A common theme

In looking through the pictures of our trip to Florida, I noticed a very common theme...Madeline proudly walking all over the place with Daddy following closely behind!  Here they are at Sea World...

At Downtown Universal Studios later that day...

She was an absolute hit that evening.  She walked right up to everyone she saw, waved, smiled, and said "hi!"  That puts a smile on just about everyone's face, and there were several times when she had a small group of people standing around her smiling and talking to her.  She definitely knows how to work a crowd!

The same thing happened at the airport...Daddy following her around while she walked around smiling and telling everyone "hi!"

She is little miss independent these days, so she usually won't let anyone hold her hand, except to walk up the stairs since she decided walking is much more fun than crawling up them, but her little legs aren't quite tall enough to do it without a little assistance.  We have quite the sociable little girl!

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!

1 Year Pictures

It's VERY hard to believe that our baby girl will be 1 year old in less than 2 weeks!  Since we have never had professional pictures taken of her, that's something I definitely wanted to do around her 1st birthday.  However, between work, house buying/selling, vacations, teaching a night class, and everything else we've had going on lately, I had not figured out a time to schedule them.  Fortunately, I have an amazing husband :)  A few weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I left him with Madeline, so I could go to the Designer's Showhouse tour with my mom and one of my sisters.  Unbeknownst to me, he had made arrangements with my mom and sister for them to take me on the tour at a specified day and time as he scheduled Maddie's pictures for that same morning.  He gave them to me on Mother's Day, and I could not have been more pleased!  Here are a few of my favorites...

 Maddie LOVES to rock in Maddie-size rocking chairs (both our mom's have one), so this picture is perfect...

 I think she looks like such a big girl in this picture, not like a 1 year old...

 Our little cutie with her big blue eyes...

Additionally, Mat arranged with his sister for her to come to town with our nephew Brody in order to have some pictures taken of the two of them.  This turned out to be a fantastic Mother's Day present for their Grandma Emma...

What a fantastic gift for my first Mother's Day.

New Favorite Skill

Madeline has officially mastered the ability to climb steps.  When you set her down, she heads right for them.  Once she gets to the top, she proudly giggles at herself.  Then, she wants to do it all over again.  Here's a video we took this evening...

Her 18 month pj pants are a big long, so those slowed her down slightly compared to earlier in the evening when she still had on her shorts.  Several repetitions of climbing the steps is a great way to wear out an almost one-year old little girl!

Maddie lately

Between working full-time, teaching a night class, buying a house, trying to sell a house, and having a family to take care of and spend time with, there just haven't been enough hours in the day for much blogging lately! However, in the past month, Maddie has gotten even more cute and more fun :)  She has quite a personality.  She can get quite sassy when she is unhappy about something, but she's generally a very happy little girl.  She figured out how to open cabinets, so she's into everything...

 However, the lazy Susan cabinet pinched her fingers a time or two, so she generally stays away from them now...

I love this picture.  Someday she'll be taller than Edison (but she has a ways to go!)...

 She loves to stand at the glass doors and watch the dogs run around the yard...

 When she wakes up in the morning (usually around 5 AM), she tends to fuss to let us know she wants up.  One morning, I heard her down there babbling away and thought it was odd...something must be different.  When I went downstairs to get her, this is what I found...

She was proudly standing up in her crib talking away!  Considering she still can't roll from her back to her tummy (her daddy calls her a turtle since she flaps her arms and legs around and can't get up when she's on her back), I was shocked to find she had managed to get herself from laying on her back to standing!  It looks like we will be dropping the mattress on her crib down sooner than anticipated.

She sleeps through the night (most of the time), and she eats just about anything.  Her favorites are avocado, mandarin oranges, and oatmeal cereal.  She likes to feed herself, so she's a bit of a mess by the time she's done eating, but that's just what babies do!  It's hard to believe that her first birthday is just around the corner!