The Maddys: March 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Ladybug Hugs and Butterfly Kisses

So, besides try to keep up with the girls, housework, bills, and trying to get an Etsy store open I have undertaken redoing the girls room. When the doctor told us that more kids probably shouldn't be in our future I was a little depressed and threw myself into all things girls. We fixed the baby room up (okay, totally gutted it) before Kathryn was born. I chose colors and all knowing that we wanted kids close together and the next might be a boy. Well, we never got our boy, but we have two beautiful daughters. I've seen so many cute pictures of baby rooms lately and I thought it was about time the girls had a 'girl' room.

We had blue stripes on one wall and that wall is now pink. I found a cute saying that I then wrote on the wall "With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug sleep tight little one, like a bug in a rug." I also found these great wall stickers at Menards. They are huge Gerber daisies and they look great with the gorgeous quilts that their Grandma Gail made them. I also got wall stickers that are square and have flowers and word on them.

The project that took the longest was painting on wood letter that spell the girls names. I wanted these put above the beds with picture frames hung above them. I had to be creative because each of the girls names has 7 letters! It took awhile, but the letters for both are the same (I couldn't think of anything else) and they look better than I thought they would.

Get ready for picture overload!!

This is the girls room before. The wall with the blue stripes is now pink.

The names.

This is during. Kat wrote on her wall awhile ago (another reason for the paint job) and the paint wasn't covering!

I got so behind there was no cereal or eggs for breakfast Sunday and Jesse doesn't like pancakes and I sure didn't have time to make any, so Daddy got us donuts!!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Anniversary

Yesterday Jesse and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for that long! We didn't do much, but managed a kid free brunch at the new resort about 20 minutes from here. My mother-in-law was kind enough to keep the girls, yet again. Brunch was good, but we won't be going there again (way to expensive).

My husband isn't very romantic so no flowers, no card, and no present. Last year he did come up with the idea of opening another savings account and for each anniversary and birthday we'll make deposits and once the kids are older we can take a trip to England. I thought it was a good compromise; however, a saving account has yet to be opened!!

Jesse is a great husband and I feel so blessed to be his wife and the mother of his little girls. We've had our ups and downs, but really do get along great. I love being able to stay at home and wouldn't be able to do it if Jesse wasn't willing to work so much. He likes taking care of his family and I am thankful for that. I think some people were concerned when we got married so young, but we never second guessed ourselves and here we are....

I love you Jess!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Holicoptor and Alligators

The girls and I spend the day with my mom yesterday. My sister, Belinda, was suppose to be here (it's her spring break), but Manu broke his hand and she needed to stay home and take care of him. Manu's surgery went well and he's recovering today.

We started the day with Mom's doctor appointment. While the girls and I were waiting for her in the car we saw life flight come in. Kathryn loved seeing the helicopter up close (I thought it would land right next to us!) and then she wanted to see the sick person and I DID NOT want to see the sick person!! The helicopter landed on the next building and she was excited to tell Grammy Robin and Daddy all about it. Kat spent the rest of the day looking for holicoptors as she calls them:)

At the mall the girls played in the play area while I clearance shopped for them for next winter. I didn't find much, but got their new sunglasses for this summer!! The Children's Place has the cutest sunglasses and they really don't cost much (2 for $5) so we always get sunglasses and the girls even leave them on! Kat didn't care much for anything except riding the alligator to see the rubber duckies. The elevator has a waterfall that runs over it and they had ducks (huge rubber ducks) in the water for spring. It took us a while to figure out what Kathryn wanted, but she got to ride the elevator a number of times. Lili just took everything in. She did really well, but got tired of sitting after awhile.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and perfect to get the girls out. The car stayed warm and no jackets were needed which is wonderful to a mom who has been fighting to keep two little ones bundled up for months! Now to go through dressers and get spring and summer clothes out, ugh!

I'll leave you with the only 2 pics I got all day. Yes, only 2 because someone (Kathryn) didn't think she needed her picture taken.

Kat's hair was static-y all day!!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Small Town

Just a quick post tonight. Lili is sick and I have a feeling it will be a long night although she is sleeping peacefully for now.

Some people I knew is high school lost their 11 month old little girl to cancer a few weeks ago. Cora Paige would've been 1 on the 5th of this month. How sad I feel for her parents. She reminded me so much of our little Lili. I rest in the fact that "my thought are not His thoughts and His ways are not my ways." God has a plan and even though I may never understand that God has a hand in this.

My point is the small school that I came from in Kansas made it to state basketball!!! The teams both girls and BOYS are all wearing pink shoe laces in honor of Cora!!!!! Small town and close communities are so wonderful and I am thankful to have gone to such a great school. Anyway, this really touched me and I thought it was cute. If you want to see pics go to The Macs on the right of the screen. Go Lonnie - Take State!!!!!! We love you!

Will try to post pics tomorrow of what has been going on.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

FREE CABINETS!!!!!!

I have the best bother-in-law in the world! I don't know what else to say. Jesse's brother works for a lumber company and thru some contacts got us kitchen cabinets for free. This guy had just bought a house and was in the process of redoing it and somehow it came up about what to do with the cabinets and since we were having Eric look into cabinets for us we got a WHOLE kitchen!! We even got a dishwasher, stove top, double ovens, and trash compacter!!! God really provides. The kitchen WILL be done this summer for sure now and I'm excited for the house to finally be done or at least until we do the addition in a few years:)

Because Jesse spent the whole day taking out cabinets, Kathryn was able to spent the day with her Aunt Beth and cousin Meredith. She had a blast making brownies, playing dress up, and getting her nails done. Kat loves playing with Meredith and she can get her to smile and laugh at her lots and lots.

I got tons of stuff done today having just one child. I had been putting off paperwork, bills, filing, and that sort of thing for, well, months. It is nice to have things organized again and to be able to find things and to have found things that Jesse asked for weeks ago!

Our evening was topped off with a birthday celebration for my mother-in-law. She such a wonderful person and so creative. Kat and Lili love her and I am so glad they get to spend so much time with her. Gail has more energy than me most of the time and takes the girls for a day to spend time outside playing, feeding horses, and sometimes feeding the 'baby cows' as Kat calls them. What a great day even if it did rain all day!!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Winter Fun

This winter was full. We had so much stuff going on at once or at least that is how it seemed to me. Here are just a few of the highlight from 2009.

Our big project was finishing the bathroom. We moved the bathroom over from where it was and therefore we were never without one so that was great. Jesse even managed to fit a one piece bathtub/shower combo in. It is wonderful to have it done and way easier for me to clean!!

The other highlights include playing in the snow and going swimming at the new resort 20 minutes from us. The girls enjoy being active and all the time spent with either their daddy or grandparents. Here are a few pictures from all their fun.

Grammy Robin is pulling the sled because Daddy was working. Kat's angel is on the left and Lil's is on the right.

We spent lots of time shopping for stuff for the new bathroom.

Both girls love the water and Kat is ready to go back to the lake so she can tube again. (Yes, she went tubing at the age of 2!)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

A First

Well, here it goes. I thought blogging would be a good way to keep the family updated in one shot, but I'm not the best writer or speller so I'm not sure that it was the best idea I've had. For those that don't know us here is some background. Jesse and I met in high school and dated through our senior year. We attended all the major high school stuff like prom, senior banquet, and homecoming. By the end of the year I knew I wanted to marry Jesse and by the time we left for college I knew we would be married. In March of 2003 we finally got married. In July of 2005 we bought our first house. In July of 2006 (exactly one year later) we welcomed our oldest, Kathryn, to the world and in December of 2007 we welcomed our baby, Lorelai, to the family. Life has been busy.

Right know we are remodeling our house and hope to have everything done this summer. Jesse was working the weekend shift at his job, but got moved back to weeks and we are enjoying our weekends together. Kat and Lili are taken with the new pony that Papa just got and are having fun at the farm visiting the animals.

The main thing that we have been focusing on for awhile is me. I wasn't feeling like myself and FINALLY went to see the doctor. Dr. Lange is wonderful and made sure that extra test were run even though things seemed okay. I have a heart murmur that I was unaware of and it was and is causing some problems. I'm on medicine and that is helping, but it is just something that I will have to live with and monitor yearly. What really upset me was the heart specialist advising us not to have anymore children. We wanted to get pregnant this summer so Jesse could hopefully have his boy. It hurts that I can't give my husband something that I know he really wants, but we made the decision together and it is what is best for our family. We might adopt in the future, but that will be a few years down the road. Thankfully, God is good and gave us two wonderful girls!!!

Well, I don't want this to be too long so here's a peek for now and I'll try posting pictures tomorrow!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

About Me

Well, for starters, I'm a stay-at-home-mom of two beautiful and ornery little girls, Kathryn and Lorelai, and a wife to one amazing husband, Jesse. We live in a small town in the mid west. We hope to someday have a small farm in the country. Me, I'm not the typical farm wife and I don't know how well I'll like the country!

I use to love to read and quilt before the girls. I haven't seen my sewing machine in months and am not sure I could find it. I love all things crafty. Anything that's cute and I can make on our budget is fair game. I'm slowly building up an Etsy store http://princesschunkymonkey.etsy.com/ and am loving all things girl. I also love to refinish, repaint, and re purpose old furniture. Not that I have the time, but I collect stuff to be done at a later date. Which means our basement is full of what my husband calls 'junk' and Goodwill and garage sales are my downfall. For now I'm trying to keep the family on a budget which means a lot of meal planning and couponing and no eating out. I spent the rest of my time being mom, chef, housekeeper, wife, and chauffeur.

Jesse and I would like a little boy, but due to my heart murmur we won't be having an more children. We have been talking about and looking into adoption and hope that someday we will still be able to add to our family. I'm very adamant that we adopt a boy because one more girl might make me crazy; however, my husband tells me I'm already crazy so we should just see what God has in store.

So, here's just a peak into my life. I don't find many people my age in the middle of 'hicksville' that hold the same family values, faith, craftiness, and blog obsession that I do. I am a mom and wife and that IS my life.