Madi's Christmas Program

Friday, December 21st, Madison had her Christmas program. She did awesome and we could hear her out of all the kids at times. I think her favorite part was afterwards, we went to the library for cookies!!! Plus, she received her gift from Mrs. Waldren. Her St. John's Preschool shirt.

The One

And after, what I swear was 1,000 shots later...we finally got "The One". I still think the practice one turned out the best, but what are ya gonna do right?

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

And, no, I didn't tell Ethan to put his hand on Madi's...aahhhh!

Christmas Bloopers

These are practice pictures and blooper pictures for our Christmas cards.

CoCo Key Water Resort

We just got back from our mini-vacation to Omaha. We stayed at the Holiday Inn that has the CoCo Key Water Resort included. We had a lot of fun! The first night of sleeping wasn't very good, but the second night went smooth. Most of the times we went to swim there weren't many people there. The one time it was really busy we took advantage of the regular pool in the hotel. We walked to the other end of the hotel and had the whole huge pool to ourselves. It was great! Madi's favorite thing was the Lazy River. She liked riding in the tubes, but mostly she liked just swimming in there. Ethan just likes to play with water. He doesn't know how to swim yet and is still a little scared of the deep water. We would highly recommend going, but I think the best time would be during the week. I guess it's pretty packed during the weekend!

Earrings

Madison got her ears pierced on 11/5/2007!!! Papa Joe was going to get his one ear done and asked Madi wanted to and she said yes. I figured that once we got there she wouldn't go through with it, but she did. She cried at first and then got over it. They have been sore the past few days, but they seem to be doing good now. We've been keeping them cleaned and turned. The earrings she picked out are really pretty pink sparkly stars. Oh, and Papa didn't cry when he got his ear pierced!

Trunk or Treat

Above our Little Mermaid and Chicken. Madison and Ethan couldn't wait to wear their costumes. They looked so cute and everyone like their costumes at the Trunk or Treat. Below is a picture of Trunk or Treat. We had a lot of fun and the kids received a ton of candy. This was the first year for Trunk or Treat at St. John's and it went over really well. There were over 60 cars that participated. Some people went all out decorating their trunks.

Pumpkin Painting

I felt bad because we didn't have time to carve our pumpkins, but the kids ended up loving painting them! They had so much fun and were so excited to use all the colors. Madi went for more girly colors while Ethan went for every color!

Haircut

The debate is over...we gave him a haircut. I wanted to grow out Ethan's hair because it's cute with the curls. It had been sometime since his last haircut and on Monday I finally decided I wanted to see it short again. I asked my dad if he had a little time to cut it after swimming. So as soon as we got home we got the clippers out. Here's his new do, nothing different from any other time that we've cut it, but it still looks good. I think he looks more ornery with shorter hair!

Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

Ethan's 3rd Birthday! We can't believe our little man is 3 years old! His party theme was kind of a construction theme. His cake was in the back of a dump truck! Everyone loved it and some even though it was just dirt until they came closer. The cake turned out really good and was super yummy.

The party was a blast and Ethan loved every gift he received! Everytime he opened a new present he was so excited. All of the kids were playing with everything at once. I'm sure tomorrow morning he'll go right downstairs and start playing with his new stuff. Grandma Annette brought one of our party highlights. She brought several of those wax mouths. The picture above is of Madi with the huge lips. We laughed so hard, she could barely keep them in her mouth because she was laughing so hard!

I had to take a picture of the E-man eating his cake. Ever since I baked the cake, that was all he could talk about. We asked what he wanted for supper and in all seriousness he says, "CAKE!" Then we came home from eating and he wanted...CAKE. Then we have his party, sing happy birthday, and serve the cake...he doesn't want any. Ethan of course was too busy with his new toys. So after most people left he finally calmed down enough to enjoy some...CAKE!

Potty Time!

A proud moment happened today, Ethan went potty on the potty chair!!! We put him in underwear tonight and then kept taking him to go potty. The first time he sat there for 45mins and didn't do anything. After dinner we went back and after sitting there briefly he got 5 drops out. Then right before bedtime he sat down and peed like crazy. I was so excited!!! The bottom picture is Ethan putting stars on his potty chart. He was so proud of himself, which is so great! We'll keep you updated.

Starting School

Madison and Mrs. Waldren at the Open House. She was so excited to see Mrs. Waldren again!

Madison after her first day of school. She loved it of course! She's holding her first craft that they did. The picture in the middle is what I see when I pick her up from school. She comes running out yelling Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! because she's so excited after having so much fun in school!

One Tooth Down...

8/6/07...all teeth present & accounted for before the "incident". Madi smiling for her close-up at swimming lessons.

Well yesterday, 8/6/07, Madi lost her first tooth. Actually the tooth was pulled because she fractured it. She was playing around with Papa Joe, hit her tooth on his wrist band, and knocked her tooth back a little. As soon as I looked at it I knew all was not well.

I called the dentist and they said they would stay open until I got there. We went in and they took x-rays and you could tell right away that it was no longer attached to the root. After speaking with the dentist about the options we decided the best thing would be to pull it. This way we didn't have to worry about it getting infected. So, they gased her up, put some sunglasses on her, loaded up Dora the Explorer and she was good to go. I told her that she could tell everyone that she lost her first tooth and she got excited. She did so great!!! In fact, as we were walking out she said, "That didn't even hurt!". About 10 mins later she came down from her laughing gas "high" and was not happy, AT ALL. She ate a little and after her first bite she said, "I wish I didn't lose my toof". We weren't prepared for her to start losing teeth yet, so we had to hurry and explain the Tooth Fairy.

It has been kind of tramatic, she didn't eat until this evening. After 24 hours of losing her tooth we finally had our happy Madison back and she let me take some pictures of her. She looks quite cute, but we still haven't got used to the "new" look.

Iron Chef Battle

Iron Chef Ethan

Today battling in the Kitchen Stadium is 2-year old Iron Chef Ethan and 10-year old Cocoa. Don't be fooled by Cocoa's name, even though it's a pantry item this is her first challenge here. My bet is on the Iron Chef because today the secret ingredient is water. So far he has a huge dish in the sink and has added I think...soap. Yes, it has just been confirmed, he added soap from the Kitchen Stadium pantry. He is truly a master at what he does. There's no stopping him when he has that wooden spoon in his hand! The silicone mitt is just for show.

Father's Day

Father's Day was a good day. We went to the Wemhoff's to celebrate with Nick's Dad and then to my Dad's house. The kids had fun at both places. Madi and Ethan got to play with Phillip and Gabriel and then Colin. Here are three good pictures. 1st is Madison and Ethan wearing Nick's father's day gift. 2nd is a good picture of Madi and Daddy together. The 3rd picture is Ethan being put to work, just kidding!

Hello Kitty

These are some of Madi's friends. We had her friend birthday party on 6/19/07. I think she had a lot of fun. It was hard to tell because it was a little crazy. I know that Mama didn't have much fun, in fact I was a little nutty by the end. As you can see she had a "Hello Kitty" party. They played outside & inside and then we beat up a poor defenseless pinata. We are proud to say that Jill only had to hit the pinata a couple of times before it surrendered the goodies. (We've been at some parties where an adult had to practically get a chain saw out to get the stuff out of the pinata!!)

Party

Blow out those 5 candles girl!! As you can see Ethan is trying to help. This was the conclusion of her birthday party with all our family. She loved everything that she was given and had a great time. It's always nice to have all the family together.

Happy 5th Birthday Madi!!!

We can't believe it, we have a 5-year old! Nick and I gave her the present we've been working on. We were fortunate to receive a very nice dollhouse for free from someone Nick works with. Nick and I put in flooring and I did some painting and it looks great. Madison absolutely loves it and as you can see so does Ethan. Madi kept saying this is so cool and how much she liked it. Saturday we'll have a family birthday party and the 19th she will have a friend party.

Misc. Pictures

We Did It!!!

5/6/07~ Jill and I walked in the Lincoln Marathon. We did the half-marathon and we did good. Our goal was to just be able to finish the 13 miles. We did it and we made good time! We trained for about 7 weeks and the most we had walked prior was 10 miles. It felt great except during the first hour and a half when it rained on us. Our clothes never did dry through the whole walk...can you say chaffing?