Video of Ethan playing

While Madeline was napping today I had Ethan sitting on the rug surrounded by a bunch of toys and he was just having a ball playing with everything. I couldn't get over the fact that he could sit there all by himself and have so much fun. He kept making me laugh so I had to grab the camera to catch a little bit of him playing.

Madeline's 1st visit to the Circus

Our friends, Mrs. Martha and Mr. Dick, gave us 3 tickets to the Circus as well as baby-sitting services for the evening. We can't thank them enough. We had a blast!! It was so nice to have an evening out with Madeline to give her well deserved undivided attention from the both of us. It was such a special evening...not just for her but for us as well.

Before going over to the James Brown Arena in Augusta for The Greatest Show on Earth, we went to Fridays for dinner....uhg...dinner wasn't very good for any of us, but we enjoyed the time out together anyway.

It has been raining like crazy here. We need the rain, but it's getting a little annoying now. Anyway, we had to make a mad-dash for the building once we parked because it was pouring. We shouldn't complain too much because many parts of GA were having tornado warnings. We were just getting a bunch of rain.

Here is Daddy and Maddie outside the James Brown Arena. Can you tell they got a little wet?? It didn't dampen any one's mood though :)
Madeline's grandmother, Marmie, sent her $10 to spend at the circus. She decided she needed and elephant filled with a snow cone! And yes, it cost ten dollars!!!! The prices were ridiculous!

We had awesome seats! We were pretty close to the ring and didn't have any obstacles in our way. And the people all around us were nice :) even the kid in front of us that Madeline kicked in the head was a sweetheart. When I apologized, he said, "oh that's OK...I'm used to it."

Madeline's favorite part was the elephants. Every time we mentioned going to the Circus today, she would say, "go see elephants? go see penguins?"


Doug and I found this guy hilarious and Madeline found Mommy and Daddy funny because they kept laughing. This guy is amazing with a bicycle!

This is the end of the Circus. We couldn't believe Madeline stayed awake and attentive through the whole show. She got tired at the end, but still hung in there. It wasn't over until 9:00...an hour past her bedtime.


This is Madeline waving goodbye to everyone. Can you tell she's sleepy?!

This is in the car on our way home. She's STILL waving goodbye to everyone. She's saying, "I say bye to the clowns...BYE CLOWNS.... I say bye to the tigers....BYE TIGERS...I say bye to the elephants...BYE ELEPHANTS!" She surprisingly stayed awake the whole ride home, even through our stop to pick up Ethan.

Of course, the little princess had to get some souvenirs from her first Circus. You can see her elephant cup from the snow cone. When I took her at intermission to get something from Mommy and Daddy we looked and looked and finally she spotted a coloring book she wanted...and it was the cheapest thing they had!!! I was very happy with that even though four dollars for a coloring book is a rip-off. She also REALLY wanted to sit on this elephant statue they had, but you could only sit on it if you paid to have your picture taken...I caved. It did come with a "free" clown nose though!!

Ethan's shirt

I love this shirt that Ethan has right now. It's a hand-me-down from my sister so I guess I have to give it back, but it's just so cute on Ethan.

I had Doug throw a sweatshirt on Ethan since we were about to take him out and this is how Doug got him ready:

One day I'll get a picture of the two kiddies together that I like...

A girl I know here in GA, Sarrah, takes amazing pictures. Some of my favorites are of her newborn's feet. So I decided I needed a picture of Ethan's feet. I'm not as good with taking pictures as Sarrah...but these are still the cutest feet ever!

Daddy's Day Off

This past weekend Daddy decided he was going to take a day off during the week for all of us to get out and spend the day together. He suggested we take the kids to Fort Discovery in Augusta. After a wonderfully, lazy morning, we headed to Augusta...just about 19 miles from our house. Although most of the exhibits were geared towards kids a bit older, maybe 5 and up, Madeline still loved it. She played with just about every exhibit (this took about and hour and a half or so), then went to play in the little area they have set up for toddlers. It was perfect because I could sit down and give Ethan a bottle while Daddy and Madeline played with toddler-like activities.

This is outside of Fort Discovery on the Riverwalk along the Savannah River.

They had an exhibit where you could pretend to do the weather forecast. She didn't quite understand the idea, but she had fun with it anyway!

Flying

Maybe an astronaut one day?
She enjoyed operating the lil Rover, but it was very difficult to steer.
Watching the sound waves as she played beautiful music.

Not sure what she's doing here, but she sure is intrigued

Magnets
Madeline and Daddy playing the piano. She LOVED this. I have a video of her and I playing. Upload later maybe.

Ethan was asleep in the stroller :(

Chuck E Cheese

We were supposed to go to the zoo (with my Mom's group) in South Carolina today, but they were calling for rain so we postponed the trip. As a back-up we went to Chuck-E-Cheese instead. Of course, Madeline loved it!

She loved riding the horse. I didn't even put a token in because I thought it would scare her if it started moving. She was so happy just sitting there. I have a video of her pretending to ride the horse that I will post later.

As usual, Ethan was happy just watching everything going on.

I asked my friend, Jaime to take a picture of Ethan, Madeline and me. Her son Liam wanted us to all do a silly picture. I look terrible in this picture, but even worse in the one just of me, Ethan and Madeline. I need to start doing something more with my hair or something! I just hate to fuss over myself at all in the mornings. Anyway, here's a picture of the crew.

Building Blocks

Recently I've been using the video part of my camera to capture some moments with the little ones, so I'll be posting some on here.

Madeline kept racing to get a "tall tower" built before Ethan knocked it down. She didn't mind him knocking it down, but she wanted it finished first.

Max & Ruby Books

Marmie and Pop sent Madeline and Ethan a few new Max & Ruby books. For those of you who aren't familiar with the current hit cartoons, Max and Ruby are bunny rabbits. Ruby is Max's older sister, so I think it's neat that Madeline likes the show so much. Ruby sets a good example for Madeline!

My Madeline

I've been going through Madeline's closet and drawers the past couple weeks trying to weed out what doesn't fit her anymore...well, that seemed to be almost everything! Most of her 3T shirts from last summer still fit great, and she has a couple pairs of capri's that I think will work, but all of her dresses were just way too short on her. Our little girl has such long legs. I paid a couple visits to Walmart, Target, and Kohl's, and was able to pick her up a bunch of dresses for the summer. They cost anywhere from $5 to $8 so I was pretty happy with the prices, especially since I wanted to get her quite a few. It gets so hot here that I figure she'll probably just be wearing a dress every day. I also needed to pick her up some shoes. The poor child has huge feet. The lady at one of the stores we went to said we should get her a 9 1/2, but I didn't agree with her. The 9's fit her much better...but what 2 year old wears a size 9 shoe?!?!?! Kohl's has some good prices on shoes, so I picked her up several pairs. I sure hope her foot doesn't grow for the rest of the summer...I can't afford it. I need to find some friends who have older girls so that I can start buying their shoes off of them! Here's a few pictures of Madeline in one of her dresses and shoes.

This afternoon I took the took kiddies to Walmart to do our grocery shopping. As usual, Madeline loves to say hello to everyone. I can tell she gets disapointed if she doesn't get a greeting in return. The greeters at Walmart must not have heard Madeline saying hi or goodbye today :( Several times as she was walking around the store, she would say "excuse me" as she tried to get around someone's cart. Then she would look at them waiting for a response...she rarely got one. (people must be grumpy today!) She's like this at home too. If she's says "thank you" and we don't say "your welcome" she'll keep saying "thank you" until we finally respond. She is making Doug and I very polite! Anyway, after several disapointments, I took Madeline to McDonalds to pick up some lunch. As usual, when we pulled up to the first window to pay, I rolled down her window as well as mine. She said hi to the girl who didn't respond. Then Madeline said even louder, but still friendly, "Hello!" The young girl heard her, smiled, and said hi. She talked to her for a second, then grabbed a little McD's magazine and handed it to Madeline. I scooted the car up a little bit so Madeline could grab it...she got such a kick outa this!!! She thanked the girl then kept saying, "Mommy, I got a magazine!!" I said, "I know, that's SO neat." And she said, "Yeah, awesome!!!"

Our little Ethan

We went to Five Guys for lunch yesterday. We're so excited to finally be getting some decent places to eat around here. Now all we need is a Chipotle!!

Anyway, it amazes me that Ethan is already at a stage where he is able to sit in those restaurant style high chairs. We squeeze a few blankets around him so he's not able to wobble around too much. He loves sitting up at the table with us...especially if we give him a cup to play with!!!

Every day I am amazed at how fast he is growing. I was just sitting here feeding him his cereal and applesauce for lunch, and he kept biting down on the spoon with his little bottom tooth! I can't believe how something so little can be so fascinating... that's our Ethan!

Doug's 1st Tournament

Doug went to Atlanta yesterday for his first Jiu Jitsu tournament.

He was hoping to come back a champ, but came back with some experience instead :) His first match was the Men's No-Gi - Heavy Weight. Doug needed to lose about 5 pounds to be in the next weight class down, but that wasn't going to happen. Instead, he ended up being matched with a guy that weighed quite a bit more than him. Doug found out after the (quick) match, that the guy is a professional arm wrestler. Doug said he tried to avoid the guys arms and went to grab his legs, but the guy caught his neck, and Doug tapped.

The next match he was in was the Men's Gi - Heavy Weight. Doug was still very nervous and a bit out of his element with all the spectators. The guy he was matched with this time was a wrestler in high school and college. Doug looks a little more evenly matched with this fellow.

Doug didn't win either match. Both men he fought went on to win their division.
Doug's friend from work, Paxton, drove with Doug to the tournament to root him on and take pictures. Paxton is on the left, then Doug, then Doug's instructor, and on the right is a guy Doug spars with during his classes. I stayed home with the kiddies. We didn't think it would be appropriate to bring them :)

I'm very proud of you Doug! Keep up the hard work. I'm glad you found a hobby you love so much. You need to get one of those shirts like the guy on the right so you can show off your guns too! I love you!

Enjoying the outdoors

We have had beautiful weather recently, so we've been trying to catch as much time outside as possible (before it gets too hot)! Madeline would play outside all day if I'd let her. I get a bit worried when we're out though because we have fire ants around here, and as much as we try, we just can't completely get rid of them. We don't go outside unless Doug or I have had a chance to scan the entire yard for those mounds they build. Doug's mother got me some plants and such from Springhill Gardens for our yard for my birthday.

I'm so excited to get our yard in shape and have it looking cozy. We planted a tree towards the back of the yard...can't wait until it can provide us some shade!We're puting cedar mulch around the tree, shrubs, and other plants because we understand that fire ants, as well as most other bugs and insects, don't like the smell of it. Our hope is that between the cedar mulch, the fire ant poison, and the bug killer spray that we're spreading throughout our yard, we'll have a wonderful yard to enjoy this summer (hopefully we'll still have grass).

Madeline "helped" her Daddy get a lot of the gardening done.

Our next goal will be to get a play set.

Our Cuties

Madeline was singing her ABC's, well most of them at least.

I noticed yesterday that Ethan has a tooth poking through on the bottom. About a week ago I thought one was coming in up top, but it was just a false alarm. This one on the bottom is definitely here!

Cake anyone?

Madeline helped me bake a cake Sunday night, then helped decorate it Monday morning. Ethan supervised as you can see in many of the pictures.



Mmmmm...she couldn't wait for this part! In fact, a couple times she didn't...good thing this cake was just for the family!






Mommy made a smiley face, then Madeline added her own art. She had a hard time understanding that you had to squeeze the tube to get the color to come out. She thought of it more like a marker.









Adding sprinkles. She had been eyeing up the sprinkles container on the counter for a couple days and was excited to finally get to use them!












Admirroring her work.

Tasting her work. Ethan is wondering where his piece is!!