For Aunt Tina

Our Dear Aunt Tina sent the girls and I really cute bags. It was such a nice little surprise. The girls were thrilled to get them and we use them each week for church. Here are a few pictures of the girls with them.
Thanks again Tina!!!!

The girls

Addie Saying "cheese"

Train Musuem

Sometime last week we heard on the radio that there is a free train musuem close to town. So, when looking for something to do on Saturday, we thought that we would try it out. Let's just say that we were expecting something totally different...like real trains. Oh well. The girls still thought that it was cool even though we were done in about 1/2 hour. Geoff and I decided that it is just a bunch of old retired guys trying to find something to do, so they build train tracks from their childhood.

The girls looking at a big train

Some of what it looks like.

Pushing the buttons. One of the buttons made the cows dance and the other button was a train horn. This was their favorite part!!

Do you ever....

Feel like you are the one that needs Super Nanny for your naughty kids????!!!
I just put Macie in her room until Geoff gets home. (We'll see if I really make it)
That is 3 hours away.
She is being a little too naughty for my liking and it has been going on for days now. I guess that I finally just hit my breaking point. She doesn't listen to anything that we say or ask her to do. She says no constantly, especially when you ask her to do something. I am just tired of it and am hoping that maybe this works....
She has been in her room for about 1/2 hour and has been crying off and on the whole time. If I put in her time out, she doesn't stay. I keep putting her in it over and over again. It takes about 5 minutes (which feels like an eternity) for her to finally stay. While there, she screams at me the whole time. Even calling me stupid.
AHHHH!!!!!
All I can think is "What have I done wrong as a parent? How do I change this?" It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little attention I give her, she always ends up acting like this.
Sometimes I just feel like giving up. It is just too hard. I don't want to fight her all the time. On everything. It is just soooo exhausting.
Then every once in while, you get these little glimpes into the good, cute, nice, funny little girl that she is. That is what keeps me going, what makes me love her and want to be her mom. She can be alot of fun and a really great older sister. These are the moments I live for, long for, and love to see and be a part of. These are moments that make my heart melt.
I am so grateful for the good and the bad, because it makes me cherish the good that much more!
Wow...I got on here to vent a little, to try and see what is going on in my head. I leave this post with a greater love for Macie and an excitement for her to come out of her room, (even if it is before Geoff gets home!) so we can go outside and play, have a popsicle and spend some time together. I love this little girl, even though she is extra spicy!!

Lunch with Dad

On Friday we decided to meet Geoff for lunch. We LOVE to have lunch with dad. It is always so fun! We decided to head over to a nice little grassy area that has a fountain and a little pond with ducks.

Geoff and the girls during lunch. There was a crane nearby and Macie was mesmerized!Macie walking along the fountain. Notice her super cool hat???? Geoff bought this hat for like $2 and it is super ugly. Macie has adopted it and loves it!!! She likes to wear it alot. On this day she was saying "I have to wear this hat so I don't get sunburned."Addie and I touching the water coming out of the fountain.We then went on a walk around the pond. Geoff convinced Macie that she should try and pet the ducks. Here she is saying "It's ok duckie, I'm nice. I am not going to hurt you, I just want to pet you. Come here duckie."

We kept walking around and got really excited when we saw this!! Little baby ducks. So cute!Addie and Geoff looking at the little ducks.Here is Macie trying to pet the little ducks.

After seeing the little ducks, we thought that it couldn't get any better....we were wrong!!! Look at these cute tiny baby ducks!!! How fun!!!

Near the end, they had this super cool drinking fountain. Here is Macie getting her drink. And here is Addie. We sure had a great time!! Thanks babe for making time to have lunch with us!!! Can't wait until next time!! We love you!!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we got together with a bunch of people and headed out to a place called Squires Castle. It is this old castle that is on a bunch of land with walking paths and picnic tables everywhere. It is a really nice and fun place to go. Macie wanted to go and see the castle, so we went as a family and started walking around behind it and foung this cute little bridge. What a perfect opportunity for a photo op. So...here are some pictures of us on the bridge. Keep in mind that it was like 90 degrees out so that is why Macie's cheeks are so red and we might look a little sweaty!! It was HOT!!! Dad and his girls
Mom and her girls
Macie running back to the picnic site
Addie had just fallen, so I snapped a quick picture. (That is why she is skanking me out) :)

A day at the Beach

Since we arrived home, we have been able to spend this last week together as a family. It was a GREAT week. It has been SUPER hot here in Cleveland, so we decided, why not head out to the beach. So, we loaded the car, invited our friends, the Bjarnasons, and had a day of fun in the sun!!

Addie playing in the sand

She was laughing at something that Geoff was doing in the background.

Macie being her goofy self

Macie playing frisbee.
Sadly these are the only pictures that we have. I should have taken more, but apparently I was to busy playing~!!

randomness

Here are a few missed posts over the few weeks.
The girls wanted to wear their blankets as dresses. They thought that they were sooo funny. Here they are posing for the camera. For some reason Macie thought that this was picture worthy. She and Addie were holding barbie's hands and she said "mom, take a picture, this is so cute!"I tried putting Addie's hair in a ponytail. It is quite sad. There is not a lot there and she actually looks kind of bald in this picture. Maybe oneday her hair will be ready for this, but not anytime soon. Good thing her hair is super cute the way it is!!

Idaho Visit

The last 2 weeks the girls and I were in Idaho visiting my family. Besides Macie getting pretty sick while we were there, It was a lot of fun and it was really good to see everyone. I think that my favorite part was watching my girls interact with everyone. It is always nice to be around family and feel so loved. Here are a few pictures of our adventures. Macie and Addie holding hands while jumpingMy mom and the girlsMaice loving the trampolineAddie testing it outMy dad with all of the older grandkids. Dad, you were great with playing with the kids!!! They couldn't get enough of you!

All of the grandkids singing a song during family nightEveryone decorating cookies for family nightA trip to the Pocatello zoo. Pretty sure this only took us half an hour to walk through the whole zoo. Exciting no?! At the end they did have goats to pet!!! So... here is Addie with my dad petting the goats.Here is Macie petting the goat.This is all of the grandkids playing candyland before church. Macie is sad because she seriously was not feeling well.My dad was making banana bread muffins and the flour containers were empty. So.... he asked Macie if she would like to help refill them. Here she is....a big floury mess. She had a great time though and it was totally worth the mess.

Thanks mom and dad for such a great trip and such a fun time!!! We love you!!

Song singing

My dad and Macie were just singing this song and this is what Macie added at the end:
"I love mother, she loves me, we are a happy family (then Macie adds: "mommy is mean to me")
I am going to pretend that she was just trying to rhyme. :)

Happy Mother's day!!!!!

Happy Birthday Macie

I am pretty sure that I say this every year, but I can't believe that I have a four year old!!!! Where has the time gone?!!
Here are a few things that we love about our Macie:
-She LOVES to laugh!!
-She is a GREAT sister to little Addie!!
-She loves to play, play. play
-She is a pretty good listener and she knows the rules and keeps them!
Here is what Macie has said about turning and being 4:
(A little background: we played outside a lot yesterday and she fell down a lot and got a TON of scrapes and bumps)
-"Dad, I don't want to be 4 anymore because I have gotten all beat up today"
-"Mom, I don't like to be 4, I want to be 5"
me: "You can't be 5 yet, you have to be 4 first"
Her: "Well then I don't want to be any number"
-Today while in the parking lot at church she found a bead and picked it up calling it her treasure...We thought nothing of it.....until we got home from church and I was making her lunch and she comes dancing into the kitchen and sings to me "bead up my nose, bead up nose" I say what are you saying? she says: "I have a bead up my nose". Sure enough, there was the bead about half way up her nostril. Exciting no?! So, I go and grab the tweezers and Geoff grabs a flashlight and we proceed to try and dig this thing out, it wasn't working!!! So, my genius husband says "go and find the baby nose sucker and we will just suck it out." (I never would have thought of this) We get a nose sucker and he sticks it in there about 5 times and it totally worked!!! AMAZING!!!!
Needless to say, if my first 2 days of being 4 were as bad as her first 2 days have been, I wouldn't want to be 4 either!

Happy Birthday Macie!!!! We sure love you!!!Checking out the "Hannah Batana" cake

The CUTE Birthday Girl!!

Blowing out the candles

The whole crew for the birthday party. (Trevor, Tony, Halle, Macie, Cole)

Checking out her new bike! One happy little girl!!

*one little note for memory sake...Macie's real birthday is on the 5th of May. We celebrated it on the 1st because Geoff is going to be gone the whole month of May doing externships and the girls and I are flying to my parents for some of that time, so we just celebrated her birthday a few days early!*