Family and our New Cat

We had to take a family picture for Maddox to take to school.  I realized we really don't have one.  I'm always taking the picture.  So one Sunday we had Suzy take pictures of us.  It's hard to get both girls happy at the same time!

 At the end of September this stray cat showed up at our house.  I tried to find it a home but eventually started letting come into our house.  She was so sweet and nice. She was always laying on our laps and letting Maddox carry her all over the house while she just dangled there.  So I let Jeremy make the decision if we should keep her (that way it would be on his shoulders if she turned out to be trouble) and he really liked her and thought she'd be a good fit for us so he said yes!  We left town for 3 days to go to KC for Jeremy's birthday and I said if she's still sitting outside our house when we get back we'd keep her.  She was sitting on our back steps, waiting.  So now, a month later, she's still with us and in heat.  The vet didn't want to spay her until she came into heat just in case she was already spayed.  Try explaining why the cat meows constantly, rubs on everything, and keeps her rear up in the air to a 3 year old.  I told her the cat really wants to get married and have babies but she can't find a boy cat.  Maddox thinks the cat just really loves her shoes ("they're like a blanky to her") and when we take her to the vet she's going to have surgery on her mouth so she won't meow.  By the way, the cat's name is Precious, named by Maddox because she has a Build-a-Bear cat named the same.  Precious has been banished to the basement at night so we can all sleep and surgery will be soon!

1st Day of Preschool

Here's the school girl, up early, and very excited!  She wore her backpack around the house for almost an hour before we had to leave.

 She looks so little walking away.  No, we didn't have to walk to school.  But the car is parked down the street because our road is being repaved.

 Posing in front of her cubby.

 Then she went straight to circle time.  She couldn't care less about the newness of it all or leaving me.  I had to ask her for a kiss then run out the door before I got too teary eyed.  She is absolutely going to love school!

Labor Day weekend fun

This past weekend we went to St. Joseph and Wathena to spend time with Jeremy's family.  Friday night we went to Savannah's football game, which of course they won and Maddox was enthralled by the marching band as usual.  My kids loved Aunt Shelby's aviator sunglasses in the car on the way up there.

 Saturday morning Jeremy ran a 5k for Wathena's Fall Festival.  He finished 3rd overall and won his age with 18:11.

 Saturday afternoon we spent at the festival.  Maddox rode 3 or 4 rides over and over again.  There really weren't anymore for her age. 

 Maddox also got some fairy wings from the clowns.  A grimacing smile from her... maybe because it was raining on us?  Just a drizzle so it wasn't bad, but we got a little wet.

 Sunday afternoon James and Angie, Gabbie and Hayden came over to cookout at Grandma Barb's.  Here all her grandkids together.  A rarity that will hopefully happen a little more often now that we live in Iowa.  Sunday evening we went to the parade in Wathen and got a ton MORE candy. (5 parades in 2 months... I will NOT be buying Halloween candy.)

 Monday morning we went to the Patee House Museum where the only thing Maddox liked was the old carousel.  It is very pretty.  This might be the first time I've let Hadlee ride one.

Then we spent Monday afternoon at Krug Park where Maddox wanted to explore ALL the castle stairs.  The park itself she wasn't so impressed with.  It is a little cruddy nowadays.  But it was still pretty cool to take her to places I grew up and had so many memories there.  Then the afternoon went downhill from there with Hadlee having diarrhea and no diapers and Jessi rolling in very smelly poo.  It was definitely time to go back home!

Growing Up

Tomorrow Maddox starts her first day of preschool.  She'll be going to Westview Church Preschool, about 2 miles from our house.  It's only 2 hours on Monday and Wednesday morning.  She's growing up so fast!  It just doesn't seem like 3 1/2 years ago she was a tiny baby that refused to come out therefore making her mama have surgery.  She's still stubborn.  Here she is on her first horse ride at the Iowa State Fair.  She loved it.  I wish she could ride more.

 And here she's hanging out with Cinderella at Waukee Fest.

 And this is the first thing she did at school.  We went to orientation last week and she was checking out the chalkboard and wrote her name!  We'd been practicing but the evidence at home had shown that she wasn't that great at it.  All I did was point to where to write each letter since she started right in the midle of the board and doesn't get the left to right thing.  I was impressed!

She is VERY excited about going to school.  I hope after a few days of it she's still excited and doesn't come home thinking "I don't know what the big deal was, it's not THAT cool."  I know she's ready to get out and meet new friends here and it will certainly be good for her.  I'm excited that she's so excited!

My Little Readers

My children read ALL the time and I love it!  This is how they can be found every night.  I'll get Hadlee ready for bed then let her loose and she'll go to Maddox's bed, climb up, and start reading while I get Maddox ready.  Then Maddox will have me read to her then read to herself for a while with just the hallway light on.  They do this at night and throughout the day.  Actually, that's where they are now.  Both on Maddox's bed reading book after book.

 I caught Hadlee up there one day by herself surrounded by books.  I love that my kids love books so much!

 Caught ya!

 We got our bedroom decorated so I'll take pictures of it now to share.  I really wish I had taken before pictures now just so you could see how drastically different and better it is!  I'll just describe before... The walls were the painters white with light tan sponge painted over it on all four walls.  It had an ivy wall paper border along the ceiling.  The curtains were a sea foam green scrunchy silk with white tassles along all the edges.  And they hung a piece of ivy along the top of the curtains and hanging off both sides.  It was straight out of the 90s.  Jeremy said he always threw up a little bit every time he entered the room.  So he was very motivated to take down the border and curtains, leaving me with a clean slate.  The weekend Mom was here she helped me pick out bedding and she cut my silk curtains from one panel into two to hang up in our room.  The next weekend we painted the walls a nice grey color.  We wanted to do wide polyeurethane stripes over that but the walls are orange peel texture so it wouldn't work.  Rather than deal with extra steps and frustration we gave up.  A few weeks later we found these gorgeous crystal lamps with silk grey shades at Gordman's so they were 50% off.  Then we spent some time trying to find that pop of color for the wall that matched the bedding.  We had been looking at Gordman's, therefore cheap, bought something then went to the mall and found this painting at Deck the Walls.  It was perfect!  We returned the Gordman's painting and got this one, not so cheap.  But it absolutely perfect in there and just the color a grey room needed.  Is it grey or gray?  I can't figure that one out.

Now we love our peaceful tranquil grown up room.  Oh, we do still need a headboard.  If you recall Jessi freaked out one day when locked in the bedroom and ripped apart our wicker one.  So for now it's got a Mom-made slip-cover over it that matches the curtains and white in the duvet (made out of an old sheet!).  Not wonderful, but it does the job until we're ready to go shopping again.