The weather here the past few days has been out of this world. It has been sunny and in the low 80's while showing off the beauty of Minnesota fall. We have taken advantage of this nice weather and squeezed every last drop of outdoor fun that we can get. We have been to the park, played in our sandbox, ran around in the back yard chasing each other, and played on the swings. We sat out on the deck tonight and watched the sunset while the wonderful smell of a bonfire at a neighbors house topped off an amazing weekend. I love fall and everything that comes along with it. I love the cooler weather (but not the frigid temperatures that will be here all too soon), finding the perfect pumpkins and carving them, jumping in a pile of leaves with Madison, drinking a cup of hot apple cider or hot chocolate, and going for walks picking up pretty leaves.

We had planned on heading to the apple orchard/pumpkin farm today, but ended up staying home. We are all dealing with a nasty cold bug and decided a day of taking it easy was just what the doctor ordered. We are trying to decide if this is just a simple cold that is hanging around a little longer than normal or if it is something that we should get checked out by a doctor. I think that how we feel tomorrow will decide what we do.

I just got Madison back to sleep after a coughing fit woke her up, so I am finally going to head to bed myself.

Madison's Birthday Recap

Once again I have failed in my attempts to be a better blogger. Shortly after our new (to us) camera stopped working, our computer decided that it was going on strike too and needed a new hard drive before it would work again. But it is now back in working order and better than ever. If only our camera was under warranty like the computer, I would be so happy. 

At the end of August, my baby turned three years old. I remember the night she was born like it was yesterday,what I remember most is looking at her just in awe of the fact that I had something to do with her being here. Driving home from the hospital I kept waiting for someone to tell me that there had been some mistake and I couldn't take her home with me. These past few years have been the best years of my life. I love my new role as a wife and mommy, and feel so blessed to have the family that I do.

The night of her birthday, Zach and I took her to Chuck E Cheese and she had a blast! She loved throwing the balls for ski-ball, the only problem was that they were never thrown hard enough to make in up the whole ramp and the ball occasionally wound up on the next persons ramp. They also had a little merry go round that she rode on about 100 times. We had a small cake for her and she loved blowing out the candles after we sang Happy Birthday to her.

She also had 2 birthday parties this year. The weekend after her birthday we had one with my side of the family at our house. Nothing really special; we just grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, let the kids go out back to jump in the bouncy house while the adults chatted, ate some cake, and opened her gifts. I think she was most excited about having everyone sing to her, and seeing baby Gavin. She really in completely in love with him. The next weekend Zach's parents planned a birthday get together with some of his family at an awesome park that I have fallen in love with (highland park). Zach's sister, aunt, uncle, and a few cousins were in town from Colorado and that made it even better. Zach's cousin Corie and her husband had her baby, who we have never met, with her so it was really fun. Zach, Annie and I took Madison on her first paddle boat ride and she thought that was the coolest thing. It is always so fun to see her experience things for the first time.

Even though Madison could have started preschool this fall, we made the decision to hold off on that until next year. We have been working on numbers and letters for a while now, but I am going to start having some scheduled "school time" with her a few days a week to work on them. We are also going to give Your Baby Can Read a try. My gramma has called every time she sees the infomercial for it and is convinced that we should give it a try so I finally caved and said I would give it a try, I think it will be fun to have that school time together and it will help her be more prepared for when she does start school.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Madison loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse each morning while she wakes up. She is not always the happiest when she first wakes up, so we snuggle with her blanket and let her wake up at her own pace. Every time the show ends she asks if she can watch "one more and that's it" A few weeks ago my dad saw a pop up on the computer that could have your childs favorite Mickey character give them a call, so he checked it out. Not only will they call at whatever time you set up with them, but they will also call your child by name. So we have set up a phone call for Madison twice in the past few weeks and have a call set up for her birthday so that Mickey can wish her a happy birthday. She loves getting the calls and gets so excited that they know her name. If you want more info on this, check out  http://disney.go.com/charactercalls/piccolinismiles/

Can't A Girl Get Some Sleep?!?

For some unknown reason, I have been having the hardest time falling asleep lately. Each night I take enough medicine to knock out a horse, and normally it turns me into a walking zombie around 11ish like clockwork. But lately, I find myself wide awake at 4:00am and unable to sleep if my life depended on it. I have had time to do some reading, watch lots of mindless TV, catch up on some cleaning, and steal a few minutes to just watch my baby girl sleep.

At first it was kind of fun to have some "me" time to do all of the things I just don't seem to have enough hours to accomplish, but that novelty is wearing off. I feel like I have a newborn in the house again, and I just need a normal night of sleep. Before I get to busy complaining, I should say that I am so lucky that Zach has a flexible schedule and has been able to let me sleep in some once I finally am able to fall asleep (around 6am or so). Because of his schedule we keep a pretty relaxed schedule at home. There are lots of nights where Madison stays up until daddy gets home from work at 10ish so that she can say good night to him because she is able to sleep in the next day. It works well for us because we get a few minutes of family time before she goes to sleep and because when she sleeps in the next morning, it means that we can too! So even though things could be much worse on the sleep front, I am getting tired of the late night infomercials. Eventually things have to get back to normal right?

Man that looks so nice right now!

Long Overdue Post and Some Cute Pictures

Over the past 2 months I have started to write a new post quite a few times, but haven't finished them for one reason or another. A couple I wanted to add a few pictures to and our camera isn't working right now, a couple more I just had to stop to do something else and never finished them, and the last couple I decided were not interesting enough to post. But a few people  have mentioned that they miss the updates, so here I am again. Hopefully I will finally be able to keep up with some regular posts, if there is anything anyone would like me to blog about feel free to ask. I have trouble coming up with ideas that I think anyone wants to hear me talk about. At the end of this post I will put in some pictures that we had taken today since it has been well over a year since we have had professional pictures taken.

So here is a recap of some of the things that we have been up to in the past 2 months (in no particular order)

• We have spent countless hours out in the backyard playing on the play set or in the pool.
• We have worked on ABC's and 123's and she can count to 15 and recognize those numbers if she sees them, sing her ABC's and recognize some letters.
• We have sang at church and Madison "helps"  and sings with her own microphone
• We have watched lots of Twins games and Zach got to go to a game with a friend (I'm only slightly jealous).
• We have had lots of time to just relax with my family and Zach's parents. Zach's sister Annie came in to town over Memorial day weekend and we had lots of fun together. We went to the horse races at Canterbury Downs, ate at Lions Tap, and had a picnic/birthday party for Zach at an awesome park.
• We have tackled potty training and, with the exception of nights, seem to have mastered that.
• Saw some friends from out of town who have their own Mady who is only a few months older than Madison, and had a fun night watching them play together.
• Madison's speech has improved so much. She is officially out of speech therapy and is able to tell us what she wants/needs and I only have to translate to other people once in a while.
• Me, my mom, my gramma, and Madison went up to Grand Casino Hinckley and stayed at the Inn (a much smaller hotel) for a couple days and had lots of fun in the pool.
• Have watched hundreds of episodes of Mickey Mouse (she usually wants the same episode EVERY. SINGLE. DAY)
• Between Madison and I, we have spent way to many hours at doctor appointments, urgent care clinics, and ER's (with some short stays as an inpatient as well).
• Have enjoyed lots and lots of hugs, kisses, smiles, giggles, and snuggles with Madison. It's possible that a couple of those hugs or kisses may have been shared with my husband, but I can't be sure :)