Easter Sunday

Our little family photo. The sun was shinning right into our eyes, so it made it difficult for us all to smile. We had a beautiful day with wonderful warm weather. Each of the girls had a matching dress for their American Girl Dolls. So cute and so sweet! Yes, we fixed two out of the three dolls hair. Unfortunately, Lydia's doll's hair did not get fixed. I don't think she seemed to mind too much.

We had Mimi and Pawpaw with us on Easter and Nana. Over the weekend we enjoyed celebrating Madelyn's 8th birthday.

Creation Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio...

We began our road trip right after church on Sunday. We ate our Easter Lunch at Steak and Shake and made our long journey to Cincinnati. It took about five hours to finally arrive at our hotel to find out that our hotel pool was under construction. Are you kidding me? That is what my kids have waited for! Luckily, they had relations to the hotel next door for us to use. We actually only used the pool once because we were so busy. Our hotel was 30 minutes from the museum.

The museum takes a full two days to enjoy everything the museum has to offer. Very family friendly, kid friendly, enjoyable for the whole family. The botanical gardens are beautiful, the petting zoo the kids loved, great cafe, planetarium, shows, dinosaur exhibit, walk through museum that is truly a great experience.

We spent all day Monday and most of the day on Tuesday at the Museum. Tuesday was Madelyn's actual birthday and she wanted a steak dinner. Cincinnati does not have a lot to choose from where we were. So, Logan's Steakhouse is where we had dinner. We then went to the all famous Graters Ice Cream (Oprah Winfrey's favorite). We had a blast celebrating together and just being together in a hotel is the kids favorite.

My Little Girl is 8...

Happy Birthday to Madelyn Jewel. Madelyn was born at 11:59pm, one minute shy of April 7th. She is named after Aunt Martha Jewel, my grandfather's sister. She was born one day shy of her due date. The day of her birth, I went to a toy party having contractions and believing this is the day. After the party, Steve and I went to Sonic, but the pain grew worse. I then proceeded home to walk and drink water and lay on my left side, but my pain level grew! I went into the hospital at 4pm and she was born 8 hours later. Where did the time go? Eight-I have had her eight years! I am completely blessed with all my precious girls. Eight just seems like such a big number. She even looks older, how can that be?

Madelyn is an amazing daughter. She is the oldest of her sisters. She is thoughtful, loving, helpful, sincere, kind, loves the life God blessed her with, loves the Lord with all her heart and always puts others first before herself. Her heart is a precious jewel just like herself.