Birthday Parade Videos

The Story of Madigan

Here's the little story I wrote about Madigan to share with her classmates tomorrow at school. The Celebration of Life is at circle time. A candle is lit to represent the sun and Madigan will walk around the sun 5 times while holding a globe to represent each year of her life. We will take a picture for each year of her life and we made Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip cookies to share!

The story of Madigan Cecilia Mock began on October 7^th, 2006. She was born in Bozeman, Montana, North America, Planet Earth. The day she was born was a cold dreary rainy day. Her Grandma was in town waiting for her to be born.

Madigan was a very sweet baby who drank lots of her Mama’s milk, made very serious faces and slept very good as long as she was in bed with her Mom and Dad.

Madigan’s first words were ‘Mama’ and ‘dog’.

When she was 1 years old she started to walk. She always liked to be outside and around animals.

By 2 years old, Madigan could talk using lots of words and liked to use scissors. She also started drawing and painting.

When Madigan was 3 years old she became a big sister. She did a really good job of helping take care of Leo when he was a baby.

When Madigan was 4 years old she liked to go to dance class. She also liked to have picnics and tea parties as much as possible.

And now Madigan is 5 years old. She can do almost everything herself, including ride her bike without training wheels. Madigan likes to create artwork, read books, help her Mom cook and bake, and play with her brother. Madigan also loves to go camping with her family.

Video of Kids Reading

I took this little video one day when I looked over and realized I would want to remember these quiet little moments:

Party!

Madigan wanted to do a parade for her birthday.Sooo, we went with it. The kids seemed to be pretty in to the idea! We made masks and used anything we could find to make noise.
Madigan also requested a party dress, in which we made a trip to Costco (i.e. "the place with the tasters") to get the dress Madigan had her eye on. We tried to keep things pretty simple and fun. And luckily we got a beautiful sunny day!

M waiting for her guests to arrive:
Making masks:


Pinning facial features on the a outline of Madigan:
Getting ready to leave the driveway:

Our neighbors happened to have a scepter, which Madigan used to lead the kids on the parade. She was REALLY in to it!!






We did the egg and spoon race. The kids weren't as into as I thought they would be. But they did like going through the pink streamers we had up for the finish line.
And my girl chose a strawberry cream cake as her birthday cake. I found a recipe from Paula Deen that used frozen strawberries and a white cake box mix. I made a strawberry cream cheese frosting...It turned out super yummy. Madigan said it turned out better then she could have hoped for.

Little People Helpers

Oh, my boy loves his tools, or his Daddy's tools, our Jim our carpenter's tools..... I caught out in the mudroom hammering away at the drywall:

I have no idea how Kyle finds energy to come home after working all day and work even more on our place, but he does it. And then he comes inside and says things like " This is gonna be so awesome when it's done!"...And then I think, 'yeah it's going to be done someday, yeah awesome!'

Flathead Lake- Best Camp Spot Ever

We went to our favorite camping spot ever during Labor Day weekend. We booked a spot at Big Arm State Park right on Flathead Lake for 3 nights. It was wonderful! We had our own little beach area that we didn't leave unless we had to. The kids loved it. The drive was a little over 5 hours and we thought we may be crazy for going, but it was so worth it. Here's a few pictures and I also have a video to find and post later.

House Update

The garage/mudroom addition is moving along! The siding all went up, the plumbing installed, a new furnace in the house and our old furnace moved to the "attic" of the guest area (!), and now drywall is being hung. We decided to do vertical siding on the mudroom and then replace the vertical siding on the front top half of the house to tie it all together. It will not be tan and white stripes! We are thinking we will do the the horizontal (house and all of garage) siding light grey and the vertical siding on the front house and mudroom a darker grey. We would like to do fun colored doors, i.e. red, orange blue, etc.

Looking from back yard at patio outside mudroom and new window we had to replace on back of house:
Back garage door and windows:
Mudroom looking from kitchen to back patio:
Looking from swing set at whole house and garage:


Looking from back window on house into back yard:

Back side of the garage:

My perennial beds that I got started with clearance plants:

Leo Hiding from a Diaper Change

September Miscellaneous

Who is this cute little guy?
Painting together:

Nothing much here, just showing his adorable new VW shirt from Jess in Spain:
Leo feeding the baby yogurt raisins while Madigan was at school:
My boy and me, all alone 3 days a week:
Escapee while we were working in the back yard:
Madigan and I did the downtown art walk in mid September. I had never been to one and Madigan is such the artist that it was the perfect opportunity to spend time together. Here she is in one of the galleries:
The boy continues to expand his food choices, totally surprised us with the corn eating:
Couldn't resist sharing this photo of M outside: