Dear Madison,

I had a hard day today.  For reasons that had nothing to do with you.  And I snapped. I got so frustrated, and I yelled at you.  Then I slammed a door, and stomped around fuming for a while (in other words, I acted very childishly).

Fifteen minutes later, you said, "Mama, hug." And I burst into tears.  I felt so terrible about losing my temper. I felt horrible for raising my voice at you, especially when you had done nothing to deserve it.  And as I sat there, tears streaming down my face, you got so quiet.  You stared at me, cocked your head to one side, wrinkled up your nose and said, "Sad."  Then you reached out your little hand and patted my cheek and said, "Okay."

Then you stuck a finger in a big tear rolling down my face and said, "yucky!" 
And I started to laugh.  And you laughed, and gave me a big hug.
All better.

And then I thought about Jesus, who took a child in his lap and urged his disciples to be more like little children.  And I realized I have a lot to learn from you.  I'm the one who acted childish and immaturely today, while you- not even two years old!- showed so much sympathy, love and forgiveness. Thank you for being an example to your mother today.  I have a feeling it won't be the last time.

Love you, Bug.
Mama

Halloween in Texas

Last Halloween, Madison wore a long sleeve onesie, leg warmers and a big puffy coat over her costume.  And we didn't even go out trick or treating-  that was just for the walk from the house to the car on our way to a party.

Lucky for us, Halloween this year was a balmy 78 degrees, even after dark. There's a good reason to love Texas! 

 The whole concept of collecting candy was lost on Maddi (she's a cookies and ice cream kind of girl), but she sure loved running around in her "bumby dress."  And once she spied the blow-up bouncy castle at our church "trunk or treat," she lost all interest in walking around asking for goodies.

 

Halloween is definitely not my favorite holiday, but I participated a little.  Medusa hair is about as  Halloween as I get (But let's be honest, I secretly love pinning rubber snakes in my crazy hair). Micah donned some Harry Potter getup and we felt very festive.

All in all, a fun day. And as much as I miss both Utah and Colorado, I have to say I'm glad we weren't in either place for Halloween. We'd have had one cold little bug!

twenty-seven.

My main man recently had a birthday. 

Birthdays are a pretty big deal around here, 

so we celebrated all day long. 

  We also gave Micah 27 Mini Oreo Pies, the photos of which have been somehow lost, which makes me very sad because they were sure a sight to behold, all lined up with pretty numbered labels.
If I do say so myself... :)
 
We think he's pretty special. 
Happy 27, you old man, you! 

little shutterbug

 

I take a whole lot of pictures.  

And seeing how Madison is in the Copy-Everything-Mama-Does phase, she wants to hold a camera every time I do. The result: Either she gets to be holding a camera, or I don't get photos of her.  So this is what we end up with- pictures of her "taking pictures."

Never mind the camera's upside down, or her fingers are covering the lens, or the power is off.  She's happy as can be just smashing the thing up to her forehead and saying "CHEESE!"

 

I especially love the way she crouches down, just the way I do to take pictures of her.   

I think we have a little photographer in the making!

 

Caught.

Lately Maddi has been using the word "do" as a conjunction.  She seems to have noticed that sentences have connecting words between the nouns and verbs, so she throws in "do" to fill all the spaces. She says things like, "Maddi do eat apples," and "Mama do shoes on," and "Daddy do computer."

This afternoon, while we were watching the final talk in the final session of General Conference, I closed my eyes for a minute while I listened.  Madison yelled out,
 "Mama do sleeping!!!"

Micah busted up laughing.

And I have a feeling I'll never be able to get away with anything again.