Christmas!! (Sort of...)

Since we are going to be in Qatar for Christmas, and can't take big gifts, we decided to have a little celebration early. We had my parents over for a nice Christmas dinner and then gave Madilyn her two big gifts. Here are some pictures from the evening! We had yummy ham, twice baked potatoes, rolls and a jello thing. My parents stayed the night and we watched a movie after Maddie was down. My parents brought a lot of gifts, and all in all it ended up feeling like Christmas!! I was happy that Madilyn really enjoyed it. At this age, I didn't know if she's really care about her presents or anything. But she LOVED them and just had a lot of fun. So I'm really excited for Christmas morning!

Getting ready for Christmas!!

We know, it's only the middle of November!! But we're losing out on ten days of being here with our Christmas tree (because we're going to Qatar for Christmas), so we decided to put it up early! It's our first family Christmas tree ever. So we're very excited. Madilyn LOVES it especially with the lights on. She has just got three new top teeth and looks so cute with them. She's really on the move now and pulling up on EVERYTHING in sight.


Here's the tree, in all it's glory. It's a little scarce on ornaments, those get expensive!


Here's Maddie in amazment that she gets to have a huge tree in her house.



This is our new nativity. We haven't really had a REAL one, so I'm very excited about it. I think it's pretty!

Recent Pictures

Here's Madilyn on Halloween. We didn't get a good picture of her whole costume; but this is a cute one of her face!


This is Madilyn with her cousins before we went to the Pumpkin Walk in Syracuse. She loved the pumpkin walk! Well, she loves ANYTHING outside. She got so sleepy and it was late so she slept on her Uncle Trent's shoulder. After we went back to the house, she went to sleep and the adults played games. It was a fun night!


This is where we found Maddie one day. Under a basket. At first she was completely under it, but then she started crawling. It was so funny!


And here is a shot of Madilyn pulling up on her jumperoo. This is her new trick! She pulls up on anything and everything she can get her hands on. She's quite the mobile little girl!


Here is Madilyn in the tub. She LOVES bathtime!

Madilyn Picture Montage

Take a look at this montage we made with pictures of Madilyn. We think it turned out so cute!

My Thoughts (by Madilyn)

"But Mom, I told you I want to be the yellow Power Ranger!"



"Who, me?? I'm suppossed to be napping??"



"I'm just going to change the channel. How do I find Baby Einstein?"



"SHHHH, Dad! I'm telling my story"



"Oh yeah. Dressed to impress!"

New Stuff

So...it's happened. Maddie cut her first tooth! It's so cute. It's her bottom right one, and it's caused her A LOT of pain. Thankfully it's out. Only like, what, 26 more to go? Haha. She's sitting up like a pro and really trying to get around these days. She gets up on her hand and knees and kinda sits there wondering how to move. And then she face plants it. It's so cute! Madilyn is so fun these days. She's at a great stage. Well, enjoy the pictures.






I did some new curtains in Maddie's room (thanks to my sister's idea).

Graduation!!!

Hallelujah! The day finally came! Mike graduated last week. It was such a nice day. But a LOOOOONG one. He graduated at 8:00 am, then we had a brunch, a little get together at home with the family, and then we had professional family pictures that night. Madilyn was such a TROOPER! She did great. She's been so fun lately. She's really starting to get her own personality and she's so smart. She really knows how to get her parents to do what she wants. Haha. Anyway, here are some pictures of Graduation and just hanging out.

She likes to PLAY!!

Maddie has been SO fun lately. Her favorite thing to do is suck on her bottom lip. And she loves it when I tickle her under her chin. Her Grandpa Murray came into town and saw her for the first time. She LOVES him. He just plays with her non-stop. It's great!! She has lots of entertainment! Mike graduates in less than TWO WEEKS!! We're all so excited. I can't wait till he can just spend the evenings and weekends with Maddie and me instead of always worrying about school. He's DONE!! Well, at least till graduate school. Haha. I guess it never ends.

Swimming!!

Madilyn and I went to Bear Lake for a family reunion a couple weeks ago. Mike had to stay home to work and go to school :(. So it was just the two of us. However, I did manage to get some way good pictures of her! She's getting so big. I swear, it's like everyday I look at her and think she is bigger! Her favorite things to do lately are pull my hair and scream at the top of her lungs. It's so funny, because she doesn't scream like she's mad or anything...just screams. Sometimes it's adorable...sometimes it's not. Haha :)

Fun Times

In these pictures, Maddie is taking her first taste of Squash. She wasn't a big fan; but we managed to get a few grins out of her. Also, her Jumperoo is her new favorite toy. She especially loves to jump around in it while watching her new Baby Einstein video. Madilyn loves the shapes and colors that are on the video; and really likes the little caterpillar that comes out at the beginning and smiles at her. She thinks he is SO funny! It always makes her laugh. On this day...she had been jumping around so much that it wore her out. I was in the hallway doing laundry, and I noticed it got unusually quiet; so I went out to check on her and she was out cold. Notice that her head is tilted so she can get a good view of the TV and her video! Haha! Such a cute little sleeper!!!

Fourth of July!!

Here we are at the Centerville parade. It was SOOOOOO hot outside; we got Maddie all slathered up in sunscreen and braved the heat. It made her so sleepy...I guess the heat will do that to you. Later in the afternoon some BIG storms rolled in, so I guess it's better that it was sunny at the parade than lots of lightning. That night, when we got back to Pleasant Grove, we heard some fireworks going off. So, we looked out our window and we had a great view of the city's fireworks show. That was so fun! We didn't think we'd get to see any, but it worked out that we did! The baby in the one photo with Maddie is my brother's baby Grace. Maddie and Gracie are only 2.5 months apart!! They're going to have fun together as they grow up!

Most Recent Pictures

Maddie is going to be four months in about one week. Man, how time flies!! Her favorite things now are rolling around and giggling. She's almost 14 pounds...getting BIG!!!

Just Hanging Out

Here are some older pictures of Maddie and us just relaxing at home. This is around when she first started smiling. She was still just trying to get the hang of it!