Nature Park - November 22, 2009

Today Maddie and I decided that we'd go to the Nature Center while Matt was riding his bike. Its a cute little nature walk not to far from our house. We walked and saw the ducks, played in the leaves and went to see the horses. Maddie loves it there. As you'll notice, most of the pictures are of the back of her... She was walking away from me in almost everyone. I can't believe how big and independent my little girl is.

Showing me her tongue.

Playing in the leaves.

Walking towards the pond.

Walking on the trails.

Looking for the ducks.

Relaxing and watching the ducks - while quacking at them the whole time.

And a few random pictures....

The view from our balcony.

Maddie drinking eggnog and helping Daddy put up our Christmas tree. She loves eggnog!

Our little girl is getting so big. She copies almost every word that you say. She can repeat the whole alphabet and tonight learned the one letter she couldn't say before.. W. It's adorable when you hear her say it.. "DoubleYuuu" She absolutely LOVES all of the Christmas stuff that is out and about. She screams at every lit up house she sees and gets so excited when Matt turns on our tree and house lights. Tonight we set up her own tree in her room so that she could have her ornaments and cute little girly things on it. It's pretty cute. She loves seeing visiting my parents house and seeing all her aunts and uncles. She also loves talking to her Nonni and Zizi on the web cam. She'll wake up in the morning and walk right to the laptop and start calling out, "Nonni!!" She's getting too big, too fast. If I could pause her at the age she's at right now, I would!

Halloween 2009

.. Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy ..

Maddie had such a fun time this year for Halloween. She was Raggedy Ann and her cousin Eli was Raggedy Andy. They were adorable! We went to Trunk-Or-Treat with my parents and youngest siblings and then went around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. A few nights before Halloween we went to my parents house to carve pumpkins. Madalynne decided that it would be a great idea to dig into the pumpkins and actually eat the guts. Yes, gross. She also had an amazing time throwing the seeds all over the place. It was too cute to stop her though. Maddie in front of our house with the pumpkins after a long night of trick-or-treating.

Maddie and Eli getting tired.

Eli, Grandma and Maddie.

Brendon and Starlee

Maddie grabbing candy from Grandpa.

Mario and Luigi

Playing at the park on Halloween day.

Maddie playing with her pumpkin. Her FAVORITE toy through October.

Trouble.

Her Mommy left it out...

And then her Daddy put it away. Boo!

In the last two days Maddie has learned something new... She says "No."

She says it nicely though... very sweet and cute. (Atleast for now.) She'll point and say, "No, No Daddy." - or whatever/whoever she's looking at. It's pretty funny. She also walks around the house saying "Zizi" (Aunt in Italian) and "Ee-Ii" (Eli) If you ask her where her eyes are, she squints them shut tightly and then opens them wide. On herself she'll point to her feet, hands, nose, mouth, hair and teeth. In her books, she can point and get just about everything correct. It's funny how just in the last few weeks she's seemed to change so much.

Him.

Even after all these years, you're still part of the reason why I burst and why I bloom.
Imagine that.
I love you.

Welcome To Our Family.

Yesterday my beautiful little sister Alexa got married to Jamie Draper in the St. George Temple. She looked so pretty and I was so proud of her. We took a few pictures that morning at the temple with all the families there. Maddie held Jordans cell phone in her hand in each and every photo. She either had it up to her ear or in her hands like she was texting. If you took it away, she'd lose it. The photographer said it was okay and that he could photoshop it out. Ü

After the temple we had a nice lunch and then took a nap until it was time to get ready for the reception. The reception center looked perfect. I think it was just what Lexie wanted. It was so fun to see all the family that traveled down and our friends from Hooper that we hadn't seen in forever. It was fun showing Maddie off even though she wasn't the most pleasant little thing. I'm just saying it was due to lack of sleep and proper naps because of all the events.

All in all I thing things went great. I'm sure that my Mom is glad to have it all over with - it's been a busy few months.

Congratulations to Jamie and Lexie! We love you!!

Our whole family.

Grandma and Maddie at the end of the night.

My favorite man in the whole world (besides Matt)..

My Grandpa Kelley

Playing on the stairs.

.Sisters.

Maddie in her Sidekick advertisement.

Brendon, Carson and Maddie.

Maddie and Grandma Kelley.

(I LOVE this picture.)

Aunt Starlee and Maddie at the temple.

I Don't Know How My Mom Does It.

This weekend Matt and I babysat Eli for a few hours. I don't know how anyone does it with twins or two kids around the same age. They were into everything. While I was picking up one mess, they were busy making another. It is so fun to watch them play together though. We discovered that they loved the balcony. It kept them entertained for 30 minutes. They had to go back inside though once they found out how fun it was to throw toys through the bars.

One of Maddie's favorite seats in the house - her own little lounge chair.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Maddie loves her Nonni, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa!

Dutch Oven Dinners & Maddie's First Haircut!

Saturday night my parents invited us to Pine Valley for a dutch oven dinner with their ward. It was a nice time to get away for the heat and have a great dinner. It was Matt's first time ever having any sort of dutch oven meal - He loved it! He's been talking about getting rid of the stove for good and just cooking dutch oven from now on. Ü It was fun to be with the family. Eli and Maddie ran around and played in the water and the dirt. They are starting to be so cute with each other. Our sweet little nephew Eli.

Mommy and Maddie playing in the river.

..Eli and Maddie..

- MADALYNNE'S FIRST HAIRCUT -
This morning we took Maddie to get her first haircut. I was very against this idea only because I'm afraid of her curls going away. However, I knew it needed to be done. She sat like a champ for the first few minutes but then she got bored and started standing up on the chair and trying to grab at things. Yes, I cried. What a baby. We took the video camera and our digital camera to capture the whole ordeal. When Matt went to get the digital camera out he found it with no memory card.. I'd left it in the laptop. Oh well. We got our video and a few pictures on our phones. She looks so big now! She has bangs and she had the back of her hair trimmed. Best of all, her curls are still there! Thank you to Lexie for doing such a great job!!

A picture of the back.

Her new bangs.