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!)