Mini Mozart

Newsflash: We got a digital piano!!!

I have always wished I could play the piano. Especially after I realized how few people do anymore. Our ward could definitely use some help! I was talking to Mike's mom about this a few months ago (who is a veteran piano teacher and incredibly talented musician) and she encouraged me to go for it--it's never to late to develop your talents, right? So with some money I earned, combined with my birthday and Father's Day, we bought this pretty little Yamaha and it has already been so much fun! I can only play "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but Mike and Emily have been picking out hymns and I love the sound of music floating through the house. Hopefully next week I will start my self-lessons with the church's piano curriculum using the Hymns Made Easy. Wish me luck!

Here we have I-daaaaa-hoooo... (state song I learned in 4th grade :))

I love going home. When we pulled in late Thursday night and got out of the car, I felt like I was in a foreign, although familiar, land. It was COOL, and it smelled sooooo good! There is nothing like the smell of Russian Olive blooms in the early summer. My parents have a gorgeous yard and Maddie loved the green grass and flowers. She also enjoyed all the attention from Grandpa and Grandma. She never seems to forget them, no matter how long it's been.



It's kinda hard to tell but we were throwing rose petals.


You can't leave without a visit to the canyon! We kayaked on the river while Grandma watched Maddie on the banks.



Dana & I celebrated our birthday (thanks for the spoilage!) and we gave Dad a belated Father's Day gift, a book from the kids about how much we love him!


Mike was CRAZY on the new wood floors. He got out a towel to give Maddie rides, but after she was in bed he started goofing off on it, dancing and sliding all over the place. He is a real kid at heart! Pretty soon he was turning up the music and reminiscing about the days when he was young and he and his siblings would dance on their wood floors in the dark with flashlights as strobe lights! He was crazy, but it got us all laughing and a hilarious dance party ensued.

Another day we visited Niagra Springs for a picnic.
Maddie explored the old Ford truck with Grandpa.

The babe was much better on the way home than the way up... she has a much harder time sleeping in the car now that her seat is forward. Her books helped a little!

We missed Noelle, Zak, and Emrie... it has been awhile since we were all together! Why can't we just live closer?!?!? Being with family is my favorite place to be.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Maddie loves the tent we built out of chairs and sheets! We're hidin' out!

All gone...

Peekaboo!

Playing with puppets

Wearing Mommy's shoes

Coloring on a poster board

Grandma & Grandpa's kitty, Ozzie (a.k.a. "meow")
Playing in the water with Grandpa

Playing with a broom

There are lots more pictures from our trip to Idaho... coming soon!

Happy Birthday Dana!

It's so fun to have a twin. We are completely un-identical and different in almost every way, but it's great. Sharing is something we were born with--birthday, bedroom, clothes, friends, school years, bobby pins, and pretty much everything else. Though time apart may have made my memory hazy ;), I loved it all, and having any of those things to myself would have felt empty and lonely.

Now that we are far apart and older, I think I appreciate her more. I admire her so much for all she has accomplished and for the beautiful person she is. She is a talented pianist, a BYU-I graduate, a great cook, a loyal wife and friend, an adventurer, a clean freak (never would have imagined that looking at her side of the bedroom! :)), a hard worker, and so much more. I love you Dana!

Beauty in the desert

We had a fun-filled weekend with visitors from the North country (Utah). Mike's little bro Seth, his wife Brooke, their baby Sammy, and Brooke's parents, stopped in Vegas on the way home from a trip to the national parks of northern California.

All our visitors are native to Atlanta where, need we say, it's a little greener. We decided to show them that there is some beauty in the desert, you just have to go up a few thousand feet!

Eating cheerios on a log

Getting dirty! That's what being in the mountains is all about, right?

Maddie didn't like the backpack much...

but little Sammy did! He is a trooper.

Happy Daddy Day!

Maddie is so lucky to have a Daddy who adores her. He loves every moment he can spend with her and often even asks if we can wake her up! He is so silly and fun with her... they are always having some kind of adventure together. I don't think I could've chosen a better Daddy for our Maddie. I should also take a minute to say that I myself am a very lucky girl and love my own Daddy! The impact of a loving, fun, and righteous father on a family is immeasurable.

We decided to frame some pictures of Maddie and Mike for his Father's Day gift. You might remember them from our family picture proofs a few months ago, but I'll post them again cuz they are so cute together!

Here are a few more from our Father's Day. It's also fitting to congratulate Mike who found out on Friday that he PASSED the Professional Engineering exam and will be officially licensed shortly!!!!!!!!! We knew he could do it!

1-2-3 Go!

I know I only blog about Maddie, but I realized that I haven't been taking very many pictures of her lately. So I got out the camera today and documented some silly stuff. Maddie found her old car seat this morning and sat in it like it was her own little princess throne.

She is just so smart lately! She gives hugs and kisses to anything and anyone, especially Elmo and her other stuffed animals. We are in a major labeling mode-- she wants to know the name for everything and names it whenever she sees it (for example, buttons on my shirt, the vacuum, the moon, toes, etc.) She is starting to say her ABC's, although all I catch is B and the rest sounds like jibberish. We tried to teach her W yesterday and were so impressed when she said "double" very clearly! She is also starting to count to 3... she picked this up because Mike always counts to 3 when he throws her onto the pillows on the bed, which is obviously often! I overheard her telling her doggy to 1-2-3 GO this morning, and I tried to get her to do it again, but this is what I got. It's cute anyway.

I really can't believe how big my baby is getting. I look at pictures of her even a few months ago and she looks so different!!! Oh, and she is teething again, working on her incisors, which will make for 16 teeth! That means we'll only have one set of molars to go! Whew!

Chalk & other adventures

Thanks ladies, for all your great suggestions on the last entry! We got some sidewalk chalk and Maddie loved it. Her favorite part was putting all the chalk back in the bucket, but she did make some scribbles over our drawings.

She was also good at coloring her bum! :)

Emily has a fettish for jellies, so when I got a pair for Maddie they had to have a picture together.

We have been doing a little better keeping busy. Yesterday I took Maddie to Barnes & Noble and she absolutely LOVED it. She acted like a kid in a candy store... or bookstore, I guess! She pointed at every Elmo book and carried two around as she pushed all the bottons, climbed all the benches, smiled at all the shoppers, and ran around the kids section. She wasn't hurting anything so I just let her roam to her heart's content. We definitely need to try out story time at the library.

We had a great week planned with a RS meeting (and playdate for the kids), swimming with Auntie Em this afternoon, and our first babysitting co-op assignment tomorrow (I take up to 10 kids and get 'paid' with tickets, which I can then use to 'pay' for babysitting by other moms) . BUT it was all kiboshed by a yucky bug last night! Poor little Maddie woke up vomiting and kept us on an all night vigil to keep her and her bedroom cleaned up. It is just soooo sad when kids are sick! She was disoriented, shaky, weak, and lethargic. Thankfully, she woke up chipper this morning and wanted to eat and play, but we have to lay low so it doesn't spread. Which equals: BORING! :)

Oh what do you do in the summertime...

... when all the world is green (or brown, in our case)? Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high? Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!

We tried out the new pool at the Community Center down the street, and Maddie loved the kiddie pool! I think we will be frequent visitors in the next few months.

Maddie's hair is getting so long and I don't know what to do with it lately! We tried real pig tails the other day and I thought they were SOOOO cute!

But really, what do you do in the summer to keep a toddler busy and happy? Maddie loves playing outside, which is limited for us by the heat and lack of a yard. We did get a little kiddie pool to play in on the driveway, and we will be swimming a lot.

We are looking forward to a trip to Idaho to visit my parents in a few weeks, and we always love the 4th of July in Provo. But on a daily basis we do get bored! I would love to hear your ideas.