I'm still Here.

I've been MIA for quite some time on the blog, but I will be posting an update on Maddie this weekend. I am still here, just haven't gotten around to updating:o) Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!!!!

Learning to let go!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I feel like I have to much to write about these days. As you mothers know, Toddlers are into everything. I leave for 10 seconds and Maddie has gotten into something! Today started off interesting. I was getting ready in our main floor bathroom and in just 5 minutes this is what I saw when I came out. It actually makes me laugh, as I am learning there is no such thing as a clean house with a toddler. (what you see in this picture is wipes, her toilet, and her play food) in case you were wondering:o) haha

Following this picture I ran upstairs to get something and somehow Maddie found her purple watercolor pen and colored herself like Barney the dinosaur. Yep, this is when you just start to laugh inside and not let it get to you. She is a bundle of curiosity! We have had to take some disciplinary action recently, as she thinks the walls in our home are her coloring books. Orange walls aren't too flattering. I know all you Mom's understand this:o)

I'll end with one funny story. Recently, Maddie just learned that a shark "bites". So the other evening Bob and I took a trip to the mall and were walking around a department store. Maddie was walking through the store and pointing to all the mannequins and saying, "bite" "bite". None of the mannequins had heads, and so I guess Maddie thought a shark bit their heads off! I thought that was pretty funny.


Just some random pictures:
Playing with her toys
Maddie learning how to use chop sticks at RA Sushi. VERY focused.
Enjoying an evening walk downtown Elmhurst. Love that we can walk here from our house and have dinner and shop! They do such a good job decorating the town for Christmas!
Cute little Christmas display that Maddie likes.

Veggie Tales!

On Friday evening, we took Maddie to the Veggie Tales Live show at our church in Oakbrook. We had such a fun time, and Madeline LOVED IT! Her favorite Veggie is Bob to Tomato, and she would say, "Bob!" "Bob!" when he would come out on stage. We had tickets for the second row, and after the show Maddie got to meet Bob and Larry and get her picture taken with them! Here are a few pictures from the evening.
Bob The Tomato
Singing one of their MANY songs. MY favorite was "Girls Just wanna Have fun", but instead it was "Gourds Just wanna Have fun." All the Gourds were dancing on stage. Hilarious!
Bob The Tomato, Me, Maddie, and Larry the Cucumber.
We had such a fun night!

The Life of Stay at Home Mom:o)

You know when you are a stay at home mom when: I made these up from my experience:o)

1.People ask, "why are you so dressed up." when you are wearing jeans and a sweater.
2. The word most used in your vocabulary during the day is "no"
3. Going to run errands by yourself is considered a luxury.
4. You clean up spills and trails of cherrios multiple times a day.
5. Your purse/diaper bag is over flowing with snacks, sippy cups, books, and rotten food you forgot to take out a week ago. Yep, a rotten banana in mine.
6. You are extremely addicted to caffeine and couldn't live without your keurig or coffee maker.
7. Your movie list consists of Veggie Tales and Baby Einstein or cartoons.
8. You were so distracted you put your keys in the refrigerator. Finding them hours later.
9. You forget to eat lunch or eat your child's left over grilled cheese.

which one do you relate to??:o)

Trick or Treating in Style!

We had such a blast this weekend! My parents came on Saturday morning and stayed overnight until Sunday because my husband was gone on a retreat in NC. I picked him up at the airport Sunday morning and then our festivities began:o) Here are some pictures from Sunday.
Beautiful Butterfly
Posing for a pic in our yard
Gavin and Maddie. Best buddies!

Obsessed with Elmo! maddie referred to him and Mo.In case you were wondering I was the Wendy's girl.

Maddie and Aviator Man! She wasn't too sure...

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! We sure did!:o) What other day of the year can you dress up and look like a total goof ball?? Maddie was beautiful, but Bob and I were the goofy ones!

God's Timing and My Goosebumps!

I have a story that might just give you goosebumps. I am going to back up about 24 months when we found out about Maddie missing her arm at our ultrasound and just how devastated we were at the time. After finding out I can't even tell you the countless stories people told me of people they knew they were missing an arm and how it didn't effect them one bit. God was constantly sending us encouraging stories as we awaited her birth.

One story that has always stuck out to me was one my cousin Sally told me 24 months ago. Many years ago she grew up going to Butterfield Country Club to go swimming. In a choked up voice she told me she always admired this beautiful girl who was a lifeguard at the pool, and always wanted to be just like her. She always had all the guys ooo-ing and ahh-ing over her and was super outgoing and just beautiful. This lifeguard was missing part of her arm just like Maddie. A lifeguard with one arm YOU HEARD ME RIGHT:o) So AMAZING. Just wait this story gets even MORE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So then this morning we headed to MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) at our church, CCOB. As I waited to check myself and Maddie in, this older women stopped me and said I just have to tell you I have a 45 year old daughter just like your little girl. She is missing part of her arm and nothing ever held her back. She was a lifeguard at Butterfield country club 20+ years ago, was in beauty pageants, always had many dates, and had such a bubbly and outgoing personality. She went on to tell me she is married and has three beautiful children. She showed me a picture of her daughter and she is gorgeous. Would you believe that this was the person my cousin Sally had told me about 24 months ago.I couldn't believe that God had put this women right there at the right time and we had made this amazing connection. Then I went on to tell this lady that my cousin grew up swimming at Butterfield Country Club and always admired this lifeguard, who is your daughter! She got a little teary eyed as did I. Amazing how God works isn't it????

I still have goosebumps thinking about it! LIttle things like this that remind me God is here and keeps on sending me waves of encouragement. This is nothing short of a total God thing and I wanted to share this with you. I will keep the stories coming as God sends them to me! I hope these stories are an encouragement to you as a reminder he is right there with you. Don't be dismayed as he is always at work around you.

Morton Arboretum, Edward's Apple Orchard, Sonny Acres, and the Zoo! WHAT A WEEK!

Morton Arboretum!
Enjoying a sliced carmel apple with snickers. It was pretty much amazing!!
Maddie went down this slide at least 2 dozen times!


Edward's Apple Orchard!
Maddie enjoying her apple cider donut. They are incredible!
Playing in the choo choo:o)
A ride on the "tactor"

Sonny Acres!!
Maddie and Gavin riding the train all by themselves!!!



The ZOO!
Hanging at the Zoo:o)
Maddie and Georgia kissing eachother. So sweet
Of course we had to snap a pic of them on the hay stack!

As you can tell we had a really busy week! Keeping this child on the go is key because she has A LOT of energy! We are really enjoying the suburbs and everything there is to do with kids! I feel like the activities are endless. We have had amazing weather, and have enjoyed spending every day outdoors since that will soon change once winter hits! Fall is my favorite time of year, so I am savoring it!!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

LOVE

In my devotions this morning I read this Life Lesson in my study Bible. "God loves you more than any mother has ever loved her own son or daughter, everything he does in your life he does out of love and for loves sake.He allows even the hard times for your benefit. "

This was such a nice reminder for me this morning. Sometimes I forget just how much the Lord loves me. Its hard to comprehend how vast his LOVE is. I love my husband and Maddie so much, yet the Lord loves me so much more than that! This is so awesome, and I wanted to share this reminder with you. IF you are going through a hard time right now, remember the Lord loves you and he is using the trial to grow you into a deeper relationship with him.

SONNY ACRES!!

We had such a blast at Sonny Acres! Such a great place to bring kids and Maddie just loved it! She was going crazy over all the pumpkins and went around to each ones and would kiss them. So funny! We also went on a hay ride, and she loved playing in the maze. SHE HAD A BLAST!!!Here are some photos:
















what better way to end the trip than with dinner at Portillos!:o)


We had such a blast at Sonny Acres! Such a great place to bring kids
As you can tell by the pictures, she had a blast! Maddie is at such a fun age! She says something new everyday, and points to everything and says, "what's that?" what's that?" "what's that?" She is a little sponge and she loves to learn. She says please if she wants something, and thank you after you give it to her. She is such a sweetheart and I love watching her grow and learn new things. I feel so blessed being the Mother of Maddie. I am Thankful for each day with her, and every day just gets better and better!

Well, It's time to go get Maddie out of her crib. I think I just heard her say "Mama" That's my cue! :o)

Little Update

I have been so bad about blogging. Life has been hectic and I find it hard to sit down and write when I do have time! I am actually having surgery tomorrow to fix my deviated septum and terbinates. I have been feeling pretty miserable every day with terrible headaches and pressure since April. I am hopeful that this will fix the problem and I will be on a road to feeling better. I have a busy toddler to take care of, so I need to get back to feeling myself again. I will be recovering the whole weekend, so I hope to post an update with some pictures of Maddie and what she has been up to lately. She is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, and doing amazing!

Have a good rest of your week!

A Glimpse of the weekend

We have had such a great weekend so far. My mom came to visit on Friday and we went to lunch and spent some nice time together. That evening we had a bonfire with all the neighbors and made smores. Maddie was up late, which she enjoyed a lot, and also had her first smore! Saturday morning we headed to the Brookfield zoo. We all had a blast! Maddie saw all different kinds of animals, but I think her favorites were the goats which she called "doats" and the hippo which she called "hippie" Here are some pictures of the weekend.




Loving the Brookfield Zoo
The Dolphin show was so much fun and Maddie loved it!
The Cousino's came for dinner saturday evening and Maddie and Connor enjoyed the wagon and cozy coupe.

Dressed, and ready for church.

Here is a cute video of the dolphin show



Hope you are all having a fabulous weeekend!