Tamales!

Our friend Hannah who sometimes helps us with the kids, gave us the tastiest gift for the holidays.  Her family makes homemade tamales and she gave us several dozen.  Boy were they a treat.  Turns out I've been making them wrong all these years we've lived her.  Thanks to Hannah she taught me the right way to make them and oh my goodness, were they amazing.  

As you can see from the kids' faces, they were so excited.  The boys had a competition to see how many they could eat between them and let me just leave it as, wow, they can eat a lot!

The girls liked them too and we all scarfed them down.

 We truly enjoyed the treat shared with us and I'm afraid Hannah has spoiled us as to what amazing tamales are.

Thanks so much for the gift Hannah!  We so appreciate all the time and effort that went into making these for us.  We LOVED them!

Until next time,

Angie

The funny things she does....

Madelyn is always doing funny things or making funny faces and I decided to just throw a few of her more recent funny things into one blog.  

Here she is telling me how excited her show Rainbow Rangers was coming on next.  Take a look at that hair.... finally after 2 years she has enough hair to have "crazy hair days"

Like this look.... not sure what happened.  

And then there's her personally grooming moments... I'm not sure if she was biting her toe nails or what.  Either way I told her it was kind of yucky.  

And then there's her trips to the bathroom. She loves to have her time in the potty.  She usually brings along a book and sometimes random accessories.  This day it was 6 spoons she carried around for most of one day and a lego assembly kit book.  

When she goes to the bathroom she always says, "I want to relax, you go away."  We've come to give her all the time she wants.  I just think its funny that she likes to relax in the bathroom. I guess what ever floats your boat.

Oh and I wanted to let you know those spoons went straight into the dishwasher on hot disinfectant cycle.  

Oh and while naps have pretty much become a thing of the past, one thing that hasn't is that when Madelyn is done, she crashes.  Where, how, or on what, doesn't matter.  She falls asleep within a minute and she is out.  Like last night, after spending 6 hours outside at Gabriel's two baseball games, she fell sleep on the way home at 6:40 pm and she slept until 7:40 this morning.  Girl, I want to get the same hours of sleep as you!

We are so thankful Madelyn is in our lives.  She makes us laugh, she add so much to our lives and she is definitely loved by all of us.  

Until next time,

Angie

Stacey and Jim Visit and an Anniversary

Last Sunday we went to Nolan and Jarrett's house where Jarrett's family met to celebrate Jim and Stacey coming to town and Nana and Papa's anniversary.

They live downtown and have a great place, even a party room we were able to spend time together. It was nice to see everyone and the kids loved getting to play the free arcade games.

We hope Stacey and Jim had a fun week in Phoenix.

And Happy Anniversary Nana and Papa!

Until next time,

Angie

Frankie Vallie

On the night before my parents and Aunt Barb had to leave, we decided to have an adults night out.  The younger three stayed home and us adults and Gabriel went out for a nice dinner and to a show.  The Frankie Vallie concert, actually.  

We had gone last year and liked it so much, my parents got tickets again.  This time, we were in row 5 so we got to see everything up close.  

Into his 80's now, Frankie is an amazing performer, he sang for almost 2 hours straight, never sat down or took a drink of water.  I was tired for him.  Being up close we could see this time more how hard he had to work to catch his breath between songs and just how hard it is to hit those really high notes.  

There was some discussion that this was his final farewell tour and while we wish him well, I can't blame him if he decides he's like to take his nights off.  Here are a few of the photos from the fun night and the amazing performer who wrote so many great songs, songs we still love and sing along to today.

Oh what a night it was!

Oh yes indeed, oh what a night it was!

Until next time,

Angie

Disney on Ice

Last week while our Iowa visitors were here, we surprised Isabelle and gave her her birthday present a little bit early.  We got tickets to go see Disney on Ice!  

It was  a lot of fun and Isabelle was thrilled.  The boys weren't so sure they were going to like it but turns out they did too.  Here are a few pictures of the fun!

Madelyn was thrilled to see all the Disney characters!

Mom and her girls.

Isabelle gave it a thumbs up!

Actually 2 thumbs up.  Never mind Gabriel in the background. He doesn't get excited about much unless it has a ball you can play with.

Someone was thrilled when Anna and Elsa made their appearance!

Here is a video of the girls reaction as Anna and Elsa came out.

I'm so glad we spent the money on something fun to do instead of another toy.  Sure seemed like it was a hit.  We all enjoyed it (even the boys said it was good- despite what they look like in the pics)!

Until next time,

Angie

Madelyn's best sick days...

Last Monday when I was at work, I got a call from Madelyn's school that she was sick and we needed to pick her up.  Thankfully Mom, Dad and Barb came to the rescue and picked her up for us.  Turns out seeing them was all the medicine she needed to instantly recover.  Who needs a spoonful of sugar when Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Barb will give you anything and everything you would ever want!

So while the rest of the kids were extremely jealous they had to go to school and Dad and I had to go to work, Madelyn got to soak up the love and fun with them.  As you can see from the pictures she had NO fun.  

From Target to the furniture store...

She loved playing with them.

And somehow her powers were so great, they couldn't tell her no when she found something she wanted to get.  Here are her new hairbows, her 6 new necklaces and her new "pretty dress" thanks to the spoiling crew.  

All which she insisted on wearing at once.

And while Grandpa, Grandma and Barbie snuck in a nap most days, Madelyn decided naps were a waste of time.  

Until she came home to be with mom and dad and then she crashed.... 

Yep sick days with Grandma, Grandpa and Barb are the best!

Until next time,

Angie

Visitors from Iowa

This past week my parents and Aunt Barb came from Iowa for a visit.  We were all excited as my parents hadn't been out for a visit since last March and it was a whole year ago Aunt Barb came.  We sure love getting to spend time with them.  It was a week filled with activities, always yummy food, card games, getting out an about seeing the sites and overall time spent together. 

The week always goes way to quickly and we hate to see them leave, but we are thankful for the time we get to spend with them.  And we look forward to future times.  

Gabriel's selfie action at its best. 

We sent them back home to the cold winter weather, snow, ice and temps below zero, so it's our hope they will remember how nice the sunny days felt here and they will want to come back.

Watch for a few more posts about the fun things we did when they were here....  an action packed week, so much so that I'm headed off to bed now (at 9:15) because I'm still tired from all the fun.

Until next time,

Angie

Fun and Games....

In the midst of what seems to be constant busy times, the moments when get to stop and just be are some of my most cherished.  Just one of those moments happened this past Sunday.  We didn't have a lot planned.  Dad was going to go to work to try to catch up, I was hoping to study and the kids were relaxing.

My aunt had dropped off a few family games to share with us and Jarrett's mom and dad had decided to stop by for a bit before their afternoon play.  It turned out it was the perfect time to pull out some of the games and the kids took their chance at playing Twister for the first time.

The boys were quite funny to watch as they played Twister.  

Nana called out where they needed to put their hands and feet.  Turns out the boys are pretty coordinated and able to better contort their body than most.

At one point Isabelle joined in and when the three of them played, Isabelle won!  She was thrilled because it isn't very often her big brothers let her win any anything against them.

Meanwhile Dad got a few minutes to relax and enjoy playing pool with his dad.  Dad's been working an awful lot lately, so it was nice to see him take a bit off too.  

Yes these moments are the ones I will look back on and miss.  Just hope we can squeeze in a lot more of these special moments in the year ahead.

Until next time,

Angie

Missing him on his birthday....

Today is my grandpa's birthday and this is his first birthday celebrating in Heaven.  I woke up this morning and I thought how happy he must be getting to spend his birthday with my grandma.  That doesn't mean we don't miss him and wish he was here. 

 There are so many times in the day when I reach for my phone to call him or I see something and think, I'll have to tell grandpa that.  And then it hits me. I can't call him anymore.  I cherish my mailbox that is filled up with his messages I saved, so many so that my voice message is full and yet I can't bring myself to delete any of them. 

 His voice, hearing it, makes me feel his love, makes me know how lucky I was to have him, and reminds me that nothing in this life is permanent. Cherish these moments, always look for the blessings and give thanks.  That was the way my grandpa lived and one of the greatest lessons he taught me.

Yep we sure had a lot of great times in our 38 years together.  We talked about so many life events, rehashed how if we were in charge we'd do things differently, and we talked a lot about living with a broken heart- he after my grandma passed and me after Noah.  I think our hearts were connected in many ways.

And while I miss him each and every day, I smile knowing he is now is a better place.  I am sure he's so happy being reunited with my grandma.  And now I smile thinking Noah gets to know just how great his great-grandpa is too.  

Miss you always.  Happy first birthday in Heaven.  Sending my love to you always,

Angie