Trip to Arkansas

The weekend right before Christmas mom, dad, Kim, Madi and I went to Arkansas to visit Jason and Tiffani. We brought them their Christmas gifts to open. Here are some pictures from our nice visit.

Madi trying on a hat that is much much to large.

Opening Christmas presents.

Right before church. Doesn't Madison look adorable in her Christmas outfit?!

Baby's First Christmas!

For Madison's first Christmas we were at my parents house. She had alot of fun opening her presents. She liked pulling strips of paper off the gifts quite a bit. Almost more then playing with her actual gifts.:) She was very excited the whole. She stiffened up and did alot of wrist twisting.
Her pj's in all the pictures but one was picked out by her daddy. They just say "Baby's First Christmas".

She recieved "Marie" from Aristocats. She gave her big hugs.

Among the other gifts she also received Tigger. She loves soft things so Tigger received many hugs as well.

"Can I open this gift first." (The back of this outfit said "Santa Baby.We found it at Cracker Barrel.")

First Trip to Cabelas

Mom, Dad and I went to Cabelas to do some shopping. It was pretty late for Madison so she slept for most of the shopping excursion but she did wake up towards the end so we took her to see the animals. There was a bear closest to the railing so we pointed to it and said what it was. I don't know why exactly but I thought I'd show her what a bear said. So after giving a crazy bear growl to her she laughed really hard. I continued to growl at her until she quit laughing. It was the cutest thing! I guess she thought I sounded pretty funny as well.

You can see the infamous bear in the background.

Little Piano Player

The other day we thought it would be fun to let Madison play the piano. She did really well with not hitting it too hard and as you can see, thoroughly enjoyed her time. :) When she gets older we might have to let her take some lessons.

Deep into a sonata.

1st Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we had tons of family come to my mom's house for dinner. It was alot of fun and very nice seeing so much family at once. Below are a couple group pictures from the day

My sisters, brother, sister in-law(their "baby") and mom and dad.

The girls just hanging out.

My precious little girl!

She was able to try some potatoes for her Thanksgiving dinner and she got all stiff with excitement. It was fun being able to introduce her in person to everyone.

Starbucks is Everywhere!

Mike is over in Iraq at the moment but when he made it to Kuwait he told me he had found a Starbucks there. I thought it would be fun to share a picture of him with the Starbucks in Kuwait. :)

Amanda's Wedding

At the beginning of November Madison and I flew to Texas for my cousin's wedding as you know and I just wanted to post some cute pictures that we took.

Madison and Aunt Kim. Look at how they both have the squinty smiles.


Grandpa having a little time with the squirmer. :)

9 Months Old

As you all saw our Madison turned 9 months old last Saturday. She defnitely did some growing up this past month. She is keeping me very busy and helping the deployment go by quicker. It seems that just when I need it she'll just start smiling really big at me or start fake laughing. I can't help but get a smile on my face as well.

Update time, this past month she:
*weighs 16 lbs. 1oz and is 26.3 in. long and the Dr. said perfectly healthy :)
*learned to crawl..yay!
*learned to pull herself to standing and also will try standing with her bottom up in the air and her hands still on the ground ( it's so cute)
*said "mama" indiscrimintely as well as other "words"
*had to say goodbye to her daddy :(
*loves to hear his voice over the phone, I can tell because she gets this really big adorable smile when she hears him
*flew on a plane for the very first time to Texas
*had her first cold
*likes to grunt and kind of make a growling sound (it's hard to explain) :)
*spent her first church service in the nursery

Being silly.

Her and Rufus playing with the same box. :)

One of her favorite pasttimes....standing on anything that she can pull up on.

First Time Flying

We went to my cousin Amanda's wedding in Texas so it was Madison's first time on a plane. She looked so cute in her umbrella stroller. Unfortunetely she lost her dinner on the trip to Texas but the return she did great. They flight wasn't really full so we were able to have two seats.

All ready to go.

The latest Madison Phase

Madison went through this funny stubborn phase where she didn't want to sit down in her highchair. Instead she'd stiffen up her legs, pooch out her belly and push her chin into her chest; revealing a double chin. This phase is almost completely over now but this picture I got one morning of her is so cute and shows what she was doing perfectly.

Awwww, our little cutie!!! :)

New Bunny Slippers and Winter Hats

Since we are going to Nebraska for the holidays I thought I'd better get Madison winterized.:) I bought her these cute little bunny slippers. She hasn't worn much of anything on her feet all summer because it's just too hot so having something on those little toes was quite a change for her. Also, we tried on some winter hats that were given to us by my Aunt.

Don't I look so cute!

"This is so much fun!"

"I'm so stylish and pretty."

"I don't think so mommy. This one isn't my color."

Hanging out

I was going through some pictures from the week prior of the three of us just hanging out and I found these ones. They are so precious. I love pictures of Mike with his little girl.

This is one of our favorite times of the day because she just lays in our arms and eats her whole bottle. It's her bottle that she gets before bed.

I finally got this picture to download. It should've been in the last post. She decided the slide was better for playing on than sliding down.

"Daddy is so comfy."

Park Time

Tuesday before Mike left we decided to go to the park here in Richmond Hill. It was nice getting out and Madison loved it. Mike took her on down the big slide but she didn't seem to impressed so he helped her slide down the little one. She wouldn't pick her feet up so she just kind of scooted her way down. We have a cute picture of her playing on the little slide but it wouldn't download. I'll post it later when maybe it's working.

Mommy and her little cutie pie.

"Sand on my toes." Mike wanted to let her feel the sand again.

"Yay!!!! Swinging is fun on daddy's lap."

As you can see she loved swinging on her own. She was all laughs and smiles. We would pretend to catch her legs when she'd swing towards us and she would get even more excited. It was so cute!

I also want to just say a quick thank you to those of you who have put Mike and I in your prayers. We really appreciate it!

"D" Day

As many of you know we took Mike to Ft. Stewart on Wednesday to leave for the deployment. It was VERY hard but had to be done. It's nice finally getting it going instead of constantly dreading it. We got some cute pictures to remember each other by so I thought I would share.

It was pretty warm and bright that day which explains Madi's little squinty face.

Hanging out in the car just waiting. Aren't they so cute together!

I figured I better get one with her too. Who could resist that face! Mike really likes that she's grabbing around my head. It's kind of like she's hugging me.

Please keep Mike and I as well as all the other soldiers and their familes in your prayers. They need to be kept safe and we all need to keep an opstimistic attitude.

Uncle Billy's R&R

Billy, Mike's really good buddy from the last deployment has been deployed from here since May. He got his R&R last Wednesday so he visited us for a couple days. It was great hanging out with him again. Mike and him obviously had a great time! Just a little FYI he is "Uncle billy" to Madison because he's like a brother to us and he loves her to death.

We were outside right before Mike and Billy were going to go riding.

Billy and Emily brought Madison her Christmas gift. We let her open it early so that Billy and Mike could see.

It's a cute jean skirt, top, and shoes. "I can't wait until I can wear it."

We've been keeping the bikes while Billy is gone because his house got broken into after he left. So they went for a ride on the bikes and of course they had to get a cool picture.

The guys and Madi. Aren't they all so cute!

8 Months Old

In honor of Madison turning 8 month old today I will give a short update on all she has done this past month.

*She weighs 16lbs. (but doesn't feel that heavy)
*Eats lumpy food and loves snacks such as gerber toasts, sweet potato puffs and other small finger foods
* She has become increasingly aware of her limited mobility and craves to be able to explore her surroundings further through crawling or walking
*STILL wears size 2 pampers even though the amount of wiggling, scooting and rolling around warrants cruisers. We tried the 3's but we had to roll the top down and there was too much extra diaper at the bottom
*Has started using the sippy cup on outings. She gets very excited when we bring it out.
*Will mimic my behavior such as splashing in the tub when I splash
* Today while giving her a bath she discovered the bubbles we had made while washing her up
*She is finally big enough for me to buy her 6-9mo old clothes when shopping. She could fit into some before but it was pushing it
*Mike lowered her crib so that we don't take any chances of her pulling up on the sides and falling over
*Her meal times are alot more normal now, breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and dinner around 5

Below are some cute pics I took of her today while we were hanging out together.

The futon in the office is still out as a bed from my Aunt's visit so I let Madison play on it while I took care of some things on the computer. She got all wore out and was ready to nap 30min before her regular nap. It was so cute picking her up and carring her to her crib to ensure a longer nap. As you can see she has a blankie. She always wants a blanket to cuddle with.

As mentioned above she discovered the bubbles in her bath today. She may have kind of looked at them before but today she was trying to pick them up or at least figure out how to grab them. By looking at this picture I started realizing that her days in the little baby tub are VERY numbered.

Outings

Here are some pictures of us out to dinner and hanging out at a friends house.

I got this dress from a shower. It's so poofy it's adorable!

Aunt Kim, this picture is for you. She looks so cute in the outfit you gave her.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

As you all may know today is my dad's birthday so here is a picture to say Happy Birthday from all of us and especially little Madison!

Me and Daddy

In honor of Madison and her daddy I thought I'd post some pictures of them enjoying each other's company.

Mike LOVES helping Madison stand.
This is also one of their favorite pasttimes. She gets a ride on daddy's shoulders. She's always smiley. Sometimes she grabs his hair and tried to taste it. There is always a face of disgust after realizing that his hair is prickly and not too tasty.

When Mike comes home from work Madison almost always gets so happy. She'll smile and laugh and just be in this great mood! This was taken on Thursday.

Swim Time

Mike was playing around with the camcorder editing program on the computer and he found the way to take frames from a video and make them into pictures. This was from a video we took probably a few weeks ago. We turned the heat off in the hot tub and have used it as a pool so we took Madison out for a little swim.

Playing with her toy.

"Come back."