Look at her go!

This is really such a fun time with Madison. She'll be 7 months on Sunday (can you believe it?!) and is doing more and more everyday.

I think I have mentioned before that she loves to sit and play and still isn't the biggest fan of tummy time. She rocks forward from a sitting position up onto her knees and pulls up on anything within reaching distance. She has now taken that to a new level too and goes from sitting, to her knees and then forward into a crawling position (well, almost)...she doesn't like to bend her right leg!

I really think this might be how she learns to crawl - from sitting to crawling, instead of tummy to creeping and then crawling, like many babies. She is even beginning to figure out how to sit back up if she is on her tummy, by pushing up with her hands, getting her knees under her and walking her hands towards her as she sits up. Besides that though, she is rolling all over the place and if you turn your head for a minute, she may be in a completely different place on the floor than she was when you last looked.

We've told some of you about the "indian noise" that we get her to make by covering and uncovering her mouth... She immediately starts making noise when we cover her mouth, though when we have attempted to show you, she doesn't do it. ;o) Anyway, I was pretty impressed that she caught on so fast, but she recently surprised us even more by trying to do it all by herself!! She will move her hand around in front of her mouth (though not in the same way) and will also try to make the sound by putting her mouth on your shoulder or whatever is near and lifting her head up and down. It's pretty cute and SO smart!!

Picture perfect moments

Trying out the new jogger. Once we got outside, we realized that it was a little cooler than we had thought (the sunny sky was deceiving), so we bundled Madison up really good and she actually fell asleep during the jog! The visor can actually fold all the way forward in front of her so that it blocks all the wind - Madison was nice and cozy as we burned some calories!

...GOING SOMEWHERE??

I was finishing up supper the other night and getting ready to feed Madison and I looked over at her in her high chair just as she was trying to escape (she was strapped in, of course, so wasn't going to get far)! The funny thing is, as soon as I grabbed the camera and went to take a picture, she pulled her leg back in. I managed to catch her the next time though. :o)

Yara had pigtails at school the other day... so I was inspired. Pretty cute, huh?

THE AFTER-EFFECT!

New "do"

This picture is a little fuzzy because I took it with my phone this morning, but I still thought it was too cute not to post.

Dream Dinners

A friend of mine, Roxanne (Yara's mom), introduced me to Dream Dinners. She has been getting meals for her family there for a few months now and when they had us over last, we tasted one of the meals from there and really liked it. Not only was the food good, I LOVED the idea behind it. If you aren't familiar with this sort of thing, you go to the place one evening or weekend morning, during a scheduled session, and put together meals that you choose before hand from their monthly menu. They have stations set up with everything you need to put together the meals that you have chosen. The supplies (freezer bags, oven trays, etc.) are provided, they have the recipes printed and placed at each station, and cooking instruction labels for you to place on the bags once you have everything assembled. All of the ingredients are fresh (though meats and some of the veggies that might go in a recipe are frozen ahead of time) - nothing canned or packaged. You simply follow the instructions (how much of each ingredient you put in each container provided), slap a label on the bags and take the meals home and stick them in your freezer until you are ready to eat them. It is a brilliant idea!! Let me just share some of the other amazing things about this:

1) The meals come out to be about $4.00/serving.

2) You know exactly what you are having for dinner each night

3) Everything is prepared and ready to either go in the oven, on the stove or the grill

4) The meals are much healthier (and taste better) than anything you could get for the price you pay.

5) You end up eating meals that you never would have thought to cook or would have been able to cook without buying lots of ingredients you may never use again or spending a lot of time measuring...chopping...(you get the picture)...

6) AND, it is absolutely amazing how much time it saves!! The last two nights, Dylan and I have fed Madison, cooked supper, eaten, cleaned the kitchen, given Madison a bath and gotten her into her pjs in or a little under an hour and a half!! Don't ask me how it is possible...I still can't figure it out.

7) Finally, the food is GOOD!

As you can tell, I'm really excited that Roxanne introduced me to this. I'm sure there are a million other good things I could come up with to say about Dream Dinners. We've only been eating them two days and I can already tell you that it has changed things for us tremendously! I don't dread coming up with something for dinner now or just giving up and driving through somewhere on the way home, we don't spend a ton of time in the kitchen and can spend more time relaxing and playing with Madison... the list goes on.

Tonight we're having honey and herb grilled chicken breasts. The chicken marinated overnight (I didn't do anything but take it out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator). All we'll have to do is pour off the marinade, rub on the honey and olive oil that is provided, and put it on the grill.

Busy Bees

Wow - what a busy few days we have had! Not to mention how full our calendar is for the next couple of months!! Warm weather is just around the corner and we have lots of fun parties, trips and other events to look forward to! It's going to be a busy but fun spring and summer for sure.

I have a few new cute pictures to post, so I'll have to upload them to the computer tonight. In the meantime...

For those of you who don't know, Dylan recently joined an indoor soccer league and has games every Thursday night. Believe it or not, in the eight years that we have been together, until last Thursday, I had NEVER seen Dylan play soccer!! Isn't that crazy? Last Thursday was his second game and Madison and I got to go and watch him play (his first was a very late game so we didn't want to take Madison out)! Dylan says that the team is very unorganized and nothing like what he is used to, but regardless, I think he enjoys getting the exercise and getting to kick a soccer ball around again. I really enjoyed watching him play. As silly as it sounds, I totally had the feeling that I was admiring my "crush" playing his sport!! Since I had never seen him play, it made me feel like we were back in high school or something. Maybe you know the feeling I am talking about...?? Maybe not...but that's ok. ;o) Anyway, Madison wasn't going to risk missing a thing and kept her eyes wide open, watching everything around her the entire time we were there. As soon as we got in the car, she was out!

Last Friday Dylan and I took a personal day at work and spent the entire day together kind of as a late Valentine's celebration. We took Madison to day care in the morning, went out for breakfast, went to the mall (bought some clothes for Madison and a Jeep jogger so that we can run in the evenings), went to a matinee, got hot stone massages, picked up Madison, got a pizza and still made it home in time to catch the end of "The Wheel"! It was really a great day and was time that we needed to take together. We missed our baby girl though for sure.

THEN, we drove to Beaumont Saturday for a crawfish boil to celebrate Devin's birthday. Great crawfish; yucky weather!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little Valentine on her first Valentine's Day.

By the way, I think I'm creating a monster. This morning when I pulled out the camera before leaving the house, she started squealing and flapping her arms with excitement!! I can't stop taking pictures though!! We'll figure out a way to balance it somehow later. :o)


Since Dylan just emailed and said that he received the Valentine package from Madison (which included the tile below, a small easel to hold it, some of his favorite snacks and some fun valentine treats - chocolate covered fortune cookies and chocolate covered sunflower seeds!), I can now share this picture... Not only did Madison and I go shopping for new clothes for her the other evening, we also made a stop at Firestone Pottery and made a Valentine for Dylan.

My Daddy dressed me

I am convinced this was just to see my reaction, but he won't admit to that. :o) I must admit though, I made a few adjustments before we left the house.

Besides the fact that this is just really cute and funny, I have to mention how much I love seeing Dylan care for Madison, get her dressed, feed her, etc. his way - something that I can't say I know much about myself! I love that Madison has us both and will experience things differently with mommy vs. how things might be with daddy and hope that she learns to appreciate those differences. I think it is something that many take for granted because they just don't know any different.

A couple firsts

A couple of weeks ago, we moved Madison from her baby tub to the big tub. She can probably sit up in her baby tub now (as opposed to laying in it because she would no longer fit that way), but it was becoming a chore to fill it, lift it full of water to move it to a flat, safe place and clean up afterwards. Her baby tub had a mesh thingy that went inside it that she could lay on, so we just used that in the big bath tub...until last weekend. Dylan gave her a bath and called me in to take some pictures of our baby girl sitting up and playing in the big girl tub! We still plan to get some nonstick stuff for the bottom of the tub, but she did great and absolutely loved sitting in the water playing with the toys!

Oh...and the baby towels aren't big enough anymore either. I can't wait to go towel shopping for some fun bright colored "big girl" towels for Madison! In the meantime, she got to use a big one of ours.

We also introduced Madison to biter biscuits this past weekend. I didn' t know how she would do, but she loved it and it kept her occupied for a bit in her high chair after she ate dinner (she usually fusses to get out as soon as she is done!). Of course, we just about had to get a hose to clean up afterwards, but it was worth it! It was so cute to see her hold something in her little hand and try and feed herself.

What a convenient bib! I looked over at her and she no longer had the biscuit in her hand, so I looked down in her highchair and on the floor...she had a better idea in mind. ;o)

The cutest little hat

Madison's Great Nana (Dylan's Nana) knitted this adorable hat for her. Not only is it just too cute, it is really special that it was handmade. The detail is incredible! Madison loves it. :o) Thanks so much!!

Check her out...

6 months

The changes that take place in just 6 months... :o)