Innocence Of A Child

This evening while I was putting Maddie to bed and asked her if she wanted to say her prayers, she made sure that we got down on the side of the bed to kneel. She wanted both of us to say it, so she started it, then wanted me to tell her what to say and she would repeat it. Toward the end of the prayer, she started repeating everything very loud and obnoxiously. After the prayer, this is how our conversation went:

Maddie: Mom, I saying the prayer REALLY loud!

Me: Maddie, it's important that we say our prayers in a soft, reverent voice because we are praying to Heavenly Father.

Maddie: And Jesus too. Hmmm.... I wonder where Jesus is.

Me: He's up in Heaven with Heavenly Father and the angels.

Maddie: I want to go to Heaven too!

Me: Me too Maddie, we will go, someday.

Maddie: I want to go to Heaven and live with Jesus, and the angels!

I don't remember how the rest of the conversation went, but at this point, I was trying to hold back the tears. I can't get enough of these precious moments I have with Maddie.

I love the sweet, innocence of a child!

Cute Chloe

She just looked so darn cute, I had to post some pictures! My sweet little baby, growing up, WAY TOO FAST!!!

A Big Cut

I have been so sick of my hair. I've always had my hair long, my whole life, with the exception of one time I cut it short in Middle School. Well, I was WAY ready for a change and surprisingly, Mike was too (he really likes my hair long)! I was very excited to have new hair, but was so scared that it would look awful on me! I figured if I hated it, I'd wear it up everyday!

Here's a before & after picture...

Well, I actually really like it, and so does Mike! It's so nice washing it and using microscopic amounts of shampoo & conditioner. My hair doesn't get all ratted and tangled, and it takes WAY less time to dry! AND... I can still put it up!

Circleville

The girls and I headed down to Circleville Wednesday afternoon and came home today. The reason for the trip was to have Erin cut & color my hair... which you can see in the next post! I actually had an awful migraine while I was there, the kind that makes you sick, can't even open your eyes... the worst! And I wasn't very good about taking pictures! But here are a few....

Thursday morning we spend driving. Heather had a bunch of parts and things to pick up for Alan, Brody had a dentist appointment up in Richfield, and a trip to Wal-Mart. The kids were cute sitting in the back seat of the truck watching a movie together on the DVD player. They way home they all just slept!

Maddie also got her first ride on the 4-wheeler, thanks to aunt Heather, who was brave enough to take all three kids out while I stayed inside feeding Chloe and packing our things up.

Story Time

I was trying to get our stuff packed up to go down to Circleville. When I walked out to the family room I found this.....Seriously, the sweetest thing! Maddie was telling Chloe stories about Jesus!

Mike tries to read a page out of this each night to Maddie. It used to be a real fight to get Maddie to sit and listen. She would cry, "No Daddy, please, not that book! Let's read my book!" It was so funny! But now she (most of the time) enjoys listening to daddy read it. I was so proud to see her trying to re-tell the stories to Chloe!

Scootin' Around

It wasn't too long ago I was saying Chloe wasn't anywhere near crawling. It's amazing how fast babies pick things up and hit these milestones. Chloe still isn't crawling, and maybe she still won't for quite a while, but she sure is getting closer, faster than I thought, given that she does not like being on her tummy for longer than a minute or two! Chloe was facing away from me to begin with, towards those toys. Next thing I know, she's turned around... trying to get to me. She eventually got frustrated and tired and gave up!

Sometimes when I put Chloe down for a nap, she'll lay in there talking and yelling for a while and I've gone in to check on her, give her a pacifier to put her to sleep, I'll find her rolled over, twisted around, and wonder how she got to that point because I haven't seen her do it (unless she hooks her legs onto her toy mat). But I finally saw her do it today! She rolls over on her tummy and does scoot herself around partway to get to whatever she is eyeing!

It's so fun to watch Chloe grow and learn right before our eyes!!!

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day we decided to walk down to the 'big park'. (The 'little park' is just out our backyard, one house down. The 'big park' is down the street from us.) Chloe seemed to love getting out and taking a ride in the stroller. The girls loved facing each other and making each other laugh the whole walk down. I could listen to their sweet giggles all day long! We only lasted at the park for about 20 minutes before Maddie was squeezing her legs together and telling me she needed to go potty! Story of her life! We had just gone before we left! Like mother, like daughter, I guess!

After we got back, Maddie was still wanting to play outside but Chloe was ready for a nap. So Maddie and I got out and put together this fun water table that was supposed to be for her birthday! Oops! This is why I don't like to buy things too early... I get to anxious to give them to the person early! Maddie loved it!

Chloe went to bed soon after that so it was just Maddie and I out there playing. But before she did, we snapped a few pictures of the girls together! It actually started to get a bit breezy outside, but that didn't stop Maddie! She went through 2 outfits in about 15 minutes, drenched them! While I was in filling up a bowl of warm water to poor in the table, I came back to find Maddie completely naked! So we compromised and she wore a bathing suit.

I guess when you put on a bathing suit, it means you should swim. So she climbed in, trying to find a comfortable spot in that little table. There was a storm blowing in so the wind was getting stronger and a little cooler. I asked Maddie is she was cold, seeing those little goosebumps all over her little body, but she kept telling me she was fine. (There actually was some other kids out in their swim suits as well playing with super soakers.) So I just kept adding warm water to the table. After playing for over an hour, she finally got hungry and decided it was OK to come in now.

So much for our nice, warm day, two storms in a row coming in, and tomorrow it's going to bring SNOW! Yuck!!

8 Months Old

Really? Seriously?? Chloe is really 8 months old!! I know, I really don't believe it either! I remember the time flying by with Maddie, but not this fast! I'm pretty sure it goes by twice as fast with your second!

Chloe has changed so much lately! She still talks all the time, but even more. I really didn't think she could talk more than she did, but she does! Does it really surprise anyone? Look at her mom and sister!! She is truly the happiest, most easy-going baby! We always know when something is 'wrong' with Chloe (i.e. tummy ache, tooth coming in, etc.) because that's the only time she fusses. She didn't even cry when Maddie was dragging her across the room by her arm. Or when she pushed her down and rolled her over because 'Chloe just wants to roll over', was her response! Poor Chloe! She is going to be one tough girl!

We usually find Chloe rolled on her tummy when we get her out of bed. Sometimes she'll just lay in there and play with Mr. Elephant, talk to him, until we come to get her. Chloe is still sleeping well through the night. She has learned to put her pacifier in her mouth. We haven't quite perfected this skill, still working on it, but we can do it! She has both her bottom teeth now and we're pretty sure is working on another. No sign of it yet, but the huge amounts of drool have begun again!

We love this little princess and are so thankful she is ours!!!

Happy Easter, 2009!

What a great Easter we had this year! It was fun with Maddie being a little older and talking about the 'Easter bunny'! She was a little disappointed that the Easter bunny didn't stay to play. The silly Easter bunny forgot to put pink peeps in Maddie's basket, but thank goodness she remembered and brought them to her during her nap!

Both girls actually slept in Easter morning. Chloe woke up around 8:15am so I snapped a few pictures of her in front of her basket because I knew as soon as 'sister' woke up, it would be chaotic. Chloe seemed to enjoy grabbing at everything in her basket. Poor girl... after I snapped the pictures I took her basket away and 'made' her wait until Maddie woke up!

Maddie finally woke up around 8:45am and still acted sleepy, which is strange! She woke up kind of whiny, when normally, she is the happiest person! Both my girls wake up SO happy. Maddie is usually 'too much' for people from the time she wakes up, to the time she closes her eyes at night! So I'm not sure why she was a little on the grouchy side. Didn't want to wear her cute little bunny ears... that she picked out! And wasn't excited about having her picture taken either! She was fine once she got her roller skates on, which she has been begging for, for quite some time now!

Maddie came out and just sat and stared at the baskets. Then she had to take Chloe's toys to her before she'd go check out her own basket. It was pretty funny!It was fun going to church and seeing everyone in their cute Easter outfits. Maddie was so excited that a little girl sitting behind us was wearing the same dress as she and Chloe! I'm not sure if they actually gave an Easter lesson in nursery, but Maddie did come home with a 'families are forever' necklace she made that she won't take off! She was so proud to tell me that she colored a picture of me at church! Chloe was a good, quiet(er) girl at church. We made it all the way through all three hours! :)

Not the greatest picture. This is right as we were leaving for church... Chloe is WAY past nap time, Maddie has already messed up her hair, and I set the camera on a shelf with the timer on, but obviously it was a little too high up... but this is all we had time for! And after church is straight down for naps. So we get what we get and we don't throw a fit! :)

For Easter dinner, we went over to my aunt's house (who happened to be up in Seattle), where my cousin, Hilary, prepared a fabulous dinner! I didn't take any pictures so I'll have to get some from her, she did a great job!!! It was fun sitting around the table with just us cousins! We had some good laughs!