Happy Birthday Madison! You big 3 year old! Actually her bday was yesterday but I am just getting around to blogging today. We have had such a busy, busy last few days!

Grandma Gracie had a sleep over! It was so much fun. On Tuesday we went to go watch Madison ice skate. It was so fun to have someone come watch! Then after swimming we went to the Mall of America and went on some rides and then had lunch. I was sooo exhausted pushing Grandma Gracie AND Madison in the wheelchair that when I came home I slept for a few hours. I had to...I was tired! Figured I burned alot of calories that afternoon.Then on Wed. we went for Madison's swimming which she did great at! Again, it was fun having someone come watch. Then we went out to lunch AGAIN *(lots of eating out) and met cousin Nikki for lunch in Plymouth at Culviers.
Then Nikki and Kylee came over and we had a little bday party for Madison. We had cupcakes and she opened some presents and then we watched some movies! It was a really fun couple of days.

Here's a layout that I did for a challange on another digiscrap site. I can't believe we have only been married 3 years...seems like a lot longer. Although we've known each other 10...that's probley why. Anyways...I like this layout. If I win, I get 50 bucks worth of stuff from their store! Cool stuff I'm telling ya!

Tomorrow Grandma Gracie is coming over and going to stay the night. She can come watch Madison ice skate tomorrow and then on Wed. she'll come watch her swim. I am so excited! It should be fun. Madison should love this!

Don't have too much to blog about today.

Check this out....This is me when I was 3 and this is Madison (obiviously). Is this just the coolest thing? She totally has my profile. Wow. I think this is just so cool. I got a whole bunch of pictures from Grandma Gracies and I am going to scan some in and do some layouts from when I was little. Anyways, I am sure I'll have more to throw up on the blog after I get them scanned in.

We took Madison ice skating this afternoon. Crabbie Applesauce. Jeepers. She's tired and it was just too much for her to iceskate. She said she was scared and wouldn't do any of the things from her ice skating lessons. Oh well. She quit after she had a snack *cookie....just couldn't do it anymore. I felt like I was at the roller rink though. Told Steve, who was sitting on the sidelines, that if they had the "snowball" or "couples" on I would of choosen him as the guy I wanted to skate with....hee hee. He thinks I am a geek. Oh...I did some really pretty moves on the ice that Steve took photos of...I'll have to blog those when I get them uploaded. Again...he thinks I am a geek.

I love this picture of grandma gracie! She's laughing at Madison...

Yes, I am obsessively posting Kayla's photos...I LOVE them though. Very modelish. AND finally one of Haley. I'll get some more of her on here... okay peeps...we have one GOOD one of Haley and one MUGSHOT if I've ever seen one of her....hee hee.

Look at these beautiful pictures I took of Kayla today. We were at McDonalds. Apparently McDonalds has the best sunlight to take photos without the flash on. We stayed over at Grandma Gracies last night. You will notice I don't have any pictures of Madison...because she was SO CRABBY. My God, I have never seen her this crabby. From the minute she woke up until NOW she's been crabby. Anyways.....I myself had fun.

Getting sick of the pictures that I took at mcdonalds? I can't help it...I just love those photos. Anyways...promise not to blog any of the same ones again:). Not much to blog about today. Did you watch Celebrity Rehab? I did. I should actually be in bed right now and watch some tv just to catch up on the stuff that I haven't seen much of. I totally missed the Brady show on Sunday. I can't keep it straight...what's on what night. I love some tv, but not enough to keep the schedules straight in my poor little head.
Tomorrow Madison and I are going to do a sleep over at Grandma Gracies. She's excited.
Oh...happy Friday everyone.

Theatre Arts Students Win Musical Theatre Award
Congratulations to the MSUM Theatre Arts Department and the success of several students at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Sean Palmer, Paul Vonasek, Lindsay Fischer, Tyler Michaels, Steven Molony, Cassie Brehmer, Erin Granger, John Leingang, Joy Dolo, Matthew Pitner, Josh Stenseth, Tim Lane, Sean Benedict, and Rachel Palashewski all competed in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition. Tyler Michaels and his partner, Josh Stenseth, advanced to the final round where they were awarded Best Musical Theatre Scene.
Over thirty MSUM students and three MSUM faculty and staff attended the five-day festival, which included multiple competitions, over 140 workshops and several fully-mounted productions from a seven-state region.

Here are some more cute photos of the child from yesterday at mcdonalds. She can be such a photogenic kid. As you can tell I love the close ups. I really try to capture her raw emotion and can sometimes actually do it. But that's why I am always taking a billion pics...because I am trying to capture it and it's not something that can be posed for, ya know? And I love black and white photos too. Thank GOD for digital. I would love to get one of those really good cameras where I can really zoom in. I love my camera that I have now but I just want to do so much more with photos that my camera allows for. Okay...enough of the artsy fartsy talk.

We had swimming this morning. Madison was all excited to show her teacher that she can blow bubbles in the water now. Today we put one of those belts that let you float and swam around abit with that on. She freaks out if you take a hand away from her though. Who am I kidding...I freak out if I take a hand away from her. With having that belt on it was kinda scary cuz I wasn't holding her....the belt was. Mommy isn't ready to let go yet. It's wierd enough having her at ice skating lessons and the teacher having her, not me. I am NOT ready to do that in swimming yet. Do you realize when they are 4, the parent does NOT get to go in the water? What the????? No way am I ready for that. First thing is letting go of your daughter's hand in the pool and the next thing you know is they are off to college already. I am not ready for that. Yesterday Steve and I were talking and I asked him if it went that fast with Tyler and he said yes. It went fast enough for me and I came into the family when I think he was in 9th/10th grade. I guess it takes that many years for you to be able to actually let them go off to college. Okay, I won't jump ahead of the game...she hasn't even started kindgerten yet let alone go off to college. By the way, she's out watching a Barney cartoon. I just heard the snack drawer open. That is so funny to me. She yelled, don't come out and then opened the snack drawer. Funny child. I just yelled out "what cha getting?". It was a cracker. I had best go check on her now. Bye!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here's a picture of our new tv. Madison is used for reference for the size of the tv. hee hee. You'd think we just got a new television set that is in color back in 1972 or something. But this is big news for us....Steve even said you have to give him credit for *ACTUALLY* buying something. And I do give him credit! It's just so nice to have that entertainment center out of our living room. Whew...I KNEW if I was patient (this is ME we are talking about people) long enough it would finally happen:) If mama is happy, EVERYBODY is happy. hee hee.


Today was ice skating lessons. Oh...she was SOOO good on the ice today. She can now walk all by herself on the skates and when she falls down she could actually get up by herself. I was just so impressed with her today. It was unreal. I can't believe how quick they learn. Or else she's a natural! Anyways...she was really good, had fun and I was really proud of her. She did start to cry when she first got on the ice cuz she was scared, but within a minute she forgot she was scared. Also you can tell her age compared to the other kids who range from 5-7/8 when she'd lie down on the ice and spin around. THAT was funny.


Then today we went to McDonalds for a cheesebuggie. I am sure people in mcdons was thinking I was nuts taking pictures in there. But mcdon's was really sunny in there and I was trying to get some cool photos without the flash on and using the natural sunlight. I love my picture of the 1/2 eaten cheeseburger. Perhaps one of my most professional looking photographs yet.

And then ran to the toy store just to look around and buy her a new little pink princess dress that she's going to wear for her birthday party. That's what I might do today...get her party invites out. It's going to be on the 2nd weekend in March. We can't do it the weekend after her bday cuz that is when Tyler's play is (the first weekend in March). We are excited for his play. I miss him really bad. I need a TyTy fix.

That's all I gotta say right now...I had a few mintues to post so I did!

Well, today was Steve's bday. It was pretty fun. He opened his presents in the bed this morning after Madison and I sang him happy birthday. We went golfing and then to the casino and each lost 20 bucks...had a nice dinner, watched some tv on our new tv which is cool btw. Oh...btw stands for by the way (thats internet lingo, Grandma Grace. See, always thinking of ya;) LOL.) (LOL stands for laugh on line OR laugh out loud). And then went to bed. I was actually lying in bed but steve started snoring again. I see why people who have been married a super long time end up with different bedrooms. Anyways, I couldn't stand his snoring so I was on the way out to the living room to sleep on the couch when I walked by my lonely computer sitting in the office. Since it was Steve's bday I didn't go on the computer. Actually he STATED since it's bday I can't go on the computer and since I am his lovingly obeying wife I said, "okay honee" and left it at that. But he's sleeping now and what he doesn't know won't kill him plus my computer looked lonely so I thought I'd come on here for a few minutes. Now I am tired though and am going to try to fall asleep. I can hear him snoring from here so I'll just continue on out to the couch and put the tv on. He really like his frying pan and we reminesced about the first frying pan I bought him that I blogged about yesterday.

When you read this it'll be Steve's bday! AND the cool thing is that he has the day off. Is it president's day? God, I don't even know what day it is...I think it's presidents day. So....I actually have a hair appt. in the morning *happy bday steve, your wife needs to spend 100 bucks on getting her hair done, hahahahahahha...poor guy, he can't win. Then we are going to go to the indoor golf range and hit some golf balls. Yes, Madison has daycare so it's all working out great. Plus she has a little daycare party (late vday party) so she'll be happy. Oh my god, I got him the lamest gift EVER. Except he'll like it. I bought him a new frying pan. One of those deep kind where you can fry chicken in it *like we'd ever do that...and a shirt. Doesn't that suck? Once again, he'll like it. One of the first presents I ever bought him was a frying pan and he loved it. Maybe that was "courting" behavior and he was just being polite. Anyways, so the plan is tomorrow Madison and I are going to try to suprise him with breakfast in bed or at least he can open his presents in bed and then I'll drop Maddie off at daycare and then we'll go golfing.
We are going to go buy a tv tomorrow. One of those lcd ones or what ever they are called. Plasma? I just am not up on my volcabulary. Did I even spell that right? Okay, I can't spell, I don't know what the correct language is for tv's and I'm not sure what national holiday is tomorrow. We moved our big 1985 entertainment center out of the living room and put the downstairs tv cabinet in place of it. Our room looks so nice and airy. We sure have a big green wall. The tv will cover abit of it up. Looks good though. I was TRYING to get Steve to let us get a new tv cabinet but he wasn't going for it. Actually the one from downstairs looks rather nice. I was just happy to get rid of the big entertainment center. Steve really liked it and I of course did not. I had the same one from my old house *also had the same coffee and end tables, so I feel like I've had this furniture FOREVER. Time to move out the old and bring in the new. Now I just gotta work on the couches. I started that about 2 yrs ago so that means in another 5 it may actually work. hahahaha. Poor guy.
Anyways, gotta go to bed now. I am really tired. Last night I didn't fall asleep until 4am because of Steve's snoring and Madison's kicking. I'm sure I lie perfectly still like the princess I am.

We took the child swimming today at open swim. Oh, she did so good showing off to Daddy everything that she has learned in swimming class. And her specialty is blowing bubbles in the water! She did so good! That's all we have done today. We are proscrastinating doing any cleaning. Oh, I downloaded these photos and this is a pic of Madison on Crafty Tuesday at the Micheals with her little buddies that she made...

I am super bored. I don't feel like cleaning...I just feel like sitting on my computer allllll day doing nothing! Maybe I'll try to do a layout or something. Madison STILL isn't into letting me take photos of her so I don't have a photo subject to play with. She'll only let me take a photo of her if I say "I am taking a picture of your buddies" or "I am not taking a picture of you, I am taking a picture of your dollies"...but then you can throw in a "hey, look this way and smile" and she'll do it...sometimes, not always.

Happy Late Valentine's Day everyone! Sorry that I didn't get to post yesterday....I was quite the sick one that slept most of the day away and was kindly awakened by my darling husband who brought home a dozed roses for me *and 3 carnations for Madison, and a great supper of steak and crab legs that he made us. Wasn't that great? I thought so! I am feeling a tad better today. Good enough to go to see a movie with some friends tonight. We saw 27 dresses. It was pretty good. I was in the mood for your average chick flick and this fit the bill. It was okay to see in the theater BUT I probley would wait until it comes out in blockbuster or your local rental store. But it was still good enough to see in a theater too...just not THAT great.
Gotta get my big butt to bed now. Oh...that reminds me *hee hee, I lost my 10 lbs so now just have to wait for Steve to get there too and then WE WIN! Kim is almost to her 10...maybe 8 lbs I think. Trick is to keep it off. I guess I am not worried since I have more to go anyways....oh, the good ole' days when the lbs flew off me. I am changing meds though...after I mentioned how much weight I gained this last year I was told..."yes, that med could of made you gain that"....YOU'D THINK that would of been brought up before I took it. Oh well...guess nothing I could do about that now other than hope the rest does fly off when I do change the meds. I am being "weened" off this medication right now. Anywho, my big butt has got to get to bed now. Tata.

Well, today was little Missy M's first ice skating lesson. She did SOOO good! Man, do kids listen so much better when their mom's aren't the ones teaching, talking, etc. She has 2 little boys in her class. Today she learned how to stomp on the ice with her skates so she could move by herself across the ice and how to fall on her butt. Oh, she was so cute out there. Next week I will bring my camera.
Tomorrow she's got swimming. Quite the little socialite we have.
It was a good day for her and me. She only had a few little meltdowns over 1.) wanting to go to Target (a child after my own heart:) 2.) me putting away the crafts (it was crafty tuesday here at the michaels's household 3.) not wanting to change her poopy diaper (had to actually pin her down).
Sometime this week I will post the photos of our crafts and arts day today. We made little animals from those fuzzy balls and googly eyes.
Oh, I was going to mention that while she was out on the ice today, the teacher asked her if she had any pets at home. She said no and I thought back to my post yesterday about how I said she doesn't think of her dead fish as pets....maybe we'll have a discussion on this tomorrow cuz technically fish ARE pets. Maybe they are pets for people who's mom's and dad's won't let them get a dog or cat. Come to think of it, that's why we had fish too as kids. My child is being deprived of a real pet. Not that fish aren't real pets, but they aren't the same as dogs and cats. You know what I mean.

oh jeez, this layout says it all. Our almost 3 yr old is going through the terrible 2's. Wow...she's defiant, crabby and just plain naughty. I hope it doesn't last long. Of COURSE this is the week that her daycare lady is on vacation so I think it's going to be a long, long week. Oh well...I'll survive with my bay-bee. She is awefully cute though. She's in the phase of not letting Mommy play with her EVER. Just Dad. She is such a daddy's girl anyways, but when she gets in these phases it's difficult cuz I can't reach her no matter what. People...she's 3!!! What's it going to be like when she's a teenager. I see trouble written all over her cute little body:)

Not much went on this weekend. Our friend Alexis is staying with us while she has her Navy reserves this weekend. It's nice to just catch up with her and sit around and talk. She's brought home dinner that last few nights so that's been nice too. We told her she should stay with us all the time!

I went to my cousin's babyshower this weekend. She's having triplettes. Eeks. I don't know how anyone could possibley take care of 3 Madison's all at the same time. Anyways my cousin's belly is HUGE. Owwwie. To watch her stand just looks painful. She looks pretty good though. Found out from my aunt that she doesn't dialate in labor. This is ironically the same thing I don't do or Kim does either so that is something that must run in the family. They called it failure to progress when I was in labor. Multiples obiviously run in the family too...duh.

Not much more to say. Oh, Niki, here is one more layout I did for you.... I have a total of 3 of them so I am going to email you those as soon as I get time. Hope you like them. Hope you are all doing okay with your losses! Poor kiddies. Poor anyone who loses a pet(s) but expecially when you are a kid. Good thing that Madison doesn't get upset over the loss of her pet fishies. I am not exgaragerating when I state we go through a dozen or so fish a week. Steve is CONSTANTLY at the pet store buying more and MORE fish. Madison just bluntly says "the fish is dead" and then watches Daddy flush it down the toilet. Plain, simple and clear as day that they are gone and not coming back but I don't think she looks at fishies as real pets or I'm sure she'd be devestated.

Well folks, that's all. Hope everyone has a great Monday and week. I am not sure how much I will get to blog with the little one home everyday. But then again, since my computer is my escape, I may be blogging plenty. Who knows...we'll have to see!

Let's see...what is going on this week? I guess we do have a fun week planned. We do start ice skating on Tuesday so I am excited about that. Then on Wed. is swimming again. Last week she wasn't into particapting too much. By then it's Thursday and then the week is over with so I guess it'll go fast. We *madison and I, are going out to eat lunch with Alexis tomorrow so that will take care of doing something tomorrow to get out of the house. Besides running to the grocery store or target, unless we actually have something planned we don't go anywhere cuz it's just too cold out and I can't handle bringing her in and out of that carseat when you have heavy winter jackets on and stuff. Didn't mean to complain so much in that last sentence, but you remember how it was with the carseats and stuff, don't cha?

Did anyone watch the Grammy's tonight? We did but also kept changing the channel. Not sure if anything exciting happened.....maybe a fight broke out or someone was in the bathroom when their name was announced. I just think it's funny that Amy Whinehouse kept winning for her Rehab song and she's IN rehab and couldn't even been there for the grammy's. Shoot, that reminds me that I forgot to watch my shows tonight...the scott baio one and then the peter brady one.

Wow...I did a pretty good job talking about nothing again. *slap on the back:)

Bye, for real now!

Here's a cute little layout I did for Niki and Doug and the kiddies! I like it! I am going to make a few more for you Niki..then I'll send them, ok? I am totally obsessed with making word art right now. It's so fun for me.
I am sooo sick right now. Bad, icky cold anyways. As long as I don't have a fever I am ok.
Woah, gotta go again...the child is calling. Bye.

How do you like my word art? Pretty cool huh? I guess it's no big deal but I like it alot. Today Madison had a doc's appointment and then we went to IKEA just to get a ice cream cone and walk around. It was fun. God I LOVE all the IKEA stuff. I think Madison will start liking to look at rooms and stuff like I do more and more because she thought stuff looked pretty cool.

Oh, I gotta go....our child is having the biggest fit and being very very naughty right now. Jeepers she's screaming her head off right now.

This layout reminds me of MartiGraw *(spelled horribly wrong). Hee hee. I like it! It's fun.
Not much went on today. AGAIN. Madison somehow got sicker by the time I picked her up from daycare. Somehow I have caught her cold too for real now. I have a sore throat which is so rare for me.
Woah...another boring blog tonight. Oh...our insurance lady came over tonight and we went over our policies. We are looking to look into putting into a Roth IRA. We want to wait until after Steve gets his "job". That's about it peeps. Oh...had pizza tonight specially made by Steve. Thought you'd need to know that info too.
Stay tuned tomorrow for another exciting post from me.
You know what this reminds me of? Writing in my diary when I was 10 or 11 and I had absolutely nothing to talk about. I wrote what I had for lunch and then I graded the day (A+, A-, B+, etc.). I am not even going to go as far as that on this blog. But it's sorta close. Jeepers.
Oh..swimming is tomorrow. Now I have Madison home for close to 2 weeks. Maybe next week we'll go do a stay over at Grandma Gracies.

Here's a photo of Madison and her cousins on Mommy's side. I love this layout. Can't really take credit for it because I scraplifted it. For those of you who don't understand the "lingo" that means there was a layout kinda like it in a magazine and I copied it...at least copied the concept. I don't ever do that except in rare cases. I guess this is one of those rare cases.
Man, was today ever boring. Very, very boring. I think I have just had it with the cold. Madison went to daycare today and I wish I would of kept her home. But she enjoys being with her buddies. I almost did keep her home because she was sick this weekend. Today when I dropped her off the daycare lady (sharon) said that all of the kids were sick to. Hope Steve and I don't get it. She was really hot and had a slight fever but over all not too bad for as being sick goes. It could of been worse. Today we don't feel all that great but it was probley because Madison was up all night the last 2 nights and was just plain horrible to sleep next too and kept us awake so that is probley why we didn't feel all that great.
God can I ramble on about nothing.
Next week Madion's daycare lady is on vacation. Actually the next week and 1/2 so she'll be home with me that whole time. Yea.
Well, not much to blog about again. Things are pretty damn boring for me. There I go again swearing on my blog. I'm a blog swearer. Maybe when I get bored I swear. Maybe when I ramble on about nothing I swear. And blog. That's why I'm a boring swearing blogger who can ramble on about nothing. I am sure you all think I am nuts. So be it...maybe I am. I can gaurantee that if YOU actually read everything I wrote and followed this paragraph you are also bored. I would of lost Steve before he even got to this paragraph. He doesn't have time to waste reading about nothing.

Isn't this cute of Madison in her little bikini? This is the swimsuit that she wears in the pool. I am getting very tired of winter....I want spring to get here. I actually have spring fever.
We went to the Mall of America today. Lots of summer clothes out which DIDN'T help the spring fever. We went on a few rides (by the way...a FATHER told his kids to butt in line and I politely told them they need to go to the back of the line...can you imagine being that father? It was unreal), Madison had a ice cream cone...Steve and I had Caribou Coffee and that was pretty much it. Pretty boring when you don't have any money to go shopping with. I remember when I use to actually "shop"...god that was sooo long ago. Oh, the good ole' days. Steve says he has never "just gone shopping"....boys are boring. Wow am I just rambling on and on about nothing. I acutally have to get going. I am going out to eat with some friends. Just thought I'd stop and say hello to my little blog and to all of you out there in blog land and post the cute bikini layout of Madison.

Is it bad to bribe your kid with a popsicle to leave you alone for 5 mintues to play on the computer? I bet the guilt feeling in my stomach states it is bad. Bad mommy...bad mommy. Oh well, I will get over it as I am sure she will and probley doesn't care in the first place. She got a popsicle...she's happy!
Okay, I changed the banner again on my blog. This one is better but I still don't like it very much. Oh well...that's life.
Tyler is going to NEW YORK with Nana! I am so excited for both of them. I am happy that Nana is going places she's never gone and considering going to New York is one of Tyler's dreams, I couldn't be happier for him. I am excited that I have a connection out in New York for Tyler and the theather. A guy I went to high school with owns a theather company and over the summer at my class reunion he gave me his card and said if Tyler ever gets out there to give him a jingle. So who knows what can happen but the saying of it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know can ring true in this case maybe. Oh how fun. The possiblities! I am excited for both of them.
Happy Friday everyone! What's up for the weekend? I am going out to dinner with 2 girls from high school and that's about it. We don't even know what we are doing for the superbowl. Steve said it's sooo late and then said he is now old and a fuddy duddy. I told him I like my fuddy duddy.