Sunday, February 22, 2009

Lion King


Since Madison was about 6 months old Alex has been lifting her above his head like Simba in Lion King. We always joke about it and call this pose "The Lion King." Well, now when Madison does this she tries to point her toes (not sure where she picked that up). I captured them doing "The Lion King" today.

Every Girl Needs Pink Toes!!!



Well, today was the day! I painted Madison's toes pink with a top coat of glitter. She loved every minute of it. The whole time I was painting her first set of toes she was saying, "other toes momma, other toes." Then when we were done she said, "hands momma, hands." So, I painted just the glitter coat on her finger nails.




Levi's Dedication



Today at church Levi was dedicated and Madison dressed up for the occasion. These two had fun playing together after church! Here are some pictures from the dedication and then the kiddos outside waiting with their daddies me and Diana to finish chatting inside.


Levi, you have some very wonderful parents! We pray that as you get older, you too would come to know the Lord and look back on this day with a smile!



Luckiest Girl in the World



Yesterday, when I walked downstairs to the kitchen I was greeted with a sweet note from my husband, that he had left on the counter for me to find. I spent the morning getting ready for a Tea Party in honor of my sweet friend Diana's birthday. The tea was at 2:00pm. I had a blast, but was completely in awe after I got home. I walked in the door at 5:00pm (so I was only gone for 3.5 hours), to find the most amazing surprise. Alex, while watching Madison, had totally cleaned our downstairs (including steam cleaning the carpet). Then in addition he had set our dining room table up with two place settings of our fine china, our wedding goblets, and a beautiful candle in the middle. He had a cd that he had made me filled with songs that made him think of me; this was sitting on the table waiting to be put in. He had a whole dinner planned for us, after Madison went to bed! He made filets, salad, fresh french bread with oil and vinegar, oven roasted red potatoes, and rose champagne. Then after dinner he had picked out the movie You've Got Mail (which was the first movie we saw together), for us to watch while eating homemade chocolate dipped strawberries that he had also made that day! I was in heaven, but then when I went upstairs to change into my comfy clothes there was a little scroll wrapped up with a pretty red ribbon. When I opened it, I discovered that Alex had written me a two page love letter! Am I married to the greatest man or what? I love him with all of my heart. He is my knight in shining armor. I am the luckiest girl in the world. Thank you again sweetie for all of the thought you put into yesterday and for the amazing you had planned for us! I felt just like a princess!

I took pictures at the beginning, but forgot to take pictures once all of the food was brought out!



Thursday, February 19, 2009

Valentine's Day


We spent Valentine's Day at my parents and quarantined inside their house. When we woke up Saturday morning, Madison had what looked like chicken pox, but we weren't sure (especially since she'd already been vaccinated). Our plan that day was to go visit my grandpa in his new nursing home, so we had to know for sure whether Madison had the chicken pox or not because if she did we couldn't take here there and chance getting any of the people sick, so we spent the morning trying to find an urgent care that would look at her (surprisingly, none of them would because she was under the age of 5). We finally found one where the doctor had sympathy on us and decided to go ahead and see her. He confirmed our suspicions, but said that it would probably just be a very mild case since she'd already been vaccinated. He was right (if they were chicken pox at all because they never seemed to cause her any discomfort and they never scabbed or anything), it was a mild case and they were gone in three days. Anyway, because of all that, we had to stay inside for Valentine's Day because we didn't want to go spreading the chicken pox everywhere, but we had fun nonetheless. My parents just a got a Wii, so we played that a little, made chocolate dipped strawberries, had a home cooked dinner, and just hung out and played with Madison.

Madison eating a banana with Grandpa


Madison and daddy...Madison was trying to drive the Mario cart with the Wii wheel

Phantom of the Opera



For Christmas, Alex got me tickets to go see Phantom of the Opera at the Pantageous Theatre. I had never seen this play, but have always wanted to. So, finally the time had come for us to go see the show. We drove out to my parents house this past Thursday and then left Madison with my parents on Friday, while we had a fun date night. We started the evening off with a two hour drive to Beverly Hills (should have only taken us 40 minutes from my parents house) to eat dinner at Ruth's Chris. Neither of us had been there before and we don't get to go out to dinner very often, so we decided to splurge and see what all the hype was about. We both loved our meals. Alex got the fillet and shrimp, while I avoided the seafood and just got the fillet. We also shared an amazing Caesar Salad, creamed spinach, and very tasty mashed potatoes, while each enjoying a nice glass of wine. While I can't say that Ruth's Chris exceeded my expectations, it was a very enjoyable evening and it had been a long time coming. It was so nice to just sit and talk with Alex and spend time with him. Once we were done with dinner we were only about 6 miles away from the Pantageous Theatre, so we began our journey there....glad we had plenty of time to get there because to go 6 miles took us about 45 minutes. We ended up getting to the theatre at the perfect time though. We got there, looked around for a couple of minutes and then found our seats and the show started. It was amazing. The special effects and all of the make-up was phenomenal. We had such a fun evening out and I look forward to our next outing! Due to the nature of our date, we weren't able to take too many pictures, but here is one that we took just before the play started.



Thank you mom and dad for watching Madison and allowing us to have a night to ourselves.

Valentine's Day Tutu


My aunt sent Madison is tutu for Valentine's Day. It was too cold to just let her wear it, so we put it on over her clothes. Sometime when it's a little warmer I'll just let her wear it with tights and post the pictures so you can see it better, but for now, here's a shot of her with her tutu and her ducky slippers :)

Valentine's Day Play Group

I was at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago and the teacher in me came out. I found some really fun foam hearts and foam heart stickers and thought that it would make a great Valentine's Day craft. So, we invited all of our friends and their kids over for a potluck lunch and craft time for the kids. It was a blast. I think in total we had 12 adults and 21 kids. It was definitely a full house, but so much fun. Thank you to everyone who brought yummy treats for us to eat. Here are some pictures of the festivities.








Madison's Valentine's Day Dress



Madison was a little upset in this picture because I had taken her milk cup away so that it wasn't in the picture!

Madison and her silly snow hat


I bought Madison a hat to wear on our early morning walks, when it's cold outside, but it ended up being a little big. She loves it though and always wants to wear it.

Baby Shower for Elijah

One of the toughest parts of being part of the military community is having to say good-bye to friends as they move (since that is one of the things that comes along with being in the Marine Corps). My friend Chrissy just moved to Arizona last week, but before she left we had the privilege of throwing her a baby shower for her sweet baby boy Elijah that is due in June. Chrissy has twin girls, so she was elated to find out she was having a boy and we wanted to celebrate her and baby Elijah before they left. We threw the shower at our chapel, here on base. It was a rainy day, but was a lot of fun.





Chrissy know that you are already missed, but we can't wait to hear updates and to see pictures of Elijah whenever he decides to grace us with his presence.

Happy Birthday Erin

This post is a little late, but one of my dear friends here in 29 Palms celebrated her birthday with us a couple weeks ago and here are some pictures from that night (which happened to also fall on one of our Community Group nights).






Erin know that you are loved and I pray that God blesses this next year of your life in ways you never imagined!

Madison Loves Sunglasses


Thursday, February 05, 2009

Super Bowl Sunday


Our good friends Joey and Lindsey threw a very fun Super Bowl Party. They have a HUGE tv that is perfect for such a day!!!! We had homemade burgers, Lindsey's famous chicken dip, chicken wings, seven layer bean dip, cookies, brownies, hot dogs, sausages, veggies, and much more! We had so much fun hanging out at their house for the day. It was a great time of fellowship, laughter, commercials (when I got to watch them), and football. Here are a few of the moments we captured throughout the day.





Thank you again Joey and Lindsey for being amazing hosts and for opening your home to us for the day!

Slumber Party

Last week, Madison's buddy, Levi, came to stay with us for a night, while his mommy and daddy went to their Marine Corps Ball. (Ben was deployed in November, so his ball was postponed until they all returned home) We had so much fun with Levi. Madison just loves playing with him. We caught some cute moments of them eating their meals together. They would copy what they other one was eating. If Madison picked up a strawberry, Levi picked up a strawberry, if Levi picked up his bread, Madison picked up her bread, and it continued like this until they were done with each meal.



We also caught a sweet moment when Madison tried to sit in Levi's lap and read a story with him. :)