Our Christmas 2008

We had such a wonderful Christmas this past year (yes I know I'm behind...it happens). We were so blessed to be able to spend time with Brady's family on Christmas Eve and have our family traditions for Christmas morning and then go to my parents for brunch and spend some fun time with them as well. As we were packing up to leave Nana and Papa's house Madi was pushing in one of their bar stools from the bottom and it got stuck or something and it came tumbling down on her, the top is metal and it hit her right on the top bridge of her nose and she started to swell and bruise instantly (of course screaming and crying too), then the blood came. I tried not to panic....I was just praying that her cute little button nose wasn't broken. We hurried in the car and I called my dad. Thank goodness for my hero...my dad...he had come to my rescue more than once and I just know this will not be the last :) (thanks dad I love ya to pieces) Thankfully he came and checked her out and said she was a lucky little girl with no broken nose.

Here Madi had just set out Santa's cookies and his milk. She made his cookies with love she told me (I wonder if she was hoping he was listening). If you look close you can see her poor swollen nose and her black eyes with her "bar stool fight".

She went to bed so easy that night and didn't wake up until 9:30 the next morning...the girl likes her sleep. Brady had to go in and whisper that he thought Santa came to get her moving otherwise I think she would've kept on sleeping. Anyhoo, here she is happily opening her presents.

Madi told Santa that she wanted a new bike for Christmas with 4 wheels and so she received, happily. It was a Barbie bike that even came with a bike attached to it just the right size for a barbie to ride along with her too, at the time Madi seemed more excited to put a barbie on the bike than herself. She is still a little skeptical about riding it but keeps trying each day and is getting better.
By far I think one of the her favorite gifts was the trampoline!! (and mine too) I didn't get a picture of her out there on Christmas day becuase it had rained and she didn't want to get on it wet (i know come summer she'll change her mind) so she actually waited a couple days before she jumped on it....now it seems there isn't a day that goes by that she's not out there jumping away and doing new tricks. She is loving it!!

Then after our Christmas morning we were off to my parents house for brunch....which is always yummy...and more presents!! We missed you Brett, Sheri and Kaia!!

My parents got Madi a kid camera and she loved it....she was taking pictures non-stop!! Then she would turn around and show you your picture and asked how you liked it, it was pretty cute! Maybe a little photographer....??

We are so thankful to be surrounded by such wondeful family members who love us so much and we love them!! Thank you mom and dad for such a great Christmas Brinkerhoff Brunch!!

Christmas Eve at the Greifzu's

We spend every Christmas Eve at Brady's parents house. We have a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner with all the fixings you could imagine, salad, bread, and everything inbetween!! You will not leave the table hungry! It was a wonderful evening spent with family and we really enjoyed each others company. It is always fun watching the girls play together. Madi, Bella and Sophia are at the ages now where they have so much fun all night long and they just seem to keep going and going.

Madi really had fun opening all of her wonderful presents from everyone, they were all so generous. Thank you to everyone for spoiling our princess-she is loved a million times over!

I had to post this cute picture of Grammy...let me explain. Nana and Papa put all of the grandkids' prensents in this adorable extra-large Santa sack, well Grammy wanted to make sure that there wasn't a present left in there so she turned it upside down and was shaking it, well that's just how big the sack and how small our little Grammy is...you can only see her head. ;)

I think the girls could have played all night with all of the fun toys that they so thankfully recieved from everyone. I know Madi had such a wonderful Christmas Eve at her Nana & Papas house. Aren't they so cute playing together??

And here are our wonderful hosts!! Thank you Rich and Karen!! It was truely a wonderful Christmas-thank you for everything!! May God continue to bless you in 2009!

Preschool Christmas Party

At Madi's Preschool party for Christmas this year she got to decorate cookies, there was suppose to be one for her and one for me but some how she gobbled both of them right up :) I guess that's what happens when I'm taking the pictures and she's just "tasting them" as she told me.

She was consentrating so much on getting just the right amount of frosting on each cooking then she would take them to the decorating table where she would put sprinkles on each one and bring them back to show me how cute they were.

These 2 are the end result before she ate them up, she did say they were delicious!! All her hard work paid off :) Yum Yumm!

After her little cookie snack they opened their little gifts which were stickers to and from each other and they used them to decorate their green wreaths-very cute!! As soon as she came home she hung hers up in her play area so she could enjoy it for the rest of the holiday season!

Madi also made a cute little gift for me to open-it is an angel made from her feet and handprints. Her teacher put in on some frabric and said that we could make in into a pillow or something like that if we'd like....I figure I could aleast to that to keep it and cherish it for years to come, it is so precious and I absolutely love it!

Happy 2nd Birthday Mia!

Our sweet friend Mia turned 2 in December and we went to her party to celebrate!! Madi just loves her little friend Mia and also loved her little "rollercoaster" in her backyard. She couldn't get enough of it! You can see in her face how excited she was every single time she went down it and yes she was on the bigger side-I don't think she'll be able to ride it again but she did enjoy it at the party!I told Madi that she had to let the other kiddos have a turn and she was really good and got off and did then she came in and told me that Brian was stuck on the car so I had my camera ready...sure enough Mia's daddy wanted to take a turn....after that Madi said she definately wasn't too big for it :) Brian had to get help getting out!! Good times :)
Here's the birthday girl blowing out her #2 candle!! She was so happy to listen to everyone sing happy birthday to her and right on cue she blew out the candle after we stopped singing. What a cutie!After she was done opening all of her wonderful fun presents, her uncle and aunt said there was one more gift out front and we all got to go see her new Dora bike! She loved it!!

Before we left Madi asked if she could go out back on go down the "rollercoaster" one last time. I told her that would be fine but to make it a good one. And she sure did...
...she decided to go down backwards!! We had a great time at your party Mia thank you so much for having us!!

Thanksgiving Feast

The morning that Madi's preschool class was having their Thanksgiving feast Madi was so excited for me to come to her classroom and see all of the things they had been making in preparation for this fun day. This is all of the cute kiddos in her class. They all made fun vests and necklaces to wear. You could tell on each of their faces that they were all so proud to be wearing each piece that they had made themselves.

This was the kids getting ready to march from the classroom to the dinning room where the feast was to be held. Madi could hardly wait to get going! She has the biggest smile on her face just waiting to march, march, march!After Madi got into the feast and all of the food was served and eaten, she looked at me and said, "I think I need to be done now mom." I am so thankful that Madi has such a wonderful preschool teacher and the fun children in her class that she gets to see each week. She just loves going to school and is even more excited when she gets to go all day, as she tells me.
When we were in the car riding home I asked Madi what she was most thankful for, thinking her answer would probably be something reflective of her day, but to my surprise she said, "I'm so thankful for God and my parties. Mom I love my parties-maybe for my 5 year old party God can come and see how fun they are." All I could say was "I'm sure He is smiling right now Madi." I hope you are too!

Trick or Treating with Minnie

Here is our adorable little Minnie Mouse (this was actually taken before Halloween)

I have to let you all know that the first time this season I asked Madi what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween and her reply...a potato. Yep you read right a potato. At first I have to admit I was a little heart broken my little princess wanted to be an ol' dirty potato...yes I know there are lots of ideas out there but that was all I could think at first. Then some how we ended up at the Disney store :) and she saw this cute Minnie Mouse costume and said she had changed her mind and would rather be Minnie Mouse with the pink dress just like the one from Mickey Mouse Club House. I have to shamefully say that I was a bit happier.

I have to say thank you so much to the Moores for hosting such a fun Halloween night!! This was the group of kids that all went trick or treating together!!

They were all so cute and had so much energy they could've kept going all night I'm sure. They went from house to house like they've been doing this trick or treating thing form years and years....Madi is only 4 so she hasn't
been doing it that long, but I guess kids catch on quickly when they go to houses say a couple words and people drop candy in their baskets.

Eventually this is how our fun night ended....with Madi saying, "Mom, my bag is just too heavy for me to carry, pleeeeease will you carry it for me?" And in the next breath she turned around and said, "Daddy I can't walk anymore carry me back please." Sure enough he scooped her right up. It was so much fun walking around with all the cute kiddos and adults too.

Madi was so tired when we came home that she took out 2 tootsie rolls put them on the piano and said she would eat them in the morning and went straight to bed.

Schnepf Farms

Warning....lots of fun pictures to see!!

We went to Schnepf Farms this year and drug Brady's parents along with us. Can you believe that being a native from Arizona that this was my first time there?? I can't...it was such a blast that we will definately be return customers.

Nana & Madi on the Bee ride.

Our little pilot-I think she rode this ride a dozen times.

And this was Madi's first more "real" rollercoaster experience besides the little kid one at the fair and she wanted to sit by Papa, not Daddy, Papa was sitting in the very front. Madi got off the ride and said is was a little too fast and kind of scary but said she might go on it again and was ready for the corn maze (she's a big fan of mazes but usually only gets to do them on paper)

Madi wanted to be the leader so off she went and all of us followed along as she zigged and zagged her way through the maze and she eventually found her way out and was so excited! It was so cute to see the excitement on her face when she saw the opening. What a cutie. Then off for some more fun. There is just so much to do and see on this great big farm.
After some time had passed Madi asked Papa if he would take her on the rollercoaster again and he jumped at the chance and off they went (but didn't sit up front the second time which was probably a wise choice). She was much happier the second time and this is them skipping back to where the rest of us where sitting.
We did so many more things but I do think I won't post all the pictures I have. But we did have so much fun and we were happy that Nana and Papa were able to come too!! Thanks guys it was so much fun with you!! At the very end we went to their pumpkin patch so Madi could pick out our family pumpkin like she gets to each year and she walked along each little path and found her perfect not so little pumpkin and this is how I found our pumpkin princess....
When I walked up to her she said, "Momma, I LOVE the crinkely one....it's perfect." She is right...it is the perfect pumpkin.

FAIR time!!

Yes I LoVe lOve the Arizona State Fair!! And I know some of you are thinking, gross, dirty, disguisting, just plain trashy place to be but you are soooo wrong!! If you think that then let me know and next year I will show you a great time at the fair-I promise you WILL NOT be disappointed.

And to be honest, I haven't asked Brady if he really likes going to the fair I just tell him the day that we are going and he goes....just like the dutiful husband should :) Madi on the other hand is as big of a fan as me. She is absolutely fearless!! Her favorite thing to do at the fair is the rides!

If you look really close you can see Madi's little hand sticking out of the farris wheel waving at me taking the picture! Brady said that when they were at the top she got right up on her knees and started looking down and asking where I was so she could wave, he was scared for her but she didn't even think twice about it. On the cobra ride, Brady told her that all the good riders didn't need to hold on and they put both their hands up on roller coaster so sure enough the entire ride her little hands were in the air. There were a few rides in between all of these but we saved the best for last and I'm so glad we did because it ended up being her very favorite-the LOG ride!! A little background first....last year she wanted to go on this ride so badly but wasn't tall enough by alot and they wouldn't let her go so we've just been praying that she'd be tall enought for the log ride so sure enough she was just the right height 42"!! (can you believe it my baby is that tall-yikes)

So after lots of fun crazy rides we finally got to eat some fun fair food! My favorite (that I only get once a year) is Indian Fry Bread (bean and cheese) and Funnel Cake. Madi likes to eat the fry bread plain and definately eats most of the funnel cake. Brady usually is daring and trys something new like the past couple years he's dared to try the infamous Turkey Leg, didn't like it....then last year he tried the fried snickers bar and didn't like it either...go figure. Whoever thought you could fry chololate and it'd taste good.

Then we went to the animals. We all loved this part. For me it reminds me of Wyoming and how much I miss visiting my family up there (love & miss you guys oodles!!). Madi just loves animals period no matter what kind so it's fun for her to see them up close and personal.

We thought my dad would get a kick out of the picture with Madi and the tractor since he seems to have this funny passion for tractors (he must have been a farmer in his previous life). So that one's for you dad!! Madi just stood there staring at the cows grazing...well grazing in the pen for quite a while and I noticed one was staring back at her while she was sipping on her icee. It's that cute!! I wonder what they are both thinking about???

So that was our terrific day at the fair!! For those of you who haven't made it out yet don't fret....still one more weekend-it's open until Nov 2nd!! Like I said before if you want to have a great time next year let me know because we will definately be there a year from now!!

Happy Birthday Big Brother!!

Today is my sweet brother Bretts birthday!! So I wanted to shout out happy birthday to him all the way over there in Florida!! As you can see October is full of birthdays for our family (mine is on the 21st)

You have such a cute family! And we miss you guys bunches!! BTW I loved that shirt you wore for this family picture!

Happy Birthday Kaia!

Happy birthday Kaia! We wish that we could be in Florida to celebrate with you. My brother Brett brought his cute little family down to AZ this past July and the girls had a blast together. Madi was so sad to see her cousin leave that she cried all the way home from my parents. We miss you guys bunches!!

The Cutest Sleeper

One of my favorite times of the night is when I'm heading off to sleep myself and I go into check on my little princess. Almost every night she has something in her bed (usually a book) or she arranged something on her floor. I just love to go in and see what she looks like!! Here are some pics to show what I'm talking about.


She usually has her hand on her little face, wierd cuz I do that too :) Madi loves to make little roads and bridges with anything she can. (please excuse the messyness, her room doesn't start off that way when she goes to bed)
And she also likes to take wierd things to bed with her like that pink balloon. I think she knew it was going to be deflated in the morning she didn't want to let it go.

And we can't forget what a little mommy she is to her dolls, stuffed animals, etc. So this particular night she decided that Mickey Mouse was cold, so she bundled him all up and kept him close to her all night. The next morning I asked her how Mickey slept and she said, "he was crying forever so I had to let him sleep with my momma and I didn't want him to get cold so I let him use one of my blankets"

Isn't she the cutest Madi you've ever seen?!? I sure think so :)