Tiny Bubbles

I wanted to share this little video of Maddy. She was sitting on the floor "talking" to everything she could see outside the window... or so I thought. Once she saw the camera, she gave me a big cheese, but then went back to what she was doing. What was she doing you ask?? Making bubbles with her mouth!! HaHaHa!! Look closely and you can see them!!





Love you guys!! See some of you VERY soon!! :)

YMCA

The YMCA played a big part in our day today...

We started out the morning going to our local YMCA to go swimming. Maddy had a BLAST!!

Then, this evening, we went to a local restaurant here in Abilene. They play some fun music that the wait staff will stop and dance to. Tonight, one of the songs was the YMCA. Maddy was a participant in her own little way. Here she is!!

We had a really fun time at the restaurant!! I hope you enjoyed this little video!

We'll see some of you next weekend!! Love you guys!! :)

Hello?

Maddy has ANOTHER new trick... (By the way, in case you can't tell, I'm becoming THAT Mom who video tapes EVERYTHING and thinks her kid is the cutest kid to EVER exist!! HeHeHe...)

Her latest trick is that if you tell her to say "hello", she holds her hand up to her ear pretending that she's talking on a phone (or at least I hope that's what she's doing...)!!

So, here she is:

Maddy, say hello!!

ENJOY!! We're still working on the walking thing, so no new videos there...

I got Maddy a special piece to an outfit for Chris and April's Western-themed party. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but let's suffice it to say that she's just going to be TOO DANG CUTE!! See?? There I go again, bein' the proud Momma!! :)

Talk to everyone later!

Love you guys! :)

Here are a couple of pictures from today's adventures. Mind you, we didn't really do anything overly exciting, but this is what we did none-the-less...

First, we tried out Maddy's new car seat. She's still a little small for it, but we let her sit in it in the car. I think she liked it:





We also took Maddy outside so she could ride in her new swing. She's been having a blast with that!! Here she is:




Finally, here's a video of Maddy's latest "trick". I'm still not 100% sure where she learned what kicking is, but when we were in the pool earlier this summer, I told her to "kick kick kick", and she did. Now, while she was on the swing, I told her the same thing. Here's her reaction:



I guess that's about it for now. I hope to get some more video of her walking soon.

Talk to everyone soon (and see some of you VERY soon)!! Love you guys!! :)

Walkin' Fool

Well, Miss Maddy took a couple of steps today. One time she even took SIX... count 'em... SIX steps!! We got a short video of a couple of steps, and Bryan posted it on You Tube. Here's the link... PLEASE let me know if it doesn't work. I want to make sure it works for everyone to see!!


Love you guys!!

P.S. We'll try to get a better video soon and post it, but for now, this is the best we can do!! :)

Videos

Here are a couple of videos I took of Maddy today. We had an EXCELLENT day!! Maddy slept VERY well last night and was in such a good mood all day!! Her new swing for her swing set got here today, but, unfortunately, it rained all stinkin' day long!! Even worse? It's supposed to rain for several more days. Oh well... As soon as the weather gets nicer, we'll be outside on the new swing!! Woo Hoo!!

I actually got out the camera because Maddy has a new take on the whole crawling thing. Her latest trick? She gets on her hands and feet (not knees, feet) and "walks" that way. It's pretty comical. I was trying to catch it on camera, but every time she saw the camera, she'd stop, sit down and smile. LoL. Crazy kid. Wonder why she stops everything and smiles for the camera when she sees it?? LoL.

Anyway, here's a short video of Maddy's rendition of peek-a-boo. Sometimes she does it like she's supposed to. This time, there was only pretend peeking going on. :)





And here's Maddy with her Miss America wave. Not much happens until the VERY END of the video, so just hang tight and watch. She's pretty much the BIGGEST cheeseball EVER!! LOVE this kid!! :)



I guess that's about all for tonight. I hope you all enjoyed these videos!! See some of you soon at Chris and April's party!! :) Love you guys!!

Spoon

Tonight, Bryan is away. Actually, he'll be away for about a week. Maddy and I had a great day, but around dinnertime, I think that Maddy was getting bored with me. She really likes having Bryan come home from work and play with her. It does her a lot of good to have a different face to look at and someone different to play with. With this in mind, I decided to take a few pictures (as I KNOW this always cheers her up, being the cheeseball that she is). So, without further ado, HERE SHE IS...

Here's Maddy's "sincere" smile...



And here's her fake smile. This is the, "ok, Mom, enough's enough with the camera" smile...



And here are Maddy and Nash "playing" together. Please note that Nash is making a mad dash to get away from her. LoL. He's such a good sport... most of the time!! :)



Also, this evening, I decided to let Maddy try feeding herself with a spoon. I can't say that it was a success, but I also can't say that it was a total disaster. She did pretty well for a first try. Don't worry, there are videos to follow... :)





Look Mom!!! I DID IT!!!! :)


As promised, here are the videos:








We hope you're all having a great week... We're over the hump now!! Love you guys! :)

It's Me Again...

Hi everyone! Mommy thinks I'm sleeping, but really, I'm here blogging. She took some pictures last weekend, but forgot to take them off the camera. I found them tonight and decided to share them with you!! Shhh... Don't tell her that I'm not sleeping!!

Last weekend Daddy washed the cars and Mommy cleaned the insides. I helped Daddy. Here are some pictures:



I even got down and dirty with Mommy and Daddy. Look at how dirty my hands are!! Can you believe that Mommy let me get THIS dirty???



Daddy buckled me in the seat of his car when he was going to drive it back into the garage. All I could think about was how Mommy says that Daddy drives too fast. I was a little scared. Can you tell?!?!



Once we were moving, though, I realized that Daddy was VERY careful moving into the garage. I think I could get used to riding in Daddy's car (but Mommy and Daddy say it'll be a long time before I'm old enough and big enough to ride in it)...



Daddy and I posed for a picture. Mommy really likes this one of us:



Tonight, Mommy took more pictures (and a video), and I wanted to make sure she didn't "forget" about them, so I'm going to post my favorites now. Daddy was eating some leftover Japanese food for dinner tonight. (By the way, Mommy and Daddy left me with Mr. Mike & Ms. Breezy for a little while last night. I'm not sure where they went, but when they came to get me, they had to-go boxes. I'm thinking they may have gone to the cutty-uppy place without me... Oh well... I had tons of fun with Mr. Mike & Ms. Breezy... Pooy on them!!) So, Daddy was eating with his chopsticks tonight, and I wanted to try. Daddy helped me. I really liked it!! :)


Here's a video Mommy took of me eating with the chopsticks. I'm so glad that Daddy was helping me!! :)



Ok, I think I hear Mommy coming... I better get back to bed!! I can't wait to see everyone soon. Mommy says that we're going to take a ride in an airplane, and it's going to take us to Tennessee for Uncle Chris and Aunt April's party. I LOVE to party!! Greatpop, you better start double-knotting your shoes now. I've been practicing my untying skills!!

Love you guys,
Maddy :)

Happy Long Weekend!!

Today marks day 3 of our 4 day weekend. Yes, Bryan got Friday AND Monday off this weekend for Labor Day. Lucky guy, huh? We haven't really done anything blog-worthy this weekend, but I thought I'd check in anyway! On Friday night, Maddy's friend Charlie was having a birthday party at the park. We were going to meet at the park for some low-key park action, cupcakes and just, plain, fun. The party was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM. At 6:00 PM, we began experiencing some gray skies. Charlie's mom, Diana, called and said that just to be on the safe side, she thought it would be best to move the party to their house. Boy was that ever a good call!! We got a GREAT storm!! Poor Diana had a full house (as she was not planning to have anyone over), but the kids had a BLAST!! Maddy found Charlie's 4-wheeler and had a GREAT time with it. Check her out:



Maddy was the only mobile girl baby at the party, so there she was, in her dress... on the 4-wheeler. She sure can hang with the boys!! :) We didn't get home until WELL AFTER bedtime, so we just skipped the bath and Maddy went to bed. Well, the combination of the excitement of the party along with the cupcake and the late bedtime proved to be a challenge for us to get her to bed. After about an hour of "fighting", Maddy FINALLY drifted off to sleep!!

Saturday morning, we got up and Bryan made Beignets again. While we were eating our breakfast, our friends Mike & Breezy asked if we were busy. They were going to the "Y" to go swimming and wanted to know if we were interested in joining them. So, after we ate our breakfast, we changed into our bathing suits and headed for the pool. That was a great way to start the day!! Then, last night, we had Mike and Breezy over for hamburgers. They were DELICIOUS! :) Maddy had a MUCH easier time getting to bed last night!!

Today, we got up and went to church. We've just been hanging out since then. Maddy's napping at the moment! Woo Hoo! Mike and Breezy have offered to watch Maddy this afternoon/evening so that Bryan and I can go on a real live dinner and a movie date!! We're going to go see The Proposal (I know, it's been out for a while, but we don't get out much), then go to the Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. It should be a good time!! :)

In other news, I've been working very hard at scouring the Internet to find the best deals on Maddy's birthday presents. I finally ordered everything last night. I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet (I'm afraid Maddy might check out the blog... Don't want her to know what she's getting), but suffice it to say, I'm pretty stinkin excited!! :)

Also, today, I ordered Maddy's big girl car seat. Once she is one year old and 20 pounds, we can legally put her in a forward facing car seat. (She's currently 11 months old and 19 pounds.) We are not 100% sure when we'll make this big switch, but we want to have the seat so that when the time comes, we're ready (and the website we ordered it from is having free shipping right now)!! I have a feeling that shortly before Bryan deploys in February we'll turn her around. That will be the case if I decide to take another long road trip during the deployment. We'll just have to wait and see!! :) Here's the picture of her new, big girl car seat:


Finally, I will not be watching Isabella anymore. Her parents found a permanent daycare situation for her. It's a little bittersweet. She is a very good baby, but I know that Maddy will be happy to have her Mommy back all to herself again! :)

Our next big adventure is quickly approaching! We'll be in Gatlinburg in T-19 days for Chris and April's party! I found out about this activity recently, and the only place to do it is in Pigeon Forge, TN. While I don't know that we'll partake, I think it looks like fun!! What's not fun about riding down a HUGE hill in a GIANT ball?!?! :)

I guess that's about it for now!! Sorry I don't have more pictures of the little Miss to share this time. I just haven't been taking too many lately... Bad Mommy!! I'll try to do better in the next couple of days!

Love you guys!! :)

Is It Only Wednesday?

WOW! What a week!! I can't believe that it's only Wednesday! On Sunday night, I started not feeling well. I thought it was just allergies, so I took a Benedryl before bed and moved on with life. I woke up on Monday feeling AWFUL, and Maddy was pretty pitiful, too. I decided that we had a cold. We're just about over it now, but it was a rough couple of days. I have been taking some Tylenol cold medicine, but they no longer sell ANYTHING for children under the age of 4 for colds, so poor Maddy just had to deal. :( She hasn't been sleeping well (mostly because she can't breathe), so no one in our house has been sleeping. Like I said, though, I think we're just about over it.

To add to the chaos, a friend of ours found herself in a major predicament. Her child was all ready to start attending the day care on base this past Monday... or so she thought. Late Friday afternoon, Heather called to verify that Isabella would be starting at the CDC (Child Development Center) on Monday morning and was told that their spot had been given to someone else. In a panic, Heather called me and asked if I could watch Isabella until she can find a permanent day care for her. I, of course, agreed. Isabella is 3 months old. So, enter chaos. I now have a 3 month old (who, naturally, can't even sit up on her own), a 10 month old (who can crawl, but has never had to share her Mommy before, AND is sick) and myself (who is feeling like complete poo). Needless to say, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I am happy to report that we've made it through the first 3 days successfully, and I'm feeling pretty good about things! Isabella is a very good baby (which really helps matters). Her dad drops her off before he goes to class (he's in school at one of the local universities here), then picks her up about 4 or 5 hours later when he's finished with his classes for the day. We've been laying pretty low this week partly because of illness (we don't want to spread it) and partly because I haven't been brave enough to venture out with 2 children under the age of one. Tomorrow, that will all change. Several of the girls from the squadron have convinced me to try taking them to our bi-weekly lunch bunch. I have decided to give it a go. What's the worst that happens? It's total chaos, and we just leave? Yep. That's the worst, so who cares? We're going to give it a go!! I'm not sure yet how long I'll be keeping Isabella, but I know that her parents are working very hard to find her permanent day care! Until then, she's all mine!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I've taken this week. Nothing special... Just a few of us girls hanging out!


Here's Maddy walking Nash... or is Nash walking Maddy? I'm not too sure. The really funny thing is that when we tried to take the leash back from Maddy, she flipped out on us!! She was so upset!! We gave her the leash back, and all was right with the world again!! HaHaHa. :)


This is Maddy playing in her very own, personal, ball pit that we got for her while we were in Little Rock. She wasn't a huge fan of it at first, but now she plays in it all the time!!


This one is Maddy "helping" me take care of Isabella this morning when she first got here. Oh boy... When we decide to have another baby, I think this Momma's in for it! Maddy tries so hard to help, but we're still working VERY hard on using our "soft hands". :)


Finally, Maddy and Nash had macaroni and cheese for lunch. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more. LoL. I think Maddy wears it well. What do you think??


I guess that's about it for now! I hope you've enjoyed a little look into our lives! Talk to you soon!

Love you guys! :)