Hoppy Easter!

After helping our kids find the goodies left for them by the Easter Bunny, Rodney and I grabbed our same gender child and raced to see who could get Easter outfits on (selected and purchased by Grandma Franco). The boys won, but with "Mommy" (i.e. me, Terri) still in a vicadin fog while recovering from a root canal (not so bad) and tooth extraction (OUCH!), Rodney had an obvious advantage. Here are the three of them ready for Easter service at St. Luke AME.

Grandma Franco (GF) proudly showed off her grandchildren. It was Madeline's first time at Grandma's church and she apparently "stole the show" according to GF.


Jackson and Madeline tried their hand on the old church organ.

Jackson looks like a "natural" tickling the ivories.

After church, we enjoyed an Easter dinner with just our family and GF and Grand Dad. It was low key which after my dental run in was a welcome relief. Here is a picture of Maddie's dress without her shrug; I think the dress is cuter without it. I think Maddie is cute whatever she wears :-)

Bath Tub Fun

After spending a fun and rather dirty day up north, it was bath time! Jackson is at an age where he complains about having to get in the tub and then he complains about having to get out of the tub. I decided to grab the camera and take a few shots of the kids waiting to get into the tub and then the classic siblings in the tub shot. I still remember taking baths with my little brother Jim. He was a great play companion in general. At bath time, one of us would suds up the other's backs and then "write" letters. The other would have to guess the letter written. This was our entertainment! Really quite a sweet memory, especially when I watch my own two...speaking of...

I SO wanted to include the photos of them waiting to get in - their little bodies are simply beautiful, especially their little bums as Grandma Dee calls it. I made an effort keep these published photos rated G. Remember YOUR bathtime as a child...

In the shot below Jackson hams it up for the camera (what a surprise, huh?) and Maddie blows kisses.

In the end they were clean and snuggly and ready for bed. Oh, to be a child again...

It's Raining, It's Boring...

I think this look says it all - It's raining, but I want to go outside and PLAY!!

New Bunk Beds

Over the summer I found two dressers on Craigslist that I really liked for Jackson and Madeline's room. Both the dressers are the same - a dark wood craftsmen style. Since then I've been watching and waiting for a set of bunkbeds that match to become available and as luck would have it, it finally happened. We took down the crib and put up a toddler bed for Madeline...then we took down the twin bed that Meredith loaned us over 5 years ago and put up the bunk beds and... (as Jackson would say) voila, a new bedroom!

We put Aunt Cyndee's quilts on the bunks - they both look good next to the dark wood. My thought is that Jackson can sleep on the bottom bed until he's a little older and then he can either sleep on the top bunk or we can "unbunk" the beds. I truly pray that we are not in this house THAT long, but I'm planning for the scenario non-the-less.

Jackson loves his new bed...and Madeline seemed to enjoy her new easy-to-climb-into toddler bed; however, as you can see by the photo below, the novelty of new beds quickly wore off -- they were both in Mom and Dad's bed by the morning. Maybe someday...

Or maybe I'll look for a king size bed for our room :-)

Early Reader

Today I was able to get the pantry cleared out and cleaned while Madeline slept. After she woke up, I rearranged and returned items to the pantry. On one trip I discovered Madeline had crawled up to sit on the first "step" with a book and was "reading."

This is one of the delightful moments of being a stay-at-home-mom. I stopped working and just watched her before grabbing the camera. She "read" for a while...

...and then tried unsuccessfully to get off the steps. Those short, little legs couldn't quite reach.

I grabbed the step stool and set it against the bottom stair, but she couldn't get down and she let me know it!

With help, she finally made her way off the step and then spent another 15 minutes going up and down. What fun it was to watch her!

Cousins

We went to Aunt Steanie's birthday party today at her church. Her grandchildren (Rodney's cousins Melanie and Holly's children) participated by holding up a letter and reading a word to describe their grandmother. Even "little" 2-year old Timmy participated. They are a great bunch of children and we feel so lucky that our kids have cousins on both my side and Rodney's side of the family.

Pretty in Pink

I thought I'd post a quick photo of Maddie in her pink overalls and pink headband. NEVER in my life did I think that I'd actually be dressing my child in pink - my how a sweet, little girl can change your life :-)