Happy 3rd Birthday Madison

Today was Madison's birthday, hard to believe it really, I can't believe she is 3. Of all my pregnancies her was the easiest, I wish all my pregnancies had been that easy I might have actually had more kids (just kidding). She was my biggest baby at 6lbs 8oz (woohoo an actual giant -LOL) However she continues to amaze me, she has always been independent, she never needed me to snuggle her as a baby (although now she does), she's always wanted to do things on her own, in her own way. I always said she was the mix of Jordan and Kaleigh and she is as independent as Kaleigh, but almost as sensitive as Jordan. She always asks if Michael and I are best friends, I guess she wants to know, not sure why maybe because we do almost everything together as a family. She wears her heart on her sleave she is always saying, I love you mommy, I love daddy, I love Jordan, etc. (until recently it was always Joran and Kaya and Jadee - now it's Jordan, Kaywee and Jaden)

She likes to crawl into our bed at 7:15 and wants to snuggle with us but after about 10 minutes gets restless and wants breakfast.

Of all my kids she is by far the biggest. She ranks at the 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight, they are estimating she will be about 5'8" way taller than me, but we'll see how much she actually wants to snuggle when she's bigger than me.LOL..

Madison Age 2

Madison Age 1

All Eyes.

My sweet baby

Today for her birthday we took her to the National Museum of American History we wanted to something fun with the kids that was out of the norm, so this was both fun and educational.
They have this section that's very hands on and lets the kids see how toys can actually teach things as well as science experiments, the girls made instruments out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands, here Madison and Kaleigh were on an exhibit on how wind effects a sail.
This was awesome, it was all about balance, you had to build blocks evenly around this table to keep it from turning over, of course once this little boy got to it, the blocks were down, he loved it.

This was outside the Spark Lab where they have Science in America, it was great because it had things to do that the kids have been doing in co-op, like the electricity experiment. I wish we got more pictures in this room but the kids were so excited they needed adult hands to help with different things.
He like the giant magnifying glass, they had a section that was for kids 5 and under it was great for him.
We were able to see all the presidents in a time line from Washington to Obama they liked that and they had a podium that you could stand behind and pretend to be the president and give your speech. This is also where they had all the first ladies dresses displayed but we didn't get pictures of that, I was really bummed, but again the kids were great but it was hard stopping too long for some displays.
This was a huge doll house, it had 23 rooms, I wish I could remember the name of the woman who built it, but it was a big hit.
This was the transportation area, it was awesome, all the kids except Madison (it was a little noisy for her) loved it. It had everything from the first wagons to trains to automobiles.
The first trailer that families used for vacation until the Great Depression when they became the first trailer homes (I never knew that).

One of the first school buses.

I had to take a picture of the station wagon, too many memories not to.

Riding a subway that actually had video playing in the background of people talking on the train and actually coming to a stop, that Madison really liked.

There were so many fun things to see and do I wish we could have taken picture of everything. Including the simulation ride (Madison and Jordan didn't like that - Kaleigh and Jaden loved it). Having just seen the movie Julie and Julia, I got to see Julia Childe's Kitchen, and Kaleigh loved the Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz, but everyone agreed that the mask from the Lion King was a little scary for them.

It was a great day for Madison and a good school day. We are covering the American Revolution this week and we were able to see pictures and uniforms and puppets saying "Taxation without Representation" it was excellent. They got to ask lots of questions and I wish we could have spent more of the day just in that part.

In total we spent 4 and half hours there and we could have spent more time, we skipped a couple of exhibits because by 3:00 everyone was getting tired.

Although I have to say we have been to the museums on the weekends and it was chaos, going early in the morning, in the middle of the week was perfect, the museum was practically empty, it was nice not to have to worry about getting crushed in the crowd or losing a child who just wants to see an exhibit and can't see because there are too many people in front of her. It was really great, I can't wait to go back and actually the kids have already asked when we can go again.

Playing Catch Up

It seems these days that I am always playing catch up. We are still trying to get back into the swing of things after the holidays, we had a really rough first week back and it seems to have taken us a full two weeks to get into our rhythm, of course now Jordan has mono so that is no fun but at least she is not nearly as contagious as they have previously thought the disease is but she is definitely wearing out more quickly and unfortunately I know have to take her out of gymnastics for 6 weeks because she is not allowed to do physical contact sports. So I guess we have to start the piano lessons I've been planning for her to take and now that my parents have given us their electric piano hopefully it will work for practicing on. I'll have to be sure to take a picture of her playing, she actually enjoys doing it lets hope she enjoys doing it when she has to practice every day.


Kaleigh is dissecting a cray fish at co-op, the girls were pretty excited about this one, they definitely liked it better than the owl pellets.

Making paint out of chalk with one of the older girls in co-op.

Christmas Wrap Up a little late.

I'm finally having a chance to get to upload these pictures and recap our Christmas.

OK so here is our recap.

This is Christmas Eve before we went to church, I love Madison's smiles it's one of the few times it's an actual natural smile and not truly forced. Kaleigh took this picture, I thought she did a pretty good job, especially because I think Michael's camera has been a little finicky lately. So focusing is a little touchy, but she got it right. Had Madison kept the hat on we might have been in better shape, since some of her hair caught on fire during the candlelight service. Thanks Sarah for helping me get it out fast.
Jordan wanted to take one too because Kaleigh did, and she did a pretty good job too.

Christmas morning, was great, the kids actually slept in until 7:30 then we got up and had breakfast first (I wanted to make sure Jaden didn't melt down during the present opening) and then we opened our stockings first. I was really proud of the kids they didn't ask for much this year, their list was pretty short but still with all the relatives we have....let's just say I'm glad it's over. It's fun to watch them open things and get excited, but it's a real joy to hear them sing holy night through out the house, or hark the herald angels sing while they do other things.
I picked this little light wand up at Target for like $1.99 and put it in his stocking, it was like his favorite thing.
Of course being patient and waiting to open unwrapped presents was a challenge since there were only two adults and four children, and who told toy manufactures to put as many twist ties on presents as they possibly could.
We left Christmas morning to head to my parents in NY, I have to say even though we had to open presents than pack quickly there was only a little complaining, but they did great on the car ride and they more presents to look forward to, so that helped a bit.
The day after Christmas, we went to see our friends Matt and Theresa and their three beautiful children, and of course there for a few hours in the afternoon and neither of us took one picture. I was really kind of bummed about that, we only get to see them twice a year and I have known Matt and Theresa for years (I wont' say how many but it was when I was still working in NY before I moved to VA) they are the kind of friends you have for a life time easy and I love them all very much.
After we went to our friends we had dinner at my brother's house. My brother's condo is a little small, but we managed to fit 25 people (I thin it was that many) in his place. It was a little warm but filled with lots of love. Here is all of the people in my family that wore, red. (My grandmother, my cousin's wife Nelddie, me and the kids, my aunts Diana and Alice and my Nephew).
Here are all the people in my family that wore gray (my great aunt Pilar, my cousin Rodney, his son Brandon and wife Robin, their daughter Angel ..she is in between my two girls and they love to play together....my cousin Saida and her son behind her Robin and my uncle Earl.
Here are all the people who wore another color other than gray or red and No none of us decided to coordinate (my grandfather, my cousin Tommy, his daughter Melodie, my brother Dylan and my niece Isabella). If you're wondering where Michael is he took all of these pictures.
You can tell it was getting a little hot, because most of the kids (mine especially look like they've been through the mill...LOL..)
Here is Michael and I with all the kids and my niece and nephey Isabella and Yael....Madison wasn't having it. Can you see Kaleigh with her MP3 player, she got it for Christmas and when ever I told her she could listen to it, she did, of course I also had to tell her to turn it off sometimes as well, but she was good about it.
My little sweet heart, I wish I could see her more often.
On Sunday we braved the craziness of New York City and went down to see Rockefeller Center to see the big tree (the girls had been asking for two weeks if we would have the opportunity to do so and I said maybe) we'll we did along with the 8 million other people who happened to be there in the same small area. Oh and just for good measure we took my niece and nephew again. Thank goodness we had two other adults with my mom and my sister, while my step dad and brother drove the cars around because there was not a garage to be found anywhere that had parking available. But we did it, we kept our promise and now I can mark it off the list for the next five years.
Here are the windows of the building at Sac's Fifth Avenue (it was really pretty because the lights blinked in time to the music ...although you can't see that here and it was almost impossible to see anything)...did I mention how me Jordan, Kaleigh and Yael almost got smooshed by the crowd.
We got back on Monday evening after a very busy weekend and I swear this is how we all felt, a completely great trip, but very exhausting, now we are glad to be back home, while I catch up on laundry, figuring out where to put the toys and trying to get back into the swing of our normal life.