Wordless Wednesday

Family Friday (on Tuesday): Sydnee

With the craziness of this busy time of year I haven't had a chance to sit down and do my Friday post until now. I thought it would be nice to do Sydnee this time, since she is off to 7th grade camp for the WHOLE WEEK! We are missing her, it is strange only having 4 of the fantastic 5 home this week. She is definitely a big part of our family, and leaves an empty spot when she's gone.
Little League opening day was this past Saturday and Sydnee was so excited. She lives and breathes softball and has been counting down the days until the season started again. Last year she played on a travel softball team, but this year she opted out of that to participate in Middle School sports and activities. David and I are amazed at the intensity her fondness of softball has grown this year. It is a very wonderful thing to see your child realize a passion in their own life and to work hard at it. Sydnee has started to take some private catching and batting lessons and we could see the incredible improvement at her game on Saturday. Can you tell how excited she was Saturday morning?



Last week the 7th graders put on a "wax museum" as a project. Each student picked a famous/historical person and did research on them. They then made a speech and dressed as the person. Younger elementary students were able to come by and see the "museum" and learn about these famous people. Sydnee chose Shirley Temple. I think that matches Syd's personality well! Did you know that Shirley Temple's mom used to put 52 curls in her hair each day of filming, counting each one, to make sure it looked identical each day? It took me literally an hour to get Syd's done the morning of her project. I am glad I won't have to do that again any time soon!



Next week Syd will be getting her palate expander off and will be appliance free for a week before getting her braces put on. I'm sure that week will be full of gum chewing and popcorn eating while she can! She is also working on her plans for her 13th birthday coming up in just one month. Where does the time go?

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!)