Madison turns 1!!

My sweet little red-headed baby is a year old!  Years ago, I had a realistic dream where I had a red-headed baby girl.  I told Jon it felt so real that I might actually have this baby someday.  Quite awhile later, I was taking Colton to pre-school and he said to me something to the effect of, "Hey Mom, I think we are going to have a baby girl next, and I think she is going to have red hair."  This made me feel even stronger that I needed a red-headed baby girl!  When I became pregnant with Madi, I hoped and prayed this would be my girl because I did not want to keep on having babies until I had this little girl I had dreamed of.  My prayers were answered and my red-headed Madi was born!  This little girl has been such a blessing to us! We love her so much.  She is sweet, curious, and the perfect fit for our family.

All About Madi:
Walking: No, but standing, cruising, and crawling everywhere
Climbing: Yes, loves climbing stairs but needs to be watched because she hasn't mastered down yet!
Talking: A little, she says Mama and Dada and something close to Hi, she likes to babble a lot
Stats: 58% weight, 36% Height
Teeth: 6!!
Eating: She is a great eater!  She has taken to solids way better than my other kids and seems to be way less picky too!
Sleeping through the Night: Not a chance- still waking up 1-2 times but at least that is better than the 3-4 times at the apartment
Adorable things about Madi: She likes to play peek-a-boo, blow raspberries, wave hi, her super cute cackle laugh, when she shakes her head back and forth, her happy screeching
Other things:  She likes to be held, she doesn't like being ignored, she is not a big fan of her siblings getting in her space, she thinks its hilarious when kids are running around by her, she is a major screecher and screeches super loud when she is both happy or mad, she doesn't particularly like her car seat, she likes to smack mom while she is nursing- she thinks the sound of her palm hitting my chest is funny, she hates wearing bows on her head or ponytails in her hair- she will pull them out time after time until mom finally gives up and lets her hair stay wild and free, she like putting things on her own head- mostly the wolf ears from the Great Wolf Lodge- she is so proud of herself when she gets them on by herself,

I wrote this little letter for Madi, telling her about her first birthday:


Dear Madi,
Today you turned 1 YEAR OLD and I’m just barely getting a minute where I can sit down and tell you about it! We celebrated your birthday with cake and presents on Sunday since daddy was going to be out of town today. You did not like your birthday cake- which I took as a personal offense since I made everything from scratch myself! You started out today with your favorite activity- destroying mom’s cupboards. Next, you had a fun play date with friends who wanted to help celebrate you, even if you had no idea what was going on. Mom took you to smoothie king to introduce you to mom’s favorite thing, and you loved it! You kept hogging all of mom’s drink! We went to Zach’s soccer game where you played in the grass, and then we finished off the day with Chick-Fil-A! Mom took about a million pictures of you, but you refused to smile or look at the camera in any of them until mom had the idea to have Zach hide behind her and jump out saying “peek-a-boo”. Then we got lots of smiles! You are loved Madi-girl! You bring our family joy and balance. You are independent, curious, adorable, love to blow raspberries and play peek-a-boo, and you are attached to mom at the hip (but no snuggling, you are not a snuggler) 😊. Happy birthday little girl!! I hope the future holds only good things for you!

Love,
Mom 💗

**Update: Since Madi's birthday a couple of weeks ago, she has done a total 180 turn and now loves snuggling for some reason.  I don't know how long it'll last but I am loving all the hugs and snuggles while it does!!

Birthday Celebration with Dad

Birthday Girl 5/14/19

Our Cute Girl

Birth to 1 Year!!

Happy Birthday Madi!

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months- 1 Year Old!

Spring Break 2019: Wisconsin Dells Great Wolf Lodge

This year for Spring Break we decided to head up to Wisconsin Dells and try out the Great Wolf Lodge.  We had heard great things from friends and we needed somewhere close but fun.  Overall, it did not disappoint!  We had a blast spending day after day going down slides and playing in the pools!  Yes it was tiring and yes there were moments when our kids were driving us crazy but we had a great time!  The lodge even had a lot of extra activities the kids could do that weren't swimming related when we wanted to take a little break.  I felt like most of them were over-rated or could have been done much better, but the crafts were fun and the kids enjoyed those.  The other ones we tried were storytime, a bubble dance party, an animal friends tea party thing- again, they were ok- but could have been better.  Jon and I kind of wished we could go down some slides together but instead we had to switch off watching madi and/or zach who couldn't go on slides.  For the bigger slides, we took turns dragging Katie- who was up for anything- with us!  She definitely went down the most slides of all of us!