Sheeya later, tater

Tonight at the Kingdom Hall, Madeline started to fuss a little bit so Aaron offered to take her out and walk with her for a little bit to calm her down.
As he picked her up, she looked back at me, waved big with a smile and said "Sheeya"...
Mom looked at me laughing and said: "She said,'See ya!'"

Oh no she didn't, you may be saying... Oh yes, she did.

Sheeya... My little tater tot has a lot to say. And it won't be long before she can!

Time to curl up with a good book

We don't do cold weather. Instead, we do fun stuff inside the nice, warm house... like read on the couch.

By the looks of things, this is just one of those days at Grammy and Papa's house... sitting around on the Dora couch, reading a good book. (Notice the "Let's Party" bib - what do they do over there all day until I come to get her???)

And also by the looks of things... we didn't comb that baby's hair that particular day!

Dear blog:

I have missed you, blogspot. I have neglected you and I admit this.
There was a time when I thought Facebook was the "new you." Again, I admit I was was wrong.
Where else can a ramble on and on about myself without the fear of others scolding me with their all-knowing comments and words of wisdom?
'Tis only you, blogger. You complete me... (well not really, but it's a cheesy phrase that I like and it fits).

Reasons why blogspot is cooler than Facebook:

1.) I've missed writing more than just status updates.
2.) I need a creative outlet and FB does not allow any fiddling around with backgrounds and so forth.
3.) I don't have time to paint or draw and frankly, I probably can't any more.
4.) FB messed up too much.
5.) I don't want to reconnect with people from high school.
6.) This blog is for my baby girl to look at some day and FB isn't too good at archiving stuff.
7.) I don't care to read other people's status updates and FB pretty much makes you do that.
8.) Most importantly, FB was a time-consuming black hole of bad association.

And there you have it, I am back - this blogger is back in full force. I have many, many ideas rolling around in my head, begging to be put on this blog.

And I will...

So far, I have added a new background and putzed around with a "Our Sweet Madeline" header for wayyyy too long, but the end result was pretty cute.

'Til next time...

Coming soon!

An update... I promise!

A summer together

We didn't really do anything too extravagant this summer, but we did have a little fun here and there (weather permitting).

The day after we went to Huckleberry Railroad to see Thomas, we took Madeline to eat some real Huckleberries at the Wilderness Arboretum near Caseville. It is located on 120 acres and was dedicated in 1941 on donated property. Our tour guide was Lynn Lenar (a true nature chick... well more like a science teacher).

Along the way we learned about mushrooms and trees that Lynn pointed out with her eagle eye precision, startled a little deer and swatted pesky bugs like mad! There were also some tree frogs here and there, a cool bridge over the marshy area and lots of pretty plants and trees to see.

Here is Madeline enjoying a scrumptious huckleberry along the trail. She ate about a dozen of them and probably would have continued, but she fell asleep.

Lynn also pointed out wintergreen, which we sampled. It was a little leaf that tasted just like the Wrigley's chewing gum... Madeline did not sample the leaf.

And we kicked up our heels, too!

When we got back to Lenar's house, she did sample Dan's grilled chicken and Lynn's whipped cream and blueberries, which she (and we) really enjoyed.

Madeline is definitely an outside-kind-of girl. She loves to be outside and really, really likes riding on the mower with her dad.

So she took a ride on dad's tractor....

And a spin on Papa's 4-wheeler...

And made funny faces beneath the tree after eating tomatoes out of the garden

And we spent time together, which made my heart happy
because she is growing so fast!

We enjoyed the sun and shade, just the girls, giggling and goofing around.

Our favorite summer spot is beneath the old tree in our yard, next to the garden. Next year, we'll make sure there's a slide or sandbox there... something cool!

Even though it was short, summer wasn't too bad afterall for the Ewalds!

A day out with Azul (Thomas)

On August 15, we went to Crossroads Village, near Flint, to see Thomas . We told Madeline that Thomas was really Azul, Dora the Explorer's friend, who happens to be a little blue engine. Madeline has a story book that features little Azul and she likes pressing the buttons on the book to make Azul's whistle blow.

Here we are on the train. Madeline enjoyed looking out the windows and watching the scenery pass by. A man that was standing near the track surprised her at one point because she wasn't expecting him to be standing there. She said: "Whoa!"

Here's Madeline enjoying a little break by the black-eyed susans with Nana.

Maddie stayed in her stroller for a little bit, but she liked to be carried, too. There was lots to see at Crossroads besides the train. There were neat little gift shops and beautiful flowers! We also saw a huge carousel that we will ride when Madeline is a little older... that thing was flying!

Landon, Hunter and Michael enjoyed the inflatables. We watched them slide down a big ol' slide for a little while.

There were also a bunch of animals, including goats, sheep, donkeys, an alpaca and some horses (but we didn't go visit the horses).

This friendly little goat came right up to us as soon as we wheeled over by his pen. He had crazy goat eyes that were weird! Daddy fed the little goats some grass and the alpaca that came up to us... but a lady told him not to feed the animals any more... so ... daddy quit, but he huffed and puffed about it... for a day or so...

Ahh... check out Madeline's purple cone flower. Grammy picked it for her and she carried it around for quite awhile until she decided it looked tasty and we had to get rid of it.

It was very, very hot out on this particular day. Seems like we found cool places to sit down just as much as we walked around! Here we are by the black-eyed susans with Nana. Phewww... what a day! There's a sign for the Genesee Belle in the background. Maybe we will catch a ride on that next year and venture down the river. This year, we were BEAT by the HEAT!

Choo Choo! Chug-a-chug-a-chug... Choo Choo! See ya next year, Azul!

Sleepy time

Well, we thought she was out of our room when we moved the crib out... not the case. Miss Madeline seems to like sleeping with mommy and daddy.

Oh admit it, daddy! You like it too!