Goofballs!

Madison eating apples with chopsticks and grinning at me with "that grin".  Dylan grinning like his little girl, mouth full of food and all.  Now you see where she gets it!

How did I forget the beach?!

I told you we've been busy.

Memorial Day at the beach with The Wiltshires

Getting so big

Madison turns two in just a couple of months, and we are seeing changes every single day! She is growing and looking more and more like a little girl these days.  She is definitely showing us her full personality and even pushing the limits to see just how much she can get away with. She says some of the cutest things - the other day she looked over at Brody shaking on the couch (because he is a chihuahua and that is what he is good at!) and said, "you cold Brody??" She sounded so concerned!  I also heard her telling her baby 'Time out" yesterday.  She is a bossy little thing sometimes. :)  She loves bossing Yara and her other friends around and taking care like a little mommy.  

She just recently transitioned from Toddler II to Early Preschool I at school.  In her new class, they no longer use sippy cups and they start potty training.  In just the week that she has been in there, she is already making much more progress in the way of potty training.  We were at the store yesterday and she actually told me she needed to go, so we ran back to the bathroom and she went!  Her pull-up that I put on her about an hour before was still dry too!  She has done the same thing at school a couple of times now and we are so proud!  

Though she is keeping us on our toes constantly, and at times I am exhausted by her persistance and stubborn determination, I can honestly say that there isn't a moment I don't thank God for giving us the most perfect little girl.  For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of what my little girl would look like, be like, etc. and Madison is exactly what I had imagined.  

My solution to a messy house. :)

Manicure and pedicure with mommy.  Daddy was a big help too - he blew on the wet nails while we worked on the others.

Check out her legs. :)

Shoe shopping with mommy.  I grabbed a shoe off the rack, turned around and this is what I saw. :)  She LOVES shoes!

Just too darn cute....

What do you think of my sewing skills?

Summer is here!

We have had a busy and fun-filled couple of weeks!  I'll let the pictures do the talking, but do check for some captions in the slide shows. :)

Mother's Day weekend in Beaumont

We spent Saturday with my mom and Sunday with Dylan's mom.  Unfortunately, I don't have a single picture from Sunday!!  I don't know how we managed that....

Day of fun on Kemah Boardwalk

Yara's 2nd Birthday Party

My brilliant husband

I can't even believe that it has been almost two months now since my brilliant husband finished his masters degree and I haven't properly acknowledged him on here and given him the praise he deserves! :)  (He would probably unplug the computer on me if he knew I was typing this right now).

Some of you already know, but for those of you who don't, Dylan graduated with a Masters of Engineering with an emphasis in Engineering Management and a Minor in Business just a couple of weeks ago (though he finished his last class at the end of March).  He has been working his butt off the past 2 1/2 years and should be so proud of himself for what he has accomplished while continuing to work full time and still being the best husband and dad there is.  We are so proud!! Congrats, daddy, on such a huge accomplishment!  We love you!

Character clothing

As you see, Madison has a Mickey Mouse nightgown.  If you know me, you are probably wondering what got into me - buying that sort of thing.  I have this thing about clothing with characters on them, and can't bring myself to put anything like that on Madison.  Before having a baby, I would even get nauseous when I would see room decorations covered in Disney or other cartoon characters (no offense to anyone who likes this sort of thing - just not my cup of tea). The thing is, now that Madison shows preference towards certain toys (her dolls) and certain characters (she LOVES Minnie Mouse), I am getting into it too!  She loves Minnie Mouse so much that I decided we had to have a big Minnie Mouse stuffed toy, and when I saw this nightgown, I couldn't pass it up.  Seeing her face when we pull it out for her to wear makes me forget that character clothing is kind of tacky.  Now, at this point, I am still not willing to let her leave the house in actual clothing covered in Disney Princesses or Dora The Explorer (though I have to admit we did buy her a Disney Princess backpack that even lights up!), but the other stuff I can deal with.  Who knows, if Madison really wanted a character room at some point, I might even be ok with that. :)  Oh how they change us...

Madison goes camping

A couple of weekends ago, The Wiltshires and us took a trip to Jellystone Park near Canyon Lake. I hadn't been camping since I was a little girl, but I remembered loving it and wanted to start camping as a family with Dylan and Madison.  I wasn't exactly sure how she would do, but she did great!  Slept fine and I know she had lots of fun.  We were exhausted by the end of the weekend, but loved it and are planning our next camping trip already.

We took lots of pictures and instead of uploading a slide show, I am going to just share some of my favorites.

Madison and Landon

We took these around Easter, but I don't think I ever posted them.  Too cute not to share... Madison LOVES Landon so much and anytime she gets to spend time with him, she asks about him for days following our visit.