Fall Festivities

A few weekends ago we went to a farm in Virginia Beach called the Hunt Club Farm and Maddie got a chance to meet some farm animals and play in the pumpkin patches. They had a haunted hayride and cornfield but we figured it would scare Maddie, ok I will have to admit I was worried it would scare me. I was just fine hanging out in the chicken coop with the rest of the chickens. By the way, visiting that chicken coop really made me want chickens of my own. Chickens are so cool! They let us scoop them right up and they just hung out with people. Chickens, goats, ponies, peacocks, llamas, pumpkins-it was a great time all around!



Maddie loved that little pumpkin so we took it home with us and now it will live its days out in the kitchen window.

Maddie and her friend Mason sitting on a hay bale, they are so cute.

Halloween!

I have been calling this Halloween Maddie's first, although technically it is not. Last year she was only twelve days old and I can't for the life of me remember what we did. I don't think we even gave out candy at home. I can't remember anyone ringing the doorbell. I must have slept through Halloween last year or was too busy changing the eleventh poopy diaper of the day. Hmm. Well anyway we almost missed this Halloween too. Due to the fact that Maddie is currently teething and working on getting her first set of molars, Saturday night she was running a low grade fever and was very crabby and just plan pathetic. She would lay her head down on the couch and act like she was tired, then she would pop up and laugh and then she would cry a little bit. This molars are just giving her the worst time. So we decided to see how she felt on Sunday and go from there. Luckily she seemed to be feeling better and her fever had gone down so we decided that her little bear costume was just too cute to neglect and we took her to my sisters house for dinner and trick or treating. I am so glad we did because as soon as we pulled the car up to my sisters house, Maddie's cousins greeted us at the car and her face just lit up. She forgot all about those pesky molars. Hopefully this teething wont last too long.


My oldest niece Katlyn carved this awesome Hello Kitty pumpkin!



Grrrr...her paws are so cute!

This picture is her actually trick or treating. She got a Kit-Kat!

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Last week Maddie turned 1 year old. I just cant believe it, a whole year has gone by since my little Mooshu came into our lives. I remember bringing her home she seemed so tiny and fragile. Now she is so rough and tumble and independent. I had no idea that night that we went to the hospital to have our little baby just how much love I could feel for another person. I dont know if adults truly know the meaning of love until they have a child. The past year has been fantastic and I can't wait to see what this year has in store. I cant wait til she starts walking and talking. For Maddie's birthday we had a small family dinner with my sister and her family and then opened a few gifts and sang happy birthday. I made a lasagna and Daniel made a wonderful two layer chocolate cake with cherry filling and cream cheese icing. There also was Funfetti cupcakes with green icing. When it was time to open the gifts, Maddie was too preoccupied with her cousins cell phone to open the gifts. It took her awhile to realize that she was supposed to open the paper and there were gifts inside, it was cute. When we sang her Happy Birthday, she had her hand on her forehead the whole time. I think she was overwhelmed. I dont know if it was because the lights were dimmed and we were singing or because this giant cake with a flame on top was in front of her or what. It was a very nice little celebration, I couldnt have asked for a better time, well actually there was one thing missing, her family in Oregon, but we will be seeing them soon for Christmas, yeah!


Here is the birthday girl riding on the rocking snail that Daniel and I gave her. We bought her that adorable hat thinking it would look really cute in the photos, but she hated it! She would only let it stay on her head for a second, thats why her cousin Hailey is holding it on while we snap the photo.



Here she is eating cake, she made quite a mess with the cupcakes and cake, it was cute but she had to go right in the bath tub afterwards.

Fall Outings

In between all the rain this fall, we have been getting out and enjoying some of the fall festivities. This past weekend we went to the Fall Stockley Art Festival. A few weekends ago we actually went down to the beachfront, for the Virginia Beach Neptune Art festival. I think that was the first time we ventured out to the beach this year, which is a shame. I always enjoy going to the beach and I am hoping one of these weekends we will get to the Sandbridge beach area. It will be nice to put Maddie in the sand. Maybe even take the dog. We also went to the Acoustic Music Festival in Norfolk and rode the ferry from Surry to Williamsburg. I never even knew we had a car ferry. So here are some pics from those adventures.


When we went to the Acoustic Music Festival, we walked around downtown Norfolk. I always love the Chinese Pagoda and garden. Right past that is this retired battleship Wisconsin.



The above photo was taken at the Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach. Along with the photo of Maddie and her eldest cousin Katlyn below.





Oh no! Its Maddie times 3! I just love the above picture of Maddie at the MacArthur Center Mall. Daniel was trying on clothes and we were having fun in the mirror. She was quite taken with herself in the triple mirror. I would love three Maddies!



And these two photos were taken on the car ferry that goes from Williamsburg to Surry. I was surprised this even existed! I always thought car ferries were only in cool places like Seattle and NYC. Who knew!

rain rain go away....

I forgot how rainy fall is around here. It was like a monsoon last week and this upcoming week is supposed to follow suit. Friday got like 7 inches in six hours. You practically needed a boat navigate all of Norfolk and various spots of Portsmouth. Its funny because we finally have a break in the heat to go outside and enjoy some mosquito-free days and now its like Noah's Ark out there. Maddie and I are for the most part staying in and trying to stay dry and warm. But we do go out onto the porches and enjoy the showers now and then. The rain brings out a lot of frogs, one was up on the porch the other day, by the time I got my camera he had jumped off. I did get a few pics of him in the flower bed. I love to see the frogs but unfortunately Cooper loves them too. He likes to mess with them and he won't listen to me to leave them alone, its too tempting. Often times he licks them and he foams at the mouth for like an hour afterwards. He is so silly.

We were swinging!

Look how cute Maddie is swinging!! She just loves to swing and we just love the park. Anyone who knows Daniel and I know that we are not fond of the Hampton Roads area. But since Maddie has been in our lives we have been trying to be a bit more open minded and explore more of the area and see what it has to offer at least from a family perspective. One of the new places we have found is an awesome park in the city of Chesapeake. Its a nice mile and half gravel track around a beautiful lake with a well equipt playground. We have been trying to go there every weekend and get some fresh air, exercise and swinging. Maddie just loves to swing. Its also nice that the park is practically nestled in between a Home Depot and a Lowes so afterwards Daniel can get his fix of hardware.



Here is a picture of the lake (and me).

My little 11 Month old!

I can't believe my baby is 11 months old. Since my last blog, Maddie has become skilled at crawling, she is pulling herself up, and she is successfully using a sippy cup even though she still prefers her bottle (the doctors say I need to wean her from the bottle by her first birthday, I can tell its going to be tough on both her and me). Her favorite word is still Dadda but she also loves to say "GET" because Daniel and I are always saying "Get Cooper, Get!" and she says Momma every now and then. Here are some photos of the past month:

Maddie and I in one of the gardens at Colonial Williamsburg. It was sooo hot that day it was almost a 100 degrees, but we still enjoyed walking around and enjoying the sights.

Ever since Maddie has been mobile we had to install a baby gate to keep her out of the kitchen. I dont know who was more upset about the gate, the dog or Maddie. Its funny because as soon as Maddie sees that gate open she crawls as fast as she can towards it, its always a race to get there before her and get it shut.

Here she is crawling and playing with her fun cube toy.

Here she is "helping" me fold clothes. See all the toys in the background? She could have a million toys but she would rather play with a clothes basket, an empty box or a baby food jar cap.

Here she is too busy playing than eating. Her hair is getting so long we had to start pinning it back.
Here she is mesmerized by the TV. I swore I wasnt going to let her watch TV, so much for that. I try to limit it to Sesame Street and Word World. She just loves Elmo!!

Here she is during our weekly trip to BJ's. We had to become members when we started to buy formula, that stuff can put a dent in your wallet! Now I know why some stores have it behind lock and key.
Here she is with Daddy, antique shopping in my favorite store in Smithfield, they don't have hams in that store but they have oh so much more! I cant get over how long she looks in this photo!

Here she is at the pediatrician's office where every visit we learn that she is above average in height and weight. Big and healthy is good with me!

Finally, here is Maddie and me sweltering in the heat at Colonial Williamsburg. Right after this photo was taken we had to duck into a bookshop for some coffee and to cool off.

Wow! Where did the time go?

Ok, this blog has had some serious neglect. The main reason for such neglect is the fact that I have been without a computer for some time. Months ago I spilled a glass of water on my laptop. I had my fingers crossed for sometime that the water didnt do any serious damage to the computer but alas it had and eventually it rendered my computer useless. Its amazing what a little water does to electronics. So I finally broke down and let Daniel convince me to buy a new computer. As we speak, I am transferring all of my millions of photos of Maddie to my new computer and I will post many very soon. As you probably guessed she is now crawling like a pro and climbing up on everything! She loves the stairs and TV in particular, probably because these are off limits to her. I will be posting pics very soon but for now, good night!

On the move...

For weeks now Maddie has been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. We knew that crawling had to be right around the corner. We have encouraged her with praise, enticed her with her favorite toy and even tried to bribe her with graham crackers but to no avail she wouldnt budge. Two weekends ago she was rocking back and forth and started to attempt to move forward. I got really excited and Daniel ran and got the camera ready to capture her first crawling moments. She tried really hard but she only managed to go backwards. We didnt really know if that counted as her first crawl, I mean it was movement, just in the wrong direction. I remember it was a Friday night because I said by the end of the weekend she was going to be crawling, forward. Well two weeks have gone by and she is quite proficient and crawling backwards, but she has not truly gone forwards. Tonight she got very close. I think the problem is that she wants to use her feet to go forward. She wants to bypass the knees altogether and use her feet. Its quite strange because she kicks out her foot and tries to propel herself forward with it. Is quite cute. I am sure in no time she will be trucking along on her knees.