...Maddieism's

Friday night I took the girls to Mickey D's to eat (Mike went out of town.. I didn't want to cook!). I guess on Friday nights (or this specific one?) they were giving out samples to taste. All I know is that this little tiny cute drink was on my tray when I walked back to my table.

Maddie grabbed it, made a weird face after trying it out.

I grabbed it to taste it. It was some kind of frappachino? Or something with "a little bit of coffee" in it. Whatever those are called. I wouldn't know b/c I don't drink coffee. They sure are made to look good though! It didn't have the wording on the cups though, as these are like 3 inches tall.

Maddie said "is that what coffee tastes like?" I said "yes".

She said "oh, we don't drink coffee."

I said "I know... do you know WHY we don't drink coffee?"

Her reply?

"Because it doesn't have enough fiber in it."

thankfully, she did add in after that "oh, because the prophets told us not to drink it", and I had to tell her "yes, they gave us the word of wisdom and they counseled us not to drink HOT drinks, which according to latter day revelations, we learn that they mean coffee"

She said "yeah, but it still doesn't have a lot of fiber in it too."

...making cookies with the Young Women

since Katie is now in Young Women's (a group for girls ages 12-18 in our church), she's participating in activities now weekly.... and fundraisers! the girls made Valentine's Day Cookie Pops to raise money to go to Girls Camp in July!!

wednesday night every girl received a bag full of sugar cookie dough to roll out, cut out & bake cookies shaped as hearts with the stick inside. i am not a fan of sugar cookie dough. i.was.nervous! well, not anymore! i think I can accomplish this b/c the dough was COLD when I (errr....we?) did this! it is doable!

this is one of the uglier hearts that was made.... by us.
for some reason, they all poofed in different directions.

we were at my friend Kristen's home... she's THE decorator of cookies, let me tell you!

first she outlines. using a squirt bottle of all things! i need to get me one of these..
then she zig zags all over the inside line of the cookie

and if needed, uses a knife to spread it around....

or not....

this is Kristen.... she's pretty amazing

{and beautiful!}

here are some of the girls.....

they all came up with some GREAT creations!

beautiful!

after awhile, it was a MESS!

but Kristen remained calm through it all!
mixing away these beautiful colors of icing....

i just love this picture of the hot pink icing...

i'm sure I can speak for all the leaders of the Young Women's group...
we're GLAD the cookie fundraiser is DONE!! :) totally forgot to take pictures of the cookie bouquets they made... oops!

if you've made it this far, stay tuned for a giveaway that is coming up!!

... i wanna be a cowgirl

We took the girls to the rodeo Saturday night... and I came away from that night with the desire to be a cowgirl. I want boots! I want a hat! I want to bedazzle my shirts with rhinestones all over and wear a belt with rhinestones! {{OK, not really, but they look awesome on the right person!}} When I first met Mike, he was a cowboy. He wore boots & a hat. Somehow.. I made a teeny tiny mistake. I told him I didn't like cowboys. What was I thinking?!! Anyways, he threw away his boots & hat. :( I "De-cowboy-fied" him. I'm on a mission to bring the cowboy back in Mike!

First of all, Mike & I have been wanting cowboy boots for a LONG time, so we headed on out to Shepler's to see what was in stock. I saw a pair I liked, but couldn't even get my FOOT inside! Then I tried on THESE babies.... but at a hefty price of $160? Yikes! Well, good thing is that my foot got inside & they were COMFORTABLE! Ariat is the brand, so I'm keeping that in mind for future reference... They even had them in red! Yee-haw! Actually, I think I want them in brown.... I'll keep looking & waiting for a good sale...

Mike found a pair as well (he loves his Justin boots... or Ropers? I forget which one), but wanted to look some more. So went left emptyhanded... and went to the rodeo in our jeans & tennis shoes. BORING! If we're going to live in Texas, we're gonna have to act like Texans do.... wear boots & hats. Hey, I'm all for being a cowgirl!

Anyways, we arrived a little early, so we checked out the animals. We went with some great friends of ours (THANKS Katie for getting all the tickets together!)... Can you spot this animal?

Saw some chicks.... they were so cute

Then Maddie spotted the adult chicks (aka chickens)

Spotted this animal... "hello? Anyone in there? Can you see me?"

and here the girls are watching the pig races...

which happened to be Maddie's favorite event of the whole night! Swifty the Swimming Pig was a fun thing to see as well! Talk about a baby pig who does a flying leap into a trough of water... hilarious!

Then the actual rodeo. This was actual the big finals, so we got to see the best of the best. It was fun to see the barrel races, bareback riding and saying "how fast can those cowboys get that rope OFF that horse's uh... male parts?", and the "tie up your calf" event (those poor calves just lying there "HELP!")... and the finale of the night... the BULL riders!! Wow, that was so much fun! Sad for the cowboy who fell off his bull (fell or kicked off?). The bull stepped on his face, so the paramedics had to come & take care of him. :( Thank goodness he had a helmet on! Some of those cowboys didn't even wear a helmet!

It was a fantastic night. Saw a bunch of bedazzled cowgirls, hat tippin' cowboys (no, they weren't bedazzled), stinky animals, and had a ball! Next year we'll reserve our ticket early to make sure we have a great band to listen to!Actually, we were too exhausted to wait for the Eli Whitney band to start....

... little thank you notes

I've been trying hard to make sure my family is grateful for things that people do for them.

When my girls were at a VERY young age (think before a year old!) I made sure to always say "THANK YOU" when I gave them something. In return, "tank you" was one of Maddie's first words she said.

I set out a few months ago with the hopes that my family would start doing for others, namely starting with their family! So, I bought everyone a Target $1 notebook. Each person has their own.

Inside their notebooks, if we spy someone doing something nice for others, or if we're especially grateful that so-&-so did something, then we're to write a thank you note to them! In their notebook!

So far, Maddie's the one who's taken off with this idea. She loves to write notes to people in their notebook. It ranges from "thank you for making the bed for me today!" to "thank you for being the best sister!" to other things. It's quite fun to see a special note written for you.

Our little notebooks have a special place where we can find them in the kitchen.

Little by little, we're all learning to say THANK YOU to our family members for the little things they do in our life!

... our Valentine's evening

I set out to accomplish what I don't normally do. Have a fancy dinner.

It was fancy enough for us!

We all had a small box of chocolates with sparkling peach juice in fancy glasses.

One the menu was:
chicken covered in parmesan bread crumbs w/ parsley
Pioneer Woman's Au Gratin Potatoes
Pioneer Woman's Rosemary Rolls
Roasted Asparagus
Target's Sparkling Peach Juice (yummm!)

Dessert was:
Pioneer Woman's Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
with fresh whipping cream on the side

Girls came to the dinner table in their pajamas....
we'll need to work on that one next year!
Oh, and I need to find some matching fancy glasses!
Kind of kicking myself for giving away a huge set of wine glasses a few years ago.....

....the sickies

Poor Maddie has been sick for a long... long... L-O-N-G time.

It started after Thanksgiving with a cough. A cough that wouldn't go away.

Before Christmas she went to the doctor who said she had an upper respiratory infection and sent her away with a prescription for antibiotics.

After Christmas, she was still coughing. So, we gave her allergy medicine thinking it was allergies.

In the past three weeks, she's been battling something or another. Two weeks ago Katie had strep. Then Maddie's throat was hurting for three days. No signs of strep though!

Then came the headaches for DAYS. Finally on Friday night, she came down with a fever. A fever that lasted off & on all weekend. Her cheeks were so pink.

Daddy took her to the doctor and the doctor said
"pneumonia! and an upper respiratory infection!"

Huh? OK... so she's on heavy antibiotics hoping to kick the sickies out of her body!

She acts like herself though! Just plain silly!

... it's a frugal way of cleaning your face

A few weeks ago in my BzzAgent package that I had been sent, I had gotten a box of face cleansers included with my makeup I was sent. I was ecstatic! I was almost out of cleansers.

I was using a full sheet before I realized I wasn't even using the entire sheet! I mean, the directions DID say I could go on and wash my whole body with it.. So, I cut it in half. After using it for a week, I realized I wasn't even using the entire half sheet! So, I cut it in half again! Now I got four nights worth of cleaning makeup off my face for the price of ONE sheet!

Can you say frugal? Can you say "let's count how many pennies we just saved?"

I think I'm sold on washing my face at night this way! For a box of 30, you now have 120 little squares of cleanser pads for a price of under $5.00. That's FOUR months!

::doing the happy dance::

...my favorite valentine's gift

A few years ago, Mike surprised me.

When we had move from our home two years ago to an apartment in preparation for our move to Texas, we tossed a ton of stuff. He calls it junk, I call it "forgotten treasures". My baby doll cradle was one of them.

It wasn't just ANY baby doll cradle. It was a very special baby doll cradle. It had been passed down through the generations until it came to me.

It was white with yellow daisies on it. I'm sure it had lead in the paint. I placed my babies in this doll cradle. My mom placed her babies in this cradle. And my grandma placed HER babies in this cradle. My grandma's daddy made it for her.

My oldest lovingly placed her babies in this cradle. My youngest? Yeah, she's the one who broke the cradle. She thought since she was the baby, she should go in the cradle. And in the process, broke it.

I was so sad. But, I set out to fix it. Had to make the cradle safe for my babies. So I sanded off the paint... but I didn't get very far. The spindles were stopping me. Some of the spindles were about to come out. One side of the rocker came off. I gave up..... in hopes that someday Mike would have time to help me. Ideally, before my girls had their babies who wanted to place their dollies in the cradle.

Two years ago before Valentine's Day, Mike took me down to the apartment garage. He said "Have you noticed anything missing?" I guess we had so much "stuff" {forgotten treasures} that I truly did not see what was missing. He said "what about your cradle?" My doll cradle isn't packed in a box.... it was always on TOP of a box. I looked, and gasped when I couldn't find it. I was so sad! He said "well, for Valentine's Day, I had it fixed."

I was SO excited! One of his employees had a woodworking shop, and was able to sand it down, make the appropriate repairs, and stain it! Oh, I was so thrilled! I broke down in tears when I saw my new cradle.

Finally my youngest can carefully take care of her babies in this new & much improved doll cradle! Happily Maddie places her baby Emily with a homemade quilt (made by me... the biggest quilt I'll ever make) and puppy dog Gigi at Emily's feet in the cradle.

It may not have been chocolates, or flowers, a fancy dinner, or a beautiful card. But it was the most thoughtful gift .... that meant more than chocolates, flowers or anything money could buy.

..... the lil' stinker

I have this little cute blondie...
she was so nervous a few minutes before she had to dance
she was so quiet
so shy

but so cute!

Somebody else came & entered into her body after the dance portion was over
because I don't know WHO this kid was!
This is what happened during the FANCY dinner we were eating at:

went back for seconds
...and thirds
....and fourths
and for what?
Mashed potatoes & dessert.
Each.time.

Talking out loud while the speakers were trying to talk
Giggling when toasts were given
and giggling some more when it was a time to be serious
EVERYONE stared at our table
Standing up and toasting when it was the "laddie's turn" and not the "lassie's turn"

Seriously, I had to play the "whose kid is this?! and where are her PARENTS?!" card
Doesn't help this kid is almost spitting image of me either...

Decided to dip her hands into the water
Whatever for, I have no clue

Giving the "GAG... it's a lemon" look
and doing it over
and over
and over again
Why?
Because it's funny to make silly faces

Suck on her fork

and basically... had the time of her life that night.

.... so belated, but so worth it!

To our Blondie.....

(better late than never!)

You made your arrival a week past due, but you were the most beautiful baby girl

Your light blonde hair caused Papa Rod to nickname you Blondie
... and it stuck

Your cute little laugh mesmerized everyone
...& everyone fell in love with you

You were a quiet little girl
... so sweet
.... so loving

and you were most definitely a "Momma's Girl"

You were & still are the best big sister a little kid could ask for
...always sharing whatever you had

...and so patient with a mother who was learning the ropes
... so easygoing

I remember your cute glasses you wore for a short time
... and then lost for 3 months
(found behind the fridge...who'd think to look there?)

and when you broke your upper arm and had to wear a sling for 6 weeks
proved to us you were a daredevil...
still are!

the memory of when you won your first trophy for dancing
remains on my mind
.... the happiness you had and the bounce in your step
...all the hard work paid off!

the happy day when you decided to be baptized

you are growing up faster than I can keep up
.... a quick blink of the eye, and you're now 12 years old!

.... growing up into a beautiful young lady

always remember to smile
& the world smiles with you

for you are forever our Blondie!
Happy {belated} Birthday Katie!!