A little photo shoot with the kiddos

Madilyn's "I'm 3!!!" Pictures

I almost forgot to post these....ooops.
Love them!

She has only been in preschool for 2 weeks......

and we are already sick :( Just a cold, but I just know that this will be the first of many bugs that will probably be coming home with Madilyn this fall/winter.
It is worth it though, as she is really loving preschool. She talks about friends, adores her teacher, and loves all the projects that she gets to do.
It is nice to have a little break as well, as she is pretty much at the hardest age right now, in my opinion.


On a brighter note, Cowen is pretty much walking! He is taking around 5-7 steps at a time now. He is standing on his own all the time now too. It is seriously the cutest thing ever seeing him stand and walk. He just looks too little to be doing it :)

Also,

He is learning to use a fork and a spoon really well and always reminds us (by whining a little) if we forget to give him one during his meals.
He is obsessed with going up the stairs (gasp!)
and playing in the dishwasher.

We are continuing our busy week and are excited for a fun packed weekend, so hopefully these colds don't last long :)

A little Festival on a Sunday afternoon

We took the kiddos to Blessed Sacrament's (Catholic Church) Fall Festival this past Sunday afternoon with Grandma Joan.

They had a great time........

They danced on the table to live music

and

when I asked Madilyn if she would want to play any of the instruments her answer was "they are too big for me mom"

enjoyed snow cones.....
This little man just had to have his own chair right by his favorite person Grandma Joan. Poor Grandma Joan had to carry all 22 pounds of him around all afternoon because he wouldn't have it any other way. (Are your arms a little sore today?)

this little lady wore her sunglasses upside down...they just fit better that way alright? haha

Quite the fashion statement.

won a Nemo fish look-alike at the ducky game. (And she pretty much hasn't put the thing down since then.)

picked a duck to win prizes....

rode a train..... (she was so excited to do this, as she is really into Thomas the Train right now.)

but still asked to get off each time that the train passed where we were standing.

she also floated in a boat on rough seas....

and again told us that she was ready to get off each time it came around to where we were standing. I totally had the giggles watching her in her upside down sunglasses, riding on these dilapidated "carny" rides. These are the only 2 rides that we would let her go on, as they were pretty bad. Luckily, she was okay with that ;)

It was fun to take the kiddos to this event, as we used to come to this every year when I was little.
Cowen was too little to ride, but I am sure next year he will be all over it :)

"Dinosaurous" Part II

Check out our "Dinosaurous" Adventure Part I
Only a few minutes from our house, is an awesome dinosaur park. Grandpa Larry and Grandma Joan took the kids and I there last Friday.
It was a lot of fun despite being rained out.

They had a robotic dinosaur display and Madilyn was just a little scared of it, but at the same time, she just had to keep going back and looking at it. Here she is with Grandma Joan peaking around the corner to see it. They had to do this at least 10 times.

this little look says it all! Inquisitive, yet a little worried, and excited all in one.

Check out those huge teeth. Who wouldn't want to touch them? The great thing about this place, was that you could.

Checking out dinosaur vision.....

by the time we made it to the outdoor gardens, it started to pour rain. We kept finding little shelters to escape to. The first one was a little duck pond.

We fed and talked to the ducks. Cowen tried to get in the water with the ducks and would have been happy sitting in the water with them for the evening, but we didn't let him do that much to his dismay.

It stopped raining for a minute or two and we ventured on and found this HUGE dinosaur. Cowen was fascinated by it and thrilled when he got to touch it.

There was a great play place for the kids with swings, playground equipment, lots of little dinos to play on, and a tree slide. Just when the kiddos spotted the swings, it started pouring again.....

but we couldn't resist taking a few pics with these hilarious backdrops. Here is prehistoric Madilyn walking her dinosaurous.

and Cowen in his element :)

and Pop Larry wrangling a dino

Madilyn and Larry were too funny posing in these things. It was hilarious.

and trust me, there were A LOT more that we didn't get to experience because there was just too much rain.

Our next shelter was a dino burial ground/cave.

pretty soon it was down pouring complete with lightening and thunder, so we headed back inside and just had to visit the robot dinos again. Cowen waddled up to the fence and full on "roared" at them. It was too funny. He isn't scared of them at all..in fact, he speaks their language.

We can't wait to go back to this place and experience it all. Looks like Fall has arrived early here in Utah, as we are having yet another chilly/rainy day today.

Play doh

Madilyn had her eye on this play-doh ice cream set for a while. I remember when she showed it to me in a Target ad one day.

Lucky for her, she received it for her birthday.

We had so much fun playing with it a couple of afternoons ago. It held Madilyn's attention for a couple of hours and she was reluctant to put it away at lunch time. Paul and I had the best time creating ice cream delights with her.

here are a few of her creations! She is so creative and loves creating. It is so fun to watch her during the creative process. She gets so into it and has great ideas.

It is so much fun playing with you Madilyn!

Flash forward.....

This little man can't stay out of the kitchen when I am cooking. He just has to know what is going on and can't wait to eat what ever it is that I am making.
Often times he is pressing his face up against the oven door to get a glimpse of what is inside.
The other day when he was doing this, I had this little glimpse of him still doing this very same thing 15 or so years from now. ha ha. Good thing I like to cook!

Our little lady turned 3---and this was her party day!

Her "Foofa" cake. That is Foofa on the top and also who Madilyn was dressed up like for the day!

The look on her face sums up the day! It was magical and so much fun. We started the party at 4pm, which turned out perfect, as it was right after her nap. She came down the stairs and saw tons of gifts and all her favorite people. She was so excited!

The theme of her party was Yo Gabba Gabba (which is a TV show that she loves). There are 5 main characters on the show and she wanted Paul and I, Cowen and herself to dress like the characters. She realized that there were 5 characters, but only 4 of us, so her blanket (snuggle) took on the 5th character at her request. :) Madilyn was "Foofa"...which is the pink character on her shirt.

Here are a few of the many pics that I took that day:

Here is the look on her face when she saw the bouncy house in the backyard....

the kids had so much fun playing in/on the bouncy house.

we were able to drag her off of the bouncy house just long enough to open gifts and have cake and ice cream. She received so many nice gifts. Many, many thanks to our families. Her favorite gift of all was spending the day with all of you. It is so neat to see her relationships grow with our families.

her brother was a great help opening gifts.....

after gifts, she finally got to have some cake! She was so excited to eat her cake. She had been eyeing it all day and kept asking to eat it, so when the time finally rolled around she could hardly stand it! This was my first real cake, as I usually do cupcakes. Madilyn requested a big cake for her party, so I took on the task. Luckily my wonderful mother-in-law loaned me her cake pans and supplies, gave me an amazing frosting recipe, and gave me many great tips that made the process come together and turn out sucessful. Thanks MIL

instead of regular old ice cream with her cake, she requested that we do ice cream cones.

and then we were back to the bouncy house. She bounced until dark and then bounced all morning the next day.

our little birthday girl playing in the sandbox that she got for her birthday. It was so fun to see her looking so girly, but still doing all the tom boy things that she loves to do. It definitely sums up her personality. She insists on wearing skirts every day, loves tutus and shoes.....but plays with trucks, cars, and dirt.

Happy Birthday Madilyn Sage!!!!