Sweet Madelynn

Madelynn has had some exciting things happen in the past few weeks.  About a year ago, she was asking us about some of the people that were getting baptized in our church.  Terry and I explained to her what the bible said about baptism and when we were both baptized.  Her response was so genuine as she said, "Well, mommy, I know Jesus and I want to follow Him the rest of my life.  Shouldn't I be baptized?"  She is definitely my most sensitive child with a big heart.  So I knew that it was something that she was serious about.  We waited a little while to see if she would pursue it a little more.  She did....then just about every week she was asking when she could talk to the pastors about it.  She met with one of the pastors at our church and on February 15th, she was baptized.  She was very excited until about 10 minutes before she went in front of the congregation and had to answer some questions.  She stumbled a little, but God knows her heart!  She was very excited to share this special day with both sets of grandparents, an aunt and some cousins.  

March 6th, she celebrated her 8th birthday.  Wow.....I was always told that these years would go by very quickly, and they certainly have.  This year, she was able to have her cousins from California join her for the party.  My sister Leslie and her children flew in last week Wednesday and will be leaving today.  It is alway pretty rough around here a few weeks after the cousins are separated.  I am sure this time will be no different.  The kids have had a great time with them and we had Caleb spend the last night in Michigan here at our house instead of Grandma's.

Kylie had not taken a nap that day.  She slept through a good deal of the dinner, even with all the commotion!

Birthday cake-chocolate cake, chocolate filling and chocolate frosting...girl after my own heart.  Kailyn was sweet, as I was snapping photos she throws her arm around Madelynn and says, "Aunt Jessi, take a picture like this!" 

And of course a party would not be complete without a little swimming.  At one point, we had 13 kids in the pool.  I do not even think grown-ups dare to step foot in the water when there are that many kids.  They will be swarmed with little bodies!

Our house is coming along...Terry has finished our new floors.  We have yet to finish the cabinets.  The paint fumes were a little too much in the closed up house.  So we are putting that on hold until the weather becomes a little warmer.  Then we will finish the doors and drawers in the garage.  I love it!  Terry has done a great job and really has paid attention to the little details!  Can't wait to show off more pictures.....but my house is still a disaster zone!  Here are some little snippets.  

We decided to do a darker finish of laminate and paint our baseboards, trim and all the doors on the main floor.  Yes, it has been a ton of work, but well worth the effort.  

We finally upgraded our hardware...we had been living with these ugly mushroom knobs, that I swore would be the first thing I would update when we moved in 6 years ago.  We recently upgraded all of our door handles to oil-rubbed bronze and thought we would stay consistent with our door pulls.  All of our hinges, I ended up spray painting.  I was a little nervous about it, but they turned out very nice.  They did not have a color that would match the oil-rubbed bronze, so I primed them with and orangey-red and then finished them with a really dark brown.  They turned out awesome and saved us about 70 dollars!

I can not wait to have my kitchen back though.  I know it takes time, and I can be patient...but wow, I really appreciate a functional kitchen!