just for the record...

Madelyn and Luke both fell asleep at about 7:30pm. It's now 10:18pm and I have done nothing productive at all with my "me time". Maybe I should join them? Or maybe I should organize my sewing room? Or fold the laundry? Or pack for the weekend?

Or just continue doing nothing at all? Yep. That wins. The rest can wait.

If I wasn't afraid that I would wake them both up, I would take a picture. It's precious. My two favorite people snuggled up together. Life is good.

the way you love him

Dear Madelyn,
Your daddy was at staff retreat from Sunday to Wednesday. You were so excited to see him when he came home that you just leaned over against him and started to clap. You love him dearly. Your eyes light up when you hear his voice. When you give him kisses it melts my heart. I love the way you love him.You are blessed to have such an amazing Daddy. He is blessed to have such an amazing daughter.

Love you,
Mommy

baby jackpot

Not only has she discovered that she can use her toy basket to climb on to the coffee table, she has moved on to bigger and better things.She turned around and proceeded to conquer the couch.

So what's a mommy of a 10 month old climber to do?

Before anyone starts feeling sorry for the munchkin being trapped in her crib, check out the smiles and fun that was had.

As much as I probably shouldn't put this down in the record books, I really enjoyed laying on the floor in Madelyn's room for 15 minutes. I wasn't really feeling well today so it was nice to lay back while she played and made silly faces at me from her crib.

I am so blessed to have a baby girl that plays so well by herself. I turned on her crib piano and she sang along and danced around her crib.

I think the only thing better than her ability to play so well by herself is that she is full of the most amazing little personality that becomes more fun by the day.

I told her that I was going to leave her in her crib and waved "bye-bye" and this is the face that I got in return.

It was hysterical.

I love this girl. Her playful nature. Her cute personality. Her unlimited expressions. We pretty much won the baby jackpot.

buddies and bunco

My friend Christy stopped by the house and hung out with Madelyn for a little while yesterday afternoon. I love catching up with friends that you haven't seen in a while. It's always so refreshing.Madelyn loved her.

Later in the afternoon Madelyn, Marlo and I made our way to Martin's Mill to join in on their ladie's Bunco night.

Madelyn was so good considering it was pretty close to bed time when the fun was starting. She definitely ate up all the attention. Katie made her laugh so hard. Not just her sweet little giggles, but her precious belly laugh.

Madelyn repaid her with lots and lots of sloppy sugars.

We tried to get a group shot but at the last minute Madelyn decided to give Katie another big, wet kiss.

Madelyn had such a good time that she fell asleep in the car on the way home (which was fantastic because it was an hour long drive).

I can't wait for the next Bunco night.

she has her daddy's smile

part of the plan

It's nearly 1am and I am still wide awake. That's not totally unusual, but tonight it's not because I have been productive or that I am enjoying a late night movie with the hubby.

This afternoon as Madelyn and I were driving to meet a couple of friends for dinner we were driving down a road that we go down just about every time we leave our house. Ever since I was in high school I remember everyone talking about how dangerous this road is and since we have lived here, nearly every time it rains there is a car in the ditch. It's at least a 50 foot drop down in to the ditch as you go around the curve.

Today as we approached the curve there was a small truck coming around the corner that was clearly out of control. My heart was pounding. In that moment I wasn't sure what the next few seconds would hold. I had my precious girl in my back seat and a truck coming at us at 50 miles an hour that was completely unpredictable. I swerved towards the edge of the road and literally right before we hit, the truck began to roll in the opposite direction. In a matter of seconds it had rolled several times off the road and out of sight. I was panicking. I knew that I had to stop. I knew that I had to check on the passengers of the other vehicle but I was so scared. I pulled over in a "safe spot" on the curve, called 911, couldn't find my hazard lights because I was so shaken so I settled for my blinker instead and grabbed Madelyn. I kept trying to flag passersby down to stop but no one would pull over. From the moment I started running down the drop off I kept repeating, "Lord let them be alive and keep Madelyn and I safe."

The truck was completely upside down in the ditch. The only passenger was hanging upside down, covered in blood but alert. He kept calling for help and I assured him that help was on it's way. I will spare the gory details, but once the driver looked down and realized how badly he was injured, he began to panic and scream.

It was terrible. It scared Madelyn. It made me want to throw up.

His name is Scott. He works at Wal-mart. I am certain that's not how he envisioned his day to go when he woke up.

When we were driving back home I went a different way but when I got to the intersection near the wreck I noticed another truck in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. I could see in the distance that they were still working the first accident. I asked the DPS officer if Scott was OK. He said that he was going to make it.

I can't shake the images that I saw. I can't shake the thought that this was not how Scott planned for his day to go. I also can't help but think of how blessed he is to still be alive.

Sometimes things happen that aren't "part of the plan". It's in those moments that I am thankful for a loving Creator and realize that without my faith I would be lost. My prayer tonight is that Scott has that same feeling of security in our Heavenly Father.

Isaiah 41:10 says “…do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”

gotta be quick

Dear Madelyn,
When you were a little baby it was so much easier to take pictures of you every day. I would sit you up in the chair or on the couch and snap away. These days, if I try to take your picture and you aren't in the mood you scurry your little tushy in the other direction. Most of the time when you see me whip out the camera you flash a quick smile. Heavy emphasis on quick. Once the smile is gone, so are you. I have about 500 pictures of your backside.

Thanks for turning around and at least looking at me this afternoon. Mommy appreciates it.
I love you,
Mommy

random weekend favorites

While Luke was getting dressed, Madelyn sat on the edge of the bed watching him. It was precious and Luke yelled for me to come take a look. Of course I ran back across the house to grab my camera!Madelyn's sweet cousins shared a sweet moment at Emily's last t-ball game of the season on Saturday and I was so glad I had my camera ready.

My little monkey climbed on to the coffee table...again.

Every time I see her sweet name, I am glad that it's the one that we chose. What could be cuter than her name on her hiney?

I think Madelyn's favorite mode of transportation is her daddy's shoulders.

Madelyn and her friend Pierce have fun together in the nursery on Sunday mornings.

He is just as expressive as she is and I loved all of the sweet faces that he was making in these pictures.

Maybe he will teach Madelyn how to keep her cheerios in her bowl??

10 months

Dear Madelyn Kate,
Yesterday you turned 10 months old. At moments I cannot even remember life before you were in our lives. Others, it feels like just yesterday we found out we were expecting you. It has all gone by so quickly. I was telling you a story yesterday morning as we were on our way to your cousins t-ball game and I instantly remembered all the times that I would ride somewhere with my childhood neighbors and their mom would do the same thing to the youngest little boy. It was yet another reminder of how quickly time passes us by.

This month you have matured in so many ways. Your hair is really coming in now. Your face is thinning out and looking like that of a little girl. Where your legs had so many little rolls that it looked like you had rubber bands around them, they are smoothing out. So many changes have taken place.

You are also maturing in other ways. You are such a smart little cookie. You say "Da-da" and "da-ddy" whenever you see him. It sort of makes me jealous because you usually only say "Ma-ma" when you are hungry or tired or both. You say "uh-oh" when you drop your cup from your high chair and just this morning you said "no" after I said it to you. You are still constantly waving and saying "bye-bye" to everyone you see. Soon we will work on "hi!". You still sleep in our bed, but you have started to nap in your crib. We will work on making the change soon. For now, I love that you love to snuggle close to us when you are sleeping. You always reach your hands out to feel for both of us. Just recently, you have started to give the best kisses. You open your mouth wide and lick and it is simply the best.
These days you are in to everything. I guess you have been to everything for months now, but you seem to be able to reach more and more with each passing day. You have climbed on to the coffee table twice now. You pull everything out of the kitchen cabinets when I am cooking of doing the dishes and you recently discovered how to flush the toilet (oh my!). Every time you accomplish something new, you reward yourself with a few claps! It's absolutely precious (even if the "something you accomplished" is flushing the toilet).
My sweet Maddie Kate, your little smile is by far the sweetest thing that your Daddy and I have ever seen. We love you so much. Every day we dream about the days to come. The other night as we were putting you to bed, Daddy was praying for our family and you reached your hand up to rub my cheek. In that moment I was overcome with a since of pure love. It never ceases to amaze me how fascinating God's creation is. You are His most marvelous creation to me.
You take three bottles every day (6-8 ounces each) with a few snacks in between. You weigh right at 18 pounds and wear 6-9 month clothes. You have a few 12 month summer outfits that have pretty much swallowed you (but I put them on you anyway because they are super cute).
Your Daddy always comments on how loud you can be. You definitely have a set of pipes on you. After a good scream, you look at us as if to say, "boy do I sound good or what?" Even though it's loud and it makes having a conversation next to impossible, we can't help but laugh at you! The best is when you start to "sing" to the music (there is nearly always some form of music playing around here) and dance. We've got a future entertainer in the making for sure.
Madelyn, the one thing that I hope you always no and never doubt is that you are loved.

Love,
Mommy

DJ Lukey Luke

I am still laughing. I am not sure why it is so stinkin' funny to me. I am thinking because it is just SO different from anything that he has ever done before. Or maybe it's that it was so last minute. Whatever the reason, I'm still chuckling that my hubby was the DJ for a friend's little sister's wedding last night.

No surprise...he was great at it.

We didn't make it to the ceremony because we wanted to make sure that Luke was ready to go and arrived before the guests did. We had a little time to kill while we waited. Madelyn was pretty much a hoot. Lately she has been giving the best kisses. Last night she gave me a big kiss (or lick if you want to get technical).

Then she got really excited! She looked at Luke. Then looked at me.

And gave me another big lick. She tasted my lip gloss and came back for more! Ha!

It was so cute.

Madelyn with the DJ.

She sure loves her daddy. We sat at a table not too far from the sound table and constantly throughout the night she would try her hardest and lean to see her daddy. She would wave at him, flash her sweet little smile and sometimes squeal to try to get his attention. She was also his biggest fan...she clapped every time she heard his voice.

I didn't get any pictures once everyone arrived, but it looked gorgeous. The reception was at the same venue where Luke and I had our reception. It was so fun to be back in a place that held so many special memories for the two of us!

Luke did such a great job.

His fortune cookie at dinner the night before read, "You will do something unusual tomorrow". That he did and he was wonderful! I must say, I have one talented hubby. He can officiate the ceremony and DJ the reception. I'm thinking that sounds like a packaged deal? If you're lucky, we may even through in a cute little complimentary flower girl.

a couple of things

• I started going to a sewing class six weeks ago. So far I have made two out of six classes and I won't have a baby sitter for next week either. At least I am consistent in my poor attendance.
  
  
• Luke and I canceled our cable (we only got ABC, NBC, CBS & TBS to begin with) and signed up for Netflix. My husband tried to convince me that it was a good idea two years ago. I didn't listen then but I wised up. Now we have instant streaming on tons of movies through our wii (my favorite part) and get one in the mail too. Because of this, Luke got to witness the goodness of The Pistol for the first time, we have watched some of my old favorites and we are saving $30 a month. You were right honey.
  
  
• My sister is in Egypt and for four nights straight I have dreamed about her calling home to tell us she is moving there. Don't get any ideas Rachel.
• Madelyn and I walk at the mall with a friend of mine and her little boy. On Wednesday I saw a cute hat for Madelyn while we were in Old Navy. Half an our later when we were in another store I went to reach for something in my bag and realized that I STILL HAD THE HAT IN MY HANDS. I was mortified. We went straight back to Old Navy to pay for it and explain to the manager (who didn't care). I was having flash backs to a similar moment that I had this time last year.
  
• Madelyn is such a busy body and has realized that she can protest being held in order to have more freedom on the floor. Lately her knees have been a tad bit on the dirty side. It grosses me out, but she loves to crawl.
• Wednesday night at church I witnessed the funniest series of events when I was dropping Madelyn off in the nursery.
  

The first toy that Madelyn pulled out of the toy box was a syringe.

The second toy that she pulled out of the toy box was a baby doll.

I could not believe what happened next.

She pulled back the syringe.

Then put it up to the baby's face and pushed .

I was laughing hysterically and in total disbelief that my child knows what to do with the syringe! I don't know why I am so shocked considering she has gotten medicine via a syringe three times a day since she was two weeks old.

Then she gave herself some pretend meds.

I am still.in.shock at what I witnessed.

• When we were driving home from church Wednesday night at nearly nine pm I was on the phone with my mom and she kept telling me how hard it was raining at their house. When I looked in the direction towards their house, this is what I saw...
  

Do you see the two bands of rain? Can you believe it was that bright outside that late in the evening? I love summer (minus the 107 degree heat indexes).

• Yesterday I changed the stinkiest diaper I have ever changed. We called Luke and asked him to come home to change it, but he was busy at work. We called Grandma and asked her to come to the house and change it, but she was at work. Finally I decided I wasn't getting out of this one. Considering I was gagging long before I began changing her, I took some precautions. That was terrible and went straight to the trash cans outside.

• I am the worst at returning Facebook messages. This has been pointed out to me lately. I am going to make an honest effort to be better about it. "E" for effort, right?
  
  
• I guess that's more than a couple of things, but I feel better now that I wrote it all down. Or typed it all out if you want to get technical. Speaking of typing, typos are a pet peeve of mine. Lately I have been getting on my own nerves with all of my own typos. Hopefully Madelyn won't think I was illiterate when she reads this some day down the line. And hopefully I won't type 'dessert' when I intend to type 'desert' leaving those who read (faithful grandparents!) wondering if I even know the difference.
  
  
• Luke's fortune cookie last night read, "You will do something unusual tomorrow". That could not have been more timely. More on that tonight after the "something unusual" is done.