Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

We had a great holiday season! It was very relaxing and it was great to stay home. We didn't travel at all, and since we have been married this is the first year we have stayed put. It was a very fun year as Madi has figured out how to rip into presents and learned that behind all that neat shiny paper there were even cooler things!! It was so much fun. Because Brian and I have tried to combine our families traditions we have come up with our own that are tweaked enough to fit us both. Brian likes opening all presents on Christmas Eve, I don't think any presents should be opened until Christmas morning... so what we do is we open one gift on Christmas Eve... and it has to be P.J's (mostly so I can take some nice pictures the next morning... even though it has yet to work in my favor). Anyways below are some pictures of our Christmas holiday!!

 Dashingly Handsome wouldn't you say?? Hee hee he would kill me if he ever knew i put this on here... :)

 Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!! My favorite part is the chain.. Madi and I made that one day... it was more fun than I thought it was going to be!

 I think I will start a new tradition... On Christmas Eve we cleaned out Madi's room to get rid of old toys and make room for the new ones coming... On Christmas Day this is what it looked like after the new toys "took their place"... Makes me sad knowing it won't ever be this clean/ organized again. ha ha ha

 Madi loves her dress up shoes and necklaces... she has a love/hate relationship with the dresses though...

 I'm sure your wondering why she has her p.j's on and wet hair... well she was so excited about other presents it took her literally ALL day to open her gifts... It's not like we had 50 presents for her... but she loved playing with her new toy or whatever and didn't want to open more so we let her run the day...

 Her Christmas p.j's!! Brian found these! i think they are adorable... I love her face in this picture....

 She got to play with Daddy's remote control car... She was loving it... She packed her turtle around everywhere with her too!!

The Beautiful Weather!!

Because it has been SO nice here we have taken advantage of it and gone to the park quite a bit... I finally took my camera and I got some great pictures of Madi!! They are pretty self explanatory so I will just let you enjoy!

 

 Winter Mischief.....

Madi decided to not only draw and color herself with a pen... (lets be hones that happens a lot...) But this time she broke the tip off so it exploded everywhere and she thought it was SO fantastic!! Here was the result.

 After Bathtime..... comes the craziness....

After her bath she usually goes crazy right up until we force her into her bed, hurry and turn off the lights and run out the door and shut it. We even have to take out the light bulb at night because otherwise she would stand on some toy and turn it on and off... on and off.. on and off... you get the idea... on and off.. :) Anyways she is usually crazy and has some pretty good faces... I got a few on camera! :)

 And a homemade park... :) 

At least that is what Madi calls it. We turned this huge box into a slide for her and she LOVES it... I'm not sure how long I can take it because it is huge and we don't have a big house so it takes up a good portion of our living room... but she climbs up, slides down, giggles and does it all over again... all the while saying "park!" "park!" So I haven't had the heart to take it away yet... plus it works as a great fort when we put blankets over the top and she climbs under... and I turned her loose with crayons inside.... It has been a great box! ha ha ha

 Oh and I forgot to mention that we have been potty training... I tried the beginning of November and she did great until I took her on a month long road trip/ hotel stay. Then it all went down hill... but I didn't want to change any diapers in 2012 so I started again the last few weeks of December.. and I haven't changed any diapers... i've changed quite a few bed sheets and washed a lot of clothes... but no diapers! ha ha ... no she is actually doing really well... except for nightime.. but I was prepared for that so I know it will take some time but other than night she is pretty much doing her business on the "pot".... Not sure why she doesn't call it potty... no one here calls it the pot... ha ha ha

Anyways give her some praise next time you talk to her... because for a while I was beginning to think it was a miracle any of us are potty trained! 

Best wishes for 2012!!

A little bit of everything!

So obviously I haven't posted in a VERY long time... And I apologize to the few people that do actually read this...
As my previous post states, I don't get along that great with this blogger site, and that statement is still accurate. :) I uploaded many pictures and I hope to be able to give you a story line and a great update... but they appear to be out of order and all mixed up. SO alas..... scroll through and enjoy and I will try not to be frustrated with the annoying unorganized, scrambled pictures and little comments...

SO.... Madison turned two! Crazy right?!? This little punkin had the day of her life! We let her wear her favorite Dora p.j's all day and we just had a laid back fun day for a little girl who turned two!

Apple Slices!!! Right on!

A streamer runway! This was probably the best part of the whole day for her!

She got a potty for her birthday! This is not your ordinary potty either! This baby sings when you have a successful potty break! :) Ha! Who knew they made such amazing things for little girls to go potty on?? I mean it really is a throne!

With a throne comes panties for the little princess..... Already catching on! 

She got a backpack for her birthday... it has Elmo on it and she loves it! And she also got a little cowgirl outfit and she decided she needed to wear the belt! So funny.... What an outfit right?

So take a time out and we are going to rewind a little bit....

I threw this one in here just to simply show the unusefulness of this wonderful pet gate. :) Ha ha... it actually helps quite a bit... but I found it very funny and interesting that my child had managed to crawl through the tiny pet door... and then proceeded to leave the room the same way. Shesh... it was suppose to be for the cats to use.

I am throwing this picture in here just so you can see kind of how Madi's room is set up now... It is messy and crazy... but I promised to put up some after pictures.. and this is the best I found... You will see if you look closely this is more for a mischevious act by Madi...

And here is an upclose... She found the baby powder after a nap... and while it seemed like a rather long nap.. I was unconcerned because she was quiet so I figured she must have been really tired and needed an extra long nap.... Little did I know...

She was busy busy busy....

Whoops....

And another time out mischevious act! She found the diaper rash cream and proceeded to cover her face and her baby's.... Always thinking of others right?

This is an after picture of our living room.... Messy and unkept but I said I would post them..

How cool is this little girl??

Okay so another switch of direction... For Brian's birthday in June, I bought him tickets to a motocross event down in Vegas! We turned it into a very nice getaway for the two of us... and we had a blast!!



So to all my fellow wives... This is what happens when you turn your hubby loose at the rental car counter. Apparently we got a "great deal" and lucky us... we got the "last available car in the whole rental car place!" Ha ha ha... but bless his little heart he had a very enjoyable time driving it. :)

And I guess I did too! :)

We went exploring in a Casino/Hotel place and found a neat aquarium so we decided to check it out!

And I'm pretty sure none of you will care nearly like we did... BUT after the aquarium we went outside and there was a huge promotional thing going on for the motocross thing, as well as nascar or some sort of car thing... and a few other events going on that weekend... BUT we happened to be outside at the same time Jeff Emig and Kevin Windham were signing autographs... Like I said... I know most of you have no idea who these guys are... Let's just say it was very exciting and so much fun to actually get to meet them!! And the proof of a picture! :)

We got to go to the Las Vegas temple with my best friend and her hubby!! It was a beautiful temple!! They all are.. but with all the lights it was amazing!!

So like I said.. out of order... but at the Airport!

So here is my hubby very excited to be taking another picture with me! :) This was at the actual thing I bought tickets for. It was the Monster Energy Cup if any of you are actually interested enough to want to know what we went for..

And yes it's true... Sad but true... it was time to get rid of Buck Buck... so on our way back we bought a new vehicle... (which i LOVE!) A lovely Pathfinder... so as to not be stranded in the snow or pummeled by a semi in the lovely land we live in now days! :)

Good-bye Buck Buck.... We had some wonderful times together! I will miss this car!

SO AGAIN... rewind... this is back in August I believe...

Look at these cool babes!

Water break

King of the Mountain! :) No worries grandma is strategically placed behind little Madi to gaurd her from falling...

So a big discovery we had over the summer were the "Hops!"... Grasshoppers were fascinating to her! She LOVED them... she even started hopping because of them.. She will hop everywhere if you ask her to now... And she was not afraid to get a little close to the little bugs...

Must examine closely!

They are so cool!!

So we had a garden... and Madi and I spent lots of time there... the basil got so big Madi would back up right to it and sit in the plant! So funny..... We had great high hopes for some great peppers and fun pumpkins, yummy potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, cantelope, watermelon, corn, cucumbers.... BUT...

Alas, I live in the artic tundra and before my peppers and things could ripen the frost came and killed it all in one night! p.s. this was in August.... :(

This were the rewards we reaped... Most of it was not ripe enough to eat... :(

BUT... I did just set my green pumpkins on my steps and over time they turned orange and by Halloween they were nice and orange!

Our lawn!

And we have adopted a new kitty... he showed up at our door step meowing... and being the suckers that we are we couldn't bear to let him shiver in the cold... so we said we would let him in for 1 night. So he camped out... locked in the bathroom... and alas we still have him. :) Lets just say we hope no other dropped off homeless animals come scampering out way!

His name is PITA.... :)