Soooo, I've good news and. . .

I've got great news.

Good news:

• I charged my cell phone. You can actually reach me when I'm out and about for the first time in 2-3 months. It definitely came in handy when I was at the store and needed a recipe from Molly.
• Sadie has decided she loves the pink ballerina tutu so Nate has to share it! I even have cute pictures of her in it. Bad news for you: I haven't downloaded them yet, so you have to wait. Bad news for Nate: He can't wear it 24-7
• I baked! I ended up making monkey bread for Book Club and it almost came OK. Thanks to Bonnie who sat on the phone and talked me through the whole thing. It sounded so easy, but it stressed me out.
• After some fun trips to Savers and Goodwill, I have a rockin' costume for tonight. Bad news: Poor Jarod will be murdered at our little Murder Mystery evening.
• BYU football starts TOMORROW!
• I might actually get some scrapping in if I can get up the energy to pack my stuff.
  

GREAT news

• MAMMA MIA sing-along version comes out this weekend!!!!! I am planning on going to see this with some of my super groovy friends! Saturday can't get here soon enough! Can there be enough exclamation points in the world??!!!???
• Some one totally awesome is here in Chandler right now and she might be making an appearance on Elgin street next week. . .
  

So happy Labor Day weekend! Share your fun plans -- I want to know what you're up to.

Back in the Saddle

Let me just tell you how awesome my Sunday was.

While I was at Ward Council, Ellie got Sadie and herself ready for church. Where to begin -- the dress that is an inch too short, and the unique tie job at the waist. Sadie's clips that totally don't match her dress. The hair twisted and then clipped in the back. The pony tail became pig tails during Sacrament meeting -- YES! I let them go to Church like that! How could I tell my sweet girl that she had done a crazy job? Sadie did pull the clips out before church, so we switched to the head scarf. Sadie kept that on until right before they passed the sacrament. And by her second I'm-suppose-to-be-in-nursery-but-I-keep-pooping diaper change, she was down to one little piggy. DANG! My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures!

Then we came home from church and the kids took naps so I could read my book.

I called a neighbor to borrow an egg for cornbread and she just happened to be making corn bread, so she doubled the recipe for us.

Our Home Teachers showed up with cookies. They must know the way to my heart.

And the kids were so good and reverent in Primary.

Today Nate started Preschool -- yippee! That's his twin, Elise.

And also, I need some help. I have our Ward Book club here on Thursday and I'm suppose to feed them. Anyone have a fabulous and decadent really really easy and yummy breakfast dish I can make??? Make me look like a rock star -- please!

Hi Mom!

Well it's been a week. Not a bad week. Just a busy week. I've been running around and in my spare time, I've been watching the Olympics instead of getting on the computer. And so here I am today only because my mom is the Queen of Guilt Trips. In case you missed her little gem in my comments section:

Ok -- so I love looking at my grandkids! I come home from a hard days work every night and hope to see new pictures of MY GRANDKIDS!!!
And what do I see evey night -- the same adorable pictures I have been looking at for over a week! I need new pictures. I have taken to looking all your friends blogs -- in hope I will get a glimps of my grandkids on someone else's blog. And BTW to all of you out there linked to this blog -- you have adorable kids and I am enjoying your stories and pictures! I'm sure you all blog more often so your mothers can see their grandchildren.

So how many Mormon grandmothers does it take to oooh and ahhh over the new pictures of Maddy's kids? ----- None, I'll just sit here and go over the old pictures! Love you! M's Mom

I, however, enjoyed reading about everyone's ESPRIT bags! I've figured out a way to unite the women of the world. Although Cecily was obviously spoiled because she had 3 or 4 of them.

Anyway, onto the pictures of the kids! The other day I walked out from doing laundry to Sadie telling me her baby was stinky. Then she went and got out all of the diaper changing supplies. Then she looked at me like I was suppose to change it. Well, I'm pretty nice, but I'm not even going to start changing one more diaper than I have to.

Sadie is also going through a hunger strike. I think she's protesting the poor judging at the Olympics. She used to at least eat fruit for me, but since we ran out of bananas she has completely quit eating until about 4 pm when she stands at the pantry and screams. Or when we are at other people's homes. Then she will eat everything they offer her so people think that I am a huge mooch and also starving her.

The one thing I love about Sadie is that she thinks she is the same age as Ellie. If it were up to Sadie, she would sleep with Ellie every night. Last night Ellie asked me to put curlers in her hair. Sadie then started taking curlers to Dustin and insisting he put them in her hair. I finished up the project, but she looked pretty darn cute. Too bad she pulled all but 3 of them out of her hair in the middle of the night. She ended up with 3 little curls on one half of her head. It's a look.

Nate started speech this week and he can make the sound for "k." It's a miracle! He can't use it in a word yet -- like "car" is still "tar", but he's doing a good job saying it and we're working hard on helping him use it at the end of a word. Like "bike."

Monday he starts pre-school. I am so excited for him. Miss Becky was Ellie's first pre-school teacher, so I'm excited to continue the tradition. Don't forget he dresses himself! Long sleeves in August was not my idea.

I'm really excited for all the kids in his class too! Out of the 7 other kids in his class, 6 are kids of my friends and neighbors. It is going to be such a fun year. That's Jackson, Nate's first friend and one of his best friends. Susan and I forced them on each other when they were about a year old and Ellie and Ethan were in Pre-school at Becky's.

Ellie is doing really well at school. I get nervous at the beginning of the year, but she has settled in well and is really excelling. I'd give details, but I don't want to be a bragger. Let's just say I'm so lucky to have such a great girl and leave it at that.

She's definitely getting older. She has started wearing bracelets to school everyday and they have to be different. She changes her earring every night and last weekend we had our first sleep over that turned into a 26 hour-over.

The weekend should be fun. We're off to play Rock Band tonight and then Dustin has his Fantasy Football draft tomorrow night, so I'm having another FF widow over for dinner and for the kids to play. I should mention that Dustin suggested this when we were out at breakfast with them. I then looked at him and said, "Dustin will be making us dinner before he leaves." Oh and catch up on everyone's blogs.

Love, Maddy and the kids

Bags

Ahhh, so many things to blog about. Like how I bruised my tail bone at Lindsay's birthday party on Saturday which explains why I am not on the computer a lot and why I am sitting on one of those donut seats right now. Or what we did to actually celebrate our anniversary. Or how for 5 minutes yesterday I was in tears, freaking out that Ellie had been stolen from school. Or going to lunch with my friend Gina who is due any day with her 4th child. How is it possible that people who started having kids at the same time as me are having their 4th or 5th child? I can't even commit to having one more after Sadie! Or finishing Breaking Dawn and learning that my sister and I are the only people who hated it.

But instead, I'm going to blog about bags. Ellie really wanted a hand-sewn Church bag and I have no sewing skills. One summer we made my grandpa a lap quilt with little teddy bears in rows. I have no idea who thought they would let me sew the top, but I did a horrible job. The whole thing was crooked and slowly the teddy bears went from whole on the left side, to decapitated by the right side of the quilt. I also tried to sew Nativity costumes at Super Saturday one year. I had to have my machine re-threaded 4 times! I didn't even finish them until a month later when someone invited me over to "help" me out. So yeah, that's why you never see me at Mary Ellen's.

Anyway, back on subject here! Ellie wanted a bag and you know who sews -- MY MOM! She even sewed our Halloween costumes when we were little. She even taught Meredith to sew. You know who she didn't teach -- ME! Oh yeah, you've already learned that little point. But now you can see why I'm bitter. So I decided that while we were in Idaho, my mom should sew Ellie a church bag. Sewing in Idaho is a long-time tradition. When we were little we would go play Barbies in the basement. Kathleen and I were huge jerks and always stole my Aunt Kristine's barbie clothes, so my Grandma would sit at the sewing machine and make Kristine new clothes. Then we would see those and steal them too because my Grandma's clothes were even cuter than the store ones. Kristine would end up dressing her barbies in old socks.

Wow -- another tangent. Not surprising to those who know me well. So while we were in Idaho, Kathleen and I ventured off to the closest fabric store -- Wal-Mart -- to buy fabric. There was some sort of conversation which started off with, "Hi! We're inept. . ." Followed by numerous questions about fabric and yardage. We couldn't figure out why we were the chosen two to buy fabric. Neither one of us knows a darn thing! But we came home with cute fabric and patterns. Not just for a bag for Ellie, but for Nate too.

If you remember my Idaho blog, you'll remember that "sewing bags" was not mentioned. The schedule was too full, so my mom and Kristine started on Ellie's bag after we left and then Kristine finished up Nate's bag once my mom was gone. And without further tangent -- here are the bags:

It's picture day, by the way.

And while I'm talking about bags, here's my swim bag. Is that an ESPRIT bag you ask? Why YES! It is! Only the coolest bags EVER! In the late 8o's that is. I bought this bag one summer and my awesome Aunt Kristine bought one that was slightly smaller and black. After thinking it over for a few days, I decided that I liked the black bag better and my sweet sweet Aunt, used to giving up things like Barbie clothes, agreed to switch with me. The black ESPRIT bag is probably buried in a landfill in Korea after a few years of use. Kristine, however, used her green bag for years and years in the back of her car. A year ago I got a surprise package in the mail and inside was. . . the green ESPRIT bag. Still makes me laugh every time I look at it. And so now it is our swimming bag. Also, I can't believe I wrote this much about bags.

And a picture of cutie Sadie. She's probably plotting something that will be a huge mess for me to pick up.

Backfire

You know how your sitting around, the kids are coloring, you're ironing/canning/sewing/making dinner or possibly checking your e-mail and suddenly something totally random pops out of your kid's mouth and you wonder where it even came from? So that happened today

Ellie: Mom, guess what color I'm going to make everyone wear at my wedding.
my head: What the heck? That is so random. Aren't you coloring a picture of fireworks right now?

Me: I have no idea. You tell me.
Ellie: No. Just guess.
Me: Pink?
Ellie: No. Keep guessing.
Me: Red?
My head: I'll kill myself is she says red. Am I ever going to be able to guess this? What if she learned about some crazy color at school today. Or even worse, she's read a crazy name on one of those crayons.
Ellie: No.
Me: Orange?
Ellie: No. Just tell me when you want to stop guessing.
Me: Yellow?
My head: Good thing she has no idea what ROYGBIV means
Ellie: YES!
Me: WOW! I really like that color. What a good choice.

My head: Yellow is actually a really great color. Light yellow will look great with white. When she's a bridezilla at 21, I'm going to force the color yellow on her because a. I like it and b. it's a choice she won't have to make and then all the drama is all over. In fact, I should get her to commit to as many things as possible right now and tell her that she planned her wedding when she was 6 and there's no changing it now.

Me: Ellie how much do you think your wedding dress should cost?

This is so easy! She thinks her collection of coins is enough to buy her a new pair of shoes. She thinks $5 makes her rich!

Ellie: Free
Shoot! She'll never find a dress for free.
Me: Well, it will probably cost some amount of money. How much should I plan to save?
Ellie: Hmmmmm, probably three-thousand.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT did she just say?

Me: Three thousand DOLLARS?
Ellie: Or maybe more.

So yeah, never mind pre-planning the wedding stuff.

What a difference 9 years make

I should probably have a wedding picture of Dustin and me when I announce that yesterday was our anniversary. I should also warn you in advance, that I'm not the gushy, flowery type when it comes to lovey dovey stuff. There will be no ode below. Instead, I will draw the stark contrast between the beginning of our marriage and now.

On our one month anniversary, Dustin brought me home one rose. One our two month anniversary, he brought me 2. See the pattern? By one year, I got a dozen roses and a surprise trip to out honeymoon location. I remember telling a friend about it and how romantic it was and she in turn told me, "Give it a few years and you'll wish he had spent the money on a pair of pants."

So how did we spend yesterday? I woke up, got Ellie ready and off to school while Dustin was in meetings and then I ran to the gym. Somewhere in there I also found out that the toilet was broken. Came home from the gym with one extra kid -- a friend's, I didn't steal her -- and the madness ensued. Sadie didn't get enough sleep the night before and she was screaming. Nate was in time out because he was mad that his friend wouldn't let him wear the princess dress and then I hear a sweet little voice, "I had an accident." I ask, "Did you pee your pants?" Her response, "No, I'm not wearing pants." So technically, she didn't pee her pants. That was about the last time I laughed all day.

Dustin's back has been hurting for a few days and by yesterday he couldn't even walk. Which meant that as soon as Nate's friend was gone, I had to rush him off to the Urgent Care to get a prescription until he could get into the pain specialist. It also happened to be nap time. So I drive him up and drive back home hoping to put the kids down, only to find out that he went right back. Hurry back to the Urgent Care and pick him up. Drop him off at the gym so he can sit in the hot tub, get gas, drop off his prescription and get the kids down for a nap WAY too late. Ellie makes it home from school a few minutes later and I finally got to take a shower. WOO HOO! Hurry get dressed, do my hair and wake the kids up from their naps, pick Dustin up, drop the kids off at Rickie's -- because of course curriculum night was the same night as Mutual so no babysitters -- and spend the evening at the school for Curriculum night. Which was long and boring. For some reason, every other grade was only 3o minutes long, but ours was an HOUR! We finally got the kids and picked up McD's for dinner at 7 pm.

I guess it didn't matter that we had a late dinner because Nate and Sadie were up past 1o pm last night due to their late naps. So romantic huh? Isn't funny how life just changes everything? Despite all the craziness, I'm still lucky to be married to Dustin. Love ya babe! MWAH!

OH WAIT! I forgot the most romantic gesture of the day. My girlfriend Karen brought us over an anniversary lunch along with the YUMMIEST chocolate cake. Thanks for being more romantic than either Dustin or me. And thanks for being the one bright spot in the day!

Hair today. . .

Gone tomorrow.

So you should all know by now that I am such a huge control freak that of course I ended up taking Ellie for her haircut myself. She told the hair dresser how short he wanted it, but then when it was all cut she almost started crying because she didn't like it. Luckily, after the blow out she was much happier and went bouncing away.
Then I took her, and Lindsay-lou, over to Peter Piper Pizza to meet up with a bunch of girls from our Ward who all got to the same school. Becky took them all as a first-week-of-school celebration. Nicest.Mom.EVER!And then since your DYING to know what we did for the rest of the weekend, I'm SURE.. . .

Saturday Dustin went out at midnight to pick me up a copy of Breaking Dawn. In the morning he helped our AWESOME new neighbors move in, cleaned the church building, took the kids grocery shopping and cooked steak and mashed potatoes for dinner.

I read Breaking Dawn.

In my defense I was slightly more productive than that -- I also planned Sharing Time, got stuff typed out for our Teacher meeting tonight, did Ellie's star of the week poster for school, cleaned up Sadie's throw up, had a girl's night at Rickie's where we were very industrious/crafty. . . but for the most part -- I read Breaking Dawn. I felt like a slug compared to Dustin.

Anyone else spend all Saturday reading?

Where did the week go?

I am still in shock that it's the weekend already. Bad news: I have a lot of junk to be done before Sunday and I haven't even started. Good news: Breaking Dawn. I've read a few spoilers on-line and if any of them are true, I'm going to burn the book when I'm done. Also, I'm not sure my "good news" is really going to aid in me completing my bad news."

So here's a few things we've been up to this week.

Ellie is getting her hair cut after school today. I'm letting Dustin take her, but I'm sort of freaking out over how short it may come back. I was so sick of spending all morning doing her hair only to show up at pick up time and it would all be undone and scuzzy looking. The conversation would go like this:

Me: Ellie! What happened to your braids/pigtails/ponytail/clips?
Ellie: It was too hot for braids/pigtails/ponytail/clips?

So I talked her into chopping it to her shoulders. Of course last night I was showing her this cute hair blog and she actually let me practice a few hairstyles on her. Even better -- she picked a hairstyle out for this morning.After we were done this morning I got so sad at the thought of seeing it all go, so I suddenly tried to talk her into keeping it. Am I crazy? She reassured me that it would grow back.

Nate had swimming lessons this week and he is such a little swimmer now. I'm so impressed that he went from no swimming lessons EVER to being able to swim and even come up for air in there. YEAY NATE! He also had a Speech evaluation today. Don't hold your breath -- I have to wait 2 weeks for the results. He's such a little smarty pants -- developmentally he's doing great, it's just the speech part.

Sadie's new word is "awesome." I love it. Nothing is cuter than an 18 month old telling you that something is "awesome." The other day I'm doing dishes and the kids are in the play room playing when out of the corner of my eye I see a figure. I scream and turn to find this Little booger! Climbing up on the counter stools is no longer enough. She will climb up to get food or just to hang out with me.And there you go! Hopefully I'll have some hair cutting pictures soon! Who's running out to buy Breaking Dawn tomorrow?