Marvelous Maddie

My sweet little Maddie sure does keep things hopping in our home. I debated whether or not to post this story, but then I thought why not? The title of this story should be "Watch out for Wild Maddie!"

A few weeks ago I was awakened by the sound of the garage door being opened. I jumped out of bed sure that Maddie had escaped and I found Seth using the "toilet" on the front dirt. That was fabulous! Can't take him anywhere. Anyway I took care of that problem and then asked him if Maddie had come outside with him. He told me that she was upstairs sleeping. (Hint: never trust a 3 year old.) We decided to watch a show until it was time to wake Maddie to get ready for her last day of summer school. When it was time I went up to "wake" her and couldn't find her anywhere. I panicked and awakened the great sleeping bear (aka Joe). We both jumped into our cars to search for the wandering Maddie. Have I told you all before that she wanders? Just checking. He went one way and I went another way and had no luck for a while. Then after I passed him on the road I thought that I would try another place. I turned down a street not too far away from our street, and I saw a little person walking down the sidewalk in her Dora jammies holding onto some kind of toy. I pulled over and gave her a "talking to" not that it helps anything, but it makes me feel better. She was hanging on to an Elmo toy and a dalmatian puppy dog. The worst part of the whole ordeal is that they weren't our toys. I don't know whose house she "took" them from, and whose house or houses she had been in. This had all happened before 7:30 a.m. If it was your house and you are missing any toys, please let me know. Needless to say we have a few "stolen" toys at our house. I came to find out later that Joe thought that I had locked the back door and I thought he had done it. So we double and triple check the locks before going to bed now.

The Dark Knight

Yesterday was my husband Joe's 34th birthday! He is getting up there in age (just teasing hun) and we went out to dinner and a movie. We haven't really been on a date since we moved to Lehi almost 3 months ago. (pathetic, I know) So, first we went to dinner at Tucanos. We used to go there when we lived in Orem and it was just as good as I remembered it was 6 years ago. Maybe even better since it had been so long. Then we were trying to decide what to go and see. Joe wanted to see a comedy and there really isn't a good one playing right now. I wanted to see Batman because, well Batman is hot! Also I was really curious to see how well Heath Ledger did on the joker. I guess I won, but I'm not sure why because it was his birthday. He just didn't care one way or the other. We went out to the Thanksgiving Point theater and saw The Dark Knight. I really liked the show. It was about a half hour too long, but it was great. Heath Ledger was so creepy but fabulous. No wonder he was having all the issues he had. It was really fun going out on a date with my sweetie and being away from the kids for a few hours. My sweet sister- in- law Anna watched them for us so we could go. She is the BEST! I just lover her.

Our Trip to Liberty Land

On Monday, my sister in law Anna and I took the little ones to Liberty Land. It is sort of like a mini amusement park for kiddies. Grandma Helen told them a month or so ago that she would take the to Boondocks (another place like that) and we hadn't gotten around to taking them. Well, we made the executive decision to take them to Liberty Land instead, because we thought it would have better rides for the little ones. Also it is in Lehi. Anyway, it was nice and overcast so it wasn't nearly so hot and we had a great time. The kids rode the bumper boats, the little airplane ride, the race track, this drop thingy, climbed up the rock wall and even got to ride a roller coaster. It wasn't Lagoon, but it was about the same quality as the kiddie part at Lagoon and sooooo much cheaper. I wouldn't say that it is great for kids over 10, but sure enough, they had a great time!

We Have a Fence!!

This 4th of July and the day after, we spent the day building our brand new vinyl fence. Joe got up bright and early and started digging up our backyard. The dirt was so hard that it took forever to get it all scooped out where he needed it. Joe's dad Phil, and my dad Bill, and Cody Widerberg (Anna's husband) showed up to help us. About half way into the day, Phil got heat stroke and was so sick. We felt so bad that he got sick and had to go home. Also, Cody came to help but I don't know what he was planning to do since he had broken his finger the day before. So it was just Joe, my dad and myself. We got busy and put the rest of that back fence together. Luckily Anna took my kids to her house so we could work hard. Usually they tell you to set your posts and then come back the next day or so to put the rest together, but we did it all at the same time. It was so nice to get it all done. We made sure that it was all level and straight etc and it worked out really well. I have to say that I am so glad that my dad came to help. He showed up around 11 on Saturday morning and the 3 of us whipped up the side fence. It wasn't really all that quickly done, but we did get it finished. These are a few of my favorite pictures from the day. Thanks so much to all of you that helped! We really appreciate you. I don't know what I would do without Anna to dump my kids on at the last minute. She is a lifesaver. Take a good look at my new fence but don't get too jealous. If only we had the gates...

Night at the Zoo

A few weeks ago my family and I were able to attend "Dream Night at the Zoo" put on by Chick-fil-A, and the Hogle Zoo, for families with a child with disabilities. I guess you had to be put into a drawing to be chosen to get ticket, but a cute gal that I met the first week I had been here, gave us her tickets because they were going to California. We got free admission into the zoo starting at 6:00 and even were fed by Chick-fil-A. It was so much fun! Maddie has only ever been to the zoo in the stroller and never has been allowed to walk around all by herself (for fear of her running away) and that night we let her walk with Seth and Makenna. She was so thrilled. She ran to see the exhibits and the animals and all 3 of the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. I have to say that since it was in the evening it was so nice not to have the hot sun beating down on us, and it was the most fun I have ever had at the Hogle Zoo. I wanted to share some cute pictures of the kids there and say how happy I am that there are all these people that are willing to put such neat things together for our kids that are "differently" abled.

Makenna Baptized!

Here is a picture of Makenna the day of her baptism. I didn't have the pictures on my own camera, so I didn't get to post this as early as I would have liked.

Makenna was baptized with her cousin Jackson Phippen on May 31st 2008 at the Orem Aspen Stake Center. We knew that we were going to be moving around the time that she was turning 8, and didn't want to have all the family have to drive down to St. George, so we thought that we would wait just 2 months and have it done with my sister Jill's son, Jack. It was so much fun to have it done together. What a neat experience for Makenna and Jack to be able to say that they were baptized on the same day. Makenna sang the song My Baptism Day by Janice Kapp Perry (circa 1988) and it is the exact same song that I sang when I was baptized. She did such a great job! She's our little star. We had a big lunch with all the Preston family, Johnson family, and Phippen family afterward at the pavillion there at the Stake Center. It was such a nice day and I couldn't be more proud of my little Makenna!!

My New Lehi House

Front pantry and closett.v. room - one viewkitchenback door and table

front room: the picture is bad but I wanted to show you how cute the brown paint is... room off the kitchen/ t.v. room - view #2 You'll notice the lovely grass in the front yard and that I was too lazy to move the bikes for the picture. It is too cold to do any serious moving of any bikes. I hope you will forgive me. Rest of the house will have to follow in a slideshow at a later date...tune in to see more.

Let me give you a run down of just a few of the events that have happened since we arrived...

Not even a week after living in this lovely house, Maddie decided that she needed to add her own little mark to it. While the rest of the family was asleep Maddie got up and sneaked down the stairs and found my make-up. She then proceeded to paint lovely pictures on the carpet (right under that red rug) with my lipsticks and mascara. I have to say that most of the lipsticks were almost brand new and the mascara had a lot of wearing left in them. There was make up from hell to breakfast and that isn't even an exaggeration. I actually think I was more mad about the make-up being ruined then the carpet. I called my SIL Anna to see if I could borrow her carpet cleaner and she brought it over. We scrubbed the stains and then proceeded to turn on the carpet cleaner only to find out that it wouldn't suck. This is an almost brand new carpet cleaner and has no reason not to be working. I was so bothered. So I tried to get out most of the water with towels etc... It wasn't even barely dry a day and a ha;f later that Maddie found some extra waxy crayons and made enormous rainbows all over the carpet (the exact same place as the first mess). To top that all off, she had an accident and there was poop everywhere on the carpet too. So I had more stains, poop and no working carpet cleaner. Needless to say I was ready to spit bullets at that moment and lock Maddie up for the rest of the week. (This whole thing was going on at the same time as adding extra locks to all outside exit doors. She had already been in a few neighbors homes unannounced). So I took out the cleaner one more time and sprayed all the stains. I soaked the carpet with the soapy carpet cleaner and then took a few buckets of water to dilute it, then used my shop vac to suck up all the excess water. I can't tell you how long I spent doing that. I think the next time she does something to the carpet I will just rip it up! Just teasing. That was just the first week. She really does like to get into mischief. Seth eggs her on too and that doesn't help. Maddie and Makenna have been enjoying riding the bus to school and that is fun for them. Makenna has never taken a bus on a regular basis before so she was thrilled. Maddie was thrilled to have the bus back from when she took it to preschool. It has been a mess putting away everything and get used to the new place, but it is so great to be with Joe and to have help with the kids. I love living by all this family. It is such a new experience for me. I can just hope on my bike or in my car and be to Anna's house in minutes. She is such a great friend and we are always doing stuff for eachother. My parents are only 15 min away and so are Joe's. And Jill and Kristen and Katie are all close too. It is great. I am having a lot of fun. Hopefully the messes will calm down and I won't have to lock Maddie up. Just teasing.