Documenting

This is Miss Emalyn all decked out in her high heels making "cupcakes" for her babies. She is very into her babies these days.

Last week at MOPS, one of the mentor moms was talking to us about how to slow down and enjoy life because it goes by so fast. She had a little notebook that she kept when her kids were little and wrote down funny things they said or did. I so wish I had done that with Maddi and Cade. They still say and do some great things and I can start writing them down, but I'm sad that I've missed out doing that for them in their younger years. I have some of the things they did on the blog, but it's not the same. So, I plan to look around and use of the many little notebooks that I'm sure I have stuffed in a drawer somewhere and really writing these memories down. What a great keepsake for all of us when we are all older. Until then, I want to document this funny conversation with Miss Emalyn. She has been waking up at about 5:30 a.m. and wants to go potty and then I put her back in bed and then she doesn't ever go back to sleep, but calls for me starting around 6:00. So, as I was rocking her before bed the other night this was our conversation: Me-Take a big ni-night and don't wake up so early tomorrow. Get some good sleep so you can be happy. If you wake up too early, I'm not going to come for you when you call for me. So if you call for me and I don't come, it's too early and you just need to go back to sleep. Ok? SILENCE Me-Say, Ok Mommy. Emma-Emma's not listening to Mommy! It took everything I had not to bust out laughing. That girl is seriously funny.

Quick Update

Just a quick update with some random photos of each kid from my phone. Cade got his braces off after Easter. It took me a while to get used to him without braces. He will have them again in a few years, but he needs to lose more teeth. This time the braces were to expand his palette and fix his cross bite and push his front teeth together so his side teeth could come down. Cade has started baseball and is doing very well. He has had 2 games with his part time travel team and although they lost both games, he did well. He started pitching the first game and was the closer for the second game. It makes me so nervous when he is pitching. He does very well, and he doesn't seem to worry if he walks anyone, but it seems like such a high pressure position. He is also playing short stop. It has been brutally cold and insanely windy at all of the games and practices so far, so hopefully the weather will improve and baseball will be a little more fun.

This little girl has been taking gymnastics since January, which started her addiction to leotards. Starting last week, she now goes to a "tworiffic tumbling class" where she goes to a classroom for 45 minutes and then to a gymnastics class. I drop her off and come back for her. She LOVED it last week. In the class, they played with play-do, read a story, made a craft and sang a song. I'm looking into preschool for her next year 2 or 3 days/week. She is so funny right now! The other day she said "I'm going to do something funny." Then she took a pretend piece of bread and held it between her legs and made it drop to the floor and said, "Oh no! I just went poo poo on the floor!" We all died laughing so that made her do it again and again. She has started a lot of potty talk and I have no idea where it comes from. Maddi and Cade don't do potty talk anymore. Maybe because she's potty trained? She is a funny little girl and is very into pretend and her baby dolls and puppies right now. o

The kids have had some really good teachers over the years. This picture is with Maddi's first grade teacher, Mrs. Klick, and Catelyn and Aleigh (who she dances with) and her daughter Abigail (who used to dance too). They came to Maddi's last competition to watch Abigail's friends dance and Mrs. Klick was excited to watch Catelyn (she is in Mrs. Klick's class this year) and Maddi too. We have a few weeks without and dance competitions, so that will be nice. Maddi has time on the weekends to hang out with her little sister and her friends, which she always enjoys. m

Going Private

For several reasons, I have decided to make this blog private. I really enjoy blogging so friends and family can stay updated with our family and pics of the kids but mainly because I love printing out my blog into a book each year. It's a great keepsake and since I don't scrapbook or print pictures, it's all my children will have of their childhood :) So, I want to keep blogging, but I only want people I know to have access to our lives. If you want to keep reading this blog, let me know, because starting next week, I'm making it private. I'll need your email address to invite you to read the blog. I know it's a pain, but I am not comfortable with pics of my kids popping up in Google searches. Leave a comment with your email or email me, pammcdonald@comcast.net, if you want to be added to the private list. Thanks!

Easter Afternoon

After church, we came home to eat a yummy lunch and then the kids did their homework while Emma napped. After nap time we enjoyed a nice walk and then enjoyed the sunshine playing outside and cracking cascarones. Maddi was the first victim!

Then Emalyn. I don't think she knew how pretty her hair loooked, but she LOVED cracking the eggs herself.

Cade was the next victim.

Emma just smashed the pink egg! She was wearing one of Maddi's old costumes and the way she would smash the eggs and her costume looked like she was doing a salsa dance or something. It was funny.

Omie and Grammy had both sent the kids Easter baskets filled with goodies earlier in the week. Omie sent cascarones and the Easter Bunny brought some to the kids too, so there was plenty of confetti. It reminded me of Fiesta back in the old days in good old San Antonio!

More egg cracking....

...and egg throwing!

I think Emalyn would love Fiesta in San Antonio!

Emalyn also loved playing with her bubbles from the Easter Bunny. It was so crazy windy that it was very easy to make bubbles.


It was a fun day as a family. We did miss our extended family and Maddi was in tears Easter night because she missed her extended family so much. We gave all the grandparents a phone call and that helped Maddi a little. To make things worse, the next day was Grandparents Day at school and of course, like every year, she didn't have a grandparent to go to school. Miss Maddi is a sweet heart and loves her family more than anything. I pray that we can get back to Texas soon so she can have the love and attention that she craves from all of her family.

Easter Morning

The kids were out of school for Good Friday, so we went out to eat for lunch and then came home and died Easter Eggs. I should mention that my attempt at boiling eggs was a FAIL again, second year in a row. I had talked to many different people about how to correctly boil the eggs and I think I finally realized my problem. I'm afraid of letting the water come to a full boil, fearing the eggs will all crack, so the water never gets hot enough and they only soft boil. Apparently some people eat their eggs soft boiled. No thank you. Anyway, we had fun coloring the eggs even though we had no plans to eat them.

Emalyn has a cheesy grin every time she sees the camera. She is still obsesesed with wearing leotards, swimsuits and has now broadened her horizons to include costumes. Ugh! I am only letting her wear them at home now and bribe her with jelly beans to put regular clothes on when we leave the house. As soon as we get home, she starts taking her clothes off to put on a leo, swimsuit, or costume.

Cade is not terribly interested in arts or crafts, but he does enjoy coloring a few eggs each year.

Maddi took her time and loved every minute of egg coloring.

Emma would have colored 100 eggs if I had let her. She kept wanting to drop the eggs in the color so hard the color would splash out so I convinced her to put stickers on her eggs after they were all colored. Today we were at the store and I was buying eggs and she asked if we could color them. I told her she had to wait until next Easter :)

Easter morning! The kids went on a scavenger hunt the Easter Bunny left for them to find their baskets.

They found their baskets under the dining room table! Maddi and Emalyn got matching nightgowns. I was hopeful that would make Emma want to wear normal pjs and not swimsuits, etc. She wore it Easter night and she hasn't agreed to wear it again :(

Cade dove right into his Easter brownie from his basket.

Then it was time to get all pretty for the egg hunt followed by church.

Our three little blessings.

Sweet little sisters.

Check out all the eggs!


Emalyn enjoyed getting the eggs but took her time, it's like she was only going to pick up the ones she thought were pretty.

Her face makes me laugh. She wasn't thrilled that the morning dew had made the dye come off on her hand from the real eggs.

Cade figured out which eggs had money and which had candy. He was leaving the ones with candy for Emalyn.

Look, more eggs!



Then we moved to the backyard to find the rest of the eggs. The Easter Bunny had fun leaving the eggs in Emma's car, on her swingset, on the trampoline, etc.



After the kids found all the eggs, we tried to get some family pics, but the sun was so bright!

I'm just so thankful it was sunny and decently warm on Easter this year, so I'll be happy with squinty eye pictures.

Time to open the eggs and check out the goods inside. Notice Emma and her OCD way she opened her eggs.

The kids got all sugared up on candy and then it was off to church to celebrate the real reason of Easter!

Definitely Nature in My Book

I've always been interested in the Nature vs. Nurture debate. After having 3 kids who are all very different, and looking at myself compared to my brothers and other friends compared to their families, etc., I've decided it's definitely Nature over Nurture.

For example, Miss Emalyn is a true princess. I don't even know how she knows/learns some of these things. She constantly wants to be fancy and dress up. She gets excited when she sees bows and pretty things at the store. When we take her to the restroom in public, she'll take one look at the restroom and if it's not up to her standards, she'll say "I'm not going potty in here." Really? Where in the world did she learn that? She has refused to use the restroom in several places after telling us she needs to go potty. She'll just hold it until she gets home or until we find an acceptable restroom. One of my favorite things she does is if it's slightly drizzling she'll insist she needs an umbrella so she doesn't get wet. I'll admit, I have told Maddi and Cade for years that I'm a princess and princesses can't get wet when they make fun of me for wanting an umbrells at the slightest drops of rain.

Then there is Cade. He is so boy and simple. He'll see me on facebook and he says something like "why do you care what other people are doing or what they have to say? If you want to talk to them, just call them." Maddi has been begging to get a facebook account (I will not let her, no way) and he can't understand why she would want to have a facebook account.

Then there is Maddi. She is just the sweetest little girl I know. Really. She took her wallet with Easter money to church and couldn't wait to put some of her own money in the offering. Honestly, Cade was asking me during church if he could buy a new game with his Easter money when he got home even though he was about a dollar short and then there's Maddi giving her money away and so happy to do that. She used more of her money today at the school book fair buying gifts for her buddy and big sister at dance. She never even considered spending one penny on herself. I am embarrassed to admit that I'm more like Cade. I enjoy giving to others, but I always have something on my mind that I'd like to have/buy too. I often wish I wasn't that way, but I'm realizing there are some things we just can't change.

Then there's school too. Report cards came home today and both kids did a great job. Cade had all A pluses, even in his 5th grade math class, and it comes so easily to him. Maddi works her little tail off and struggles most of the way and she got 4 A's and 3 B's. Brett and I aren't more proud of one or the other. They both do the best with what they've been given and we are proud of them both. Same home environment, preschool, etc. and yet they are different students. Nature for sure.

I wouldn't change the way any of my children are, each of them is a blessing, and are perfect just the way they are. I know we are all who we are because that's who God wanted us to be. There's no point to this post really, except to get my thoughts out.

Egg Hunt

Spring is in the air and that means it's time for the Churchill Club Egg Hunt! Emma was super excited to go to the Easter Egg Hunt!

We saw the Easter Bunny as we were walking up and I was surprised she walked right over to him with Maddi.

She even gave him a hug!

I guess Maddi and Cade are too old to take pictures with the Easter Bunny, but Emalyn was brave enough to do it alone!

We went in the clubhouse for breakfast. Not many of Maddi and Cade's friends were there but Maverick was there because he has a little 3 year old sister.

Emma did not want to wear anything except her leotard and the only way I got her dressed was telling her Emily would be at the hunt and she could see her there. Thank goodness Emily was there!

Sweet big girls and little girls.

Lauren, from accross the street was there too and her and Nathan (Emily and Abby's brother) jumped in the picture too.

I am starting to see more and more of Maddi in Emma. I hope Emma has a heart like Maddi's too!

After breakfast and hanging with friends, it was time for the 2 and under egg hunt! Unfortunately, our warm weather is gone and it was pretty chilly outside.

Sissy was happy to help Emalyn with her egg hunt.




After Emma got her 12 egg limit, she decided her legs were "broke" and wanted to be held. This is a shot of her and her little "broken leg fit". We left after this, but Maddi stayed with the neighbors to do the 8 and up egg hunt. Cade wasn't feeling well (from bumping his head on the car door coming home from a sleepover and his asthma was flared from screaming and crying after hitting his head) and decided to skip the egg hunt and wanted to go home.

After we got home, she threw another "leg's are broken" fit when Brett told her to take her shoes to the laundry room.

She finally agreed to move her shoes when I told her I'd play egg hunt with her. First we opened all her eggs. Notice how she lined them up just so. When Brett put some eggs down half hazardly, she immediately fixed them the way she wanted them.

The eggs were so hard for her to open. She would shake from trying to pull them so hard! The 2 and unders didn't get anything in their eggs because of choking hazards, but they got a good bag with marshmallows, cookies and a bunny bracelet thing.

Daddy was silly making the eggs talk.

This looks like another fit, but she actually took a break from opening eggs to dance. She dances all the time and does a few turns and then rolls around on the ground. She calls it her "Cocoa dance". I think she's watched a few too many dance videos in the car.

This was her weird body roll dance move thing. I wanted to include this picture to show her leotard under her clothes. At the egg hunt she had to use the restroom and we had to take off her dress, shirt, leotard and then panties. Ay caramba!