Bad, Bad Blogger

Yes, I'm talking about myself, blogger friends. Thanks to everyone who sent Maddie the birthday wishes. I realize her birthday was almost 3 weeks ago and I still haven't managed to get any pics from her birthday up. I'm ridiculously bad at the blogging thing and now that I'm back to work, I'm thinking about just retiring all together. I told myself that I would get some birthday pictures up though, so here ya go. The first pic is for Cheryl! Ashlyn loves her jeep! You made her day! The rest of these are from Maddie's actual birthday and then a few from her party. We had a great time and she is officially acting like a big one year old now. She's getting a little too big for her britches at times. I'm not going to write much more here because I've got more blogs to write. I need to catch up on my blogger friends too! Happy Friday!

Maddie eating her birthday blueberry muffin

I think she liked it! Especially when she didn't have to wear her hat!

Feeding the fish at Joe Pool Lake

Swinging at the park

Waiting to try her first birthday cake! This was the healthy carrot cake I made her. It wasn't too healthy thought b/c I iced it with cream cheese frosting. Got to give em something good...

If you're thinking it looks messed up on the side, you are absolutely right! I tried my best though!

Love the face and the hair.

We decided she needed her first haircut on her b-day

Here's the "after" picture. Carson did a great job! I was too scared to cut her ear!

My baby is ONE!!! How did that happen?

Maddie turned one today. I can't believe how fast the first year of her life has passed by me. It's been such a treasure to watch her grow and see how much she has changed over the past year. Here's a couple of pics so you can see for yourself.










So sweet! We had a fun and relaxing day. I made blueberry muffs this morning and attempted to put Maddie's birthday hat on and she screamed and squirmed until I finally threw the hat and said "Forget it!" We'll try again at her birthday party this weekend but I'm sure we'll get the same results. After her morning nap, we took her to Joe Pool to feed the fish and ducks and then it was on to the park for some swinging. I'm sure you would rather see pics of all these things that just read about them but my computer is messing up (as usual) and I can't get the pics dowloaded. I'll try again tomorrow.
So, after the park, we took Mads back home and gave her the first of her two birthday cakes. I made the healthy carrot cake recipe from the "What to Expect" book, but the healthy ingredients in it were cancelled out by the sugary yummy cream cheese frosting I put on the cake. She grabbed for the icing immediately and pretty much just stuck with that until I acutally cut her some of the cake off to eat. Again, I will try to post some pics again tomorrow so you can see all the fun! Our last trip of the day was to Target. Nothing spectacular to Mom and Dad, but extremely fun to a one year old who has learned how to run away from her parents!
I'm enjoying these last few days to spend with Maddie before I go back to work full time. I'm excited to teach again, but I'm going to miss being with my little girl during the day. Say a little prayer that she and I will make it through these next couple of weeks without any serious breakdowns! Maddie has already spent a morning with Mrs. Becky at her home and she loved it! I know God opened the door for this opportunity for me to go back to work and he provided a warm and loving woman to take care of my child while I'm there. The best part is that she lives right by my school. I'm very blessed.

Happy Birthday Madeline Reese! Mommy and Daddy love you!!!!!

Summer Fun and Jamie's Baby Shower

I hosted my first baby shower a couple of weeks ago for my friend, Jamie! She was a beautiful mommy to be! My sweet mom and friend, Paula, helped get the table all set that you see below there.

My first ice ring in the punch bowl. It was so easy to make!!!

Hostesses and Jamie

She got so many cute outfits. Her mom made all the bows you see below and the cute purple onesie tutu. She made one for Maddie too! Yippee!

Almost ready to start walking with Daddy!

Swimming with her cuz in her birthday suit

First taste of a popsicle. Yummy!

Mommy liked it too!

Ashlyn looks like this in EVERY pic we take of her. She always yelling, "CHEESE"

Maddikins at the Family Reunion.

I seriously don't know how this child stays so small....she eats everything!!

Maddie and Aidan
(Don't you love his name, all you SATC fans?)

Lil' rocker

June has been a busy month so far. We been to my family reunion, Austin, and New Braunfels to hang out at Schlitterbaun! I Love Schlitterbaun!!!! It reminds me of my youth, but I'll talk about that a little bit later. Madeline is 10 months old as of last Friday. She's standing unsupported now and she took SIX steps last night. Of course, Carson was at work when it happened and I had to call and tell him about it. We tried to redo the scene this morning but no such luck. She's taking a few steps here and there and it's so neat to see her build up her confidence and just take off. She still prefers to crawl because she knows she can get around faster that way. She's jibbering and jabbering all the time and says "Hiyee" the moment you say it to her. She's pat-a-caking about 100 times a day...I love it. It's so cute to see them clapping and rolling up the dough. Her absolute favorite thing to do is to get into something she in not supposed to and then have me call out her name and say "NO!" She abruptly jumps up and starts hauling the other direction waiting for me to chase after, pick her up, and tickle her. It's sooooo CUTE!!! Man, I love my baby!!
We went down to Georgetown last weekend to see our parents (my in-laws), Mimi and Big Daddy to Maddie. We hung out on 6th street Saturday in Austin. They were having a huge bike rally and we saw a ridiculous amount of Harleys. We checked out the botanical gardens and they were somewhat disapointing, compared to FT. Worth. If you're planning a visit there, I would skip it and check out Barton Springs instead. Sunday, we headed for the San Marcos outlets and then to Schlitterbaun. I have not been since I was a kid and a lot had changed about th park, but they still had the same rides that I remembered riding as a child. I LOVE all the tube rides there. We went on all my old favorites and they had several new areas for children. Very kid friendly park!!! We are planning to go back next month with my family and see the other half of the park that we missed this time around. It was packed as usual, but by Sun. everning there were no lines and we could walk right up to the rides. SOOOO much fun. Loved it! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics because I was too busy riding rides but Mimi is going to send me some so I can post some of Maddie.
Have a great week!!!!

Maddie's 9 Month and Family Pics

Here are some fun family pics we had taken a few weeks ago. These were the few of dozens where we are all actually looking at the camera at the same time. I'm sure Wendy was ready to pull out hair after our photo shoot!

First Trip to Zoo, Rangers Game, and Mayfest

Ft. Worth Zoo

Texas Rangers Game

Mayfest 2008

One of her favorite faces

Help me!!! Help me!!!

Helping mommy out with laundry

First ride on the baby swing

Give me back my duckie!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying avacado for the first time! I think she's going to be a guac. fan!

Maddie has done a lot of "firsts" since I last blogged. We took our first trip to the zoo with my friend Rebekkah and her daughter, Hannah. They weren't much into the animals yet but we had fun anyway. We bought a season pass, so if any of you mommas want to get a group together and go this summer, call me!!!! The next event was Maddie's first Ranger game. We got brave and decided to take her with us to meet some friends, Ryan and Lindsey. She was SUCH a wiggle worm! All she wanted to do was get on the nasty floor and crawl around. We passed her around and walked around a couple of times and finally after the seventh inning stretch, I was ready to leave. I think we will wait to take her back to the ballgame after she can walk on her own. Last weekend, my entire family went to have pics done at the Botanical Gardens in Ft. Worth and then it was off to Mayfest. OMG, it's so hard to take a family picture with three grandkids. I think we maybe got one shot where we were all looking at the camera. We got some good individuals ones though, I will post some of Maddie this week, hopefully! After the photo shoot, it was off to Mayfest. I always loved going to Mayfest every year! I would always make one of the jars of layered colored sand and do all the little crafts in the kids area. I remember everything being very crafty and it was all free(after price of admission, of course). Now, as soon as you go in the entrance, you are bombarded with the inflated slides and bounce houses and of course every kid is going to want to ride ALL of them. You will notice Ash coming out of a shark's mouth up above. She LOVED this ride and she kept going back up to the lady asking to ride over and over, not understanding that you needed tickets every time to ride. We had a great time and I got to have all my "fair food" favorites twice in one year. It's always a corny dog, corn on the cob, and funnel cake. Fried, buttery yumminess!!! The pics of Maddie in the red bow are out in front of my dad's roses in the backyard. My mom and I were just messing around one day, taking a few shots, and they ended up turning out so good!!!! She is a happy girl, I must say...and adventurous , too! You will see her in wedged under our chair in the living room in the pic above. She thought it would be fun to see if she could crawl in the little tiny space btwn the chair and the floor and she got stuck. These kind of situations are becoming very frequent these days...she's is constantly keeping me on my toes. When I get frustrated with her or worn out at the end from chasing her around all day, I remember that I am so blessed to have such an active and healthy baby girl. God is so good!