us that they put all new tires on it. Bonus! The tires were not bad but maybe in a year or so they would have needed replaced. The trailblazer is a 2006. We were not looking for anything newer or older either. It was a way better deal than even thinking about going with the employee deal on a 2008. It basically looks brand new to me/us. Our black blazer was a 2000. We needed to get something newer and more reliable and...with 4 doors. :o) I will mainly drive the trailblazer because Kevin wants to drive the saturn. But, when he takes the boat out or goes fishing or whatever he will take the trailblazer.

Well...we were finally able to go pick the trailblazer up today....here is a photo.


Madison's favorite part of the trailblazer.........the dvd player. She is ecstatic!

Momma loves the sunroof and...even the 6 cd player.


We are just happy to have something else more reliable and with a good warranty.

17 Weeks

Our friends gave Ethan this outfit and crocs when they came to visit just after he was born. Aren't the tiny crocs so cute?? We love them. I had a hard time getting a good picture. He kept rolling and his feet were moving so much...and he kept getting one croc off before I could snap a photo. Oh..silly boy!

The Nutcracker

Madison has worked hard to be able to be in The Nutcracker this year through Mirror Image (where she takes dance lessons). Students of Mirror Image MUST attend dance classes 1 full year, summer, and be enrolled the next year. They also MUST have taken ballet of some form during those times and only missed 2 classes. So that means for the Nutcracker this year you must haven taken dance all through last school year, over the summer, and be enrolled now. Madison only missed 1 class but she made it up the next week. Last year when they were doing all the Nutcracker stuff Madison kept asking if she could be in the Nutcracker..but she hadn't been in dance long enough. So finally the time came and she auditioned. After waiting a while the parts were finally posted today. And.......Madison will be..........an ANGEL. How exciting! Exciting yet........time consuming. What have we gotten into??? She must attend all 8 weeks of rehearsal. This is on top of regular dance classes. We don't even know when those rehearsal times will be yet. She also must attend dress rehearsal and ALL 4 performances. We originally thought that The Nutcracker would be on December 5th and 6th. They must have changed it at some point because we didn't realize until recently that it is actually on December 19th and 20th. She has one show on the 19th and three on the 20th. That is going to be a LONG day for her. But she is excited. We had to sign a very complex and wordy form stating that we were fully committed to the Nutcracker..basically that Madison would be at every rehearsal, dress rehearsal, and performance no matter what. It also stated that if she could not be there for everything not to even bother auditioning and basically not to waste their time or ours. Jeez! We are excited though...and can't wait to watch her perform. She absolutely loves dance.

Dinner & A Movie...

Last night was Girls Night Out. My friend/neighbor, Lisa, and I did the planning. We haven't gotten together for a real girls night out in a couple months. So it was time.

The turn out was great...8 of us went. We left in a van (6 passengers) and a car (2 passengers). We went to Olive Garden for dinner at 7pm. Yum!! Several of us started out with....drum roll please......a Pomegranate Margarita Martini...........wow!! They were delicious! Our waitress was from Jamaica. She was awesome! She was hilarious talking about Wisconsin...I asked her if I could ever tell people I was from Jamaica. She simply stated..."no." Wouldn't that be great? To tell people you were from Jamaica or some fun place if someone asked where you were from? At least I don't tell people I am from Wisconsin....lol....I am from COLORADO! But I loved her accent and she talked to us for quite a while. Of course we (the waitress and I) were on the same side when we were all talking about how people talk in Wisconsin and the best part....she could tell I wasn't from Wisconsin. Whew!!! I know things are starting to stick after having lived here since 1999. But, at least not completely. Oh what a fun conversation we had. Oh and get this....when 3 of us (one being myself) ordered what we wanted to eat....what did we say..."I'll take what is in the picture"..or "the picture please" or "the picture sounds good." Well..it looked good. Oh the fun we have!

After dinner......oh wow...we were cutting it close for dinner. The movie we wanted to see started at 9:25pm. It was around 9:20 when we all piled into one car. Yes, that is right - we squeezed into the car...7 of us. My neighbor that drove the van didn't plan on going to the movie. Hm...and what were we thinking? It was fun...3 in front and 4 in back. Hey Em your car is pretty roomy!! I didn't feel squished.

We made it to the movie a little late...however, the movie hadn't started yet. We got there right before it started...right between the previews and the start of the movie. Talk about great timing. Oh...yes...the movie we saw was The Women. Kind of fitting...7 women watching The Women. I haven't watched a movie at the theatre since before I was pregnant with Madison. So...over 6 years I bet. Unless you count going to watch Over The Hedge with Madison that was put on by my work at a theatre. Nope..not the same.

What a fun night...we did miss our friends/neighbors that weren't able to join us.......

Today.....

What a busy but fun day. We seem to always have stuff going on....but we do like it that way.

We finally took Ethan to get his "3 month" pictures taken.......hmmmmm he is almost 4 months. But, hey....he isn't ACTUALLY 4 months yet so it works, right? Wow, he is so different getting his pictures taken than Maddie was when she was a baby. She would always cry. Ethan just smiles and smiles. The photographer said he was the easiest baby she ever worked with and it was the fastest photo shoot she has done. Good thing too...his appointment was at 4pm and we had dinner plans at 5pm.

We made it to dinner shortly after 5pm. We had plans to eat dinner with some neighbors (2 families that have children Maddie's age)...and the number kept growing. We went to BWW...Buffalo Wild Wings. There were 21 of us all together. It started with just 3 families going out to eat with their children....but hey the more the merrier. We all had a blast...especially the kids. Wow...I just love my neighborhood!!

1st Day of Pre-K

Pre-K Visitation Day

On Sept 8th (Aunt Jarrett's Birthday - Happy Birthday Aunt Jarrett!) Madison attended Pre-K Visitation Day. This was a time meant for Maddie and Mommy to visit her Pre-K class and become familiar with it. It was only 1 hour but we did a lot in that 1 hour. However, it was basically just like last year at Preschool Visitation Day....except new class room and almost all new "friends." I could tell a difference in Madison though compared to last year in her writing, drawing, scavenger hunt skills, etc. She had learned a lot with her old sitter so I wasn't sure if she really needed to go to preschool last year but I am so glad we decided to send her. I also felt so proud because she completed her "assignments" with such ease compared to a majority of the other children. But, I also have to remind myself that she did this last year and most of these children hadn't. She could have tested at the Greenville Elementary school for early entrance but we decided...it is best to wait after talking to numerous teachers as well as the principal. She missed the cutoff. She may seem ready and everything but who knows how she will be later on. They say it is best to delay as long as possible no matter how ready they are. So that is what we did.

Madison completing a puzzle.
Just playing.
Group time.
Story time. (The kissing hand)
Oh......who knows what this is all about. A silly boy in her class did this when it was his turn to have his picture taken. The children got such a kick out of it. So here is Madison doing the same thing when I asked to take her picture. She didn't realize I took her picture before this except during story time.

16 Weeks