Madi's First Halloween and Haircut

It's been awhile! Madi is doing so great. She’s starting to say so much more. She's had "no" down pat for quite awhile. But, she is also saying "please", "momma", "dad", "JJ", "yes", "eyes", "nose", "mouth" and trying hard to say all kinds of other stuff. Just yesterday, Caleb taught her to hold up two fingers and say "Peace"!

Basically, a large portion of her day revolves around being extremely cute, which is fortunate, because she is so good at it!  She thought it was funny when Dad put all these bows in here hair at once!

 Somehow Madi even seemed to work her way into a picture of Caleb's big night for his first school formal. And then, she and Mom had to have a cute picture together!

 

Next, our little lady bug had Halloween. It was a fun night. She headed all through the neighborhood and got to see grandparents, cousins and neighbors!

Madi and Her Boys



 

 

Let The Candy Harvest Begin!!!

 





Madi with Papa and Nana

 

Madi and Grandma

Madi Loves Her Some Kenzie!!!

Trick Or Treating's Never Been So Easy (All She Had To Say Was "Boo")

 

We ended the night getting to see Madi's cousin Harper, but Harper had had enough! She's out!

Madi, Papa Dude and Little Harper The Lioness

Madi's most recent big event was her first hair cut. Looks great Emily! 

Madi couldn't wait to show off her new style when they got home.

 

Like I said, Madi just likes to hang around and be the cutest little girl ever!  You know.

No big whoop, just what she does.

 



and ... Daddy loves his Madi Girl!

 

 

Oh yeah ... Madi did a great job helping both Caleb and Josh with their science projects.

She's pretty sure they are going to get A's with all her input!

 

 

Quite The Little Scientist!!!



Officially 2 Years Old

On Madi's birthday, she had a morning birthday party with her brothers and some birthday muffins.  Then, she had a party again with cake that night after dinner!!!  That's the life!

Then, we had a great day on Sunday for Madi's next birthday party.  Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins were all in the house.  Madi had a great time and everyone got a big hug and kiss before the day was done.

Kayla gave Madi one of the animals that she had also loved when she was Madi's age.  Then they sat down for a spot of tea.

The pink boots and the table where huge hits from the grandparents:

The girl is set for tea parties, no question about it, with three new tea sets.  Caleb, JJ, Tina and I have already had a lot of delicious cups of tea!  We learned that tea cups are also good for fig newton grounding if that's your thing (and apparently, it's Madi's thing).

All in all, it was a great few days celebrating Madi's 2nd Birthday.  Thanks everyone!

... 10 extra points if you can name the show that was on a loop during Madi's birthday party.  You can see it behind Tina in the picutre above.  Hilarious!!!  (No fair answering if you were there)

Madi's 2nd Birthday

Hey Everyone,

I'll put a better post up over the weekend after we have Madi's birthday party with the family.  But since we had a little bash this morning, I thought I'd share a few pictures from the morning of her 2nd birthday!

All has been going very well.  More to come over the weekend.

shane.

Settling In Just Fine

So the question is, how do you go from getting "heisman'ed" by your baby sister:

To this?

If you are Josh, you spend about 3 hours on Father's Day night crawling and rolling and tickling and laughing on the floor with little Miss Madie Mei.  Yep, JJ is finally getting some love from Madi.  All is right with the world!

Madi has settled in wonderfully.  She runs around our house ... around both of the grandparents house ... and everyone else's house like she owns the place.  She passes out hugs and kisses like they are going out of style.  She is understanding so much of what we say and is even starting to say things that are almost actual english words.  She is saying "momma", "josh" (which can mean either of the boys), "poppa", "dada" and waiving and saying "hey" and "bye-bye".  She can show you her eyes, nose, mouth, belly, hair, "piggies" and ears (and can say some of them, too).  She's even started to say "Please"!  It's amazing how much she is changing and learning.  It's hard to believe we haven't even been home two months yet.

Since being home, she's travelled out to eat, to church, to see family and friends and to the park.  She loves it when Tina swings her:

She has also been able to travel all the way to North Carolina to see some of Tina's family.  We missed being there when Tina's cousin Ann had her new little baby girl, Sophia, by just a few days.  Tina and Madi will be headed back up that way soon to meet little Sophia!

Also in good ole NC, Madi got to go to "The Valley".  There she saw some pretty flowers,

and she got to hang with her cousins and eat her first bites of ice cream with her Aunt Mel!

It was a short, but great trip.  Sorry to be so long between updates.  It's been a pretty busy time!  As always, thanks so much for all the love and support.  We wouldn't be here with Madi today without all the prayers from so many of you!

... Oh, I have mentioned this before right ... Our Girl Can EAT!!!!

Sleeping And Everything!

Well, Madi is adjusting to everything wonderfully!  Her two biggest struggles since we've been home have been sleeping ... and the dog.  For the past four nights now, Madi has fallen asleep in her bed and, without an hour of crying thank you very much, has been asleep pretty quickly.  It is wonderful to know that she is secure in the fact that we will all be here when she wakes up.

As for Sophie (our dog), she still tells her to "go" almost every time she's near, but at least Madi is not shrieking in terror!  She even has begun to pet Sophie ... kind of the same way she pets my gotee.

This past week was graduation week for both of the boys.  Caleb graduated 8th grade last Tuesday night.  Among the many awards he won for either top or runner up student in multiple subjects, he also won the Principal's Award given to only one boy and one girl in the school!  What an awesome big brother (and friend Clayton who hopped in the back)!

On Thursday, JJ graduated 5th grade.  Among his many trips to the stage were awards for staight A's all year and the People's Award given to outstanding students who are also outstanding friends.  Man, can Madi's brothers get any more awesome?  Josh will tell you no! 

We now have a high schooler, a middle schooler and a no-schooler!

Madi got to hit the pool with her brothers and cousins for the first time this week also.  She only got waste deep, but it's all positive progress, right?

It's been another great week (or so) getting to know Madi even better and getting to see her become more and more comfortable being part of our family.  She is quite the amazing little lady!

"...  oh wait, excuse me, did you know Sophie is right over there?  Don't you think she should be put up for awhile?"  I'm translating what Madi is probably meaning when she says, "GO!" while pointing at Sophie our dog.