That is what Madison tells us a lot these days, and she is right! The most exciting big girl news we have is that Madison is potty trained! She has been in panties for almost three weeks now and doesn't even want anything to do with a diaper. We have to convince her to put one on at night so that she doesn't "forget to go potty while she is sleeping and get her bed wet". We'll work on that a little later, but for now, we are thrilled and so proud of her. It was really pretty quick and easy - once we decided to just make the switch to panties full time, she of course had some accidents, but within just a few days, she got it!
I wanted to share a couple of cute videos of her too - a couple of her reading in her room and one of her singing her "favorite" song. The song is sung by a girl that goes to our church. She and her husband and her brother-in-law just released a CD and Madison loves it. She got to see her sing and play the guitar at church one night, so she now tells me everytime we get in the car that she wants to hear "the girl with the guitar".
A couple of weekends ago, Landon came to spend the weekend with us. Madison was thrilled and Landon felt so grown up - he said over and over how he got to come without his mommy. I have learned that any time spent with Madison and Landon together can be challenging if they aren't kept busy, so we packed the weekend full of fun stuff! The kids had movie night and a slumber party on our bedroom floor the first night. On Saturday morning we met some friends at Chick-fil-a for breakfast and they played for about an hour and a half after breakfast. Then , Saturday evening we went to Disney on Ice! I really didn't know what to expect and wasn't sure if it would be fun for them, but they loved it! Madison's eyes were glued to the ice - I couldn't even get her to turn towards me to take a picture until intermission! Landon was so excited too - they both yelled out to the characters and waved, hoping to get a direct response. I have to admit that I had a big grin on my face the whole time too - it totally took me back to my childhood....Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King.... :) I loved (and still do) Disney movies. Dylan thought it was cool for the first 10 minutes or so. :) It probably didn't help that he had been out fishing all day, was tired, and sunburnt, but he was such a trooper!
Given that we are less than 2 weeks from Thanksgiving now, I figured I had better get the Halloween pics posted before I get too much of a backlog!! Having a great fall so far...hope you all are too!
This year we changed things up a bit and went to a pumpkin patch in Beaumont. Madison and Landon were thrilled to be able to roam the patch, take pictures together (actually the picture of them together seems to be the one that they cooperated the most for!), and jump in the moonwalk they had set up.
Looks like we might be starting a tradition with the Wiltshires...a fun one! The night before Halloween, the Wiltshires came over for pumpkin carving. Madison and Yara played with various tools - poking holes, etc. in the uncarved pumpkins, trying out every spoon or scoop-worthy utensil in the drawer - and helped pull out all the gunk so the daddies could get to work! Dylan and Team Jason and Elijah created two pumpkin masterpieces (Dylan = mummy; Jason/Elijah = man on fire?) while the girls watched a movie in their pjs (well, sort of...that was the idea at least). It was a great prelude to our big Halloween bash the next evening!
I don't know what it is, but I love Halloween! Maybe it is because I am really a kid at heart and the idea of dressing up gets my imagination running wild...or because celebrating Halloween is like having a kick-off party for my favorite season of the year, which includes months of celebrations, TONS of great food and delicious DESSERTS, friends, family, presents!, Christmas lights!, Christmas music!, cozy evenings by the fire, hot chocolate, chili, warm clothes, and sooooo much more! I also really dig caramel apples (just ask all of our party guests who were forced to take five home with them since I made so many) and that could be a reason in and of itself. Just talking about it puts a smile on my face, and as I have learned from my dear sweet Madison, I find myself wanting to shout out "HOORAY" at the top of my lungs but that might get me some stares... :)
Anyway, back on track, as I mentioned, we had a big Halloween bash with a bunch of our friends, both new and old, and their kiddos, complete with a bubble fogger (huge hit with the kids!), strobe light/lightning and thunder sound effect machine, spider webs galore, gooey eyeballs that they kids got to throw all over the garage walls, silly string, candy corn races, pizza and every kind of dessert under the sun. When it got dark, we all went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Madison had trick-or-treating down this year, but the funniest thing was that before she would say, "trick-or-treat", she had to first tell the person that opened the door that, "this is my cousin, Landon". She just loves him so much! Afterwards, the guys played washers and the moms and kiddos had a dance party under the strobe light and fog bubbles. If you know us, then you know no party of ours ends without dancing and some washer playing. Hogue favorites. We had a really great turn-out and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.
We didn't get any pictures on our camera at all, but do have some that friends have sent. Madison was a witch and her momma and daddy were... Well, you'll see, and if you have questions after seeing the pics, feel free to email me and I'll try to give you the most politically correct explanation. :)
