So here is the third and final part of my series. 
The following pictures were taken on Saturday. First we enjoyed carving pumpkins with the Penns. Then they had to get back to Redlands, so Mark, the girls, and I went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. It was such a fun day!
inspecting my hard work of cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin
The three M&M’s…and Maddie!
Mina is not amused in either of these pictures…she’s a fireman/woman, by the way.
Friday was a fun-filled day. We went to The Village (Redlands Christian Home) for the costume parade. The senior citizens loved seeing the kids all dressed up, and the kids loved getting candy. It was a win-win situation. Here are some pictures I got from that event…
Maddie was a princess, and Mackenzie was a goldfish. Some referred to her as the “beached whale” since the costume didn’t allow for her to move around much.
She started out happy…
It was nearly impossible to catch Maddie sitting still. This might be the only shot I have of her where she isn’t “on the go.”
Aliyah, the bee, had to check out Mackenzie, the goldfish.
I’m not sure what Maddie is saying in this picture, but it is definitely something very important!
Can you tell this is near the end of the morning…when everyone is ready to be out of their costumes?!! No more posing for pictures!!!
This is probably my favorite one of Mackenzie. I can’t help but laugh when I see those big fish eyes staring at me.
Later that night we went to a church in town that hosts a Halloween night…”Halloween Happening.” Marilyn, a friend from church, came along and helped me with the girls. (Mark was busy all day shooting a wedding in Redlands.)
Tonight I discovered that I was given the disc for iLife 09 when I bought my Macbook! iLife 08 was pre-installed on the machine and the imovie application from 08 was not very good. Now that I have the 09 version, I’m pumped to play with some old video clips.
Here’s a little movie of Maddie in her first Easter egg hunt.
Mark, Maddie, Mackenzie, and I made our way to the 91st Annual Cherry Festival here in Beaumont this afternoon. I was so excited to see all of the food stands and carnival rides…it reminded me of the Pennington County Fair! Maddie wasn’t sure of what to expect at first, but I think she was pretty excited about it by the end. Even Mark let out all the stops–fed her candy, ice cream, and funnel cake!!
We had a great time and wanted to share a couple of cute videos from our afternoon. (We didn’t ignore Mackenzie…she just slept through all of it)! And as you’re about to see…Maddie slept well after leaving…
Yeah, that’s right, Mark is the best! For those of you who follow Nick and Julie’s blog, you may remember the many cool things that Nick did for Julie around the time of Valentine’s Day. You also may have remembered the banter that went back and forth between Mark and me, regarding Mark’s lack of romanticism at the time. Well, Mark, I take everything back…you outdid yourself for Mother’s Day today!!
He surprised me with breakfast in bed, and not just any breakfast, but yummy crepes with strawberries, blackberries, and bananas. The presentation alone was amazing. He also picked a rose from our yard and had Maddie bring it to me when she woke up.
Notice in the pictures below how Maddie never took her eyes off my plate…that girl loves to eat! She wasn’t happy when Mark took her downstairs to eat. (She still got crepes, but had to wait for them).
Sorry about the spit up…Mackenzie had just eaten.
Take two…
The final shot…the best we could get before Maddie nearly dove into my food!
It was so nice to have a rainy Monday with all of us at home. Mark has a super busy week ahead with a big fundraiser coming up this weekend, so it was nice to have a day together before the crazy week gets going! Here are a few pictures and a couple of videos that I got of our day…
Mark was pretty excited to have pancakes this morning. I rarely have a morning that I have time to actually make breakfast.
Maddie really liked the pancakes, too.
Thanks to Mark keeping Maddie occupied, I was able to finish the stripes in the room. It was so fun to see the finished walls! It sure would make it easy if we had a boy, but I’m already brainstorming about what to add to the wall if it’s a girl. As of now, here are pictures of our very boy-looking room. (Really, we honestly don’t know if we’re having a boy or a girl…you might think it by looking at the blue and brown room, but seriously we have no clue)!!
Maddie doing her fake laugh again, spurred on by Paul
The kids loved sitting at the little table and chairs when they were all together over vacation…the only problem was that there were only two chairs and three kids.
Danae and Paul playing Wii
I took these two pictures today. My package from Old Navy came, and in it was this new hat and mittens for Maddie. Now I’m determined to go up into the mountains so she can see the snow.
Mark was attempting to install the baby-proof stuff on our cabinets, and Maddie was determined to help him.
And here’s a video I got of her this past weekend. Sorry for the slightly personal clothing displayed in this video. It was too funny not to post! This was all Maddie’s idea…we didn’t encourage or prompt her. I had the laundry basket of clothes out that I needed to fold, and she continued to pull this single item out and put it over her head. She threw a fit every time I tried to take it back from her…silly little girl. Hope you get as many laughs out of this short video as Mark has…
Here are a bunch of pictures of our Christmas and the few days after…
Baking Christmas cookies with Isaac
Caleb and Maddie enjoying our Christmas cookies
Maddie was taking a bath alone, and as soon as Isaac and Caleb walked in the bathroom, they undressed themselves and hopped in. It was pretty funny.
Isaac and me
Maddie and Aunt Ruth on Christmas Day
Paul and Maddie fake laughing
Isaac and Danae cutting celery and onions for Danae’s yummy turkey soup
The following pictures were taken last night without my supervision. I was out doing some after Christmas shopping, and Maddie got to have an evening with the boys. Mark reassured me the beer was only for posing purposes…
Maddie looks a lot like her daddy when he plays x-box.
Maddie threw a fit when the guys didn’t give her all of their pizza.
I just had to get a picture of Maddie in her new chair this morning.
Maddie was definitely spoiled for Christmas…but not by us (no lie)! She got lots of fun gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins, which took the pressure off us since we were so in the mode of moving and unpacking.
The video of her opening the gift is from Gpa and Gma Leonard. She loves pulling things out of her new stuffed elephant. She’s not quite as good at putting them back in.
And the video of Maddie in her chair is a gift from Aunt Ruth. She let us pick out a Christmas/housewarming gift, and this is one of the things that we got. As you can see, Maddie LOVES having a chair of her own!!
