Happy Valentine's Day

Madison and my valentine's day craft. I'm not sure who got more into it... her or I, but it was fun none-the-less. She did love pulling them out of the tray after they were done...

Peel crayons and put them into pan

melt 230 degrees for 15 minutes

Let cool... I stuck them in freezer which seemed to help them pop out

fyi... I'd stick to similar colored crayons or at least group them in the tray and take them out carefully... if they all mix together it seems to produce brown crayons :).

And the conversations continue...

Madison walks out of her room tonight while supposedly trying to go to bed. When I told her she needed to return she told me that she had heard something ("sumfin") outside....

Madison - "I heard something outside." ("I hewd sumfin out-ide")

Me - "What did it sound like?"

Madison blows twice...

Me - "Maybe it was an animal... maybe a squirrel."

Madison - "Ya, maybe a squirrel... or a giraffe."

Matt Turned 30!

For Matt's 30th birthday I decided to throw him a bit of a party... and it's always more fun to be surprised, so I planned it myself. Even though he hacked into my facebook account (or maybe I left it open), he figured it out, but it was still very fun. Happy Birthday to my favorite!

Merry Christmas From the Hofferts!

Christmas Eve...

Christmas Cookies

Us girls (and TT) were excited all season to make our annual batch of Christmas cookies. We headed to Gramma Lori and Papa's. I remember when my Mom and I were saying, "Next year Madison will be old enough to eat a Christmas Cookie." Then it was, "Next year she'll be old enough to help decorate." And now it is here, and decorate she did. We made a batch of sugar cookies and she sat at my parents counter for at least an hour and sprinkled those frosted cookies like it was her job... very serious about her task. She made sure each part of the cookie contained a sprinkle before moving on to the next. We went home with lots of beautiful and some yummy cookies :).

...and P.S... I have officially taught her all of my weird faces and she loves to use them to make people laugh. Often her brother. The other day I heard her telling Eliott, "El-t, look, I'm going to make a funny face, look." Then she'd make a face and make this funny laugh that is like the laugh of an adult who is 'sympathy laughing'... if that makes sense.

Picking Out The Perfect Tree!

When we were younger our family cut down a tree every year... a fun memory. Now that we have kids, we have cut down our own tree. This year was fun since Madison is so in tune to what is going on. She was very excited to cut down our tree since she had already decorated Gramma Lori and Papa Paul's tree. So we bundled up and headed out. We went over to a batch of trees that looked the right size for our house. The second tree we saw, Madison said, "My want this tree". We told her that we liked it too (except for the crooked trunk :)) but told her that we should look through all the trees before we make a final decision. So we looked through the rows of tree. After awhile we asked Madison which one she liked and she walked several yards back to the original tree she had picked out and told us again that this was her favorite. Matt lipped at me, "It has a crooked trunk", I said, "how can we not get it?". So we brought it home, crooked trunk and all. Matt actually did an incredible job of straightening it up!