Maddie's nighttime adventures

Maddie is always in motion, and we are constantly wondering what is going on in her little head. Some of her funniest moments happen after we tuck her into bed. A few nights ago she surprised us with something new, this rates up there with her tendency to say goodnight to her monster. We still don't know what her monster is, but apparently it is important enough to Maddie to merit a happy good night salutation.

Well, I had tucked Maddie into bed, and after I had gotten myself ready, I went to check on her. This is what I found in her place, a whole box of Graham Crackers!

Now, where could Maddie be? There she is, enjoying her snack on our living room couch, she looks very tired. As a side note, Maddie is convinced that graham crackers are called pies. I don't know where she got this idea, but she will even trace her finger under the words "Honey Maid" and sound out the word "pie" no amount of arguing will convince her otherwise. What a funny girl.

New Years Resolutions

January is almost over so it is high time I write down my new years resolutions. The sad thing is that as I am writing this, I have already broken a few of them more than a few times. I know, what is the use of resolutions if you are going to break them? For me they are there just so that I know what I SHOULD be working for, and then I can break them at my own discretion.

My first goal is to have a yard this beautiful by the end of the summer. Think we can do it? We are going to try our hand at xeriscaping this year. John has already started diging holes and building up dirt where we want it. A little snow can't stand in his way!

My second goal is to do Hannah's hair more often, at least on Sundays. She tells me that she likes it "just straight" but on the days that I spend a little more time doing it, I can tell that she loves looking pretty. She won't admit that she likes it (heavens no) but I can tell by how she smiles at herself in the mirror and then asks for lip gloss. I have never been a hair person, but I plan to use this blog http://www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ to study up.



My third goal is to get the laundry done before it becomes a crisis. I have talked about my laundry struggles quite a bit, but I had a breaking point in December when I decided it was time to make a change. John had come home from work and I was telling him about my thoroughly exhausting day (thanks for listening John) when I looked down at his socks and almost started to cry. John, realizing he was going to have a mess on his hands if he didn't say something nice fast said

"I don't go by color, I go by thickness"

I have come up with a new system that seems to be working a little better, but it does require that I do a little bit every day instead of having one laundry day a week.

Cutie Pa 2--T

Well, we did it, we took the leap and started potty-training Maddie. I have to admit that this is not something that I have been looking forward to. My potty-training confidence was all but shot (and is still suffering greatly) after Johnny. About two weeks ago I picked up some cute little 2T panties for her and today we pulled out the little potty. She looks so cute in her little panties and I was tempted to take a picture to post, but since my blog is public I thought it might be kind of weird. I found this cute picture on the internet just for decoration, you get the idea. Anyway, I armed myself with a timer, paper towels and a full spray bottle of cleaner. I was preparing for the worst, but guess what happened......

...after cleaning up one small accident on our bar stool I sat Maddie on the potty to show her where to go next time. A few minutes later she came downstairs and said "look!" she was holding the little white catcher container and it had sloshing yellow liquid inside! I have never been so surprised, I have heard of children like this only in legends, and would think they were purely mythological if I didn't know their parents. I feel like I am living in a dream, she was playing with Hannah later when I heard "I've got to go potty first." and she went! She keeps forgetting a few key points (such as removing certain pieces of clothing first) so she has ended up being soaked even though she makes it to the potty in time, but hey I'm just happy she knows where to go. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is not all just a really great dream.

The Lovelesscafe Refrigerator Door

Hannah's doodles always make me smile,

the first one is a picture of a pigeon reading a book called

"How to poop on people."

I love the serious/puzzled look on it's face.
The second one is a picture that we were going to use as our Christmas card, but didn't get around to it. It is a picture of all of her stuffed animal cats and bird and their presents from Santa. If you look closely in the upper left hand corner you can see Santa's arm reaching for a glass of milk and cookies

More Johnnyisms

Johnnyism I---

Mom: Johnny, you are eating your dinner so well,
and I haven't heard one complaint. Thank You!

Johnny: (visibly proud of himself) I'm only saying Ewww in my mind.


Johnnyism II---

Mom, can you type up www.howbabiesareborn.com for me?
we looked it up, it really is a website!

Johnnyism III---
(more of a deep thought)

Johnny: I think that black and white were the first colors invented...and maybe green and gray and silver...no silver is the same as gray.

Mom: Why do you think that?

Johnny: because those are the colors in old pictures.

Our Obama Cake

Isn't it funny the things you find to celebrate when you are really in the mood for chocolate cake. When John came home and saw that I was baking a cake he asked what the occasion was. I told him that we are celebrating Johnny having clean p.j. pants to wear to bed tonight. Last night he went to bed wearing a t-shirt and underpants (oops). You will see more about my laundry struggles in my new year's resolution post soon.

Anyway, John suggested that we could celebrate getting a new president today. So after dinner we ate our Obama cake. It kind of fell apart (insert symbolism here if you wish) as I was frosting it because I didn't wait for it to cool completely.

Got to love that 70's style snow suit

Okay, I did find the picture, but the similarities weren't as strong as I thought. Just the fuzzy hood and the little blondy zipped inside.
(Notice the feet:)

Wrapping up 2008

I haven't posted for so long that I almost forgot how to post. Time goes by so quickly that I forget to record the things that matter. I guess I could just keep my calendars for posterity and they could see how our days are filled up with doctor's appointments and church and school activities. We have all taken turns being under the weather these last few weeks, but I think that we are coming upon the light at the end of the tunnel.

I promise, no, I shouldn't promise--I never want to go this long without recording the happenings in our home ever again. So here is a quick Wrap up of what we have been up to for the past month.

Christmas was a ton of fun at our house. Instead of using the same socks every year for Santa, we all get fun Christmas socks to hang on our "clothes-line." John doesn't get fun Christmas socks though, I jump on every opportunity to buy him real work socks, it is amazing how quickly his steel toed work shoes wear holes in his socks--plus I wouldn't want him to get beat up at work. Our Christmas socks from left to right:
John, Cheryl, Johnny, Hannah, Lucy, Grandma Dorothy and Madeline.


I am a little embaressed to post this next picture because I can't believe I allowed it. John, Hannah and Johnny conspired to do a winter campout a few weeks ago. They set the tent up in our back yard and filled it with every spare blanket and sleeping bag we had in the house. They invited me to come out too, but I just replied "umm--no!" Luckily I had two little girls inside as another really good excuse. After lecturing John that he'd better not let our children freeze to death, they all headed outside for the night. Johnny and Hannah had a blast, and a very restful sleep, John was a little cold. Much to my relief everybody woke up the next morning, that's all I was hoping for.



My mom gave us a cookbook with a lot of "old time" recipes for Christmas this year. It is a recipe book from a little pioneer community near my home town. It includes a recipe on how to bottle rootbeer, the kind that is carbonated with yeast--haven't tried that one yet--sounds dangerous. We did experiment with homemade candy-canes though. They kind of flopped, but Hannah was able to stay up late with me so that we could make them together. She thought that they, and I, were the coolest things ever. I love these times alone with her.

John celebrated his 33rd birthday on the 15th of December. I can't believe that we are both in our thirties now. A week before his birthday we were able to have a little overnight getaway to celebrate. Thanks again Vera, our kids love spending time with you. They always come back very exhausted and happy. John and I did a little bit of shopping, eating and sightseeing downtown. We also went to the movie Twilight. We were going to see something else, but we accidently mixed up the times. John was a little hesitant to watch a chick flick, but he actually really liked it (don't tell the guys ;)

Johnny and Maddie and I built our first snowman of the season last month. It was sure cute, that is until Johnny had to check to see how structurally sound it was. Don't you love Maddie's snow suit. Got to love the deals at Kid-to-Kid. I think I had a snowsuit like that when I was little, but it wasn't quite so late 80's. Mine was more of a 70's style. I will try to find a picture of it and post it later.

Well, that wraps up 2008. What a fun year!