Just makes me smile

As much as I love teaching, I love my family more. I have LOVED spending real quality time with MacKenzie the past few days. For our little excursions to break up the day we went shopping in Rockwall with Grandma C. one day, had a Mommy / Daughter lunch date to Chick-fil-a on another, had a family date with Daddy at Culver' today, and then Grandma and Pops came over tonight for dinner. Now during the day at home she has "helped" me with laundry, reorganizing her clothes and starting to reorganize Mommy's side of the closet.

In between those few things I have gotten to:

• play in her little kitchen and eat her fried chicken
  
• play lions with her where we crawl around the house growling.
• jump on the bed
• get in a teddy bear throwing contest
• walk her little toy dog up and down the side walk
• transform into the tickle monster and chase her around the house

The greatest memories of this week are all of the times that we were playing and she would giggle and laugh until she had the hiccups. I never get tired of hearing her goofy almost evil laugh.

To give you an idea of the fun we had tonight, lets just say that all five of us had to play ring around the rosie with MacKenzie several times. At first we could just sing it for her to twirl and fall down. Then she needed Grandma to do it with her. The next time Grandpa had to join in. The third time it was Daddy's turn to join the fun. Finally it was my turn to be summoned to the party. Once we all joined in with her and "fell down" she had to make sure that we were all laying down. If one of us tried to sit up she would come around and try to get us lay back down. Once she was sure that we were all laying down she went to her spot, laid down, and said "aaaahhh." To that we all just about split our sides laughing. Of course when Kenzie saw us laughing, she found it hysterical and started laughing her head off which of course just made us laugh harder.

We also came up with a fitting adjuective for MacKenzie : Spunky. I love my little girl... Can you tell?

Mommy Daughter Date @ Chick-fil-a

Family date @ Culver's

Daddy Where are you????

AAAHHHH!!! There you are!!!

Excuses, Excuses

My lovely sister in law Deanna pointed out that I had not dazzled the world with humorous anecdotes about the goings on in the Cardwell home. To that here are my excuses:

1.
As the unavoidable state standardized tests draw ever more near I am spending more and more time fulfilling my duties as a "official 4th grade teacher at Lamar Elementary" (YEAH!!! Longest Interview Ever!, if you count student teaching as a daily interview - which I do, for my DREAM job!!!)

On the positive side I was able to finally put up my sign for next to my door!
Hooray for a trip to Canton with my mom!

The Little things in life that bring a smile to my face.....

Excuse #2
MacKenzie Joye is almost 2


What? Isn't that self explanatory???
Well just in case you have never met MacKenzie, here is a quick catch up. She is non-stop. She loves coloring, eating chicky!! (chicken nuggets), sausy (apple sauce in little on-the-go packets) and CHEESE!!
She has recently acquired the knowledge of how to jump on the bed. That is quickly becoming a favorite activity.
We are also working with her on getting better at entertaining herself when she is home. When she is with Amber there are 3 other kids to play with. At home, not so much. So in order to facilitate that we try to let her ply on her own with out us right there next to her. (By the way this is completely Neil's thing).
Here is a mild example of what mischief MacKenzie gets into:

Excuse #3

I am trying my best to find that elusive balance between Mom, Wife, and Teacher. Sometimes that requires putting off little projects and hobbies to just have fun. This excuse involves NO complaints from me. I love being able to just enjoy the moment with my family.
Thankfully the other day I had the opportunity to just watch MacKezie play Barbie's with her Daddy and Grandpa. The things they will do for that little girl...

#4
Well there isn't really an excuse to go with this picture. There are two videos but they are too big to email off of my phone, so until I figure out how to get the videos I took of my little Dancing Queen all I can post for now is a snap shot of her rocking out. She LOVES to dance!

So I hope that you all will forgive the extended amount of time between posts. Hopefully I can find more time to update and dazzle the world with amusing little snip-its from our life. Until then Harvest the Day (that was just for you Deanna!)

Little Mini Me

I can't help but smile and be terrified at the same time at the over whelming evidence before me. MacKenzie is pretty much a complete mini me with the addition of Neil's insatiable curiosity and habit of breaking things to see how they work. She is just as stubborn as I am. She always wants to get her way no matter what. She gets very upset when she can't do what she wants. She also is very into sharing, and talking to complete strangers. She is very sweet and silly and loves music. She does have Neil's freak out moments when she gets sticky. It's just hilarious to watch her eat a PB& J sandwich. She enjoys eating the sandwich, but then when she realizes there is sticky stuff all over her she will repeat "EEWWW" and "Daddy, Sticky!!" until Neil cleans her up.

All right mommy moment over.

I mainly wanted to share a picture or two from tonight's
Mommy / Daughter date night. We had SO much fun!
We went on a walk, played puzzles, played hide and seek
in the kitchen, and made a surprise for Daddy!
My goodness I love my daughter!

Do you see anything suspicious about the cupboard?

It's MacKenzie's favorite hiding spot!!!
Her beautiful artwork!

What I wish tonight

"Never Grow Up"

Your little hand's wrapped around my finger
And it's so quiet in the world tonight

Your little eyelids flutter cause you're dreaming
So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light
To you everything's funny, you got nothing to regret
I'd give all I have, honey
If you could stay like that

Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up

Sappy to some, I know (Deanna), but tonight as I tucked my daughter into bed, I had to hold back my tears. She is growing up and she's not even 2. It feels like just last week she was bouncing up and down in the door way and getting mashed carrots all over her face. Now she is running all over the place, walking herself into Nursery, knocking on the door telling me she wants to go to "grama & pops " house. My words can't due my emotions justice. I will just have to settle for this verse and chorus.
For tonight I will wish to dream of my daughter and to keep the memories of the past 20 months vivid in my mind.

Simple Fun

What do you see when you look at this picture?? I see part of my family just enjoying time together. What you don't see is the smell of the delicious dinner we had (Burgers, potato salad, and for those odd folks who like them baked beans... eww). What you also don't see is the movie Kung Fu Panda being brought up on the TV. MacKenzie kept saying Panda! so we thought it would be fun to just watch a movie after dinner. Something else you can't see from this picture is that just a few nights previous a very similar picture could have been taken with my parents.

The reason why I love this picture enough to share it? I love that my family is simple. We just enjoy spending time together. No matter where we are or what we are doing as long as we are together it is going to be a great night.

Roses, Feet, Backs, Biting and Survivor!!!

To go in order of the title, kind of, I did get flowers for Valentine's Day!!! AND they won't die in 3 days!!! After almost 8 years Neil found something that make us both happy!! Crystal Roses!!! I think they are gorgeous!! As noted in my previous post I had no expectation of flowers so yesterday the feet in my mouth tasted pretty lovely.

I had a wonderful V Day. The party in my class went very well. All of the kids seemed really excited. I also recieved several very lovely treats from my kids. Then we had a fantastic dinner! My parents came over and we had Salmon (YUM-O), rice, salad, and cheese cake. We had truly a perfect evening.

To continue with the title Backs. I am currently involved in an epic struggle with mine. Two days ago it decided to stage a small protest informing me that I had slept wrong. When the small protest did not get the results it wanted (rest) It decided to revolt. Apparently picking up my daughter was the last straw for my lower back. Ever since then if I so much as think about flinching the wrong direction my back is there with the old school ruler to send a shooting pain through me to express its displeasure. Normally by body and I get along quiet well. Excluding pregnancy, in which case we did not see eye to eye at all. Usually a nice hot bath and my back and body forgives me for the abuse they take. I do not know how long this struggle will continue. I know that I am sending my back as many as I'm sorry messages as I possibly can. I can only really rest while at home when MacKenzie is asleep. Tonight Neil has to go and be a positive influence on a group of young men, so tonight I do not have the option of sitting back and letting him take the lead in play time. So we will see if my little attempts at rest will be enough to elicit forgiveness.

One other noteworthy topic is biting. MacKenzie has now bitten three times since the Super Bowl. The first time was at home when our friends were over with their twins. During a moment of them playing in this little tent thing the little boys arm got right infront of her mouth and she bit in a way that she was playing and thought it was funny. Still it was enough to make his arm red and leave a mark for a few minutes. The same kind of scenario happened a few days later this time with the little girl. Now today after about 2 weeks of being bite free the little boys fingers were sticking out of a toy and as she walked by they were just right there to bite. Still playful but harder this time. Can I just say I do not like this stage!!! I know she is not being malicious, but still she bit. Not cool.

Last little line Survivor starts tonight!!!!!!!!!!! yes I love that reality show! I am not ashamed! I will shout it proudly! I LOVE WATCHING SURVIVOR!!

That is all. :)

Neil's least favorite day

As Valentine's Day approaches in just a few hours, I can't help but think about the past 7 V-Day's, anniversaries and other "celebrate our love" days that we have spent together.

Let me preface this post by acknowledging that Neil and I have very different views on the expectations for these days. I am the typical girl. I would prefer to recieve some kind of flower knowing full well they will die in a few days. They are pretty. They smell nice. But most importantly I just like them! :) Neil would prefer not to have days like Valentine's Day at all. To roughly quote him " I think V day is ridiculous. Why should I be forced to show my love for you on one single day, I show how much I love you all year long. Giving you flowers on that day just isn't as special." You can tell how many times we have had conversations on this topic.

To give Neil major credit though, he has gotten much better the past couple years (with the exception of an unfortunate gift of a big potted plant instead of flowers to a girl with not even a trace of green in her thumb).

This year I am actually happy with how our Valentine's Day is shaping up. I do not expect to get flowers and I have made peace with that. I do know that sometime in the next few weeks when we can arrange a babysitting night with the grandparents, that we will have our own V Day date night. For tomorrow night we are going to have my parents over and cook a nice meal and enjoy family time. I am really excited about the little gift we got for MacKenzie. I will try to post a picture of it later. Spending time with family means more to me than all the chocolates in the world (unless those chocolates happen to be from Mary of Puddin Hill...then I might have to think about it).

Needless to say I am not expecting anything of movie script worthy romantic gestures for tomorrow, but I am truly happy and excited for the plans that we have. I love my husband, my daughter, my parents and my in laws. Can you tell that I am in a grateful mood tonight??

In a word.....amazing!

I can't think of a better introductory blog topic than my daughter. She is our whole world. Descriptive words for her would include stubborn, sweet, kind, silly, Godzilla-like, goofy, dancing queen, dramatic, beautiful, and smart. I know that every parent brags about their child. I am no different. I love telling anyone and everyone about her silly antics. There are a few undeniably brag worthy skills that MacKenzie has. For example, her vocabulary. She is incredibly talkative. At 20 months she is already trying to put together 2 and 3 word sentences. I have no doubt that many of our blogs will include anecdotes revolving around our adorably brilliant little lady.
Our blog might put some of you to sleep, but for us it is meant to be a way to record some of the more memorable events as well as provide a glimpse into our lives for our future descendants. Enjoy!