Silliness

This is a rare moment to capture of Madigan being so silly with her friend Paulina. She's the "singing seal" in this video.... She gets the sillies sometimes and really enjoys making her friends laugh. I think when she really feels comfortable with a friend, things like this happen!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

A little late, but still good to share.

More Dancing

2010 Christmas Stroll

We didn't take any other pictures then these ones at this year's Christmas Stroll downtown...it was too cold to worry about photos! We live about a 10 minutes walk to downtown and we are so happy with our location in town. Do we think about a bigger house?-yes, of course. But then we realize we have everything we need here at this house in the center of town. Kyle just submitted plans to the city to tear down and build a new larger garage. We're still hoping to do it this Winter. It's pretty darn large (Kyle wants a lift for his VW love) and will have a large room on the second floor for guests, storage and general hang out space (think teenager hang out spot!).
One of the indoor things to do at the stroll was the gingerbread house contest display- pretty amazing stuff!

And when we arrived home, both kids were asleep and it wasn't even 7:00 yet. (Love that.)

Lots of Dancing

There's lots of dancing in our house- mornings with Mama, evenings with Dad and all that in between where its just Madigan in every ballerina or princessy costume wear she has. There's many costume changes a day and adding a little bling (like below) is always a good idea!


I love this picture! Kyle is so good at playing, I mean really playing and imagining with the kids. He acts so silly with them and they love it.

Love of Bath Time

There's a few things in the house that Leo drops whatever he's doing and crawls (very fast!) towards; dishwasher doors opening, dog food pouring and bath water running. Leo practically jumps out of my arms into the tub when there is water in it. Lately he's been laying down and kicking both legs and arms!

Sometimes I think it's so sad to live in Montana where we don't get to leave our babies naked for very long any time of year!

Gingerbread House

I'm pretty sure Madigan asked to make a gingerbread house every week this entire year! We took the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend to make ours. She LOVED very minutes of it!! Right now, Leo is in bed an hour earlier then Madigan so we usually have that time with her. We use it mostly to actually play with her or read or do little projects like this. It won't always be this way, but it's really nice while we have it.

Thankful Tree

I spend a lot of time thinking of little things we can do to remind us of the season or the holiday. This year we did a little Thankful Tree leading up to Thanksgiving. We didn't add a little leaf to it every night like I had planned, but we did talk about it while out on walks or laying in bed-so I guess that it's really the idea behind it that's important even if it didn't end up with a ton of leaves.
Madigan had fun glue-ing the leaves to the tree:

And then she decided that our tree needed things living in it and stairs to get the the hole that the owl lives in:
(Madigan just came down and saw these pictures as I posting this, so now we just cut out and wrote on 3 more leaves to be added!)

New Reading Nook

We have a very weird little corner off our kitchen. When we moved the stairwell and added a half wall around it, it left a little area that has already had many lives. It used to be the art area, then the barn/animal area, and now it's the reading area. All the kids books are there with a little chair Madigan used to love when she was smaller. I wasn't sure that the kids would take to this area, but they are often squeezed together with various pieces from the house.





And this is Mom and Madigan planning Thanksgiving Leftovers:

Tree Artwork

As most kids are, Madigan has been very into the holidays-decorations, lights, trees, the whole works. Her excitement even led us to buy and hang lights on our house this year-something we thought we would never do. (I bought LED lights promoting 80% energy savings and felt pretty smug about that!)

Here's Madigan's painting of a Christmas Tree:Of course, there's also family members a dogs in this, as in every picture she draws.

Home Bound

A month ago or so we got a wicked cold spell..which spelled home for us....we didn't leave unless we had to. Here's how Barnaby spent his time that weekend:

Parent Observation Ballet Day

Here's a snippet of the day I visited Madigan's Tap/Ballet class.

Dance Routine with Dad

Madigan has been dancing ALL THE TIME. She loves it. We're always having to sit without any lighting and watch her "performance". She likes us to be very attentive and complimentary. The other night, she asked Dad to dance too. After about 3 minutes, this is the routine they came up with. I really love the lift!

The Year of Picnics

It seems like we have been nuts the last few weeks. I figured it out- it's because the weather just kept being sooo beautiful.... It made us feel like we needed to continue absorbing sun rays, having picnics and tea parties, walking, doing anything outside. It was an AMAZING Fall here, and we (the kids and I) tried to make every minute count. Last week we headed to the park yet again for another tea party (thank you neighbor family who gave Madigan a real, little tea set in a picnic basket). I think I'll remember this year as the "Year of Picnics".
P.S. I LOVE my sweet boy in his sweater vest! I'm knitting him another right now.

Sleeping Beauty

Madigan had 2 play dates in one day..... So, I told her she needed to lay down and rest for the second one...she did and fell instantly asleep....isn't she so sweet?

Siblings (more of)

Leo and Madigan play all day together. I really couldn't tell you who loves the other one more. The were made for each other!

"Fairy Who Was Sent to Help"

I sent M to her room the other night after she left the water running in the kitchen and it made quite the mess. She came out and informed me she was the "Fairy Who Was Sent to Help". She has dress up shoes, a necklace, bracelets, wings and a tiara, as well as a "helper bunny". The outfit was her regular outfit from the day!

A Rainbow and a Leprechaun

Madigan chose to be a rainbow for Halloween months ago. We worked on her costume a few minutes each day all week while Leo was napping. I knew I wanted Leo to be a leprechaun (in search of the pot of gold at the end of her rainbow), but didn't know how to do it. I sewed him a little pot of gold to wear around his wrist and then last minute on Friday I made his little hat and dressed him all in green. Doesn't he look just like a leprechaun??!! Everyone knew right away. Madigan was the best rainbow, but had a hard time maneuvering the crowds downtown. And her wig was itchy, but oh so great for her costume!!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Leo went to sleep at 6:05pm the night we carved pumpkins. I had ideas that he would getting his hands dirty and making a mess with us---but not this year. Madigan came up with the faces she wanted to make and then her and Dad took it a step further and added carrots as ears!

Kyle cut his finger and Madigan took care of him!