Surprise!

As a child, your friends are your world. You live for them, you want to be surrounded by them at all times, you will do anything to be like them and you fight with your parents when they won't let you be with them. Family takes the backseat when it comes to your social life. Having dinner with your family sounds like torture when compared to grabbing a pizza with your friends.

As you enter adulthood, this changes. After high school, you lose touch with many friends while gaining new ones in college. After college, you lose touch while starting a family. You begin to appreciate the people that are around you which is your family. The ones that have always been there and the ones that will always been there.

I am fortunate that I have the best of both worlds. My family is right by my side and so are my friends. Technically, I have entered adulthood, I know it's hard to believe. Since I've had Madison, I have come to appreciate my family more than ever. I've been blessed with the family I've been given and the friends I've chosen. The friends I have now are my family. I am grateful for the support, laughter, love and comfort that I receive from all of them.

Saturday night my friends and family showed me just how much I mean to them. They threw me a surprise 30th birthday party. I am still overwhelmed by the shock that they pulled something of this magnitude off all the while a little unnerved that they all are great liars.

We had planned a "Girls Night Out" on Saturday night. The girls and I were going to meet for dinner and drinks then maybe go for a little dancing. I arrived at the restaurant all ready for some girl talk, met a girlfriend outside so we walked in together. (I later find out this was staged.) She's gabbing while stating that she knows where the other girls are seated and I follow. That's when it happened, I walk into a room filled with my friends and family as they screamed "Surprise!" Tears came flooding in, I was overwhelmed by the warmth and the love that filled the room.

I had been proclaiming that I wanted a surprise party for months. I invited everyone I knew and when they asked when it was all I could say is "I don't know....it's a surprise." I never in a million years thought Ryan would actually plan a party for me. Let alone an actual surprise party. Yes, I feel like a complete ass now by not having the faith in my husband.

After composing myself from the shock of the surprise, I begin making my rounds to give out hugs and thanks to my guests. I see Ryan's mom and my sister, awe cute they are here. Wait! They are the only two people that we have let keep Maddie so I shout "Who has Maddie?" I begin to tense up wondering where on earth my daughter is. Then, the sea of friends part and up through the middle comes Maddie in my mother's arms while being followed by my dad. Holy shit! My parents are here, from Florida. Again the tears flowed. That right there would have been enough. I didn't need anything more but heck the party sure was awesome.

I am floored that Ryan, my friends and my family would go to this great length to do something so special for me. I appreciate each and every one of them for their time, efforts and love that they put into this party. My 30th birthday party will be one that I will never forget. Thank you to everyone that was there and to those that couldn't be there you missed one hell of a time.



Obviously, I was busy at my party I only took two pictures. So, if any party goers with cameras could email me some pictures, I would greatly appreciate it.

My actual birthday is October 24th. I keep stating that once I hit 30 it's time to grow up. I still have 6 days. So, we'll see.

So....Meme and Papaw are here! We've just been chillin'.



Papaw caught a cricket for Maddie.



She tried and tried to catch him but he was too quick. Please note: no crickets were harmed while taking these photos.



In other news....our book arrived today! I got the idea from a friend of a friend to make a "year book" for Madison. I am going to create one each year and have it completed by her birthday. I've been working on this book for about 6 months and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait for everyone to see it!



Lots of love!
-K

Coughs and Crafts

Our Maddie Cakes is sick. Poor little girl has a runny nose and obviously doesn't feel well. As a mama, I wish I could take the sickness away from her and give it to myself. Hearing her sniffling, coughing, sneezing and breathing through her mouth because her nose is stopped up pains me. Madison is quite a trooper though, still manages to get a little play time in.



Only she plays while laying down when she's sick. On the plus side, she wants lots of cuddles from her Mama. I am happy to fulfill this need.

I've been home with her the past two days. I'm covered in her bodily fluids and I am loving every moment of it. Ryan did ask me if I've take a shower the last couple of days.  For the record, I have but maybe it's time to change my shirt again.  Today she is showing signs that she is coming back around. So, i thought we would do a little art activity.



She wasn't quite sure how to use these markers. I thought it would be better to get the markers instead of the crayons because I thought she would just chew on the crayons but now she is just getting marker all over her hands.



So, what is the next progression in the sequence of art activities...finger painting, duh.



Maddie is looking at me like "Are you sure I'm supposed to be doing this, Mom?" I don't really know what I was thinking when I walked into the playroom, opened up the closet, removed the finger paints, closed the closet door and walked back into the living room. There was plenty of time for the thought of "This isn't a good idea, Kimberly" to enter my head but it's my head so nope that thought never came through.



The whole finger painting activity lasted about a minute and a half.



She started crawling off the paper so to the tub we went.

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This past Saturday was the annual "Craft Day" with Ryan's family. All of the girls get together for food, music, drinks, fun, crafts and no boys. This year we had two new gals join us...Maddie and Emerson.



Gotta admit though that they kept many of the women preoccupied and not many crafts were completed.

Emerson is a huge fan of her ExerSaucer.



When Emerson hopped out for a moment, Maddie hopped in.



Think she might be a wee bit tall for this one?



The girls enjoyed playing with each other. They shared a doctor's kit. Well, Maddie let Emi play with what she didn't want at the time. Maddie is kind of a bully and just takes what she wants. We are going to have to work on the fundamentals of sharing.



Prior to our big evening we got to have a photo shoot. Ryan's cousin Traci got a new camera, a big girl camera, and is taking some photography classes. Yeah hoo for us. We'll be her subjects anytime!







Yeah Traci you are doing a great job....keep going!







All diva's have a little melt down now and again....



But she recovered quickly...and we're good to go.





We wanted to get some pictures of Maddie and Emi together. I stopped and looked at us. It's quite a production to get a picture of two tiny gals and it just made me laugh.



Poor Emi just didn't want to take any pictures. So, Maddie tried tickling her to get her to smile.



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Ryan and I went to the Colt's game on Sunday.



He hates it when I try to take a picture in a crowd of people.



Maybe next time I'll try tickling him.

Bye for now!

Big Girl, Big Projects

Well, hello there.



Maddie and I made a trip to Target a few weeks ago. Yeah, no surprise there. Of course we went to the toy area because we must check out the latest and greatest. I am always hoping for a sale because if it's on sale then it's a good deal and therefore I must buy. That's how I justify it to myself and Ryan when I come home with something else that we don't need.

So, there we are in the toy section and what is featured on the end cap...baby dolls and they are on sale! Yes, this is my lucky day. We have three options:

Baby #1: Makes baby sounds and has a bottle and pacifier

Baby #2: Sits and plays peek-a-boo with her blanket

Baby #3: Says Mama, babbles and crawls.

I show each one to Madison, individually so not to overstimulate her and so she can view each one in all it's glory, while tightly tied into a box. She loved them all and after about 15 minutes of teasing Maddie I couldn't decide which one to buy. I couldn't make up my mind as to which on I thought she would love more. So, we left with no baby.  How stupid and what a waste of time but that's how I roll sometimes.

As usual, it's days later and I couldn't stop thinking about these sweet sale babies and how much I really think Maddie would like one. So, I went back and purchased baby #3, a little crawler.



I ripped that baby out of the box like a kid on Christmas morning.



Unfortunately, I'm not sure Maddie loves her as much as I thought she would.



Mostly I think she wants it to get away from her and to stop crawling up her leg. She just needs to warm up to her, right?



Our big girl is turning one if 5 weeks. Holy Moly! Five weeks! You can bet your bottom dollar that the party planning is well underway.



Turning one brings a lot of changes for Maddie O. She will be switching to whole milk, we're going to lose the bottle and give up her pacifier. Gasp. I know! Her pacifier! We are attempting to rid her of the pacifier slowly. So, today I begin...pacifier only at nap time and bed time. So far so good. Yeah, it's only 9:18 am and she is down for her nap with a pacifier. So, so far so good.

This morning I gave her a pancake with a tiny bit of syrup and I put her formula in a cup.



I don't foresee the bottle being an issue because she sucked that formula down. Although, kids will be kids and she could throw me a curve ball in a couple of weeks.

Oh, Halloween is coming up too. Here is her costume so far...



Hey cut me some slack...I've got time still.

Lastly, here I am trying to take a picture of sweet little Maddie Cakes with her sweet bunny.



Awe, that's cute right. Then the next picture turns out like this.



Ha! How annoyed does she look? All I have to say is this kid better get used to my camera being in her face because it's not going anywhere.

Oh, and yes the count down has begun...Only 18 days until I hit the big 3-0!

What I Love About Her

Our little monster is coming into her own. Her personality is shining through and coming in loud and clear. She is funny, mischievous, sweet and has a little temper.

Here are just a few things that we are loving about her....

I love how she claps for herself.



I love how she looks so annoyed because I am trying to take her picture and she is trying to play with the magnets.



I love how she is so into everything. Okay maybe I don't love this so much.



I love how she crawls as quickly as she can to the bathtub once I start the water.



I love how happy she gets when we give her a snack.



I love how handing her the remote to the TV calms and soothes her, it's the simple things.



I love how she screams as loud as possible, turns over and tries to crawl away every time I try to dress her. Yep, don't really love this one so much either. Sometimes I just give up and this is what you get.



I love her silly faces.



I love the way she looks at me when I call out her name.



I love that she is starting to eat table food. Only I don't love that I'm not quite ready for it yet.



I love her innocence.



Lastly, I love the way she pats my back when I pat hers and how she gives big, wet open mouth kisses. That is the best. Truly for a Mama it is.

I love my Sugar Booger!