At Home in the Mountains

We went to Farwell and Lubbock for Memorial Day weekend. This year was extra special because Cindy and Bethany came down this time! We missed Brad being there, but it was so great to get to see them! Bethany has changed so much since I last saw her. She is a super cute and funny little girl now. Bethany and Maddy had "Granna Wars" a little bit, but they did really good for the most part and they had a good time playing together.  We also got to be there for my uncle's 56th birthday and his retirement party so that made the trip really fun and special as well. To add icing on top of that cake, we got to meet my cousin's newest baby who is about 5 months old now. He was a cutie. All the great grandkids on my Mom's side were together and we got to see several of the cousins and 2nd cousins (or whatever they are---I can't keep it straight) on my Dad's side of the family. My grandparents confused peach tree had ripe peaches---in May! Aaron w

 A couple of weeks ago we had beans and sausage for dinner. Maddy started making people out of her sausage and beans. I was about to put the kibosh on that activity when I realized she was actually eating what she was making. The above is a "smiley face". I don't really see it.....but I'm probably just blind and narrow minded. I probably should have found a way to frame this and it would have become a famous exhibit in the museum of modern art. Below are "Her" and "Him". "Her" is on the bottom. Maddy explained that the half moon sausage is "her's" smile. The round one is "her's" face. The two beans on top are "her's" bows. We never could get her to explain what was up with "Him". "Him" looks like he had a rough day. Maybe it was tragic. Whatever the case, Maddy didn't really want to talk about "Him". Yesterday, she had fish sticks and some shell macaroni nood

 Back in April, we decided we needed to do a short family getaway after the semester was over. The last time we'd been on vacation just to vacation (not going to see family in CO) was when we went to San Antonio when Maddy was 3 months old. We found Beavers Bend State Park close to Broken Bow, OK and decided to go there. We booked a cabin in the state park and eagerly awaited the day we could take off for our getaway. We left on Sunday afternoon and stayed through Tuesday afternoon. It was short, but so fun and relaxing. We had no computer and no cell phones while we were up there. We just got to enjoy being around each other and the beautiful scenery.  We built a fire and roasted some marshmallows. Also popped some jiffy pop. Aaron had never done one of those before.  This is a 100 year old cabin they had at the visitor center. I like the mud chinking ( I think that's what it's called). A couple named Comma and Mabel lived in the cabin when the CCC was building the

 Meet baby Jabs. Yes, you heard right, Jabs. Back in January when Maddy had her surgery, she got this baby as a gift in the hospital from Scottish Rite. This baby lay around unwanted and neglected for months. Then, one day, Maddy decided that she liked this baby and she named her "Jabs".  Jabs is not Maddy's only child. These are her "babies". She asked me to take her picture with them. No one could sit still. Most of the babies don't have names but she has a white bear she named Jonah. That was the first stuffed animal to ever get a name besides "bear" or "elephant", etc.  The other day she was playing with her babies and I walked into the room and she said, "There are two mommies." She pointed to herself and me. During her few moments of spare time from caring for all her babies, Maddy has gotten into the new hobby of painting her nails. She got some kid's nail polish for her birthday and she has been using it l

I wanted to write this down on the blog because it is one of those things I hope I remember forever. Maddy has really been wanting to go see Bethany lately. She asks if we can go see Bethany almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day (at least 10). So, we've been looking at the calendar lately and I've tried to explain that we'll see Bethany in July. I've shown her the different months on the calendar and explained all the things we get to do each month until it's time to see Bethany. Well, on Tuesday, Maddy got tired of waiting. She grabbed her purse and an empty book bag and headed for the door saying that she was "going to July." She spent probably about an hour going all over the house trying to figure out how to get to July so that she could see Bethany. I kept trying to explain that we couldn't go to July, we had to wait for July to come to us. Maddy finally fell asleep on the floor looking for July. Later that night we were sitting on