First Ever Drawing and Give Away!

In the spirit of the holidays I am having my first ever drawing and give away! If you want to win this handmade, (by me) snowman ornament, leave me a comment in the next few days and you will be entered in the drawing. There are three ornaments up for grabs! All comments must be posted by December 31, 2008. The drawing will take place that night(names will be placed in a hat and drawn out by Matt). I will post the winners on January 1, 2009. I will mail or deliver the ornaments in person to the winners. Good luck! I look forward to hearing from you!

Heart Broken Mama

Last Saturday I went to get my hair cut. The last few times I have gotten my hair cut I have taken Madelynne with me and she has gotten her hair cut too. As I was leaving for my appointment Madelynne kept saying she wanted to come too and have Julie cut her hair. I told her she didn't need her hair cut this time. And I will forever regret not taking her with me! While I was gone Madelynne was supposed to be taking a nap and instead decided to take matters into her own hands and butchered her hair! I am a heart broken Mama....


When Matt went to check on Madelynne he found this!


Here is the side view of Madelynne's hair.


This is what the front looked like and how short she cut the sides! Ugh!


My sweet friend, Julie, dropped everything when I called her in tears about Madelynne's hair to try to salvage what she could. She gave me hope that it wouldn't be so bad. A thousand thank yous Julie! I don't know what I would have done without you!



The finished product. Julie you are a miracle worker!

To Grammie's House We Go...

The week before my parents left to spend Christmas in Utah I took the children to visit them. We are sad we will not get to spend Christmas with the rest of the family in Utah, but were glad we could spend a week at Grammie's and Grampa's house!

SEWING WITH GRANDMA

Madelynne enjoys helping with all kinds of sewing projects and did not hesitate to help Grammie pin all her projects.


Jackson didn't really help with the sewing, but he is a great distraction. Who can resist those cheeks? Don't you just want to kiss them?

A LITTLE BIT OF MISCHIEF

Madelynne discovered some markers and very quietly colored herself the colors of the rainbow. Thank heavens for stain remover!


Grampa and his Greenway grand children





I love Jackson's shirt. If you look closely you can see that it has a knight riding a dragon and it reads, " Grandma's Prince Charming".


HOLIDAY PARTIES
We got to attend both my parents' work parties. At my Dad's office party the children were given gifts. Madelynne got a princess backpack and Jackson got a little stuffed tiger. You hardly ever see Madelynne without her backpack and all her treasures. Jackson has discovered the tiger has ears and loves to chew on them. Silly boy! My Mom's party was held at the Spaghetti Warehouse and Madelynne had this balloon mermaid made special just for her.



The week passed way too quickly, but we loved every minute we got to spend with my parents. While we were there I also got to work on some Christmas projects, I sewed matching stockings for our whole family and made Christmas candy with my Mom. Stay tuned for pictures of the stockings!

Decorating the Tree

Saturday after we had Madelynne's birthday party we finally put all the fall decorations away and brought out the Christmas decorations. As I came upstairs from the basement I could hear Madelynne excitedly saying, "Daddy let's make a Christmas tree!" She was a great helper to Daddy as they worked together to "make" our Christmas tree. Matt would tell Madelynne which color tag they were looking for and she would find all the pieces for that section.


Daddy putting the final piece at the top of the tree.



The cutest little Christmas helper!



Madelynne thought all the "bells" needed to be grouped together. I finally convinced her we should spread them out over the tree. Since then I have found little "bell" clusters on several occasions. That girl knows what she likes!

Madelynne's Princess Party

We had Madelynne's birthday party the Saturday after her birthday. All of her friends came dressed in their favorite princess clothes and we played pin the crown on the princess, the Pretty, Pretty Princess game and each girl got to make her own crown, wand and princess paper doll. We rounded out the party with "brownie" cakes with crowns made out of Starbursts on top.

Look all those beautiful princesses!


The girls did a great job creating their crowns and wands.


Chocolate-yum!

Madelynne Turns 3!

I can't believe my little girl is three! Where does the time go? Madelynne had a busy birthday and loved every minute of it. It is good to be three...

Madelynne got to open a few of her presents before Dadddy went to work. Can you tell she likes princesses just a little bit?


When Madelynne woke up on her birthday I asked her what she wanted to do. She replied, "Go to Target!" Evie and her Mommy met us there and here are the girls helping with the shopping.


Madelynne chose a princess cake of course!



Jackson enjoyed hanging out in his swing during the festivities.


Tom and Melissa were able to come over and have cake and ice cream with us. They have been to almost every one of Madelynne's birthday parties since she was born and her "pre-birthday" party too!


Kristen and Lincoln having birthday cake. Well, maybe not Lincoln!


Here are all the children devouring their cake.


Evie, Madelynne's best friend.


The birthday girl enjoying her princess cake!



Madelynne and her new Hello Kitty pack-back (as Madelynne calls it).

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving in Pennsyvlania with Matt's family. Matt's whole family was actually there! We enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner as well as girls day out, boys day out, a big birthday party to celebrate all the grandchildren's birthdays and just spending time together. The week just flew by! Every time we would get in the car to go somewhere Madelynne would say, "I can't go home. I need to stay at grammie and grampa's house!"


Greenway Family Bowling

One thing the Greenway family loves to do together is bowl. It is so fun to watch the little ones different bowling techniques. It was Madelynne's first time bowling and she is a good little bowler. She almost scored higher than Mommy!

Christmas Project

When the guys went to enjoy their day out, the women stayed home and tended the children and made these cute Christmas boards. Amazing what you can do with some wood, scrapbook paper and decoupage! The hardest part of the whole project was choosing the papers and which font we wanted to use. My board is the one on the far right.


The Grandchildren's Birthday Party

Each year in Matt's family we draw names to exchange Christmas gifts. The grandchildren draw names as well and give gifts to their cousins. We decided the cousins would exchange their gifts at the birthday party so they would have gifts to open. Madelynne love the princess crown and earrings her cousin, Isaac, picked out for her. Jackson got a new rattle from his cousin, Andrew, and it has since become one of his favorite toys.


Everyone loves a good party and this was no exception. The expressions on their faces are priceless! Do you think they had a good time? Each child got to make snowflake ornaments, have a funfetti cupcake with chocolate icing and open a present. Each grandchild also got a new set of pajamas from grandma and grandpa. The adults even got a present too! Each couple got a gift certificate to Olive Garden for a dinner out! Yum! We decided it would be cute to get all the grandkids in their new jammies and take a picture. Easier said then done, but still cute!


Bat Baby

Jackson loves to be upside down. We have nicknamed him "Bat Baby". He would hang out upside down all day if he could!


Madelynne got to be grammie's model for the nativity costumes she was sewing for her ward Christmas party. In the other pictures she is just being silly and eating chocolate(of course!).

Let Us Give Thanks

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving we had a family home evening on being thankful. We colored these turkeys and on each feather we listed the things we were especially thankful for this year. Here are just a few of the things we are each thankful for.

Mommy's Turkey

I am thankful for: family, friends, health, the gospel

Daddy's Turkey (Madelynne helped Daddy color)

Daddy is thankful for: his children, Jesus Christ, his job, baseball

Madelynne's Turkey (she colored it "all on my own")

Madelynne is thankful for: church, Evie-my best friend, duckie blanket, Ariel

Jackson's Turkey (colored by Mommy)

We all helped Jackson think of what he was thankful for and Madelynne came up with most of them. This is what Madelynne thought Jackson was thankful for: doctor friend, his bottles, clothes, sookie, car seat.

We are so blessed this is just a small glimpse of how grateful we are this Thanksgiving.

Tasty Tuesday

To celebrate the first snows of the year we made these fun snowman and snowflake pancakes for breakfast.


Last night I made these cute turkey cake pops with my friend, Kristen. We stayed up until 1:30 am making them! We modified the ingredients a little bit, we used regular candy corns for the feathers, caramels for the heads and a pumpkin shaped sprinkle for the nose. Gobble, gobble.



Here is my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe. Our farewell to fall weather!

Streusel Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

2 slightly beaten eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 cup solid pack pumpkin
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 oz. softened cream cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
Pecan Streusel Topping

Combine 2 eggs, 2 c. sugar, oil, and pumpkin; mix well. Combine flour, pie spice, soda, and salt in large bowl; make well in center. Pour pumpkin mixture into well; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon half of batter into 24 paper-line muffin cups. Combine cream cheese, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. sugar; mix well. Spoon mixture over partially filled muffin cups. Now spoon pumpkin mixture over cream cheese mixture on each muffin. Then, sprinkle 1 tsp. Pecan Streusel Topping over each muffin. Bake in a 350 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Makes 24 muffins.
Pecan Streusel Topping
Combine:
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons sugar

First Snows and a Little Drama

Winter weather has arrived in Cleveland with plenty of snow and even a little bit of drama! On Sunday morning we went to church at nine o'clock and not a flake of snow was falling, but by the time we got out at noon the snow was coming down. Huge, beautiful flakes made for dangerous driving conditions. We were carefully making our way home when a tractor trailer blew past us. The car in front of the tractor trailer tried to get over out of his way and ended up losing control of the car and slamming into the guard rail and spinning around halfway out into oncoming traffic. We were right behind that car and we were afraid there for a minute we were going to be hit. Thankfully we were not and we were able to stop and make sure the driver was okay. Since I was in the passenger seat it was safer for me to get out of the car and check on the driver. I reached the car just as the driver got out of the car. She just kept saying, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!". After checking to make sure she had no injuries we then focused on getting her out of the cold. Another family in our ward had stopped to make sure everything was OK and we took the driver (her name was Erin) to their car to get her warm and make the necessary phone calls. Matt called and reported the accident and Erin called her boyfriend whom she was down visiting for the weekend to come pick her up. She was only ten minutes into a five hour drive back to Michigan. Poor girl! While we waited for the police to come Erin's boyfriend came and our friends from the ward were able to leave and we stayed to make the witness report to the police and make sure Erin was OK and wouldn't need anything else. Once the police, paramedics, firefighters and tow truck showed up they got the accident cleaned up quite quickly. After everything was squared away the officers told us we were free to go. Erin turned to me before she left and said, "Thank you so much for stopping to help and staying with me the whole time." Then she gave us hugs, asked us for our address and drove off with her boyfriend. It was crazy how we had formed a bond so quickly. The best part of this whole situation was how many people from our ward stopped to make sure our family was OK and the driver of the car was as well. Erin had to be wondering who all these Mormons were! I feel so blessed to be a member of a church where people are so caring, giving and willing to help-even people they don't know. As we drove away from the accident site I reflected on how blessed we are and thankful we were all safe and in one piece.

Trick or Treat

The Fairest of Them All

Here is our little Snow White! I wasn't planning on getting the wig, but then I found one on clearance for just a few dollars and it really made the costume. It was weird to see my little blond with such dark hair, but she did look darling. While she was trick or treating she would only answer me if I called her Snow White.


Jackson dressed up as a monkey. So cute!

He wasn't really thrilled with the concept of the costume.

Madelynne, Eve, Reuben, Kaitlyn, and Lincoln before trick or treating.

Madelynne and Eve are best friends and both picked to be princesses for Halloween. Love those wigs!

Hanging out with our friends after trick or treating.


Mommy and Jackson at the ward trunk or treat.

Madelynne and her friends, Grace and Eve.

Our little monkey boy and his daddy!