good weather continues

today's weather was even better!  near 50, sunny and no wind.  we picked madelyn up from school and headed to the zoo for lunch.  mason was very excited to tell her the news when we picked her up too!

it was much warmer, but not warm enough to not have a jacket.  madelyn thought that it was and chose to leave hers in the car.  so i let her wear my scarf to help stay warm.

i was feeling the beautiful day and decided to let maddux walk as long as he could behave.  he blew me away!  he isn't holding a hand when he walks yet, but inside the zoo i let him roam free with his sister and brother.  he loved every minute and walked almost the entire two hours we were there.  he only stopped for lunch and when we were getting ready to leave and had to go down a steep hill i put him back in the stroller. 

we know that maddux is pretty fearless but i was surprised that he took off across the rope bridge.  it might have helped that he watched madelyn and mason do it several times before he went over to the starting side.

not only is maddux fearless, but he is quite tough.  i have mentioned before that i don't usually let him walk when we are in public places because it is just easier to keep him in the stroller for safety with all three.  and hills were definitely new to him.  he fell down a few times but would just brush himself off and keep going.  he did stop himself from falling once, but the stop was so sudden that he tipped right over and landed on his forehead.  he cried a little that time, but just a little.  mainly he just ran and laughed trying to keep up with madelyn and mason.

just a fun day in the sun. love.

good-bye pictures with big pop and grandma

for some reason we always wait until the last possible moment to try and get some pictures of the grandparents with the kids.  and this time was no different.  we were literally walking out the door for school while my parents were loading up to head home.  the boys were set to wandering around, but we did manage to get semi-decent pictures none the less.  love.

playing in the snow

unfortunately for big pop and grandma, it warmed up the day they left.  it had been in the teens and single digits with the wind (40-45 mph gusts) while they were here and today it was around 40!  the kids were bummed that the inch of snow or so that we had gotten over the past few days had all but melted.  it was nice to spend a little time outside though. 

the kids rode bikes and scooters for a little while and then we chased each other around the yard throwing small, slushy snowballs.  madelyn scraped together what was left of the snow on our front step into a "mommy and daddy snowman".

 and mason made his own "snow mouse".  i guess he called it a mouse because it was so small...

it was really nice to get some time out in the sunshine and fresh air while maddux was napping.  love.

a girl and her doll

madelyn got a new doll and accessories for Christmas which has given her an interest in dolls again (she doesn't really play with them very much generally).  i think the matching jammies might have helped too.  love.

indoor training

because we can't get enough golf around here, we now have an indoor putting course.  just maybe not the one matt had in mind...  unfortunately golf clubs are weapons and the course is only open for limited times. love.

1...2...3 with big pop

wet, cold walk

the forecast was not that great for big pop and grandma's visit but new year's day looked like we might be without temperatures that would be too extreme and mostly dry so we headed out for a walk.

it is a mile and a half walk to a shopping center where we could have lunch. only the restaurant wasn't open so we had lunch at wendy's instead.  it was very busy because it was one of the only places open.

after lunch we walked over to starbucks for warm beverages for our walk back home.  and then it started pouring! it was very cold and very windy.  matt ran all the way home to get the van and pick us up while we tried to huddle by a bank.  realizing that this was crazy because we were cold and wet - we went back into wendy's to wait for matt.  we felt so bad for him, especially when it stopped raining around the time he might have made it back to the house.  we would have had a rough walk with the wind by the time it stopped raining anyway so we were very happy to see matt with the van.

before it got messy out, we had a nice walk with just a few drizzles.  here are a few pictures.

mason talked to big pop the entire time.





big pop and grandma enjoyed the walk and hope to do it again when it is a little warmer (or maybe a lot warmer).  love.