Sarah & Dave Visit/ My Birthday!

Big blue eyes! Mark gave me my favorite and most awesome camera for my b-day!!
Baby and Mamma on walk in our community.
Sarah and Dave goofing off in the butterly exhibit.
Happy 30th Birthday!
Super Bowl party!!

We were going non-stop last week and it was so much fun! Mon/Tues we spent running errands, doing laundry, cleaning house, etc. in preparation for Sarah and Dave to arrive. And we had a blast while they were here!!!
On Wednesday, Madison and I picked them up from the airport. We then went to the large outlet mall to shop. Mark came home and we ate a nice dinner at home together. On Thursday morning, I noticed Mad wasn't acting the same and irritable, so I went ahead and took her to the doctor. Come to find out, she had a stomach virus, which we treated dietarily - and after a shot, she was feeling better in no time. That afternoon, and okay with doctor's orders, we all (except Mark who was at work) went to the Museum of Natural Science. We had a great time at the museum and especially in the butterfly exhibit. On Friday, Mark was going to take off work as we all had plans to go to the zoo with Madison and then host a first birthday party for me back at home. Well, Thursday late night/Friday early morning, Mark and I got sick...Like, Mark slept on one bathroom floor and I slept on the other downstairs bathroom floor. We were so sick that night and the next morning...and then we finally went to Urgent Care Friday evening. I had the flu and Mark had the flu/sinus infection...but we got medicine that worked really quickly. We cancelled our big party for neighborhood friends that night, but we'll make it up soon! Sarah (& Dave) was our hero - she took care of Mad for us like a little Mommy 24/7. Saturday was my 30th BIRTHDAY!!! I just couldn't believe it! 30 used to sound so old and I loved still being in my "twenties". Anyhow, Dave golfed with our friends (Mark still sick) and that evening we went bowling and back to our house to party with a few couples - good friends of ours who all attended/were in our wedding. We were glad the other people who we invited for Sat night took a raincheck for a later date b/c we had been sick. We had a blast bowling and then a great time back at our house for a gourmet cook-out (thanks, Raymond!) and my fave Basket Robbins icecream cake afterward. Needless to say, we had a great time and didn't get to bed until the wee hours of the morning...but we were good girls/boys and got up in time for church! Sarah/Dave enjoyed our church. Afterward, I took them to our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, "Escalantes", and then we did some shopping. That evening, we went to a Super Bowl party at our neighbor's house a few doors down...and it was such fun!! We came back and played a game here, ourselves. This morning, Dave, Sarah, mad and I went out for breakfast + coffee and window shopped. Then, we walked by a few nearby small lakes, came home, and then went to the airport!

We already miss them!!! We hope they can come back real soon!!!!!

Our Beloved Tyson

Here are some new pictures of our favorite feline...our big boy Tyson. He's such a great sport! This is especially for our great friend, Dan Henderson. :)

Madison 7 months

First trip to the library
At our first library class - 12 Mommies/Babies attended, but this was at the end of class.Mark and Danae at Exxon party (I'll post more pictures soon)

What is this big pink bow on my head?
Closeup of those pretty blues!
So happy I am 7 months old!
Okay, let's have a chat about this woman with the camera.
I love to play!

Today, we are getting ready for Sarah and Dave to visit. They fly in tomorrow and we have a busy week/weekend ahead of us, full of many celebrations. Why? Well, I turn the big 3-0! Can't believe it. I used to think 30 was "so old"! But, instead of getting ahead of myself, let's back up...

Two weekends ago (Jan 19), Mark had his Exxon Annual party. It was a blast! It was at the beautiful Hotel Zsa Zsa in the museum district. We had great food, great music, and a couple fun casino themed rooms. Last week, Madison and I started a great class at the Library called "Mother Goose Time". Here, we do exercises, stretches, read a story, sing songs and play with a great big parachute. She loves it! We went twice last week. (We attempted to go again this morning, but as I was opening the door...madison threw up her breakfast. I was jostling her way too much too soon after she ate. Needless to say, we both needed a shower and didn't make it to the class.) Madison is finally scooting around a little and rolling all over the place outside of her crib now! However, lately, instead of scooting to get from one side of the room to the other, she just rolls over and over again until she makes it. It's pretty funny. I hope she crawls soon! However, it's still nice to be able to go out to a restaurant with her just sitting in her seat contently. She behaves so well when we go shopping and run errands...which we had a lot to do last week. Her new favorite DVDs are the Praise Baby series. She also likes the Baby IQ DVD that Great Uncle Tom and Great Aunt Becky gave to her. Better go for now, but here are some new pics!

Happy Birthday shout-outs to my DAD (Jan 27) and to Courtney Latta (Jan 29)!

Prayer Request

Please pray for this family. What a testament to faith. I don't know them, but they are from North Carolina. This link was sent to me by my friend, Anna.

www.cfhusband.blogspot.com

Children's Drowning Prevention

Take a look at this video:
http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html

It's never too early to enroll your child in swim lessons!

Madison's Zerberts

New Tricks!

What a great week we've had...and it's been filled with Madison doing many new "tricks"! She continues to scoot/crawl around, especially active in her crib. However, she has been waking up every morning with rug burns on her forehead! She really needs to lift up her head more when she "scoots"...poor thing. Also, Madison is now turning over both ways - from tummy to back and back to tummy - but only when she wants to. Madison has also learned to blow "zerberts" with her mouth - and she just loves doing this all day long, especially in the morning and when Mommy is feeding her... It's so funny, for now, but let's hope she doesn't make this a habbit when she gets older.

Since Madison was about 3 -4 months, we started teaching her sign language. We don't expect her to actually sign back to us right now, but at least familiarize her with the signs. We do very basic signs right now - eat, milk, cereal, more, mommy, daddy, all done. For the past weeks, if I do a sign, I think she recognizes them because she's started smiling at the sign she wants. Of course, this could be my imagination...

Every morning, Madison and I have "school" for about a half hour. Of course, we're learning while we play all day, but this is serious school time. :) We review colors, shapes, counting, animals and their sounds, and names of body parts. We have books and use examples for what we're learning and everything. After that, we just have fun playing. I've never been a teacher, but I'm just winging it. I figure that I can do this until our kids enter into higher level math at a real school - like Algebra - and then Mark will have to take over!

Finally, we just love our new Sunday School class, "What Kids Need Most From Parents". I'm going to start posting notes from the class. It's awesome!

Life is great!

We had a great morning at church! Grandma Chipley gave me this pretty outfit!

Helping Daddy with the grill!

So happy in my jogging stroller! Watching Daddy work in the garage.

Out shopping with the folks

Me and Daddy

I'm a big girl!

We've had a great week! The weather has been really nice here, so we've spent a lot of time outside. Madison absolutely loves the outdoors - she just smiles and is so content. We met Hayden for play time, lunch and shopping. We also got a lot done around the house. Madison has been eating really well. Thank goodness she's a fan of Mommy's baby food! She can sit up for a few seconds on her own and is also doing the "army crawl"! Well, she especially crawls all around her crib...but not yet around the floor - strange, but I guess she'll start soon. She's talking with consonants lately and just babbling. Really cute. She also loves to pet our cat. Mark and I have been enjoying ourselves lately. We had a cookout on Saturday evening, which was fun. Mark and I are taking this amazing parenting class at church and we just love it.

Some products that I just love:

- "No slippy hair clippies" for babies

- Mabel's labels - they're awesome

- Jogging stroller

- Pedipeds

- Baby food blender

Big news lately...
Sarah and Dave are flying out to visit us for my thirtieth birthday!!

AND...Mark and I are taking a vacation to the Cayman Islands at the end of March! We are so excited!

Madison and Hayden love eachother

Our Christmas Vacation

The Girls' Team...playing Lacross (L-R) bottom row: cousins Nicole and Sara Rebecca; top row: cousin Rachel, Danae and sister Sarah

Guys playing lacross at Uncle David's house = (L-R) Dave (Sarah's BF), Pat (cousin Nicole's husband), Uncle David, Mark, Uncle Gary

Snowing on Christmas Day!

Christmas Day

Family at dinner before Christmas Eve service at church.

Madison and Boatie (Sarah and Dave's (her boyfriend) new puppy)!

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in the Northwest this year. We enjoyed lots of shopping, seeing Christmas lights, a lovely Christmas Eve and a fantastic Christmas Day. We opened gifts Christmas morning in Portland. And guess what? It snowed!!! It couldn't have been any more perfect! Late morning, we drove up to Seattle to visit my Dad's brother and his family. It was so great!! My cousin and her husband from So. California flew up - and she's 4 months pregnant, so it was so nice to see them! Also, my Dad's sister, husband and daughter from California flew up as well. We all had a fabulous time together. Mark, Madison and I returned to Houston before New Year's Eve...but we all were really sick with sinus infections and so we rang in the New Year together at home in our p.j.'s. We hated having to cancel our former plans for the holiday, but at least we could be together!

Report on Madison...when I took her to the doctor this week for her cold, she now weighs almost 19 lbs!!! She is also 28 inches long - 10 inches longer than when she was born! The doctor said she's very tall...and is in the 97th percentile for height. She has very long legs and REALLY enjoys jumping in her Jump & Go, reading books, eating her toes, and she is talking up a storm. For the past several months, I've been making all of her food. Her favorites are green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, carrotts, turkey and chicken! Not a big fan of fruit yet, but hopefully that will change. :)

Happy Half Birthday, Madison!

Aunt Sarah threw Madison a "half-birthday" party last night! Madison wore a special outfit. Too cute.

Jumping Bean!

We love jumping at Grammy's house!!

Madison and I flew out to Portland on Tuesday! We had a great flight...although, within the first thirty minutes of the flight, Madison had such a messy diaper that it traveled up her shirt...I had to throw it away! So...she was in overalls and no shirt for the remaining 4 hrs of flight time! Poor girl. Anyway, she did wonderfully the rest of the flight, thanks to toys, a DVD and a great nap. We've had a fantastic time here at my Mom and Dad's and we look forward to Mark joining us soon!

It finally feels like Christmas!

It's finally a little chilly here! So, we had to dress appropriately for the occasion...

Merry Christmas

They really do like each other...

We're Back Online!

Madison meets Santa for the first time

Our family after my Dad's concert

Four generations

College girlfriends (L-R): Courtney, Danae with Madison, Shawn with Conner, Anna with Anne Botts

We are finally back online!! The truth is...I somewhere/somehow dropped my laptop and shattered the screen. I just got a brand new laptop a few days ago that I just love! So...I'm sorry for the delay...so here's an update:

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. It was definitely a whirlwind trip, but so wonderful to see so many friends and family. We spent a week with Mark's folks at their house on Lake Gaston. We enjoyed relaxing away from home, fabulous food, and catching up with Mark's cousins, aunt/uncle and his grandmother. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we rented a car and drove down to Charlotte. There, we visited with some of my college girlfriends and then spent time with my aunt/uncle, cousins, friends of the family, and my grandparents. It was really special that Madison got to meet her great grandparents. We also got to see my mom, dad and sister, as they flew into Charlotte for a concert my dad gave at Calvary. The best part of the concert was when my dad played the wedding processional he composed for our wedding - and he showed a video montage of our wedding which was really touching.

After we got home, we were really busy getting settled back in and ready for Christmas. We have hosted one holiday party and will be hosting another this weekend! Madison is doing really well. She had a little cold after our vacation, but is fine now. She is flipping over constantly, talking all the time, and really interested in her toys. She also just loves to be with other kids. She smiles, laughs and talks to her friends. We've had a few rough days, however, with her cutting teeth. It's been an adventure.

I'll post more pics to our Shutterfly website soon!

Thanksgiving Day

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Mark's family in North Carolina!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!! We are enjoying a vacation in North Carolina. We'll post more pictures soon!

November already?

Getting messy with my green beans!

Love my Daddy...

Mommy loves me!

Another picture, Mom? Please!

All of my shoes! (okay, so she's outgrown about 5 pairs of them and can't yet fit into most...but still -they are sooo cute!!)

I'm a little sick...but my outfit is so cute, right?

My thumb is my new best friend!

Both baby and Daddy sacked out!

Hey guys! So this week has been exceptionally busy...Madison (and Mommy) came down with a bad sinus infection on Monday. Bless her heart, Mad has been a trooper! Never whined about feeling sick the whole week until today (Saturday). Mark was out of town on business this week until Friday evening. We were so glad when he came home!! We've run some errands, have done some Christmas shopping and have just chilled out at home together. Mark grilled out tonight and we really enjoyed that. Tyson has not been doing too well...he has been going the bathroom outside his litter box...we didn't know if it was due to behavioral issues (i.e. the baby in the house) or a medical issue. Test results show that it is most likely medical - he has a marble size bladder stone. So, he needs to have surgery soon. (OK, I was so upset when he climbed inside my shopping bad and urinated on my new winter clothes that I got on sale...but maybe he can't help it...). We'll take care of it! In other news, we are so excited to gear up to go out of town for Thanksgiving to North Carolina!!!! We will fly up to see Mark's family next Saturday for a week and then drive down to Charlotte to visit my Grandparents and my parents who are flying in for my Dad's concert the Sunday after T-giving. We're really looking forward to it!