Thankful for hand sanitizer!

Since this is the week of Thanksgiving I decided I should post something I am thankful for...

HAND SANITIZER!!!

Why you might ask? Well my darling little girl came running out to me in the kitchen carrying her Thomas and Toby trains, and kept saying they were dirty. Then I noticed in one hand she was also carrying a black sharpie. She had colored on her trains faces. I was praying that was it, but of course it wasn't. I then found black sharpie ALL over my computer screen. I was able to google "how to remove sharpie from a computer screen" and looking through the black sharpie I found a post about using hand sanitizer. With a paper towel, sanitizer, and a little elbow grease it came all the way off!!

Madeline's birthday bash!

We had a great combined birthday party with Madeline and her cousin Bennett yesterday, and it was her Uncle Nathan's actual birthday yesterday so we include him too. Madeline and Bennett's birthdays are 6 days apart so we decided to just have them together. We had a "zoo" theme and it turned out great.



Now Nathan didn't want us to celebrate his birthday, and wanted the party to be for the kids. But MarKey made him his own hippo cake, and I made him his own birthday picture dvd, set to the song "Your the best around" from the movie Karate Kid. He was embarrassed and so we accomplished what we wanted!!



Madeline got a bunch of great presents: pj's, giraffe's, thomas the train, books, a green dinosaur, an AWESOME quite book for church (Skippers mom made it and it is amazing!), and we also got her a POWER WHEEL!! Thanks for the gifts everyone!!

Happy Birthday Madeline!!

I CAN NOT believe that my little girl is already 2!! It has gone by way to fast. I absolutely love being her mom, and I am so glad that she was sent to our family. We had her 2 year appointment and she was 23 lbs. and 34 1/2 inches. That is about the 10% for weight and the 70% for height. She has always been a tall, skinny thing! When she was born she weighed a whopping 5 lbs. 13 ounces, and was 19 inches!! I am just glad that she continues to grow!!

She has been talking up a storm these last few months. She can count to ten all by herself, and she can count things. She is learning her ABC's and knows a lot of the letters. Yesterday she looked at me and said, "Oh no, what did you do?" I am still not sure what I did but it was really cute. Two days ago I was laying her down for a nap and she started singing I am a Child of God. Her new latest obsessions are horses, and trains. In fact I have been playing horses with her all morning! And she has finally started to get some hair!!! If you can't tell I am one proud momma!

We are having her party this Sunday and we got her a super cool present so stayed tuned for those pictures!!

Madeline I love you!!

Madeline and mom 11-13-2006

Madeline and dad 11-13-2006

Madeline's 1st birthday!!

This is a picture of her this morning!! She asked me to sing the Happy Birthday song 5 times!Happy 2nd birthday!!

Halloween

Yeah yeah I know these are a bit late but here you go! Madeline was a butterfly for Halloween. I have to say that she was super cute. We went trick or treating with grandma and grandpa Dean. She was scared to go up to strange houses at first but she soon realized she could get suckers out of it she was SO excited. Every house we went to she would run in when they opened the door and look for suckers. Funny girl!!

cousin Natalee, Madeline, and cousin Bennett

Fall Family Pics

On Saturday we got family pictures taken. My father in law has a fancy pants camera and took them for us!!







Look at these blue eyed babes!! This is Madeline's cousin Bennett. They were so cute sitting on the steps together.






I love this picture of Madeline. She isn't smiling, but I think she looks so pretty! Thank you Marcus for some great pictures!!

The Zoo

(Madeline looking at the elephants)

The other day Skipper called me up and said that he was leaving work early and taking Madeline and I out to eat for lunch and then we were going to the zoo.


Madeline loved the carousel and the giraffes. It was a great day!!



(If you look closely you can see the gorilla's huge face pressed against the glass)





(She was patting the tiger next to her trying to get some random girl to sit next to her.)

You look like a different person...

So yesterday my brother sent me a text message telling me that I looked like I had lost weight. This made me excited because I sure have!!! Well later I was talking to him and I told him how happy I was that he and his wife noticed. He responded by saying that I look like a different person... haha I know that he didn't mean it in a bad way but what I wanted to say was did I look that bad before?

But I am excited. Most of you mommas out there know what your body looks like after having a baby. There are some of you though that go back to normal immediately after having a baby. I just had a couple extra pounds hanging on and finally decided to do something about it. So 10 pounds later, and more to follow I hope, I do feel like a different person!!

Skipper wanted me to say that he thinks I look amazing (and a few other things I am not comfortable posting on here...)

Weekend pictures

September 11, 2001

I remember the morning that this happened. I was in Ohio and I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the world trade centers, and and this time they didn't suspect terrorist activity. I was listening when the 2nd plane hit the other tower and then a plane hit the pentagon, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. I called my mom and asked her what was going on and they hadn't heard anything yet, being 2 hours earlier. . The next day was my 21st birthday which it didn't seem right to celebrate it so I didn't. The one thing I did do on my birthday was buy a newspaper which I still have. It was such a scary, and sad day. I had just been in New York City a month before and it seemed surreal.

I have always loved the NYC since I was a little girl. I had never been but I told my mom that I wanted to go. When I was 19 my mom and dad suggested I be a nanny. I interviewed with a few families on the east coast and finally decided on the O'Connor family in New Jersey. They were an amazing family and I was honored to be a part of their life during the last half of 1999-2000. I went into New York City more times than I can even count, and I fell in love with it. I have been back a few times since then too. I have been to ground zero a few times and it is an eerie, humbling, and again surreal experience when you see it. I hope that we can remember those people that lost their lives on that day and how our country came together for a moment.

Foot Massages

Madeline loves foot massages. After a long hard day of running around there is nothing she loves more than to lay on a pillow and get her feet rubbed. She is not spoiled at ALL!