Rasperberries

Madison came home in a great mood today, so I just couldn't help but catch her blowing raspberries.

Sad Times

I find myself completely overwhelmed with questions. Early saturday morning one of my good friends from college passed away after being shot by her ex-boyfriend. Apparently he was quite troubled, and he was jealous that she was with another boy. I just don't get some people, why ruin some one else's life because you are deelpy troubled and don't know how to cope. I feel like a part of life was ripped away from this earth, a great part. My friend, Catherine, was a wonderful person. She was very involved with Highland dance and for the past 10 years had been a teacher to many youngsters. She was a great spirit, and loved many. My favorite part of her was that she was a smart-ass. She said what she felt and was always passionate about life. She will be missed by many. I feel awful because in the past few years we hadn't kept in great contact. I almost feel like my grief isn't justified because we had lost touch. However I can't help but think about the great memories had together, and then just break down in tears. My heart goes out for her family, the holidays will never be the same. Hopefully they can get through this by knowing that her life was a brilliant one. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers, I am sure this is a very difficult time for them.

Rest In Peace dear friend. You will be missed.

Catherine Woods Oct 11, 1982 - November 22, 2008

Picture day!

So today was picture day. We drove down to Loveland with the whole family to get Maddie's 6 month pictures and pictures for our Christmas cards. I have some here for you to see, but for most of the Christmas ones, you'll have to wait until you get our card. But here are a few.

One of me and Maddie. Robbie wants to photoshop this one, and make it black and white, and then make our eyes blue. We'll see when that gets done.
This is a cute profile shot of my Maddie.

And of course my smiley girl in her pretty Christmas dress. She was so great. They said she was the easiest baby ever. Hope you all enjoy.

Moving baby!

Here is a video of Madison, getting so close to crawling. She wants to so bad, but just can't seem to figure it out. Excuse the dogs in the picture, they just can't seem to stay out of the shot. Hope you all enjoy.

My Bell

Here is a cute little video of my baby girl as Belle. Robbie was swinging her and she was so funny, she loved it at the end, but she was so stiff and unsure while it was going on. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Corn Maze, Halloween and More

So even though my baby girl is a little shy of six months old, it seems that she has just gotten so big lately. Here is a picture of my baby holding her own bottle, this is a blessing!

Yesterday was Halloween and the girls (Bailey & Madison) had a great time at daycare, they had a big party and all the kids were so adorable. Madison was Belle, and Bailey was a Ladybug, look how adorable they are.
Here is a picture of the cake that we all made for the daycare. The Frosting was a bit too runny, but other than that it turned out great, and let's be honest, it was cake, the kids loved it!

Here is Madison a little too excited. I can't believe I actually go the picture taken of her looking like this.

Here are the girls at Daycare with their teachers, Merilee, Wendy and Hope. They were all so cute, and had such a great time.

Last weekend we took a trip down to the cornmaze, and needless to say it was quite the trip. The cornmaze was awesome, however Robbie was on alert so it was just me carrying Miss Priss, so needless to say the next morning my back was killing me. However the girls love being outside so they had a blast. Afterwards we went and ate at Roma's one of Carrie's favorite restaurants in Greeley. This was quite the experience and honeslty I am surprised we didn't get kicked out. The kids were super loud, we were obnoxious, and above all else Bailey spilled Sara's pop on her, then Shane was trying to help and knocked his tea on her as well. Thank god the food was good, and yes we left a dang good tip.

Whoa Baby Blues

So I just couldn't resist posting these pictures, my baby girl has the biggest, bluest eyes ever. They are sooo cute.

Here she is playing with her toy, and just laughing away.

We haven't been up to much here, just being together. Rob got promoted again, so he's not gone every third night anymore, talk about a huge relief. His new job is going to be pretty stressful again, but at least he'll be here. Other than that, nothing new. I have to be in Laramie all week next week for training, so Maddie and Daddy get to spend lots of time together, and I tell you they are both going to hate it!

I've been Tagged

10 years ago I was...

1. A Freshman in High School

2. Playing Volleyball and mostly loving it

3. Just starting to drive, thank goodness for Farmer's permits

4. Just about to meet my Hubby

5. Being an Irresponsible teen.

5 things on today's to do list..

1. Get the 4-H budget done for tonight's meeting, Check

2. Do my 14 day survey for my trial contacts

3. Clean my office, Check

4. Actually spend time with my husband for an hour, while we're not sleeping

5. Clean out my e-mail box, check

5 snacks that I enjoy...

1. Chocolate

2. Chips

3. Fruit

4. Crackers

5. Cheese

5 things I would do it I was a millionaire...

1. Pay off debt

2. Invest

3. Travel

4. Donate to worthy causes, like 4-H & Relay for Life

5. Build my own house, complete with cleaning staff

5 places that I have lived...

1. Emblem, Wy, Population 10, WAHOO!!

2. Laramie, Wy

3. Grand Teton National Park, Wy

4. Vandenberg, AFB, CA

5. Cheyenne, WY

5 jobs that I have had...

1. Fabric Cutter at http://www.bighornquilts.com/

2. Teacher's Assistant

3. Gift Store Cashier

4. Bank Teller/Personal Banker

5. Laramie County 4-H Educator (current)

Alright, so I did this instead of taking a nap, I know what was I thinking. I have a long meeting later tonight, and I have a cold, and I am pretty sure that if I went to sleep I'd never wake up, .

The 5 people I'm tagging are Jill, Merilee, Sara, Summer, and Katelyn. This was pretty fun to reminisce.

Weekend Fun

I was in Sheridan this past weekend for a conference, and while I was there, My mom watched Maddie all week. They had a blast and really got to know each other. But as you can imagine by the end of the week they were both pooped, lucky for me I got the cutest picture of them both taking a nap. They even sleep the same way.

Sara, Shane, Bailey, and Carrie also came up for the weekend. Bailey had a bit of an accident, so it was bathtime for her, so while she was in there, we thought, what the heck let's throw Maddie in there too. They had a blast.
This picture was taking as Maddie was falling, but good in the moment picture.

I don't often post pictures of myself, but I figured what the heck. I hate doing dishes, mainly because I am not coordinated enough to not get completely covered in water. So today at mom's house I agreed to do dishes, but first I located an apron so I wouldn't be soaking wet by the end, well it worked, and I might even do dishes again someday!!

Just the kid

We haven't been up to much lately, just a lot of work. I am taking off this weekend to take Maddie home for the week. I have a conference in Sheridan, so Maddie gets to spend the week with Grandme Carol, Grandpa Howard, and Grandma Susie. I am sure she is excited as are the grandparents. I am a little anxious, but I think every mom is when they leave their kids, even when it is the people you trust most in the world. Robbie is excited to get a week's worth of good sleep, which I can't blame him at all. I'm hoping to have more pictures after the week, but we will see, I always seem to just plain forget to take pictures. But until then, here are a few.

This is one of my favorites, she sat on Daddy's lap for quite a few minutes just staring at him, it was so adorable. She hadn't seen much of him, cause he was out on alert so much, so she was obviously thrilled to be sitting on his lap.
Here is Maddie and Aunt Carrie, she just loves her.
And of course Maddie just playing, happy as always!!

Maddie's Singing Voice

So this past Sunday I went to church with my sister, and Maddie was in the best mood ever and just thought it would be awesome if she talked the whole time. Well thank goodness it was a big church, so not too many people heard her. But the best was that during every song she would just start singing, it was so dang cute. Well last night we were listening to the radio and Maddie started singing all over again. I actually got it on video this time, so here you go, hope you all enjoy. Forgive my laughing and prompting in the background.

There hasn't been too much else going on here, except for a pretty grumpy baby. She is teething and is miserable. My baby girl doesn't cry for no apparent reason and on Sunday evening she cried for 2 hours straight, then proceeded to wake up five times during the night. And of course this all happened when Daddy was out on Alert, thank god for good patience.

Maddie also went in for her 4 month checkup on Friday and is healthy as a horse. She was 14 lbs, 14 oz, 24 3/4 inches. She was in the 75th percentile for both. She is so big and seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. She is now rolling over all the time, and loving every minute of it. Anyway I included another picture of her, because her eyes just look so blue in this one, couldn't resist.

Look at those Baby Blues!

Maddie Has also started to eat solid foods, and as you can tell by this picture, she's just loving it!

Mom and Dad have been very busy working, seems like Mom has meetings all the time, and Dad is gone a lot, since he is back in the squadron and pulling alerts more often. However Maddie is super excited because she gets to go spend a whole week with her Grandmas soon. Mom has to go to a Training in Sheridan, so she is going to drop Maddie off at Grandma's for the week. We can't wait!

Weekend

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.

This is a picture of my whole family, it was so great to have them here to be a part of the girl's Baptism.
Here is Bailey and Madison. Bailey has sure turned into a fiesty little girl, but she is still cute!
This is the girls at the UW vs AF football game. We sent this picture in, and it was on the big screen during the 4th quarter, we were so excited! The game wasn't the best, but it was a win for my Hubbie, and the girls were so good the whole time!

Madison goes in for her 4 month checkup this Friday, and I am looking forward to it, just to see how much she weighs, since she is such a chunk! I will post more then!

3 Month Photos

So last Thursday before all the family came into town, we made a quick trip to Loveland to get Maddie's three month pictures. I realize that this a little late, but we have been so busy. Anyway, once we got there we had a little bit of trouble, just cause my little girl, doesn't like to lay down unless she is sleeping, but after we worked that out, she was the most photogenic little girl ever! Here are a few of the adorable pictures. We spent way too much money, but they were just so dang good!

My favorite out of all of them!
My little sophisticated daughter, isn't she adorable!

I have to say Madison is the cutest baby ever, I know I am very biased, but she is pretty dang cute!

Baptism

So I know that a lot has happened since I last posted, but the latest is Madison and Bailey's Baptism. We had tons of family come into town to see the baptism and also see the Wyoming Pokes play Air Force. We had a great time and here are a few pictures from the events.

Here is the two after the baptism's they had the cutest matching dresses.
This is the picture that we took at the UW game, we sent the picture in via text, and they got their picture put up on the big screen in the 4th quarter.

I have a lot of other pictures to post, and a lot to talk about, but for now, we still have some company and we are all trying to catch up, it sure was a busy weekend. I will post more soon, I promise!

One more catch up Picture

A month ago I also attended a going away outing for Robbie's Commander's wife at the Melting Pot in Fort Collins. Again is was amazing, as it always is, and it was a blast to be out with the girls. Here is a picture of the gang. It sure was fun, and I have to say we shut the place down, we were definitely the last to leave.

Family Pictures

I don't know if many of you remember but well over a month ago we all went to my cousins wedding, I finally have some pictures from the wedding, well actually I've had them for a while, just haven't had the time to post them. Anyway here are a few.

This one is of my Grandma Doris and the two babies, Maddie and Bailey, they were both so good that day and slept through most of it.

This one is the whole family, Brother in law Shane, Sara, Bailey, Mom, Dad, Me, Maddie, Robbie, and Carrie. Aren't we all so cute. I know we aren't very dressed up for the occasion, but please remember, it was snowing on the 7th of June!!

And here is our little family. Again Maddie slept the whole day, but she was so cute.

I will be posting new pictures of Maddie soon, she's just been so cute lately, we can't seem to put the camera down! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Ours will be quite low-key. Last weekend before fair starts, and then my next three weeks are going to get crazy, so after August 1st don't expect any posts out of me til after the middle of August.

Too much to talk about...ugh

So I have a ton to talk about and it seems like not enough time or space to do it in! But here's a start. So since the last post we took Maddie in for her 2 month check up, talk about a trip. It took forever, but was still good. We found out that Maddie was 12 lbs 6 oz, that put her in the 90th percentile, mind you that was a week and a half ago, so I am sure she is probably closer to 13 lbs by now. Anyway she is super healthy and hardly even cried when it came to her shots, what a good girl. She is doing great at the daycare, and good news her cousin is going to start going to the same daycare in August. I am so excited to have the two together everyday, plus I have to admit makes it alot easier when one of us is in a bind! She has been opening up more and more everyday and she is finally getting really interested in toys, which is so fun. Today was Cheyenne Day (in other words the whole town shuts down and it is super crazy) so we stuck around for the air show, and then decided to get out of town. We drove down to Colorado and hit Babies R Us, and I tell you what our little girl made out. She got a bunch of toys and is just loving them. We also found the cutest dresses for the girls to wear for their upcoming baptism in September. Yesterday was also a big day for Maddie, she got to attend her first Parade. The Daycare took all the kids to one of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Parade, and it was so cute. They made all the kids little shirts, and even though they couldn't get one small enough for Maddie they made one anyway and draped it over her, they were all so cute.

On another note our family has huge news. My sister Carrie got the State IT job and is moving to Cheyenne in a little over a week. We are all so excited for her. Plus the best part is that she got an apartment in my same complex so we will get to see a lot of her, we can't wait!

Over the weekend, my sister came down with some of her friends for the Rascal Flats concert. My friend Vickie also came down, I am hoping to get some pictures from her in the near future from that. Anyway we had a great time. Robbie also was really busy as he finished up the front yard. Our yards now look awesome; they are all finished and looks very professional, he did such a great job!

Here is the picture of the frong yard. We are still working on the one spot that is dying, but hopefully it will come back to life.
And these two pictures are the finished back yard, the back of the yard are all roses, and they are just now blooming and absolutely gorgeous.

I included some pictures of Maddie, hope everyone likes them she has sure become a cutie!

This is Maddie literally 30 minutes after her shots, look how happy she is. This is also her new High Chair, I know it's a little early for that, but we just love it, it reclines so we can put her in it when we are cooking in the kitchen and at the table, so she can see us. She obviously loves it too!

Here's Madison getting some tummy time on her mat, she just loves it.
Maddie hugging her new toy, something she can definitely grab onto.
And of course the most beautiful little girl in the world, she's just so happy!

Weekend Fun

So I know it's been a while and a lot has happened since then, but the first thing I want to start with is our weekend. We had such a blast. On Saturday we played Mud Volleyball, I know sounds super messy, which it was, but it was such a blast. It was also for a good cause, it was a fundraiser for MS. Anyway attached are some pictures, as you can tell we were all super messy by the end!

Here is our team after all the action


Our first team Huddle

An action pic

You're probably wondering where Madison was while we were playing in the mud, well she got to visit her cousin. My sister Sara was kind enough to babysit the whole time, and as it turned out they had a great time.

Here are Maddie and Bailey being loving cousins

The next day I went to a Bridal Shower for one of my college roomates, and it was wonderful. I have a bunch more to catch up on, but that will have to wait til another day.

Back to Work

Well today was my first day back to work, and it was so much harder than I ever imagined. However, from the sounds of it, she did great. She ate great, slept great, and was just a doll. Robbie went back to drop off her blanket at around 8:30, and he said that the daycare had already made a schedule, so that each of the other children could feed her, because they all wanted to hold her, too cute! However, they must have just worn her out because all she's done since we got home is sleep. She was happy and smiley for about 15 minutes, when she realized that it was me holding her, and then she ate and went right back to sleep. She's either growing, or just super exhausted. But all in all a decent day. Work was work, stressful cause I was gone for 7 weeks and I am all by myself now, but oh well. Anyway, attached are some pictures of her this past weekend, my mom and sister were here and we just had a great time!

Here is Maddie all dressed up in the outfit her Daddy picked out for her, doesn't he have good taste?

And here is a cute picture of my sister Carrie with Maddie, so adorable.

We are headed home for 4th of July, we are super excited to be able to go home with her as often as we can. Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4-th!

What every parent hopes for!

So the other day I was feeding Maddie, and she started holding the bottle, which by the way was great, but then I look down and to my discovery she was flipping her dad off. We both laughed so hard and then decided it was the prime opportunity to take a picture. Now I promise you that she did this on her own, we had no part in this, looks like our little one is headed down the right path, hehe!!
This is just another picture of Maddie playing. She has finally become somewhat interested in toys, so we laid her on her play mat and she just had a heck of a time smiling, talking and playing with the toys.

Here is a picture of Robbie and I and some of his co-workers from a going away party last week. We had a great time!

We have been super busy with lots of going away parties, but we are finally done with all of those. One week from today is going to be a sad day for our family. I go back to work, which is really bumming me out for many reasons, but of course the obvious one, cause that means I have to take my little one to daycare. Also Robbie goes back down to the squadron, but he finally gets to upgrade from Deputy to Commander, it's about dang time. He's been a deputy for 3 years now, which is pretty uncommon, but better late than never. I hope everyone is having a great week!!

Just a thought

So on the 27th of May, I had a breakdown with my baby, she was crying and crying and wouldn't stop for 8 hours. Well about the point that we were both bawling, I said a few choice words, and then all of a sudden I started hearing sirens fairly close to my house. We live in a townhouse so I thought maybe my neighbors heard me in my frusturation and called child-services on me, and they were coming to take my child. I know, what a dork, I came to my senses and realized that was probably not it at all. Well then I headed into our bedroom to calm down a bit, when I heard noises outside, well turns out there was an ambulance and a fire truck right outside out house, I thought they really did come to get me. Well of course they weren't, I looked across the way and the stretcher was sitting outside our neighbors house. This brings me to my real point of the story. I read last night that he had died. He was only 46 and something really hit me about this. He and his fiance were supposed to get married in the fall and he had so much to live for, let alone the nicest guy on our block. I just wanted to tell all of our friends and family, that I love each and everyone of you very much. I know we say it all the time, but it never seems to be enough. I know that each one of you have a lot to live for too, but you never know when it's going to be your time and it can hit you when you are least expecting it to. So in that thought, appreciate everyday and love those closest to you as much as possible!

Happy Father's Day and more Madison

I would like to wish all the Fathers out there a Happy Father's Day! There are so many of you and I hope that you all had a wonderful day. We sure did, we started with church and it was a great service, and another plus Madison slept the whole time. Then we drove over to Laramie to eat some Winger's. After that it's been a lazy day, and we are both completely ok with that.

Robbie with his Baby girl, all dressed up for church!

One month old, and lovin every minute of it!

Madison has gotten so animated this week, I just love it. She has finally found her voice, and she is just jabbering away. She also learned how to smile, and I love it when her big blue eyes are just staring away and then she just gets a big old grin on her face. She is eating like crazy and growing like it too. I do have some good news however, I am sure that this is just a fluke, but my baby girl has slept through the night for the past three nights. She slept for 6 straight hours on Thursday and Friday night, and then last night she slept 7 hours, it was amazing. However I woke up at 4 in the morning having a panic attack cause she hadn't woken up yet, talk about scary, however she was just fine, and decided to stay asleep for another hour after that. Let's all hope that this continues, cause I am sure liking the sleep!

We've been super busy lately, Thursday night I had a wonderful dinner with the spouses group. It was a going away for our Commander's wife and we ate at the Melting Pot in Fort Collins, it was amazing. Then Friday night we headed down to Fort Collins again for a going away for some of our other friends, Sean and Lindsey Lee. This next week is jam packed with going aways, seems like everyone we know are leaving this month. I have to say that this is the worst part of the military life, you make good friends and then they all move away, guess that is just something I will have to get used to.

Well I sure hope you all have a great week, I am hoping to get some good pictures from this weeks activities.