Happy Birthday Miss Madeleine!

It's hard to imagine that I have a daughter that is 16, that is old enough to drive and date etc etc.... It really is a whole new area of parenting! Luckily for me I have the best daughter ever to tread new water with... She is such a great oldest child... she is responsible, gets amazing grades while working and being on drill team and dancing at my studio as well. She has her dad's sense of humor and carefreeness about her, qualities I love in them both! Above is her family party..
She has been saving her money FOREVER to buy a car when she was 16, she really wanted a light blue convertible slug bug... however we could not find one in her price range (and I actually think this is a way better car... my dream car when I was her age) We took her money out of the bank and made up the difference and surprised her with this on her birthday... kind of weird I know buying her own birthday gift but not picking it out... She loved it!!
Lila and Canyon were her first passengers....
Here is 16 wishes I have for my beautiful daughter on her 16th birthday...
1. That she will maintain her amazing almost perfect grades....
2. That she will date nice kind good boys....
3. That she will always have good friends...
4. That she will always keep her sense of humor, it will get you through life.
5. That she will always be kind and good and nice herself...
6. That she will achieve the goals that she continually sets for her self.... so far so good
7. That she will continue to let most things roll of her back, she does not get offended by people and I love it, she stays out of girl drama for the most part..... stay that way
8. That she will have a good time on drill team or find something else to love doing...
9. That she will stay at my dance studio and at my house forever! (really I don't wish this yet I do) Please always live with in a short traveling distance from me...
10. That she will always be happy, and be able to find happiness even when there is heartache...
11. That she will always stay her adventurous self... (the only girl jumping off the high cliffs with the boys)
12. That she will always love her brother Hayden as much as she does now...(she really really loves him and always has)
13. That she will have a good relationship with her sister and with Canyon as well.
14. That she will always have a good/close relationship with Tom and I and that she will know how much we love her and how much she is the perfect daughter for me!
15. That she will always keep her excitement for life and for small things, and still get teary eyed when getting matching pajamas... that kind of thing..
16. That she will grow up to have a daughter that is just as wonderful and smart and pretty and everything to her like she is to me... I love you Maddie girl
Happy Birthday!!

What a Dad!!

Maddie and her friend Kendeyl wanted to ask boys to the Sweethearts dance..... Being the kind of dad Tom is (or the kind of crazy Tom is) He let them dress him up as cupid to ask the boys to the dance.....
You should have seen him driving in his car like this... or the look on the faces of people seeing him like this!
What he wouldn't do for his daughter! I hope she appreciates him, My dad would never!!!

"The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison

I think I have a theme......(slow down and enjoy it all) here is round two.....

Figuring Life Out - One Thousand Gifts

I Keep running into this Video clip and I love love it, I think it must be a message I need to listen so I thought I would share.....

Do you know this cute girl??

If you do, then I'm sure you love her!! I'm sure you must have an idea of how wonderful, kind, sweet, funny, crazy & intense she is right?? This child of mine was worth every bit of the wait... let me just tell you a small tid bit of why I love this child so dang much!!! She wakes her self up extra early in the morning she gets herself all ready for school and then comes in to wake me up to do her hair.... well recently she has been also getting her brother up and all ready for school so that I just have to get up and comb their hair it gives me more sleep, less stress and all without even being asked.... Well yesterday after one of these glorious mornings of mine, I drop the kids off at school and as I watch them walking in I notice her shoes look a little differently.... she is walking a little different.....
can you see how she is wearing these beloved cowboy boots... Ya that is right her heel is way up on her boots because her feet do not fit into them..... what kind of mother am I??? She wears these babes almost every day..... better question what kind of daughter is she??? She has not complained they do not fit, she has not asked for new boots she has not mentioned it. She has just worn them like no big deal..... I asked her after school if her boots fit her and she said no they don't it's probably time for some new ones.... Do you think?!
Oh she is the best sister ever to this little guy! She is the best daughter to this mother... and I love her to pieces I think even enough to buy her a new pair of boots!!! Check the post below.... (on Olivia 5 minutes ago...)

obviously above was not this girls first rodeo!

Week 5.... Yea!! It's February....

This week leaves me very grateful that January is over and we have a brand new month with a brand new start a head of us.... January was crazy to say the least and the last day left us with our fate in the hands of a stranger. Thankfully Heavenly Father has yet again shown us his tender mercies and yet another of our prayers were answered!! We can now move forward with a lot more peace in our hearts and minds!
The little ones are off track this week, they actually started off last week, and they made a list of things they wanted to do... one was Valentines crafts, like I have said before Canyon gets very disappointed in our holiday decor so we needed to spice things up a bit around here throw around a little more pink and reds.... so copying an idea off one of my favorite blogs I stalk, we tried the crayon melting wax paper thing... starting with crayons.... peeling them down to thier "birthday suits" quoting right from the blog....
Then shaving them and dividing them up by color.... this was hard work I must say and I was left without the little ones help.... when all was done and we were ready to melt away they returned and we made these .....
loverly hearts!!
Not quite as good as what we were hoping for, but we were able to check at least one more thing off their list!

... and so is our start into the lovely month of February!

Week 4..... Soph A Loph...

This week we had to say goodbye to Sophie....... She has been our dog for over 12 years..... she got sick in November with Cancer, by Christmas she had diabetes, and by January 23rd she was all the sudden completely blind.... She was scared and sick and we were sad and did not want to see her go!!! I took her into the vet on Monday and they told me my options.... on Thursday I finally had mustered up my bravery and took her in. The kids said good bye and were absolutely hysterical, which made it all the harder for me. I knew it would be hard, but honestly it is on my top 3 hardest days of my life.... I felt like I was killing her by choosing to put her to sleep. I held her and sobbed my eyes out (probably more hysterical then the kids). My cute mom came with me because I knew I could not go alone and Tom... well not the nicest when it comes to pets... I also felt if my mom thought it was time to let her go it would really be time... So thank you mom for coming with me... even though you cried when you promised you wouldn't! Soph a loph as Autumn nick named her was a very good dog, despite her always wanting to run away... she was just social! She was always so good with kids....
She was so very jealous of Olivia.... we got Sophie before Olivia and she did not like the idea of a new baby... she was never mean, she just would not look at Olivia she would turn her head away from her if Olivia came by her... it was pretty funny actually... This picture is of her with Olivia, whenever I would change Liv's diaper as a baby Sophie would come and lay down just like this, like... I'm your baby first! Below is her at Lake Powell, she always thought she was a lab... and would jump in the lake too right along with the rest of my families labs...
Hayden loved her more then anyone and is/was very very sad to say Goodbye! We love you Soph a loph and miss you like crazy. It has been 2 weeks and I still look for her every time I come home and our kids seem like they eat a little more like pigs leaving all sorts of stuff that they didn't seem to leave before!

Week 3.... January 17th thru the 23rd

This week was a little crazy to say the least.... on Tuesday afternoon the dance studio got run over by a car as put by Lexi.... Thank heavens no one was hurt, and buildings can be repaired. I actually was not even bothered by the whole thing..... I guess I should have been, but all I could think about as they told me the building was unsafe, was that I was going to have the night off! Yea for me! After making a ton of phone calls to cancel classes, Tom and I went to the movies....I never have time for that on a weekday! I was excited to have a few days off, but unfortunately I spent the entire day Wed making phone calls and explaining the whole thing a million times. Thursday I finally got costumes ordered and by that afternoon amazingly we were back in the studio with this make shift wall keeping us all safe.
I was grateful for how quickly they got things complete so we would not be out of business. I was also grateful that no one was hurt, and that I had at least a few hours off...