WOO HOO Look Who's TWO!!!!

This pretty girl is 2 years old!!!

She looks happy about it too!

Yes, the cake is pretty gaudy looking but Madeline didn't seem to care. ;) For Madeline's birthday Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Jerry came up for a visit. We had a little birthday celebration for her and let her open a few birthday presents to make her day special.

Madeline checking out her birthday cake.

Madeline gets all embarrassed when we sing to her.

Silly girl!

Ready to blow out the candles. Ok, she had a little help with this part...

Checking out her new baby dolls.

She LOVED her new jewelry. She played and played with them.

And the new doll house.

Checking out her jewelry box from Grandma.

She was really interested in the little ballerina spinning around. All in all she had a great birthday!

Christmas with the Family

On Christmas day we went to Madeline's cousin's house for the day. Ava's trying to give some love to Madeline.

Madeline showing off her new Gap sweatshirt.

Ava and Madeline wishing they were outside...that's where the big girls were.

The big girls playing in the snow. We had a white Christmas this year with several inches of snow.

I love this close up...

Ava caught me taking pictures.

Ava with her new pony. Madeline wouldn't get near this thing - she thought it was real!

Madeline with her baby cousin Abram.

Merry Christmas 2009!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Our little sassy Madeline had a little scowl on her face in her Christmas tree photo. No smiles here, not sure why.

Madeline unwrapping one of her presents.

Some of Madelines presents. We tried not to go overboard, especially since her birthday is the day after Christmas. That's alot of presents all at once!!!!

Madeline with her new kitchen which she LOVES.

She did a lot of playing with the kitchen.

Fun Christmas Stuff

This past weekend we took Madeline to see Santa at the Holiday Express train. It was all decorated up for Christmas and really pretty.

Here we are with the reindeer train in the background.

Mads checking out one of the Santa decorations on the train. He was taller than she was!

This past week we also had a gift exchange with our playgroup. We did a craft as well, Madeline was checking hers out above.

Here is Madeline with her playgroup friends at the Christmas party.

Decorating Fun!

Isn't this the cutest little Santa's helper ever??? Well I think so! Yes, we FINALLY got the tree up just in time for Christmas. Madeline was a good little helper and had fun hugging the stuffed Santas and wearing the Santa hat.

And it's up! I think putting the Santa hat on top of the tree is going to be a tradition. We did this last year too since we don't have an angel or a star for the top of the tree.

I love my cute Santa ornaments.

And this one was for Madeline's first Christmas last year.

This is a new one for this year. I love picking out a new ornament every year. I'm hoping this can be a yearly tradition that we can do with Madeline.

Madeline pointing out her rocking horse ornament on the tree.

Look who's rockin' the Santa hat!

Mama's smiley girl.

Christmas Party Fun

This past weekend we went to a Christmas party at a friends house and had so much fun. There were tons of kids there and Madeline had a great time playing. The hosts of the party had a daughter Madeline's age.

Madeline checking out the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Madeline and her little friend.

They had a gift exchange for the kids and Madeline got her first My Little Pony which she just loves. She brushes her hair every day.

Checking out ornaments on the tree.

All of the kids at the party. Madeline was just a cheesing away! You can tell she was having so much fun with all of the kids.

Bean Soup and Being Silly

I got these cute pictures of Madeline horsing around in the kitchen the other day at dinnertime, hence the crumbs from the cornbread she was eating on her face. I just love capturing silly pictures like this...

My little goofy girl...

Cheese!

I made the cornbread muffins to go with the bean soup that I made. It was my first try at bean soup and it turned out great! I just sort of threw some things together in the crockpot: dry mixed beans (soaked overnight), potatoes, carrots, some cubed precooked ham, and some seasoning and water. Yummy!

Breakfast with Santa

For a fun Christmasy activity a friend and I took our little ones for a breakfast with Santa today. Madeline was not too amused by the man in red. She wanted nothing to do with getting close to Mr. Claus.

That is not a happy face! This was as good as it got.

Here I am with Lukas and Madeline.

While Madeline didn't like Santa Claus she did find her new love - candy canes!

Madeline eyeballing the chipmunk.

My mom went with us too. Can you see the family resemblance???

Cute pic of me & Mads in our Christmas outfits.