Halloween

This year we spent Halloween in SJ. It was so much fun being with everyone. We first started with the town Halloween parade where all the children walk around town and down main street showing off their costumes. Afterwards we ended up at the park for hotdogs and playing. Madilyn tried the swings for the first time and absolutely loved them.

Do you like the antennas??

I loved the back of this costume. Everytime she bent over her little butt would look so cute. :)

Later on that night we went tricker treating with Aunt Lora. It was great we made bank on candy. Madilyn was a huge hit with her costume and cuteness, which produce more candy. Lora and I felt like little kids again on Halloween. We had planned just to go around the block, but ended up being out for 1 1/2 hours.

When we got back from trick or treating Kyle, Candice, and Cord Whiting thought it would be fun to dress up and scare the kids that came to the door. It actually was a lot of fun watching the kids get so scared they would run screaming from our door. Oh the joys of scaring little children. Waahahaha!! We ended the night watching scary movies. A perfect way to end a wonderful holiday like Halloween. :)

Kyle as the "Mask", Candice as the "Witch", and Cord as the "Bull"

Birthday Girl!!

Madilyn turned 1 years old on September 28th. We had a birthday celebration at Grandma's house in St. Johns. Strawberry Shortcake was the theme of the party. I decided I wanted to make her cake. So after several visits to cake decorating stores I was able to find all the supplies to make the perfect Strawberry Shortcake cake. Her party ended up being lots of fun with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. What else could a girl ask for on her birthday!!

She loved the strawberry frosting and got very upset when I thought she had enough.

Showing everyone all her presents!

Checking out her new hair bows Aunt Candice and Uncle Kyle gave her.

Anticipating her next gift!

Madilyn loves cell phones so when she got one from her cousins she was thrilled!!

Growing up!

Madilyn has been growing so much in that past couple months. Last week she started standing up with no hands and if you say "Yea Madilyn" she will start clapping for herself. She loves playing and getting into everything. I can't believe she will be one years old in 19 days. Time seems to go by so much faster when you have kids. Below are some pictures from the last month. :)

Paris darling :)

Hey look at me I can drink out of a cup!

Girl loves her food!

Ahhh...just another day helping mom with the laundry

Visiting mom at her office. Showing off my new skills. :)

My Little Climber

Last Friday after work I sat Madilyn down by the dvd's since she loves to pull them out of the entertainment center and play with them. Once she was occupied I ran upstairs to clean the bathroom. Soon I could hear Madilyn playing on the bottom step, which she has been doing for the past couple weeks. She hasn't gotten down how to get up, but loves to play on it. So I decide to check downstairs to make sure she wasn't stuck on the step. To my surprise the girl was only 3 steps from the top. So I ran and got my camera.

She's so excited about her new skill.
This is a common face I get when Madilyn is coming to get me.

24th Celebration

July 24th celebrations are always so much fun. It's the best time to catch up with friends and family. This year was Madilyn's first time to experience this summer tradition. We made sure to be at all the hot spots during the weekend.

As you can see Madilyn enjoyed the ice cream the most at the Ice Cream Social. :)
Here we are at the Camp O' Rama and sweet Sarah is feeding Madilyn Texas sheetcake and cornbread.

Nicholas helping set up for our dinner. My Mom made sweet pork salad you can get from Costa Vida/Cafe Rio...very good choice.

Saturday morning we headed down to watch the parade. Madilyn really enjoyed the floats. You can see her practicing her new talent...clapping. :)

Nothing like hanging out on Papa's 4-wheeler at the park.

We even made it out to the rodeo on Saturday afternoon with my Uncle Jay, Corin, Mike and family plus Justin made it this year. It was a lot of fun. Madilyn didn't make it through the whole rodeo she ended up crashing out and Lora took her home. Who could blame her with all the festivities that went on. Such a cute girl needs her beauty sleep.

CPS Poster Child

My sister Lora took this picture of Madilyn during the 4th of July weekend. I just think it's such a funny picture. The pitiful face she can make just makes me laugh. It's just so dang cute. The other thing that I find funny is the dead beat mom in the background taking a nap. It doesn't seem to phase her a bit. It looks like Madilyn's doing a public service announcement for CPS. :) LOL

** 4th of July **

The 4th of July was a lot of fun. Madilyn and I were able to spend it in St. Johns. Nothing like waking up at 5am to cannons going off. It just screams...it's the 4th of July wake up!! I actually have always loved the cannons going off though. Once we were up and ready we headed down to the park for a little BBQ and some chit chatting with friends and family.

Look at the festive ribbon in her hair!!

Cute little Claire :)

Watch out single ladies!!

Summer Fun

Family love :)

BBQ Fun!
On June 27th my brother Kyle came home from his mission. It's been so nice having all my brothers and sisters back together again. The past few weeks have been crazy filled with lots of family get togethers.

Patient

After a few sleepless nights rocking and consoling my daughter. I decided to take her to the doctor. I'm so glad I did she ended up with an ear infection on top of teething. Not something that is pleasant for Madilyn or her mom. I did however after two sleepless nights using tylenol, which is a bunch of crap found infant IB profin. It works for a whole 8 hours at a time...beautiful!! When we were at the doctors office she was the perfect little patient. She just set so still when he was checking her heartbeat and lungs. It was even cute when he was standing talking she looked up at him like she was listening to everything he had to tell her to get better. Very cute little patient. :)

Ever since Madilyn's teeth came in she has been making all kinds of facial expressions. It's so dang cute. This particular outfit she's wearing is one my Mom saved from when I was a baby. I wish I had the picture of me wearing it. That would be a fun comparison.

Swimming Season

Swimming season has began. I've been waiting for this time since February. I was so excited to take Madilyn for her first time. So the first day in May that it hit triple digits we were out in the water. The day was so nice and the water was freezing. I thought for sure I would get some kind of squeal out of Madilyn, but nothing just a look at me like "what do you have me doing now?" I put her in her raft/floaty and she laid her head back and just floated. Once I got her use to it she started to splash and flash her fabulous grin.

We just had our first Mommy Tot lesson on Tuesday. It was so much fun. Madilyn really enjoyed it. Before the end of the summer little miss thing will be doing cherry bombs!!

Little cutie patutie!!

Working on her summer tan :)

Arthritis Walk

The first of May we spent the morning at the Phoenix Zoo doing a walk for Arthritis. I thought this would be a great opportunity for Madilyn to see all the different animals. We started off on the walk passing by the giraffes. There was one right next to us eating out of his bin. I was so excited for Madilyn to see this large animal for the first time. However, after several minutes trying to get her attention to focus on this large animal it was apparent she was more interested in the hundreds of people doing the fundraiser walk. So Jill, Sara and I enjoyed the rest of our walk watching the animals while Madilyn observed all the people. I will have to try it again next year maybe she'll be more interested.

There was only a river and wall to my knees between this cheetah and myself!!

Red Chili

So last night I was making my Mom's/Grandma's recipe for red chili. I started making enchiladas and when I was done sat down to eat. Well of course Madilyn wants to try anything I'm eating so I decided to just give her a taste of the red chili to see what she would do. To my surprise she really liked it and wanted more. So I started to give her some by the spoonful. Being the good mother, which I am, I decided I should quit and give her rice cereal so she wouldn't end up with a stomach ache. I think we might have a Greer/Patterson on our hands...next step COKE!! Just kidding I wouldn't do that until she's at least 2 years old. LOL

Weekend Fun

Over the weekend my Mom came up and we had so much fun. We started off laying out Saturday morning in the sun and reading...very relaxing might I add. Than off to shopping we went. We had a really good time. So yesterday before my Mom left she needed to get a few things at Hobby Lobby. It was going to be really quick so I just carried Madilyn in. Now whoever has been to Hobby Lobby knows it's never a quick in and out of the store. They have so many fun little things that you can end up being there for awhile. So after about 15 minutes I decided to put Madilyn in the shopping cart and see if she could sit in it by herself. To my surprise she did great!! This is going to save so much back and arm pain of lifting her in and out of carts with her car seat carrier...WOOHOO!!!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend was spent in SJ. We started it off with both Madilyn and I having pink eye and waiting in SJ Family Clinic for 2 1/2 hours to get meds. Not a great way to start off the Easter festivities but we ended up feeling lots better Saturday morning when we got our Easter baskets filled with candy and goodies. My Mom always makes the holidays fun and exciting. Since it was windy and freezing out we decided to have a BBQ indoors. It was so nice having the family all together. (missing Adam and Kyle of course) We ended the weekend all going to church with all the little girls and Nicholas in their Easter dresses and new ties. It was so much fun seeing all the kids dressed in their Easter's best. I just love holidays or any reason to eat junk, hang with family and have fun.

Madilyn in her Easter dress!!

Hanging out during the BBQ

Checking out Grandma's necklace