Daddy Dress Up Day

This past friday Bryon and I were getting ready to go out with some friends and bryon had pulled his T-shirt off and dropped it on the floor. Madi immediately ran over and picked up the shirt and pulled it over her head and put it on like she knew exactly what she was doing. I have never seen her do this before but she was right on with it. Look how cute!

Baby Tag

I saw this on Kelly's blog and couldn't resist.

1. Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant? Down stairs in my bathroom/bedroom

2. Who was with you? Bryon

3. How did you find out you were pregnant? A good ole fashioned pregnancy test.

4. What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant? Complete Fear!

5. Who was the first person you told? Bryon, we kept it secret for A LONG time though!

6. Did you plan to get pregnant? NO WAY!

7. Did you tell everyone else right away? NOPE!

8. Was everybody happy for you? I would say it was more shock than anything.....

9. Did you go out and celebrate? Not even close, we stayed home and worried.

10. Did you want to find out the sex? Of course! I was a snooper at Christmas, there is no way I could go that long without knowing!

11. What was the sex? A girl

12. Did anyone throw you a baby shower? Yep, My sister threw me a friends shower, my family threw me a family shower and I had a work shower.

13. Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you just knew you wouldn't put on your baby? None that I can remember.

14. How much weight did you gain? I don't know. I am so weird about scales, I never looked.

15. Did you lose all the weight you gained? I know that I did because I got below pre baby weight but I have since gained it all back. I need the biggest loser diet again!

16. Did you get any stretch marks? I sure did, but I won't gross you out with any details.

17. What did you crave the most? Strawberries. I used to make Bryon go to the store late at night just to get me some strawberries. What a great husband I have!

18. Did you crave anything crazy? Nope

19. Who or what got on your nerves? I don't recall being grouchy at all except for the throwing up. Now that I think about it that really made me crazy! I HATE morning sickness!

20. Did you have any complications during pregnancy? Not really, everything went so smoothly, until it came time to have her. My pelvis just wasn't going to let her drop down. Weird I know, since I obviously have child bearing hips!

21. Where and when did you go in labor? I never did. Madi couldn't drop so I never had contractions or anything. We just drove to the hospital at 7:00 that morning and waited for the surgery. It was really quite nice!

22. Did your water break? Nope.

23. Who drove you to the hospital? Since it was all planned out, Bryon and I went to the hospital together.

24. Who was in the room when you gave birth? Just B-Ry and a whole slew of dr.'s and nurses.

25. Did you go early or late? exactly a week late.

26. How long were you in labor for? I wasn't.

27. Did you have any drugs for the pain? Considering I was literally gutted, yeah, I had drugs.

28. Did you go natural or have a C-Section? C-Section. They aren't all that great to be honest!

29. What was your first reaction to giving birth? I was pretty drugged, I just kept asking Bryon if they had cut me open yet and he kept telling me no (I think he was worried I would freak out). Next thing I knew they lifted Madi over the curtain and showed her to me and then took her to wash her off.

30. How big was the baby? 8 lbs 10 oz and 21.5" tall, she was pretty big.

31. Did your husband cry? He might get mad at me for saying this but yes. When they were cleaning her off she was crying really hard, Bryon walked over and started talking to her and she quit crying and stared at him.

32. What did you name the baby? Madisyn

33. Does the name have any significant meaning? Nope, other than we had to slide a "Y" in there for Bryon's name.

34. Did you have any visitors? Yep! Too many to list here. It was great, other than I was pretty drugged up and I looked horrible! Sorry everyone!

35. Did she have any complications? Not one, she was perfect in every way!

36. How old is your baby today? 17 months

37. When is the next one coming? Not for a while.

38. If you could, would you do it all over again? Maybe.....

Letters from Mom....

My Sweet Little Madi,

You have changed SO much in this last month! I look at you and see a little girl. It really makes me sad and happy all at the same time. I LOVE that I can talk with you now. You are so smart and you actually understand what is being said to you. You have a very extensive vocabulary, which I am told by your doctor that you should only be able to say about 7-10 words. Right now and you are spitting out new words left and right, so many in fact, I have lost count! You are getting super snuggly with your dad which I know means the world to him! Particularly the night you were un-winding in our bed at night and you went and layed next to Daddy and reached your tiny, precious hand out and took his hand in yours and held it there as you relaxed!

Early this month you really took an interest in your emotions book. I have only actually read it to you a few times due to your very minute attention span. With each emotion page I would read to you what it was and then showed you an action to act out that emotion. The next day you read the book to me. I particularly liked the "Grrr" with your upside down bear claws and the "Shy" with your bashful head tilted to the side. You are priceless Madi! I was astounded at how you had soaked up what I had showed you only a day before. It really made me nervous about that curse word you repeated after me the other day in the car...... Apparently you retain quite a bit in your cute little head.

It is so much fun to talk to you on the phone now. You can carry on a short conversation which always turns in to some sort of anxious babbling. We know when you are done talking because you kiss the phone and walk away. It really is one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Someone has taught you to ask "Why?", which you use almost always at the right time..... you know, at the point when I just want you to do something and all you can say is "Why?". It is right about then when I realize I am carrying on an adult conversation with a 17 month old who's only contribution is to say "why" and I continue to explain as if you understand.... Even though I may act annoyed, I enjoy that time we spend together. Another great thing you have learned to say is "I don't want to". I am not sure who keeps teaching you these wonderful little things, but when I do..........

Yet another amazing thing you did to blow our socks off was count to 10. Sort of. You had been playing with the real phone again and I realized you had actually dialed some numbers. I went to turn the phone off and saw you had called 888-888-8888. So I asked you who you were calling at 888-888-8888 and your response...... 9,10. Now, with very little help you can count from 1 -10. Once again, you are amazing kid!

One of the most precious things you have learned to say is "bless you". I was cleaning in the kitchen this past weekend and you were watching Tinker Bell with Daddy in our bedroom and I sneezed. Out of no where I hear the sweetest voice ever yell out "bless you"! Madi I can't express how happy I am to have you in my life! You are such a smart little cookie! I hope you can continue to soak up all the information you can and reach your fullest potential! You are such a blessing to our lives! We love you more than you will ever know!

Love,

Mom

Happy New Year!!!

So 2008 has come and gone in what seems like the blink of an eye! So much has happened and yet so much is still the same. We are still living in an apartment in my parents basement.... waa waa... But we see the light at the end of the tunel. We have a game plan and we are hitting it head on! I see great things happening in 2009! You just wait! We are still happily married, just pluggin' along working and trying to keep our little ranch out back going. We are enjoying parenthood and even though it is stressful sometimes, I think we are succeeding at it.... luckily! Madi is changing every day. She is getting so tall. Sometimes I look at her and just wonder where the time went! She is SO smart! I know every parent thinks their child is the smartest but I really think mine is! Ü She is really amazing! I can't wait to see how much she changes in the next year!

Our family rang in the new year with Tenille and Kevin. We hung out at their house and ate pizza and played games. Big holla for the Scene It game Seinfeld Edition! That was a blast! Even though I really think my Elaine dance impression beat out Kevins, but whatever, I'm not bitter.... The WII was also a blast! We played Rayman Raving Rabbids (or something like that). What a hoot! Kevin and Bryon doing the dance was hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time! The evidence is below...

Here is Bryon & Kevin Bustin' a move!

This is Bryon & Kevin doing the dance "Spank".... hilarious!

Here is Bryon doing the down hill... priceless

Tenille giving the down hill a try..... "are you supposed to go through the flags?"

Here I am, Of course as soon as I decide to play the damn WII freezes.....

Madi was a trooper and stayed awake until about 2 minutes after the ball dropped and she was OUT! Like a light! She fell asleep on Kevin with her spoon in hand up in the air. Priceless!

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

So I know this is a little bit late, but I just wanted to post about our wonderful Christmas! Once again Madi was spoiled rotten and enjoyed every minute of it! Bryon's brother and his family were going on a vacation on Christmas so we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. We all went to Justyn and Amy's house and opened presents. It was a lot of fun to get together with all of them and enjoy each others company. Madi really enjoyed showing off her new clothes, movies, ball and purse with hair accessories.

Here is Madi checking out her new threads.....

Madi was diggin' her new Little Mermaid Ball.....

Grandma had to try out every one of Madi's new hair clips and bows. Isn't she cute?

On Christmas morning my mom and dad came down to our appartment and helped us celebrate Christmas and watch Madi open her gifts. When it came to opening the gifts, she was a little bit distracted by the previous gift unwrapped. She got the hang of it though and loved every minute of it. She made a haul!

Check out that hair! Wow, who is supposed to be making sure this kid looks presentable?!?! What can I say? It's Christmas!!!! Look past the hair people! She got so much fun stuff! The toys are getting annoying, but she still loves them! Santa did good work!

Later that afternoon all of my side of the family came over to have our Christmas Feast! Yea!!! The stuffed mushrooms rocked! Thanks Kristin!!! We opened our gifts between our families. Madi got a big My Little Pony from Oakley, which she calls her baby and must have at all times! I thought she was going to break through the box when she opened it up. She couldn't wait to get at that pony. Bryon tried to tell her to wait until everyone was done and she wouldn't have it. She started pounding on the box......

Madi also got some Jammies and movies from Grandma and Papa..... One of Madi's favorite gifts was the magnet farm. She played with that thing for hours. It was so cute to see Bryon on the floor playing with her.

What a great Christmas! This will definitely go down in the books as one of the best Christmas's ever! It is so much fun when there is a little one in the house to help keep the Christmas magic! Ü

Easily Amused...

Isn't it great how little kids are so easily amused? The other day I was trying to get some cleaning done and Madi was being my usual shadow, getting into everything. I had decided that our fridge decor needed a face-lift. I had moved the magnets to the bottom and in normal Madisyn fashion, she immediately took all of them off and thus began Madi's time consuming game. We have a deep freezer in our kitchen (you heard me, in our kitchen). It is perfect for magnet play because it has such a broad canvas. Madi's afternoon consisted of puting the magnets on the freezer, taking them off, and repeating steps one through two. You can't imagine all the stuff I got done. It was amazing! I'm glad that Santa had the foresight to think of magnet games for a certain little someone. Oh the cleaning that will get done in our house every weekend! Yippee!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Don't you be hatin' on the mad volume this kids hair is sportin'! You all are just jealous!

It's official..... we're rednecks......

In case there was any question, it is confirmed that we are rednecks. I think that we have always had a little bit of redneck in us, but boy did it come booming on out this past weekend. We have been dying to get Madi a snow suit because she has been begging us to let her ride her 4-wheeler. Since our living space isn't conducive to 4-wheeling, we thought it would be best if we could just bundle her up and take her outside and let her play. Not to mention her Daddy can't wait to pull us around the back yard on a tube behind the big 4-wheeler. So we began wondering where to purchase such a snow suit. It needed to cover her from head to toe, yet agile enough for her to move around and operate her wheeler. All of a sudden the light bulb went off and we headed out the door to Cabela's. Below is what we found. I may have to sell a kidney to pay for the blasted thing, but doesn't she look like her dad!!!! SO CUTE! Little bugger! Now we just need to go out and play in the snow!

At first Madi wasn't too happy about wearing it but once she found her spoon, she was ok with it...

Of Course she had to ride her 4-wheeler, even though it was just in the house....

What a cute little redneck! She looks ready for the bow hunt! Watch out Daddy!!