Bzzzz

Finally, what you've all been waiting for...Halloween pictures! Tiffany, you guessed it. :) Madison was a bumble bee for Halloween. She got to wear her costume first at the school's costume parade and Halloween party and then also later that evening trick-or-treating with some old and new friends. The Halloween party at school was so cute! All the kiddos looked great and they had all kinds of fun stuff planned for them, including story time in the "pumpkin patch". Wow was it a hot day though!

Yara sharing her popcorn.

Madison had the time of her life trick-or-treating! It was if she had done it before! The Wiltshires invited us to join them and a few other couples they know from church for pizza, Halloween goodies, and then trick-or-treating. Madison couldn't contain herself when we arrived and she realized Yara was there too, all dressed up. Then, when we started trick-or-treating, she took off ahead of us, running towards the houses, squeelling with excitement. She held a piece of candy in each hand almost the entire night - she would not let them go!

Moving on up

Madison is transitioning to the next classroom (Tod II) this week. I can hardly believe how big she is getting! I was just thinking the other day that it is almost Christmas, so a year has passed since we were celebrating Madison's first Christmas and she was so tiny, and then a year before that, celebrating Christmas with our families shortly after learning we were going to be parents. It is crazy to think how long ago that was though it seems like it was just yesterday!!

Anyway, back on track...they are introducing Madison to her new classroom a little bit each day this week and next week will be her first full week there. So far the reports have been great! She is loving her new classroom! Her teachers said that when they took her over to the new class the first day, she got down and started playing and just waved goodbye to them without showing a bit of concern. They say they see her playing on the playground with her new class (the two classes are right next door and each class has it's own playground) and already miss her, but she seems to be doing just fine with the change. The room is bigger, there are more toys and activities for the babies, and of course, many new friends, and she and Yara are back together again. :) I know she loves that. (Sidenote: When we told Madison this weekend that Yara was coming over to play, she immediately ran to the front door and stood there, looking back at us and then at the door, as if she was expecting her to come in any minute. Then, when the Wiltshires arrived, Madison was beside herself!!! She was flapping her arms as if she was going to fly away, giggling, shrieking and tried to hug Yara for about 10 minutes after they arrived! She is such a little social butterfly anyway, but she sure loves her friend Yara. It is soooooo cute!!!). Transitioning is not nearly as scary this time as it was for me when she went from the infant classroom to the toddler I classroom. I'm excited for her and all the new experiences she will have and the new things she will learn. I'll keep you posted!

Can you guess?

Besides napping, playing outside with Dylan and Madison, napping, carving pumpkins with the Wiltshires, and fitting some work in here and there this past weekend, I finished Madison's Halloween costume. I am so excited about getting her all dressed up this year, so I decided to make her costume myself. Here's a picture of my tools and a peek at part of the costume. Can you guess what she'll be????? Those of you that already know are disqualified. :)

Weekend in pictures

(click on the pic to make it bigger)

We had a wonderful, fun-filled weekend catching up on time together (since Dylan had been out of town again for too long!) and with friends.

...I'll let you in on a little secret though, we're missing pictures of all the sleeping and bumming around I did!

Cool weather is here!

I absolutely love this time of year (as long as it isn't gloomy and raining)! Today is perfect, and so were a couple of days last week. I love when it is time to pull out the warm, comfy clothes, yet the sun is still shining. And for some reason, I love bundling Madison all up - she just looks so cute! Here she is in one of her new fall/winter outfits - the first really cold day so far. I was loving her in this outfit!

She had a mouth full of goldfish here... :)

Love the Pumpkin Patch!

Yay! It's that time of year again! I'm looking forward to the cooler weather, the holidays, celebrations, costumes, decorations, cozy fires and warm comfort foods...and when I saw the Pumpkin Patch, I knew the fun was beginning! Well, at least part of the fun...it was HOT out there! Though Madison's nap was interrupted when we got to the patch, it was still lots of fun to take her there this year. She ran around determined to say, "Pumpkin", loved carrying the little ones around, but wasn't up for picture taking, so her daddy had to take them from afar.

Culture Parade

I almost forgot we had these pictures!! During Madison's first week back to school after the hurricane, they had a culture parade at school. Luckily, Dylan was still off work because his plant hadn't gotten power back yet, so he was able to go and take pictures. Madison's class represented Japan so she got to walk around in front of the school showing off their Japanese-inspired costumes. Madi's friend Yara's class (Yara transitioned to Tod II, which is where Madison will move to in about a month) represented Jamaica. Check out their fun costumes! I was so jealous I wasn't able to go to the parade, but Dylan took pictures and told me all about it. Madison saw Dylan watching and ran up to him to give him a hug. It sounded as though she was not only so happy to see him, but proud to show off what she was getting to do at school that day. So cute. :)

Vacation in San Antonio...5 weeks ago!

We decided right before Labor Day that we wanted to get away for a long weekend, even if it meant we didn't leave the state, so chose San Antonio since we had never been and there is lots to keep you busy there. We stayed 3 nights in a Marriott near the Riverwalk, went to Sea World, walked the Riverwalk one day, ate some good Mexican food, had our caricatures drawn (as well as a portrait of Madison), toured the Alamo, and then even drove to Concan and spent a few hours in the river on Sunday before driving back home. Little did we know we would be heading back that way the next weekend too! :)

GO BIG RED!!

It's football season and we're so excited that Madison gets to cheer on the Huskers with us this year! I bought a husker cheerleading outfit for Madison when she was still tiny and surprised Dylan with it for his birthday last year. It fits her perfect this year like we had hoped.

I promise I did NOT pose her like this...

And though she doesn't like it when we try and get her to wear one of her hats, she LOVES wearing her daddy's Huskers hat!!

Madi update - 14 months tomorrow!

Madison finally had her one year well exam last week. I was so looking forward to finding out how much she has grown since she went to the doctor last...it seems like it was forever ago!! SO, here are her stats: 20 lbs, 32 inches. I was really surprised when the nurse said she is 32 inches, but even MORE surprised when the doctor told us later that she is in the 97th percentile for length! As for weight, she is in the 27th percentile. She went through a growth spurt for sure, but seemed to only grow in one direction over the past month or so - UP! :)

Needless to say, Madison outgrew all of her clothes in what seems like overnight and until I went on a shoe shopping mission a couple of weeks ago, she went from having a different pair of shoes for every outfit to not having a single pair in no time!


Most of you know or maybe remember that Madison didn't even get her first tooth until right around her first birthday. She is making up for lost time though and about a couple of weeks ago started working on getting all four top, front teeth in at once!! At the time, I was afraid we had entered the terrible twos several months early, but now that all four have come through, her mood seems to have done a 180. She has been such a happy little girl the past few days and I just LOVE that. She is just so fun to be around - so cute and such a character - no matter what kind of day we have at work, she can turn everything around for us the minute we pick her up at daycare and she greets us with so much excitement!


Either the days are just passing too quickly or Madison is just changing so quickly I can't keep up! It really feels like she has learned so many things in just the last week. Her vocabulary has grown quite a bit and now includes ma ma, da da, duck, ball, book, puppy, thank you, bye-bye, hi, yes, no, wow, up, down, baby, Yara and probably others I can't remember right now plus some she has repeated or has said on cue, but not regularly just yet...such as nana, grandpa, grandma and other friends' and family members' names. She will pretty much try and repeat any word we say though. She really wants to talk!!!


I really have SOOO much more to update everyone about, but I'm feeling a small sense of accomplishment now that I've taken to time to add this and now I'm sleepy. More to come SOON, I promise! I'll try and post more pictures than words next time too. :)


Until then, here's a picture from the other night of Madison with her new baby doll and baby bottle. There are very few moments these days that she doesn't have her baby in her arms and the bottle up to the baby's mouth. It is WAY TOO CUTE!!!