Our Recent Photo Shoot

Why you always make sure the lid is on a sippy cup...

Well, she had a LOT of fun splashing in the water and soggy cheerios...

Our Cayman Trip

Kissing my turtle friend at Boatswain's Turtle Farm
Swimming with and feeding the stingrays at Stingray City - just a shallow sand reef in the middle of nowhere where stingrays congregate.
Getting ready for our kayaking adventure

Out to a fabulous dinner
One of several parrots at our hotel
Chilling in the sun and just relaxing!
Courtyard in the middle of our hotel had turtles, wild birds and various iguanas.
At the north part of the island

Please pray

I came upon this Christian singer's family's blog. Please read this story and lift them up in prayer. I spent probably an hour reading it and just cried. The mom is such an inspiration to me, even in her time of despair.

http://www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

Madison's Room

Before we move, I wanted to post pics of Madison's cute little room. Some of you have asked, so here it is! Sarah, my sis, helped to paint it...hope she'll come down and help me again!

The Last Few Weeks...

Madison, Grammy and Papa visit the Alamo in San Antonio!
Eating at The Rainforest Cafe - Madison loved the mechanical moving animals and aquarium.
Trying to take her 9 month old picture!
Playing with my laptop looking very stylish.
Having fun with Grandmommy and Grandaddy.

Easter morning after church
Opening one of my Easter baskets in the morning.

Relaxing in the Caymans - ah, how we miss that beautiful water!

Hi Everyone! I've been so behind in posting to the blog - I'm sorry! Our life has been so chaotic lately...here's what's been going on:

Mark and I had a FABULOUS time in the Caymans!! The weather was wonderful, we liked our hotel, and the water's colors were amazing. We enjoyed kayaking, snorkeling, swimming with the stingrays, visited the turtle farm, shopped and ate like kings. It was like a second honeymoon for us. (Which, we recently celebrated our fourth anniversary.)

While we were gone, my mom (aka "Grammy") and Dad (aka "Papa") flew down and took great care of Madison. They had a blast together! They played, shopped, went on walks, took a road trip to San Antonio, and ate at fun restaurants. It was a great opportunity for them to spend some special time together.

Within a week, our house here in Houston sold!!! That was fast! Now, we just had to find a house in Beaumont...

Last week was super busy. Mark started his new position on April 1, right after we got back from vacation. I was busy running errands, running to appointments and getting us settled back from our trip. Mark had a nice going away dinner thrown by his team members. Also, more people came to look at our house - even though our house was already on contract, it was still in option period and people could still view it. One time while people were viewing the house, I went over to a neighbor's with Madison. She was squirming and fussing a little while I was changing her diaper. Suddenly, their cat jumped to attack Madison, but I moved in the way and he attacked me instead. Long story short, he bit me three times and I got bruises and scratches. Ended up having to go to urgent care and the doctor three times with an infection. Anyway, I feel find now. Mark's parents kindly flew down on Thursday to take care of Madison so I could go down to Beaumont over the weekend and look for a house. We found one in two days! Which we are used to...it's the "Exxon way". Ha. Well, the first one we chose and put a contract on, ended up resulting in drainage problems in the backyard during the inspections. So, tomorrow, we are putting a contract on a second house - which we love just as much. It's smaller than the house we currently live in, but the houses are much smaller in Beaumont. We love the inside of the house and will do just fine. ...once we sell some furniture. We will move the end of April.

New things about Madison:
- At her 9 month checkup, she weighed 21 lbs (87th percentile) and was 30" long (95th percentile). She's a tall girl!

- She loves cheerios, but does not like any other table food or chunky food yet. In fact, she gags.

- She is learning to drink out of a sippy cup.

- She said "Bye Bye" yesterday when Mark's parents left - it was awesome! Today, she babbled "Dadadadada"
- She is finally crawling faster and now getting into everything!

- Her small motor skills are really keen and she loves to figure out how everything works.