{Our Week} - 7/1/13 - 7/7/13

Madden communicates with us SO well that I sometimes forget he's only 18 months old!  Lately he's been nodding in response to questions we ask him: "Madden do you want to read a book?" ::Nod:: and says "mmhmm!".  Then runs off to find a book.  He's even put some phrases together like "go grammie's house".  Oh, and he LOVES Elmo all of the sudden, too!  We can't even go for a quick car ride without the Elmo music playing.  Fun times!

Mariah, oh Mariah.  Everyone said that terrible twos are nothing compared to "terrible threes".  I totally didn't believe you guys because the twos were bad enough.  But I get it - TOTALLY get it.  And many say the fours are even more "terrible" - so this time I'M GOING TO BELIEVE IT.  Gosh I love the girl, but now even if we tell her "NO" repeatedly, she has the knowledge and strength to do it anyways.  So - to anyone that has raised a child past the age of four I commend you! :)  It surely isn't ALL bad though!  This week Mariah wrote "MOM"!  So proud and excited to see her learning so much!  Preschool will be here before we know it and this girl is READY!

Mike and I spent the day after the 4th of July having an "US" day.  We started the morning at the gym where we attended a couple group classes.  I lucked out and did a Zumba class while Mike did a "Fitness Frenzy" class (AKA: circuit training x 10).  He made me join in on the last 20 minutes - it was quite the workout!  After that we did some yardwork and then went to lunch (soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden!).  The rest of the afternoon we spent shopping and relaxing.  Then we met up for an ADULT evening in LeClaire with my family.  It was a GREAT day and a nice little "break" from our busy schedules!

I did the firecracker 10k on the 4th of July.  It was a hilly, challenging race (why do I keep picking those?!).  Thankfully the weather was nice and I was happy with how the race went!  Next up: the BIX!

"Mom and Dad - you are NOT listening.  You need to go to timeout and can't come out until I tell you!"

(Hmmm... I wonder if she hears this a lot?)

4th of July Fun & Sprinkler!

We had a busy week/weekend with the 4th of July holiday in there.

The kids enjoyed the parade on Thursday morning.

The rest of the weekend we spent a lot of time outside and even broke out the sprinkler to cool us down on Sunday afternoon.  The kids didn't know what to think of the sprinkler and spent most of the time running away from it :)

I hope you had a great FOURTH! :)

We sure did!