Just like Mommy

Madison has become very interested in my morning routine and is constently asking to put on my makeup. I know many disagree but I let her and show her how. I figure if I can show her that you don't need a lot and to make it look tasteful there really is no harm and this is part of the fun of having a girl! On this particular day we were preparing to go shopping at the outlet malls. She came in while I was straightening my hair and stated that she wanted to look just like mommy today.

She started by letting me straighten her hair (ive been wanting to try this for awile but she never wanted to so I didn't push) and then we continued with sparkly pink eyeshadow and lip smackers gloss.

it took FOREVER to get ready but it was so much fun!

The pretty princess!

Happy Heart Day

Joe and I don't celebrate Valentines Day, we never have he hates it and honestly i feel like it a little bit of a waste of money. I like it when he surprises me with things just because he wants to not because of a date. However having said that growing up my mom always made us feel special with candy, cards, and flowers. It was fun to look forward to that special small rose plant that i would try to keep alive for months after and I never felt bad if I didn't have a Valentine or didn't get anything at school. I have chosen to keep that special tradition alive for my kids because I don't want them to feel sad or like we as parents don't care, and as a parent it is so much fun!

So the new Haynie tradition? Family Heart Day! Now this year I had big plans, pink heart pancakes and bacon for breakfast, a valentines lunch for madi and a few friends of heart shaped sandwhiches, apples and special heart shaped ice cubes, and a heart shaped pizza with sugar cookies for dinner. Well breakfast didn't pan out (tuesdays are my day for preschool carpool and its just to early) friends cancelled on lunch, and we ended up eating pizza the night before because I got out of work late so we wern't going to have pizza 2 nights in a row! Oh well we still had a great day.

Our celebration started a week before at the announcement that Madi's class would be having a party complete with mailboxes to deliver valentines in. They hand made their boxes so she wanted to hand make all her valentines. (insert mom super excited "this will be so much fun!, then eye roll to realize that mom will probably be hand making 19 of the 20 valentines...by herself)

We chose foam hearts as the base, added some colorful markers and dum-dum suckers.

Caleb was so helpful... (yes he is climbing under the chair and over the little chair bar at this point. he thinks its funny to bite toes under the table and if the chairs are tucked in he will find any way possible)

What?? As long as my head doesn't get stuck I can get anywhere...

Madi wanted to practice her letters like they do in class so I drew dashed lines in black and hah her trace the lines in a different color. She loved making daddys and to my surprise she sat for 2 hours and did every single one. TO: (friends name) on the front and FROM: Madi H. on the back. (She now believes that there is an H in her first name because she goes by Madi H. in class because there is another Madi.)

The finished product

This is a better example of her work. I was so proud of her, she won't even stop for dinner because her friends would be sad if she didn't finish. This enthusiasm did come back to haunt me however because I started the project a week before thinking it would take us that long to finish them, so every morning we had the no its not time to take them to your friends today talk.

She had a great time at her party, sadly however she didn't get to have her friend lunch. Mom made it up to her by having a chick fil a lunch and suprise valentine bags from Grandma Angee and Papa. The kids also got cards from Grandma and Papa Haynie with $5 in them to wich she exclaimed "look mom grandma haynie gave me 500 dollars!"

For dinner we chose to have pink heart pancakes, bacon, eggs, and strawberries. We even had a special sprite with cherry flavored heart shaped ice cubes. We finished the day with a small gift from mom and dad. An elephant for madi, a zebra for caleb and rubber ducks and mini m&m's for both of them. all in all a very happy heart day!

he was very excited by the surprise!

2 of the many reasons I love my life!

This past month has been a bit crazy with work changes, kiddos and such. Sometimes I have to take a minute and just breathe! And when I do finally get that one minute I realize that no matter how crazy things get I love what my life is and will be and these 2 kiddos are a huge part of that!

I mean come on whats not to love! :)

On a complete side note this is Calebs first all big boy dinner. Real milk, mac and cheese and green beans. He loved it and there has been no baby food since!

Handsome!

Really do I need to say more??

The cookie

Believe it or not but this little guy is NOT a good eater!

He has been so picky and this particular week has chosen to eat nothing. I didn't know if it was because we switched him to milk or if his teeth hurt or what but there was nothing that i fixed he would eat. I set him on the counter to get him some milk and he started screaming and go nuts. I had no idea why until he scrambled away from my and crawled to the plate of snickerdoodles that I had made a few days earlier. He grabbed a cookie and ate the whole thing in about 5 minutes. This kids LOVES snickerdoodles and has since eaten quite a few. He also started eating food again so maybe he was just protesting because on the night I made them I gave one to everyone but him (figuring that he had no clue what a cookie was and that he wouldn't eat it anyway)

Yummy!

Happy Boy

Jungle Gym

Caleb uses this jungle gym at therapy and he loves it! I thought it would be a great birthday present and his therapist thought having one at home to practice would be good as well. I had no clue that you can't buy them anymore or that little tykes doesn't even make them! I was grasping at anything similar when a great friend found one for me on craigslist. We jumped on it and volia! Caleb has his oen jungle gym. (It has currently taken place of the coffee table in the front room.)

He was so happy to have one of his own!

peek a boo

hey mom look no hands! And yes he has one sock off for a reason not to look like a hillbilly but because he uses that foot to climb up the slide. We switch socks every so often so that he will start using both feet to climb instead of just dragging the left one.

The king of the castle (With his pet dragon of course)

haha I found you dragon!

Hey I fit in here...this is cool!

It also provides hours of fun for the older kids to!

This is their favorite game. She peeks out and her grabs her and growls

Happy early birthday!

snow day!

So Denver got 2 feet of snow literally in 2 days. We got over a foot in one night! It was crazy and I called into work not wanting to drive all over town to drop the kids off and such. After shoveling for 2 hours I asked the kids what they wanted to do and they both agreed that it was just to cold and staying in was a much better idea... Ok so not really they wanted to play outside but I realized that poor Caleb doesn't even have a proper coat let alone boots, gloves, hat, etc. and it really was like 10 degrees out. Madi just had to suck it up and stay inside. She wasn't happy about it but chose to teach brother about letters instead.

Each with their own letters. Caleb learns by taste. (I wonder is T tatse different from A??)

Finding the letters to make words

Notice the hip popped out...shes a ham for sure!

Princess Panties.

Driving home the other day that kids were laughing so hard and I had no clue why. When we got home I say Madi with her new underwear on her head and her new socks on her hands. She proclaimed herself "Princess Panties" so which Caleb started to laugh hysterically. It was cute!

No pictures mom, I'm working!

Working with Papa (and the debut of the new haircut)

Yeees! can I help you?

ok one cute picture

and i'm done. back to work...

Caleb 11 months

Caleb is 11 months and growing like a weed! (He kinda looks like one in these cute pictures because he desperately needs a haircut! He got one the next day and we cut it short so maybe we can go a month before needing another one! He is growing taller and is becoming tall and skinny. We are now in 18-24 month clothes and have finally slowed the growing a bit so he can wear the clothes at least twice before he grows out of them. Caleb is learning to climb and is getting better at the stairs. He also has learned to pull himself up to standing and loves to stand everywhere. (Now we just have to figure out how to sit down) His therapy is going well and his feet are getting better everyday. The standing and walking in the walker (one of his favorite activities at the moment) have really helped his foot and helped to strengthen his hips. We still go to therapy once a week and are now working on standing on his own and walking.  His favorite foods are anything that he can feed himself and he wants nothing to do with babyfood or foods that require a spoon. He loves his sister and wants to play with her every second of the day. First thing every morning he calls out, Madi runs in and sings him a song and gives him toys in the crib. Every afternoon when Caleb wakes from his nap he crawls to Madi's room and bangs on the door till she greets him with a good morning brother. They both will scream with delight when they see eachother and are sad when they have to be apart!

Playing Cars

Don't put your hat on my head...

ok I guess just one picture...

ok i'm outta here.

Cheese! (This is the face I get everytime I pull out the camera. No camera shy kid here)

obeying sister!

Cowgirl Madi!

For months now Madison has been obsessed with Jessie from Toy Story and anything horse or cowgirl related. She even uses phrases like yee haw and howdy partner while tipping her hat. Bailee has become her horse and willing or not will go where ever Madison leads her.

New "cow" shirt, boots and hat for the stockshow. She even had to have "Jessie hair" 2 pigtails.

Cute photo shoot before the stock show

Love this picture. It is just pure Madison attitude. (She could totally be a model!)

back to being cute

you can't separate a girl and her horse..er i mean dog.

The most exciting time of the year!

No it's christmas or birthdays, but it does come around the middle of January every year...

It's STOCK SHOW TIME

Getting ready for the big day.

Madi's Cowgirl hat has been lost for a couple months and we have been searching for a new one. However I was not willing to pay more than about 10 bucks and the cheap ones looked well cheap! Greatfully we found the beloved hat just the day before the stock show.

The pony ride! Madi earned $6 through out the month so that she could ride the pony at the stockshow. However when we got there they had a little mechanical horse like they have at king soopers and that was all she wanted to ride. (that was until she realized that they had real horses)

She was really cute though everyone with a hat was either a cowboy or a cowgirl and she had to ask all the boys if they rode bulls and all the girls if they were rodeo princesses. Unfortunently I didn't get to many pictures at the rodeo because I was holding Caleb the whole time but we all had fun and can't wait until next year.

Messy hair hippis...wait thats just Caleb and daddy (both got haircuts the next day!)

Dolly, madi's horse for 2 minutes.

Go Dolly Go!

Howdy partner!

Stockshow express

With Grandma Haynie at the Rodeo

Madi was so excited to meet a real rodeo princess! Miss Nevade, Ann.

Signed pictures to take home. (It's now hanging on her wall.)