A Big Day...

We had a big day around our house today. First, this morning we had dentist appointments for the girls. This was Lily's first dentist visit and she did great! She looked so big sitting in the chair. We had no problems and came away with beautiful teeth!!

Here she is in the chair... she is growing up so fast!!



Here Madison and Lily are waiting for the dentist to come check Lily's teeth, so they are watching a movie in the chair! How high-tech have we gotten?

Also today, we had Ignasio's birthday party at the skating rink. This was Lily's first time skating. She was super excited and had a great time. Madison just loves any chance to go skating and she had a wonderful time too! And for those of you who know Don well, you know he wasn't going to miss a chance to skate/dance!! Here are some pictures of the fun-filled evening.

One of my favorite parts of the night was the hokey-pokey. All the kids tried it and here are some of the moments we caught on camera...

Here is Madison trying the first time and Caden skating away like a pro!

Brennen - he made it all the way under and then fell at the last minute.

Lily- she kept skating, and skating, and skating...

until she ran right into it!

KayLynn - she's going to make it.

And here is Jason... what a cutie and look at this pose! One hand on the cup and the other in his pocket!!


And of course I have to throw in a picture of Taegan!! Here he is in his new stroller (an early birthday present thanks to Nana and Papa). What an adorable smile!!

My Little Cheerleader!

This last Saturday was Madison's first Upwards cheerleading event of the season! She was a cheerleader last year and couldn't wait for it to start this year too! She woke up Saturday morning and first thing wanted to know if she could put on her uniform. I made her wait until after lunch so it wouldn't get dirty but also because she doesn't cheer every Saturday until 2:00!! I know, I know... horrible time, but I didn't get to pick.

She had her uniform laid out, ready to go since Friday afternoon. She was SOOOOO excited. Here she is just before the game.
















Her favorite part of the game, by far, is when they announce all the cheerleaders names and they all run out into the gym. She is so cute and even though as the coach I am not having the time of my life, I am trying to see it through her eyes and to her, life couldn't get any better than this!! I know one day Don and I are probably going to go watch her cheer somewhere. Right now she says she wants to be a KU cheerleader, so we'll see.
















Here she is with the rest of her team, the Sparkles. (Notice the wonderful coaching being done in the bottom-left of this picture!!)

Update on my Lily...

I figured since I updated you on Madison and Taegan, then I should let you know what Lily has been up to. She is growing and growing... she is wearing all size 4 and 4T clothing and can wear any of Madison's leggings (size 5). The girls don't like it that they can share leggings, but I figure this is just the start of fights over clothes! She also is just looking more grown up, which is hard to believe since she isn't even 3 1/2 yet. She loves playing dress up and helping around the house. She is always telling me that she wants to be a mommy. She wants to do all the "fun" things that I get to do around the house... like the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning and vacuuming the house, all that fun stuff! I'm sure in a few years, when some of these things are her chores, then they won't seem so fun, but for now, I'm trying to let her help. She is definitely the drama queen in our house and lives up to her title every day!! Here are some funny pictures of her over the past couple weeks.

This is Papa and his grand kids when he came to visit. Lily loves her Papa!!

On Christmas Eve we all went over to my brother's house and Lily tried being a rock star!!

This is just my Lily. If she is in a good mood, then she is in a VERY good mood... all smiles and making everyone laugh!

Taegan is growing up!

Taegan is getting so big. I can't believe he is 7 1/2 months old now. Up until Christmas, we could never get him to sit up on his own for very long. He would start to sit up and then seconds later he would fall over. Well, on Christmas morning we sat him down in front of his Santa gift and from that point on, he has been sitting up. I personally think it's because his sisters wouldn't quit playing with his present, but whatever it takes!! Here he is, trying to stay up and looking a little concerned.

A few days earlier my dad was feeding him and he decided to hold his own bottle. He hadn't ever done this before, but has done it ever since. I'm not sure what brought it on, maybe he didn't like how we were doing it!!

And finally tonight... Don had just finished feeding him and was letting him drink (otherwise known as, let the water pour into his mouth) some water from his sippie cup. Taegan took the cup and starts holding it (as best he can) and puts it up to his mouth. Here is a picture of him holding the cup and then another picture of him looking at Mommy like... what are you doing?!

I know as his mom I should be so happy he is learning all these new things, but he is my last baby and it makes me kind of sad. I'm trying to enjoy every new stage and not live in the past or try and make him grow up too fast either!! Here is one more picture of Taegan on Christmas day that I love. He was so excited to tear into his present and isn't he the most adorable baby boy you ever did see (even if I do say so myself!!!).

Madison's First Lost Tooth!!

Madison has had 2 loose teeth for a couple months now, but finally lost the first one last week! She had been wiggling and wiggling for days, and it finally popped out. It is kind of hard to tell in this picture (her permanent teeth are already coming in!) but here is her smile with her first baby tooth out.

She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come. She just kept asking us how the tooth fairy would know she lost her tooth. We just told her, she would know. That night she put her tooth in the tooth fairy pillow that Grandma made her and went to sleep... well eventually. I went up later to lay Taegan down and Madison came out of her room crying. She didn't want the tooth fairy to take her tooth. She didn't care if that meant she didn't get any money, she wanted to keep her tooth. So, I told her that the tooth fairy would know she wanted to keep it, not to worry and go to sleep.

Surprise, surprise... the next morning there was one dollar in her tooth fairy pillow and the tooth fairy had left the tooth in the container we had kept it in until Madison went to bed. (This was a plastic baby food container that had apples in it for Taegan.) It was so cute, Madison came downstairs the next morning, so happy, showed me the dollar bill and told me to open the container and smell in there... she said it smelled like the tooth fairies makeup/perfume. (It smelled like apples, but she was so in awe!!) Oh, and I got woken up at 2:15 in the morning by Madison to tell me that the tooth fairy had come and she got a dollar!! I tried really hard to act excited and surprised, but it was the middle of the night and really... I wasn't surprised!!

Lily and Santa

Today Lily and I were eating lunch together and she turns to me and asks, "Is Santa a girl or a boy?" I told her he was a boy and she just sat there. Then she says, "When I'm a mommy, I'm going to turn Santa into a girl." I replied with, "Oh really..." And she said, "Yes, but he'll have to hold still." It just really makes me wonder how Lily thinks this happens. The things that go through kids heads. What does she think of, that doesn't come out of her mouth?!


By the way, I asked her later how she would turn Santa into a girl and she replied, "With a magic wand!". (Why did I even need to ask!)

Christmas Programs

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! We have been so busy around here with all kinds of Christmas programs and just regular everyday life. Don leads the Kings Kids Choir (1st through 6th graders) at our church and they performed their Christmas program on Sunday morning. They did a fantastic job! Don and I are so proud of them and also so glad to have a small break before we start back up in January. This is a picture of the kids in the choir with Don. If you look closely you'll see Don's shirt. I bought it for him at the MOPS convention. It is great!! It says... "My Wife Rocks!". Don't you just love it?!?

The same day before the kids' choir performed, the Little Shepherd's Choir performed as well. This is the choir that Madison is in (4 years old to Kindergarten) and they sang 3 songs. They all dressed up like little shepherds and were so cute! It may be hard to tell which one Madison is, but she is the one in red (on the right) in these pictures.

And then the next night was Madison's very first Holiday program at school. All the kindergarten classes perform together and they did so great! Everyone was all dressed up and looking so cute. Again, I'm sure it's really hard to tell, but Madison is on the front row in a sleeveless dress (I know, I know, but she refused to where the cardigan I bought her!).

Here is a picture of her and her best friend, Faith. They are so funny together and so cute. They are waiting in line to see Santa after the program was over. The actual program lasts about 15 minutes, but then you stand around for another 45 minutes so that your child can see and talk to Santa for about 30 seconds or so! The things you do as parents!!

We had a few problems getting any good pictures of the school program. Personally, I think we just need a new, very good camera, but there's the whole problem of being able to afford it! Then, on top of that, someone (me) forgot to check and make sure there was enough room left on the tape for the camcorder so we ran out of that too! So, here is the last bit of the performance that we captured on our digital camera that was taking such horrible pictures. Enjoy!!