He loves Buzz and babies, so naturally this would happen!

Madison's first dance partner

Maddie loves to dance like a princess.
Here she is with a very good sport, Ethan.

They have a few kinks in the routine to
work out:)

All the while Tanner was practicing
his no-handed harmonica playing.
(Very impressive!)

Spending her balance

Maddie has been collecting money in her Piggie bank
for a long time. She would get a few dollars from
grandparents and great-grandparents and in January
we started giving her an allowance (balance as she calls it).
It's not much, she has a list of chores that she has
to do every day and if she does them then she
gets 10 cents. We figured that is the smallest amount she
could still pay tithing on.
She had been saving up for a princess doll, but lately whenever we have
gone to the store
she would say that she wanted a pillow pet for
Christmas (obviously she doesn't know how far away Christmas

is!) She also told me all her friends have them.

Oh boy, it has started.
Anyway, so we told her she had enough for a
pillow pet if she wanted to spend her money on that
and she quickly said, "I want a lady bug!"
So we dumped out the piggie and went shopping.

Ian didn't have as much money, but we knew he
would want something, too:)
(And no he does not get an allowance!)

We found the pillow pets and
sure enough she went straight for the ladybugs.

She also got a Tangled book. I asked her
what she was going to save her money up for
now and she said "a dolphin pillow pet." Then when
Ian was so excited about her ladybug I said maybe
he could get a pillow pet for his birthday and Maddie said she
was sure he would want a dolphin. hmmm.

Ian got a frog. It was hard at the store
because he kept wanting the really expensive things
and anything with Buzz Lightyear on it.
But luckily we got him over to the cheaper
toys.

For now Madison is content but I am
sure she will find something else soon that
she wants for Christmas!

On a side note, the other day Madison asked me
if we could go to Chick-fil-A for lunch and
I told her we couldn't because we didn't have
any money. (Our restaurant money for the month is
spent) and she said we could use her money from her
balance. What a sweetie! Actually come to think of it,
I don't know if she was offering to pay for Ian and
I or she just wanted me to get food for her:)

Exciting news!

We are the proud owners of a mini van.
I do have to say, those words would have made me
shudder 10 years ago, but lets face it
mini vans have come a long way. Not to mention
how convenient they are for a mommy!

When most people ask me what kind of car it
is I say, "red." Which makes Clay roll his eyes.
But seriously I actually know the name of it.
It is a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
and the color isn't just red, it is inferno red crystal pearl:)
(I'm not making that up!)

We have been saying that down the road we would
need a bigger vehicle so we would look occasionally. Well the
Acura needed new tires and we all know that isn't cheap, and
we got a killer tax return, so Clay started looking more seriously
and found this gem! It has great mileage, seemed like it was
in great shape and was several thousand dollars cheaper than
any of the other comparable mini vans. The catch...
we had to drive to North Carolina. So one Saturday morning we
loaded up the kids at 8:00am and drove the 3 1/2 hours hoping it
would all work out. Mostly that they would give us what we
wanted for the the Acura, as we were trading it in. All the
while thinking if it didn't work out it would be a 7 hour
car ride for lunch at McDonald's.
So we did it and they gave us more than we expected for
the Acura and it all worked out so swimmingly!
Now we have the "big red car" as Madison calls it.

Maddie and Ian's favorite part is the dvd player.
I'm not sure Ian will allow anything not containing
Buzz Lightyear (he is a little obsessed right now!)

My favorite part is the remote and it's
sliding door opening capabilities.

Clay loves the stow-n-go and storage spaces.

And we both love the 6 disc cd/dvd changer.
Our last car didn't read burned discs, so I'm having a
hay day!

As so many have pointed out, we can now have another
baby since we have the room. Unfortunately
that is not the case.
As soon as Madison got in the car she
told us the seats in the back were for her
friends Ethan, Savannah, and Zia. :)

A beautifulday

We had the most amazing weather yesterday!
It was in the high 70s, it might have enough hit 80.
We played outside in the morning then
went to a playground nearby then to the park.
In the evening we went over to Grammy and Pa pa's
so Clay could wash the car and so the kids could play outside
some more.

Ian loves Toy Story, so I thought he would
be really excited about this shirt, but since it
didn't have a head he told me it was "broke.":)

He loved the puddles. And seeing Pa pa
and Wa wa (that is his new name for Grammy:)
Poor kid, we're going to have to come up with a code
word for them because we told him we were
going to go to there house later (after dinner) and
he cried and cried saying "Go Pa pa!" He didn't want to
wait!

Ian's tough guy face.

Helping with the hose.

Giving baby a ride.

I look forward to many more days like this!

St. Patrick's Day

The morning of St. Patrick's Day
we checked our leprechaun trap and
unfortunately we didn't catch one, but
he left behind some treasures.

(We saw some green footprints leading to the
door:)

Maddie had fun at preschool then in the afternoon
we made some green Rice Krispie treats.
We also made green pancakes for dinner.

That evening I put some of these little tablets
into the kids bath so it was green. They loved it!

This was definitely the best St. Patrick's Day I
have ever had, thanks kiddos!

Decorating leprechaun traps

A couple of Maddie and Ian's friends

came over to have a St.Patrick's Day party
and decorate leprechaun traps.

Here are Maddie, Savannah, and Ethan
painting.

Ethan

Tanner

Savannah's finished trap.

Our green snack. (And I don't mean
good for the environment.)
Um, have you ever had the cool mint (green center)
Oreos? They are amazing!)

Maddie wasn't sure about the skittles.
Silly girl!

We've heard that Leprechauns
will leave treasure in exchange for
Lucky charms cereal.

(Clay says Leprechauns sound a lot like
the tooth fairy, whatever, it is sooo different!)

leprechauns and rainbows

If you ever wondered what Madison
would look like as a leprechaun, then wonder no more!

And Ian.
(I should mention that Clay thought
these were creepy!:)If you want to make one, click here.

Then we made rainbows out of
fruit loop cereal.
Here is Madison sorting the colors.

And what was Ian doing while Madison
was sorting. Eating!

Then she glued on the cereal.
Most of the time singing the Rainbow Song from the
Cat in the Hat.

Then she colored the clouds and we had
ourselves a beautiful, fruit smelling rainbow.

I found these foam pieces at the dollar store
and cut out rainbow arches. Now Maddie
has fun putting them together.

Dear March, I apoligize for calling you boring!

At the beginning of the month I was
a bit depressed thinking March was such a
boring month. I'm sorry to those of you with
birthdays in March that are offended, but actually
I think it would be a wonderful month for a birthday,
because as previously mentioned, there is just not
a lot going on!
So I started looking into things we could do for
St. Patrick's Day and found a lot of fun things!
(And no, none of them involved drinking!)
So the next few post will be some of our St.Patty's
crafts.

I've always wanted to make potato stamps.
We made a heart stamps then dipped them in
green paint to make shamrocks.

The finished product.On the topic of four-leaf clovers I should mention
that one day Maddie and I searched the lawn looking
for one. It was funny how excited she would get when
she thought she found one.
(I am glad she wasn't super determined to find one
otherwise we would still be out there, days later!)

Maddie has also been doing coloring pages,
connect-the-dot shamrocks and mazes.
Here is one of her pictures. She said she colored the
moon black because it was night time.

This is a pictures she drew of a
leprechaun and I LOVE it!
I guess he is jumping rope with his own arms!
(It must be from all the times she has seen
me doing that!:)