Who Stole the Candy from the...Candy Jar?

Look at this handsome, young man! He'll be one year old on Tuesday. Bennett was born about 2 1/2 weeks before Madison and today we went to his birthday party. The theme was Mickey and it was all done up in primary colors. It was cute! We took some cute pics of the babies all lined up on the couch. Can't wait to see them.

Madison knows exactly where the candy drawer is in the kitchen. It is so funny, because she gets into it almost everyday. We have a child lock on the drawer, but she can still get it open about an inch. It's amazing how much candy she can pull out of a one inch opening. Little rat!

Cabin Fever...so let's talk about the par-tay!

I'm starting to get cabin fever...although I shouldn't because I'm in this "cabin" all of the time. I did make a run to Kroger today to get some sweetend condensed milk to make snow ice cream. It was great. I bought 3 cans, so we will be having a lot more snow ice cream around her. For those interested in the recipe:

8 cups CLEAN snow
1 can sweetend condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

I actually added a little more snow...at least 2 more cups. The canned milk is so sweet, that it didn't hurt to add a little extra snow to it. I just kept tasting it until it was to my liking...and
Gabe's. ;)

I sent out Madison' 1st birthday party invitations the other day. Didn't they turn out so cute? We just invited our family here and a few babies that were born right around the time she was born. I'm having a blast planning for it!

Stay warm. It's freezing out there!

Our Snow Bunny

CPR Certified & Iced In

Tonight I took a CPR class that Gabe offers each year to his employees. I now feel like I know what to do, should a particular situation ever arise with Madison or anyone else. Madison has had two choking instances before that really scared me. I don't have to be scared anymore.

We could hear the frozen rain falling outside as our class was wrapping up. I'm afraid it may be yucky and icy tomorrow morning. We'll be staying at the house! Sounds like a good day to snuggle up on the couch...I mean, do laundry! ;)

grilled cheese & grapes

Madison is still eating baby food three meals a day, but today I was having a grilled cheese for lunch and didn't feel like messing with feeding her baby food. I know of other babies her age who have been eating sandwich bites for some time now, and I figured Madison would really enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich. I cut it up into little bites, along with grapes cut up into fourths. She really enjoyed her lunch! Yum! Yum!
My little cutie!!!

Yay for introducing new foods. I've tried to feed her lots of other finger foods when she only had 2 teeth, but she had a disadvantage. Now she has FOUR teeth! I think grilled cheese sandwiches may stick around as her lunch menu for a while!

Celebrating 11 Months and The Birthday Diva

Our baby is 11 months old... It's getting harder and harder to take your picture!

Look what Madison got in the mail today! Her very first OBU tiger t-shirt. Ouachita sends these for free to every alumni baby. All you have to do is email the alumni office and ask for one. Don't wait too long though, because the size is 12 months. Madison probably will not wear this shirt again. It's already pretty snug on her little frog belly, but at least we got a picture!

Isn't she the cutest little tiger?

Madison is growing up so fast. Still not sleeping through the night though. Here are a few things that she is up to these days...

*You are trying to walk! She constantly walks around while holding onto furniture, but she will also take a few steps toward you if you reach your hands out toward her and are very close by.
*She babbles all the time. She is seriously trying to tell us something...we just don't know what. She bosses around the other babies in the nursery. She is going to be JUST like her mother, bless her heart!
*She still eats baby food 3 times a day. Yogurt for breakfast and baby food for lunch and dinner. Still eats every 2 1/2 hours.
*She goes to Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Thursdays now so that Momma can get a little more done. She goes to nursery while Mom goes to handbells on Mondays as well. She loves playing with the other kids, especially older ones.
*She wears a size 3 diaper and 12 month clothes, but will soon be too big for them.
*She can drink out of a straw now!
*She loves her daddy, and looks around for him as soon as she hears the door open. Daddy and her play a cute game in her room that I love to watch. Daddy will put an article of clothing on the ottoman in her room and Madison will throw it on the floor. Daddy will keep picking it back up and putting it back on the ottoman and Madison will keep throwing it on the ground. Of course, the sounds that Daddy makes during all of this are...priceless to say the least!
*She has gotten a lot better at playing with her toys by herself. She still loves to be in the same room as Momma, but will play a little bit more. It's really cute.

Speaking of birthday celebrations, I picked up Madison's dress that I had made for her one year birthday yesterday. Since it's supposed to rain today, we took some pics out in the backyard yesterday as soon as we got home. I was so afraid I wasn't going to get any good pictures...but, I think I did. We are going to use this first picture on her birthday invitations. My serious cutie... I think the dress turned out darling. I wouldn't change a thing about it. This is the exact same color of pink we will use to accent the zebra at her birthday party. So fun!

Bootylicious...Isn't this just the cutest little booty you've ever seen? I was about ready to spank her little bottom trying to take this picture. I put snacks on her blanket so she would try to eat while I was taking the picture and the little stinker would turn back over and sit on her bottom as soon as I would get in position to take the picture. This is the only good one I really got.

Madison's birthday party plans are coming along. It's so fun for Mom! Can't wait!

Momma Loves Mexican!

My little "beanie" baby

"Hmm...so this is what a leaf feels like."

"And this is what it tastes like. Yuck!"

So, Mexican food is definitely one type of food that I crave when I'm pregnant. I love the chips and salsa, but I also love everything else that comes with it! Today, I had lunch with a friend at a "Mexican" restaurant. Yay for letting me pick! I had beef fajitas and it was so good...just hard to eat with the babies screaming. ;) You know how that is. Actually, they were okay. We just had to constantly keep them entertained.

After lunch, we came home and took a little nap. Madison's naps have not been very long today. Only about 45 minutes. I don't know what the deal is.

Tonight, Gabe and I are going on a date. It seems like we don't go on very many, and we should since both of our parents live here in town. Gabe's parents have offered numerous times to watch Madison when we go out to eat, so tonight we are going to take them up on the offer!

Madison has started to take a few steps on her own toward you if you reach out your arms to her. It's cute. She does the "come here" motion with her hand that we always do. She's growing up fast. She's a pretty cute kid, if I do say so myself.

Problem Fixed!

Okay, so this is what I was trying to do. WOW! I deleted a lot of very important stuff. I still have a few more tweaks to make, but this will do for now!

Screwed Up!

So, as you can tell, I've really screwed up my blog. I was trying to install a really cool background that involved changing the HTML code. I've never done it this way before, and I totally deleted the regular HTML code and the new one didn't work.

So, here I am. Back at square 1. Who knows when I'll have time to figure this one out!

First Steps

Madison took her first step in the church nursery this past Sunday night. My sister was working in the nursery and she told me about it. However, she didn't know that we had never seen her take steps before! As soon as we got home, I stood her up on the floor and reached my hands out and she took a step! Gabe's been working with her each night before bed and she'll usually only get a step or two in at a time. By bedtime, she's just wiped out. I feel like it will be at least another month before she really starts walking...probably even longer.

I've been planning big time for Madison's 1st birthday party. We are actually going to have it on her actual birthday...Feb.19th. The theme is zebra and pink. How fun! I'm planning the food right now and it's a lot of fun. Kind of stressful, but fun. I can't wait!

Pitter Patter

I had my first OB appointment last Thursday. We weren't supposed to hear the baby's heartbeat, but guess what...we did!!! Since we heard the heartbeat, my nurse practitioner wanted to do an ultrasound to see if I was farther along that what we though. It turns out I was about a week farther along...8 weeks. It was really exciting getting to hear the heartbeat for the first time and seeing the heartbeat all in one day! I'm starting to get really excited about this little baby. I'm kinda hoping these next months go by fast. It sounds neat to have a newborn all over again. Of course, I definitely need Madison to grow up a bit before this baby gets here!

Speaking of Madison, today she was playing in the other room and found a box of Kleenex. By the time I reached her, she had pulled out half of the tissues out of the box! Goodness! She's a mess!

MOMs

This morning we had our first MOMs meeting. MOMs stands for Mothers of Miracles. It is mirrored after MOPs. One of my friends from high school was our guest speaker. She used to work in a local bakery here in Russellville and did a cake decorating demo/devotional. She decorated a cake with butter cream frosting and did a great job. But, the best part was we got to taste it when she was through! Yum! We made cute little name tags out of scrapbook paper and made a cake plate for our craft. Cute!

For lunch we had bacon quiche, garden salad, fruit salad, and sweet tea. We were also given some "helpful parenting hints."

I had a great time with all of the other moms. The babies, however, had had enough fun! They were all crying and whiny when we picked them up. It was way past nap time!

What a fun time!

Crib Biter & Blogger's Rut

We have discovered lately that there are teeth marks all over Madison's crib. She only had two bottom teeth for the longest time, but now that she has two top teeth she has made MANY more marks. This weekend we will have to get a cover!

I haven't really been in the mood to blog much lately. We just really haven't had anything exciting going on. Madison's 1st birthday is coming up and I have been planning it like crazy in my mind. The theme is going to be zebra and pink, of course. I'm getting her a zebra dress made with her name monogrammed on it. It is going to be so cute! I can already tell that I'm going to always love planning birthday parties for my kids.

On another note, I am no longer training for the half-marathon. I quit training for it after I found out that I was pregnant. You are not supposed to increase your exercise. I had only made it up to mile 9, and still had 4 more miles to go, so...I'm done with training, but not done with exercise. The main reason I decided to train for the half-marathon was simply to get in shape...and that I have done. To be honest, I was getting really tired of the long runs. I just do not enjoy running for that long. Anything over 6 or 7 miles was just miserable. I'm really into aerobics right now. I have always loved it, but I really love it right now!

"Little Pointer"

Lately, Madison has been "pointing" with her finger. It is so funny. She points her finger and babbles as if she's getting on to you. I don't know where she gets it from, because Gabe and I do not point at her. We shake our head no and say nuh-uh-uh. I think we may be able to blame Grammy for it. She said she points her finger at William, Madison's cousin, whenever she gets on to him. Thanks, Grammy!

Madison is now going to Mother's Day Out two days a week. She only went on Tuesdays last semester, but a little boy in her class moved this semester, so now she will be going on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm so relieved! It is really hard to get housework/errands done with such a mobile little girl around.

Thank goodness for Mother's Day Out. It's a lifesaver!

Snow Day & 90th Birthday

Surprise! We woke up this morning to about an inch or so of snow on the ground. It was enough to cancel school. I'm sure all of the school kids (and teachers) were glad to get one extra day of Christmas vacation. Gabe took Madison outside to take a few pics and let her "touch" the snow.

This is her touching snow for the very 1st time!

And then tasting the snow, of course!

Yesterday, Mom, Dad, Madison, and I drove down to Kingsland, AR (south Arkansas) to go to my great Aunt Helen's 90th birthday party/reception. We saw two of my twin cousins, Ronald & Donald and their families. Madison enjoyed playing with her cousins. Her two baby cousins are just weeks apart in age from her. They had a good time playing together.

Madison & cousin Ella (Donald's baby girl)

Madison with cousins Ella & Travis and Travis' mom, Aprill (Ronald's baby boy)

Madison & her cousins

Grandma giving Madison her 1st taste of punch

My cousin, Donald and his family. His three beautiful girls really enjoyed playing wtih Madison. Donald's wife, Julie, made me about 15 hair bows for Madison. I was thrilled!

My cousin, Ronald, and his family

Ronald, Travis, Grandma, & Madison

Grandpa & Madison- This pic is so cute because their facial expressions are almost exactly the same! Like grandfather, like grandaughter!

My family with my Great Aunt Helen. This is my Me Mommie's older sister- my Dad's aunt. Isn't she so pretty? She looks great for being 90 years old!

My Great Aunt Gladys, Madison, & I

Aunt Gladys with the whole family

Madison watched her dvd player in the car. It is such a life saver. This is by far the BEST investment we have made since we've had her!

Enjoy your snow day!