Circleville

Me and the girls took a 2.5 hour drive down South to Circleville, Utah to visit Mike's sister for a few days. Daddy stayed home to work and spray for spiders and bugs (one of my biggest fears... the spiders, not spraying!) The girls both did great in the car, and Maddie had a blast playing with her cousins!Maddie got to ride McKenzie's horse with her right when we got there because Brody was out riding it when we pulled up! She loved it and asked to ride it everyday after that. This was Maddie's first time riding a full-grown horse. She has done pony rides before, but never a 'big' horse!

We brought down yummy sugar cookies we had made and the kids had fun decorating them!

We got a few too many pumpkins when we went to the pumpkin patch so we brought a few extras down with us and let the kids paint them. Maddie did a pretty good job getting just about every little spot of the pumpkin!

The weather was perfect fall weather. Not too hot, not too cold (during the day anyway) so Maddie thoroughly enjoyed just playing outside. She got to ride a little 4-wheeler, play with the puppy and kitties, rode bikes, but mostly just loved 'exploring' around. She built princess castles out of rocks and played drums on some wood stumps. This girl has quite the imagination!

She and Brody also loved running around 'riding' their little stick horses! They did this inside and out, pretty much all day long! They loved to do it right after bath time when they were naked, having us chase them down to try to get them dressed! Crazy kids!!!

While we were there, Chloe learned to 'bat' at the toys hanging above her. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was so fun and exciting watching her learn this new trick! She loves to lay under her hanging toys and bat at them and hear the music change each time she does!

Oh ya, and Maddie wore big girl panties for almost a whole day we were there. She went potty twice in the potty, once right in front of the potty (didn't quite make it!), and once smack dab in the middle of the kitchen floor! We think this is a good sign. She wore panties one day since we've been back for just a couple hours before her nap time. She didn't have any accidents, but she didn't go in the potty either. I think we're making progress. I don't really want to push her though, just let her do it when she's ready, because last time I tried to push the whole potty training thing it back-fired on me and she wouldn't sit on the potty for months. She would cry and beg for me to put a 'baby diaper' back on her.... until now! One step forward....

Another Sunday Photo shoot

Yep, we did have yet ANOTHER photo shoot with the girls on Sunday. I thought the girls looked so cute in their polka dot dresses so I had to do it!Of course, the ones of the girls together aren't the greatest... it's not easy getting them to both cooperate.I know I've said this before, but Chloe is just all smiles all the time (except for in the evening). She just loves to smile and be talked to, sung to, basically given any attention at all! You may notice from the pictures, but her poor eye has gotten worse. It turned all red so I was worried she got pink eye. I can't tell from the goopiness (is that a word?) because they are always goopy from her clogged tear ducts she has. So I took her to the doctor yesterday and she doesn't have pink eye, but it is an eye infection, basically a 'cold' in her eye. Both her ears are also 'cloudy', which means she's starting to get a couple ear infections. Poor girl! Explains her fussiness lately though! So my poor baby is not only on medicine for her reflux, but also for her ears too, and back to her eye drops as well!! My doctor said they normally wouldn't prescribe antibiotics right away for her ears and see if she could 'ride out the storm', but because of how fussy she's been, clearly she has been in a lot of pain! She only has to take it for 10 days though, and her eye is already looking better from her drops too! Now we're just hoping she outgrows this reflux really soon!!!
Maddie had pink eye when she was about Chloe's age, but still to this day, she has never had an ear infection (knock on wood!) I know we have gotten very lucky with how healthy Maddie has been. We are going through a whole new thing with Chloe already, definitely feel like we're learning to parent all over again! We just feel so bad for her when she is in so much pain!! But when she's not in pain (which is more often then when she has the pain), she is seriously the happiest baby, which is why we can't wait for this all to end!! So keep Chloe in your prayers!! :)

Happy Halloween....

...to Maddie!!!Maddie was so excited to hear the doorbell ring this afternoon, only to find a package there for none other than: MADDIE DUDLEYThank you, thank you, thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Maddie was so excited about all her Halloween goodies! She had to tell Daddy all about it as soon as he walked in the door. It was funny watching Maddie play with her little fairies. She told them they were beautiful. Then she told them (yes, she was talking to the little fairies), that they needed to line up to play football. That lasted about 2 minutes, then she taught them how to dance around like a ballerina.

Morning Crafts

Every night when I put Maddie to bed, she asks me, "What's next, mom?" What this means is, what is next after she wakes up, which in this case means the morning. So I told her after she woke up we could color her pumpkins and make our little candy corn guys. The problem with Maddie is she doesn't forget anything! This girl has got the best memory ever!! So as soon as she woke up in the morning, she was so excited to come and tell me it was time to color pumpkins AND make candy corn guys. Yes, she did remember both! A promise is a promise... and I stuck to my word... this time anyway! :)

I forgot to take pictures of her actually making her candy corn guys, but we got a picture after. Maddie loves these guys. She has been having them 'dance' around on the table. She likes to make them 'hold hands' too, as you can see in the picture! She was pretty excited about that!

Stealing Muffins

Maddie has a huge obsession with a lot of things, one of them being food, which consists of muffins (sometimes she calls 'cupcakes'). I was feeding Chloe and was going to make dinner as soon as I finished. Maddie asked me for a muffin, which my answer was no, because I'd be making dinner soon. I thought I had pushed the muffins far enough back on the counter, but didn't realize I left Maddie her own little stepping stool on the floor. So when I finished feeding Chloe, this is what I found....
She was pretty proud of herself! I actually had a hard time not laughing!(And yes, I did dress Maddie, multiple times actually. Her clothes don't usually last long on her, sometimes I wonder why I even bother getting her dressed. Actually, her hair was done also...)

Pumpkin Patch

Monday night we went back to the pumpkin patch. This time Maddie stayed awake! We had a great time running through the corn maze, looking at the animals, going through the pumpkin houses and princess castles, and finally choosing our pumpkins!!

Maddie was pooped by the time we were done! She fell right to sleep when we got home!