Madison 7 Months Old

Guess who's 7 months today. Yes...S-E-V-E-N!!! It sure came fast.

She can hardly believe it. We can't either. Where did the time go?



Here's a list of stuff she is up to now.

• She is pulling herself up to a kneeling position.
• She can sit by herself very well.
• She will roll all over the place, backwards, forwards, side to side.
• She is taking big girl baths and loves the water.
• She loves to pull our hair and grab whatever is in front of her.
• She gets to laughing when we play games with her.
• She knows her family and reaches for us only when we come near.
• She has a new mad cry that is actually pretty funny because it's such a fake cry.
• She makes a new grrrr noise that sounds like a monster. It's better then screaming though.
• She wears a size 3 Huggies diaper.
• She eats a jar of baby food, breakfast, lunch & dinner.
• Her favorite snacks are the puffy ones from Gerber. Although she loves her waffles in the morning.
• She can stay awake longer between naps which messes up our schedule a little.
• Going for a ride in the car typically will put her asleep.
• She sits in a high chair when we eat at a restaurant.
• She weighs about 20 lbs and is killing our arms she's so heavy.
• She hates socks and will yank them off every time.
• She will scream at the vacuum, I guess because it's so loud.
• She loves to take pictures but is starting to get easily distracted and won't sit still.
• She is ready for this cold weather to pass so we can go outside and play.

Maddie should have a tooth to show you next month. She keeps sucking on her lips trying to push it through. I can feel them, we just don't see them yet. It's the big waiting game.



It's funny because in this house we are all at different stages in the teeth department. Maddie is cutting new teeth, Jared is loosing those baby teeth, and Brittany is straightening her teeth. (She officially started the braces process this week and will have them on by the end of the month...Ouchies, but she's very excited) I'll post pictures of her new bling as soon as they are on. {{Grin}}

Gift Wrap Organization

I have a lot of wrapping paper, gift bags, bows & tissue that I keep for birthday's and such. I'm ready for any occasion. I've kept it stored in my craft closet. Well it's actually Madison's clothes closet now, but it still holds all my craft items. I have no where else to put it. I was running out of space and needed something to organize it all.. It needed some organization really bad since it's a very SMALL clothes closet.

{Exhibit A}



Look at that mess in there. It scares me every time I try to open the door. I just know it's all going to come tumbling down.



Then I came across this at Big Lots the other day. At last this is the answer to my prayers. Could it really fit all my gift wrapping items?



From this....



To this....
It holds my tissue paper on the bottom and gift bags in the many pocket above.



Look how nicely it holds those large rolls of wrapping paper!



What I like most is that it hangs nicely in the back where no one can see it. Whenever I do need some wrapping paper, it neatly organized and ready to go.



Aaaah...one less headache.

It's my new favorite thing.

Not Again!

Today I woke up and looked out my front door and saw this....



NOT AGAIN! MORE SNOW and another day of SCHOOL CANCELED. Now this is just getting crazy. As soon as it melts, another Winter storm comes in. This is the most snow I've seen in all my years of living on the East coast.





It makes for a pretty picture, but it's too cold for this Cali girl.



At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see an Olympian ski by our house. I think we somehow ended up in Vancouver by mistake. Ha!

A Little Creativity

I'm always thinking of new ways to turn ordinary things into something more decorative. These are a few of my recent projects.

This is a little verse I framed and decorated to put in Madison's room. I was just kinda playing around with it and suddenly realized I had the perfect embellishment for the middle of the bow.



See this really looks pretty now and adds a certain sparkle.



It was a pin that came from my Mom awhile back. Thanks Mom! :) Hope you don't mind that I used it in this way. I think it gets more use now and can be enjoyed by everyone.



Another thing I had was one of those antenna toppers from Disneyland. I was too afraid to stick it on my car out here, because I knew someone would steel it. It just has been sitting around since last Spring Break when I bought it. It finally hit me that I could turn it into a cute tassel to hang on Madison's lamp.



{{Sorry about the angle. This picture won't turn!}} I've made a few tassels, but I think this one if my favorite so far. I just love the colors. I'm going to pick up a lot more next time we are there so I can make others.



So that's I'll I can show you for now. There's other stuff, but I'll save that for another time. I'm sure I'll be making more in the mean time to share.

Pretty in Pink

Another one of my many Madison photo shoots. I love to take her picture and she loves the camera. She's changing so fast, I don't dare skip a chance to do so. To dress her in pink and put pretty bows in her hair is one of the advantages of having a girl. It's been a long time since I was able to do that. Can you tell? If I don't then people tell me I've got a cute little boy. Ha! So I try to dress her up girly as often as I can.

 

What a pretty girl!

A New Toy

I forgot to post pictures of Maddie's new toy. I know, I know...it's sorta boyish looking again. Well for the price I paid, $30 at Wal-mart I didn't care. Usually these things are around $80 which I really think is just crazy. I was looking for something girly but I kept coming back to this exersaucer. I can pass it along to my husband's Cousin who is soon to have a boy this Summer. It's a win, win. Madison doesn't care about the color, she's still having fun. It holds her interest for a good while and even has a cup I can put her snacks in. Play and eat...the perfect combo.

 

A Halo Takeover

Jared's new obsession would be (you guessed it) Halo. He's been a big X-box gamer to this title for sometime now. First, Jared was excited when they came out with the Megablok toys he went to work decorating his room with them. You can see he's got a shelf full of them. He's also added a large poster to his wall and wearing t-shirts of his new love. A DVD cartoon of the game just came out and of course I bought it for him. What kinda Mother would I be if I didn't? I just like to see my kids happy. I try to support whatever they might be into. This year it happens to be Halo. Indiana Jones, Star Wars and GI Joe are taking a backseat to them I'm afraid. Who knows what he'll be collecting next.

 

Rub A Dub Dub

Madison is taking bath's like a big girl now. She grew out of her baby bath seat a long time ago. I finally found this bath seat for her online for her to use. It's shocking that they don't sell these in the stores like they use to when the other two were little. I was mad at myself for not keeping theirs. It would have been helpful now. The only color it came in was blue, which kinda looks boyish to me, but oh well it's only for the bathtub. You know I gotta have everything pink this time around. So here is my water baby. She's chewing on the toys that were once her big Brother & Sisters. They never go outta style. (Note...I washed them really good, so they are clean) Anyways, Maddie is loving her bathtime right now. Whenever she see's the bathtub, she gets really excited because she thinks I'm going to give her another bath. She LOVES to splash. But what baby doesn't? Another milestone for her.

 

New Places to Play

I find Lego people in the wildest places. For instance, Last night I found these guys in the wooden letters that spell out her name.

I spy a Lego Storm Trooper


and another Lego Storm Trooper here


Ah Ha! The boy is at it again. This time standing in Madison's crib of all places.


I guess it looks sorta like the Hollywood sign to him.


What an imagination this kid has got.


Then he started attaching them to the mobile.


That poor thing is just dangling there. He must have done something really bad. Ha Ha


Just another day in the life of a Lego and his builder.

{{NOTE}} ALL Lego's were promptly removed before Maddie went back into her crib. I am on the constant look out for little things she can put in her mouth.

{{Disclaimer}} No Lego's were harmed in the filming of this event or even the boy for that matter. :)

Plaid is Rad

Brittany is in love with plaid stuff this year. She has a lot of shirts, but now it's spilling over into her shoes and purse. It's very matching. We didn't even buy all this at the same time. They are from different stores and everyone is carrying the black & white is pattern.



It reminds me of our old floor to tell you the truth. It's better on Brittany though.

I prefer her the prettier plaid/stripe shirts she wears. Here is just a few she's got in her closet.



They call it Boyfriend Flannel shirts sometimes.



She loves it and it's back in style again. It seems every decade they bring it into fashion. I was telling her that I wore this type of checkered shirts when I was in the 8th grade. I have pictures of me in photo albums wearing it. It's funny that she's in the same grade and all these years later it's what is hot. HA!

Did you know?

Did you know they sell Panda Express sauces in the grocery store now? I just found this the other day. I don't know how long it's been on the shelves, but to me it's new. We don't have Panda Express resturants out here in Kentucky, (at least no where near me) and it's always something my kids and I miss from the West coast. We love their Chinese food and with the new line of sauces, I can try to duplicate it at home.



We made some rice and chicken to use the sauce with.



As you can see we've used a lot of this already. It's sooooo good. My kids even use the sauce to dip their chicken nuggets in. It's going fast. I better get some more and stock my shelves before we run out.



Look for it at your grocery store. I found this in the Asian section at my Super-Walmart.

Be My Valentine

I kinda go overboard on the whole Valentine candy giving thing. Look at all this stuff. Each year it gets worse. It seems there is more and more people to buy for. Not to mention the stuff you buy for your kids to take with them to school. I ended up buying a little for myself too. I won't lie. I actually have this fear I'm not going to get anything so I might as well buy some candy for me just in case. Ha! I always end up with goodies but that doesn't stop me from buying out the store. Everything looks so temping. They sucker you as soon as you walk into the store. Darn those marketing people.



This is the haul I came home with this year.



They even had chocolate covered fortune cookies. The kids loved those!



This was for Jared to give out at school. I made over 35 GI Joe Valentines cups filled with assorted candy and favors.

That's just for starters, because I will probably end up hitting the stores when things go 50% off.

Look, this year they have New Moon candy. I had to buy that. Oh it wasn't for Brittany...it was actually for me. Don't judge. :)

I'll be calling weight watchers soon or either my dentist.

Happy Valentines Day to all my peeps.