Back to School ~ 2012

School has finally arrived.  Madison wasn't too excited about getting back into the groove of things, but she was pretty anxious to see her friends.  Last week marked the first week of activities and she did great!  Not one time did she have to be pulled, tugged or even yanked out of bed!  She got up quickly and efficiently.  She isn't one to eat breakfast right away, but did find something to nibble on before heading out the door. 

This year her schedule will consist of Algebra I, Geometry, American History, Spanish I, English/Literature, Writing, Physical Science and Reading.  The exciting news is that she'll get a high school credit for Geometry and Spanish I.  She'll enter high school already completing 2 of the required credits to graduate.  She's already off to a great start! 

Can you believe she's in 8th grade?!  I can't, just think...next year is high school!

Madison headed off to great adventures while Emmalene and I accomplished writing the letter A.  We talked about the letter A, wrote the letter A, said words that begin with the letter A...oh my, you could spend hours on the letter A.  We colored it, we drew it, we shaped Lincoln Logs into the letter A, put magnets on the fridge that were the letter A...we have officially covered the letter A!  This isn't even the best part, Emmalene has been pointing out the letter A everywhere!  We have accomplished the letter A.  Now onto the letter B.  Great things are happening in the Bush home...even the letter B! 

Christmas Memories 2011

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church for a candlelight service. We really enjoyed that as a family. Following service, we had a quick dinner and went home to get ready for Santa.

Some of the photos are a little out of sequence, but you'll find lots of smiling faces as we traveled through Christmas Eve to New Years Day.
These are a couple of cute photos taken in Emmalene's room one night before bedtime. The girls were being silly and playing on the floor with one another.

Madison had just as much fun playing with Emmalene's toys as she did her own. Emmalene got a cash register with play credit cards and money. It also came with a shopping basket and food. They've both enjoyed playing grocery store together!

Madison's special gift this year was a cell phone. She was very excited!

A quick photo taken while the girls were listening to iTunes. Emmalene begs Madison to take her to the office to sing.

Emmalene got a baby doll that drinks a bottle, snores and cries! She doesn't quite know what to think about all of that! She got her binky and waited for us to hold the baby first. A lot for her to take in!

Emmalene played with the baby while she was in the box, but once out, she needed a little reassurance that she really isn't scary!

When Emmalene opened this outfit she said, "It's so cute!"Enjoying a warm cup of hot cocoa.

Emmalene was excited that Madison kneeled down beside her. While trying to take the photo, she was more interested in smiling at Madison.

My brother normally takes our Christmas photos, but this year he was pretty busy. So, I decided to do them myselves. I got the kids dressed in their Christmas best and let them pose themselves around the Christmas tree and Nativity scene. They really had a lot of fun since they thought they were in charge of the photo shoot!

My sweet Madison! She loos so grown up!

Emmalene was intrigued by the Nativity scene. She played with the figures for awhile. What a cute photo this turned out to be.

Once I moved the Nativity in front of the tree, Emmalene really had fun going from corner to corner trying to investigate every inch of it.

This is my favorite Christmas photo of Emmalene, you can only see a little of her sweet face, but oh how glorious the glow on her face as she looks at Baby Jesus!

Madison chose this really pretty top to go with dress pants. She looks so pretty!

Too precious for words! Oh, how I always longed for a sister. I hope their relationship is strong for eternity!

Two sweet angel faces!

2011 Christmas Memories

Fear the Spear!

Bruce grew up in the Panhandle and grew up watching the Florida State Seminoles. He has shared his passion for this team with Madison. In a surprise gesture from one of Bruce's clients, he was offered two tickets to FSU's Homecoming Game in November.

He came home and shared the exciting news and we decided this would be an excellent father/daughter weekend. They took a road trip to the home field and enjoyed dinner out. She came back with exciting stories of watching a live college football game that aired on TV the same night. (They were both hoping for their 5 seconds of TV fame!)

They had a great time and I'm thrilled they had an excellent time together. Memories in the making...that's what life is all about!


A quick photo before the road trip begins! Madison said they "jammed" with the radio and Daddy taught her neat facts about FSU.
A photo of the entrance into FSU's stadium.

Thanksgiving...without photos!

I didn't take my camera to any Thanksgiving festivities this year! It wasn't exactly on purpose either. We were pretty busy Thanksgiving morning and I forgot it. So, you'll just have to imagine it in your mind as I describe our day.

We got up and had some breakfast around 8:00 AM. Following that, we watched the Macy's Day Parade which is my favorite part! My kids enjoyed it too.

My in-laws were down and staying with my sister-in-law, so we were heading there for lunch. I started cooking some side dishes to go with the turkey that they were preparing. We finished up a little later than I had planned. We arrived around 12:30 at their house for lunch. We ate shortly after getting there and visited until 2:00 PM. I headed to my parent's home with the girls and visited with my family until around 7 PM. Bruce and his parent's got there around 5. We nibbled a little, but were still pretty full from our HUGE lunch!
We headed home shortly after coffee and relaxed for the rest of the night. The warm weather didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, but it's Florida...it's not going to get too cool anyway.

Overall, we all had a great day. We saw family, met a few new friends, and ate way too much. So the season begins!

The Pumpkin Patch

There was a small pumpkin patch in town at the beginning of October. We took the kids to let them pick out a pumpkin. The activities were too young for Madison, but Emmalene had a good time.

They also had a couple picture stages for you to take your own photos with a fall background. This photo was taken with Madison and Emmalene in front of an old tractor and scarecrow.

When I look at this photo, it makes me realize how small Emmalene is!

Bruce walked around the park with Emmalene and she found this bear statue. She was quite interested in touching him.

Emmalene was mesmorized by the people and all of the pumpkins! She would stand and stare at the different size pumpkins and try to pick up a few. She would then stare at all of the little kids running around. So much for a little mind to take in!

Emmalene kept going back to this pumpkin, the one with the UGLY spot! We convinced her to leave it alone.

Madison saw a couple of friends that she knew and visited with them. Emmalene had a good time running from one area to the next and we all enjoyed a day out together!

My Pumpkin Creation

I saw this pumpkin idea on the new site Pinterest. Basically, you trace anything onto the pumpkin and then glue on buttons. I couldn't find the color buttons that I needed so I used beads and traced our last name initial. I tied a black ribbon to the stem.

Halloween is my least favorite holiday, but I thought this was classy take on decorating for this time of the year.

Youth Night, Kix, Pizza, & Jazz Shoes

No...none of these topics go together, but I wanted to get several photos posted fast. So, the first grouping is from a sleepover. Mark came down to go with Madison to a Youth Night Movie at church and decided to spend the night. We pulled the twin mattress out and the kids piled on to watch another movie when they got home. Cousin sleepovers...can you have anymore fun?

Emmalene took her bowl of dry Kix and put them on the floor while she played with her toys. Snapped these photos while she was on the floor.

Madison had a friend over the night, Camille, and we had pizza for dinner. This is a cute photo of the girls.

This was Emmalene's first time having pizza. We cut off the bottom half and gave her the top triangle. She munched away and had fun listening to the girls giggle because that's what girls do...giggle! :)

Emmalene loves to wear our shoes, especially Madison's. She slipped on her jazz shoes and pushed her grocery cart around the kitchen.