Hello blogger friends...remember me?

Maddie trying to figure out if she likes her new Christmas present?

Ashlyn was making some classic faces on Christmas Eve...I think she is going to be our little our little stinker in the family! My camera was messing up and the lighting was bad.

say what?

Look at those big beautiful eyes...we just finished cereal.

Maddie and Daddy opened her stalking...Carson is a little worn out, he had just gotten off work in the a.m.

Just being her happy little cute self!

First attempt at cereal...YUCK!

She is our little present from God! Do you like my poinsettia prop over there?
First Christmas Eve

See what I mean about Ashlyn and her hilarious faces?

This girl loves her Daddy and he loves her!

We went to the Arlington Christmas parade with Brandon, Kim, and Darcy. Darcy was just a few week old.

Sweet babies!

Hey guys! It's been so long since I last blogged, I know, but I have a good reason, I promise. We put all this anti-virus stuff on the computer and know it takes forever just to type one short paragraph. There is a severe delay when I type and it's drives me crazy!!! Therefore, I will keep this short and sweet. We had a great Christmas and New Year and we adore our precious daughter more and more everyday. She's doing a lot of new things since I last posted...rolling over, trying to sit up from a lying position, and eating rice cereal! She didn't like it much at first, but she's really getting the hang of it now. I will post pics of all the fun we have had over the past month. God Bless you and your family!

A Funny Show

Gettin' ready for Christmas!

Practicing sitting up

This girl loves being on her tummy!

I almost lost her in that pink tutu!

Ashlyn's birthday party at The Little Gym

Bubbles are oh so grand!

Love this outfit!

Ash is totally into Cindrella (check out the cake)

Has anyone caught the new show, Notes From the Underbelly, on ABC? It piloted last spring and is back for a second season. It's greatness for currently pregnant women and new parents. It's a comedy and the actors are witty and hilarious! Check it out on Monday nights at 8:30 on ABC. I'll add a link for you to view an episode.

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP

Ok, just a few pics of Madeline growing like a weed. I posted a few of Ashlyn's 3rd birthday at the Little Gym. It's a neat little place for the kiddos to get on actual gymnastic equipment. Maddie got sick with a cold last Friday night. She had a fever and congestion and we were freaking out. WE called the answering service for our dr. and they didn't return our call. Thankfully, her fever broke and she slept through the night. I called back the next morning and some nurse finally called me back. I'm going to be having some words with the dr.'s office at her next visit. She is finally getting better but still has a runny nose. We will attempt to get some Christmas pictures again this week, hopefully! I have started tutoring at my old school a couple of days a week. It's weird being back there again and not being a full time teacher. I guess I'll get back into the swing of things soon enough. I'm thankful for the oppurtunity. God has been good to us and all is well! Blessings to you and yours this holiday season!

A Little Bit of This and That

My teacher friend, Rebekah, and her daughter, Hannah, at Grapevine Mills
My little rocker!
Maddie's new friend, Puppy





I've kinda dropped off the bloggin' bandwagon here lately...just wanted to post some pics of our recent festivities. She was our cute little caterpillar at Halloween and she did pretty well with her costume, I must say! She's growing like a weed and loves to talk. She's becoming more interactive with her toys and going to roll over any day now. My favorite shot of her thus far is the one above where she is flashing a huge smile inside her crib. Aghhh! My heart just melts when I look at that adorable face! Maddie and I headed out to Grapevine Mills to meet my friend, Rebekah, and her daughter Hannah. Hannah was 6 weeks old in that picture. She is exactly six weeks younger than Madeline. We had a great visit and got some good exercise,too! Did you know that walking around the entire mall once is equal to a mile?
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Rose Garden Wedding

Yes, the bow is almost as big as her head!
The Parrish clan. The sun was in a bad spot and Maddie looks like she is glowing!
David Wilson holding Madeline with Carson. A few more months and Dave will be Dr. David Wilson! Yes, he's single and cute so if you know any good looking, smart single ladies, let me know! We are so proud of our friend!
Ryan Angwin is our other cute and single friend and is also planning to be a dentist, so bring on any cute girls we can introduce him to. I hope these guys don't look at this blog b/c they will probably kill me.
cookie cutter carson jr. (He's pretty handsome so I guess I won't complain too much that she looks just like him).

We went to some friends wedding this past weekend at the Botanical Gardens. It was very pretty and only a 15 minute ceremony! I loved it! Felicia was a beautiful bride and Michael was looking quite handsome in his tux. Unfortunately, I obsessed with taking pictures of my daughter and I forgot to get a shot of them on my camera. oops! As you can see from Maddie's dress, I was trying to steal the brides's thunder by dressing her in all white (just kiddin' but I had to put it on her b/c she looked to cute in it). We went out with some friends to Sundance Sqaure after the wedding and Carson's folks took Madeline back home and watched her for a couple of hours. Grandparents are such a blessing! I was so thankful to have some "adult time" with friends. It's the first time I've been out since Madeline was born. We had a great time catching up with old friends, but it's hard not to think about your child the entire time. Am I right? I'm sure all you new parents can relate. I think we called home 3 times in a 2.5 hr period to make sure Maddie was ok. It's amazing how your life starts to revolve around your children. We go to all this trouble to arrange babysitting and get everything all prepared for our time away from them, but it's impossible not to think about what they're doing back home every five minutes. Big Daddy and Mimi did a great job babysitting and Madeline was perfect for them. I'm very thankful to have such an agreeable little girl. Jana and I have been preparing our annual Halloween carnival for our church this year. It's this Saturday and I'm ready to get Madeline in her caterpillar costume. I'm sure I'll have a few pictures to post soon! Happy Halloween to all of you!

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!!!