Madi's 2nd Bday party!

Today was Madi's birthday party and it was really super fun for her. I think she was a little bit overwhelmed initially but really got into opening her presents, the books were a big hit!, and also really enjoyed her cupcake! All of her favorite boy friends were there and to even things out a little Aunt Cathi brought Patience and Jordyn. She had almost all of her grandparents there, just missing one grandpa. The house looked really cute, the food was good, somehow everyone found a place to park and it didn't even rain. A huge success all the way around! Madi is a lucky little girl, good luck trying to think of ANYTHING to get her for Christmas! I'm pretty sure she has just about everything a 2 year old could want....

Happy Birthday Madi!

Today Madi is two years old! Hard to believe, time is just flying by. Here she is at dinner last night showing us how old she is by holding up her two fingers. She also sings "happy birthday to me" and says "I'm the birthday girl" she pretty much has this stuff figured out!

Halloween 08 & 09

Last year Madi was a snail for Halloween, a very cute snail. This year Madi was a little logger for Halloween, a very cute little logger with a wicked mean glare!

Carving pumpkins 08 & 09

I guess I did this backwards...again, here are pictures of the same event just one year apart..

Stoney Ridge Farms 08 & 09

Stoney Ridge farms is a great place to get pumpkins and apples, they have hay rides and a petting zoo and it is a lot of fun. I copied these pictures from Lindsay's camera and thought it would be fun to put last years pictures up along with this years pictures to see how much she has changed in just one year.

Accomodations Ala Afghanistan

Ok, Hopefully I wont be in trouble for posting these photos Cody sent me of the NATO base he is stationed on in Afghanistan. At least I'm not saying where it's located...right? Well if you really want to know you can email me! Anyways it looks pretty much like I figures it might, bleak and depressing.

Painting at CreativiTEA

Last sunday night LIndsay, Jake, Hailey, Madi and myself went to a paint your own pottery place in Fairhaven. It was a fund raiser for one of my friends at work, they were raising money for their international adoption. In this picture Madi looks all sweet and innocent like she didnt paint the table, her arm, her binky, hailey's project, my sleeve...you get the picture. Lesson of the day, probobly dont take your almost 2 year old to a place filled with breakable objects then give her paint and a paint brush! You'd think we were new or something :)

Happy Birthday Cody!

Today is Cody's golden birthday, he is 24 on the 24th! Of course it probobly doesn't feel very golden as he is Afghanistan and I doubt there is cake :) But of course we are all thinking of him and hoping he knows we are sending birthday wishes his way. I sure do miss him and am really looking forward to the day he will be home.

Aahhh the clean house...

It is so nice to be able to drive home to our house after looking at the possible new home site for 2010! It's hard to remember how much work it was to get it to look like this so I suppose it's possible to do it again. (sigh)

Prepare to be un-impressed

is what we should have said to Hailey first....
Sunday we drove over to the property to see what if any progress has been made. Were not expecting it to look great until probobly the spring but it's really hard to look at it now and know what to really expect. The photos show where the house will sit (between the orange markers) the other buildings on the property that are there and will remain used by the cowdens, the pole building thing and the exsisting house with the lawn mower on the roof (dan's house) There is so much to do and a lot of stuff were not sure about so if anything changes in the mean time we'll keep everyone posted. You have to really use your imagination and Hailey was so NOT impressed that she went back to the car immediately after the first picture....teenagers, sheesh!