How do you spend your day?

So my friends have been doing this on their blogs lately just to see what everyone does on a normal day. You should see what they all can manage to squeeze in everyday. My friend Delia must really be SuPeR MoM because I don't think I have ever been as busy in a day as she is on her "not so busy days."

So here's my day.

*Woke up at 7:30- ate breakfast and got both Madison and I ready for the day

* Went downstairs and started cleaning- and I mean cleaning. We deep cleaned our kitchen and downstairs. This only took us FOUR hours.

*Ate lunch and then Madison and I both crashed on my bed for a good two hour nap

*Woke up from our nap and played together for a couple of hours until dad got home from work

*Ate Otterpops on the front porch

*Ate dinner- made by my wonderful husband. Hot dogs, chips and grapes- YUM.

*Now I am too tired to do anything do to the fact that I worked so hard scrubbing our stove and kitchen today, now we are wasting the night away trying to think of something fun to do on a friday night...

Sound fun???

Ok so today was actually kind of a BoRiNg day, I think I will do this again sometime when I actually have something to write about.

Cheese!

I think these are some of the best smiling / posed pictures I have gotten of Madison in a really long time. And the best part... she asked for me to take the pictures by saying CHEESE!!! I was so excited.

Grandpa N

Since yesterday was Memorial Day and all, we thought it might be a good time to go visit Grandpa N at the cemetery. So we all piled in our cars (all of Karl's family and us) and went to do our visiting. Since Grandpa passed away during the winter, they were not able to get his headstone in place until it warmed up this spring so this was the first time we were able to see it. It turned out beautifully. Madison of course, just wanted to sit with Grandpa- just like she always used to do.

We love and miss you Grandpa!

We also came up with some fun new baby names while we were at the cemetery but you will have to ask me personally for those... there are some good ones.

Ivy was thrilled that they let her hold some of the flowers.

After our walk through the cemetery to visit all of our relatives we went back to Karl's parents house where we had a delicioius BBQ. We had our first corn on the cob of the season and it was yummy!

Then, later we were able to spend the evening with our good friends Brooke and Tim where we made personal sized pizza's and skookies with our skookie pans and had a fun family home evening lesson together. (By the way- if you haven't ever tried a Skookie, you really are missing out. I highly recommend them.) They too were very delicious.

Anyway, we had a wonderful holiday weekend- not having to work and getting to do a lot of playing. Thank you again Les and Kim for the wonderful food yesterday- and every other day we eat over there!

Grandma and Grandpa Hall

My mom's parents both died when I was about one so I never really got to know them but everyone who knew them will tell you what amazing people they were. They were kind and loving people who were always willing to give, even when they themselves did not have much to give. One thing I think is really neat though is that when any of us grandchildren go to their home town almost anyone we meet (who is old enough to have known our grandparents) will recognize us as Dennis and Mid's grandchildren and I'm sure at one point or another we have all been told that we remind them of our grandparents. I know that their influence on our family continues to live on and that they have greatly contributed to who we all are today. One of the most important lessons they have taught our family is the importance of FaMiLy. Even though they have not been with us for over 20 years now, our family is still as close as ever. We still, on a regular basis, all get together to eat good food and have a good time.

Every year for Memorial Day weekend as many of us as possible try to make it up to our grandparents (as well as other family members) graves to spend some time together remembering the ones we love.

Sometimes we get a lot of funny looks from other visitors because we always seem to be having such a good time which is not very typical cemetery behavior. I believe though, that this is how our Grandparents would like to see us: not dwelling on the fact that they are no longer with us but enjoying the relationships we have with one another.

Just for fun, here is a look back at some of our past Memorial Day adventures as well as a few from this past weekend.

Look at all that attitude! Can you tell which one is me?

This one was obviously not on Memorial Day, but it was still in the cemetery.

Can you believe we fit NiNe people in this trunk?

And here are the few from yesterday. I just LOVE the pictures of Madison and her 'cousin' (my cousin's little boy) Carson. They were being so cute.

This was a family picture- meaning my aunt Julie and her family that was there... and Madison.

Thanks for sharing this picture Michelle- I couldn't catch the cute shot before Madison was on the run again!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for setting a good example for all of us to follow. We love and miss you!

So my husband just called me a diaper snob...

... And I have to admit, it's true. I have NEVER bought any no name brand of diapers.

I always have to have either Pampers or Huggies

And even then it's still debatable as to whether this is ok for me or not.

I am a through and through- 100 percent fan- of Pampers- tried and true they are the BEST diapers out there.

I was once told that Huggies seem to work better for bigger babies and Pampers work better for smaller babies and at least in Maddie's case, this seems to be true.

Maybe with my next child I will feel differently but at least for now... this is the case.

Maddie has never been higher then 25th percentile for weight (other then when she was born) and has always been pretty tall and skinny.

When we use Huggies she seems to have more leaks through the leg holes

And the diapers always seem to sag and look like they are falling off...

but the Pampers, the Pampers fit so well.

We have always bought our diapers in bulk from Sam's Club because I feel like you get the most for your money. Recently though we discovered that we could get 40 diapers more for the same price if we got the Huggies instead of the Pampers. I finally convinced myself that buying the Huggies was the 'economical' decision to make. So we have been buying Huggies for the past few months until, while shopping for diapers we found THIS box of Pampers that had exactly the same amount of diapers as the box of Huggies that we had so reluctantly been buying.

Hurray for us!

Anyway, I have thought about what Karl said and I have come to the conclusion that... I really am a diaper snob And I'm ok with that. Ü

If you made it to the end of this post, Thank You for listening to my ramblings.

Quick Note

My mom is doing her 100th post giveaway this week and I think you should all enter to win. She hasn't announced what her prize will be yet but go to her blog here to enter to win. I know it will be something fun and exciting. Also still check out my post below to give me advice (if you have any) on how to deal with the Terrible two's.

Terrible Two's!

Madison has officially hit the TeRrIbLe TwO's. It is here and it has hit hard. Madison has always been such a wonderful baby. She hardly ever cries and listens so well. She seems to comprehend most everything we tell her and is usually pretty good at actually doing what we ask her to do. We were worried when we put her in a big girl bed that we would have a hard time getting her to actually stay in her bed but she has AlWaYs stayed in her bed when she knows it's time to sleep. Even if she doesn't want to, usually all she does is cries for a few minutes and then falls asleep. When she wakes up in the morning she sits in bed and says "Mommy" until I come and get her.

I know we have been so spoiled so who am I to complain right???

Well lately, especially this past week, Madison has just decided to completely stop listening to us. No matter what, she doesn't want to do what we ask her to.

Sending her to time out no longer seems to work.

At bed time she has now decided that she doesn't need to stay in her bed.

She cries if we don't let her have something she wants.

And then she tries to make us feel guilty for not giving her what she wants.

Everything has been so dramatic!

All I can say is HeLp!!!!

If anyone has suggestions on how to get through this awful stage, PLEASE let me know.

We love SpRiNg TiMe!

We have been enjoying the warm weather these past few days and have made every effort possible to be outside as much as we can. Here are some pictures from our fun adventures.

We've gone to our little hometown zoo ThReE times this past week -they don't have very many exotic animals but they do have lots of ducks, birds, turtles and a few wild creatures such as wallabies, porcupines, monkeys, fox, and wild turkeys

We got dressed up all cute to go to the park to play with cousin Ivy

If you can't tell, Ivy didn't like the grass.

We have been to First Dam TwIcE to see the ducks and have a picnic

In this picture Madison was following the Geese and their babies back towards the water. She was even flapping her arms as she walked behind.

My silly little girl

So it has been a while since I have just done blogging for fun. I have unfortunately not been feeling very up to it since I have been pregnant. I have said before that I thought I was finally getting out of the sick stage and I would quickly learn that I shouldn't get my hopes up too high... so today I am not even going to say it. BUT I do feel better today and so I have decided to blog while I can. So here are some pictures of my very silly little girl.

My little Glamour girlHelping Dad to join in on the fun. Doesn't he look just lovely???
DancingShe kept asking for me to take a picture of her with all of her necklaces on. She would stand like this... and then when I was ready to take the picture she would do this.
I left Maddie for a few minutes while she ate her breakfast yesterday and when I came back in the room this is what I found. She was COMPLETELY covered in yogurt! It was in her ears, up her nose, all over her hair and any where else you could imagine. She had a huge grin on her face when I walked in and saw her... the little stinker.


And this is her new favorite place to hang out. I am constantly tripping over whatever she has decided to play with at that time.