Madelyn's 6th Birthday

Madelyn turned 6 on March 30-and last Saturday she had her first "big" birthday party.
She has been planning this bowling party in her mind for months, she invited all the girls in her class and a good friend from church.
I don't really get it-I've been bowling maybe a handful of times in my life (and most of them have been in the last year) and I just don't get the big appeal to bowl (maybe it's because I'm awful at bowling-I'm not sure). But Madelyn seems to LOVE it and she's actually quite good at it so good for you Madelyn.

some of the girls in Madelyns class

Sophie, Olivia and Madelyn right before her friends arrived-side note to remember-Olivia was very concerned for all the "little girls" to hold their own bowling balls because one of her friends at school went bowling with her family and her little sister dropped the bowling ball on her foot and broke it, so consequently Olivia was trying to carry all the girls bowling balls which actually caused MANY balls to be dropped and of course one was dropped on a toe in a fight between Liv and Sophie. Olivia could be a mom today-I swear it!

We awoke on Madelyn's birthday to this-a winter wonderland. Since Madelyns birth 6 years ago, we have yet to see a nice sunny March 30-always snow, always-even the day she was born it snowed.

Partying at home on her actual birthday day-it snowed outside but she's wearing a swimsuit and cover up-go figure

opening packages from Grandparents

just had to get Sophie's face during the opening of presents

Madelyn, Paige and Sophie
Madelyn didn't want a cake-she wanted fried ice cream. Completely fine by me-I love fried ice cream as much as her.
I wanted to write a little about Madelyn's sweet spirit and attitude-our family has been going through what can at times be quite a difficult situation. In January we were called by our bishop and relief society president and asked to help a family in need. They were/are the grandparents of 3 young children whose mother is a drug addict and father is in prison and they(the grandparents) were unable to care for the children at that time. Our family was asked to take in the oldest child, a little 6 year old girl named Paige. We were granted temporary guardianship for 6 months which allowed us to put her into school with our children and make decisions on her behalf. Paige is a sweet girl but she can be very difficult at times which can and should be expected considering where she has been. Day after day of dealing with this situation and all the drama that comes along with it(regarding the extended family) all of us get tired and annoyed. I tried at first to have Olivia and Paige share a room, that did not work. So we put her in Madelyn's room the second week-Madelyn has been simply amazing with her. I don't know if it's her age and simple acceptance, but Madelyn has such patience and love for her. So many times I have come to points when I feel I just can't deal with it anymore and I don't want these problems anymore-then I see how Madelyn- a little 5/6 year old just shrugs her shoulders and tells Paige that she loves her and all of us love her-this comes after Paige's screams of hating it here and her wanting to leave. Madelyn has by physical example reminded me countless times of why we are doing this-Paige is a child of God and needs to be loved. Someone needs to help her and why not us. Trent and I have been trained since little children to be Christlike and this is the opportunity of a lifetime it seems, to be Christlike. Then why can it be soo hard for me and so simple and easy for Madelyn? There are so many complicated issues involved in this that could never be explained in a blog post, but my point in writing this is to illustrate on Madelyn's birthday post her great potential and Christlike behavior. I hope and pray she always has such tolerance and love for people different from her. She truly is a blessed girl.

Sophia's Birthday

Little baby Soph turned 3 last week. My baby is growing up-happy? not sure-
We took the girls ice skating-everybody really enjoyed it except the birthday girl. I literally drug her around once then we took turns sitting by the fireplace with her-so exciting.

Sophie is obsessed with Duckies lately. She has a massive collection of cheap plastic squeaky ducks. I've tried to buy her cute cuddly ducks, and we even took her to see real live ducks-she was not interested in any of them except the cheap 1.99 walmart squeaky things. So hence the ducky themed cupcakes, and all the ducky toys.

My mom says Sophie looks just like I did when I was her age-I don't see it...

Happy Birthday "little big girl"-she has made it very clear she's not a big girl yet, and she's not a little girl anymore-she's a "little big girl"-I think her 3 year old logic thinks it can manipulate this way to receive every possible advantage- cute.....

Olivia's Baptism

Isn't this cute! We were so lucky to have my 2 nieces come all the way from Utah for Liv's baptism. The girls had sooo much fun, little sleep but who cares about that except the mom.... all the girls ready for church-I don't know how I would ever be able to do 6 girls hair everyday, just even brushing out all those snarls was horrible...

All 6 girls sang at Olivia's baptism. We practiced and practiced the night before and they were only slightly off key.....

The actual baptism was so nice. My mom, Trent, the Bishop and Primary rep. spoke at the baptism.
(my mom cried-she never ever cries)

My sweet elderly parents

If Trent were writing this I think he would say what a privilege it is to be able to baptise your own child. From my(the mothers) point of view-what a great feeling and blessing it is to have a husband who is able to baptise and confirm our child.

Olivia was so sweet and grateful that day. This is just the beginning-

It's hard to believe I have an eight year old!

Olivia's 8th Birthday

Little Olivia has turned 8. It's a big birthday for her. We do birthday parties every other year and it fell on this year, but the most exciting part is that she can be baptised (will post pics soon). She really wanted to have a rollerblading/skating party (there are limited options in the middle of winter in western PA) so that is what we did!

This picture really doesn't have anything to do with the party-but....isn't it awesome- that's Trent cleaning under and over the tramp

the birthday girl

Singing happy birthday

the girls on the rink

Adam Lambert Concert!!!

Last night Trent came home from work with a babysitter lined up and saying he was taking me out-this is not a common occurrence. He surprised me with the greatest surprise ever!!! Adam Lambert made an unexpected one night stop here in Erie at the Warner theatre. It sold out in minutes after it was announced, but somehow he got us tickets, on the 2nd row of all places. (it actually was because some woman was selling them at face value because she had bought them for her son and he was now grounded, his loss our gain-be good kids)

This first picture Trent took. The audience was the most diverse you've ever seen or heard of. There were a ton of goth, men looking like women, women looking like men. And then this 92 year old woman on the 3rd row with all her senior citizen friends. She must have been some American Idol fan.

He is an amazing performer-but I wonder how the old folks hearts are doing today. There were many moments I was shocked, some things were quite risque (and on the whole I don't think I'm easily shocked) and over all it was a pretty dark concert.

Trent you are seriously the best, this was an extreme concert, never been to one like this!

He had the best costumes(of course)
I also think this is the best picture I got of the night. It was not only dark in meaning, but the lighting was also very dark and goth. It was seriously quite an awesome experience!

Madelyns Birthday

Oh my little Madelyn. This should have been posted a long time ago, since her birthday was March 30th, but we're doing a little catching up and I'm starting with her birthday. Maddie is five now and it's hard to believe that in just another month she'll start all day kindergarten. I can't quite pinpoint why it appears I'm going to be hurting the day she starts, but I believe it has something to do with her not being the first, but by being the 2nd it truly means my family is growing up(I always looked forward to my first doing things for the first time, but it's not the same for the next) and these little girls wont be little for much longer.

Here they are at an Easter Egg hunt right after Maddie's birthday-yeah, um that was only what 4 months ago?
Isn't she sweet, Maddie's favorite color is blue and it has been blue for as long as she's been able to say blue, so she had a blue birthday, for the 2nd year in a row.

On her new blue bike

Being a middle child(which I was one of) I'm afraid she might sometimes feel a lack of attention stuck in between the oldest and then the baby. I know how it goes, but now as the mother of a middle child I realize how much even love you have for each child and how even though by chance she's in the middle, it's actually quite a blessing. She has always been so independent and she has a strong will, but such a sensitive side. At five years old Maddie is able to play well and follow the advice of other kids and give her own without being domineering, she's ready to start school even if it is all day! Even now I feel a loneliness in me just thinking about all the quiet afternoons I'll have without Maddie curled up on the couch beside me while Sophie sleeps. She hasn't started school yet, but I'm already missing her, how is that possible? I love you so much Maddie, you bring such happiness to your family.

Sophia's 2nd Birthday

I am sorry, I'm a slacker, Sophie's 2nd birthday was back on February 21st. But it's better late than never. For the children some day who will read this-in my defense it's been a busy few months. She wanted to open that Elmo bag soooooo bad! The party hadn't even started yet and she was already crying
She loves Elmo-started stripping as soon as she saw the new Elmo clothes

So cute!!! (the "you are special today plate" was bought for .50 cents from my sister-in-laws yard sale some 8 years ago. I just barely started breaking it out-I had never seen one before, but their kind of cool-right? Your loss Emily!!(I think we've been saying that for the past 8 years))

Sophie and Grandma on the day Grandma left-Sophie still asks "where's Grandma" and when I respond with "she's at her house" Sophie gets mad and says "Grandma my house, my house"