Sunday, April 15, 2007

Mom says, "NO"! Nana says, "YES!"

A couple of nights ago as Miles and I prepared to put the girls to bed, they were being EXTREMELY cute...which usually happens right before bedtime...Miles was "quizzing" Maddie..."What does a lion say?", etc. and Maddie was responding correctly, and loving knowing the answer to each question. Miles, in an attempt to stump her, says, "What does Mommy say?" Maddie's immediate response, "NO!" :-) Miles, realizing a golden moment in the making, then asked, "What does Daddy say?" Maddie's response, said in her best attempt at a "deep male" voice, "I am a boy." Miles, pushing the game one step further asks, "What does Nana say?" Without skipping a beat, Maddie replies, "YES!" So there you have it...Mom says no, and Nana says yes! :-) Other great responses: When asked what her Sunbeam teacher, Sis Harper, says, Maddie said, "SHHHH! Sit down!" Maddie even knew what Winston says, "WOOF"! We love our Maddie!

Don't know whether I have mentioned our Emma's love of rocks? Emma has a singular affection for rocks. As we walk Maddie to and from her bus stop, we pass LOTS of rocks...very rarely does Emma pass up an opportunity to select a rock to carry with her to the bus stop and home again. I have been fairly successful at keeping the majority of her growing rock collection outside, and give it another month I'll have the best rock garden on the block! :-) The other day, as we left the house and headed to the bus stop, Emma stopped at her pile of rocks, selected a rock and placed it ever so carefully in her pocket...apparently, she was taking it for a "walk"! That's our Emma! :-)

Other than that a fairly uneventful week at the Maschger home....which is nice to occasionally have! We did convince Cousin Katy to come up Saturday...we LOVE our Cousin Katy! Katy was kind enough to play with our girls while Miles and I got out for a DATE!!! Thanks Cousin Katy! :-)

We love you all! AND...Happy Birthday Papa! :-)

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Our beautiful Maddie LOVES to read! :-)

Easter Dresses!

The end of Maddie...

Thought we'd share with you Maddie's latest avoidance tactic...

Just this weekend Madelynn has decided to try a new approach to dealing with her parents...as we often get in her way!...whenever Maddie is asked to stop or desist a particular action, she immediately drops to the floor and assumes a "dead" pose...complete with "twisted" limbs, a mouth half-open, and her tongue hanging half out...and of course, a final death groan "UUUGGHH!" It is ever so difficult to discipline your children when you are laughing! In addition, when Maddie is VERY MAD at Mommy...for any number of reasons...she has resorted to "shooting" Mom. She puts her hand out, and with repeated thrusts of her fists, yells "Bang...Bang...Bang"! SIGH! :-) Again, so very hard to keep a straight face when confronted by a three-year-old "shooter"! :-) Shooting and dying aside...Maddie is doing GREAT! So much fun to have a three-year old!

Our Emma is talking up a storm, and singing and dancing to anything that remotely resembles a melody of any sort! With her performance platform expanding from clown, to singer, dancer, and speaker...she is quickly becoming the life of EVERY gathering! :-) We love our Emma! :-)

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Two words...

Easter dresses!

I decided that this year I would start the fine tradition of making Easter dresses for my girls. I have such fond memories of the marvelous dresses my mother created that I wanted to continue the fine tradition. Fortunately for me, my girls look adorable in whatever they are wearing! :0)

While I am trying to find "free" time to sew, everyone else is fairly status quo! Miles continues to be insanely busy at work...he has a trip scheduled for later this month, and the command is sending him to a class for the entire month of May. The nice thing about that class is that it is right here at Fort Meade...so NO COMMUTE! :-) Of course, all this "out of the office" time doesn't mean less work, but in actuality just means he has considerably less time to do everything else! This makes for lots of stress and late nights. However, he is still finding time to study for school, serve the YM of our ward, and be an awesome husband and father! We sure are grateful for our Daddy! :-)

Emma continues to be the enigma that is Emma. Emma's favorite thing in the whole world is to be "silly"! The other day I had both Maddie and Emma in bed with me, Emma turns to Maddie and says, "Tickle me Maddie". Of course Maddie complied! After laughing and laughing, Emma caught her breath and said, "Tickle me again, Maddie". On and on it went. To Emma what is important is that there is laughter, and she is the center of it! :-) It is alot of fun to have another family clown! As the weather has turned nice this last week, Emma has really enjoyed playing at the park...especially since she is now big enough to climb onto everything and slide down everything! She has named the park "Emma's park" and would live there if we'd let her!

Maddie on the other hand would live in the "new car" if we'd let her! Maddie LOVES the new van! She is extremely excited for ANY opportunity to ride in the van, and pitches a FIT when that ride comes to an end! Maddie had a sad week at school last week...one of her good "friends" Elijah left on Friday as his family is moving. Maddie spent most of the weekend walking around the house singing, "Elijah here today, Elijah here today, Everyone clap their hands Elijah here today." Fortunately her other good friend Alexis (Alex) is still in class...according to Maddie's teacher, Elijah, Maddie and Alex were the "Three Musketeers"...so we are mindful of this upheaval in our little girl's life. The last couple of days, for the first time since she started school she has started asking, "I stay home today? Emma go to school?" We have also noticed some tremendous improvements in her language skills in just this last week...additionally, Maddie has become our little helper in everything from taking out the trash, to loading the dishwasher, to pushing the shopping cart in the commissary! I could really get used to this! :-)

We really enjoyed Conference this weekend. Especially since we were graciously invited to Tom and Gabriela's house to watch it on their BIG, BIG, BIG screen TV with awesome surround sound...almost like being there! :-) The girls had a BLAST playing downstairs in the playroom, and Miles and I actually had the opportunity to sit and listen! SIGH! It was wonderful! :-)

OK...well, back to Easter dresses...after the dishes...

We love you!