California Dreamin'

We recently returned from our annual trip to California. We had a great time visiting family and friends and places...

Madeline loves bubbles. PaPaw bought a bubble gun for her, and that is all she wanted to do- play bubbles.

Here is Madeline with Grandpa. Grandpa showed her the fine art of bubble twirling.


One of Mom's Yorkies had puppies recently, and Madeline had a great time playing with them.. They are tiny (the fit in the palm of your hand at 8 weeks old) so Madeline toted them around. She even put one of them in an Easter basket and carried it around.

This is Grandma and Madeline with a couple of the puppies. It was great to have Madeline spend time with her. My Grandma has Alzheimer's Disease, so this was precious time spent with her.

These are my parents, Wayne and Grace...aka, PaPaw and MiMi.


While in fabulous Fresno, CA, we took Madeline to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. We've actually been there twice before with Madeline, but this is the first time that she really enjoyed (and knew) all of the animals.



Daddy's wing span.....Maddie's wing span.....

I'm not quite sure what to say. But if you know my hubby, no words are necessary....
I think the elephants are by far Madeline's favorite animal to see at the zoo. They always seem to be doing something fascinating to her. Last fall we took her to the NC Zoo and the elephants were throwing dirt on their backs to keep cool...and this trip they were slinging mud on their backs. I seriously think we could have spent the entire day just watching them and she would have been very happy!


Here is our little turtle....


Chico. Many great memories. Chico is a town of about 90,000 full time residents about 90 miles north of Sacramento, and home to California State University, Chico- aka Chico State, and my alma mater. Chris has heard so many stories about Chico that I was excited to finally take him there. We met up with one of my college roomies Clarette and her 2 boys. It was great to be able to take my little girl there. Although I doubt that her college years will be spent at Chico State, a girl can dream.....

This is the administration building at Chico State.
Here is Madeline in the free speech area. Chico, and especially the college is very hippie-dippie, and you never know what you'll see. From political rallies to the Chico Cannabis Club to the Dairy Science Club bringing a cow to be milked during Farm-City week, it all took place in the free speech area.


Madeline and I in front of Plumas Hall- the College of Agriculture.

While in Chico, we went to visit the University Farm. I have logged MANY hours there- from 1am milkings at the dairy, learning how to AI a cow, conducting plant studies, fundraisers...the list goes on.
Madeline loved the animals....

Ahh, the dairy unit. I have seen many hours here. Milking at 1am and 1pm. Milking cows, loosing my rubber boot in mud up to my knee, clipping cows for shows, feeding calves, throwing hay, driving the silage truck- I can do it all.

Well, here it is- the proof that Chris really does like dogs. OK, only a select few, but Merokie grew on him.

There are my brother and sister-in-laws 2 huge dogs, Dex (sitting on Madeline) and Merokie. Madeline loved them cause they were just about as tall as her. Merokie loves bubbles almost as much as she does, so the 2 of them spend a lot of time blowing and chasing bubbles together.

Special message for Brighton....

Heading to Cali...

Heading to Cali for a few days....linguisa, Me & Eds, Chico and Family- heavenly!

Easter Festivities

Our Easter weekend began with an awesome opportunity to worship our Savior. We took Madeline and went with some friends (The Myers) to see Chris Tomlin in concert. What an awesome time of music and worship. Madeline had a great time at her first concert.

Saturday was spend in preparations for Easter Sunday. Madeline got to help me make cupcakes.....
and she got to experience the BEST part of baking- the clean up!!

Next was Easter Egg coloring. Madeline was AMAZED when she saw the eggs changing colors. She had a great time coloring on the eggs before we dipped them. She made an egg for herself, Mommy, Daddy, Ginger and Jesus.

Easter morning began with checking out the Easter basket. Now most of you have probably heard that Madeline did not like the idea of Santa Clause coming into her house. The gifts were OK, but him coming into the house was not. We passed the Easter Bunny in the mall a couple of weeks ago, and he got the same response as Santa...she wanted no part of it.

So Easter morning when she saw her basket and we told her that the Easter Bunny brought it, we got this look...Chris reassured her that the Easter Bunny left the basket in the back yard and that Mommy went out to get it. The dollar store shovel and rake we a hit!!

Here is Madeline in her Easter dress. Check out the shoes..she is all about flip flops these days.


We hosted a cook out for our small group. Nothing better that burgers and 'dogs on the grill, kids running wild and an egg hunt.



On a side note, Madeline went to the doctor today for a follow up for her collar bone. The doctor said she seems to be healing perfectly. We have to go back in 3 weeks for x-rays, and she should be completely healed in 6 weeks. Praise God.

Jesus conquered the grave.....

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " ⁸Then they remembered his words.

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

First Broken Bone....

We have our first broken bone...ever. Chris and I have never broken anything, so Miss Madeline wins the first broken bone award :(

Sunday afternoon she was running down the hallway when she slammed (either slipped or tripped?) shoulder first into the laundry room door. She cried a little and said she needed some ice for her shoulder. We kept an eye in it...no bruising, no swelling, and she could move it. As the evening went on, she started to favor her left arm and would cry and wince in pain if she held in out in front of her or reached across herself. So, we decided it was time to head to the ER.

We told her we were taking her to the Emergency Room so someone could help her with he shoulder. Of course the 20 questions began- "Why are we going to the 'mergency room?" "Who is going to help me there."

They took x-rays of her shoulder and clavicle, and there was the cause of the pain- a broken clavicle. The doctor said that this is a common fracture for kids and it'll heal up on its own. Here she is wearing her fashionable sling...


Keep the little Miss in your prayers...it's gonna be a long 6-8 weeks, but she is tough and she'll get through it!!

Bristol

We just got back from our yearly trek to Bristol Motorspeedway. We LOVE going to Bristol. I have been to a lot of races at a lot of different tracks, and there is nothing like it. The sound, the smell, the people.....

Here is Matt and Kevin in line waiting for pre-race inspections.

Driver introductions.....Matt Kenseth

and Kevin Harvick (go Bakersfield....). Read my story on how I became a Kevin Harvick fan (long love Jeremy)!!

Matt's pit stops were fast......go Killer Bee's

Matt and Kevin started near one another near the back of the pack, and the both finished where they started- Kevin was 30th and Matt was 33rd.

On a completely random note, on the way to Bristol we stopped for lunch. A new Family Christian store was opening and we got to see Bob and Larry from VeggieTales. This may not mean much to you, but to a 3-year old, when Mommy and Daddy got to take their pics with them, that's pretty darn cool!!