Happy Birthday Dear Madison!

Our first baby girl, Madison Grace, turned one year old today! Time really does fly. Someone asked me today if I was sad because she turned one. I hadn't really thought about it, but I'm not really sad. I'm not ready for her to be a big girl, but it's nice that she's able to do more and more on her own. I look forward to the day that she is my "big helper," because she will be just that. She can tell her stuffed animals off pretty well. I have no doubt that she will be able to "be in charge." We may go round and round over this!

As you can tell, we (momma) went with a zebra and pink birthday theme. I wasn't real impressed with how the cake turned out, but it looked cute with all of the other zebra decor.

Fancy Food

The birthday girl sending a few text messages to remind people about her party!

" Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Madison, Happy Birthday to you!"

I love the expression on your face...checking out your momma!

Dress off- check

Cake eaten- check

Unwrap presents- check

Play with toys- check, check

Adorable birthday booty!

Eating the cake!

Momma, birthday girl, Aunt Melissa, & Grandma

Momma, Daddy, & Madison with "the spoilers"

A.K.A "the grandparents"

Pappa, Grammy, Grandma, & Grandma

Madison had a great time at her birthday party. We had a great crowd...all of our in-town family, along with some of our closest friends that have babies around Madison's age. Thanks to all of you for celebrating Madison's 1st birthday with us. It is one we will always remember.

Madison usually gets a little fussy, but she did not fuss at all at her party. I think she enjoyed the attention, playing with all of the other babies, and lovin' from her grandparents and other family members.

This morning our MOMs group met. (Mothers of Miracles) I've blogged about this group before, but it is a group of mothers of preschoolers. We meet for 2.5 hours (while our kiddos are in the nursery) and have a guest speaker/devotion, craft time, helpful parenting hints, and end with a girly lunch. It's just a great time to get together with other moms and be encouraged and refreshed. We had a good group this morning and a great time. We made coasters for our craft. I made these to go in Madison's room.(Probably will only put one in her room.) Crafts stress me out because I want whatever I'm doing to turn out perfect. I could not get my coasters perfect, so I finally decided to just settle for less the the best. It was hard, but I made it through!

We had two guest speakers who both have had very different journeys in life. One has been married for 50 years and the other has been married around 30 years total, but has been married three times. They spoke about marriage and brought up three important aspects of marriage: Jesus, Trust, & Money. They both agreed that these three things are vital in marriages today. This was brought up, but I have also wondered myself how marriages last when husband & wife do not know the Lord. I have learned that marriage, along with almost everything else in life, is about putting the other person first.

My friend, Megon, (Mrs. Bagby) took pictures during our MOMs meeting. Here is a picture of the group that attended today. There were several that attended last month that were not able to attend today, and we had several new faces today that did not attend last month. Look at all of the possible accountability partners and encouragers! If you'd like to see more pics from the MOMs meeting, you can check out our MOMs blog at mothersofmiracles.blogspot.com. The pics are not up yet though, so give me a couple of days!

I didn't mention this earlier, but I had to take Madison back to the doctor today. She has been running high fever since Tuesday! It turns out she still has an ear infection in her left ear. She got a shot (on her birthday!) and hopefully that will help.

Happy Birthday, baby. We love you!

Love, Mom & Dad