The Little Lady's 1st Halloween

Here is our little ladybug.

I decided in September that I wanted Madeline to be ladybug. I found a kit on Etsy with all the materials to make her costume. It was very easy to put together, and I think it turned out pretty cute. Here are the details of her 1st Halloween.

First, we visited the Fall Festival at the church building. Madeline enjoyed her first ever hay ride and enjoyed being adored by her many fans :)

Then she trick or treated at the Kirkpatrick's. Here she is w/ Abby, Katherine, and Megan.

Then we headed home to hand out candy and let our little ladybug crawl.

Where's my candy?

That's what I figured.

Halloween Hustle

Guess what?

My daddy and I did our first 5K

....with Mommy of course!

Towards the end of the summer, I told myself I was going to run the Halloween Hustle (a race benefiting the hospital in my hometown). Madeline and I had been jog/walking quite a bit through the end of September. Then we both got snotty noses so our training program fell apart. I still wanted to try it though. And surprise, surprise.......

Well, I got my husband to do a 5K with me! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could accomplish that task. I think I may have tricked him into thinking we'd walk it at a nice gingerly pace. I don't know why he believed me. It's a race & I'm me. I couldn't just walk the whole thing. I started out walking but once I saw all those runners I knew I had to break out of the walking pack and try to catch up a little at least. We were blocked in for quite a while but finally got out. With 1 mile left, I told him my strategy for the rest of the race. He just looked at me and said, "Do what you've got to do." I tried my best to pass as many people as I could, but the finish line was on top of a long, steep hill. I did alright for not even training or even running much in the past month. Oh and did I mention, I pushed Madeline the whole way. So technically, she and her daddy completed their first 5Ks together! I'm really so proud of these two. Scott for doing it with me and Madeline for sleeping for almost the entire race. I just love them so so much!

Here are some other pics of our fun Saturday in Gainesville.

Playing w/ Grandpa

Out to eat at Sarah's

Saying goodbye to Grandma

What a fun time!!

Crazy Hair Day

Madeline woke up with some super cute, super crazy hair this morning. I decided to see if there was enough hair to put in a clip, and it worked !! Here some pictures of her crazy day.

Whoa, I feel something fluffy on my head.

1st pretty pink bow

1st white bow

still crazy after naptime

still crazy in the afternoon when I'm trying on my new shoes

crazy w/ Grandma and Grandpa that night

crazy cute until my next shampoo

Seven Months

Our baby girl is now on the downhill side of her first year. Here are somethings she has accomplished so far:

- can sit up without tipping over

- can scoot or roll to get wherever she wants

- feeds herself puffs (It's so fun to watch her try to work those little fingers.)

- responds when someone says her name

- goes to Bible class without mommy

- sleeps through the night

- tried rice cereal, oatmeal, and most fruits and veggies- hasn't refused anything yet

- can barely wear a small hair clip

- does amazing little push ups, knees and all off the ground

- has made it through church a few times without having to go out

- loves looking at and licking books

- puts everything within reach into her mouth

- usually takes two naps a day for 1-2 hours each

It's so amazing how fast this little lady is growing and changing everyday!

Homecoming at ACU

All dressed in ACU purple!

This weekend we headed to Abilene for ACU's homecoming. Saturday morning Andrea and I woke up too early and went to the GATA breakfast. GATA is the social club that we were both members of while at ACU. I left Madeline sleeping with her Daddy. I could have brought her along but I think she had a much better time with her dad. Andrea and I got back from breakfast just in time to change, feed our babies, and head to the parade. This was Madeline's first parade. We couldn't really tell how much she enjoyed it, but she never cried and there were some pretty loud groups and a marching band that marched right in front of her. Here are some cute pictures of her and her cousins taking it all in.

watching the parade

had to take a quick stroller break

She also had a fun time playing at Mamaw and O'Pa's house all weekend with her cousins. It's fun to see them all together. I think we have a lot of fun years ahead of us. I'll end this post with some pictures of all the fun.

telling Mamaw and O'Pa all about the parade

playing with cousins

A Piece of Cake

A lovely little lady

First of all, I must say Madeline looked absolutely lovely this morning at church. Nothing too exciting happened today. Madeline was nice enough to nap just long enough for me to make my "Easy Apple Cake", however easy does not mean quick. Yes the steps were easy to do but it took me quite a while to chop up everything. It was worth it though. I got rave reviews from our encouragement team at church tonight. Madeline acted great especially considering our meeting was at her usual nap time. She let so many people hold her tonight and never cried. She's such a funny, clever girl. Whenever unsure of something or someone, she always just stops looks at her mom and/or dad, checks to make sure it's ok with them, and if it is then it's ok with her. We love that about her.

I love this one....

and this one too.

A Walk In the Park

We had the best morning today. We went to Bear Creek Park and took a long walk together as a family. We checked out the local Farmers Market. Didn't buy anything, but it was still pretty cool to look around. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was perfect. I'm so glad I was able to persuade Scott to come with us, and I think he was glad too, even though he had to carry Madeline for a bit.

Madeline and I took a nap, and let her Daddy get some work done. Then we went to Sprout's to get the ingredients for an apple cake I plan to make tomorrow. It's so nice to have a liesurely saturday afternoon with no rushing here and rushing there. I love it!

Shopping with Grandma and Granny

Are these all for me?
Thank you so very much!

I'm sad to say I forgot to get any pictures of her with the Grammies today, but at least you can see what all she got! My mom and granny came to visit this afternoon after a doctor's appointment. We went and ate at the new Olive Garden. She was a little stinker at first. There was something about the table. I'm not quite sure, but she would just look at it and start to fuss. Grandma came to the rescue and held her for a little while. Then I decided we would try the high chair again. I pushed her up as close as I could and overcoming all my germ phobias let her touch the table and even ended up feeding her some puffs off of it. She was happy about that and ate her puffs while we ate our food. Something funny and kind of a strange thing that she has recently started doing is growling while she eats. She's not upset, just growly and gaspy. It used to concern me, but now I just think it's her.

After lunch, we shopped. Miss Madeline didn't last long. I guess she was just growled out. She was asleep by the time we reached the baby department, but still came home with quite a catch.

Days like today make me happy I'm staying home with her. I'm not only getting to spend time with her, but I'm also getting to spend time with my family. Time I never would have had otherwise. I've secretly envied my brother for the past couple of years. He lives closer to our parents so he and his family have gotten to spend way more time with everyone than mine. So getting to go see my family during the week whenever I want is so nice. I need to remember this on days I think I'm missing my job ;)

Catching Up

Sorry I'm so behind on posting. I've had several posts written but haven't had time to upload the pictures. Below are several from the end of September. More October posts coming soon!