Ten for Tuesday

1. Funny story about Brett. Cade is/was sick so Brett took Emma and Maddi to church and I stayed home with Cade. Brett dropped Maddi off at her class and then took Emma to her class. He said he was checking in Maddison McDonald. The Sunday School teachers looked for Maddison McDonald's name tag and told Brett they didn't have that name tag. Brett said it's happened before that her name tag wasn't there. Then Emma said "I'm Memma". Then Brett and the teachers realized he had given them the wrong name. They found the Emalyn McDonald name tag and Brett explained that Maddison was his oldest child's name and he got them confused. So funny! I love that little two year old Emalyn solved the name tag problem.

2. Cade man is sick. Poor guy. Took him to the doctor Monday and he has a bronchial and sinus infection. Got him on a steroid and antibiotics and he seems to be feeling much better. Poor guy had a high fever and was just miserable.

3. Crazy Emma with her new bows. A friend of ours used to have a bow business and doesn't do it anymore so she gave Emma a bunch of bows for her birthday. Maddi brought it home from dance one night and we showed Emma the basket of bows in the morning and she was so incredibly excited. She immediately wanted all of the bows in her hair and she was so proud with them on.

Here she is another day with even more bows on her head. What a goofball!


4. Thanksgiving morning Brett had to go into work for a few hours. They had donuts and he brought some home to me and the kids. We all enjoyed them, but I think Emma enjoyed them the most.


I should note her hair was crazy curly on this day for some reason. Super tight curls. Some days it's super curly and other days not so much. Weird.


5. Thanksgiving day was great! We went to the Ford's house for lunch and stayed until the end of the first quarter of the Aggie/UT game. I was thankful to not have to make a turkey and we were happy to get to spend it with friends. I made green bean bundles and twice baked potatoe casserole. I also cooked a frozen apple pie that splattered on the driveway once we opened the car :( Luckily I had bought two pies, so we went home for the other one and baked it as we ate dinner. Emalyn surprised us all when she climbed up in Mr. Ulcrichson's lap and sat with him for a bit. She looks a little afraid in the picture, but she seemed happy to be in his lap when it happened. The Fords and Rachel's parents are all such nice people an we really enjoy being around them.

6. Maddi hurt her knee at dance a few weeks ago. After almost two weeks of icing it and thinking it was going to get better, we took her to the doctor. Turns out she had a pretty bad knee sprain and she as put in the immobilizer brace for 3 weeks. She ended up having her friends at dance and school sign the brace like a cast. She still got around pretty well with the brace, but she didn't enjoy it very much.

7. Maddi got a new knee brace today. She has had the old one for two weeks and was supposed to have it for another week. However, it had fallen apart and she needed a new brace. She ended up seeing the doctor and he checked her out and said we could take her out of the immobilizer and put her in a new brace that allows her to bend her knee. She will start physical therapy today to get her range of motion back. They needed to fit her for the new brace so she had to take her jeans off and put these cool shorts on. She wasn't happy with me when I made her wear those shorts out to the car. Ha ha!

8. A few weeks ago, Cade helped a friend make "fits" to sell at the craft fair at the clubhouse. It's a little yarn guy that you throw when you're angry, so you're "throwing a fit". They sold over 30 of them at $1.00 each and he wanted to make some for his friends and cousins for Christmas. Maddi helped him make them, she was in charge of the typing the little poem that tells about fits and printing them.

9. Although I don't enjoy the fact that it gets dark at about 4:30 here, I do enjoy watching the beautiful sunsets as I drive home from taking Maddi to dance. I snapped this on my phone and it doesn't do it justice at all. Amazing how beautiful they can be.

10. I was out shopping on Friday and Brett took the kids to run some errands and to eat at Culver's. They texted me this picture and said "She's HERE!" This lady in the picture is a stalker, according to Maddi and Cade. You see, Cade and I went to IHOP almost a year ago. We saw this lady with crazy hair, it looked like she had stuck her finger in a light socket. We told Maddi about her later that night. Turns out we saw her the following week at Culvers and then a few weeks later again at IHOP. From that point on, she has showed up at Culver's almost every time we have eaten there. We always talk about how weird it would be if she showed up and then, BAM, there she is! Crazy! It's a funny little family inside joke. I'm sure she's a really nice person, but to be honest, we're all a little afraid of her :)

11-11-11

Today is 11-11-11 and Maddi is 11 years old. She's pretty excited about being 11 on this day and thinks it might be her lucky day. Perhaps she should play the lottery tonight? It is also Veterans Day. Most kids are out of school today, but not our kids. The fifth grade is having a Veteran's Day production to honor everyone who is serving or has served in the military. Last night the parents were invited to attend. This morning, the whole school will be there as well as any veterans that the students have invited. Here is Maddi with her friends, Abby, Sam and Jane. Emma couldn't really see Maddi where we were sitting, but she could see Jane and she kept pointing and saying "there's Jane, right there". So cute. These are all very sweet girls and I am happy that she has found some good friends who are genuine and kind.

Here is Maddi girl making her entrance with her class.

We had a hard time seeing Maddi because of the people in front of us and where she was standing. I had to crop this picture a lot to cut off the heads of those sitting in front of us. I think this was right before they began.

Maddi had a speaking part that told about Francis Scott Key writing the National Anthem.

She did a great job on saying her lines.

Right after she said her lines, we all sang the national anthem.

This little girl was a great member of the audience. She sat quietly and enjoyed the songs and applauded as everyone else did.

The 5th grade did a great job and it made me proud to be an American. It brought tears to my eyes when they sang each branch of the militaries song and had current and former members of those branches stand up. I am very thankful for those men and women who have served our country to protect our freedoms.

When it was all over, we hung around and chatted with friends. I was very proud to look over and see that Cade was helping the janitor clean up the chairs. Then Maddi and her friends joined in helping as well. We ended up going out for ice cream with Emily (in the picture with Maddi) and her mom and grandmother, and the Hjelles. It was a fun night, but a little sad to think this will be Maddi's last time to do something like this in elementary school.

Miss Em Turns Two!

Emalyn Faith turned 2 on November 6th. We didn't have a party this year because Maddi's party was the weekend before and Cade had a swim meet in the afternoons on the weekend of Emma's bday. Plus, she's two, and she has no clue if she's having a party or not. However, we did try to make it a special weekend for our special little two year old. Five million pictures follow to tell about the birthday weekend!
Maddi and Cade didn't have school Friday, so we went to Chuck E Cheese. Maddi took Emma to see Chuck E and Maddi said Emma kept saying "see Mommy".

Maddi and Cade helped Emma play some games. They were so cute with her.

Ski Ball! I was playing it with Emma (her hand was just on mine as I rolled the balls) and I got a 10,000 and a 5,000. That was a first for me!

Emalyn very quickly learned how to put the money in the machines. She played this game over and over. Step one, put the token in.

Step 2, pull the handle.

Step 3, hit the red light. She got it down quickly and did it over and over again.

Riding in the car with Chuck E.

She randomly put a coin in this machine and ended up winning 50 tickets!

Two cuties.

Time to count the tickets. Maddi and Emma won the same amount of tickets. Ha!

The birthday girl sporting her signature look of one pink and one purple shoe.

These were her prizes after turning in her tickets. She got an orange slinky, a yellow fish, purple fish, airhead candy and a green crazy straw. She actually looked in the prize case and showed me things she wanted and told me what color.

And the big kids with their prizes. It was a fun lunch celebrating the big girl.

I have been wanting to get pictures of Emma in the bath tub and I finally remembered to do it Saturday morning.

Bubbles are so fun! I wish I had pictures of her the first time she had a bubble bath. She was freaked out that they were stuck on her. I told her to shake them off and kind of made a game out of it to make her ok with them. She's kind of a freak with getting dirty and sensory things so I figure a bubble bath here and there is good for her to get used to different textures.

She was being so goofy with her tongue the whole time we took pictures.

Time to wash the shampoo out.

Little sweetie pie!

The goofy tongue again.

Saturday Cade had a swim meet and I had a baby shower for a friend adopting a baby from China. I was at the baby shower and Brett put Emma down for a nap before he left for the meet. The plan was for Emma to sleep and Maddi to stay home with Emma while she napped. Our neighbor, Abby, was coming over to play with Maddi while Emma napped. Emma never actually went to sleep and was calling for us to change her diaper within 15 minutes of Brett leaving. Maddi changed it and then called Brett to ask what to do. He said put her back in her crib and let her cry. She then called Brett to say there was a wasp in house and he said to ignore it. I got home about an hour after Brett left and got a text from the neighbor saying the girls were all over at her house. I went over and found not only Maddi, Abby and Emma, but also Cocoa was there! Maddi and Abby (mostly Maddi, I think) freaked out about the wasp and called the mom over to get it. She couldn't get it because it was up in the second story of the foyer and told the girls to come back to their house if they wanted to, so they did. Maddi is clearly not ready to be left alone yet. She is so good with playing with Emma, but I don't think she has the maturity to actually babysit yet.

So then I took Emma to the swim meet without a nap, she ended up falling asleep on the way and napped for the first hour we were there. She was a champ all day at the meet. That night Cade had a bday party and Brett and I took the girls to dinner. We got home and Emma was asking for her yellow pjs. We washed all of her pjs in the morning, and since I was gone all day, I forgot to put them in the dryer. She about came unglued that all of her favorite pjs were wet. I remembered that Omie had sent Emma some nightgowns for her birthday. We asked Emma if she wanted to open a Happy Birthday present with nightgown pjs from Omie. She was all excited to open the present.

Still curious and excited about the pjs.

And then tears. She was so mad that the pjs were not the ones she was hoping for.

We laughed and laughed and she cried and cried. Is that wrong that we found it funny?

Brett took her in her room and found a few pjs that were clean.

That didn't satisfy her either, she wanted the ones in the dryer. Poor baby! She ended up wearing a yellow shirt that was wet and was happy as a clam to wear a wet shirt to bed.

She woke up Sunday morning and immediately started asking for her pjs in the dryer. She then started putting on several shirts and pants and all was good in her world again. Then it was time to open presents because Sunday was her birthday!

This stuff is really fun!

I love Maddi and Cade's faces looking and half way laughing at Emma's Dora the Explorer big girl panties!

Emma checking out the Dora panties.

Bubba reading the card to little Emma.

Cade wanted to give her something of his so he went up and got the Animal Planet doggy set.

More presents.


Time to play with the presents.


Grammy sent a singing card that got broken in the mail. Daddy, the engineer, took it apart and found a way to make it work. Love that enginerd! Emma enjoyed singing Happy Birthday with the Minnie Mouse card.

Stylish, no?

Lord help us if this way of clothing herself lasts for several years :)

Maddi and Cade were so excited to play with the play do set. Emma didn't want to touch it. Maddi and Cade have been banned from play do for about 5 years because they made a big mess of it one day and both refused to clean it up. I told them if they didn't clean it up, I'd throw it away, and I did. Ha! They were very responsible with it this time so they can have play do in their lives again. lol

I love these pictures of Maddi helping Emma paint her paint with water book.




Maddi is so good to Emma and is so nurturing. Emma is the baby sister she had wished for for so many years. I hope they are always so sweet with each other.

Emma wanted to put on her big girl panties.

But in true Emma style, she had to have multiple layers of panties.

We all thought she looked so stinking cute in her panties. She tells me everytime she poops and wants to be changed and tells me most of the time after she pees too. I think we'll work on potty training soon.

Since she wasn't wearing her pjs, she decided to carry them around with her. Goofball!

When we asked Emma what she wanted to eat for her Happy Birthday lunch, she said a cheeseburger. We were going to go to McDonald's but decided to go up a notch and went to Culvers. She loved her applesauce, cheeseburger and chocolate ice cream.


We spent the rest of the day with her napping and then at Cade's swim meet. It lasted forever and I ended up picking up Little Ceasers pizza for dinner. We put some candles in her pizza and sang Happy Birthday to her.

She really enjoyed the candles!






This is where Maddi and Cade kept the "happy" in Happy Birthday. Emma tried to grab the flame of the candle and they both immediately stopped her. Look at Maddi and Cade's faces. What a good big brother and sister!

We all helped her blow the candles out. I hope all of her wishes come true.

It was a very busy weekend but we tried to make it as much about the birthday girl as we could. I think she knew she was special. She kept saying "Happy Birthday Memma" and would talk about her presents and eating a cheeseburger. It's hard to believe she is such a big girl and is 2! I remember it like it was yesterday when I found out I was pregnant.

She has her doctor well visit Wednesday, so I'll update stats then. Went to the doctor today. Weight, 29.2 ounces is 75th percentile. Height 35 and 3/4 inches tall 95th percentile. Body Mass Index 50th percentile. Taller than heavier, so good. Some things about Emalyn at 2:
*She knows all of her colors and is a little obsessed with them.
*She can count to ten, but usually skips 6. She even counts objects.
*She talks a lot and puts several words together. However, her articulation isn't great.
*She loves Backyardigans, Wonder Pets and sometimes likes Curious George. She often repeats what they say and sings along with the songs.
*She can sing and do the motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider. She sings part of Happy Birthday. She can sing part of the abc's when we sing with her.
*She can recognize and name the letters E, C, M. She loves books and sits and reads parts of them to herself.
*She loves puzzles and blocks.
*She is wearing size 7 shoes and 2T clothes.

As Brett said, she adds a spice to our lives. She is not like Maddi or Cade at this age and she keeps us on our toes. She makes us laugh all the time and brings so much happiness to all of our lives. Happy Birthday Emalyn Faith!