Springtime again!

Maddie and I played hookie at school and went to see the Hannah Montana movie the day it came out. She loved it, and I didn't hate it as much as I expected.

There are hundreds of little caterpillar nests all around Red Rock, so Maddie and I keep going up to watch them grow, and eventually become cocoons and then butterflies.

We also got to go to my cousin, Kim Howey's, wedding at Red Rock. She looked lovely.

Karen & Juli Harris happen to be the best holiday tradition people I have ever met. They are wonderful at following through on the cheesy holiday traditions, like decorating egg cookies and painting eggs. They have totally rubbed off on me so every year, and every holiday, I try to keep it going for the next generation of Harris girls.

Maddie has been counting down the days to Easter for the last two weeks. She woke up early every morning, came into my room, and with huge eyes, would say, "three more days til Easter!" Of course, the day it was actually Easter, she slept in from partying too hard the night before, and Josh and I had time to shower and get dressed and then we eventually just woke her up. How sad is that!?

We feel kind of bad that she is the only kid, so I made Josh promise to act like a kid too to make it more exiting for her. Here they are racing down the stairs together arguing over who will find more eggs.

Every holiday, dads all across the world are stealing from their kid's stash....

And here are our Easter dresses for Church.

And Maddie got a new suitcase for Easter. I would say she was getting too big to share mine anymore, but as this picture shows, she is still pretty tiny.

Stop! Don't shoot!, and the ups and downs of motherhood.

Josh and I had a really awesome, once in a lifetime opportunity to go and tour the FBI training academy with a friend of ours. For fear of my life, and as not to paint a target on myself, I kept the pictures to a minimum and will keep my mouth shut about what I did and did not see. It was very, very cool, and it waged a debate between Josh and I about who would make a better agent (me, obviously). And it was a beautiful time in the area because of all the cherry blossom trees and the cherry blossom festival in DC. 

I'm sure any mother who reads this entry will agree that there are ups and downs to being a mother. Hugs, kisses, loves, watching them grow, firsts, and learning new things are all pluses. Barfing, poopy diapers, late nights, early mornings, spoon feeding, sick babies, tantrums, not so much....

Well, I recently had a day of high and low. First, Maddie had a dentist appointment. Once we were out in public I realized that my daughter was wearing red lipstick, a very short cheetah print dress, and pink cowboy boots. Embarrassing..... And then she had her check up and her dentist said she has great teeth, but that I need to be brushing them twice a day for her because she is too young to do it herself. I immediately planned to feed her dog biscuits that clean dog teeth. That is so lame to have to brush your kids teeth twice a day..... I left feeling like the worst mom ever. (Half because I don't brush her teeth twice a day, and half because I want to feed her dog biscuits.)

But luckily, later that day was her parent teacher conference, where she received raving remarks and scores. Top of the class in every subject, very sweet, great social skills, everyone loves her, best in show...... (Oh wait, I keep forgetting I'm talking about a kid, not a dog....), and her teachers said they know that it is because of our great parenting that we have such an amazing kid. Phew.... I was afraid they thought I was a crackhead for being late sometimes, letting Maddie dress and do her own hair (see above), and always seeming to forget something. 

Of course, just as I was feeling all cocky, I woke up the next day and realized I had forgotten to do laundry and didn't have any groceries because I had been out of town. So she had to wear the same undies and I had to pack a NutriGrain bar for her lunch. Crap. Back to square one.....

This is not an April Fools Joke...

Josh just sent me this picture from his iPhone with the title of "crap."

Luckily he knows someone at Ticketbusters.com.   :o)

Hiking the white rocks at Red Rock

Yes, Josh and I travel a lot. We are lucky to have that interest in common, and probably feed off each other a little too much. But sometimes the greatest beauty and fun family times are in your own backyard. We live just down the street from the beautiful Red Rock canyon and thought we would take advantage of the perfect spring weather. Maddie is learning about plants at school, so she pointed out all 278 cacti that we saw on our hike.

That last picture was of Maddie holding up her white silk rose purse  and stuffed frog that she carried the entire hike. She named her frog "Gwen Stefani," but Josh calls her "Gwen Stefroggi." 

Random Pictures of March 2009

I was lucky enough to go to my Grandpa Tingey's celebration luncheon for being a practicing lawyer for 40 years. I may be biased, but I thought his speech was the best. He spoke about all of the changes that occurred in the profession, the growing diversity of lawyers, and that lawyers can do good with their profession. I, as a woman law student who plans to do good with her profession, was touched. Way to go Grandpa!

Maddie has now graduated to "the real camera." I'm actually glad she did because I didn't even remember to pick up a camera and take pictures of our BBQ with our friends to celebrate the Hendersons being back in town. (Chris was an attorney at Josh's firm, not to mention best bud since they met on the mission.) So here are some of the pictures of the BBQ from her point of view. (I didn't post any nostril or bum pictures this time.)


This one is especially awesome because you can see the top of Alec's head on the bottom of the picture.

And another picture of her legs. She seriously has a variety of tights.

I was leaving my neighborhood the other day to be greeted by this huge inflatable rat. My first thought was, "That's kind of weird to choose for a kids party," and then I noticed a lot of angry people and realized there was a construction labor dispute. The best part is that the following night I had a dream that there was a UFO that landed and giant rats came out and started eating everybody. No joke. And no, I wasn't on any kind of drugs either.

We are still repairing from the awesome pipe leaks in my living room.

And here is Maddie happily showing off her new Easter dress from Aumi Karen. Doesn't she look adorable?

And here is Maddie grumpily trying to get out her stain from lunch. Isn't she still adorable?

Oceanside

We went down to my Grandpa Tingey's beach house in Oceanside over the weekend with my mom, Stan, and brother Brian's family. Maddie & Cole look and act like brother and sister. It was great that they had each other to play with the whole weekend:



Grandma took them out to play while the moms took a break. You would think this place was in the middle of a tropical forest, it is so green and beautiful!





Forts are the coolest thing in the world when you are small:



Here is the little One-Eyed Willy, whom I stole the whole weekend, with Grandma Linda. I told myself that I was doing Candace a favor, but really I was being selfish and a total baby hog.



And, I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family, Baby Emma. (Photographed by Maddie on her mom's iPhone.) Most kids have imaginary friends, but Maddie has imaginary siblings. She puts this doll in the nursery every night and goes and gets her every morning. She feeds, changes, and talks to this doll, and it goes everywhere with us. It is so sad and so cute. (I like to tell myself that this baby got her looks from Josh, because she is the funkiest looking doll I have ever seen.)

Newport is a happy place

I remember when Josh took me to Newport Beach the first time, I turned to him and said, in my most eloquent and flowing language that I am well known for, "Newport is a happy place."

Almost eight years later, I still feel the same way. This, right here, on my bike and with my family, is the happiest place on earth: (I may have stolen that from Walt Disney.)



The weather was finally super perfect for a kite fly with my family:






And Josh and Maddie played hide and seek again, forever! This time they updated it and communicated with walkie-talkies too.



Can you find the Madster?



And then we went to Disneyland, which is only about 15 minutes away. Annual passes are the greatest when you use them more than twice in one year!


Am I the only one who didn't know about the canoe ride? The poor guy behind Maddie got splashed like crazy.

And for the record, she definitely DID NOT like the Haunted Mansion.


Then we went to Spaghetti Factory, which is another of my happy places. Maddie insisted on getting Spaghetti with meatballs. I, trying to be a good mother, wanted to teach Maddie the only song I know about meatballs. I sang her the full rendition of "On top of spaghetti.....all covered in cheese.....I lost my poor meatball.....when somebody sneezed......." to which Maddie, very solemnly, replied, "That is so sad!" and thought about it with a frown for at least five minutes. That poor girl has inherited the Stucki girl curse of feeling empathy for all of the sad things in the world, including losing meatballs.....

"My Precious"

Gollum's obsession with The Ring has got nothing on Maddie's obsession with my iPhone. This is what she looks like ALL the time now. I have to tear it from her clenched hands numerous times a day.



Here are some of her pictures from my phone that she took. Apparently, she also has an obsession with her legs.