Maddie turns ONE!!!

How in the world is this sweet baby's birthday already here?!?!  Don't know, but it sure is.  She had a great birthday.  The kids were very excited for it to be her birthday.  They wanted to know where we were going out to eat that night for her birthday.  So I called Mike at work and said, "We are going out to eat tonight.  Not because Maddie cares or knows it's her birthday, but the big kids sure do!"

So we went to Fudruckers.  All the kids chowed down!  Her birthday was a happy day!

Then on Sunday we celebrated with Grandparents and Godparents.  We barbecued, watched Maddie devour her cake, and enjoyed watching her open her gifts.  Well, not really, she wasn't too interested in opening her gifts.

She is a one year old with a BIG attitude, loves her Mommy (doesn't want anybody else if Mom is around, unless it's Dad.  Sometimes he is okay), has nine teeth (four on top, four on bottom, and one molar that I can see), walks great and is starting to run if Daddy plays chase with her, loves music and likes to dance, if she hears the word cookie she immediately says, "mmmmmmmm," is completely off the bottle......Sounds like a big girl to me!!!

Happy birthday to our little spit fire!  A little girl with LOTS to express!!

Happy to eat Grilled Cheese on her birthday.....

Even HAPPIER to eat cookie on her birthday!

First things first......eat dinner......

Then....THE CAKE!!!! (the best part of every first birthday party!)

confused as we sing happy birthday

just getting started

looking as if she did a pretty good job

SUCCESS....without a doubt!

What's not to love?!?!

And then we start the clean up......

in the sink you go

the new sink is a PERFECT bathtub sink!

And now, onto the presents.....

And finally a little backyard fun, once the company leaves.  Th perfect ending to Maddie's perfect day!!

I know that was a LOOOOOOONG post, but a girl only turns ONCE once!!!!

Swimming with the Alexander's

Last night we went swimming with Liz and the kids.  Brian was out of town and Mike was on call, so it was a good night for it.  Every was doing well as the night was progressing, so we had dinner there and closed the place down.  The kids got to have ice cream and/or snow cones before we left.  Everyone was HAPPY!!!

We even had to get Maddie her own ice cream treat.  She would scream at the top of her lungs and point to the big kids' ice cream.  So Liz got her a push-up and she devoured that thing.....not an ounce left!!!

 You can see Maddie is entirely enjoy her treat!

We are missing John.  I think he was getting packed up.  He wasn't as interested
in sucking hit ice cream dry, like Maddie was!

Baby Luke

Mike and Leigh-Anne had their baby two weeks ago.  Maddie and I snuck over to see him last week.  The big kids were on playdates so Maddie and I went to a playdate too.  We went to meet baby Luke and to play with Andrew.  We somehow forgot to snap a picture of Luke but I did manage to get a couple of the other two cuties.

spending a little quality time with her buddy Andrew and her godfather (little does she know)

playing trucks...boy stuff :)

Jack's rough start

Jack hasn't had a GrEAT run at the new house.  He's been having "nightmares" every night (so he says), having a hard time going to sleep at night, AND he got BIT by the neighbor dog.  And I mean BIT!!  Like big bruise on his butt and all scratched up under his underarm.  Not exactly a warm and fuzzy feeling for any of us.  I've seen the dog out TWICE since then, and shit's about to get ugly.  I was real nice to the lady when it happened, HOWEVER, it came after me last night when I tried to shew it off AND I saw it nip at a runner last night.  I'm done being friendly.  Not when kids are involved.....not to mention the beauty of buying this home with a nice BIG yard was so that they kids could go out and play.  Well, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that now that I know the UNSUPERVISED neighbor dog is vicious!  Stay tuned for how this is all gonna go down.

Here's poor Jack fast asleep in our bed.  He had a hard time going to sleep one night so Mike came up and read to him for a long time.  We then went outside to work in the garage and came back in about an hour later....only to find him fast asleep in our bed.  I guess our bed feels more secure to him than his.  We carried him back to bed and he did fine the rest of the night.  Last night was the first night he went to bed EASY and stayed in his bed all night!!!!  Maybe he's getting that homey feeling now.

Life at the new house.....

Life is still not "normal" but getting closer and closer.  We will have house "projects" for the next 10 years but it is starting to feel like home.  We have also been able to start doing a few things as a family again and slowly starting to regain what we consider our "normal" life.

First.....playing a little dress up

 Not Jack.....he can think of other ways to spend his time.  Like watching a show on the iPad.

 The girls sure do LOVE that cape!

SUPER BABY!!!

And then we move on to a little dance party.  A dance part that is "photo bombed" by Peyton.  

Enough fun....now it's time for some child labor.  It was a family affair pulling weeds.  This house has got some WEEDS!!!  We've got our work cut out for us.  After all the weed pulling.....the reward was going to the pool!

Real men wear pink, princess sunglasses

Nice work!

Look, I got the root, Dad!

Now...back to some fun.  Some water table fun.

ALWAYS plenty of time to eat!

Last.....we still enjoy seeing the wild life almost nightly as we drove home.  The deer here are NOT timid.  The draw back.....they do a mighty fine job of "trimming" the hostas every night.

We are still alive.....barely

We are still here.  It's been a BUSY week of moving.  Yes, I said and MEANT week.  Mike and Tony started last Wednesday moving the couches.  They got those in Wednesday night and then came the BIG move on Thursday (July 4).  To the rescue came Mark, Jeanne, Scott, Ron, and Dad.  They got all our other furniture and "stuff" moved.  Then came the REAL FUN part......getting it all put away.  We still aren't finished, but we are finished enough to at least sit down on the couch for 5 minutes.  There will be plenty to do for the next five years.  I don't EVER want to move again, unless I HAVE to.

Here are some photos over the last week.  I've not had my "real" camera out at all.  So these are just a mix of the ones I have taken on my phone.  Hopefully we can get back in the swing of normal life soon.  Hopefully it starts today.....the kids and I are headed to the pool.  I feel like I have gypped  them out of summer activities over the last couple weeks.  I'm gonna try to focus on letting the house go and let the kids have some fun.  They've been playing lots of wii, watching lots of TV, and fighting LOTS as they have been ignored as I try to put the house together.  Today, right now, I'm changing that.  We are off to have FUN!!!

Peyton put on make up and took this pretty picture of herself
Looking good, Peyton

Our new neighbors probably think we are a hoot.
We took a walk the other day and it was a true, hot summer day.
The kids are not conditioned to this, as we havent had many of those days.
So they had to grab some umbrellas for some shade.  HA!

Jack helps shade Maddie

Peyton and Maddie share some yogurt

Maddie wants WHATEVER anyone else has!!!  And what do we do???
GIVE IT TO HER!  DUH!

Other things that are gonna change now that we are moved:

• Give grandma Jeanne a break.  She has been here SOOOOO much helping us out.  She's helped with packing, babysitting, moving....whatever it is, she will help.  THANK YOU Grandma Jeanne!
• COOK!!!!  No more fast food.  We have ate more fastfood in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year.  Starting today, I'm cooking again and starting to workout again.  Both were moved to the way side during the packing and moving!!