My Pretty Petals- Wedding Flowers

For years I have wanted to start my own floral business for weddings and events.

This month I made my dreams come true and My Pretty Petals is now officially open for business. In the last three weeks I have already booked 4 weddings!! I am really excited and hope I stay busy through the summer while I am not teaching. Check out my website and tell all of your engaged friends.

www.myprettypetals.com

Here is my logo and some of my photos

   

 

Miss Madi in March

March has been pretty dull in our house, but Madi has still managed to keep herself entertained. She is always up to her darling little shenanigans. For example...

What is missing in this bed an hour after bedtime?

Oh yes, the 3 year old

Oh wait, she is as snug as a bug in a rug... In her mommy's bed

She is one sneaky little ninja.

Madi waited a long time to build a snowman and finally got her wish a few weeks ago. After 5 minutes outside this is what she was doing... 

not helping with the snowman, but wandering the yard with a butter knife. 

Have no fear though, the snowman was built by daddy.

After about 40 minutes I thought maybe I should go check on James and make sure he was still alive and this is what James was doing...

Yeah, you guessed it ... building the abominable snowman in our front yard.

I love my 2 weirdos very much!

Here's an Update

I made the mistake of leaving James home alone with Madi last Friday, so they went to the pet store and came home with "Nemo". Let's Just hope he lives longer than a few weeks so I don't have to explain the cycle of life to Madi!

We went to the Bean Museum last Saturday with our next door neighbors, the Longs. Their little boy Austin is exactly a month older than Madi and they are best friends!

... Yeah I don't know why they are leaning... I guess the best possible conclusion is: They are 3!

Madi celebrated Valentine's Day with her first Valentine's treats. She made them for all of her friends at school. (Note to self, don't buy them until the night before next time so that we don't have to talk about them and carry them around the house for 2 weeks!)

We took Madi out bowling and it was the worst $22 ever spent! Okay I might be exaggerating, but we drove there played and were home within the hour. Not a good time/cost ratio, but we had fun.

Couldn't resist the cool shoes!

After about 20 minutes of bowling this is what Madi did...

James and Madi have been busy making forts and having lots of fun while mom is busy teaching. Hopefully someday soon Mommy will get to be busy making forts while daddy is busy working. Dad better enjoy it while he can. Madi doesn't even realize how lucky she is to have so much precious time with just her dad.

... and that is the end of the update.

Happy Valentine's Day to the Man I LOVE!

It was a short 5 1/2 years ago that our love began with a phone call...

"Hello, Is the most gorgeous girl in the world there?"

"Yes, this is Chris."

"Will you go out to dinner with me tonight?"

"I would love to. As long as it is not seafood."

Well it definitely wasn't seafood. It was Taco Hell. I should have gasped and ran, but who was I to deny a good looking boy a night out? And besides I love Taco Bell. That day as we sipped our Baja Blast Mountain Dew we knew it was love at first sight. The picture is proof. He can't even take his eyes off me while he drinks.

The dinner was followed by some playful wrestling... the "G-Rated" kind.

And the date was sealed with a smooch!

Here we are February 15th 2010.

The little Rascal (Madi) is away at Grandma's.

We are headed out today for our Valentine's date...

*Lunch at Taco Bell (Some things never change)

* Movie in Salt Lake

*Walk around and enjoy the city

* Check-In at the hotel

* A little wrestling... now the "PG-13" kind

* And many, many smooches!

Happy Valentine's Day to my one and only true love, Mr. James Paul Shores.

Madi loves hanging out with her Aunties (Erin, Gioia and Stacey). This morning she was downstairs with them getting her nails done, something she does often, and they were able to catch her doing some performances. These are all things she has learned at her preschool. She loves school and she is so smart. She also has an amazing teacher that does a fabulous job!


Now Showing...

Madi singing the Months of the Year song

Madi reciting the Pledge of Allegiance

Madi singing the Money Song

Madi singing the Days of the Week song

* I apologize for the poor quality. They are from a cell phone.

Daddy's Proudest Moment

For those of you that don't know, James and I despise character clothing. Madi has a few, but they are only allowed to be jammies. In fact I can actually say James HATES Dora the Explorer! He forbade me to ever let Madi watch it, buy a toy, clothing etc.
I was a good wife and obeyed his demands... like always :)

... But then one day a certain grandmother and aunt by the names of Pat and Nicki decided to infest our homes with not one, not two, but dozens of Nicki's old Dora videos! Now our once innocent daughter has been overcome with Dora's influence.
Let's just say James is less than ecstatic.

... I don't like Dora myself, but it is was pretty darn cute when I was flipping channels for Madi and I accidently put it on a Spanish cartoon channel and she said, "Mom this is Spanish!" and then a few days later when we were checking out at the grocery store and out of no where Madi counted to 5 in Spanish, "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco!"

Dora is NOT cool, but Madi sure is cool.

ABC's of Me

ABC's of Me

A - Age: 28
B - Bed size: California King
C - Chore you hate: Washing Dishes
D - Dog's name: None
E - Essential start your day item: Morning Urination
F - Favorite color: Turquoise
G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: Silver
H - Height: 5' 6.5987"
I - Instruments you play: 'Rock Band' Drums and NOT well!
J - Job title: 2nd Grade Teacher (Glorified Babysitter if you ask my husband)
K - Kids -1
L - Living arrangements: 6 bed/ 3 baths
M - Mom's name: Pat
N - Nicknames: Volume, Nugget, Dink
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Bone Marrow transplant (5 weeks in 2007).
P - Pet Peeves: My husband saying he doesn't want a drink at the movie theater and then drinking all mine before the previews are over. Love you babe.
Q - Quote from a movie: I fall asleep before they start talking :)
R - Right handed or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 4 sisters and 2 brothers
T - Time you wake up: 5:30 am
U- Underwear: Yes
V - Vegetable you dislike: Mushrooms
W - Ways you run late: Always. I forget that it takes 10 minutes to get Madi into the car. She is usually putting the keys in my door, running around the front yard, putting all her "things" in the car.
X - X-rays you've had: Lots, but last week was a Chest X-Ray.
Y - Yummy food you make: Sweet Pork tacos
Z - Zoo favorite: Tiger
ITS YOUR TURN NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas... Christmas... and MORE Christmas

This year Christmas was fabulous as always... even though I enjoyed most of it from the couch and bed. I was sick with fevers, head cold and a miserable cough. A cough so bad I cracked a rib! I spent Christmas Eve morning at the doctor, Christmas Day and the rest of break on the couch and in bed. Madi was so patient with me. She wanted to play with all of her new toys and would just just play next to me while I slept. Here she is reading me some of her new books with her stuffed animals.

We spent Christmas Eve at the annual Widdison Family party  in our new Christmas Jammies and then headed to my mom and dad's to open our Sibling Gifts. My sisters (who live with us) stayed the night at my mom and dad's, but James, Madi and I went home to our house.

We woke up Christmas morning and had stockings filled with goodies and presents from Santa. It was so fun to see Madi so excited.  Every present she would say, "Who is this From?" or "Thank you mommy it's my favorite!" James bought me the best gift... a really nice Digital Camera! Now I just need to start figuring out how to use it. I need to prove that it was a good investment. James got shoes, clothes, a wallet and other practical stuff. He was sad that there were no toys... maybe next year. This year was my turn to be spoiled! Madi got more than her little heart could handle: ponies, pet shops, books, stuffed animals, cash register, games, toy laptop, Cinderella doll, candy and more.

I feel so blessed to have such and amazing husband, daughter and family. I love the holidays. I love eating, playing, talking and laughing with all of them. It gets loud and busy and crazy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love our different personalities, our stubbornness and our kindness. I am so glad that our Savior Jesus Christ provided a way that we can be a family forever.

Old McMadi Had a Farm, E-I-E-I-O

We celebrated Madison's birthday this year with a farm themed party. I made the invitations using Lettering Delights clipart and fonts. It was a lot of fun and really cheap to make them!

After we cancelled the party due to illness and rescheduled for the next Saturday the party was a big success. All of her friends were able to come and have a good time. My friend Holly, that I teach with, let me borrow the barn from her classroom and I made some life-size animals to decorate.

The kids had fun playing in the barn, wearing their cowboy hats, fishing for ducks and winning prizes.

A little farm bingo...

Getting candy from the horse pinata... 

Eating pizza, chicken nuggets, fruit, chips, cupcakes and ice cream. 

I had a lot of fun making the pig, chick, and sheep cupcakes with my sister Erin. They were so fast and easy to make. I love cupcakes!

Everyone was happy and went home with a sugar high!

And the little birthday girl went down for a much need 2 1/2 hour nap!

Madison Gage is 3 today!!

My little miracle baby is 3 today. I wish I could say we celebrated with a great party yesterday, but James and I have been in bed since Wednesday with coughs and fevers! We have the flu! I think we might be the last ones in the state of Utah to finally get it. Maybe next year we won't procrastinate the Flu Shot.

We had to cancel Madi's party yesterday and postpone it until next Saturday. She wasn't too sad. All she really knew about the party was that Grandma and Nicki and her friends were coming and she was finally going to get to open her presents. So being the great parents we are we sang her Happy Birthday on Friday (2 days before her birthday), let her open her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Shores, Aunt Erin, Aunt Gioia and Aunt Stacey and then we shipped her off to Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt's house to play with Nicki for the weekend. Now James and I can get better without getting the birthday girl sick. I had so much fun planning her party this year and can't wait for next weekend.

In the meantime here are Madison's 3-year old portraits. This year I went cheap and did them myself... it is pretty obvious. The quality leaves a lot to be desired, but the subject is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY, and FUNNY!

At this point in the photo shoot Madi realized she was a little model and began her own posing! She is such a ham and always makes me laugh. I love her to pieces!

Who couldn't love this ridiculously fake laugh?

Family Picture 2009

Not my favorite, but I think the older I get the pickier  

I get. This is the first year I started noticing wrinkles. The quality isn't great because we just took them in the backyard with my old camera. A new camera is the only thing on my Christmas list so hopefully Santa brings me one!