Hearts Surrendered

aww what a goofy picture 

party favors are cool 

Jayden 

This weekend was Jayden's 4th Birthday Party-it was nice. Moriah and Matt decorated the whole house, and do you know I didn't even take a picture of what they did? I could seriously kick myself. Jayden has been with us for the week and has visited with all her grandparents while here. Madison's Nanny came by on Friday to spend some time with us. Jayden was following her around everywhere. Matt and I got ready to run to wal-mart and leave the kids with Ms. Pam. I overheard Jayden talking to her, "if I get thirsty, I will TELL you what I want..." It was so funny. She was matter of factly telling her the proper way to change Madison's diaper and how to feed her a bottle. I had to say something to her about being bossy. 3/4 year olds are hilarious. The stuff this child comes up with, it makes us laugh all the time. I have to go back to work this Wednesday. I am so looking forward to it, but also...so NOT looking forward to leaving. These 8 weeks have ...

I just wanted to share some thoughts about my mom and dad. Yesterday, Matt, Maddy and I drove to VA to pick up Jayden. My mom was kind enough to meet her mom and drive her to F'burg so we didn't have to come up so far. Then they took us out to a wonderful lunch, where they said they thought of me when they found this place. Carabbas, nice place. Yummy food, best steak I ever ate. We had some issues with service, but the food was fantastic. Anyway, My poor dad had not been able to see Maddy since she was born, my mom on the other hand had seen her twice since then. To see the look in their eyes when they saw her...melted my heart. They are so, totally in love when they gaze at her and she gazes back...it was just so touching I wanted to comment on a grandparent's love. They love my kids so, so much and I appreciate that more than they will ever know. I know their love for them is unfailing and unconditional, that is beautiful. Nothing makes me happier than to see...

Did you know that you can post a comment on any post or group of pictures? At the bottom of the post you will see "0 comments", just click on that and type away. I would love it if you would stop to say hello, let me know what you think of the site (otherwise known as "de-lurking")...You can also scroll down and click on one with numbers and see what comments were left by others. Thanks to those to regularly say hello... Hope to hear from you. :)

Peek-a-boo I know, I am cute, I can't help it.

This beauty is wearing a pink blanket by sara baughman...it has her name and birthdate embroidered on the corner. Maddy said "thank you aunt sally"... She smiles in her sleep, but not when she is awake. I am trying NOT to take that personally. WHAT a cute complainer, eh? And looking ever so much like her father here...

Have you ever had your precious memories accidentally erased from a computer or memory card? Well I did, this evening! All of Madison's pictures were obliterated in a mere instant. I was absolutely mortified! I thought I would die. Instead, I searched online for data recovery software and found some that would allow you to download a version that would show you all the pictures you lost but would not allow you to recover them unless you paid a large sum. Then I thought to check shareware sites to see if there were any free programs that could save our precious photos. I found one and it worked, it retrieved more than 350 pictures that had been deleted from our memory card and saved them safely onto my hard drive. Yayyy shareware! Thank you Phil for ever telling me about shareware! That tidbit has been hiding in the back of my brain for years. Moral of this story: If you accidentally delete files, there is hope for retrieval and it is FREEEE!!! So, it is Valentine's Day...Matt t...

Happy Valentine's Day, The pictures of the rose were taken by Moriah with her sweet photography skills. :)

Close enough...

Do you see where I am going with this?

Matt?

Compare and see for yourself...Madison = Matt Jr. !

I guess the bulb color is a dead give away, huh.

We found a nanny. Yayyy! She happened to be the first person we saw, we knew right away that she was the ONE. I talked to a dozen more and fielded calls from about a gazillion others. I had no idea how many women were in this town. We did get one call from a man, which I was immediately suspicious of...but he just dialed the number to the wrong ad. Whew. How do you say, "no, I don't think so because you are a man and I don't know why you want to be a nanny anyway..." Thankfully I did not have to go there. RELIEF, that is what I feel right now. I love knowing I never have to step foot in that grody day care center again! The other good news, Madison only woke up twice last night. That is very good news. The bad news is, she has been super fussy all day long and despite my sweet mom-of-a-new-baby skills, I can't figure out why. She seems more content swinging away in the AWESOME swing (thanks Betty and Clint) than she was just lounging around. She lets out these hal...

Kids say the darndest things, do they not? But what should the age limit be on said "kids"? Let me start by stating, I love Moriah to death (my 14 year old) LOVE HER, but as a mother...I am worried. Matt was given a gift of a jar of honey by one of his customers at work. He got into it after dinner and offered Moriah a taste. She looked confused. He asked her "Haven't you had it before? Do you even know where honey comes from?". Do you know what her response was??? Do you really want me to tell you? You'll surely get a chuckle, Matt and I sure did. "bears??" seeing as pooh always has a jar of honey around...and there are always bears on the jars of honey...that was her reasoning. We laughed, oh we laughed. I wonder how she thought "bears" produced this honey. I had to remind her that pooh got in trouble every time he stuck his paw in a bee hive for a taste of honey. See? Do I not have reason to worry? But I love her.

look at those pinchable cheeks! 

cutie baby 

Made with love by Matt's momma. Thank you Grandma Alston! 

Look at her sweet little fingers, don't you just want to eat 'em? 

This one was for Moriah :) 

This one too! Matt got SUCH a kick out of this... 

Matt's Grandpa Pierce cross-stitched this for us! Thank you Grandpa Pierce!! 

Grandpa Pierce cross-stitched this for Madison...