Maddox's new stuff

Maddox took a 5 week Little Ninja class through the city and on this past Wednesday took her test for her first belt.  I was a little nervous about it for her since she can be so timid and most of her ninja moves in class can be very small and wimpy.  At home she does better.  Well she did very well!  Got a little shy in the group ninja moves part but then got in line to break her board with her palm and then one with her kick and broke them both on the first try!  Not all the kids did it on the first try and I thought for sure Maddox would be one of those.  I was shocked!  Grammy and Papa were even here to witness it.  Of course we had to go out for ice cream afterwards.  Maddox does tell me though that this was enough ninja.  She doesn't really want to take anymore, which is the first activity she's said that about.  Fine with me, just wanted to try something new out that might help her confidence and I think it did a little.  We may have to re-take in a couple years!

 Her dance recital is also coming up and this morning we had to go for her pictures.  She looked so adorable and old in her costume with all her makeup.  I kept having a hard time finding her in the studio because she looks so different!

Finally... a beautiful day!

This past Monday it was GORGEOUS!  It was near 70, finally!  Of course that only lasted one day, but we took advantage of it.  And, amazingly, Daddy had the day off.  Nice days usually only happen when he's at work of course.  So after picking up Maddox from school we loaded up for a picnic in downtown Des Moines at the Pappajohn Sculpture park.  I've always wanted to head there on a nice spring day to let the kids run around the grass and explore.  It was perfect!

 My favorite sculpture:

 The girls were trying to imitate the pose behind them!

 Daddy and his girls:

 Mommy and her girls... and the unknown one:

After a couple hours here we went to a free outdoor rv show and spent a couple hours looking at those.  The girls loved exploring all the rv's and Jeremy and I loved dreaming we could have one.  There was also a free bounce house and it was completely empty!  We wore the girls out!  I wish every day could be like this one!  Perfect temperatures, sun, and family doing something free and fun!

Easter 2013

I actually don't have a lot of Easter pictures.  We got up and went to the sunrise service at church then came back to hunt for Easter eggs and check out the baskets.  Suzy has our family pictures on her camera so maybe I'll add later.  That afternoon the Lowes came over for Easter dinner, more egg hunts, and just family fun.

 Brrr!  Let's go inside!!

Evidence

Some quick evidence that I WAS pregnant this year.  This was me at 22 weeks on March 1.  We don't know what we're having and aren't finding out.  Answer coming in July! (or probably June)

Some snow play

Towards the end of February we had another snowfall.  We had plenty of those to play in this year.  Maddox got to work making a snowman.

 I guess Hadlee had to rest after making her tiny snowball.

 They discovered it was fun going down the slide into a pile of snow!

 The completed project.  Maddox had given up an gone inside so Hadlee and I finished it up.

The Vaseline Incident

So one day Maddox and Hadlee decided it would be a good idea to use Vaseline as a hairstyling agent.  Maddox just a had a little in the top of her hair but Hadlee had it all over and thick.  It was terrible!  I washed Hadlee's hair with shampoo, dish detergent, corn starch, laundry detergent each 3-5 times!

 I finally gave up for the night and the next morning it still looked like this.  A greasy mess.

What finally worked (so you'll know and my kids will know when their kids do it someday) was Dawn dish soap a couple times, followed by baby oil a couple of times, and then a clarifying shampoo a couple of times.  It was pretty much back to normal after that.  Must keep Vaseline out of reach!!!

My weirdos...

Maddox turns 5!

Way back in February Maddox had her 5th birthday.  My mom and Suzy had a Tastefully Simple meeting in KC so we decided to go down there to the CoCo Key waterpark and hotel for her birthday and see Grammy.  The rest of the Lowes joined us as did Jennifer and Anna.  We spent the afternoon and

evening swimming and going down slides and playing in the arcade.  Maddox even hit the 1,000 ticket jackpot on one of the games and we got a nice big ball out of the deal!  That night we sort of took over an empty hotel hallway and had her Ariel birthday party there.

Daddy Daughter Dance 2013

Jeremy and Maddox headed off to the daddy daughter dance at church in February, the weekend of her birthday.  Hadlee isn't old enough to go yet, but next year!  She got dressed up in a princess dress and took pictures anyway before they left.

 At the dance Maddox got to meet a few Disney princesses and get their autographs.

 Maddox and Emily had a good time dancing!

Way behind!!

Okay, so I'm way behind on posting.  It's because I end up posting most of my pictures on facebook and not really to this blog anymore.  But I eventually put this blog into book form so I've got to post some pictures at least for the sake of that.

In January we had a rare warm day.  40s?  50s?  Warm enough that the ice rink was melting.  So we took the kids to the outdoor ice rink for their first time ever.  They got pretty good and after a couple hours were away from the wall, still holding our hands.  Hadlee tried without holding my hand and made it all the way back to the wall by herself.  It was a pretty awesome day!