Goodnight and Sleep Tight

we set up the bed this morning and madison just loves it! she dives into all her stuffed animals and burrows down. i still think she is too young to sleep in it but in the meantime she can get used to the idea. she was too cute. as soon as we put it in her room she moved all her stuffed animals to the bed, climbed on all by herself, and laid down. the only catch will be keeping her from jumping on it - she loves jumping in her crib!!

thanks for the ideas on the bed and bedding - i actually found a great solution! cheap and easy. we never used the blanket that came with the crib set because it was always too big and bulky for an infant. i was always worried about suffocation - we used it on the floor and other places, just not in the crib. well it fits a toddler bed perfectly because the mattresses are the same size. so we will just use that and i will find material for sheets that coordinate, or just buy some pink ones. now the crib and toddler bed will match and when madison gets older we can upgrade to something different. i am so excited!

Any Suggestions?

i need help. look at these pictures and tell me what you think. first is the potential bedding for madison when she moves into a bed, then the bed we just bought, and last is the crib bedding we used with madison, which we are using with the next baby.

i haven't found any toddler bedding that i just LOVE, but i found this and i think it's pretty cute. what do you think?


this is the toddler bed we just bought from walmart and it matches pretty well with the crib we already have. but now about bedding? would the pink/brown bedding above clash with a black bed?




this is the set of crib bedding we got when madison was born. we have the dust ruffle, sheet, bumper and blanket. this will stay in the crib for the new baby. does this clash with the toddler bedding above? i know none of this really matters but i am no interior decorator and would love your opinions. don't be afraid to tell me if you don't like it!

Slacker!!

thats me! for some reason i just put off blogging and by the time i read everyone else's updates i don't feel like taking the time to write my own. lazy, i know. so here is a quick update. bear with me, our life is going to get crazy!

dan spent last week in crosslake, minnesota as a counselor at camp discovery. it is for kids with severe skin problems - they have to be referred by a doctor to be able to go. dan loved it! but now he is studying his little heart out for the second step of the medical licensing exam which he takes aug 1st. basically this test can determine what kind of medicine dan will spend the rest of his life practicing. but he is working SO hard to be prepared and i know he will do well.

the day after his test he leaves AZ for the next THREE MONTHS!!! yes, three months. that is a post for another day. it's for school, and it's going to be hard, but we will make it through! at least that's what i keep telling myself. so in the meantime, madison and i are getting plenty of time together while we try to stay out of the way and let dan focus. but we are enjoying every second of every minute that he's not studying.

part of this 'enjoying every minute' resulted in a date night for dan and i, last friday after he flew in from minnesota. these happen very rarely and i really think that was the first movie dan and i have seen together, on a date, in the last 3 years. it was so fun! now i know why a weekly date night is a must, regardless of what activity it is! too bad i am realizing this right before dan leaves!!

so this is our life currently and unless something super exciting happens we might be keeping a low profile so we can enjoy our time as a family!

It Makes Perfect Scents

i am SOOO excited about this! if you like burning candles but hate the smoke and open flame, here is the solution. cute and classy warmers and scents that are out of this world. i am ordering mine tomorrow! (since today is sunday)check it out at www.scentsy.net

"Summer days ... driftin' away..."

WARNING: long post!

we have had a busy several weeks! dan finished his last rotation of his 3rd year and is studying full-time this month for the next step of his medical licensing exam at the end of july. we have had many adventures and i have been WAY behind in posting so here it is in one big one! it starts in june and ends with our most recent activities.

SKINNER REUNION NEAR FLAGSTAFF

back in june we had the skinner reunion and it was my first time in the 4 1/2 years we have been married that i have been able to go. it was fun to see some of dan's cousins that i hadn't met before. it was held on a ranch outside of flagstaff and it was beautiful! we were able to stay in a bunkhouse - i don't mind camping, in fact i enjoy the whole tent thing, but it's the not having a shower in the morning part that i don't enjoy, so this was perfect. dan took madison on a horseback ride which she loved, and there was a little rodeo for all the kids. they had a riding lawn mower that pulled a train of 'horses' behind it and madison loved that too. it was a great weekend and we were sorry to see it end.





GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

a couple weeks ago, right before dan's new york trip, we headed to phoenix for the ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus. we thought madison would love it and neither dan or i had been in a long time. we had fun, although i didn't love all the clown skits inbetween acts. we arrived early enough to go down on the floor before it started and they had an elephant up close, painting a picture - madison loved her! we all thought the best parts were the animals, although it's amazing what those stuntsmen and acrobats can do. we are going to make this a yearly tradition.




the finale! so exciting! what did madison think?

oh wait, she fell asleep and missed the whole second half of the show! next year we will go to a matinee.



still asleep - all the way to the car

INDEPENDANCE DAY!!!

we had an awesome 4th of july. may parents and sister came down very last minute from utah but i was so excited to see them. we started out the day with an amazing pancake breakfast (our activities committee totally outdid themselves!) at our church building (pic below- very unflattering for me but it's the only pic of the whole day!). my ellsworth grandparents joined us. it was followed by a little parade and then a flag ceremony. perfect start to a wonderful day. my dad went out to the farm with my gpa and the us girls went to lunch at paradise bakery. that afternoon we went swimming with aunts/uncles/cousins at my farnsworth grandparents and had a delicious bbq. what is more american than hot dogs, watermelon, and corn on the cob? to top it off, we had tickets to the diamondbacks game. we strategically showed up during the 7th inning, enjoyed a little baseball and then settled in for the fireworks. they were spectacular! i love when they are choreographed to music. madison LOVED them! we headed home exhausted, but it was such a great day.


LEBARON REUNION (4TH OF JULY WEEKEND)

every year, 4th of july weekend, lebaron's have a reunion in strawberry, about 1 1/2 hours from mesa. this is no small reunion. there are 80+ people in dan's extended fam on his mom's side. this reunion is all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and down. we are taking LOTS of people. but it is fun and my family doesn't live close enough to have this kind of tradition. we just went for a day but it was great to get out of the heat and head up to the mountains. i was a slacker and just took a couple pics of madison playing in the sandbox with some extended cousins. she is wearing our reunion shirt and it is huge so we rolled up the sleeves, tied it back with a scrunci and then her skirt rode up all day long and it looked like it was a mini. but we had a blast.





SNOW DAY AT PHOENIX ZOO

snow in az period is not the norm, especially in the valley, and definitely in july. but nevertheless we attended snow day at the zoo this morning. my mother and sister-in laws braved the heat with madison and i. truckloads of snow were brought in for kids to play with and there were big blow up slides, and Disney radio was there with a big tent with games and music. madison played in the sprinklers as well. some of the animal exhibits had piles of snow so the animals could 'play' in the snow too. we lasted until 9:30 am and then the heat became unbearable, even with the snow/water/etc. we will definitely go back next year!





madison chowing down on her milkshake. i love that she can drink out of a straw!

We Made It!!

dan comes home tomorrow and we made it! the past few days have been easier than i expected. thankfully madison has been wonderful, with the exception of her pinching spree tonight. who knows where that came from - it's not like she learned it from us! i am most excited to see madison's reaction tomorrow when she sees dan again. she loves her daddy! and then i can post pics of our most recent adventures - the circus, skinner family reunion, and random ones of madison. we just got a new computer and i have no idea how to get the pics from our camera to the computer without dan's help. oh how we missed him!