{Birthday party pics}

Trying to play catch up with stuff that's been happening lately.

Maddie had her birthday party a few days after her birthday. Papa & Grandma came down from KC to enjoy it with us, and to follow us to Dallas for Thanksgiving.

Madison had 2 friends over, and Katie invited a friend as well. I didn't plan a single darn thing. Oh, I got pizza and made Maddie's favorite chocolate cake, but that was it.

Maddie's hair is too long... she finally got her hair cut a few days later. :)

I put on Karaoke, and the girls went at it for one song (Celebration), and Katie and her friend Darcy went crazy with it after the little girls left.

One of the girls' mom said the next day "Tressa came home and said it was the funnest birthday party she'd ever been to".... so, if you want to throw a great birthday party, DON'T plan a single darn thing! They'll create their own fun!

{Happy Belated Turkey Day!}

We just came home from Tiffany & Dan's home.... Mike's sister & BIL. We left EARLY in the morning Wednesday (4:30 a.m.) to make a 4 1/2 hour trip to Dallas. Why did we leave so early you ask? Because all the college kids in Austin also leave on Wednesday, causing major traffic jams in Austin that lasts for hours. So, we leave early in the morning. Mike gets lost in Dallas, and we end up somewhere we're not supposed to be. He's driving his mom while I'm driving our vehicle. I have a 7 year old in the back who is about to be carsick, complaining of a headache. Ugh! We finally arrive at our destination, tired but happy to be out of the car!

We had a fantastic time. We ate great food, watched tons of movies, giggled like a teenager with Tiffany at Twilight late at night.... shopped, went and had a pedicure done on Friday night, bought some chick flicks that I have been dying to have for months at Target for their major movie sale.

Tiffany made the best rolls in the entire world... it was AMAZING (Tiff, email me that recipe!). Thursday morning came and she said "Amy, help me pull this thing off (it was a plastic thing on the turkey)". What do I do? Instead of being a great SIL and help her pull the thing off, I said "hold on, this is a great picture for my blog". She got it off herself.

Maddie just HAD to have the turkey leg. Why? I dunno.... but she took one bite out of it and gave it back to me.

Mike & the guys took Katie with them to a shooting range on Saturday afternoon. The girl can shoot to our amazement! Mike's chalking it up to his genes, and I'm chalking it up to my genes. I can shoot too.... I won the best girl shooter for summer camp @ SEP when I was 15! I'll have to take a picture of her target.... she hit a ton in the 1's and 2's range! If you turn it sideways, it has the form of a K.. for Katie! Smart girl! Looks like Mike found his hunting partner!

{Happy Birthday Maddie Rose!}

Seven years ago, I gave birth to my youngest.... a beautiful baby girl. I had to be induced because I was 10 days over my original due date. Oh, I was so miserable.... and so big. The doctor said "let's induce her on a Monday... so you can be home in time for Thanksgiving." That was the first Thanksgiving that I was excluded from bringing anything. :)

Six thirty a.m. Mike and I checked into the hospital. I changed into those ugly hospital gowns. The doctor came in at 7:30 to break my water, and to give me pitocin. He couldn't break through the sac (no wonder she was late!), so he put a wire through the sac which was stuck on Maddie's head, and I slowly leaked all morning long. My dad came in with donuts for us, but I couldn't have any... :( The pain slowly started getting worse and worse. Mike & my dad tried to massage me as much as I would allow. They had to constantly remind me to breathe when I held my breathe through the contractions. Finally it was pretty unbearable, that I asked the nurse for an epidural. I do not have a problem with pain meds. I love pain medicine! Anything to make my life easier I'm all for! Shortly after that was given to me, it was time to push, and it didn't take long. I am a living, easy breezy birthing machine. I have the hips to pop those suckers out!

Madison & my grandma

At 10:38 a.m., Madison Rose was born. She was a little chunky at 8 lbs 3 oz... 2 pounds more than what Katie was when she was born. It was love at first sight. My dad had gone to call my grandparents and mom to let them know I was pushing, so they were on the way to the hospital, and were there before I knew it. The first thing I asked for as soon as they cleaned me up? A DONUT! I was starving!

sweet sisters

My mother in law brought Katie up shortly after, and Madison had a few presents for her. :) It made the transition to "big sis" a lot easier. Katie has proven to be the best biggest sister Madison could ever hope for. She's so patient with her, so loving.... even today!

Yes, Madison keeps us on our toes. From throwing spaghetti all over the walls and ceilings when I stepped away for 10 seconds, to emptying the salt shaker all over the table, and playing in the mud, and pulling all my flowers out of their flower pots ... and when she got into the lotion in her crib... she always makes life interesting for us. She is a quiet little stinker, and when she was little, if she was quiet for too long, you knew she was up to no good. She loves to listen to music, and would bop along quietly. She loved to jabber, and would always talk to us in "Maddie" language. We would have no clue what she was telling us, but it was fun interacting with her! Maddie loves the camera, and you can easily tell in these pictures the amazing smile in her eyes, and she always says "CHEESE".

We love our Maddie Rose!! Happy Birthday sweetie!

{Danger on the Hiking Trail?}

A few weeks ago my friend Mandi organized a group called Mormons in Motion. We go to this park once a week and hike one of the paved trails. It's a steep incline in some places, but a great workout. At the top of this hike is a tower that oversees all of San Antonio... breaktaking!

This past Saturday the girls & I wanted to try a new trail. We decided to go the longest trail there was in this park. It was about 2.43 miles long, and goes on the outside of the park. We start walking. After walking for about 3-5 minutes, we approach this sign that says in big letters:

WARNING!!

You may encounter the following:

Mountain Lions

Bobcats

(some kind of) Hogs

Snakes

Scorpions

If you are approached by a mountain lion, please call ______.

(gasp! I might be dead if I was approached by a mountain lion!)

I read it outloud for Madison. After I got done reading it, we all took a second (in silence) to look at the upcoming trail, which was out in the open. Imagining there were mountain lions just waiting for us, or wild hogs just waiting to chase us... or snakes that were waiting to rattle their tails at us.

Without missing a beat and saying a word, we turned around at the EXACT same time, and went back to the trail. It was SO hilarious... like we planned it! Finally after a moment of silence, Katie said "I don't think it would be wise to go on that trail if those animals in there".

Boy, we're chickens! I didn't even think that the trail we usually go on is connected to the same trail that has those animals as a warning! **duh** So, someday, we will attempt it, but we will keep an eye out for those dangerous animals. Oh, yes, we will!

{Nobody messes w/ Miss M}

Yesterday Madison's friend came over for a second. Her mom picked up a book to read. She and I got to talking, and so I instructed the kids to get some sidewalk chalk and draw on the driveway so they wouldn't run out in the street.

The little Dennis the Menace in action

Maddie, Lilly, her little brother (aka Dennis the Menace) & Katie all drew all over the driveway. They even drew outlines of their body as well. Lilly's little brother Jacob was really antagonizing the girls.... and Madison finally had enough. She went over to Jacob's body outline, added a few body parts (boobs, bra & underwear). Poor Jacob went to pieces, and cried his heart out. His mom & I laughed so hard... it was truly hilarious.

Jacob as a sidewalk body .... complete with boobs (or it might be a bra) & underwear & a belly button!

He left her alone after that. Maddie makes it clear.... Mess with Madison and you get boobs on your sidewalk body. :D

Katie cleans up all evidence

{It's a Goody thing}

I know if you have a daughter (or daughters in my case), you have a ton of hair stuff lying around (at least we do). My girls are constantly losing their ponytail holders for their hair!

I saw this on another website, a coupon from Goody hair stuff that's $2.00 off! I printed off two, and used them at Walmart & Target yesterday. It has to be used on "Ouchless" stuff. The package of 17 bands were $2.19, so you end up paying 19 cents for a package of holders. They print out great, and the stores were able to scan them fine (I'm sure if you go to Walmart and do the "check out yourself" feature, you could use as many coupons as you wanted at a time).

If your girls are still babies, stock up... you can't beat 19 cents. :)

It's a GOOD thing!!

{Shop-A-Thon}

Hey everyone .....

Tip Junkie is having a Shop A Thon full of creative ladies... who are giving away stuff!! I love some of the awesome creative items that are being donated. Makes me want to become more crafy!

Check out the little Shop A Thon button on the left or down below. Do it! :D Or, just go to the Tip Junkie as highlighted above and it'll take you to the giveaways!

{Catching Up...}

AT&T finally came through!! We are now able to sit INSIDE our house, and I don't have to get another mosquito bite from sitting outside trying to get a signal! Hallelujah!

This is gonna be a long post, so grab a snack, preferably chocolate. :)

The many expressions that Mike has.... Lovely, Mike, just lovely

Take 2 ... still not perfect
forcing a smile from Daddy.... we'll never get a great picture from him

Last Saturday we took the girls to a Highland Dance competition in Salado, TX. It was THE largest competition we have ever been to, by far. There was a private school in Houston that has Highland Dance as part of its curriculum, and there were easily over 50 girls dancing from that school, if not more. Since Maddie was being a boo-hoo baby that morning, she didn't dance. Augh! She started freaking out when we arrived, and said she didn't want to dance, and was almost hysterical. Then Mike told her "fine, I'm not allowing you to dance". Little Miss Stinker who is just like her Momma.... is very irritated when someone tells her she can't do something, so she said "Oh yes I want to dance now!". This went on for about 30 minutes. UGH Long story short, Katie did only 3 dances, as one of her reels she only learned once, and she didn't think she could do it by memory well. She did her Fling & her Sword Dance perfectly, and did a complete spill on the dance floor in her Seann Trius.... there was a huge gap in between the floor, that was held together by duct tape. You would've thought the organizer or judge would've thought something was up by the time the 5th girl took a big splat. Nope... so she was disqualified.

I will not show all the stupid pictures Maddie & I had...

These girls were AWESOME dancers, so it was great competition for Katie to be in. She placed a 3rd in her fling, and a 5th in her Swords... very low for her, but hey, she got a 3rd! I think that was our last competition for a long, long time. :(

Come on kid! A decent picture of me and you're not smiling?

I have found a lady who teaches HDance for recreation only once a month, and it is located only a few miles from our house, so we lucked out. We went for the first time last Tuesday, and the girls loved it. Yay!

Maddie & Miss Lilly.... soccer girl & angel

dressing up a scarecrow

with those "cuckoo-something"

Lilly smashes one on Maddie's head

ATTACK OF THE LITTLE SISTER!!

Halloween was fun, but quiet for us. We joined the neighborhood party for a few hours, then we took off with Lilly (Maddie's BFF) and her mom & little brother. I guess there are these "things" cuchoo something that are made out of egg shells, confetti & tissue paper. You crack them over a person's head, and it goes all over the place (the confetti does). The girls had a blast experiencing with these.

Funny story about this picture... the tickets to the games were supposed to be a quarter a piece. We arrive, and they're a dollar instead. I only brought $3 with me, figuring they would get enough to play with w/ $3.00. Well, we bought 3 tickets, and Katie used one of those tickets on these stupid boxes..... I had a whole bunch at home she could've played in if I knew how happy it made her. ::rolling eyes::

Jacob was like... all over Katie the entire night. :)

{More Maddie~isms}

While scanning through the TV for something to watch, I settled on Oprah the other day. The blind opera singer Andrea Boccelli was singing, and Katie and I were listening to him. Maddie comes in, and gives him a weird look (not sure why... she DOES love classical music). I told her he was blind, and did she understand what blind was? This was her reply (it was priceless):

Maddie: "Yep, it means the person can't see out of their eyes".
Me: "that's right! Do you know what it means when a person is deaf?" She should know this b/c I'M deaf.
Maddie: "Yep... it means the person can't talk and they talk with their hands instead."

Almost darling.... almost.

Exercise is going great. Been going strong every day now, doing at least 45 minutes to an hour of cardio, and weights are 2x a week only. I feel so much better!

Tonight I'm going to a "Pass the Plate" group that is put on by the Relief Society at church. The theme tonight is Rhodes bread, so I have to make something with that and take it. I was going to do a pizza, but I just decided to do cinnamon rolls instead.

The girls have a dance competition this Saturday in Salado, TX. Salado is about 45 minutes to an hour north of Austin. Katie is UBER excited about this, Maddie is dreading it, and refusing to dance. Papa & Grandma K bought them some mats at Sam's, so dancing will be a little easier on their feet & joints. They've been putting them to good use lately. On another side note, I did find a Highland Dance teacher here in San Antonio who teaches once a month, and even a GREAT piece of news, is that she's right down the road from us! Sad news, is that she isn't FUSTA certified any longer, so the girls will unable to compete unless we travel to Austin for lessons from a certified teacher. Katie is very bummed about that, Maddie is ecstatic.

Mike and I also have to give a talk this Sunday. VERY sad about that! It's on the Beatitudes. I need stories! Help!

{My new favorite salad}

My favorite salad in this entire world.... I tried this at my friend Mandi's house a few weeks ago, and mentioned in my last 2 posts that I would upload the picture and recipe for it.

Add lettuce (the above was butter lettuce, which I'm not sure what that is, but I guess any kind of nice green lettuce will work), slice up some strawberries. We had bought the small mozzarella balls and sliced those up, but I think those mozzarella sticks will work good too. Then, crush up some candied pecans (we loved the glazed Pecan Pie flavored Pecans). Add those three ingredients to the lettuce.

Then, mix up these ingredients for the poppy seed dressing:

1/3 c red wine vinegar

1 tsp yellow mustard

3/4 c oil

1/3 c sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Normally, one would add 1 tsp finely chopped red onion, but I had forgotten it, and it was still delicious! I did not pour all of the dressing over it, maybe about 1/4 cup. I saved the rest in one of my new "oh so cute" mason jars that I am meaning to save for my brown sugar scrubs (still need to get on that!). I have managed to make this salad a few more times, and every time I eat it, I just am "mmmmm-ing" all over again!

Enjoy!

{family: our DSL connection will be here on Wednesday, so I will be able to upload Halloween pictures soon! Stay tuned!}