Reason #412...

...That Steve is just terrific: He built this ramp for Carter's cars for his birthday! Isn't it awesome?
Here is Carter Loving Daddy's gift (and transalting the "Love, Dad" message on the back to "If you see an engine, then that means 'GO!'")

And here is Addison thinking the toy is so hilarious!

6 years

This is for the past 6 years of laughing, loving, learning, and living. I love that I married the man of my dreams, and now we dream together of the rest of our lives.

I love you, Steve.

Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday, Carter!

He's 3 years old, and the coolest, smartest, playful, energetic, in-love-with-life kid I know!

Our Backyard Birthday Bash was going to start at 10. But at 9:50, Steve and I were moving the whole party and activities from the backyard into the house (time to improvise with 10 toddlers!) because I didn't trust the over head clouds. By 10:10, when most kids had arrived, the first claps of thunder and downpouring rain began. GOOD MOVE, STEVE & KERRI!

We still managed to transform most of our outdoor activities to work inside. We started with stations for the kids to play:

a Colored Rice table was a hit!

And the kids made shakers for our Birthday March around the house!

They also LOVED playing in the huge fort in our living room (pictures?? I failed!) and bowling in our new bowling alley (hallway!)

Next we brought out our Parachute for ALL KINDS OF GAMES!!!

And after Red Light, Green Light, and the birthday march, at last it was time to bring out the cake. How do you win your 3 year old's heart? Ask him what kind of cake he wants, and then do your very best to create it for him, failing to mention that this is NOT one of your talents what so ever! But, Lo and Behold:

The Fire Engine Cake!

As you can see, the cake was a huge success with the kids:

All in all, another successful party at the Madura Home! Happy Birthday, big guy!

Watch out clark kent!

Our friends have an elevator in their house. How cool!!

It takes Courage

Integrity takes courage to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. Some say integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. This is true, but it sure takes courage to do the right thing when the entire country is watching.

We should all be so courageous to stand for what we believe, regardless of the pressures or expectations surrounding us.

Bargain Hunter's Dream

Who doesn't love a bargain? That's why I love the PTA-sponsored Clothing Resales around here. Last week I went to one and bought an ADORABLE 3-piece shirt/pant/vest set for Addison in the fall. Brand new. Perfect Condition. TAGS STILL ON.

Total price I paid: $6
Original price tag: $110

Not bad!

Of course then I think, who spends $110 on an outfit for a toddler?

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

I've come to conclude that unfortunately, Super Nanny would have a lot of footage if she came to my house. Put all those little moments where I'm not being the perfect Mom and show it as a whole, and yeah, it doesn't make anyone feel very special. Especially when I feel like I've just had all those moments in one whole day.

But what does make me feel special is when my son says, "I'll never stop loving you, Mommy!" and squeezes me real tight. Now that's what Super Nanny needs to see.

Hooray!!!

On Easter we found out that my prego belly is housing a BABY GIRL!!! We are so excited!Thanks, Dad, for the incredibly tricky and fun Easter Egg Hunt to announce the news to us!

The Story:

• We chose not to find out the baby's gender at our 20-wk ultrasound, so the nurse sealed up the news in an envelope for us to take home.
• This past Friday (3 weeks later) Steve's coworker open the sealed envelope and scan the picture to my dad.
• Our family LOVES to spread news in creative ways (Remember the 8ft wordsearch I made to announce the news?), so Steve called Dad to invite him and my Mom to tell us these news however they wanted.
• On Easter, Dad set up a TRICKY egg hunt for us in their house.

• When we found all the eggs, Dad gave us one clue: "What's Missing?" Thanks, but when we opened all the eggs, we felt clue-LESS. This is what we found inside--these seemingly random names/words: Wendy, Sunny, June, Bob, Neff, Don, Yvonne, Joseph, Enoch, Zenock, Quorum, Mormon, and 2 others. We tried to find a pattern that would hint towards "Boy" or "Girl" and were totally stuck.


• Finally we discovered the only letters NOT included in all the names were T-A-I-L...when we didn't get it from that, Dad had one more clue hidden which gave it away much more obviously. THANKS DAD! What's missing? A boy's "tail"...

WE ARE SO EXCITED TO HAVE A GIRL!!!

Better late than never

Never give up on those 15 minutes of fame we've all been promised. This is what my sister has taught me.

17 years ago, she submitted some artwork and a poem to the New Era as a Laurel Project. And this month--17 years later--it's finally been published. Talk about patience. So a 17 year old wrote the poem, and a 35 year old is getting the credit (Happy Birthday, Tauna).

Way to go Tauna!