Madison's Makeover Party!

A friend had told me about a makeover party her daughter had been invited to attend, and when I told Madison about it, she was SO excited to do that for her 7th birthday!! We had 8 girls there and they all got their hair fixed, nails painted and makeup put on. They all seemed to have a blast (I know Madison and Lily did!).

Madison really enjoyed spending time with all her friends and had so much fun getting made over with them!!

Here is a picture of Madison and Faith (her best friend from Kindergarten) getting their nails painted.

While some of the girls were waiting their turn to go to the next station, we took this picture. Here are Lily, KayLynn, Madison and Erica.

And here is the final picture of the whole bunch after they were all done. They all did so good and it was such an easy party for me!!!

Happy Birthday Madison! I hope you had a wonderful time!!

Happy Birthday Madison!!

7 years ago today at 7:00 in the morning I gave birth to a baby girl who weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces!! Madison Grace Engel, our first baby and first daughter. What a whirlwind it has been ever since! Now 7 years later, she is in first grade and learning all kinds of new things.

Tonight to celebrate, Madison chose Steak n Shake for dinner and then she got to open her presents. Here are the girls drinking their dessert after dinner...

And here are some pictures of Madison's gifts from us. The main item she really wanted (and what Daddy really wanted to get her) was a real, pink guitar!! Here she is learning to play it...

I can't believe 7 years has past already, and so quickly! I hope the next 7 slow down, but some how I doubt that! Happy Birthday Madison!!! Mommy loves you so much and is so happy to be able to call you my daughter!!!

Lily's Birthday Party!

This year when we sat Lily down to decide which birthday party theme she wanted, she looked through the party catalog many, many times and finally decided on "High School Musical". She was so excited for her party! We had really liked a face painter we met at the KU kickoff rally and hired her to come to Lily's party. Lily was first in line and couldn't wait. Most of the kids tried it and they all loved her! Madison and Lily went pretty crazy with it and ended up with painting all over their legs, arms, face, neck... everywhere!! Here is Lily getting her first creation.

Here she is with her High School Musical cake!


She received so many wonderful gifts from all her friends and family! Lily is really getting into organizing her Barbie stuff, so Nana and Papa got her this Barbie storage box. She loves it, but also loves to use it as a "suitcase" and wheel it around the house!! I just love that she seems to like organizing stuff!!!!


Lily had so much fun with everyone and has told me for her next birthday she wants a Hannah Montana party with the face painter again! I guess I can go ahead and start planning now!!

Lily is FOUR!!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 4 years old!! It feels like just yesterday she was born... What a day that was! I was scheduled to be induced since she was measuring so big and frankly... I was BIG!! My nurse promised me that I would eat lunch that day. That didn't happen. I started pushing before noon and didn't have Lily until 4:16 pm!!! She was a big baby, sunny side up, and her shoulders got stuck. Obviously she wasn't ready to come out!! (I also blame the epidural. I never got one with Reese or Taegan because of this!)

Anyway... here we are 4 years later. I decided to make a list of my 10 favorite things about Lily (in random order) to share with you.

1. Her smile.

2. How caring she is.

3. Her willingness to share.

4. The way she melts my heart just looking at her.

5. The way she loves her family and friends.

6. How passionate she is about life.

7. How she already knows what she wants to be when she grows up - a mommy. (Oh, and she is going to marry Brennen and has already planned out their wedding, reception and where they are going afterwards!)

8. The way she loves purses and shoes!

9. The way she loves babies.

10. The way she plays with her toys. I know this sounds funny, but she plays with her barbies, dolls, etc. the same way I played with mine. She has to have everything set up the way it would be in real life! And the fact that she plays all by herself so well!!!

That is by no means all of my favorite things about Lily, but that gives you a good idea of what a sweet little girl she really is. I'm so happy that God has blessed us with her and allowed me to be her mom!! I can't wait to see where she goes and what she does with life... or wait... maybe I can, because if the next 14 go as quick as the last 4... I'm not ready for that!!!

Happy Birthday Lily!!!! Mommy loves you more than you will ever know!!!

My Children's Interesting Habits

I know all babies go through interesting phases, most of which you just have to ignore and eventually they will stop doing it. Well, a few days ago when I was blogging about our trip to the zoo, I got ready to post a picture of Don and the kids and I started really looking at the picture.

Here it is...
Notice anything wrong with it? My baby has his finger up his nose! Yes, that is our new trick. He loves doing it, anytime, anywhere. I've tried stopping him, tried ignoring him, nothing is working so far. I picked him up last weekend from the nursery at church and he had his finger up his nose the entire way through the church. You gotta love it!!

But he's not the only Engel baby to have a bad habit! Lily had a great one too. She would give mean looks to everyone. We would be walking through the grocery store and someone would smile at her and say how cute she was and this is what she would do...

They would normally just walk on. Some people would smile, but that really isn't the reaction you would expect when you smiled and said "hi" to a baby. Oh well... she eventually stopped giving the mean looks and Taegan will stop picking his nose (at least all the time) too!

Here is one more picture of Lily giving one of her faces. (The adorable chunky baby on her right... her best friend Brennen, of course!!)

Madison's First Day of 1st Grade!!

Well, she is officially a first grader now. School started this morning and she was so excited. I can't believe my little girl who use to hide under the changing table in the nursery and not ever come out (even for snack time) is now going off to school, for the 2nd year, without a hint of apprehension. Wow, have we come a long way!!

We had to get a couple really quick pictures this morning. It was raining all morning and we caught it at a quick lull to snap these pictures.

After another huge front moved in, we all climbed into the van and waited at the end of the driveway for the bus. Madison decided to wear her raincoat! Here are her and Lily waiting on the bus.

When the bus finally came - Don ran out and braved the storm to get a quick picture for me. Happy first day Madison. I hope you have a fantastic year!!

Last Week of Summer Vacation Activities!

I can't believe summer vacation is over. School has begun and so has our crazy schedule! I tried to make Madison's last week of summer really fun for her (and Lily and Taegan). It started out with a trip to the zoo last Saturday. It was so hot, but we made it and they had so much fun.

Taegan seems a little worried...

Lily and the chimp looking at each other.

Taegan loved the big cats!

















The girls showing Taegan around the zoo. He is so spoiled!!

















Then on Wednesday, we decided to go bowling and then have a picnic at the park. Note to self: my family does not like picnics (unless we can find some bug-free picnic spot)! They don't like bugs and certainly don't want to eat with them! I can't really blame them - I was trying to be the fun mom!

Lily getting her ball.


































Don helping Taegan bowl. His first time!!





















My 3 bowlers!!
















Then on Thursday night, Madison had her "Meet the Teacher Night". We went up to the school and she/I put away all her school supplies and got to meet Mrs. Krueger. Here she is at her new desk.
















Madison and Mrs. Krueger - she seemed so nice!



















Finally, on Friday we went and played putt-putt at Safari Golf. They really enjoyed it, especially the fact we were the only people there! I think their favorite part was running over the hills on one particular hole. I finally had to make them stop so we could move on. After this we finished off our day by meeting Don for lunch in Lawrence.




















I hope they all had a great summer and now... bring on the school year!!!!