Our 4th Anniversary!

Wow! What a journey it has been these last four years! We are thankful to God for our marriage, our family, and all He has blessed us with.

Our wedding day 12-18-04

August 2006

Feb. 2007

June 2007

August 2007 - moved to Iowa

Fall 2007

October 2008

December 2008

Here we are celebrating our anniversary (about a week early).

It has been an adventure and we can't wait to see what God has planned for us next!

Thank you to all of our family and friends for your love and support over the years! We love you!

Snow!

So, here's the snow that came yesterday....It snowed pretty much all day long, looks to be about 4-5 inches. The snow removal people came yesterday evening and pushed all of the snow from the driveway onto our yard you can see it piled up around the tree. We are supposed to get more snow/ice tomorrow and it could be a lot.

Well Madilynn and I got out this morning to run some errands. Yes, I drove in the snow (I wouldn't be driving if this happened in Arkansas), and it wasn't bad - no slipping. The roads are pretty much covered in snow though...

Anyways as we pulled out of the driveway Madilynn started saying "gasses, gasses" and I wasn't sure what she wanted, but she was insistant. Then I realized she wanted her sunglasses. The sun is out today and with it reflecting off of all the snow it was really bright. So I stopped on our street and found her glasses and tried to reach back and put them on her. They weren't on right, so they started falling and the picture on the left is what she looked like! It was so funny! Then after we were done and got back in the car I was able to put them on properly for the ride home. Here she is saying "cheese". By the time we got home she was asleep with the sunglasses on - guess they made it darker and we were driving slow!

Artic Tundra

For those of you in Arkansas I thought I should update you on the weather here in the Artic Tundra (how we refer to IA in the winter). When I got up this morning at 7 am the temp. was -4 with a wind chill of -26. Needless to say we (me and Madilynn) are not leaving the house. The high today is 3. They are calling for more snow tomorrow. News says 6-8in. of snow and the Weather Channel says 2-4in. so we'll see. Anyway it's freezing!!!!!!

Oh, but it was nice on Saturday and warmed up to 45 degrees and some of the snow melted. YAY!! (Last year we got no melting from Nov. till March)

We are thinking of you in warmer weather and can't wait to get back for Christmas. In the meantime we are trying to stay warm!

Here's Mommy and Madilynn yesterday before church in our sweaters!

Daddy got a Deer!

Daddy went hunting on Saturday morning and got his first deer of the season. Madilynn was excited to see it and pet it. This is the first time she's really seen a deer that Daddy got. I'm not going to try to give any specifics on the deer or the hunt. I'm sure I would mess it up, so if you want any details you'll have to ask Michael.

Good Weekend!

Saturday morning started out with a surprise for Madilynn. We got her a toddler bed on Friday afternoon, so Saturday morning was spent putting it together. It was a Daddy/daughter project. I just peaked in to take the pictures! Madilynn kept us laughing all weekend with her cute phrases. She would say, "Hi, my Daddy, what are you doing?" or just "Daddy what are you doing?" She asked us both this question over and over all weekend long, we couldn't help but laugh everytime she asked us. We figure she's going to start with the "Why's?" pretty soon!

Here it is finished. When I asked her if she wanted to sit on it for me to take a picture this is what she did!

Sunday morning ready for church. She looked like such a big girl!

After church showing us how to read the bible with Daddy's glasses

Here is a video of Madilynn singing Twinkle Twinkle little star and ABC's with hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider. Sorry about the last 35-40 seconds they aren't as exciting. I never know what she'll do or say next. I don't have the software to be able to edit the video.

Madilynn and Daddy playing!

Sunday afternoon Madilynn helped me make Chocolate Crinkle cookies. It was Mommy/daughter time and Daddy took the pictures. She helped to make the dough, then it had to be refrigerated for 3 hours. So we put her down for a nap, but she was upset and didn't understand why we couldn't bake the cookies right away. We told her she could have one when she woke up.

Here she is enjoying her cookie after she got up - her tired eyes!

Madilynn found one of my headbands!

Well we are gearing up for more snow here - supposedly tonight and into tomorrow we'll see how much we get. At first they said up to six inches now they say 1-2 inches.

Back to Iowa!

Okay, so first things first. We got new flooring while we were out of town for Thanksgiving and here it is! We are so happy with it - it's great! Much lighter and nicer than what we had before. The vinyl in the kitchen now looks just like tile!

We were also greeted back in Iowa with snow! It was lightly snowing when we got into town on Saturday afternoon and it continued to snow all night and most of Sunday. Here's what we woke up to on Sunday morning.

We stayed in most of the day on Sunday except to go to the grocery store. I put up our little Christmas tree which took all of 5 minutes. Madilynn had to help with the ornaments, but at least there were only a few. Once we were done I told her that was all and she hasn't messed with it since-yay!

And we watched some football! Here are Daddy and Madilynn hanging out together!

Here's Madilynn cuddling with her piggy (that she now has to sleep with!) so cute!

Thanksgiving Week!

We got to go back to Arkansas for a week during the Thanksgiving holiday and we had a great visit! Michael also got to do a lot of hunting while we were in town. Michael and I were also able to get away together for dinner and a movie. We saw Fireproof, it was so good. We loved it - cried from the very beginning!

Celebrating Memaw's Birthday!

Madilynn dancing

Here are Madilynn and Madison playing "ring around the rosie" at Mama's on Thanksgiving

Here's Madilynn enjoying some homeade rolls!

Me and Mama