State Fair and Dex

Our sweet new puppy, Dexter!

Love the hair in this one!
He was trying to hold her hand! Hee Hee!

Aaawh! Aidan loves Maddie. She was a little unsure at this point.

Carson told me that Big Tex is wearing real denim blue jeans! Biggest wranglers ever!

We had a great time at the fair this year. We went with our friend, Ryan, and a sweet couple, Jeremy and Amanda. Their little boy, Aidan, is 8 mos. old and he was CRAZY about Maddie! He wanted to love on her and she was just letting him. I didn't think we would have to start dealing with boys this soon in her life. Oh my goodness! Hee hee. We walked around for 6 hours and somehow never made it to most of the kids activities. I don't think the babies minded much, though. I had my traditional food items this year: Fletcher's corny dog, buttery corn on the cob, and a funnel cake for dessert. I think I calculated that my fair meal was somewhere around $20. It seems crazy when you think about how pricey fair food it but it REALLY is worth it. You can't find a better corny dog anywhere else in my opinion. As you can see from the last picture, Madeline is smiling all the time now. It's one of the sweetest sights I've ever experienced in my life. There's nothing that gives a mother more joy that when her baby looks into her eyes and flashes a huge smile for the first time. It's the BEST feeling ever!!!! She is sleeping great at night, about 8 hours straight through. I still get up in the middle of the night to do the breathing test (I put my finger under her nose to feel her breath or lay my hand on her chest to feel it rising.) Her daddy is right by my side, too. He loves to check on her, swaddle her up, and hold her close when she cries. It has always amazed me to see how good Carson is with babies. He loves to play and talk to her and his heart just melts when she smiles at him. I always thought he was going to be stern and tough on our children, but I think having a girl is going to make him a bit of a softy. hee hee. All is well here for now and we are thankful for all that God has blessed us with in our lives.

Dexter

I can't believe it! We finally have a family dog. You heard about little Dexter in an earlier post when we were trying to decide if we were going to keep him. Carson gave me the go ahead last week so I went and picked him up next door. He had a brief stay at my parents house b/c I didn't want him in the house until we went and got his shots. Anyhoo, he's all good now and we are taking him to his first training class tonight at Pets Mart. He's done pretty good with the whole potty training thing so far, however this morning was not so good. I can't really stay mad at this precious 4 1/2 lb. dog, though. I would post a picture right now, but blogger keeps giving me error notices when I try to upload any pics. Anybody else having this problem? I'm going to stop for now and see if I can get to the root of the problem. I have cute pics of Maddie with her first boyfriend at the state fair, so stay tuned!

Maddie's 6 weeks pics

Sweet kisses

I thought this was a cool shot!

Sleeping babies are the sweetest thing!


I think she was hungry in this one. Looks like she's eating the sheet!

She's looking at me with her "I'm so cute" look!
Neat shot!
I want to eat her precious feet!

As you can imagine, this was the last pose of our photo shoot. It turned out to be one of my favorites! So sad!!!!



Thanks Wendy! Great photos! Maddie is growing like a weed and she is finally starting to stay awake and become more interactive during the day. She has had some really good nights sleeping, too, but she still throws in an all-nighter about once a week. We went to Liam's 2nd birthday party with the Peden clan this past weekend. It was at a pumpkin farm in Grapevine...super cute place but it was still so hot that I didn't get to experience much of the place b/c I had to keep Maddie in the shade. I had her decked out in pumpkin clothes but it was too hot to wear any of them outdoors. I got a shot of her before we left the house.

Happy Birthday Liam! I think the kids really enjoyed the orange icing!!!

Doggy Dilemma!

Look at this absolutely precious 5 month old puppy that we found hanging around our yard this afternoon! He's half palmeranian (sp?) and half yorkie! (so we've been told)

That's not Carson's tattoed arm by the way, it's my neighbors. I'll go back and share the events of our afternoon. So we found this adorable puppy in our back yard with no tags and we both instantly fell in love with it. Carson started running around with him and fed him some roast beef (it's all we had since we don't own a dog) and he ate it right up. He is so tiny and cute! We started calling him Dexter, Dex for short, and it was just love at first sight. We started running through all the options of what to do with him (post a sign, ask our neighbors if he belongs to anyone, or be really selfish and close the garage and keep him all to ourselves! Carson told me to go ahead and run along to the store and we got a box and put some water in it and kept him in the garage. I came rushing back home because sweet little Maddie didn't want to take her bottle from Daddy and she was in a tizzy! Daddy called me and said "Come home now!" Anyway, we got her settled and CP went back outside and started playing with Dex. I was excited about that because I was hoping the extra bonding time would convince Carson that we needed to keep the dog for ourselves. See, I've been wanting to get a dog for the two years that we have been married but Carson would never let us get one, big meanie! Actually, in his defense, we lived in an apartment the first year of our marriage and now we currently have a house with no backyard fence. So, it hasn't really been logical for us to get a dog. Carson was so smitten with Dexter, though, so I was praying that he would throw all logic out the window. hee hee. Ok, back to the story... After I fed Maddie, I walked outside to join him in the front yard and I see my neighbor, Kelly, holding our little guy. Uughhh...I was heartbroken to find out that Dexter was actually named "Cowboy" and belonged to my next door neighbor. Boo hoo! My hopes of finally being a pet owner were quickly dashed. We visited with our neighbor and told him how much we loved the puppy and he told us that he actually was needing to get rid of him and HE OFFERED HIM TO US FOR FREE! His girlfriend was really wanting a different dog and he had inherited the pup from his brother for free. Oh my cow, I was so excited! The only problem is that we still don't have a fence to keep in our back yard. I would like to keep him inside when we're home anyway, but Carson did not grow up with an inside dog so he's not too sure about the idea. Then, of course, there's also the issue of having a dog with a baby. Would the puppy be good around the baby? Is it too much for us to handle right now?

I'm sharing this on my blog to get some input from my blogger friends about what we should do. All you dogowners out there that also have children, is it more of a blessing or a curse to take care of a dog and a newborn at the same time? Let me know what you think and be honest with me.

I feel like a bad mommy b/c I haven't taken any pictures of Maddie this week, but my friend Wendy came over and took some of her, so I will post those when I get them back. She's already 6 weeks old!!! I can't believe how big she's getting. She's getting stronger everyday and she loves to smile at us. I am also happy to report that she has slept soundly the past three nights. I actually have to wake her up to feed her in the middle of the night. I think she might could sleep through the entire night but she's not quite old enough to go that long without a feeding yet, but soon enough I'm hoping our little girl will make it through the entire night without waking up! It's amazing how much more rested I feel in the morning when she sleeps at night. So, all is well at the Parrish household. Blessings to all!

Austin and Big Daddy and Mimi's House

I just try to post as many pics with her eyes open as possible because they are so rare during the daytime!
This was her first bath in the sink at Carson's parents house. She wasn't a fan, obviously!
Maddie's first trip to our state capital. We also visited UT campus! Go HORNS!

Mimi and Big Daddy are so proud of Madeline! She loved cuddling with them this weekend.

We had fun in Georgetown this weekend. We stayed at Carson's parents house and Kathy spoiled us by staying up with Maddie in the night and letting us get some much need rest. We took her to Austin and, of course, she slept through most of it, but we had fun looking at all the sights. It was amazing to see all the different kinds of people walking around the streets of UT. I could just sit and "people watch" all day. By the time our day ended in Austin, we had three wardrobe changes and Maddie went pee all over me at the capitol building. I left her changing station in the car and the restrooms had no changing tables! I'm going to write Gov. Rick Perry to let him know he needs to get with the times and update the restrooms. I'm sure that will be a top issue to address on his agenda. Ha!

Isn't she precious! Bows really do just make them look even cuter, I think!

I shot my mom singing some children praise songs with the two grandaughters. Ashlyn was getting confused and thought I was trying to take her picture and she keeps saying "Cheese!" in the middle of the song. She loves to sing with Nanny!

Sun City Bound

We took Maddie to her first high school football game. She was really interested in it, as you can see. We went with our friends, Brandon and Kim. We had fun watching Mansfield whoop up on Keller!
Daddy having some good cuddle time with Madeline. He just loves when she lays on him and snuggles like this!
I had to get a pic of her in this premie outfit before she outgrew it. The button in the back is not even buttoned b/c it is already getting too small. Isn't she a sweet littl' southern girl in her pretty bonnet!
Close up shot! She's already making silly poses when I tell her to say "Cheese!"

We are getting ready to head out to Georgetown (Sun City) to see Big Daddy and Mimi (Carson's parents). The weather is looking good so we'll probably take Madeline to see the sights in Austin. She's already going to be attending her second high school football game tomorrow night in the small town of Florence, Texas. This is the place where Kathy, Carson's mom, is teaching high school. This will be her 2nd football game in one week! I promise we're not the crazy parents who are forcing our infant to play and enjoy sports so she'll play them when she grows up (hee hee) but a little encouragement never hurts, right? Just kidding, we'll love Maddie no matter what she decides to accomplish in her life. Speaking of accomplishments, I have a funny story. I can say it's funny now, but it wasn't really at the time it happened. I would like to tell ya'll that my daughter could take 1st place for the "longest squirt of poo-poo " contest, if there is such a thing that exists. I was quickly trying to change out her diaper last Saturday night because I have learned how fast she can dirty up her changing table if I'm not doing the switcharoo of the diapers at lightening speed. Well, she had impeccable timing and just as I was switching out a clean diaper for her old one, she lets out a squirt and and her poo proceeds to shoot out all over her pink walls, all over the blinds, the cream carpet, and the diaper champ! I screamed "NOOOOOOOO!" so loud the neighbors probably heard me and Carson came running in probably thinking I had dropped her on her head or something. He was amazed at the sight at first, then he just started cracking up and said, " You have to laugh at this, honey." Of course, I did not feel like laughing at that time....a pathetic cry felt much more appropriate for me. Well, we got it cleaned up and survived it all and I'm here to tell you that Madeline Reese is a SUPER POOPER CHAMP! Ok, gotta run to get her ready for our first road trip. More fun pics to be posted our trip when we return!

Days are Nights and Nights are Days

You will notice in this picture that Madeline and I are sleeping during the daytime. This is because my little precious angel seems to have her days and nights completely screwed up. I've been up with Madeline the past three nights anywhere from 1opm until 3:30 ish. As soon as the sun goes down, she's ready to party like it's 1999 and Mommy and Daddy just want to get a little shut eye. Any advice from parents who have recently been through this stage is greatly appreciated. I'm trying everything I can to get her to stay awake in the daytime but it doesn't seem to be working. I've been reading this book called Babywise, which is a baby book for new parents that introduces the parent directed feeding method. The method promotes a very specific feeding and sleeping schedule throughout the day but Madeline hasn't seem to jump on the bandwagon yet. I think I may asking a little too much of her since she is only three weeks old. Hee hee. Carson went back to work this week but he's off the next three days so we're going to get Maddie out in the stroller. We've yet to use it but Jana and I got the car seat put in it yesterday and tested it out. Madeline is ready to ride in style in her Mint green and black stroller.

A picture with open eyes! It's hard to tell but they are blue.

I love this little preppy dress!

My friend, Dee Dee, got this for Madeline and it's so stinkin' cute.

Madeline and Dr. Prentice

Isn't this terrible? This is Maddie's face when I have to rub down her body with a wet washcloth because she doesn't want to wake up to eat during the day.

So sad!

Madeline posing with Big Daddy and Mimi (Carson's parents). We took her to church at South Mac to show her off on Sunday.