Pantry Re-Do

Some of you may know that my sister and I had started a blog together a while back where we were sharing recipes, DIY projects and miscellaneous other things.  Well, as you may have figured out that blog has since gone by the wayside, I mean I barely have the time to keep this blog up, let alone a whole separate blog.  So, I decided I would use our family blog to share all things that are our family...not just Madelyn updates.  This is one of those updates!!

We don't have a very big pantry in our kitchen, yet it had become overwhelming with all the disorganization.  I couldn't tell what we had and I knew some things that were shoved to the back probably needed to be thrown out.  So I decided it needed to be cleaned out, I literally took each and every last thing out of that closet pantry.  I wiped the shelves down and then began my throwing away process, surprisingly I only had a few items that had expired, mainly can goods.  I put the items we use the least on the top shelf, let's face it, no one in our family is winning any height awards.  I decided to take all of the granola bars, bags of popcorn and other snack things out of the boxes and stack them in a basket.  I also made Madelyn her own little bowl of her treats like fruit snacks, applesauce pouches and of course Oreos.

So I organized everything and now it appears we have NO food!!  I mean it's amazing how much room the boxes things come in take up, it's a good thing we recycle because I had a ton of cardboard to get rid of.  I also learned that I don't need any white balsamic vinegar, I had three bottles.

Here are the before/ after pictures!!  I realize this is only exciting to a few people, for me it's the little things in life I guess...like an organized pantry!

 

BEFORE

AFTER



1st Dentist Trip and the State Fair

Madelyn had her first dentist visit with her Aunt Margaux last weekend, we had attempted it one other time but she was scared so we let her watch Adam and I get our teeth cleaned.  The second trip was a success, she climbed right up in the chair and was a super star!!  Margaux was so good with her and explained what everything was and what she was going to do, she even gave her a cool pair of sunglasses to wear so the light wouldn't be too bright. 

I am happy to report she had a great report...mom on the other hand needs to have her wisdom teeth taken out. :(

What better place to go dirty your clean teeth then the Indiana State Fair?  We ventured to the fairgrounds later the same afternoon, we took in the sights, got to see lots of animals and of course had "junk" food.  Madelyn is a big kettle corn fan so we got a big bag of that, I had a yummy ear of corn, Adam got his Indiana Ribeye sandwich and we finished with shakes from the Dairy Barn.  Next year we probably won't schedule our teeth cleaning on the same day we plan to visit the fair.

Madelyn loved the horses this year, I think we saw and attempted to pet every single horse at the fair.  This of course made me proud, I have always loved them as well.  I keep trying to convince Adam we need horses!!  I will let you know if that ever works out for me, for now we will have to settle with seeing them at the fair every year.

Our Cheerleader!

We have quite the active three year old these days, it's been very hard keeping her indoors on these 100+ degree days. Adam and I have spent many nights being entertained by Madelyn as she sings, does gymnastics and likes to dress up and perform for us.  She even moved the coffee table out of the middle of the living room by herself the other night so she could work on her forward rolls. 

After researching the area dance classes, gymnastics gyms and cheer gyms we decided to enroll her in a weekly tumbling and cheer class at Indiana Elite All-Stars.  So far she has attended 2 classes and she seems to be more interested in the tumbling part then the cheer part.  Our first night at the gym she immediately wanted to know where the "bars" were?  We watched a lot of the Olympic gymnastics!  As of now we are going to continue with this class and at the end we will see if we need to move on to more of a gymnastics class vs. the cheer.  There is no denying the girl is ridiculously strong!!

Here are a few pictures from her first class, sorry they are a little dark.

Where Do I Begin?

Let me first start by saying that all is well with the McCord family, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth and we continue to truck along in this thing called life.  Life is what has been happening and therefore not so much blogging, for that I apologize and hope I can get back on track to at least give a weekly update.

It's been almost 6 months since my last post, needless to say I have a lot to cover. Rather then doing numerous posts to get caught up I will fill you in with one post of the highlights.

We celebrated Madelyn's 3rd birthday with a trip to Disney World!!  It was a complete blast and we loved every minute of her excited, surprised face. It was also her first trip on an airplane and she was a champ!!  We got in plenty of pool time, we tried to spend half day at the parks and the other half at the pool.  We spent the majority of our time at Magic Kingdom but took in Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney as well.  It was definitely a trip we will try and plan every few years, I feel like any more than that and it could lose its excitement. 

After we returned home from our trip we had Maddy's official birthday party with friends and family, it was a beautiful day and we were able to celebrate with those closest to us.  The party was of course Minnie Mouse theme!

We have spent quite a bit of time this summer at Adam's parents house, on the lake and boating.  We enjoy and appreciate having them so close and that they welcome us any weekend for a little relaxation time on the water.  We spent 4th of July there and had a great time, the lake association always puts on a good firework show.

We also took a train ride in Noblesville, you can ride the train from the train station to downtown Noblesville and back.  It was Adam's 1st train ride, Madelyn and I had ridden the State Fair Train a few years ago.  We walked around downtown and had brunch at a really cute restaurant called Uptown.  Noblesville has a great square with lots of little shops and restaurants.
 Enjoy a few pictures from our summer!

My best friend Kara and I decided we were going to become "runners" this summer.  We started a training program together and signed up for our first 5K race.  I can say I was a bit hesitant but knew I needed to do something to get in shape.  Kara was the best person for me to go through this with, we just "get" each other and I knew if I could do it she would get me through it.  It wasn't easy but we completed our mission on July 28th!!  We ran the Color Run, basically you run and they have stations where people spray paint on you.  We figured it would be fun and light hearted for our first race, it was a blast and though still challenging for new runners we would both do it again in a heartbeat. To my surprise I actually enjoy running now and find it relaxing in a weird way. Strange I know!! Here are a few before and after pictures!

We have many more fun things to share but this gets us caught up for the most part, my goal is to do a better job in getting this blog updated on a regular basis. As you all know life gets hectic sometimes, but I do enjoy writing the blog and I love that I will have this for us to look back on for years to come!!
xoxo
~Sara~