18 months old!

Maddie turned the big 1 1/2 on February 1. I can't believe she's halfway through her second year. We had her pics done at Sears and I'm not very thrilled with them, but here are a few. They just didn't get the big smiles as well as I trimmed her bangs and they're crooked!!!

Back in CA

We had a nice but too short visit to Kentucky. We never have enough time to see everyone. Here are a few pictures to summarize our visit:

Maddie sleeping in the crib borrowed from Mom's friend, Jodie. "Big Bear" was mine many years ago and is still going strong. (He's probably 33 years old or so.)

We visited the Harley store in Lexington and tried out the rocking Harley.

We went to Grandma's work and saw some friendly horses. She works at the American Saddlebred Association located in the Kentucky Horse Park.

Maddie was overwhelmed with what Santa brought her at Grammy's house. It took a couple of days to get everything opened.

We went to Bick's for the afternoon and saw cousin Patrick. He and his parents, Vivian and Rick, came in from Virginia. Bick is Maddie's great-grandmother. Grammy and Pappy gave Maddie this new rocking chair that she loves!

We also had Christmas at Grandma's house with cousins, Lilli and Thomas.

Here's a silly shot of Maddie back in California with her long hair. No, she's not driving a Porshe.

Maddie's first official sandwich! Turkey and cheese. She ate the whole thing!

Maddie and I ventured up to Palm Springs to see Amy. She was up there with a Stampin' Up! conference. We didn't exactly time our driving very well though...

There was a really nice street fair going on that evening on the main drag. We walked around and ate at an Italian bistro. It got a little chilly, but not very cold compared to KY! It was neat to see Aunt Amy all the way in CA!

Like I said~a very nice visit, but not enough time. I must admit, the weather is a major plus out here. It's so beautiful today. I think it's close to 70 or so and very sunny. Of course, the construction is never at rest..... They've really built a lot since we've been gone.

Happy 2008 to everyone. We already miss everyone back home and are looking forward to our next visit!!!!

On our way!!!!!

Well, it's finally the time to frantically pack, get little or no sleep, and rush to LAX. We leave EARRRRRRLY tomorrow morning. I'm sure Maddie will be a jewel to be with tomorrow afternoon after waking her so early. We can't wait to see everyone! It seems like it's been a very long time, but we were home in August. One more year to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a pic of our half decorated tree. Pretty funny. Wonder why we had to do that???

Maddie's 1st bangs trim at 16 months old!

Before











After








Maddie turned 16 months old today and Jason just couldn't stand her bangs in her face anymore. I can't say I liked it either, but I didn't really want to cut it yet. I guess that seems like something we would be doing when she got older, a LOT older. I trimmed her bangs and of course kept the wisps in a bag for scrapbooking. She's going to role her eyes at me when she gets older, isn't she? Oh well, that's what moms are for.




Maddie and I went to "Under the Sea" on Friday. It's an indoor play area. I'm not sure why California needs such a thing but it actually rained all day that day. There were tons of kids there. I think it was a bit overwhelming to Mads but she seemed to like it. We met a few more of the stay-at-home moms group there.











Maddie has really enjoyed our plastic Christmas balls this year. Last year we had the brain power enough to buy those for the tree since she would be able to get to them eventually. She loves putting the balls in this shoe box and then dumping them out and flailing her arms to scatter them everywhere. I almost can't bring myself to put them on the tree, not that they'll stay there for long...









On a sad note, Mom's dog Rugby passed away this morning. He's been sick most of his life and she kept him alive by taking such good care of him. Here's an older picture of Rugs at Christmas time. He was 15+ years old.

Thanksgiving and so on...

Well, we had our Thanksgiving here in CA. I had the windows open and not because I burned something... I cheated a bit and got a turkey and the fixins from Ralph's (a.k.a. Krogers). I fixed a 7-layer salad, Petra's stuffing, and two attempts at her chocolate pie. I don't own a double boiler so I improvised and lets just say that it was like hot chocolate and not a pie filling. Oh well, I know what to ask Santa for for Christmas! Petra said she would make one while we're home for Christmas so I can observe.








Jason ended up sick as a dog that night. He thinks he picked up a virus a few days before. I was afraid it was food poisoning. The only thing we didn't both have is gravy. I hate gravy... Thank GOD Maddie and I didn't get it. That's the sickest I've ever seen him. He was improving by the weekend, but now he's in KY and hadn't gotten enough sleep.







Here are a few silly pictures of the Madster in the tub. She's so funny with all her words and facial expressions. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we can't wait to come home in a few more weeks. 18 more days, I think!

Maddie's 1st real shoes and Mama's birthday

For my birthday we went to a fancy-schmancy mall in Irvine, CA on Saturday 11/3. http://www.southcoastplaza.com/ We didn't have any idea what it would be like but one of Jason's coworkers told him that that's the mall to go to in the area. I've never seen a Tiffany's store or Badgely Mishka, etc... They are already decorated for Christmas and have the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen! We'll have to go back when Santa is there and get some pictures.

The intent was to go to Stride Rite and get Moo her first shoes. The weird thing is that the malls here close at 8:00p.m. on Saturdays!!! How dumb is that???? Of course, we walked in the store at 8:00 and got ushered out rather quickly. Stupid California!!!! So what made us late was that we ate at the "Rainforest Cafe" http://www.rainforestcafe.com/ (Hey Holly, there's a Maya tiger on here) and also rode Maddie's first carousel. The cafe was absolutely unbelievable. It was all decorated as a rain forest (duh), but it had animatronic gorillas, elephants, alligator, snake, butterflies, and actual rain. It was rather dark in there but every few minutes a thunderstorm would come up and it would lightening and thunder. Pretty wild. Maddie didn't seem to mind it. When I was that age, I would have been terrified. They had people walking around making balloon animals. In the pictures on the carousel, you can see Mad's frog on a limb.

Since we missed Stride Rite, we went to the local Del Amo mall Sunday (my actual b-day). We allowed plenty of time to get Moo's shoes and also mommy got to shop for some jeans as well. I had to take some pictures to scrapbook (some day).

She kept playing with a little puzzle they had at the store. It was just the perfect height. You can see her new little brown shoes.

We ended up eating at Red Lobster and went home for cake. It was a very nice birthday, even if it was my 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday!

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's our motorcycle mama this year. Her cousins gave Maddie this outfit at Christmas last year and it now fits and it's perfect timing. She wondered what in the world I was doing when I slicked her hair down with gel. We went to a few houses but not many people were home or participating. They leave candy in bowls on their front porch with a note to help yourself. Strange! That's not any fun!!! Anyway, Motorcycle Maddie was pretty interested but I couldn't get her to say "trick or treat." Maybe next year!

And if you want to see the cutest costumes and trick-or-treaters you've ever seen, check out Sara's blog for today. http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/