Princess Maddie's First Birthday!!!

One Year ago....

This little angel joined our family.  

I can not believe how far we have come in just 12 short months.  

Maddie has been a joy since the moment she was born.  Always happy, always a good sleeper and LOADS of personality!  She suffered a lot the first several months with very severe reflux.  So much so that she lost a pound her first month.  She would literally vomit as much as 20 times after a single feeding and would have to be fed at least every one to two hours for the first six months just to maintain her weight.  It was scary and exhausting...but through it all our sweet little girl was almost always happy!!

Now she is ONE!  No more vomiting.  Still sleeps like an angel.  And as always HAPPY and FUN.

Dave and I started a tradition with James of filling his room with Balloons on his birthday.  Since James never put anything in his mouth it was never a worry.  Maddie on the other hand puts EVERYTHING in her mouth...so her balloons were hung from the chandelier...maybe next year she can have her room filled.  She was very excited when she came down for breakfast and saw all the balloons!  "Ball! Ball! Ball! More! More! More!"

Just after breakfast I received a call from a model agent that wanted Maddie to come in for another photo shoot to model Halloween Costumes (we had gone in for a 'test shoot' last week).  We didn't really have anything special planned during the day so we went. 

 Maddie wasn't super cooperative this time, but the photographer and director both said they got some "great shots".  We weren't allowed to take ANY pictures, AT ALL.  But keep your eyes peeled for a really cute baby in an owl costume this fall!

That evening we had a party with our little family.  Actually it was just the three of us, daddy was at the hospital.

 James selected the attire.

He was Peter Pan, Maddie was Tinker Bell.

He was very excited that "Maddie-Moo One Now!"

I made them ravioli, peas and corn...some of Maddie's Favorites!

Then Daddy came home!  And we lit the candle and sang to our birthday girl.

And opened presents

 And ate cake!  Maddie was a little slow to dig in...

But she quickly got the hang of it.

 I don't think any actually made it in her mouth.

It was a fun day celebrating our sweet girl!  Happy Birthday Maddie-Moo, we sure love you!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

As always the holidays came and went quickly.  To say the last couple of weeks have been busy would be a complete understatement.  I really can not wrap my head around all that we have done in an incredibly short amount of time.  In the last two and a half weeks: We took two trips to Utah and back home, went to a funeral, had two visits from Santa, had multiple family parties/dinners/gatherings, attended my brother's sealing, hosted visitors at our home on five separate occasions, did multiple major projects around the house and loved every minute of the holidays with our family and friends. Most of these I did not take the time to document.  But I will share just a few of the highlights that I did find time to capture.

By some miracle of miracles Dave got the weekend before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off of work!  We really do not know how this was possible...it just sort of happened.  And since it is unlikely to happen again in the foreseeable future we thought we would spend the holidays in Utah.  So before we left Santa came a couple days early to our house.

You can guess what this little guy has been asking for since he figured out the whole Santa thing:

 A red BIKE!!  He was VERY excited!!!

 Maddie was happy and totally clueless!

 The Friday before Christmas and the day before we took off to Utah I had these two little cuties and their sweet mom's over to make gingerbread houses.

On Saturday we left for Utah.  We spent most of our time in Orem with Dave's family.  His parents are leaving next week for a two year mission in the Dominican Republic.  They will be presiding over the MTC there.

 We took the kids sledding the first night.  It was cold, but they LOVED it!

 We played games, sang songs, had a tea party, made gingerbread houses... 

 James & Aunt Nancy with their Graham Cracker train.

 The Sunday before Christmas.  I insisted we take this picture the second we were all ready.  I knew each of us being dressed and clean simultaneously wouldn't last long, I was right.

Dave made the family an amazing authentic Italian meal, yum!

89-years-young Grandma Lu Rocking the mini tutu

The Angels.

Madeline, the shepherd, and her sheep

Ken and Jill...I'm not really sure who they were.  But seriously this had to be one of the best dressed Nativities of all time.

 Stealing cuddles from Grandma Lu.

We had a great time at the Freestone's.  It was so great getting to be with the cousins and having quality time with Grandpa and Bonnie before their mission.  

On Christmas Eve we traveled north to my parents for Dinner with my family.

We had a delicious meal

And some people got really festive. 

 Really Festive

 Then we tried, and tried, and tried to get a single good shot of the grandkids in their new matching Christmas Jammies from Grandma/Lady.  I took about 50 pictures.  With seven kids three-years-old and younger, ten kids total, this pretty much sums every single shot I got..

Actually this is one of the better ones.

 Then we had the brilliant idea to throw the Grandparents in the mix.

 Certainly two Adults sitting with the kids would help right?

 Nope, they make more ridiculous faces then the kids.  I think we definitely captured the memory though. 

 Then as if pictures weren't chaotic enough we threw presents into the mix.  CRAZY FUN!!

James had the gift opening down by this point!

 I love this.  Here is my niece Elsie (3) trying to talk Maddie into switching dolls. Or really, letting her, the older and wiser one take care of both dolls.

Maddie didn't fall for it.  She was pretty attached to her first Cabbage Patch doll.  They look quite a bit alike too!

 As the evening was wrapping up Granddad showed off his Christmas Jammies!  Hard to believe He will be 90 next month!

 A little bit of cuteness.

 My talented sister Jenn made Maddie this beautiful dress for Disneyland!  I am so excited to see her running down Main Street in it!!!

 Christmas Morning, Santa had a lot more surprises for us....

 And a REALLY BIG surprise for my mom!  A brand new car.  She was really excited, can you tell!

We traveled home Christmas Day.  My best friend since grade school and her sweet family came and spent the night with us.  It was fun having Christmas dinner with them and meeting her sweet new baby.  The next day Dave's parents came to stay on their way to San Diego.  We then headed back to Utah for a very quick trip to see my Brother and his sweet wife be sealed to each other and their cute boys.  When we got back home to Nevada we celebrated New Year's with Dave's brother Jon who lives in Virginia.  We said our final Good-bye's to his parents on their way back home from California.  Finally my dad came to stay this last weekend and help us with a few things around our house.  In the midst of all of this Dave and I put together our new entry-way:

Whew....I think that sums it all up.  Here's to a Happy (and laid back) New Year!

Halloween, Mexico & Thanksgiving.

Halloween and November came and went quickly.  Usually the Holidays alone are enough to make life fly by, but throwing in a move, residency, and a vacation really added to the chaos FUN!!   

I've literally got about 5 minutes before Maddie wakes up and James realizes I'm doing something that doesn't involve paying direct attention to him so I will make this very brief...

Halloween was a lot of fun. I found a fish costume for practically nothing for Maddie and used things we already had for James so he could be a fisherman.  They looked adorable.  James loved trick-or-treating with his fishing net and Maddie really loved playing with the candy he brought home.  She somehow got into a peanut butter cup...oh boy!  It's amazing what that girl can do with just two bottom teeth.

We went to a Halloween party with a group of friends from our new ward.  I didn't get any pictures at the party but James and I made sugar cookies to bring and I got plenty of pictures then...

 A couple of weeks after Halloween Dave and I dropped the kids off with his parents so he and I could go on our long awaited trip to Mexico!!!

Last Christmas my parents gave my siblings and I this trip.  It was a little tricky finding a time when we could all go between work, school, pregnancies and kids, but I don't think we could have gone at a better time!  The weather was perfect!  The villa my parents rented was AMAZING!  It was on Solomon Bay near Tulum, Mexico.  We had our own private beach and pool.  There were kayaks and paddle boats.  We spent most of our time snorkeling and laying out on the beautiful beach.  It was an amazing trip!  Truly a trip of a lifetime...

Seeing Chichen Itza one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

This pretty much sums it all up!

 My brothers did manage to make the local news on our first day.  It is kind of a long story, but to sum it up they all ended up stranded in some very strong surf a mile or more out from shore.  My youngest brother and his girlfriend got stranded when their paddle boat flipped and they didn't have life vests.  My two older brothers went out to bring them life jackets and they got caught in the surf as well. In the end a local restaurant owner who happened to have a boat large enough to get through the waves saved them.  They were in the ocean for nearly 3 hours.  It was very scary...but didn't ruin the trip!  In the end everyone was safe and we had a great time together!!

A few days after we got home these little cuties came to stay for Thanksgiving...

My brother Dallin and his wife Cami came to stay at our new home.  We had so much fun with them and their sweet boys!

Dinner was yummy!

James and cousin Davey painting while Cami and I prepped our Thanksgiving feast

 We took the kids to the shark reef at Mandala bay.  

 Then came home and decorated the tree...

 Now we are back to real life...diapers, cleaning, cooking, 16-hour shifts....I wouldn't change it for the world!  We are truly blessed!  And we are so excited for this Christmas season!!!