New Wheels on the Block

Remember a long time ago when I posted this regarding a car for Madi? Well, it's happened. The car has arrived. Which did we pick in the end? The red Range Rover. :-)

By luck of circumstances, our friend Georgina had a baby shipment coming from the UK. She graciously allowed us to put the car in her shipment and my friend Emily, who lives in Aberdeen picked up the car from the post and delivered to Georgina.

It was a long and torturous one week that Jason had to endure before the car arrived in Norway and we picked it up Saturday morning. It got assembled right away with some help from Madi and after its 15 hour charging period, was ready to roll on Sunday.

Isn't she the cutest toddler with a screw driver?!

Here's Madi's new wheels on the block !

And you can imagine what we spent most of Sunday doing...

Rollin' like she owns the block. ;-)

And of course we took video! The car runs really well - the only downside is it's a bit jerky when you first start and that scared Madi the first time she rode in it. But after getting her favorite kitty and having Mommy next to her when it started she loved riding around!

Read more...

Weekly Wrap-up: Birthday Edition

This week's wrap-up is all about Madi's birthday weekend since most of the week was spent preparing for the party after she went to bed each evening. Her actual birthday was on Friday, which was perfect since it meant I got to spend the day with her!!

We woke her up by singing Happy Birthday and she laid on her back smiling at us. It was adorable. And of course since it was pre-coffee I didn't think to have my phone. :-/

Afterwards we made Madi a special breakfast of blueberry pancakes since they have become a recent favorite of hers!

After her morning nap we went and picked up Ms Sally, her nanny, to go with us to the grocery store. It was so nice to have help with Madi so I could be more efficient with my shopping and Madi loved getting to see her on her birthday! Once again I had a phone failure and left it in the car during our shopping trip so I didn't get a picture of Sally and Madi having frozen yogurt before we headed home.

I did get this cutie pie hanging out with me that afternoon when she decided that one-year-olds don't need an afternoon nap. Instead she took off all of her crib guard rails and played with them. I went in and collected them all only to find her pull one out from no where! After I took that one she walked laps around the crib making sure they were really gone before finally caving and taking a nap.

That evening we gave Madi a birthday bath! She was engrossed with a bottle of shampoo and kept pulling it out of the water and making us laugh. :-)

Saturday was all about the birthday party!! We had an absolutely wonderful time celebrating with everyone and feel so blessed about how loved our baby girl is!

We didn't have time to open presents at the party so we got to celebrate more birthday fun on Sunday when Madi opened them all. Sally got her the most adorable baby doll pram. It's definitely the rolls royce of baby doll prams, haha. She is loving walking Teddy around in it.

And then she pushed Zoey around in it... 

The weather was great so we decided to take a bike ride to the beach. It was a little windy and Jason and I learned that we are inexcusably out-of-shape right now... but we got to see puppies, sand, and kite surfing so it was worth it. :-)

It was an amazing weekend!! Thank you to everyone who wished Madi a very happy birthday!

...oh did you want pictures of the party too? Well here's a sneak peek... we are waiting on the rest of the pictures and then I'll do a full post of birthday details. :-)

Read more...

Madi: Twelve Months

- You are basically running now! You crawl less than 1% of the time and definitely prefer walking around everywhere. You've also become a true pro at handling the slight step-ups between rooms in Norway. It took you tripping a few times (heck, we still trip on them) and then you had it mastered. You've also started going up the stairs (only with us), but we are trying to teach you that you cannot walk up or down them like an adult, which is what you seem to prefer. :-)

-You love reading. You will sit by yourself talking and turning pages and pointing at the pictures. Oh how we wish that we could read your mind and know what you are saying baby girl! You love turning the pages in books when we read together and it's so adorable.
- You've started shaking your head "no", but haven't quite figured out that it means "no" to us. You just love listening to us laugh when you do it because we think you are so darn cute! Now we just need to teach you to shake your head "yes"...

- You love clapping, shaking your head no, and of course dancing still! Your most favorite song to dance to is "What does the fox say" of course. :-)

- You completed your 30th flight this month!! You are a traveling pro now and it was nice to have your own seat for you on this last trip to Houston and OKC. 

- This month we baptized you and took one year photos. Both of which you were not in the mood for because of major teething going on (you are up to 8 now and it looks like 9 and 10 are close to coming in!)

- You are so smart! It amazes me how much you understand already at such a young age. You will listen when we ask you to do basic things like "Madi, go get the block and bring it here" and do it on the first time asking (which I am thinking we should cherish now, hehe).
- You love to talk and babble and while most of it is indistinguishable still you have said a few new words: cat, teddy, and okapi. That's right, we have said okapi so many times that you can not only say it (although it's more like " 'kapi"), you can also find him. You will also go find the cats and teddy when we ask you to. :-)

I cannot believe you are one year old Madison Rose!!!! Everyone warned us that time wouldn't be on our side and things would go too quickly. Some days felt long, but most felt short and now we stand here in disbelief that we have a one year old. I was watching you earlier this week - you were smiling and walking out of your playroom and the overwhelming thought in my mind was "oh goodness, she looks like a toddler already!" You are a magnificent little girl so full of spunk and attitude and personality. You have enhanced our lives in so many ways - you've challenged us, grown us, taught us about God's unconditional love, and changed us in so many positive ways. Thank you for being such an amazing daughter! Happy birthday little duck!

Love you lots,
Mommy

Read more...

Madi's One Year Photo Shoot

Personality. Attitude. Spunk. Looks. These are some of the things that I anticipated my daughter would have... but not quite this quickly in her young life. Madi's one year photo shoot was a lesson in lowering removing my expectations for any and all future photo sessions.

Madi typically does fabulous behind the camera. (Not like we make her do photo shoots regularly or anything - just like twice a month. ;-) ) She's a ham and seems to have learned exactly when to smile, etc.

So I deduced (because it sounds more intelligent than assumed) that our one year photo shoot during our visit to Houston would be a breeze. We'd get some fabulous shots of us as a family and with Jason and I individually in her beautiful dress that my friend Ashley from Elise's Mama Sews custom made for her. She'd be reaching out for Teddy, holding a giant balloon and pointing (which she always seems to do with balloon...except that day, haha), and especially enjoying her Ooh La La cupcake smash in my friend Chelsea's high chair that she kindly lent to us for the occasion.

I did not factor in the fact that she apparently likes to get new teeth on trans-atlantic flights (seriously none since February until this trip!) or that our friend Marianne from Charade Photography would innocently try to adjust her position causing an end-of-the-world meltdown because a stranger (gasp) barely touched her.

Marianne captured some great photos still because she's just amazing! However, there are definitely a few gems of Madi from that day showing her attitude and looks - I can only imagine what the future has in store for us with our little handful. :-)

Such a sad little face!!

Um, wow. Talk about a look. This will in fact be printed on a 16x20 canvas and displayed in her playroom as payback.

Very mischievous...

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that beautiful baby girl!

I can't believe you turn one tomorrow baby girl!!! You have lots of personality girlfriend and are so adorable and we love you...especially when you are sticking your tongue out at people during a photo shoot. Priceless. :-)

Read more...