Gracie impresses Papa with her Math skills.

Gracie and her number skills.

It looks like we're going to have another math brain in the family. Gracie has been working on her 'numbers' at school. We were surprised one day to have her bring home a 10 page assignment where she's been working on adding single digit numbers. She getting pretty good at answering quiz problems at dinner (especially when it doesn't involve a number that takes more then two hands).

Gracie has also been working on her reading. She's getting better at sounding out simple words (look, see, Dick, Jane, etc). We do catch her cheating by memorizing the book at times, but it's still pretty amazing what she can learn after a year at Montessori school. We are pretty sure at age 4 we could not do these things. :)

Madison's first sickness.
Madison had her first visit to the ER recently when she woke up with a 103.5 fever and a major frog in her throat. It was Sunday morning and there was no way we were going to ride out a fever that high. She got right in.....Finally after a breathing treatment, IV, chest x-ray, and blood work, they sent her home. The doctor diagnosed her with a horrible viral infection and croup. Poor baby. Thank goodness she has a strong daddy cause mommy cries more than she does when she is receiving treatment.

We thought she would recover much quicker than she did. After the 2nd consecutive day of not really improving and doctor visits, she tested positive for strep throat. BOO! Our family has never had this before and have no idea where she picked it up. Poor baby. She got hit with double sickness. It still took 3 more days for that antibiotic to kick in. So finally by Friday we started to see our precious girl smile again.

Thankfully, Madison is back to her happy loving self again! We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers for her.

Cute Videos of Madison

Here are a couple of fun videos of Madison. At the moment she is learning how to walk and starting to say a few words. Hi was the first word she learned. And now she has added mama, dada, and No to the list. We caught her in action. Enjoy!

Madison, do you like avocados?

Our vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge

In June we took a family vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. What a great place to visit! We had a wonderful time there. Everyone had fun and slept great. The sleeping was our biggest worry since we all shared a room. We were lucky because Nana decided to meet us there to help with Madison. Which was such a BIG help. The girls love their Nana and count the minutes until they get to see her again.

Everything at this place is pretty pricey, but we saved some money by eating all breakfasts, lunches, and snacks in our room. There was a good size refrigerator that could store all of our food. Then we would splurge on eating dinners out at night. We even made a trip to the Rainforest cafe one night for dinner. It is such a neat place! Which I remember loving it as a kid. So I knew Gracie would enjoy it, but to my surprise it was a little scarey for her at first. It could have been because she just woke up from her nap and was not quite awake yet. She is like her daddy and wakes up a little on the grumpy side. So it took her awhile to get used to it being dark and noisy inside the restaurant. It didn't help that every 10 minutes a rain storm would come along and the gorillas would come to life and make all kinds of movements and sounds. But by the end, Gracie was loving it and was asking to go back there when we left. So it was worth it!

Having Nana there at the resort gave us the opportunity to hang out more with Gracie at the waterpark during the day. Since she could keep Madison in the room at nap times. We were so excited because Gracie actually passed in height for the bigger slides. Which meant Gordon and I could ride all the family rides with her. The faster the slides went, the better! She loved the thrill of the rides, but could do without standing in line for usually 10-15 mins. I guess that amount of time seems like an eternity to a 4year old! haha

Also to our surprise Madison actually loved the water and crawled through the sprinklers like a pro! She was a happy girl the entire trip and was a trooper for anything. Gordon and I actually even had time to relax by the pool at naps and bedtimes since Nana could stay in the room with them. Thanks Nana! We love you! You helped make it a wonderful vacation for us!

Happy 1st Birthday Madison Isabella!

Today we celebrated our sweet girl's 1st birthday. We can't believe it! We are trying to enjoy every baby moment with her because she is growing up so quickly. Everyday she reminds us how blessed we are to be her parents. We love you Madison!

We celebrated with a minnie mouse pool party in our back yard. It turned out really cute. It's amazing how many hours of planning we do for 2 hours of party time. No worries, it's worth it. Mommy made some minnie mouse cupcakes and a smash cake for the birthday girl. Madison got super excited when we sang her the birthday song. Then ended up digging into her cake and getting a little messy. So cute!








Minnie Mouse Cupcakes!



I think she liked the cake!! haha






























Matching tutu bathing suits a must!


Will be posting our Great Wolf Lodge Vacation soon! We are a little behind.:) Maybe we can try and post the cake smashing video too. It's pretty hilarious!

4th Birthday at School

There is a tradition at Gracie's school where a small celebration of each student happens on their birthday. It's a really neat activity where they talk about everything that's happened to her since she was born as she walks around a large replica of the solar system. One loop around the sun for each year that she's been alive. Gracie had a blast being the center of attention :).


The poster board we made for grace with a section about each year of her life.


Birthday girl lunch. Mommy made some cupcakes to share with the class.


If the crown fits.....


Oh yeah...Rapunzel cupcakes.


The fruits of Mommy's labor.

Happy 4th Birthday Gracie!

I can't believe our little Gracie has already turned 4. Seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and starting our journey as a new family. She is growing up too fast! We celebrated her birthday at an inflatable bounce house with Rapunzel as the theme. She loved the movie Tangled and has been planning her party for months. We surprised her with this adorable doll cake. The look on her face was priceless! She loved it! And it tasted as good as it looked. She couldn't wait to play with the doll after everyone had a piece of cake.

It was so much fun watching her interact with her friends. They seem so grown up these days. They all had a great time! Needless to say Gracie is already planning next year birthday!



















One of her favorite bday gifts! Thanks Pennington Family!