Birthday Road Trip Day One

Dan decided that for his 30th birthday he wanted to take advantage of our location and take a road trip to see the sights. We loaded up the car and drove to Williamsburg, VA. We crashed in our hotel at a very late (am) hour.

The next morning we drove over to Jamestown, VA. They have a living history museum that depicts the the arrival of the European settlers in America and their interactions with the Native Americans.

Cute Picture of Dan and Madison

Pointing to Georgia on the map

This is a replica of the Jamestown Fort. It was incredible. The actors wandered around in costume and talked to you as if they were from that era. It was all very real right down to the brooms made out of twigs, the spears and bows, swords, cannons, and chickens running around.

We were able to try on the very heavy armor and chain-mail.

We were able to see the process of creating canoes from fallen trees.

This is a replica of the original ship that sailed from England to Jamestown.

We were able to go all over the ship and see the tiny bunks, huge ropes, latrines, riggings, even the type of games they would have played down below.

This is a replica of the homes that the Native Americans lived in. Maddie's favorite part was the pestles where they ground the corn to make"tortillas." The huts were filled with furs and tools that the Native Americans used in their daily lives. The tools were made out of bones, feathers, hides, and rawhide. I must admit that I was a little grossed out by the bones that served as the the base for most of the tools. They also had a huge indoor museum that we were not able to take pictures of but was truly amazing.

What I Have Been Doing Lately

Meet Buttercup. She is my first attempt at making a stuffed animal. Madison loves her and is so glad to have a "monkey princess who likes jewelry and dancing."

A quick quilted play mat for a friends sweet baby boy. It was fast, fun, and I still feel like I am seeing yellow everywhere. I was going for super brights as that is about all newborn babies can see.

Scrapbook pages- these pictures are mostly for my Momma who has been asking to see them.

Felt clips that I made for Madison.

The Soccer Match

Maddie vs Wesley

A blatant example of traveling. She pulled this off quite frequently with a truly intimidating scowl and a don't mess with me glare.

She shoots -she SCORES!

Contemplating the glory of her ball in the net.

Our Weekend in Alabama

We went on a road trip last weekend to attend the temple and to see family. With the Atlanta temple closed the closest one is in Birmingham. Dan's brother lives in Montgomery, so we drove three hours to my sister-in-law's place and dropped Maddie off. Then we drove two hours to the temple did a session and drove two hours back. We were pretty exhausted but very grateful that we had someone to watch Madison so we could go.

The next morning we headed over to the pool and had a blast. Maddie was cold and needed to sit down and "get sun".

They had a splash pad and Madison was loving the buckets that dumped large amounts of icy water on you. "Mommy, you need try this-its cool," it was literally cool!

My nephew Matthew and his most awesome swim goggles!

Kristy and Megan.
James and Wesley in the age old battle of palm splashing (that's what I call it anyways). Not sure who won the battle.

Saturday Adventures

One of my regrets about leaving Texas was all the things I never got around to doing. I always thought that we would have all the time in the world, but 5+ years went by very fast. I know we are on a very short time window in Atlanta so we are trying to take adventures every Saturday. This is our latest- a hike through Atlanta's historic covered bridge district.
Madison hiding from the camera. Whenever we ask her to smile she puts her head down and looks at the ground. Clearly she is confused (or sick of me constantly waving the camera in her face).
Nothing beats rock hopping in a nice cool river.
She has become obsessed about skipping (throwing) rocks in rivers, lakes, sinks, whatever.
Marking her territory. The land of Maddie-friend to kitties, puppies, caterpillars, and heffalumps.

First Day of School Pictures

Madison started school three weeks ago (I know I have procrastinated blogging). These were her pictures as we were walking out the door. She goes to a preschool MWF from 9-12. Her teacher is so wonderful and she really has a great time. Their are nine other kids in class and Maddie likes playing with "Callie on the twirly-whirly the best."

Stonewall Confederate Cemetery and War Memorial

We decided to take a drive and see some Civil War history. We want to take advantage of the rich southern culture we have all around us before we leave the South for good.Yes, she is asleep. She can sleep through a brass band playing outside her door.
This is the Confederate graveyard in our County Seat.
Madison just thought they were a lot of really cool rocks. We tried to explain the whole grave thing but she just looked at us like we were nuts.
This flag is one that we see flying all the time in just about every place you go.
Dan was trying to find the oldest gravestone in the cemetery.
I was right next to her in this picture Mom-I swear. I was pretty nervous and we only took one shot because -well because of the obvious.

Daddy - Daughter Photo Shoot

She Earned her Laces!

This move has been a really big change for our family. Madison has really struggled to adjust to all the changes. We were used to a very big social life and lots of kids to play with. The area we live in is pretty much devoid of children. Maddie really started acting out and struggling to control frustration. She was throwing so many tantrums that I couldn't count them all.
In an effort to keep my sanity I came up with this chart (it was a spiritual inspiration). It has sections for each part of the day and tells Maddie just what she should be doing everyday. When she completes a section without tears or tantrums she earns apples. When she has reached a certain amount of apples she gets a special treat. It is a miracle worker. We went from countless meltdowns to no meltdowns. In the last couple of weeks she has given in to a tantrum only once or twice. Can I just say how grateful I am to the this brainchild!
She earned her first prize-animal lace-ups! Way to go Madison!

Olympic Park

Downtown has a lot of fun things to do and Olympic Park is one of our new favorites. It is a beautiful park full of playgrounds, splashing fountains, monuments, and space to run. Even though it was a very hot day the shaded park areas were full of kids playing.
This park had some very cool equipment that we had never seen before.
They had a huge climbing area that Madison really loved. I can't wait for it to cool off so we can enjoy it even more.