Jon Graduates!

Today the youngest of the Sargent clan graduated from George Fox! Congratulations Jon! My Mom, Dad, Caitie, Ryan, Kristin, Madison and Myself attended the 2 hour event. My Grandpa Sargent was also honored at the graduation because it is his 50th year since graduating from George Fox! This was pretty special to have 2 members of the Sargent family in caps and gowns today!
We are proud of both of you!

Proud parents!














Grams and Gramps Sargent
















Madison and Aunt Caitie waiting for the Graduation to start.

What Are You Wearing?

I pulled into the garage, after work today, and Madison came running out to greet me. I looked at what she was wearing and I could not quite figure out what was wrong with her "shorts". As she came around to my side of the car I realized she was not wearing shorts but had on a pair of Peyton's 3 to 6 month size jeans! She proceeded to inform me I put them in her dresser and so they are now hers. How she squeezed her size 4/5 body into those 3/6 month pants is beyond me! :)

Happy Kids = Peaceful Dinner

Tonight I had Kindergarten Round Up to meet some of the new little ones who will be joining me (and the other classes) in Kindergarten next year. There were 29 little ones at the round-up. They are a lively group who were excited to be visiting a Kindergarten class. It was a late night at work. I am TIRED!

Yesterday when I got home from work the girls were in a good mood. Bry and I were not in the mood for cooking so we invited Bryan's parents to join us for dinner out at Red Robin. We were happy to get out and we had a gift card from Christmas. What could be better... no cooking, a free dinner, good company and happy kids.

Here are some pictures of Peyton with her Grandma and Grandpa MacKender.

Sportin' Grandpa's hat!

Peyton Loves Cereal!

Peyton is now eating rice cereal and she loves it! We are feeding her the cereal with a baby food bottle. As time goes on we will feed her with a spoon.

Madison, of course, loves to help with Peyton and couldn't wait to help feed her! I'm sure she will be helping Peyton with many of her "firsts". She is a great big sister!

Peyton's first time trying rice cereal!

Yummy!

Maddie feeding Peyton breakfast! What a big helper!

Give It A Little Pat of Butter

I was trying to get everything together to head out the door for Church on Sunday morning. Of course, it is the usual race around the house at the last minute to pack the diaper bag, get on socks and shoes, and get out the door on time. So, Bryan was feeding Peyton on the couch and I had just made Maddie a bagel. She wanted to put the butter on herself. I told her she could put A LITTLE bit of butter on her bagel while I ran upstairs to find Peyton's blanket. This is a 3 year olds definition of "a little bit of butter"....

I asked her if she would like a bagel with her butter?! She was very proud of her butter spreading skills. Don't worry... I did not let her eat the bagel! :) I made her a new one.

Where is Spring?

Last night I was making dinner and Madison went running to the window and says, "Holy Moly, Hanna Fanna!! :) It is snowing outside. Can I go play in the snow?" It sure did look like snow, but it was hailing very hard and it was so loud! The ground was white in a couple of minutes. I told her she could go out for a minute. So she ran outside in her bare little feet and stood in the hail. Fun? I think we are ready for a little warmer weather, real bare feet weather!

Just Another Day!

Today I had to go to work all day because I took my class on a field trip to the Portland Children's Museum. It was fun... we did not loose anyone! :)

So, Bryan was home with the girls and Madison had a "Royal Tea Party" today at school. The kids were to dress up as a person from a castle. Madison dressed up like a princess. She said they had a fun day. They had strawberry and raspberry tea, little sandwiches, strawberries, and cookies. They made little crowns. I wish I could have joined them...but had to work :(. Bryan was nice enough to take a picture for me...he did pretty good getting her ready to go! :) He is definitely living in a girly household!

My Mom brought over a "BUMBO" for Peyton the other morning. It is like a little soft chair that you can sit a baby in. Anyway, Peyton did not like it at all at first. Now she has actually started to like it for short periods of time. Madison wanted Peyton to sit next to her and watch a cartoon. Of course, Peyton could care less about the TV, but she did enjoy sitting next to her sister. Peyton kept reaching for Madison's hand. It was cute. Madison was more than willing. She loves Peyton.

Here she is sitting in the BUMBO.
Just hanging out.

Sitting Pretty!

Bless You!

I was getting Peyton dressed for the day, when Maddie came into Peyton's room and told me,

"Mommy, I don't feel good. I have the bless yous." :)

I guess this would only make sense for her to call sneezing the "bless yous."

Every time she sneezes someone tell her "bless you!"

:) She made me smile!

Catching "tadpoles"

On Saturday, after the Tulip Festival, Madison and Bryan went with a neighbor and his grandson down to a little stream/pond near our house to catch salamanders. She has found a new love! Salamanders!They caught 2 and brought them home to play with them for awhile.

Bryan was at work on Sunday and all day Madison talked about wanting to go catch "tadpoles" (she meant salamanders). :) I told her she would have to ask Daddy on Monday to take her.

Monday morning at 6 AM she was in my room asking, "when can I go catch "tadpoles"?" When Bry got home from work he told her he would take her later in the evening after her dance class and dinner. So, when that time came around they headed down to the stream. Madison was all smiles, and they caught 2 more.

She was so excited! When she got home she came running in and told me, "Mommy!! I caught 2 tadpoles (salamanders). I named them Madison's Sisters!"

I guess we have 2 new family members?! :)

Bryan took them back to the stream after

Madison went to bed.

We will have to catch her "sisters"

again on another day! :)

Tulip Festival 2008!

We spent Saturday at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn! It was a BEAUTIFUL day. We are so thankful for one nice weekend to get out and about. (Monday it is back to rain). Our parents and Caitie came along for the outing. Here are some pictures of our day. It was fun, but very crowded. We want to go back on a weekday (maybe less people, and more blooms) and try and get some good pictures of the girls. Hopefully, we can find a nice day before the tulip festival is over (the end of April). I loved having a little taste of summer weather!


Thank you family for a good day of tiptoeing through the tulips!

Yippee! Sleep!

Yippee! Peyton slept all the way through the night last night! She actually slept from 7:30PM to 8:15AM! Wow... I hope this is a pattern that will stay. We love our sleep! Now we need to work on a day time nap...which is currently about once a day 0 - 10 minutes. I will give up an hour of night sleep for a one hour nap during the day... do you think she is old enough to bargain with? :)

Time for Tummy Time!

Peyton does not like "Tummy Time"! She cries and screams...but she has to do it so she can learn to roll over and work on those important muscles for crawling. We try and make her do it for a little bit of time everyday. Hopefully it will be less of a fight as time goes on... maybe she will be one of those little ones who will skip the crawling and go right to walking! Here are some pictures of tummy time. I took them before she put up the fight. :)
She actually looks like she was enjoying herself, for a moment.

I think she is trying to say... OK Mom, time is up.... I'm serious!

Sprinkles

We were driving in the car and Madison wanted her window down. This happens every time we are in my car. She even wants the window down if it is pouring rain... it doesn't seem to phase her that rain is blowing in sideways and it is 40 degrees out! Anyway, here is how our conversation went during this car ride:

Madison: "I'm hot! Mommy roll down the window... meeeeeese." (please)
Me: "Madison, it is way too cold and it is starting to sprinkle."
Madison: "It is not sprinkling."
Me: "Yes it is, look at the windshield."
Madison: "Those are not sprinkles Mommy. Sprinkles are what we put on cookies!" :)

Creating Art!

I needed some art work for the wall in the girls playroom. I have been looking for something cute and "kid like" for awhile but never seem to find anything I like. So... I decided to have Madison create the art work.

Painting the backgrounds first.

The finished family portraits. The tan one is of Peyton and Madison. The green one is of all of us: Mommy in the middle holding Peyton, Daddy on the left, and Madison on the right. The Purple one is of Mommy and Daddy.

Here they are up in the playroom. I am so happy with the paintings! They are better than anything I could ever buy at a store!

I also added a sign above the window, in the playroom, that I bought at the beach over Spring Break. I loved this sign the minute I read it because the words were perfect! I always sing a little song to Madison and Peyton at bed time that goes like this:

"on the day that Maddie was born,

on the day that Peyton was born,

on the day these girls were born

the angels sang and blew their horns and

they danced, they danced, they raised their

hands up and sang, on the day, on the day,

that you were born"

Here is the sign I put above the window in the playroom: I love it! :)

Bridal Shower and Yet Another Bithday Surprise!

So, today there was a bridal shower at my house for Kristin who is my brother Ryan's Fiance. They are getting married May 25th. It was a fun shower thrown by her maid of honor McKenna and my sister Caitie. I pretty much provided the central location for all to attend and the fruit. :)

Kristin (the bride and future sister in-law)...picture taken by Madison

Yummy food and slide show of Kristin and Ryan

Caitie and another future sister in-law Stacy:)

I also received another birthday surprise this weekend! (Wow, my birthday feels like it goes on and on!) Jana, my best friend in Arizona, sent me an edible bouquet. This is a bouquet of fruit that looks like flowers. It was made with pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes, and chocolate covered apples. Very fun! I was so surprised to have this show up at my door and this is the perfect gift for me because I love fruit! THANKS JANA! It was so yummy!

Madison dug right in...saying "you want to share, right mom?" She took a chocolate covered apple first...surprised? :)

No, No, and No

I was feeding Peyton this morning and called to Madison telling her to get dressed because we were leaving to go to Grandmas and Grandpas in a half an hour. There was no answer...that usually means she is up to something. I called for her again and she came into Peyton's room holding a sign. Here is what it looked like:

She then told me "no mom", and holds the sign up. I cracked up laughing (so did she). Then she ran into her room to get dressed. The first time she writes on her own, and she writes "No". Great! This sounds about right! Through out the evening she continued to write "no" every time something happened that she did not like... i.e. the cat bit her foot. She ran and wrote "no". I told her it was time for bed. She went and wrote "no". The picture is of the collection she had by the end of the evening.

O-Boy! Maybe tomorow we will work on "Yes Mom"! :)

Fun Birthday Surprise!

I received a call on my Birthday from a friend and neighbor Teresa. She said her husband had received tickets at work for the Cirque Du Soleil show, Corteo, and asked if Bryan and I would like to go, with them, for my birthday. I was so excited... of course I would want to go! But the first comment out of my mouth was "are you sure you want to take us?":) Bry and I had tried to get tickets by going to the opening day of the Saturday Market where they were handing out 3 pairs of tickets...we did not win. So when the opportunity came knocking at our door I was surprised and thrilled, and to go with friends was going to make the show even better! :)

Thursday night went out to dinner and then to the show. It was an amazing show like all of the Cirque Du Soleil Shows are! The performers are so strong and have such amazing muscle control. They make everything they do look easy...where I could not do even one stunt if I wanted to! Thank you Teresa and Kieron for the fun evening!

My Birthday...the 29 again club.

Well... I had another birthday yesterday. When I was little, my Grandpy used to tell me he was 29 every year (he continues to tell me this still). Back then I believed every word he said! I was even made fun of one day by friends at school who told me my Grandpa could not be 29...well, I still believed him. So now I have once again joined the "29 again club". I think this is any age over 29.

I was spoiled (like always) by my family. They are so nice to me! On Sunday night we had dinner with Bryan's Mom, Jan, Grandpa MacKender, and his brother Chris. Jan made my meal choice, which was Yummy Sweet and Sour Pork. This is a favorite meal of mine. She also made Mt. St. Helens Cake. It is chocolate moose and angel food cake in layers. It is SO good!

Madison, of course, wanted to help cook and she helped Grandma in the kitchen.

She is such a big helper when it comes to anything in the kitchen!

Hanging out with Chris and the girls.

Yummy! Good thing there is only one candle! :)

I was actually feeling rather crummy on Sunday and on my actual birthday, Monday. I woke up with a terrible head ache, sore throat, and sinus "stuff". So, I was extra thankful for a good home cooked meal, that I did not have to cook. Thank you Jan! You are a wonderful cook!

I had to go back to work on my Birthday this year. Sometimes I am lucky and it falls at the end of break.

Anyway, Bryan had taken Madison to her dance class in the afternoon. When I came home from work there were beautiful tulips on the table. My favorite flower! He had also cleaned the house and I had a box of See's chocolates and roses on the counter. He is so thoughtful! :) When I opened the box of chocolates I had to laugh because there was already one piece missing. :) Humm... wonder who could have taken it? The box was wrapped in the traditional See's white paper but I could tell it had been tampered with.

Who ate the missing chocolate? :)

Madison came in the door after dance so excited to give me the balloons she had picked out. She then proceeded to tell me about the gift she had given me. She had used all of her own money, from her piggy bank, and bought the roses for me. How sweet! She also told me that I shared my chocolate with her.... who would have thought she would have taken it? :) Not I! :) If the chocolate candy was not enough... they had also made cupcakes for me. We had these for dessert. Besides not feeling well, my birthday was good.

I am blessed with the best family in the world! :)