Daisy

Five years ago, we took in Daisy (and Chance) from some friends as she needed a new home.  We already had two labs and certainly weren't planning on having four, but they needed a home badly.  Daisy is one of the sweetest most well-behaved dogs ever imaginable, and we absolutely love her.  At 8 years old, she has slowed down quite a bit, but she is still full of spunk.  Although she still loves fetching a tennis ball, she will go lay down in the yard and chew on the ball when she gets worn out.  If you say "let's go for a ride!", she'll run to the door.  If you say "bathtime", she'll run into the shower in the bathroom we use to wash the dogs.  She's a great dog.  Here are some pictures we took of her and Maddie...

 Daisy trying to get Maddie to rub her belly...

 A couple of cuties!

 Daisy is SO patient with Maddie...

 Kisses!

 Unfortunately, we have had issues with Daisy and our other yellow lab, so for a number of reasons, we decided to find her a new home.  Obviously, we won't give her to just anyone, but two of our best friends in the world decided to give her a wonderful home as she deserves.  We know she will be very well taken care of with her new mommy and daddy, and I know they are excited to have her.  We love you guys, Justin & Heather!  

Florida

Maddie went on her first vacation last week when we went to Florida for the wedding of one of Mat's cousins.  On the flight down, we had an empty seat in our row, so Maddie sat between us like a big girl and played with various toys.  She also smiled, waved, and said "hi" to everyone around us.  She even received numerous compliments on how well she did on the plane ride :)

On Friday, we went to Cocoa Beach.  Although she was not a fan of playing in the ocean (or having the waves wash up on her feet), she did have fun in the sand...

The wedding was on Saturday.  Maddie and Brody had fun playing with the yellow balloon during the beginning of the reception...

 Dancing with daddy...

 Dancing with Grandma Emma...

 On Sunday, we went to Sea World.  It was a very hot and humid day, but Maddie was a champ...

 We arrived around 9 AM, and around 1:30, she hit a wall.  Big time.  At that point, we called it a day and headed back to the condo to take a nice long nap since we had been going non-stop for 4 days, keeping her up late, and ruining her nap schedule.  She fell sound asleep on Mat's shoulder walking to the car, we put her in her stroller, and then we put her in her car seat, and she never woke up the slightest bit through all the transitions.  However, after a 30 minute power nap in the car, she was wide awake and ready to go when we got back.  We couldn't believe it.  I tried to get her down for a nap twice at the condo, and she would not have anything to do with sleeping.  Therefore, we decided to hit the pool since it was a beautiful afternoon!

We headed home on Monday, and once again, she was great on the flight.  During the time we were waiting to board, she had a great time walking around, smiling, and saying "hi" to absolutely everyone (as usual).

We wore her cute little butt out though as she took 5-6 hours worth of naps during the day at my parents' house for the rest of the week!

1st Birthday!

Our little Madeline turned 1 on June 4, so we had a party Sunday June 3 with our close friends and family to celebrate the occasion.  No surprise, the theme was lady bugs :)  Here I am with the lady bug cupcakes (thank you Pinterest!)...

For Maddie's smash cake, I made a giant cupcake.  She wasn't so sure what to think (especially when she tried to grab the lit candle as we were singing Happy Birthday and everyone gasped)...

Daddy giving her a taste of the icing...

She finally decided it was pretty tasty.  However, she was not one of those babies that dives right in and ends up completely covered in cake.  She's a lady :)

All of Maddie's aunts and uncles were able to come!  Here's the birthday girl with my siblings (who claim they did not make plans ahead of time to all wear orange)...

This little girl received an incredible number of wonderful gifts.  She likes to make noise, so my dad got her a pair of maracas at First Friday Art Night...

Her Rockin Harley from Gramps...

This pink rocking chair has her name engraved on it.  She has figured out how to climb into it, turn around, and sit down by herself in it...

 

She also received this pink Maddie-sized lawn chair...

The birthday girl walking around to say hi to everyone.  She's great at working a crowd....wandering around and smiling at everyone...

My siblings and I with Maddie in her red & blue tutu Aunt Abbey made...

Here she is on the Mickey Mouse tricycle that her Great Uncle Mo and Great Aunt Denise got her.  She LOVES riding up and down the driveway in this thing, and there are all kinds of buttons that she hits to play various tunes.  I'm not sure what she's pointing at, but that's her new thing...pointing at everything.

Her last (but certainly not least) gift was from Uncle Michael.  Since my sisters have both made her gifts, he decided that he wanted to make his niece something, so he built a bookcase!  It's red with white polka-dots to match her lady bug room.  I was VERY impressed!

I would say that Miss M certainly had a fantastic first birthday!