What I do all day (by Madilyn)

I thought I would let you all know what I do during the day! First I wake up and play for a little bit. Here are me and my mom playing peek-a-boo. I hide behind the couch, and when she least expects it, "BOO!". I come out and scare her!! It's a fun game.


Here, I'm showing my mom how to do ballet. I can't wait till I can take dance classes and soccer and stuff. It looks like so much fun.


After I finished dancing, I heard a noise outside! I went to look, but then I decided to look at the blinds. They are fun. I would play with the blinds all day if my mom would let me.


I decided to play with my toy next. I tried to act natural, but it's hard when my mom is following me around with the camera! I like taking pictures; it's fun to look at them on my parents computer.


Here I am after I got dressed; my mom didn't know it but I was tricking her. I acted like I was just going to sit there, but I surprised her and....


...Lunged for the camera! Haha, I'm so tricky!


Then, me and my mommy decided to play pretend. Here I am acting like a MONSTER!


Oh wow, what a busy day. I'm pooped. I think I'll go rest now. Thanks for looking at the pictures and what I do all day!

We're back...and guess who's walking?!

We got back from Qatar a couple of weeks ago. It was a great trip! We rode camels, went on a "dune-bashing" trip in the desert, and had a fun Christmas there. The country is beautiful, like a desert paradise. Palm trees everywhere, beautiful water right next to the city, and LOTS of sand. Maddie had quite a hard time adjusting to the time change, and was up a lot at night and wanted to sleep during the day. But she was a trooper! And she adjusted just in time to go home. Haha :)

Here are Maddie and I in front of some old fishing boats in the bay. The water was beautiful, and boy was it WINDY! Maddie had a good time there and fell right asleep once we started walking.


This is a good view of the water with the city behind us. This area is called the Corniche. It's a beautiful walkway along the water that streches through the city. Maddie had fallen asleep with her hood covering her face :)


This is the pool at the villa where Mike's parents live. It's a gorgeous clubhouse and pool!


Here is our family on Christmas morning. We were happy that Grandma Murray was able to get a Christmas tree!! You don't see very many Christmas trees in Islamic countries!


This is the villa where Mike's parents live. It's a very nice place!! And it's VERY pink! The weather was gorgeous and we had such a good time there.


This is our guide that took us through the desert, his name is Muhammad. They come and pick you up in these land cruisers and take you out there. That's when we rode the camels, which was awesome! Going through the dunes was one of the coolest things we've ever done! They just fly through them, and go off these WAY steep hills. On one of the flat streches we went 170 KPH. (Which is about 110 MPH I think). They take you to a place called the inland sea, which is beautiful. It's only accessible through the dunes, and if you look into the distance you see Saudi Arabia.


These two next pictures are just really cute :) They are in the bedroom we stayed at in Qatar, when Maddie came in a was excited she found us. I LOVE her smile!!



So, this is a new trick that Maddie learned a couple weeks ago! She's quite the walker! I think she started walking a little early (9 1/2 months) because she's so determined to do everything we do! Including eat everything we eat! Anyway, she was quite wobbly for the first week or so, and now she's just walking everywhere. It's so cute to see how independent she's getting. I can't believe how fast she's grown up! Oh, and one of her favorite things in the whole world is Elmo. She can't get enough of him! It's so cute to see her face when she hears the music from Elmo's world come on. She gets so startled and serious about getting to the T.V. immediately!

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.