Nancy pulls awesomeness out of her hat.

So I've really been trying to reconnect with some friends that I wasn't able to spend so much time with in the last year. My friend Nancy was very high on that list, and last week, we made plans to get ourselves and our kids together. It works out great since she has a girl and a boy exactly the same age as my two, with one in between. There was no school Thursday or Friday, and I wanted to make at least one of those really-fun-out-of-the-ordinary days, but I was at a loss of ideas, the museums were swamped, and it was raining buckets. Leave it to Nancy to pull a miracle out of her hat. She followed a lead that took us to Kids Rock in Pearl. They weren't officially open yet, but they were willing to let us come play. It was a huge play room with large inflatables, and we had them all to ourselves. This one earns me a cool mom badge for sure... Thanks Nancy!

Gigantic inflatable slide - the group favorite

thats the smile I love

Sweet friends

Such a clown!

Who doesn't want to play with a giant hammer?

and a few giant screws?

Luke, Nancy's 2 year-old took a little longer to warm up. I love this photo of her begging him to come in.

This photo shows the entire 5 minutes at once!

Leave it to the siblings to get the job done when the parents can't be convincing enough...

Elizabeth and Luke on the monster slide

Nancy predicted the warm-up time would take about 30 min - she had it pegged to the minute!

Nancy jumped in too, because that's the kind of mom she is... the one that gets in the pool too- even when it's a little chilly - she's not the one on the side drinking diet bottled water watching the fun... she makes the fun... I want to be like her when I grow up :)

Slide sandwich!

I tried to go in the small one, but I was a little unstable, you know, pregnant belly and all... I took pictures, cuddled babies that needed a break, and lassoed Beckham back to the picnic table every time he tried to take his lunch to the top of the slide...

Me and Molly Street - Nancy's middle child

Oh, and taught Beckham a little Ms. Pac-man so he can learn the important things in life...

If I was the coolest wife in the world with a few grand to toss out,
I would buy Brad one of these for a present

Needless to say, there was more than one nap that afternoon :)

Bring on the new

2012 is full of new. New schedule (No more 3 nights/week class!), new job, new surprises...

Baby Madden #3 coming at the end of June!

The kids are excited. I was hoping that we might be able to have another one after school was over, so I would talk all the time to JB about what we would do if we ever had another baby - like where would it sit in the car, how her dad was going to hold another one all at the same time like he does now, what another baby would call her... She would imagine all of the possibilities and talk about how she hoped it would be a girl but she likes little brothers too. So when we told her around 8 weeks, she was thrilled.

We decided that we have a girl and a boy already, but we've never had a surprise so we won't be finding out girl or boy on this one. Maybe not finding out is also my way of putting off nursery decisions, because honestly, I really don't know where I'm going to put the new baby. My best solution right now, is a pack-n-play in my closet. Jane Bradley is dead-set on moving upstairs, but to me that feels like I might as well just move her in to a dorm room at college. So, the closet it is until I can handle a little more change...

Speaking of change... The rate of change is happening a little faster this time than I remember it...

Don't be fooled by the shadow - I'm WAY smaller than I look - not really... 

As for my bucket list, I have been adding to it for weeks. It started out with 1. Be on time to preschool. So far, we've improved to on time 3 out of 5 days. Not bad since we used to be pretty much never on time. Next I added 2. Read. I read the Help already, so I'm already ahead of the game. The others are:

3. Eat healthy/ drink more water

4. Spend wisely

5. Record memories

6. Organize chaotic spots in my house

7. Practice keeping my car clean

8. Write notes to people - why do I always think that people will think it's weird? I LOVE getting notes from people!

9. Find new go-to recipes

10. Get my creative back... find some outlets... paint like I used to

11. Reconnect with friends - have dinner guests!

So this is a pretty good list, and I'm getting a good start. Usually, I love to make a list, and it fizzles out by March-ish. So far, the blog has been a great way to tackle #5. Maybe the 3rd baby won't get the typical treatment of a handful of photos per year compared to the handful per minute of the first baby!

2011

2011 was sweet and exciting. We started off in January with a trip to The Happiest Place on Earth with a 4 1/2 year old and a 13 month old, my parents, and my sister, aunt Jay-Jay.


The decision to go came after we realized that if there was still this much magic around an elf that flies around our house every night after returning from the north pole, there would be some serious magic when meeting JB's life-long heroes.

The thing I noticed first in this picture was the hair. Mine was still long, and Beckham still had none.

I think the thing I want to remember most about this trip was telling Jane Bradley that we were going. After dinner at my parent's (nanny and grandaddy) house, the phone rang. Over the speakerphone, we heard Cinderella ask to speak to Jane Bradley. Stunned beyond belief, Jane Bradley eeked out a hello. Cinderella asked if JB had received the package she sent, and she said she had not. Cinderella told her she was sure the coach had dropped it off by now, and would Jane Bradley kindly check her front doorstep. Jane Bradley ran a 20 yard sprint to the door, and found a large beautiful box with a scripted tag with her name. She ripped into it like her life depended on it, and pulled out the dress, petticoat, gloves, and accessories in the photo above. Cinderella asked if she would wear the dress to dinner with her and her friends at her house? Jane Bradley, still in a fog and a little confused, told her yes. Cinderella told her that she lives in the large castle in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, and she would need to take a plane to get there. Jane Bradley's saucer eyes looked at us for permission, and with giddy smiles that made our faces hurt, we said yes. I got a little bit teary. Cinderella thanked her, and she hung up the phone. Of course, the next while was filled with dressing up in the gown and staring at herself in nanny's big mirrors. It was priceless.

Starstruck

Another one of my favorite moments was when Jane Bradley gathered all of her courage and whispered in Ariel's ear, "You are my favorite princess." I knew how big a moment this was for her, and Ariel gave her the biggest hug. The night at the castle was complete. We spent the rest of the week chasing down the other princesses for autographs. We loved watching Jane Bradley's thrill of meeting them all, and I also look forward to the next trip when we will have a some other type of mission that doesn't involve standing in line for hours to talk to a Disney character. At the rate we're going, we'll be in those lines for a while. 


The summer took us to our 2nd trip to Sandestin for a conference and fun with friends. 

The Grand, SanDestin, FL

2011 also happened to be the 30th anniversary of 1981... which meant that I had to turn 30. Since I had been planning to have a blowout 30th birthday party for the last 10 years, my mom and Brad planned me an awesome, nautical-themed party at my parents' new house on a lake. It was so much fun!

hypnotic/champagne cocktail table outside the front entrance - have a drink and come on in!

Nautical food table 

My mom repainted these lighthouses for the table centerpieces - they were gorgeous!

Janie made me 5 birthday cakes! 

Me and Megan

Dancing by the lake to the music of Shane and Frazier - awesome band!

The end of the summer brought the most rigorous semester of grad school yet. It was my last, thankfully, and now I have a masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy - something I had to plug away at over 3 and a half years, through pregnancy and small babies. I will say, getting this degree feels like one of my greatest accomplishments I've had thus far. 

I brought Jane Bradley to my graduation ceremony because I wanted her to know that no matter what, no matter how hard some things look, or how long they take, or how many baby steps it takes, even if she is a mom with small babies... She can still go after her goals.


December was a crowded month. I had finals, graduation, Christmas shopping, holiday parties, and birthdays. Beckham had a Disney Cars birthday party since Lightning McQueen is the superstar of the time being. Nothing huge, just some neighbors and family, but he enjoyed it.

Birthday morning

Pinata time!

Right after birthdays, we're on to Christmas, and we're out of the year in a blur.

Mickey the elf wrapped our tree in ribbon

Santa visited our house on Christmas eve - Kids were mesmerized!

Christmas Eve night, Brad caught Santa on video taking Mickey back to the North Pole

Also caught him putting out the Christmas gifts!

Opening gifts with the family - Forgot to mention that we spent a little time in the ER right before Christmas... B got his finger slammed in a closet door and had to have it stitched up... 

Opening Christmas gifts at Nanny's house

 Lots of new things to come in 2012! Stay tuned!

1..2..3.. GIGGLE!

Taking pictures of kids can be exhausting. Anyone who thinks that getting a photo of more than one child (sometimes even only one..) looking in the same direction, preferably at the camera, with a non-torturous look on their face, in the same frame, is easy... they cannot be taken seriously.

If you were to take the audio from any photo session of ours, you would hear phrases such as, "I need you to sit still!," "Look at the camera!", "No, I need you to look at the camera with your EYEBALLS!", "Look inside that little hole in my camera and smile!" "Don't run away, Beckham!" (I would want to run away too...) "Okay, sit right here, DO NOT MOVE, and SMILE!" "Don't flop over." "Okay, just ONE more..." "Okay, now only ONE more!"

It feels like organizing grasshoppers, really.

I read in a magazine recently that you should tell the kids to giggle instead. Then you don't get that fake smile, and you have a better chance of getting a smile at all instead of blank stares and photographic evidence of torture. 

We did that yesterday with some of our cul de sac pals.

 I love how kids can just genuinely laugh on command. 

Two thumbs up for this parenting-photo-trick!