Christmas week

The week in pictures

Here is Maddy next to the gingerbread house we made...

Oh yeah totally lying about making the gingerbread house- we got this as a gift from Nate's boss.

Sledding

Kristin, this is how to do a snowman :)



Christmas eve bath


Santa has already been here, I hope he makes it to your house too!

Merry Christmas everyone- we wish you were here!!

We heart Tinker Bell

Happy Birthday Maddy

Most of you know I am a day late but yesterday I still had my cast on my hand and I couldn't type very well and the birthday celebration went into the night and I didn't remember until today that I needed to post. Wow long sentence...


Birthday pancakes after gymnastics- thanks Sydney for the great b-day shirt!
Ginormous pile of presents!



I can't believe how much she has grown.

Then- our itty-bitty peanut



Now- our budding gymnast

Sing along

She started singing while listening to songs on the computer. We weren't sure if she would keep singing if she saw we were recording it...thus the angle. If you are at work you may want to turn down the volume. :)

Black Friday Fashion

Yep this was what she wore. Thank goodness I could put the tights and long sleeve shirt on underneath. :)

This is my yard this morning! Happy Winter!

Home again, home again jiggity jig

Can someone please tell me what rhyme that is from? It is always stuck in my head and now even Maddy says it. Anyway... we are home!
We really did have a great time. I am just going to start putting up pics and videos.

I think this is what started Maddy's obsession with Tinkerbell..didn't I mention that? Yeah it was all Tink all week. She really wanted a Tinkerbell costume to wear around the park but since it never got above 65 degrees I said no. :)

Nate said something about it being a good thing that Tinkerbell isn't like a seagull since she was right overhead- 'nuff said. :)

Maddy was dancing while waiting for the Carousel to start.

Here we are in the car waiting to check in to the other hotel. I couldn't let her see I was recording this so that is why the funny angle.

Telling me about Goofy's Barnstormer.

Inside Minnie and Mickey's houses.

Disney World part deux

Rats! I had good intentions to post every day. We are having loads of fun, Maddy and I have been doing the park thing solo since Daddy has to work (the reason we are really here, not because I am terribly spoiled). I thought it would be challenging with just me but its been a blast (even without a nap for the last few days).

Maddy loves the shows, we've seen Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo (the musical), Fantasmic, and the Little Mermaid just to name a few and she has been digging it all. It has been so much fun to experience this through her eyes and to really have the time to slow down and be able see everything. I think we have ridden the "Go Merry Round" about 15 times.

She LOVED Goofy's Barnstormer - a kiddie roller coaster (or roller poster in Maddy language). Enough of my dribble here is the real reason you read my blog - pictures!

Face painting this one is called Wishes

the finished product

Minnie Mouse


I had to get in on the face painting too.

She loved this statue- I think we sat here for at least 10 minutes.


See, I told you she loved it. Yes she is kissing Minnie's nose.

Disney World part 1

We made it. So far it has been very low key and relaxing, I decided this time not to run around like a mad woman to try and see everything and do everything. I learned my lesson in May. So Friday night we just checked in to the hotel and grabbed dinner. We also saw the Space Shuttle from the parking lot at Hertz. Funny video because evidently I suck at trying to keep things framed in the shot.

Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom and just wandered again trying to take it slow. We rode Cinderella's Carousel (or the Go Merry Round as Maddy called it) Aladdin's carpet ride (like Dumbo but it holds 4 people instead of 2, and its carpets not elephants). We headed back for a snooze and dinner then back to Magic Kingdom for Fireworks. The fireworks were awesome, somehow we missed them in May (probably because I was running around like a mad woman and we were too tired). We got to ride a lot more rides and had a really good time. Random pics from the night.

Already tired of us taking pictures.

Getting ready to ride the Mad Hatter's Tea Party



Watching fireworks and making faces

Too bad Halloween is over

First, I want to say it was only like 5 minutes she was by herself, I swear. OK so I am sitting upstairs watching the news and I hear the basement door slam and so I realize that Maddy hasn't been up here with me, so I figure I will go down and see what she's up to. This is what I see

My first panicked thought was that she got my scissors and there was some horrific tragedy, but then I realized it was finger paint so I ran upstairs to get the camera and I run back down (full speed because I have a red child loose in a fairly white area, this also explains why you can hear me breathing during the video). She was very proud of her painting, telling me that she painted her face. I think this is about the funniest things that has happened in a long time.

Doing her best impression of one of the Red States from last nights election -note the sad face-

She even got it on the back of her neck...impressive

Almost clean
All clean

Hey I actually finished a project!

Well, we did it, we finished painting the master bedroom. We put up a chair rail to seperate the two colors and make it look more finished. It was fairly simple, except for the two longest walls that were not flat. In some places we had almost a quarter of an inch gap and no amount of caulk will fill that in. So we decided to add quarter round to the top of the chair rail to disguise our amateur attempts at caulking and it worked pretty well.

Without further ado here are the before and after pictures.

PS I think HGTV should have a warning like Mythbusters- you know one that says "we are trained professionals, don't try this at home unless you have an interior design degree or are a master carpenter."



Before-orange


After- soothing blue and brown.
Before- Primer over the orange- you can still see it


After-no more orange!


After- close up of the fine detail work. :)

Happy Halloween!

What a great day it turned out to be! It was nearly 70 and we just finished trick or treating and Maddy didn't have to don a coat or a snowsuit! That was my big fear- that we wouldn't be able to see her costume because of a coat. I know. I know most parents worry about poison candy or razor blades.... not me.
Here are some pictures from tonight.

Maddy also got to wear her costume to school. All the kids sort of posed for a picture.

A little Halloween Preview

So we have this Fall Fest thing tonight. So here are a few pictures of Sleeping Beauty/Princess Madelyn.









We've been busy painting this week and we are nearly finished. I am hoping we will be done this weekend and I will post pictures of the make-over. For now get ready to say goodbye to the orange bedroom. YIPPEE!!!!!


Oh yeah and Maddy "shared" her stickers with Daddy one night while he was having a little nap.


OK he wasn't really asleep in this picture- because I woke him up with the flash in the first picture- but Maddy wasn't looking so I had to do it again.