Video

I'm going to do a major update soon, but for now, here's a video of Madison with our dog, Joey. Our cabinets are "child-proof". Unfortunately, Mad figured out how to open it enough to reach in for dog food. So she decided to feed the dog.

Busy, busy, busy!!

It's Easter morning here and Daddy and Little Bitty aren't up yet...so I'm sneaking time to update the world.

First things first, right after her first birthday, Madison decided to attempt the Great Escape from her crib. So we've moved up to a big girl bed!

Last week, Madison found beads in the house. Decided to wear them. And we wore them everywhere...we went to the zoo with Leigh & her daughter Lauren and we wore our beads. We went to Target and wore our beads. To the park? Wore our beads.



Last weekend we had our annual St. Patrick's day breakfast on Saturday at Bella's house! This is a tradition Mommy started with Bella when they were roommates at USC. But this year was Madison Michael's first year in attendance! She put on a new green St. Pat's shirt and Mommy put her hair in pigtails and she was VERY excited that Mommy had green beads for her to wear! She had a great time showing off for everyone and enjoyed munching on Lucky Charms.

After our breakfast, we went to an Easter Egg hunt at a state park across town. It was really crowded and we were pretty late, but she still got to hunt for some candy (but no eggs...?) & play with some bunnies.



Friday we went to see the Easter Bunny! (Mommy needs to scan this picture) I was worried she was going to freak out, because Santa wasn't a very big hit at Christmas. While we waited in line, EB took some breaks and came over to wave at the kids. By the time we got to the front of the line, Madison had decided that this guy was okay, because he danced. And Madison LOVES to dance. The picture is super cute. Big smile!

Yesterday was our VERY FIRST Easter Egg Hunt at church! We invited Nonnah along since Daddy was playing golf! Madison wore a cute new pink dress with her new pink plaid shoes and carried her new Easter basket she got from Nonnah & Poppi. They had the toddler playground ready for the egg hunt for the 2 and under crowd. It was chaos trying to get through the grandparents to get in the playground, but once we made it in, Madison managed to find 3 eggs by herself! One she found after everyone else quit looking and had gone inside...persistence pays off! She got a little distracted in the middle of the egg hunt and decided she'd much rather just play on the slide and with the toys outside. But three eggs! I was impressed with our first showing.

Today is Easter and we're going to put on a new dress from Great Granny Ely & Papaw in Kentucky and go to church. After church we're headed to Aiken to see Gran & Pappaw & Great Granny!

...but not until after we check out what the Easter Bunny left!


Edit: Mad & her Easter basket!

First Birthday party!

Saturday was Madison Michael's first birthday party! We had a house FULL of people at Nonnah & Poppy's house and everyone had a great time. Madison's friends Lindley & Alex were able to come, along with lots of her "grown up" friends.

She did a great job opening all of her presents and making such a fuss over them, especially the clothes. It was so cute. Stephen's worried though. At one year old, his daughter's already making a huge deal out of clothing and shoes.

The cake was beautiful. A mom from our playgroup does cakes on the side and made Madison Michael's birthday cake, as well as her very own smash cake. Madison sat in the center of the kitchen and listened to everyone sing to her and smiled and waved and then slowly dug into her cake. She eventually ended up sticking her face in it!

We all had a wonderful time and we're so glad for everyone who was able to make it to the party and share our special day with us!


And on another happy note, Madison has a new friend in the world! Melissa, Nonnah & Poppy's sweet neighbor, had her baby boy, Sam, on Sunday afternoon! Congratulations Melissa & Jon :o)


I'll add pictures later. I'm currently uploading them to the computer from the CDs.

Happy Birthday, Madison Michael!

Yesterday was Madison Michael's first birthday!!! I can hardly believe it. The first year was rough at times, but it just seems like it flew by in the blink of an eye. Our Little Bitty is getting so big!

We had lunch with Nonnah & Daddy yesterday at New Orleans Restaurant, then Nonnah and I took Mad to Toys R Us to pick out something with her money from her great grandparents. She's quite the little shopper! And, because she's a member of the Toys R Us birthday club, they gave her a special crown and a balloon and even announced her name and the fact that it was her first birthday over the loudspeaker. Really cute.

Last night Nonnah & Poppi came over and had dinner with us and we opened presents and had our very own cupcake!

She was COMPLETELY exhausted and even slept in a bit longer than usual this morning. Bless her little heart. Her BIG party is on Saturday. I'm really excited and I hope she has a good time!

I leave you with photos from our day...

Madison & Tyler reunite!

We spent the weekend in Richmond, VA with our good friends, the Sneads! Last time we were there in October, Tyler wasn't crawling yet. Fast forward to February and the little guy was definitely on the move! He wasn't going to just sit back and take nonsense from Madison this trip. Which means we had some really funny moments between the two of them. (Madison has a boo-boo on her finger and wanted to eat the bandaids, which meant the whole finger had to be wrapped up.)

We drove up Friday night, late, and Madison did SO well in the car. Slept the majority of the way there. Got there around 2:30 AM and Mad played with some of Tyler's toys while Tyler slept, then we all headed off to bed. On Saturday morning, the two little ones finally got to see each other! They played together for awhile, then all six of us piled into ONE car for the drive to Arlington for Claire's first birthday party! Didn't take long before the little ones konked out, which made the ride up pretty nice (not so much for the ride BACK).

Claire's party was SO much fun! All the little ones seemed to really have a good time with each other. They played really hard,

ate some cake,
(each child had their very own cupcake, complete with their own name! Thanks to Jamie)and then they all actually took NAPS at the same time!

Then, after the party, we all went out to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant. Mad did pretty well and ate lots of her chicken quesadilla, but the exhaustion from the day was starting to wear her down. So by the time we got to the car, we figured the little ones would fall right asleep. (After a quick front-seat diaper change!)

They apparently had other plans.

Tyler fell asleep. Madison wanted to sit and chat for awhile. Ends up waking Tyler up, who is NOT happy about this. Tyler cries for the next hour and Mad yells AT him. Quite a peaceful trip.

Next day was Super Bowl Sunday. The little ones dressed in their Sunday football best. Before the big game, Travis & Stephen took the little ones for a wagon ride to the park (Excellent practice for the wedding in May. Mad & Tyler are going to be the flower girl & ringbearer and are riding down the aisle in a wagon together!)...then we all came back and had some dinner before the game came on. Mad & Tyler split a tuna & black olive sandwich and a ham & black olive sandwich. Quite the fans of black olives, they are.

Madison was an angel on the ride home that night. So glad we got to spend the weekend with the Sneads & were able to celebrate Claire's birthday with everyone as well!

Fun at FunZone!

On Monday, Mad & I went to FunZone with our HipMamas playgroup! Madison had a blast. Walked (!!) around a little bit to investigate everything and kept trying to escape the toddler room for the big kids area. She had a good time playing with the other babies, Alex & Dolly, and even pushed Alex around on one of the little cars! After some of the big kids cleared out, we went into the big room with the huge inflatable playground and jumped around and even went down the giant slide!

Here's some pictures of our fun!

The calm before the storm...

Not a whole lot going on around here. Mommy started back to school on the 14th and Daddy's been pretty busy at work. Mad's been busy watching sports on TV! Her newest favorite is watching the NBA highlights on Sportscenter. Dunk? Mad cheers. Nice little 3? Better luck next time, man. Dunk & she'll cheer for anyone. And of course the NFL playoffs are on, so she's enjoying those as well. (Especially with her new shirt: "Shhhh...I'm watching the game with Dad.")

We're in the final countdown coming up to her birthday. We're slowly introducing REAL "big people" milk and coming off her Good Start formula. She seems to like it well enough. At the same time, we're working on drinking from our "big girl" cups. Her new favorite is her Blue's Clues smoothies from Yoplait. Sucks them right down.

We're also getting dangerously close to walking, as in using walking as a mode of transportation. Right now, crawling is still much faster, but she's starting to get braver and braver each day. Just yesterday she took at least 6 steps or so by herself. I think her Winnie the Pooh choo choo she got from Gran & Papaw for Christmas and her lion walker that Santa brought her are strengthening up her legs really well. Looks like a decent leg workout to me!

We're going to be super busy the next few weeks. This weekend is Madison's friend Alex's first birthday party. Next weekend is her friend Trent's 4th birthday party. Then the NEXT weekend we're making a Virginia trip to see Mommy's friends and their little ones! Mommy's friend Julia has a daughter named Claire and we're going to be there for her first birthday on February 2nd. Plus we get to see Tyler again!! (And his new teeth!).

Then on the 17th we have Melissa's baby shower, the 20th is Madison Michael's first birthday, and then the 23rd is Mad's first birthday PARTY at Nonnah & Poppy's house!! We're SO excited!!!

Look how big I'm getting!!