Christmas Eve Snow and Christmas Morning Fun!

We had snow on Christmas Eve. It started as rain, but turned to snow. We probably had 3 to 4 inches when it was over. The wind was blowing around 30 to 40 mph, so we had horrible conditions. However, if you went to downtown Ft. Worth (which is about 10 or 15 minutes away) they didn't nearly have anything we did. It was weird. Plus, the day before it was 75! Crazy weather indeed! Madison really wanted to go out. She got her boots and brought them to her Daddy. So, Daddy took her out. I swear they were out all of 5 minutes!

So, here is Miss Madison in her first snow!




Madison got up about 6:30 to find that Santa had brought her a kitchen! She LOVED the kitchen. I actually think "loved" is an understatement! She didn't really want to open any other gifts. She seriously played with the kitchen for about 2 hours straight!

Here's the tree after Santa brought his presents!

And here she is with the beloved kitchen!

Here she is looking in her stocking...

And, opening presents!

Overall, we had a very good Christmas morning. Santa was good to us this year. My parents were not able to make it in due to the blizzard they had. Jeff's mom was finally able to get here around 2pm. Hopefully, my parents are able to get here tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

2 Year Checkup

Madison had her 2 year well child checkup today. Everything was fine, and he didn't see anything wrong with her. She seems to be right on track now! She had to get 2 shots. Her booster for H1N1, and her last Hib shot. I guess she was supposed to have that at 15 months, but there has been a national shortage. She was screaming the entire time we were there. I know she knows where she is. As we were walking in, she froze and almost starting crying! She's this way every time we go there! Hopefully, we won't be back any time soon, and she can forget about all the bad things that happen there (i.e. shots).

Her stats were:

• Weight: 28 lbs 1 oz (50-75th percentile)
• Length: 37 inches (95th plus percentile)
• Head: 50.5 centimeters (95th plus percentile)

She's tall and skinny!! Overall, she's very healthy and happy!

Aunt Joby and Birthday

Last week Aunt Joby came to visit. Madison LOVED to get into anything of Aunt Joby's. It was all new, and fun to play with. Madison especially liked playing with her laptop. She even got to sit in Aunt Joby's lap and play pinball!

Here she is trying to see what Aunt Joby is doing...

And, here she is in her lap playing the game...

And here everyone is trying to put the "enter" key back on the laptop after someone ripped it off!

Aunt Joby left on Friday, and my parents got here on Saturday. We went ahead and had her "party" that day. She was excited to get to open presents. She's actually been trying to open the Christmas presents!

Here she is with all her presents!

Opening presents...

Being silly!

And opening her favorite gift...her teapot!

Her big gift from Mommy and Daddy was a car! However, she's not too sure of it just yet.

She likes to push it, but just not ride in it!

I did cupcakes again this year. They are just soooo much easier, and I think they are just way cuter! Our theme was Elmo. Madison went to the party supply store, and that's what she wanted.

Grampy wearing her party hat and dancing!

Her smile!

Grammy and Grampy partying!

It was a very good birthday. I think she had a lot of fun. She's had fun playing with her new toys. I'm sure Christmas will be just as fun.

Speaking of Christmas, while Joby was here we decided to get out Madison's kitchen that she's getting for Christmas. Jeff HATES putting this kind of crap together. And, this kitchen had a million different parts.

So, here we are trying to figure out what to do!

Jeff is trying to get it to fit together and not tooo happy that Joby is taking pics!

Here is the last step of putting on the stickers! Whew! It only took a little over an hour. I didn't think that was bad considering her car took like 2 hours!

Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to get all caught up before Christmas! I hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday Madison!

Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you. We love you very much!

Thanksgiving, Potty Training, and Everything in Between!

We had a very good Thanksgiving weekend. My parents arrived on Wednesday. I had already done some prepping of food for the feast the next day. Thanksgiving was pretty low key. The only excitement was that somehow we cooked our turkey upside down!! So as Jeff was trying to carve it, all that he was finding was dark meat. I was really upset by this, because for once I actually bought an actual Butterball brand turkey. We were getting ready to get out the camera to take pictures of it so that we could complain to Butterball when we decided to flip it over. We ended up having to cut off the breast and cook it a little longer, but it was still good. Friday morning Jeff and I went to go see New Moon. Loved it! Can't wait for Eclipse! Then we came home to decorate the house for Christmas. In the end, we didn't get up our tree because we spent to long trying to figure out how we were going to do the outside. In the end, we are very happy with it. I need to take pics. We basically outlined our flowerbed, and we have two lighted wreaths hanging in the front windows. It looks nice. This was the first year we actually decorated outside. We felt we had too. Our neighbors really get into it around here. Saturday we put up the tree to discover that somehow it was stored wrong and the bottom branches are broken. So, we have a deformed tree this year. I think my mom is going to give me hers. I'm still going to try and see if I can find one after Christmas. I really want to get a small one for Madison's room, and I want one for the gameroom. My parents left late on Saturday afternoon. We spent Sunday getting ready for Jeff to go out of town for work. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving.

I only took one picture all weekend. Here it is...

It's a very rare pic of all three of us together. That normally never happens!

So, we decided that last week was a good week to start potty training. She's been ready since August, but she wasn't walking then. She had started to become a little more interested lately, and all my friends told me not to miss the opportunity if she was interested. They said if you missed it then it would be really hard. And, they all swore by this 3 day potty training method. So, that's what we did. Basically, you have to give up your life for 3 days and follow you child around to begin to pick up signs that they are going to potty. And when they do start to potty, you rush them off to the bathroom so they can finish in the potty...all the while telling them that we don't want wet undies, etc. And, you are supposed to be telling them the entire time to let you know when they have to go potty. But, once they use the potty (no matter how much), then you shower them with praise and possibly a reward. I would say we are like 80% to 90% trained. She really doesn't like to use it, but will...especially if she knows there will be a treat. We are down to one accident a day, and usually one at night. It's getting better...a LOT better. I've even taken her out, and we've had no accidents. She is just wearing panties and no pull ups. So, we are very proud of her.

So, on Friday when her Daddy got home, she was a little stir crazy and wanted to go outside. It was cold, and she had been running around in a long sleeved shirt, panties, and baby legs most of the week. Well, she went into her closet and got her boots (they are fake Uggs) and took them to her Daddy. She wanted them on, and she wanted to go outside. Well, he put them on her, but of course, they didn't go out. It was hilarious! We asked her if she liked her boots, and she said, "I like my boots!!" Again, hilarious!

I'm taking her to get her picture taken on Thursday. I can't believe she's going to be 2!! She's such a little girl now. We love her soooo much!

Weekend of November 13th thru the 15th...

Well, things have been busy, and I never had time last week to post pics of our weekend in Oklahoma. We had such a good time. I think we all miss Tulsa very much. I hope one day we make it back there!

We got to Bristow around 1pm on Friday, and unloaded and messed around. Madison was getting antsy, so we decided to take her out to the park. She had a really good time, but she was worn out by the time we left. So, much so that she was in bed by about 6pm!

Here are Grammy and Grampy helping her up the playground equipment.

Here's Grammy following her thru a tunnel!

And here she is on the slide...

And finally, here she is walking down the sidewalk picking up sticks!

On Saturday, we got up and got around early so that we could be at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks by 10am when it opened. I was a little unsure if she would really like it or not. But, she LOVED the aquarium. She ran and ran and ran to all the exhibits and would point out the fish! I can't wait to take her back the next time we are up there.

So, here are Daddy and Madison getting ready to go into the aquarium.

This is the exhibit where they have the beavers, the otter, and the racoons.

She really liked the racoons. I think she thought they were cats!

After the aquarium, we went to lunch and ran a few errands. Mom and Dad took our car home with Madison, and we did a few more errands. Then it was time for the pub run!

We had such a good time. I think we had even more fun than when we did it before. I think this is going to become an annual tradition now! We got to see a lot of our friends, and we miss them! And, somehow we befriended the guy handing out the Guinness, so we got a ton of free Guinness! Well, everyone else did. I don't drink Guinness!

Here's the start/finish line...

Here's Jeff running past me at the beginning of the race!

Here's Julie waving as she ran past us at the end...

Here's Jeff running past us at the end...

Rachel and me!

Tim and Julie!

Jeff after the race with his beer!

Julie, Carisa, and me!

My wonderful husband and me!

And somehow we befriended the bagpipe players and got pics with them!

After the race, Jeff and I went back to Julie's parents house so Jeff could shower. Then we went out to dinner, and met up with another friend, Ryan and his wife, Linda. It was really good to catch up with everyone. We finally made it back to Bristow between 9:30 and 10pm. We went to bed shortly after, but Madison decided she wanted to get up at 3am!! So, Sunday was not a great day, but I think we would all agree it was worth it.

I hope to be posting Thanksgiving pics later this week, and of course we always decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. So, I hope to have those pics up too! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!