Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! Yeah, yeah it's a little late or perhaps a little early for next year, you pick.

This Thanksgiving was very different than the last. Last year Maddie was only a couple of weeks old. It was her first holiday and we were eager to show her off. Everything was still so new to us and we were still learning. Madison slept a lot of the day and was passed around throughout Ryan's family as everyone was eager to hold our brand new baby.

This year, Madison is talking, mostly baby babble. She's crawling and attempting to walk. She's eating table food, not just formula and we've got ourselves a budding toddler here, not a newborn.

As I watched Madison throughout the day, exploring her surroundings and interacting with family, I found many things I am thankful for.

I am thankful, Ryan's family makes "real" mashed potatoes. And the story goes...My sister asked me if I've given Maddie mashed potatoes. I told her yes but she doesn't like them. She was shocked and asked what kind I gave her. I told her I wasn't sure, some sort of instant kind. She was appalled and let me know that was why Maddie didn't like them, It's because they were instant and not homemade. So, I am thankful that Maddie got to try real mashed potatoes. For the record, Christy was correct, Maddie loved the mashed potatoes.



I'm thankful we don't have stairs.





Lastly, I am thankful I have a lap for my laptop and don't have to put it on the floor and bend over like Maddie. Poor girl. Give it a few years sister and you'll have a lap too.



After our delicious meal, it was time to rest. We had our little sleeping bbeauty.



And our other beauty that just wanted to pretend she was sleeping.





That night, my sister, my niece and I headed out for a little black friday action.



Maddie just pretended she was shopping. It's safer that way. No crazy ladies cutting you off to get the last emerald green sweater in a size medium or whatever your fancy may be.





Thanksgiving was great we spent the day with our family and relaxed, ate, talked, played games and laughed.

We also discovered that our little sugar booger is getting some new teeth. She's getting some big ones now so she's chewing on everything again.





Lots of love!

Glub, Glub

And the question lingers.....

"What happened to the fish?"

I shared about our new friends, the fish, which were ultimately the centerpieces for Madison's birthday. Unfortunately, only two of the three made it to Maddie's party. Of course, we had to replace him because we had three tables and now only two fish. Ryan ran out to the pet store prior to the start of Maddie's party and got us the replacement.

I tried and tried to use the fish as "prizes" during the party. However, it seems that we don't have many fish lovers among our friends and family. So, once again I'm stuck in a situation because I didn't think things all the way through. We've got three fish in three candle vases, nobody wants them and they can't live there forever. Now what....

I bought an aquarium.





Cool huh? I've placed it in Maddie's room. Initially, it was right next to her bed but during her first nap she had the top off of the tank and I knew that sooner or later she would have other things swimming in that tank. So, I moved it over a couple of feet away from her little hands. You'll notice here the replacement daddy picked up for us. Yes, he appears bigger not only because he is closer but he his bigger. Much bigger, like three times the size of the fish I bought. Hey, when daddy goes to buy fish he goes big. Way to go Ryan!



I enjoy watching the fish and I really thought Maddie would too. And she does but not as much she would much rather play with her baby.





Playing with her baby has been her new favorite activity. She feeds her and loves playing with the baby accessories.



She is obsessed with this little plastic jar. It came with her baby kit and I'm not even sure what it's pretending to be. Maybe to hold lotion or something. However, she brings it to us and says "Uhh!" that means take the lid off. So, we do. She can get the lid screwed back on and will work at it until the task is complete. Her face is intense and she is determined.



Once she gets that lid back on it's usually on to something else.

Due to my crazy organizational skills, I have all of her baby supplies stored in a bin in her room. I brought everything into the living room for us to play while Ryan watched the football game. Apparently, Maddie felt something else belonged in this bin.









She is such a character.

I have no idea where this child has learned to sit in a chair. To me she doesn't look comfortable in either position.





Now, her milk is gone and she felt like her cup belonged on top of the lamp.



Of course, one slight movement and off it went.



So, back on top of the lamp it went.



This cycle repeated and repeated. Mommy got bored and moved on to a bath that is. Please disregard the crap all over her face and shirt in the above pictures. Baby girl had a runny nose all weekend and of course, just ate. I don't normally allow our child to be so messy or at least I don't normally photograph her while she's this messy. She wasn't just being too cute and couldn't resist the pictures.

I have come to love this age. I love her curiosity and her independence. She's coming to a point where she can tell us what she wants. For example, when she is hungry or thirsty, which is most of the time, she crawls into the kitchen. I can now ask her where her baby is and she will crawl back to her room and get it. It amazes me on the things she has learned already. Ryan and I are having a ball with her right now. Our evenings are spent sprawled out on the living room floor watching our baby girl. Pure bliss.

We're Celebrating Baby

I don't even know how to begin this post. There are so many things I want to say and I just can't find the words to express how I am feeling. I have started this post and erased what I typed three times. I just cannot get my thoughts together so this is my warning to you that this post could be rather long with many rambling moments because I'm just going to roll with it.

Madison turned one on Thursday. One week ago, I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She was 8 lbs and 10 ozs of baby magic. Today she is a healthy 24 pounds and 31 1/2 inches tall. Proof that she is in fact growing up.



I have had a wonderful life. I've always been around people who care about me and I've always had everything I needed, or felt I needed. I married a wonderful man and we are a great team. I never knew that we were missing something. Until Madison Olivia entered our world.



I have shared time and time again how wonderful it is to have Madison. I've shared how blessed I am and how thankful we are for her. It's all true and this year has been the best year of my life so far. My days and nights are filled with loving our baby girl and wondering what the future holds for her. But right now we celebrate her. We are celebrating her birth.

Her actual birthday was Thursday, November 11th. We spent the day with my sister and prepared for her party.



We spent the evening with daddy. It was just the three of us celebrating our family.





At exactly 9:26 pm, I sneaked into her room and took a peek at my tiny toddler. She looked much different from the tiny newborn that we met exactly one year ago.

Today, on her birthday, Madison learned something new. Here she is in action...



We celebrated Madison's birthday on Saturday with our friends and family. This is the event I have been planning for months. Lots of sleep was lost while I planned, created and crafted things for this big day. And it was worth every minute.



I spent days setting up the house and making sure everything was perfect.





There were games and crafts for the kids.













And the girls played...



with only a minor meltdown.



Madison rocked out the thighs I gave her.



Our family visited with each other and looked back on our year with Maddie O.











The highlight of all 1st birthday parties is the eating of the cake. I can't say that she ate much of the cake but she sure did enjoy the icing, once she realized that it wasn't lotion and stopped rubbing it under her arm and put it in her mouth.











Madison wasn't too interested in opening her gifts. Sure, she loved playing with them once they were out but she couldn't quite grasp the concept of unwrapping them. We tried though...



Eventually, it just came down to me opening while she played and that worked out just fine too.













First of all I need to thank the girl behind the lens...



Traci, pictured here holding her niece, Emerson. Thank you Traci for taking these gorgeous pictures on Madison's special day. It meant so much knowing that you were there and documenting her day.



And to everyone else....thank you. I know I have repeated these two words over and over this past week but it's the only thing I can think of to say. I wish there was something more to express how I feel. I want to thank everyone for being there for us over the last year. Thank you to those that helped us out with "Is this normal?" questions and to those that were there sharing in moments of joy. Thank you to our parents for showing us how to be parents. We have made it through this first year with success and it is because of you. I have to give an extra special thank you to my sister. She has been my savior when I became overwhelmed, she's helped me through the hard stuff and is also always right there with us to celebrate the good stuff. Thank you Christy!

Ryan and I are incredibly grateful for our family. We've got one year down and many, many more to go. I anticipate living what the future has in store for us but right now we are celebrating today.