Long time comin...

Before...






...during...








...after!





Jake here.

The greatest part about having cable TV is of course the ESPN family of networks. If I had only had access to such a plethora of sports on TV as a child I probably would be shooting the three ball in the NBA right now rather than the local community league. BTW, we lit up the score board tonight in a winning effort. Final: 34 - 25.

The second greatest part about having cable TV is HGTV! Since I am happily married to a beautiful woman and have two beautiful daughters I can feel quite comfortable admiting that I like HGTV. Bang for your Buck and Property Virgins are no threat to my manhood! Inspired by the design ideas we saw on HGTV we embarked on a little home improvement project in our home last July. Yeah, it's taken that long to post some photos. The projects have been mostly done for months. Above are some before, during and after pics of our home! We painted every room in the house and replaced old linoleum and carpet with laminate "wood" floors. It looks much better and feels like ours now. The bench you see in one of the pics is a Jenny project. She found it sitting on the side of the road, picked it up and refinished it... sounds like a story for HGTV don't you think?

Halloween!

What cute girls and what a fun Halloween! We wondered if it was ever going to happen. Each and every time I asked Madison what she wanted to be she said "Snow White". Unfortunately, she refused to put on any of the Snow White outfits we got for her. She had a Snow White skirt that was acceptable to her highness, but she would never let me put on the top that went with it.
Plan B: I bought a beautiful, Wal-Mart original, Snow White dress. Would she wear it? Not a chance! She screamed and cried with every invitation to try it on. Begging, pleading, bribes... none of it worked.
So how did we end up with this cute costume? I took one of her blue shirts and found a bunch of Snow White adornments to sew on (thanks mom for the great idea). Jake's parents were in town and his mom sewed them all on for me (thanks Mana for sewing so much). I think it turned out great! She loved it and wore it for two days straight.
Emerie wore her witch shirt in the first picture and ended up being a fish for trick or treating. We had a few different options for costumes and Jake ended up throwing the fish on with his fisherman hat. What a cute catch! Originally I thought it would be fun to have Madison be Snow White, Jake could be the handsome prince, Emmie a dwarf, and I was going to be the witch. We ended up with Snow White, a fish, Caesar (or the Ghost of Christmas Past), and Cleopatra. Jake and I went to a Halloween party without the girls as this cute couple.
Madison loved trick-or-treating and didn't want it to end. She wore her wings with her Snow White costume so we had a fairy Snow White. Out here in Ohio the city chooses a day and a time for trick or treating. Our city chose the Thursday before Halloween from 6-8. Everyone sits out in their drive way and passes out candy. It's great, no door knocking! People set up fire pits, cute displays and have a great time out with their neighbors while they pass out candy. Such a great way of doing things! Madison even climbed up in some of their lawn chairs and made herself at home. We had a great time and it was so fun to have Jake's parents in town to help us with all the Halloween fun.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Last week we went to a nearby pumpkin patch. The only night I would be able to take the girls Jake was on call. Luckily I had some friends there to help out. Madison loved running around at the farm, looking at the animals and exploring their kids size hay maze. Those tunnels looked a little scary but she was brave enough to run through them after seeing her friend Conner run by. She was dressed for the farm in her Sleeping Beauty skirt and Cinderella pink sparkle shoes. Some days I just don't want to deal with a screaming fit over what she wears so I let her out in public in the outfit of her choice. It will be much harder to explain now that Halloween is over:) It was quite the challenge just to get pants on under the skirt. I used to wonder sometimes why moms let their kids out in silly outfit combinations. Now I completely understand. Madison feels "so pretty" in her outfits and that's all that matters (unless it's family picture day).
Anyhow, back to the pumpkin patch. I was so excited to take the girls to the pumpkin patch and have those cute little pictures that every blogs about with the girls sitting with all the pumpkins. However we ended up getting on the hayride that takes you to the field of pumpkins as the sun was going down. The tractor we were waiting in line for to pick us up was extremely slow. We ended up having quite the adventurous hayride with the moon and the stars. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch the driver told us all to hop off. There were a bunch of people waiting to be picked up who had apparently been waiting a long time. I guess they pick you up at the farm, drop you off in the patch, and then let you pick your pumpkins while they drop off and pick up the other load of people. There weren't any lights other than the headlights on the tractor. Since I had both girls and the double stroller loaded up on the hayride I had my friend pick out a pumpkin for Madison and we just stayed on the tractor until it reached the parking lot. It was dark, late, and cold. Madison didn't seem to mind one bit and when the ride was over she said she wanted to go again. I made friends with the new load of people who hopped on the ride and they helped me off the hayride with the stroller and two girls. We had a great time! Next year we'll get those cute pumpkin patch pictures and make time for some pumpkin carving. It's been a busy month!

Five Months Old!

I am very behind in my blogging! Here are Emerie's cute five month pictures even thought she just turned six months. I'll add her six month pictures later.
We call Emerie, Emmie, Emmie Boo, Goofy-Loof and Cutie Pie. She is such a sweet baby and she makes me laugh all the time. She pulls the funniest faces and makes the funniest noises. She does a really cute scream that sounds kind of like a lamb instead of crying. She is usually very happy and Madison is the only one that can make her laugh really really hard, and I guess cry really hard too:) Emerie has a deep muffled laugh and it sounds like she is trying really hard not to just let it out! She still kicks like crazy in the bath tub and I don't think she has ever cried in the tub except when she was in with Madison and got water poured on her face:( She wakes up really happy, smiles and kicks her legs like crazy when we come in. She is working on sitting up all by herself, still a little bit wobbly. She can roll over but were not anywhere close to scooting. She loves to be social and when her daddy comes home she can't stop staring at his face (finally someone else to look at besides mom)! I love kissing her chubby little cheeks and she loves to snuggle which also meant she didn't like being put down in her bed. Her lip would quiver as soon as we walked into her room. Lately she's been going to bed great however. She's not sleeping through the night yet but hey, who wouldn't want to get up two or three times a night with this cutie;) I always say to myself, it's a good thing you are so cute as a walk into her room half asleep. We love you Emmie and we are so grateful to have you as part of our family!

Little Singer

These last two weeks Madison has just exploded with singing. She always liked to listen to music and she loved it when we sang to her but she would rarely just start singing the songs on her own. I have been amazed at how much they can remember at this age! Last week she started singing "I am Like a Star Shinning Brightly" and I had never sung that song with her. It's fun to watch her learn so many new things. The songs she is singing in the first video are "I am Like a Start Shinning Brightly", the ABC song, and the Turtle Song. The second video is Twinkle Twinkle, and the third video is Zip-a-de-do-dah. The last video is of Emerie being cute. She is such a sweet funny baby!
Madison sounds like she is speaking a foreign language whenever she reads "mommy and daddy" books. This must be what she sometimes hears when we talk:) Any big book with lots of words she thinks is the scriptures and so as she is reading you can hear the phrase "be nice to people". Often when we read the scriptures together I summarize it by saying the scriptures teach us to be nice to people. She definitely caught on to that phrase. The room was kind of dark so the picture isn't the greatest but what she is saying is pretty funny.

Cute Sisters!

The girls were being so cute in their matching outfits from grandma! Here is a little video of them that was interrupted by Emmie's spit up, yucky:)

Apple Picking!

Last week we went apple picking. It was a lot of fun and not as stressful as I thought it would be with two little ones! Madison loved picking the apples off the trees and baby Emerie was a little angel. We had a lot of fun on the hayride and Madison loved eating the apples we picked on the ride. I had never given Madison an entire apple to chow down on. Usually with even just a slice of apple she would end up spitting it out either because of the taste or texture??? I was very surprise when she ate the entire apple almost to the core. So grown up!

Shoe Tragedy

This last week Madison's heart was broken when her Snow White shoes snapped in half. She loved wearing these shoes and we often had to keep her from wearing them to the park, to church and other places where they would be hard to get around in. She walked surprisingly well in them and could even run in these little plastic heels. I am so glad she didn't hurt her foot when they broke as you can see from the sharp edges.
Madison loves shoes! Ever since she could walk she would go into her closet and ask me to put on her different shoes. She was very particular about what shoes she wanted to wear. She likes to go into our closets, pull out our shoes and clomp around the house in them. It's fun to watch!

End of Summer

Madison loved swimming in her monkey pool! We bought it in the middle of July so it was like 75% off and by the time we were able to blow it up and find a good time to use it the summer was pretty much over. Hopefully we will get more use out of it next summer:)

Serious Football Fans!

One thing we have discovered living out here in Ohio is that there are some die hard football fans in the Midwest. You haven't experienced intense football until you have seen a game out here. A few weeks ago we got a flyer on our door offering daycare for the football game! I guess that was just unheard of when I lived in Utah. Daycare for a football game! It advertised two hours before the game, during the game, and two hours after. The cost was $60 per child or $100 for two. If you add that in with the cost of game tickets out here, you are paying a pretty penny for a game. I guess I am not that serious about sports! I do love the tailgating and parties that go along with football season but I think I would rather turn the game on fourth quarter:) Jake is still helping me to learn more about football so I can appreciate the game. I am still waiting for that power point presentation he started making for me when we were dating!

This last Saturday you could hear what was going on in the game even if you didn't have it on because the neighborhood roared with each good play the buckeyes made. We had organized a pre-game breakfast potluck with our street so we could get to know our neighbors. We had a great turnout and ate some yummy food! Jake made sure to deck Emerie out in pre-game football gear. He was so excited to put these little tattoos on the girls cheeks. Madison refused to have one on her cheek and cried when he put one on my check. She is very territorial when it comes to her mommy:) Oh, and for future reference, don't put these stickers on babies cheeks, I warned Jake that Emerie's skin was too sensitive and he probably shouldn't put in on...too late. She still has a little red mark and hopefully it will go away in the next few days. Sometimes mommies know more than Dr's;)

Madison Loves Water!

As you can see from the pictures Madison loves water! Anytime we are driving by water she says I want to touch the water. We went to this really fun park with an awesome playground area and they also have this fun water area. The cows udder squirts water and they have lots of little spouts all over the place that kids can turn on. There is also a big fort area with built in water guns. Jake had fun squirting Madison and mommy with the squirt guns. I didn't think it was fair for just us to get wet so I told all the little kids at the other stations to get the big man wet! Jake was just to fast, maybe next time.
It wasn't even that warm outside since it was almost dusk but Madison was laughing, running around, and having a great time playing in the water. Luckily I had an extra change of clothes for her for the ride home.

Nothing like a box!

There's nothing like a good old box for some great playtime. Madison had a lot of fun playing in her makeshift playhouse with her friends. A good thing about moving, you have a lot of boxes!

Emmie, the Alligators are coming...

For a little over a month now, as we are driving in the car, Madison's eyes get really big and she uses her "scary" voice to tell Emmie that the Alligators are coming to see her. Sometimes she just says the Alligators are coming and when I ask her who they are coming to see she says Emmie. Should I be worried? Madison really does love her sister and her time outs for being mean to Emmie are getting fewer and father in between (depending on the week).
Oh and, it was amazing Madison sat on this alligator statue. The first time she saw the alligators at the zoo she wanted to climb the fence to go see them. I told her that if she climbed the fence they would come over and bite her. I didn't want her to be terrified of alligators but she needed to know they aren't for petting. When she saw the statue of the alligator at the aquarium she wouldn't go near it. Makes sense! It took a few visits for her to be reassured it wasn't real.