Cheese!

She looks just like daddy

Pooped after a long day

Bottom cheeks!!!

Madeline at the zoo after the Daisy's event

Madeline making my birthday cake

Can you feel the love tonight....

Madeline showing me her hard work on my cake

Practicing for the fashion show this Friday. She's doing a twirl.

Annie loves to make this face. Often she smiles right after.

Sickies

I totally forgot to add in the new information about the girls visit to the doctor on Monday. Annie was scheduled to get her ears checked since two weeks ago she had an ear infection (her third since birth) and was taking an antibiotic. We decided to squeeze Maddie into the appointment because her cough sounded bad. Turns out Annie's ear infection is still raging and Madeline has a sinus infection AND croup (for the third time since birth). Both are on some powerful antibiotics. Things I've never heard of before. Hopefully that will zap their sickies. Ryan is getting the cold and I'm pretty much over it. I never thought it was too bad.

Hair cut

Gift opening from the Jacksons

Madeline loving her new cape (she wears this everyday)

Maddie's valentine boxes for her class

Annie just being cute

Here's a good shot of her teeth

We've been growing Maddie's hair out. She's wanted to get it cut for quite awhile now, but we've stuck to our plan to grow it out. Last night as I was brushing her hair I said "would you like to go get your hair cut a little bit?", she replied "I thought we were growing it out for the wedding". Sadly I had to say "remember, Maddie, there is not going to be wedding". She sighed and said "oh". She's only beginning to realize how pervasive this chage will be. I don't think she's realized that she will not be able to see Ted anymore. That will be a very disappointing day for her, I am sure.

Luckily the family will still be coming for the weekend in April and she'll be able to see her other family members. A reunion is being planned in place of the wedding.



She's getting her hair cut in about a week.

It's HERE!

Annie's fourth tooth on the bottom has finally made its debut! We're so excited that she actually has all of her baby teeth!! Now she won't look like her teeth are offset, yipee! It poked through two days ago on February 24th.

Girl Scout cookies have arrived so we'll be delivering the cookies this week to the family members who purchased cookies. The girls enjoyed tasting the cookies we bought.

Today Madeline has a buddy over; Kara. Kara has the opposite personality of Madeline so they play well together. She's quiet and independent, versus Madeline who is loud and dependent. It's frigid again today. We got an inch of snow yesterday and it's been cold ever since. I heard that it's the 17th coldest winter on record. This does not surprise me. I know that we've received something like 7 inches more precipitation than normal too this winter.

We had a fun weekend. On Friday Ryan and I went to an awards dinner for his work. He received two awards. I froze my tush off underneath an air vent. The next morning we trekked back out to the same country club where Madeline received her fitting and instruction for the fashion show this coming Friday. She's going to carry a Bitty Baby American Girl and the two of them will wear matching moon-star pajamas. Ryan is her escort. Pictures are forbidden so I will not be able to share pictures until the photo package I ordered is made available. It should be fun. Madeline is excited. After the rehearsal we went to the botanical gardens where Madeline met her friend Sydney and celebrated her birthday with a few other girls. Sydney and I share a birthday :) It sounds like the party was fun. The girls made fairy gardens and walked through the indoor gardens. I heard the large Koi were a big hit. They would kiss their fingers. Ryan and Annie snuck in and played with the fish too. After the party we all headed to the zoo and played around there for awhile. It was a very busy day. The weather was fabulous. It was in the low 40s. (funny how your perspective on temperature changes through the seasons. If it were October I'd have been freezing at 40 degrees)

Sunday we went back to the zoo so Madeline could meet her Daisy troop for an activity. Madeline didn't like it and said it was boring. Apparently they just looked at taxidermy and talked about the animals for 1.5 hours. She was extremely disappointed at the end of the session because at no point did she have fun. So, Ryan, Madeline and Anna went to visit other parts of the zoo to make it more fulfilling.

Sunday evening Madeline rode her bike around and we enjoyed the last bit of warmish-nonfrigid weather.

Marriage

Over the past several weeks, the topic of marriage has been rolling around our house. Perhaps a couple decades early, but Madeline has been thinking about this recently, probably because of Aunt Mary's wedding fast approaching.

Over several of these conversations, we discuss who can and cannot be married, why people get married, and now with Maddie's new favorite move "Annie", why Ms. Flannagan wants men to love her.

On the way to pick up our own Annie from daycare a couple days ago, the topic came up again. Maddie asked why Ms. Flannagan wanted men to love her. And we discussed that when you get older, men want the love of women and women want the love of men. Then Maddie asked why can't women marry women and men marry men. Then we discussed that in some states couples of the same sex can marry, but our state is not one of them. She asked why, which I responded that a long time ago, the state decided that only a man and woman should marry, and they haven't changed that law to say otherwise. Usually this is where we move on to other topics. But then she said that it should be state law that dads had to marry their daughter. Which for a long time, Maddie has said that she wants to marry me, so it was a little funny, but quite serious for her. We usually laugh about this one, but today I said, well what if the dad doesn't want to marry the daughter. Which she replied that it would be good to say that they don't have to marry each other, but it should say that they can.

Maddie is a good conversationalist. ryan.

Happy Birthday!

Annie in her messy shirt

Madeline and Ted before the "date night" dance

At the dance, doing a twirl

I called home yesterday, since Maddie's school district closed due to the "bitter cold" conditions, and was lucky enough to be serenaded by Ryan and Madeline with the Alvin and the Chipmonks Christmas song. I think it's currently her favorite.

Two days ago on my way home from picking up Annalise and Madeline I decided to stop for a little ice cream treat at Runza. As Annie was eating her ice cream from the spoon, the middle of the spoon shredded into little sharp shards, one piece we never found. Unfortunately our doctor's office was closed and the answering service told us to go to the Emergency Room. It was such a fun and exciting way to spend our evening. Annie's fine and has suffered no ill effects from the incident. We still haven't found the piece of tiny black plastic spoon. We're now dealing with Runza corporate regarding the "shredding spoon". I am livid about the whole ordeal (but you know it doesn't take much). I mean, who expects their spoon to shred from the middle? Clearly there's something wrong with the spoon. Anyway, I'll update when we receive our multi-million dollar settlement (haha). The important thing: Annie appears to be fine!

I gave a lecture yesterday, which went well. Then enjoyed my favorite cake "wedding cake" from Wheatfields which is a spongy white cake with whipped frosting and strawberries. Ryan and Madeline made a chocolate cake and we went out to Cheeseburger in Paradise. (it was Madeline's plan). I received three cards in the mail from Grandpa John, Babe and Rich and Deb. I received E-cards from the Jacksons, Mona and the Bullers.

I am attaching some sort-of recent pictures :)