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