Enjoying Our New Home

After a crazy, frantic move, we are finally able to enjoy our new home! We pushed the process to make sure we were settled before Logan starts school. And we made that deadline by 4 days!!! Whew! Logan is enrolled in Preschool at Barbara Bush Elementary School - the same school that his cousins, Kayli (6th grade), Brooklyn (4th grade), and Kyler (1st grade) are going to!! He is super excited to be with his cousins :)

Our imaginative big boy playing "superheroes" yet again!!

The boys "swimming" in our ginormous tub in our master bath

Happy 2 yr old "helping" Mommy and Daddy move

Logan cannot get enough of our new pool, especially the diving board ;)

 

 With our boys in the doorway of our new home. Here is to many years of happy, fun memories in this new home!

My mantra for the last few months!

                                                  
                                                   

Feeling Abundantly Blessed

With all the changes that have been going on in our lives the past couple of months, I am beyond thankful for 3 men that keep me honest and grounded! In all the chaos, they help me realize what is most important! Our boys have an amazing Daddy who leads by example and is the solid foundation of our family. 

Daddy having a "sleepover" with the boys 

Best friends for life!

Took some time away to play at the Children's Museum

Building forts together - they make such an awesome team!

Land of the Free because of the Brave

Happy Fourth of July from the Madler Family!!!

God Bless America!!!

Best Daddy Ever!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy our boys could ever ask for! God has blessed us with an amazing man of character and integrity with a strong stable faith in God who always puts his family first. What an awesome positive influence for our boys - we love you SO much!!

Where have the last 2 years gone?!?

Happy 2nd Birthday to our sweet, talkative, smart, loving, snuggly, spunky, energetic, fun, happy 'lil boy!! We love you so much Landon and cannot believe you are 2 already! We love that you have had a mind of your own since day 1 and you're not afraid to speak your mind ;)  You fill our lives with such an amazing joy! We love to watch you with your big brother the most - you admire and look up to your big brother and follow him everywhere (and Logan takes it all in stride!). You will do amazing things Landon because you are a determined, loving, sweet boy and we are so blessed to call you OUR little boy :)

Cannot celebrate being 2 without a Thomas the Train birthday cake!

Licking the frosting before Mom can even start working on the cake ;)

 

All for one and one for all
My brother and my friend
What fun we have
The time we share
Brothers 'til the end.
~Author Unknown

Change is good... Right??!

After spending the last 6+ years working on a VERY busy medical/surgical unit in a large acute care facility, I am leaving to go work at a small outpatient pediatric surgery center. Needless to day, it is going to be an adjustment but change is good, right?! 

I have wanted to work Pediatrics since I started nursing school back in 2003. It has always been such a strong desire in my heart but the opportunity just wasn't there. It was a hard pill to swallow that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't meant to be a Pediatric Nurse just yet... Now that I look back on the last 6 years, I know why God had me start my nursing career at BBMC. I needed to understand the "big picture", work on my critical thinking skills, gain the confidence and skill of being a more "seasoned" nurse, but most of all, it made me the holistic, compassionate, supportive, spiritual being I need to be to become an amazing (not just good... Amazing!) Pediatric RN!!

Here's to putting my faith in God's Hands and allowing Him to do amazing things through my willing hands!

Exploring Arizona

We took a last minute trip last weekend up to Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ. We have been wanting to explore Arizona more than just the Valley and now we are finally doing just that! Logan had been asking to go fishing for a few months now so it was the perfect opportunity to see more of northern AZ. We drove 3 hours northeast up to the White Mountains and enjoying a relaxing weekend in the pine trees. Lots of exploring, fishing, boating, eating, and enjoying the cool fresh mountain air... I wouldn't be surprised if we end up going up there again soon because we had such a great time :)

Summertime is Here!!!

Logan has enjoyed EVERY minute of Preschool this school year! He had an absolutely amazing teacher and it was a great introduction to school for him. Since Logan's birthday is the end of September, we decided to have him take one more year of Preschool... Plus Mommy's not ready to have a Kindergartner just yet ;)

His favorite buddies, Andrew and David

Logan's amazing teacher, Mrs. S

Even though Logan is taking one more year of Preschool (along with 3 other kiddos in his class), Mrs. S made a point to involve them in the class's Preschool Graduation Ceremony! He had a great time and she made a memory book full of pictures from throughout the year (great momentos for Mommy!). 

Mother's Day 2013

"Making a decision to have a child--it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." 

A Much Needed Vacation!

After almost 7 years of marriage and 2 children, Chuck and I finally decided to take a trip together - JUST THE TWO OF US! Chuck's 30th birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity to get away for a few days.

As hard as it was for us to leave the boys behind, we were so grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were willing to step up to the challenge ;) Chuck and I both needed the time off with each other to refocus... 

After checking into our hotel, our first stop was to see our niece Marriah, who is currently attending the University of Chicago. U of C has an amazing campus full of history with a mix of old buildings with gorgeous architecture and new modern buildings. 

We were famished after touring Marriah's campus most of the afternoon... So we decided that our first mission was to find a restaurant that had authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizzas. We found the perfect spot, Pizzeria Uno. Yummy!!

We made sure that our trip was a nice mix of sight-seeing, eating, and just taking it easy. We really had no agenda (other than the Cubs game on Sat), and we REALLY enjoyed just doing whatever!

The view of downtown Chicago from our hotel room. 

Friday we decided to walk out to Navy Pier. It was a cold, rainy day so we took in the sights and then headed back inside to find yet another restaurant (I feel like all we did was EAT on this entire trip!!)

Since it was cold, we explored inside Navy Pier and I found a stained glass exhibit that was fascinating!

 View of the lake off Navy Pier

A cold, cloudy, rainy Chicago day could not keep us from enjoying our time together!

Saturday, on our way to the train station, to go to Wrigley Field, we saw that it was snowing!! Baseball and snow do NOT go together! But we were determined to see the Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley :)

After the cold baseball game, Chuck and I wanted to treat Marriah to her first deep dish pizza. She has lived in Chicago since October and had yet to try an authentic Chicago deep dish.... Off we went to Geno's East!

In amongst all the eating, Chuck and I meandered around the streets of downtown Chicago taking in all the sights and sounds. Living in a downtown area is worlds different than our quiet life in the suburbs!

More eating... this time was Bubba Gump's Shrimp CO. Delicious!

Chicago skyline

On our last night in Chicago, we made reservations at the Signature Room on the 96th floor on the John Hancock building. It was fun to get dressed up and enjoy a fancy meal together ;)

A much needed vacation for sure!

 A special thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for loving on our boys while Chuck and I spent some much needed time together. The boys had so much fun that they didn't even realize we were gone ;) Love you both so much!! xoxoxo