Playing with friends -Spring Break 2011

Madison and Cooper have LOVED playing with the neighbors (Madison and Drew) over Spring Break. Their Dad is also a coach so he's been home with them all week. We spent many afternoons visiting outside while the kids went back and forth between our houses playing. Madison is 18 months older than our Madison and Drew is 4 months older than Cooper. It's fun to watch them all play together.

Madison B. has tattoos that Madison LOVES. It's stencils and colored pens. You just strap the stencil on your leg/arm and color it in. She has been covered in them most of the week.

This guy has loved all the outside time we've had.

sweet, sweet friends!

somersaults and head stands

Cooper learned how to do a somersault. I don't know who was more proud...him or Madison! He still falls to the side a lot but he can do it. He's so funny because he does it on command.

he missed the fact that the ball already came down


getting in position


but fell to the side


Madison trying to help him!


practice makes perfect!


showing him how it's done...


Then somehow they started doing head stands! If she does it, he has to do it and the same with her. If he does something, she has to do it too!

Abby's Art Barn Party

The Sunday after our trip to White Oak, we had Abby's 4th birthday party. She had it at The Art Barn. Madison was SO excited about getting to paint!

This was such a cute party place! The building was adorable. Abby got to pick out what her guests could paint. She picked a crown, a purse piggy bank and a dinosaur. Then the kids could pick from those three items. Madison picked the crown. It was SO hard to just let her paint. I kept wanting to help and make it pretty. I refrained and let it be hers. She was super proud of it!

White Oak

One of my best friends from college had a baby back in December! I had plans to go visit her and came down with that awful pink eye! I was not able to go. Seeing as how it was March and I still hadn't gone, I made a day trip to see them! I was afraid I'd never find a whole weekend to go so the kids and I went the first Saturday in March. We got there around 10:30 that morning and stayed til about 4:30 that afternoon!
It was SO great to see Amy and of course her beautiful girls, David and even her parents! We had a great visit even though it was short. I'm always reminded how thankful I am for friends like her when I get to see her. It was fun to watch the kids play together. Madison LOVED David's drums. She has talked about this several times since we've been home. Amy took a lot more pictures than I did. When she emails them to me (hint hint) I will update my pictures. Here are a few of the three older ones. Hannah was sleeping through these pictures. Amy has some of all 4 of us!

Dr. Vest

Several weeks ago Madison got to dress up as her favorite community helper for show-and-tell. She chose to dress up like a doctor. She wore one of my cardigans as a doctor's jacket and we made her a name tag. She took her doctor kit. She was proud to be Dr. Vest. Who knows...maybe we'll see this same picture in 23+ years.

Valentine's Day

I took the morning of Valentine's off so that I could go to Madison's school party. I NEVER get to take the kids to school in the morning so it was fun to be home with them, get them ready, feed them breakfast and then take them to school. Although, I admit...I DID NOT like taking Cooper to daycare. He looked so sad at the fact that I was leaving him. I'm glad I don't have to witness that everyday.


Before we left, I tried to get a few pictures of the kids. None of them turned out great. This was the best I could get.

Madison's party was fun. They played several games and ate lots of food!



one of the games was musical chairs and each child had to have a parent play with them. Trent let me play :)



Matt's dad is a football coach and they go to our church so Matt and Madison are around each other a lot!



These are the gifts our sweet babies made us for Valentines Day:

Cooper brought this home from daycare


He brought this home from church


Madison made this for us at school!

Trent and I celebrated this past weekend. The kids spent the night with his parents and we went out to eat and to a movie! The next morning we slept until 8:00 and felt like we had slept in :) We watched a movie (at home) and then had lunch before going to get the kids. It was nice to just be together. It's not often that we leave our kids. I can probably count the times. But, I will have to admit, it's nice to do it every once in awhile!

A Valentine package...

A Valentine package arrived for the kids a few days before Valentines. It was from their Grammy and Papa.

Everyone (including the two dogs) was curious as to what was inside...

They got shirts, nail polish and nail stickers, paper airplanes, movies, candy and fudge! (I have no idea what's all over Madison's face. We had just gotten home from school)


They started eating the fudge right away and Madison didn't stop talking about her polish and flower stickers until I finally painted her nails and put the flowers on. I think Grammy has started something now. :)

Thanks Grammy and Papa. You made two kids very happy!!