Guster

We got a puppy! His name is guster.

Easter

We had a great time in Seattle for Easter with the Hughes'. Maddy loved going on her first Easter egg hunt though she liked the balloons more than the eggs! A couple posts down is the picture with the Easter bunny. Maddy saw him and made a beeline toward him to say hi. So although she is afraid of Santa claus the Easter bunny is no threat at all. This tells me she is ready for Disney land!

Our new home

Yay! The picture from my phone worked. I have so many pictures to share and some are on my computer while others are on my phone so I may be making several posts today, we'll see how patient Maddy will be with me being on the computer today! She's watching Barney and Friends right now, so she should be happy for a little bit.

This is  our new home!  It has been working out really well for us!

This is Maddy wearing her hat and carrying her little pug. I've been blessed with a baby girl who likes to wear hats. If she sees a hat on the ground she'll pick it up and put it on her head and keep in on for a fairly good amount of time. This greatly expands my ability to create fun outfits for her!

My new hair cut!

Our kitchen

Dining room

and Family room.

Easter pic

This is a test to see if I can post pics from my phone

3 month catch up

So Dave got a great job offer with my dads company in Caldwell and after much thought, prayer and contemplation we decided to quit law school and Spokane and move to Caldwell. We did that in late November and have been living with my parents since. (We found a house to rent and will move again this Saturday!) Spokane got 50 inches of snow over the holidays so that makes me extra glad we left! So because of the hustle and bustle of moving and the holidays together, I've been preoccupied and have neglected my blog. But it's the first full week of 2009, a great time to repent and come back to my blogging duties!
So here is a little video of Maddy and her early days of walking! isn't she cute?

Thank you to all who thought of Maddy on her birthday and Christmas! this car was a gift from her grandma and grandpa Hughes and all her aunts and uncles on that side. As you can tell in this picture, she's ecstatic about all her new toys!

Her Newest skill she has learned is the art of dipping. She learned this at a Mexican restaurant in Caldwell. She saw us dipping the tortilla chips in the salsa and for the rest of the night she was dipping chips herself. Now whenever we go to a restaurant she has to dip. It doesn't matter if it's a chip in dip or a crayon in her drink.

Christmas was great. I don't have pictures of this, but on Christmas eve my extended family gets together for a party. During the party Santa always comes over to give us gifts. He calls our names and we come up and sit on his lap. He gives us a gift and we take a picture. Not so unexpectedly, Madison cried when we tried to put her on his lap. She wouldn't have anything to do with him. Well after that traumatic moment, she just played on her own while the rest of us did the Santa thing. When Daddy's turn came up he went to sit on Santa's lap (or rather the armchair of Santa's chair) and when Maddy saw this she let out a cry, ran over to Daddy and grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. She wouldn't let Dave have anything to do with Santa either. It's nice to know that she is looking out for her daddy.

For the longest time whenever we went to a store we had to pass by the live Elmos' and blow kisses with him. when she opened a live Elmo on Christmas day she squealed and shook her arms in excitement...she loved it.

But she liked all her other toys too.

Baby's First Steps!

I don't have any pictures of this yet, but I will try to get some soon. I just had to write it down before I forgot.

Maddy has been taken a lot of steps lately. It started as a few quick steps and then a fall. But on the 29th of October (two days after her birthday) she took 3-4 real, controlled steps in Grandma Simpson's room. She stood up, saw grandma's medicine bottles, and walked right to them. What a motivation, eh? Both Grandma and I clapped, but Maddy didn't even realize she did it.

Just yesterday (Nov 06) she started walking a lot more around our living room. It's funny. There is no rhyme or reason that I can see as to why she chooses to walk or crawl. It still seems she doesn't even notice she is walking. But right now she can get around much faster with her half bear half scoot-on-foot crawl so she prefers crawling to walking still. But it's fun to see her grow....no rush though! I still haven't baby-proofed my drawers and cabinets.

Parties, Parties and Candies

It has been a busy busy week for our family! We had A birthday party for Madison with Dave's family at our apartment and then I flew out to my parents' house where we had a pumpkin carving party, a halloween party, another birthday party for Madison with my family and of course, Maddy's first experience trick-or-treating.

This is Maddy's 1st party. I was surprised to see how quickly she learned how to rip the wrapping paper off her presents!

And then we had a smash cake. She only took a little corner of it. That's all she needed, I guess.

The orange tootsie roll was Madisons first halloween candy. We got it during the day and Penny Wise in Caldwell while shopping with Grandpa Simpson.


Having fun on Halloween at Great-Grandma's house!

This time around opening presents she was a little too distracted with all her presents and everyone around her to be interested in unwrapping them.




Another Smash cake!

And yet again, she only needed a little corner of it, lol.

Her great-aunt made this cake for her. Isn't it great! Thanks Great-Auntie!





Here are all the pumpkins that were carved at the pumpkin carving party!

How Big is Maddy?

So you know the game you play with your baby when you say "How big is [insert baby's name]?" and you raise their hands and say "Thiiis big!" Well just a couple weeks ago Maddy started doing the "this big" herself. She raises her hands and says "deeeh daaaah". It is sooo cute.

In other news, we are in the process of switching from bottle to sippy cup, and she loves it.

I have mixed feelings. I find sippy cups are a lot more messy and easier to create spillage!

We had a Halloween party the other day.

Maddy was so cute in her butterfly costume. When we bought the costume that was the only one she reacted to. In the store everytime we showed her the butterfly head she laughed and held out for it. So she basically picked out her costume this year!

We carved the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch. We have a daddy,











a baby,

and a mommy!

I also toasted the pumpkin seeds using this recipe. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Toasted-Pumpkin-Seeds-with-Sugar-and-Spice/Detail.aspx They turned out good, I would use half he sugar it asks for next time though!

Pumpkin Patch Blast!

Today was Pumpkin Patch day! I guess Washington is having problems with their pumkins this season so we went to the first pumpkin patch and it turned out to be a huge bummer. all the pumpkins were rotting and gross. They were suppose to have a corn maze, but all the corn was smashed down....it was a huge bummer. So We traveled 40 minutes away to try out another pumpkin patch...and there we hit the jack pot. We found a whole community of farmers and pick-your-own places. So everyone was in compitition with the other and it made things very fun and interesting. One place did a festival with live music and different vendors and another place shot pumpkins out of a pumpkin canon every hour. The best part though, is that Madison watches Baby Einstines, A Day at the Farm a lot when we go on car trips. ( we strap a portable DVD player to the headrest of the passenger seat). In the DVD they sing "Old McDonald had a Farm". Well today Madison decided to pick up on the song and sing "EeOohEeOohEee" When the kids in the song sing "Ee I Ee I Oh". I thought that was so fitting as we were driving past the different farms. Needless to say, I took a lot of pics!

Well, Sleeping is not going well. I know this isn't what should be going on, but I gave in to her. After a night with many tears from both of us, we decided to keep her in our bed and figure out another way of getting her to her room. The last two nights she's been great because she's back in mommy and daddy's room. The nights where she had to sleep in her crib she was oh so clingy to me all day the next days. So even though it makes me a wishy washy mom, she won this battle. Our Idea for the next attempt, is a little wierd. But at this point, I'll try anything. We're going to get a mat to put in her room on the floor. And then I'll nurse her to sleep on the floor and sneak back to my room. If she wakes up, I'll come back in and nurse her again....fool proof, right? riiight....
In more happier news, Every Friday Maddy and I take a music class. It's called upbeat music together. She absolutly loves it, and this time I got pictures!

This ones a little blurry but it's cute because she decided to become queen of the drum. Looks like she has someone who wants to overthrow her...literally.


We love music class!

Who came up with the saying "sleep like a baby?"

So Madison has been sleeping with me and Dave every night as she nurses the night away. A couple of days ago we decided it was time to put her in her crib. It is a struggle! I nurse her to sleep and then try to put her in her crib, she wakes up. I let her cry for a few minutes and then come back in and nurse her to sleep again. I attempt #2 to put her in her crib, she wakes up. I let her cry again and then come back in and nurse her to sleep again. The first night i just had to hold her down during the 3rd attempt to put her in her crib and she just let out a cry or two of protest and then she slept for a few hours. Last night however, I held her down and she just continued to cry and cry. We started this process at 9:00 and it was coming onto midnight at this moment. Well proving that great things come in small packages, Maddy, as she was crying, looked around the crib and spotted this little lamb stuffed animal.
She immediately stopped crying and just stared at him. And then she felt his ear and just laid there looking and feeling him. 30 minutes later she fell asleep. Thank goodness for Lamby!

Two hours later she woke up again...and ended up in our bed again.

It's going to be a loooooong and tiring week!

And I thought I had bad hair days?


I wanted to take some cute fall photos of Maddy so we went outside and I put her on top of the hill and let her crawl down as I went camera crazy.

We had tons of fun! She loved crawling on the grass.





Things were going great until she found some dog poop and almost put it in her mouth. (I took the picture cause at first I thought it was a leaf.)

All Grins

Maddy's working on her third tooth. They are all three in a row on the bottom. I have been working for a while to get a good grinny picture, this is as close as I can get. But hey, It works.

She looks so thrilled to have her picture taken..."Mom, you want to see my teeth, here you go!"

A Little More Independent.

Maddy is starting to not like her baby food anymore. She has officially graduated to grown up chunky foods. But we still have some baby food in the cupboard and I wanted to use it all up. So today to get Maddy a little more interested in her green beans I let her take over the spoon.....needless to say, she loved it!