Maddie's 12 month post

Where oh where has my little baby gone?!?! Well she if officially a toddler and I seriously can't wrap my head around that.  I remember her being born like it was yesterday.  I can't believe how much she has changed in the past year.  While I'm wrapping my head around that here is what Maddie girl has been up to the past month and some pictures from the past year.

Maddie is getting close to 20 pounds.  I'll have exact height and weight tomorrow.  She is wearing 12 month clothing, size 3 shoes and size 3 diapers.
She is eating basically everything we eat.  She has started drinking whole milk but is not completely transition over from formula.  She is drinking 6 to 10 ounces of formula still.  Although as soon as this can is out I think we are going to call it quits.

Maddie has her two bottom teeth.  Teething has been a real pain for this girl.  She and I have had many sleepless nights because of them.  I hate to say its only just begun in the teething department.
Maddie has taken a few steps at a time before her first birthday but has since then decided to take up to 10 steps.  She is standing up on her own and bending down to pick things up off the floor.  She is still a super fast crawler and is into everything.  She especially loves her brothers toys.
Maddie can say mama, dada, bubba, bye bye and as of today pop pop.  She likes to wave bye-bye and clap her hands.  This month she has started dancing.  this consists of her holding on to something and bobbing her head.  It is possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

Maddie is still not sleeping through the night and I'm convinced its some how my fault.  I can't stand to hear my baby crying and I fear she is going to wake up Mason, so I go to her soon after she starts crying.  I have got to figure a way to get her to sleep better.  Also the past couple of weeks she has wanted to be rocked to sleep.  I enjoy rocking her but I know this is hindering the sleep training.  I hope by next month it will be a different story in the sleep department.
Maddie is showing her personality so much these days.  She may not say very many words, but she sure knows how to get her point across.  She is very much a momma's girl but is also quite smitten by her daddy at times.  She absolutely adores her brother as well.

Although I haven't got much sleep the past year, I don't regret one sleepless night with this sweet baby girl.  She is such a joy to us and I can't wait to see what the next year holds for her as she becomes more verbal and mobile.  I love this little girl so much!!  She makes my heart so happy!!!

Maddie's 1st Birthday Part 2

After opening all the presents, it was time for the birthday girl to eat some cake.  She had her own cake that looked like a cupcake.  We sang and then we blew out the candle.  As soon as I put the cake down, she two-handed it and dug right in.  Completely opposite of her brother's first birthday.  It was so funny and she seemed to really enjoy her cake.

So thankful for my sister for throwing such a wonderful party and to everyone that joined us on Maddie's special day!!

Maddie's First Birthday Part 1

My Sister, Shana seriously threw the best party for Maddie.  Everything was so beautiful and absolutely perfect.  We had a great turn out and I think Maddie had a great time.  Here are some pictures from the party.

Here is the birthday girl in her custom outfit.  She was so adorable!!

Here is the wonderful spread.  We had brunch and my sister made sausage balls, mini fritatas, little waffles in syrup, mini muffins and donut holes.  The table setup was so cute!!

 Maddie's smash cake

Me and the birthday girl!

Here she is opening some presents.  She started to get the hang of it pretty quickly.  And of course big brother was right there to help her out!

Bird Hunt

Mason's school was closed today so he spent the morning with Nini until Mark got home from work. This afternoon he sent me these pictures and said they were going on a bird hunt.



He just doesn't look right with a gun in his hands, but daddy swears they are being safe. It's just a bebe gun, but still he looks so grown up.


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Happy Birthday Madison!!

Yesterday was Maddie's first birthday!! I am in shock with how quickly the year flew by. I no longer have a baby but a toddler. Although she is still very much a baby in my eyes! It seems like overnight she has just grown up.

I'm sad this is the only picture I got of her on her actual birthday and it's blurry.


I had to work so she had to go to school but Briana made her an awesome dinner and Banana Foster for dessert. It was so good!!

On Saturday my sister, Shana threw the most amazing first birthday celebration for Maddie!! It was Ah-mazing!!! I will do a detailed post about the party soon! Here are a couple pics from my phone to tide everyone over...
She looked so cute in her birthday outfit!!


Big brother Mason enjoying her toys.



Stay tuned for Maddie's 12 month update!
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Santa!!

Sunday we decided to take our annual trip up to Grapevine to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa!! We started off the day by eating lunch at Oh Mcdonalds. I seriously hate being in the metroplex surrounded by so many wonderful food choices and we go somewhere that we have back at home, but I guess that is what you do for love!! I don't really think he loves the food so much, but he loves to play and get a toy with his meal!





Daddy was nice enough to take Maddie in the tubes!





The slide did not phase her....





She was ready to get off.






After lunch we headed over to the overly crowded Bass Pro Shop. I think everyone is pinching pennies this year and wanted the free photo. We had to wait in line about 2 hours but at least they had lots of fun stuff to do like games and even a merry go round.






Maddie loved it!!!






After waiting so long to see Santa, Mason was all business when it was our turn. He walked straight up to him and told him he wanted Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. No hellos or anything. He then sat on his lap and was all cheese. Maddie was less than thrilled to be sitting with him.






I think next year we are going to try and go earlier or not on the weekend when it's less busy. It would have been far less stressful without all the crowds, but we still had fun!!

Oh and if anyone is still reading, Maddie took 3 steps this weekend!! I think we are gonna have a walker by Christmas, but we'll see!!!
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Random pics from this week

December has turned into quite the busy month for us and we are doing our best to enjoy it! Nini made us a special advent calendar and Mason has had so much fun with it! Everyday he asks when he can take a magnet off and then he pretends to read the piece of paper. It is so funny because most of the time it says " watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn!". It really has only said that once, but yesterday it said "listen and obey momma!". He cracks me up. Yesterdays paper really said put the antlers on and do a reindeer dance.


Mark and Mason are two peas in a pod these days. They love being silly together!


And this morning Madison had the cutest little pigtails!


Little miss showing some sass!



She was looking at her daddy here! Seriously love her!!!



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Christmas cookies!!

Today the surprise in the advent calendar was to make cookies!! This is one tradition I'm going to try to keep around since we always made cookies and decorated them when I was a kid. I didn't exactly make homemade cookies or icing from scratch like my mom did, but we enjoyed ourselves!



Maddie was not so much into making cookies.... She cried the whole time.


Mason really liked cutting the cookies.





Ready to go in the oven.



And they grew a little larger than I expected.


Mason decorating the cookies.


And here are the finished cookies.


Time to enjoy!



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Santa surprise

Saturday morning we were perusing the toy aisle at walmart and Santa was walking around. He came right up to our buggy and Mason had his back to him. I asked Mason if he knew that man and he gasped and said SANTA!!! He stood up in the buggy and gave him a big hug! ( a little side note... This was the rattiest Santa I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure it's the same guy who greets us at the door!). He was so surprised and it was such a sweet unexpected moment!


We still plan on taking him to Bass Pro to get a real picture with Santa sometime soon!
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Tree decorating

Saturday afternoon was spent decorating the house and putting up the Christmas tree. Mason was mildly interested, but he did help put up a few ornaments! Maddie was taking them down, she will be helpful after Christmas!


I love Mason's face here. I can just here him telling Maddie no no!









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Thanksgiving 2011

This year Mark had to work so we spent Thanksgiving at Shana's house. After we had lunch the kids and I loaded up and headed to the fire station!
We weren't there but 10 minutes and they had to leave. So the kids and I watched tv and waited for them to get back. Luckily they weren't gone long. We spent the rest of the time playing ping pong and crawling after Maddie!











Not sure what this face was all about, but it made me laugh!


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