Madeline Turns ONE!

Madeline's Birthday was so fun! She was so excited that morning and must have known it was a special day because she woke up at 6:15 am! We started out the morning by letting her check out her decorated birthday door!

She loved it! We then played with some Birthday balloons! That is all we could have gotten her for her birthday and she would have been completely satisfied. We then had some breakfast. She got to eat her first Cinnamon Roll!

After nap we had a small birthday party with our friends. The Rubisch's are like our family out here. I am so glad that they were able to celebrate with us on this special day! Plus Madi absolutely adores Levi and Lily! We had dinner and the kiddos played. We then let Madi open her presents and she got some really fun stuff! After presents we had cake. Madi wasn't sure what to do with the cake. She kept spitting out the frosting and she didn't like touching it. So overall I would say she wasn't a fan of Birthday cake. Oh well. We will try again! I made all of Madi's Birthday decorations due to the fact that well we are poor students. Thank you Pintrest! 

We had a fantastic day Celebrating our Special girl turning ONE! 

Happy Birthday Miss Madeline!

We love you!

One Year Old!

I can't believe my little baby is One! I know I have said this a thousand times but time really does go by so fast! This past year has been amazing! Having a child changes your life in so many ways you don't even think possible. Madeline is such a blessing to our family. I couldn't imagine it any other way. I am so glad that she is mine. She is my little buddy. I love that I get to spend all day with her and we can just play. It is so fun to watch her progress and change into the next phase. She is getting to be such a little toddler ( yikes, did I just say that?) She is so funny! I love calling my family everyday to tell them the next hilarious thing she has done. She is so sassy and such a little spit fire! We are going to have our hands full in these toddler stages! She loves to be the center of attention and entertain everyone. She is such a little show off! She is really so adorable and has a cute little personality. We just love her so much and feel so blessed to be her parents!

Here are some things that Madeline does at 1 years old:

• She loves to clap her hands, she especially loves to clap for herself. 
• She folds her arms when we say prayer. It melts my heart every time.
• When we ask her "how many are you?" she will hold up 1 finger. This is probably her greatest trick.
• She is such a good walker. She took her first steps on 11/17/2013. She was just barely 11 months. She loves to put her arms behind her and "fly" I think she thinks it makes her go faster.
• She now has two bottom teeth. She is currently working on her top teeth!
• She loves to blow kisses! She is really good at blowing them to her Papa on Skype!
• She loves to wave!
• She is so ticklish. She will giggle and scream so loud but she loves every second of it!
• She likes to watch Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins. She has a very short attention span though.
• She doesn't really like eating. She likes to eat cheese. She wants to be independent and feed herself but that just doesn't happen.
• She loves Milk! Which is so great because it will help with her being so tiny!
• She weighs 15. 2 at the doctor. I am pretty sure she is like the tiniest one year old ever!
• She loves to play "peek a boo" but she will sometimes only cover one eye!

I could seriously go on and on. She is so funny and does the cutest things! I am so excited for this next stage. It is amazing watching her grow and develop! Miss Madeline, Thank you for being our daughter! We love you more than you will ever know!

Some thoughts

Tonight I am flooded with emotions as I think of Madeline's 1st Birthday only being a couple hours away. I am happy, excited, and sad all at the same time. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Alan and I were watching videos of her tonight and it seems like it was just yesterday. It is also scary to think that there are things that she did that were so unbelievable cute that I completely forgot about! Good thing we have the technology we have. I am so excited for the next phase that she is about to enter and I am excited to watch her grow and learn even more! When we found out we were pregnant it was such a wonderful day. I remember it like it was yesterday. I knew I was going to love being a Mom and that it was going to be incredible. My expectations have been far exceeded. She makes life so much more fun!

The first time I laid eyes on her, it was love at first sight. I was filled with so much joy I thought my heart was going to burst into a million pieces. When she laid on me and looked at me with those big blue eyes I knew I was about to embark on one of the most amazing journeys. It has been incredible! I love her so much and I feel so blessed to be her Mother. She is so much fun and brings so much joy to our lives! 

85 degrees in December..OH MY!

Yesterday was National Hate Florida day!

Everywhere across the Country is freezing! In Utah it was like 9 degrees. Even Arizona is experiencing extremely cold weather. Florida is experience unseasonably warm weather.....uh yeah you think? Most people who live here are like: oh isn't it just great! Don't you just love the weather here? Let me fill you in on a little secret....NO! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick of being hot. I have been hot since June! There is no point in showering cause I just walk outside and I am completely sweaty. During Madeline's nap time yesterday I thought, oh I want to read a book and relax in the bath tub. I was in there maybe 5 minutes and I had to get out cause it was too hot and I felt like  I was going to pass out! I know I shouldn't be complaining because if I were where it was cold I would wish I was where it was hot. I guess we are just never satisfied. I do love living in Florida. Last week we were able to go to the beach and play in the water. That is pretty amazing. I do however miss the seasonal changes. We had no fall and now we have no winter. It is pretty hard to get into the Christmas spirit when your AC is blasting throughout your house. I am sure if you are use to it, it feels normal but to me it feels like a never ending August. I want to watch the snow fall and sit in front of the fire place in my flannel pajamas and socks! I can't believe I miss something as silly as socks! I can't wait to go home to Utah for Christmas and when I get my fill of being cold (which might be never, it has been awhile) I get to come home to 80 degrees.

So to all of those freezing your buns off I am trying to send you some of my warm weather your way!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! I admit it was a very hard day to be away from home. It was our first major holiday away from our families. It is a good thing that we have such amazing friends out here that feel basically like family. Alan and I decided that we would host Thanksgiving this year for all of our friends. He thought it would be a good distraction for me and boy was he right. Alan and I made the Turkey, stuffing, and gravy. When I say Alan and I, I really just mean me. He did do an excellent job carving the Turkey and he also helped with all of the preparations. All of our friends chipped in and brought a side dish and dessert. All of us girls made sure we had everything so everyone felt right at home. I must say that we did a great job! It was a wonderful day. The food was great and the company was even better! Thank you to the Rubisch's, Balle's, and the Brown's! We love you guys and are so very Thankful to have you in our lives!

I am proud to say at age 25 I can successfully cook a Turkey! Thanks Mom!

This girl is enjoying her first Thanksgiving!

The whole crew!

The girls!! We were being silly!

Staycation 2013

This week Alan had a WHOLE week off for Thanksgiving. We were both very excited to finally be able to spend some good quality family time together without having school or studying get in the way. We decided to not go home for Thanksgiving because it was so close to Christmas. We had a staycation here in Florida. We started Alan's break off with going to see Catching Fire, which was amazing! We both loved it! On Monday we went to Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It was so unbelievable crowded. Not sure what we were thinking. Luckily we live here and had just been there so we weren't too worried about doing everything, we just wanted to spend the day together. Madeline sure loved it. She danced the whole time on Small World. She clapped and pointed on all the rides. She also loved the Tiki Room. She has been to Disney World twice before age one, She is definitely one spoiled girl and doesn't even know it! Alan and I aren't the best at taking pictures, we were too busy having fun. But here are some that we did take..

We were all so tired on Tuesday that we just hung out in our sweats and watched movies. It was a much needed lazy day. On Wednesday we thought it would be fun to go to the beach! Well mother nature had other plans for us. We drove all the way to the beach and the wind was blowing so hard it was crazy. Madi loved it and wanted to stay and play but she was at the perfect height for the sand to blow into her eyes. We just walked on the beach and found some awesome seashells. We decided to try a beach on the bay side to see if it would be less windy. Hooray it was! We sat and played for a little while. Madeline ate about a cup of sand. We couldn't stop her. Thursday we had a fabulous Thanksgiving with our Friends! (more on that later) Friday we went out shopping and got our Christmas tree. We got it all decorated and finished the night off with a Christmas Movie.

I am normally opposed to artificially Christmas trees and this was a sad day for me. We decided since we will be in Utah for Christmas that there is not point in having a real tree that would just be a fire hazard while we are gone! I do have to admit that this was extremely easy to set up and Madeline has really enjoyed playing with it.

We are so glad that Alan had a nice break before he has to hit the books hard for the next three weeks before finals. It was so nice to spend time together and do some fun things! We are counting down the days to his next break and Christmas!

11 months

Today Madeline turned 11 months old. I find myself getting extremely emotional to think that next month we will have a one year old. Where did the time go? Anyways, that is not for another month so I won't worry too much about it yet. Madeline is the happiest baby. She always just goes with the flow and is happy as long as people are paying attention to her. She loves to play and be social. She loves to giggle and smile. She brings so much joy to us and we just adore her.

Here are some things that Miss Madeline does at 11 months:

• She loves to clap her hands
• She gives kisses, she will put her lips to your cheek and make the cutest little noise.
• She can stand on her own for about 15 seconds takes a step and falls over.
• She loves to play pat-a-cake.
• She loves to eat but mostly when she can feed herself. She will stuff as much food as she can in her cheeks until she gags and has to spit it out.
• She loves to look at books. She will go over to her bookcase and pick a book and look through it.
• She loves to drink water and not out of a sippy cup but out of straw.
• She loves to hide and crawl through small spaces.
• She loves to crawl into the kitchen and pull down the dishtowels off the oven.
• She loves to run with her walker across the living room.
• She insists on standing up in the bathtub which makes it extremely difficult to bathe her.
• If she is playing with or doing something that she isn't suppose to and she gets removed she gets very upset and has a mini tantrum but most of the time she can be distracted with something new.
• She thinks other kids are hilarious. She will laugh hysterically at kids just running around because they are kids!
• She got her very first tooth on 10/29/2013
• She loves to hang upside down
• She does this new thing where she throws her head back and smiles or laughs. Its pretty cute!

Madeline has matured so much over the last couple months and I can slowly see her turning into a toddler. The only time she seems like a baby is when I hold her in my arms to nurse her. My heart burst every time she crawls over to me, looks at me with those bright blue eyes, and reaches up for me. I knew that I would love being a Mom but no one prepared me for how much I would love her and all those precious moments that come with it. Madeline is so much fun and keeps are lives busy and fun. She is such a blessing and truly brings us so much joy! Madeline We love you!

 Oh and if someone has a solution to slow time down please, send me a message!

Halloween 2013

I have always loved Halloween, especially when I was teaching because I could always dress up and act like a kid! This Halloween was by far my favorite! Everything is so much better when you have kids! Madeline decided she wanted to be a piglet for Halloween. She was the most adorable piggy you have ever seen! We started the day off with going to visit Alan at school. He was so proud carrying her around and showing her off to all of his classmates. Then he had the rest of the day off! It was awesome! Later that day we went over to Chuck and Brittany's for a lite dinner and then Trick or Treating. It was nice to be able to take Madeline out in a neighborhood with houses instead of trying to hike up and down a billion stairs at our apartment complex. She loved Halloween! She kept her costume on all day and loved it! She even got to have a few treats, so overall I think she is a big fan of Halloween! 

Visiting Dads at school! It was very hard to get everyone to look at the same time.

Ready to go Trick or Treating! Madi is excited!

Madi and Levi. They kept trying to steal each others candy. Madi eventually stole Levi's sippy.

Look I got candy!!

Enjoying her first piece of candy!

Happy Halloween!!

Family Visit #3

We have been so lucky to have so many of our family members come out and visit since we moved! Last week Alan's parents came to a work conference in Orlando, which was awesome because they were able to see us! On Monday they came and stayed with us. We were able to show them around our new home. On Tuesday they got to go on a tour of Alan's school, we then took them to our favorite beach, Siesta Key. They were able to watch Madi play in the waves and sand. They then had to go back to Orlando for the conference but we were lucky enough to get to meet up with them over the weekend and spend some time at Universal Studios and Disney World. 

Madi at the beach with her Grandparents!

They brought her this toy all the way from home that her Great Grandpa made and she loved it!

Marvel Studios after the Hulk ride. It was insane!

Grandma watched her while we went on all the rides!

Alan and Wolverine

Her First ride at Epcot!

Trying to walk around the park!

Madi and Daddy and Epcot!

At Biergarten Restaurant. This is her new smile! :)

Watching the Fireworks!

waiting in line for Dumbo at the Magic Kingdom.

Finally made it on to Dumbo

Chilling with Grandpa!

A Disney trip would not be complete without a Mickey ice cream bar!

Family Photo in front of the castle

On the Buzz Lightyear ride shooting lasers.

We had the most amazing time while Alan's parents were here. It was so good to see them and spend some quality time together. I know that Madi sure loved seeing them and getting spoiled! Thank you Sevy's for your generosity and taking the time to come visit us! We had so much fun! We love you guys! Can't wait to see you at Christmas!