Happy Birthday!

This past weekend we went to Pueblo Colorado to surprise Nanny for her 90th Birthday. She was very excited to get to see and hold her great-great granddaughters. We had a wonderful trip and loved getting to visit with family.

The girls were AWESOME!! They slept in the car, played with their cousins, and were in great moods the entire weekend. I was really nervous about spending a minimum of 16 hours in the car this weekend, but they did great!

On Friday, I got to buy my birthday present...a brand new 2011 Toyota Sienna...I love it!! It had to have a part replaced before we can get it however, so it will be delivered to our home sometime in the next week to 10 days.

Here is a link to the dealerships website and the vehicle that is now ours.
The color is south pacific pearl...which is a deep blue/green color that really reflects the sun light beautifully...these pictures don't do the color justice. I will take more pictures when it arrives. I am so excited!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and having little kids around makes it that much more special.

Granddad Cone works for BNSF Railway and every year, Santa comes to visit the Depot. Amber and I took the kids to see Santa (and to let Granddad show them off). The kids really liked the cookies and playing with the other kids, but weren't so fond of Santa...they all three cried when they went to sit on his lap...oh well maybe next year. (Granddad...Amber...I guess I don't have any pictures from Santa's lap...do either of you have them?)

The kids really got into the hang of opening presents this year. Madison really had it figured out. There were so many presents for the kids that they were kind of overwhelmed at first, but gradually they opened enough presents that they stopped fighting over the toys they opened.


Since the lens to our nice Cannon camera is broken, Amber and Brad bought me a small point and shoot camera. The kids loved being able to look at the pictures right away. The quality of the pictures is not quite as good, but it is sure better than no camera at all. Thanks Guys!








I am noticing now that I failed to get pictures of the time we spent with my family. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Linda came up this year and we had a great time with the "Wade Clan". We had Christmas dinner over at my mom's house on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed games and smoked pork loin and ribs on Christmas Day. Christmas night was spent playing Kinect on the X-Box and learning how to play Bones...a domino game that Chuck taught us all.

New Years Eve was a blustery cold night with lots of snow. So friends of ours, Tony and Elizabeth, came over along with Jenni for Bar room Olympics...it was a lot of fun to welcome in the 2011 with friends and family.

Overall, we had a fantastic holiday and loved every minute of our two week vacation from school. It was sure hard to leave those girls Monday morning!

I guess that is all for 2010...Blessings to all for 2011.

Emma Lea is 8 Months Old

It is hard to believe that Emma Lea is already 8 months old. She is growing and changing so fast!

Emma is crawling everywhere...she is not up on all fours yet, but she can slither with the best of them. She loves being able to follow Madi and Aiden around. She can also go from crawling to sitting...which still impresses me every time I see it. Madison and Aiden took a lot longer to master that skill.

We jokingly call Emma our "Little Vacuum" as she will search out any little thing she can find on the floor and put it in her mouth...thus I have started to have to vacuum daily and I still can't seem to keep her from finding hair, dirt, fuzz, etc.

Emma loves her older sister and cousin and tries to follow them everywhere. She has even followed them through the tunnel a few times. She gets so excited when they play with her, and doesn't even complain when they walk/crawl/fall on her.

Emma is a mommy's girl for sure...If I am in the room, she wants to be with me...and heaven forbid I walk through the room and not pick her up...The good news is, thirty seconds after I leave the room, she is fine and will go back to playing.

No more baby food for Emma...or at least that is what she thinks. She wants to eat whatever we eat and she wants to eat it now! This was great until she caught a stomach bug this month and couldn't tolerate any solid foods for two weeks...she was not happy that she was stuck with formula, pedialyte and rice cereal.

Emma Lea is definitely the most persistant of our "three" kids. When she wants something, she wants it now...and will do everything in her power to get it. You have to hold on tight when you are carrying her because she will try and jump out of your arms to get to something.

Emma is sleeping through the night wonderfully by now...However, she still doesn't like to nap very well. She did better over Christmas break, but some days we are lucky if she will sleep for an hour total during the day. She is way to busy to take a nap...or so she thinks.

Emma and her daddy love to play together...as long as mom isn't in the room. She loves to be tickled and completely goes limp when you tickle her. She loves to play with jewlery and hair...we are working on not pulling on these but haven't quite got the hang of that yet...much to the demise of a few of my necklaces...and is the reason my hair is up 90% of the time. :)

This morning, Emma was standing up in her crib when Brandon went to get her ready to go to Grammy Cone's house. I guess it is time to lower her crib to the lowest setting tonight...

Emma Lea Ruth, You are such an amazing baby. I love every inch of you and I am so excited to see parts of your personality emerging. I am hopeful that you will keep your loving attitude and your persistence as you grow up. Your hugs melt my heart and I will treasure these days for the rest of my life. I love you baby girl and pray for the best for you. I love you, Mommy.

Giving Thanks for Family

Okay, so once again I am behind in posts...oops.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving along with some sprinkled in from the following weeks.

Madi and Grammy getting ready to go feed the horses. Grammy Tammi is no longer Grammy...just the horse lady. Whenever Madison sees Grammy...she wants to go feed the horses.

On December 10th and 12th, Rick and Marie celebrated milestone birthdays. We had a small get together at our house for them both. Here is the cake Karen bought for the occasion...notice the candles...50 + 80=130...haha.

The week before Thanksgiving, my Grandma Bonnie and Great Grandma Boyce came to visit and to see the girls. We tried to capture some more family pictures...but the girls were not exactly in the mood for taking pictures. Here are some of the best pictures Jenni was able to take.

5 generations...

Daddy and Emma...

Mommy and her girls...

Great-Grandma Bonnie and her Great-Granddaughters...



Great-Great-Grandma Boyce with her babies...


Jenni's Christmas present to the Brandon's family was to take family pictures for her Christmas cards. Here is my favorite of the whole clan...

Madison 20 and 21 Months

Our little Madison is growing up so fast...Here are some of her changes over the last couple of months.

Madi still gives us the "cheeser" grin, although not quite as often as she did a few months ago.

She still loves her dolls and rocks them, cuddles them, and tucks them in. She is also starting to learn how to dress and undress them. She is excited to figure out how to zip and unzip, snap and unsnap and put on and off her clothes.

Madison wants to be just like mommy and daddy...here she is "playing" x-box with daddy. She had to have her own controller and head set, just like daddy.

When we rearranged furniture to decorate for Christmas, we created a fort for the kids to play in...complete with tunnel...the kids loved it!

Madison is great with her sister and cousin. She has her moments of course, but she is usually very sweet and loving to them. For a week or two she would go up and push them over just so she could give them a hug to tell them she was sorry...she now knows that she can give them "loves" without hurting them...good thing!

Madison received a training potty for Christmas, and she is loving learning how to use it...we haven't had any success yet...but she is loving getting undressed and sitting on it. It is pretty funny.

Madison loves to help out. She takes dirty diapers to the trash, brings her sister her bottle, and does pretty much what we ask her too. She watches us learn how to cook and clean and tries to help in any way possible. I was washing the patio door in our dining room a few weeks ago when Madison decided to help. She grabbed a towel and put it in the bucket of water and washed the windows right along side of me. I think she made more of a mess than she helped...but it was fun to have a partner in my chores.

Madi's favorite toy at the moment is her foot-powered car she got from Santa this year. She and Aiden each got one and they have so much fun getting in and out, pushing them around, and using the tools from a puzzle to work on the car.

Madison, you are such a wonderful little girl. I am amazed that you are almost two years old already. I hope that you keep your sweetness and tender heart as you grow up. I love that you want to cuddle with daddy and me. Your hugs and kisses melt my heart and I fall in love with you all over again. You are such a blessing in my life. I love you baby girl! Mommy