We have a new nephew!

Elijah Matthew
April 26, 2008
8 lbs.
Isn't he sweet?

Family Friday: Maddy

I thought I'd try something new, and do a little update on each child on Fridays.

Over Spring Break, David and I decided to give each child a little one-on-one date with one of us. Being in a large family, the kids don't get a lot of individual outings with us, doing something they want to do. Maddy was the first to have her "date", and she chose to go to the "Barbara shop" to get a haircut! Her hair was really long, and really pretty, and all I have ever done is trim the ends.




We talked to the hairdresser about "Locks of Love" and she said they needed 6" for children with hair loss. Maddy was excited to hear that a little girl or boy would have the chance to have a wig made from her hair.



She loved being pampered, and getting a new look!



Maddy is such a sweet girl, always ready to help and sensitive to how others are feeling. Gabe absolutely adores her, when he hears her voice he whips his head in all directions to see where she is.
This year Mads is going to play t-ball. She is hilarious out on the field during practice, she cannot stand still! Playing first base she is dancing and twirling...what a girl!
She is also extremely smart. She is in the top reading group for her class in Kindergarten, and is one of the youngest there. This morning she was counting while getting dressed and ended up getting to 432!! The part that cracked me up was how at each '9' she would draw it out..."three hundred and twenty niiiiiinnnnneee...three hundred and thirty!"
She fills our days with a lot of love and a LOT of laughter.

Things we love about spring...

sunshine and warmth


blowing bubbles


my favorite kind of bouquet, picked with love from little hands


rubber boots, in pink of course


bumps, bruises, bug bites, and bandaids. (we don't love the owies, but we do love an assortment of "cute" bandaids!)

making cookies...

our cookie jar has been empty for a while now, so this afternoon I made some chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough. This is a new recipe, and if you can judge a cookie from the taste of the dough, it's going to be a good one! I offered Luke a beater after I mixed the dough, and he (very nicely) asked if he could have the spatula instead. I told him he could have the beater first, while I finished mixing the chocolate chips in with the spatula. A minute after he put his beater in the sink I hear his sweet voice say, "now can I have this?" How can you say no to that face? (notice how he is holding it like a baseball bat!!) He wasn't all that happy that I wiped the majority of the dough off first, but he licked it clean!

Wordless Wednesday

(happy 8 months, baby Gabe!)