Summer photo book

Since I can't seem to update this thing, I figured posting my photo book I made on Shutterfly would be a good way to show off all the things Madison Michael has been up to this summer!!

Since

Click here to view this photo book larger

Been quite awhile.

Mad's 2nd birthday is next week. Eeeek! I have no idea where the time has gone! She's turned into quite a beautiful, funny, and smart little girl.

This week, the weather has been absolutely beautiful, so we've tried to take advantage of it. Yesterday was the Hip Mamas Valentine's day party and Madison spent the day getting filthy in the dirt! She dug a hole in the dirt with her friends, played in the sandbox, took a couple good swings at the pinata, and ate a lot of candy! Today we spent the day at gym class and then went to the zoo with Lindley and her mom!

So here's some pictures since the last time!

videos!

Madison riding the cars at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach last weekend. All by herself!!


Mad & her friend Alex shakin' it to Ghostbusters music at Boo @ the Zoo this week!

Mad & friends on the news!

A week & a half ago, when we went to the pumpkin patch, a local news team was out doing a story and filmed our playgroup. A week later the story finally aired & they just put it up on the internet today...

So here it is!

Mad & friends on WACH Fox News

Go Big Blue....?

A few weeks ago, I got a box from Great Granny Beverly & Papaw in Kentucky. Inside was a University of Kentucky cheerleading outfit. Very cute, but we're Gamecock fans down here.

As luck would have it, on the day Carolina played UK, Madison was spending the day with Nonnah. I was helping a friend move and Daddy was out of town...so Madison Michael was left unattended with a crazy Kentucky graduate.

Poor kid, not only was she dressed in blue, but Nonnah probably had her cheering for the Wildcats all morning, without Mad knowing any better.

But that's all fine...

because look who won.

"Punkins!!!!"

Our playgroup made it's annual trek to the pumpkin patch, way out in the boonies, today! Mad had a blast! We got there and went inside to get our tickets for the hayride. Turns out there's a lot inside Harmon's barn to touch and potentially break. Bitty got a cracker from the "Taste our jellies!" table, ate half of it, and politely put it back on the tray with the uneaten ones. Whoops. We also encountered some semi-scary "displays" (?? what do you call giant statues of zombies and such? Displays will have to do). First time that Madison's actually gotten upset about something "scary". So between the breakables, the cracker table, and the zombies, we were quite glad to pay and be on our way.

Hayride time! We loaded up the tractor bed with the kiddos and got on our way. Madison sat with her best friend Lindley, Alex, and her favorite baby, Gabe. The hayride travels down past some farm animals (which, of course, warrants shouts of "MOOOO!" at all the four legged creatures), over a lake ("Ooooooh. Wata.") and through a "haunted" forest, complete with things like ghosts and bats and monkeys hanging from the trees ("Bye bye monkey!"). The hayride stops out in the middle of the pumpkin fields where they've set up 3 "mini" pumpkin patches, with just the right size pumpkins, already picked, ready to be...well, picked.

Mad promptly began rearranging the stacks of pumpkins to better suit her idea of what the pumpkin patch should look like.

For whatever reason, after this picture to the left, it suddenly became completely impossible for me to catch a photo of my daughter with her eyes open for any part of the next ten minutes. Meaning I've captured several cute moments in time...with Madison Michael appearing to be asleep. Standing up.

So here we are.

Thankfully, this trend didn't continue for too terribly long.

The mini pumpkins were set up next to a sunflower field, right next to a lake...
Absolutely beautiful. Madison plopped herself down in the sand and proceeded to cover her nice black pants in sand.

And then Baby Gabe decided to join her with the fun!

smooches for Baby Gabe!

We rode back up to the barn, with Madison Michael singing a very rousing rendition of "E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO!"
(here we are singing)

and did a quick change in the van into our costume. You may remember last year Madison Michael was the cutest version of Tigger the world has ever seen.

This year?






We are a bumble-bee.

After we finished up our photos, the owners of Harmon's came over and asked our playgroup if we wouldn't mind going on ANOTHER hayride, for free, because they had a news camera there that wanted to do a story on Harmon's and the things they have for children. There were enough of us left to fill up another hayride, but by this point, Bitty was exhausted. She kept nodding off in my lap through the second half of the ride, one time falling asleep with her face on her knees. Bless her heart, she's even a cute sleeping bumble bee!

The news is supposed to air tomorrow night. I'm hoping for three things: #1: they got cute footage of Mad, #2 they put the video on their webpage, and #3 I don't look like a complete fool.

whew. How's that for an update!?

Madison Michael's FIRST haircut!

I kept swearing I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't cut her hair. I had some TRAGIC bang cuts growing up (ask Nonnah. I'm sure she has some terribly embarrassing photos to prove that point) and I just didn't want to deal with weird bangs on Little Bitty.

But here lately, Mad's hair has gotten a wee bit out of control. Just a bit. Her bangs were practically down to her mouth, and with a toddler, that means they were in PRIME sticky locations. They never seemed to want to stay behind her ear (as you can see from the mall merry go round photo there) and a hair bow or barrette just never seemed to make it through a whole day. Or half of one, really.

So I braced myself and decided it was finally time for a hair cut. Our very first one.

Thankfully, Madison's friend Lindley, there to the left, in a picture from LAST September (Mad's on the left, by the way), has a mommy who does hair! Yvonne did my hair for the wedding in May, and Madison knows her, so I decided she'd be the way to go for haircut numero uno.

So today, at our Hip Mama's playgroup outing to Alex's house, Madison got a little trim. And even though I was absolutely terrified my kid would come out of this experience looking silly (however impossible that may be), I am SO happy with her cute little cut.

So here's the pictures...because I know that's all you're here to see.

crazy hair BEFORE the big cut...
the first snip!
sleepy baby with bangs....
and finally a good shot of our new 'do!