Happy Birthday to Madison

Okay, I am a little late with getting to Madison's birthday. It was officially Feb. 23rd.
I can't believe my "Maddy Cakes" is 7 years old!! It seems like just yesterday the nurses brought her to us in the hospital with DARLING little bows in her hair after her first bath. She was so chubby and precious with all her dark hair. And her big sister Jamie just adored her so much. In fact, Jamie told me, "Mom, you have Dad and now I have Madison." They have been good friends ever since.

7 Things We LOVE about Madison....
1. She always wants to help and please others.
2. She says funny things, "Are you telling me Blake was hatched from an egg?"...long story
3. She is simple....same hairstyle, shoes, style of clothes, jewelry, etc. EVERYDAY. (I hope it is like that when she is a teenager!)
4. She has her own sense of style. She is who she is...
5. She is sensitive to others. (She cried her eyes out when Jason was rejected on the Bachelorette last summer.)
6. She is absolutely beautiful.
7. She always tries to Choose The Right.

Madison you are a very special girl and Daddy and I love you so much! We are glad you are ours for eternity!!!

Another Fun Weekend!

We had a really fun visit this past weekend with Josh's brother, Jay, and his family. On Friday we went to Morehead City to visit my friend Kimberly's horse farm. Jay and Cristy have 5 kids and we have 4. Sweet Kimberly gave them all a ride around the farm on a horse. The kids really loved it! The little kids were really cute running after the horse. They had fun trailing along.

The kids in the hayloft...

After the horse farm, we went to Fort Macon. This is the funniest picture of the day...Josh being "shot" out of the canon! Jay and Josh were having a good time getting some fun pictures!!

I can't figure out how Josh climbed in the canon...hhmmmmm...?? :)

Me and my sweetie!

Part 2 of Weekend Get Away

Fun At The Pool!!!

Gabbie and Jamie

The reason we go to the Sheraton on the beach is because of the indoor pool. Yep, it's all for the pool! The kids swam for hours and hours. We pretty much chased away all the romantic couples trying to enjoy a hot tub on Valentine's Day!! One guy even asked Josh how much longer the kids would be swimming.....for a long time buddy!!!!

Tyler and Madison

These pictures are just hilarious to me. This one is a little blurry but still funny - Tyler doing the pencil!!!

Flying high with Madison!

Weekend Get Away!!

Our family went on our annual weekend beach trip. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel at Atlantic Beach. Not far from home but far enough away to relax and have a quiet weekend. We went with our friends, the Millers. We had so much fun being on the pier, looking for shells, swimming in the indoor pool and relaxing in the hotel room.

This was Blake's first trip to the beach since he learned how to walk. He was quite intrigued by all the shells and wanted to pick them all up and throw them in the water. Of course throwing them in the water meant throwing them 2 inches past his own feet.

The kids had so much fun finding ocean treasures - shells, crab legs, feathers, sand dunes, pelicans and dolphin with their best friends.

The Millers...Carla, Troy, Gabbie, Madison and Anna

We had the best time this weekend.

When we got ready to leave, we went to the pier for one last walk. Pelicans were diving for fish, dolphins were swimming close to the pier and we had the whole pier to ourselves to enjoy the show!!!! As my Great Grandma Maples used to say, "This was a perfect ending to a perfect day! I'll remember this 'til my toes turn up!"

Toady

Just like all my other children, Blake LOVES our friend Toady. Toady is our friend at Toddler Story Time at the local library. We go every Friday morning with lots of friends. Blake is getting better at paying attention to the stories. With such a talented librarian, Ms. Pam, it is hard not to be entertained! There are stories, songs, puppet shows and of course Toady. One of the activities we do almost every week is "Hickory Dickory Dock". We say, "Tick Tock Tick Tock, Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse went up the clock......" Anyway, Blake likes to say that for the rest of the week, "Tick tot" he says and holds his little hands together.
Blake is getting brave and over his "star struck" nervousness. He actually goes in for the hug now at the end of story time!!!! Last week Ms. Pam let him walk around with Toady. He loves Toady so much and lately we have seen great big frogs in Wal-mart with the Valentine's Day stuff. We can't get through the store without Blake pointing and yelling, "Toey, Toey!!!" I love this fun way the children have to be introduced to literature. Thanks Ms. Pam!!!

Shoes

This is Blake's "cheesey" smile. He likes to show off for the camera these days. We all love it (and him)!

This blog is dedicated to Blake's cute shoes. I have wanted to do this for a while but just keep putting it off. So here goes....
It is so sad how fast babies grow...especially out of their cute clothes and shoes! I am not very sentimental about "stuff" but all these shoes on the blog were so cute and I was SO SAD to say goodbye to these little shoes.
These slippers were given to Blake from our friend Nicole. She actually gave them to me when I was pregnant with Blake. They have been really fun winter slippers on a cold day when Blake refuses to wear socks.

These shoes definitely have a story...they were picked out at the store by Josh. They reminded him of beloved Vans. Blake wore these shoes A LOT - play, home, church, wherever. I didn't even tell Josh when I passed these shoes on to someone else. Ssssshhhhhh!

These little shoes were really the first pair of shoes that Blake wore on a consistent basis. We got these at the end of summer (I didn't even bother putting shoes on him over the summer when he couldn't walk). So cute....

I love these baby crocs!!! Luckily he does have a similar pair that he can wear now. They are great little shoes for big and little kids!!!!!

There...I have finally finished the "shoe blog" that I have been wanting to do for months now.

Snow Day!!!!

Jamie trying to catch a big chunky flake!!
Blake is not impressed that this pretty white stuff is cold and wet.

Beautiful snow angel Tyler! Nice boots!

Madison is a snow princess!

Josh and our kids plus our neighbor Heather and her kids.

We finally got a snow day!!! And what a great one it was!!! We were a little worried that we would be disappointed just like the last 4 years but we lucked out!! See...it can snow here in Eastern NC!!!

My kids were THRILLED to say the least. We haven't had a snow day from school for over 4 years!!! They played outside from 10am until 6pm. We went through about 4 sets of clothes per child. It looks like we will be home for a few days. Blake was pretty impressed with the white stuff all over. He kept saying, "brrrrrrrrr". He wasn't impressed when he got all cold and wet!!!

We are going to have so much fun in this snow and then we get to say GOODBYE on Friday as it nears 60 degrees.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!