Sunday, October 31, 2010
Fun and Festive photos from Disneyland
Here are a few more fun photos from our trip to Disneyland with Brant's parents last weekend, courtesy of Disney's Photo-Pass photographers on-site. Enjoy!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Splish Splash, look who's taking a bath...
That's right! It's me!!
I love bath time!
Its really funny when I splash water all over!
I know how to have a good time in the tub!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Let's Celebrate Brant!!
Birthdays, in this household, are a very big deal. We don't mess around; its serious business to celebrate someone's special day, which calls for some serious partying and serious fun!!! We had a few very eventful days this past weekend, as we welcomed Dale and Martha into town to celebrate Brant's 29th birthday with us!!
We picked up our special guests, late morning on Saturday (Brant's birthday), and immediately took them up to Griffith Park. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a cafe called "The Trails", located at the base of the park. After lunch, we drove up the hill to The Observatory, where we walked around the grounds, taking pictures, looking at various exhibits and watching Maddie "ham it up" with everyone around her (seriously, this girl loves the spotlight!).
That evening, we had a wonderful birthday celebration at home, filled with dinner, gifts, dessert and a movie. Nice! 
Among the gifts Brant received this year, I think Maddie's gift to him was the biggest hit...
Maddie made a very nice card for her Daddy, in which the only adult help consisted of the written letters. The picture below doesn't show it too well, but Maddie colored all over the card with pretty colors (very faintly; we're still learning how it all works :) ).
She gave him a new set of stereo speakers, as the old ones died on us a few months ago. What a good daughter! 
Can you guess what we did the next day? You betcha! Disneyland!!
Brant, pretty happy to be celebrating his birthday at the Happiest Place on Earth!!
I love this picture. Look how happy all three of them are to be flying with Dumbo!
Although you cannot see the full-scope of this amazing costume, you can see enough to understand what Maddie is going to be for Halloween this year...
...and most of her hundred-acre-woods friends were thrilled to see her there! (We will come back to get a picture with Pooh, who wasn't out, on our next visit). I wish I would have been able to take a series of pictures of the crowds surrounding her as she literally ran down the walk way in her piglet costume. We put her in it right before these pictures, and she was giddy with excitement. People were stopping right and left commenting and looking at the "cute little piglet" running down the way! (There is no piglet character at Disneyland, so she was a big hit!)
After her big "Piglet Debut", Maddie crashed. She was letting all of us know how exhausted she was, so she took a nice snooze in the stroller...
...all the while, Brant and Martha were doing this (the last two loggers)...
Brant and I are used to riding everything by ourselves, since Maddie cannot go on the big rides. It was fun being at Disneyland with other people, as we were able to thoroughly enjoy the big rides with someone else.
Grandma and Grandpa joined Maddie's style, and found some ears that fit them well.
Our sweet little girl is no longer a baby.
And she's cuter than ever!
My birthday man! I loved spoiling him with attention and fun this weekend!!
How cute are they, all matchy-matchy?! :)
What a fun day we had, and a terrific weekend! Thanks for visiting us, Dale and Martha, spending quality time with Maddie Mae and helping us celebrate Brant in grand style. :) We love you!
We picked up our special guests, late morning on Saturday (Brant's birthday), and immediately took them up to Griffith Park. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a cafe called "The Trails", located at the base of the park. After lunch, we drove up the hill to The Observatory, where we walked around the grounds, taking pictures, looking at various exhibits and watching Maddie "ham it up" with everyone around her (seriously, this girl loves the spotlight!).
That evening, we had a wonderful birthday celebration at home, filled with dinner, gifts, dessert and a movie. Nice! 
Among the gifts Brant received this year, I think Maddie's gift to him was the biggest hit...
Maddie made a very nice card for her Daddy, in which the only adult help consisted of the written letters. The picture below doesn't show it too well, but Maddie colored all over the card with pretty colors (very faintly; we're still learning how it all works :) ).
She gave him a new set of stereo speakers, as the old ones died on us a few months ago. What a good daughter! 
Can you guess what we did the next day? You betcha! Disneyland!!
Brant, pretty happy to be celebrating his birthday at the Happiest Place on Earth!!
I love this picture. Look how happy all three of them are to be flying with Dumbo!
Although you cannot see the full-scope of this amazing costume, you can see enough to understand what Maddie is going to be for Halloween this year...
...and most of her hundred-acre-woods friends were thrilled to see her there! (We will come back to get a picture with Pooh, who wasn't out, on our next visit). I wish I would have been able to take a series of pictures of the crowds surrounding her as she literally ran down the walk way in her piglet costume. We put her in it right before these pictures, and she was giddy with excitement. People were stopping right and left commenting and looking at the "cute little piglet" running down the way! (There is no piglet character at Disneyland, so she was a big hit!)After her big "Piglet Debut", Maddie crashed. She was letting all of us know how exhausted she was, so she took a nice snooze in the stroller...
...all the while, Brant and Martha were doing this (the last two loggers)...
Brant and I are used to riding everything by ourselves, since Maddie cannot go on the big rides. It was fun being at Disneyland with other people, as we were able to thoroughly enjoy the big rides with someone else.Grandma and Grandpa joined Maddie's style, and found some ears that fit them well.
Our sweet little girl is no longer a baby.
And she's cuter than ever!
My birthday man! I loved spoiling him with attention and fun this weekend!!
How cute are they, all matchy-matchy?! :)
What a fun day we had, and a terrific weekend! Thanks for visiting us, Dale and Martha, spending quality time with Maddie Mae and helping us celebrate Brant in grand style. :) We love you!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Silly Daddy-Daughter time!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Maddie Monkey Mae
I brought my camera to work today, in hopes of catching some new, cute pictures of Miss Maddie. She was super cute today, but she moves so much it was hard to catch her sitting still on film. There must be a reason we call her monkey! On a statistical note, she had her 15 month check-up last week, and she weighed in at 22 lbs 9 oz, which puts her in the 49%. Our "little" girl is also 32 inches tall, which translates into being in the 89% for height! :)
Maddie still has her sweet and pretty blue eyes. Oh, and she really, really loves milk. :)
Such a tall girl! There are so many fun toys to play with here.
She has inherited my staple "head tilt" for when her picture is being taken.
She started to tell me something very important when I took this picture...
So, I decided to interrupt her and tickle her instead!
Like her mama, Maddie likes hoodies!
She also likes to show us where her belly button is!
The only problem with hoodies is she doesn't know how to put the hood back on her head, so she ends up just pulling her hair instead.
Believe it or not, our sweet Madelyn does slow down. She loves, loves, loves to look at books. She will entertain herself for long periods of time, multiple times a day with a fun board book. Often times, Maddie will come find either one of us and hand us a book, while proceeding to back into our laps and settle in for a good story. :) SO sweet.
Here she is, just settling in with her book.
So serious.
It sure makes you want to join her and find out what makes it such a good book, huh?
Oh, how very blessed we are to have this sweet monkey in our lives. 
Maddie still has her sweet and pretty blue eyes. Oh, and she really, really loves milk. :)
Such a tall girl! There are so many fun toys to play with here.
She has inherited my staple "head tilt" for when her picture is being taken.
She started to tell me something very important when I took this picture...
So, I decided to interrupt her and tickle her instead!
Like her mama, Maddie likes hoodies!
She also likes to show us where her belly button is!
The only problem with hoodies is she doesn't know how to put the hood back on her head, so she ends up just pulling her hair instead.
Believe it or not, our sweet Madelyn does slow down. She loves, loves, loves to look at books. She will entertain herself for long periods of time, multiple times a day with a fun board book. Often times, Maddie will come find either one of us and hand us a book, while proceeding to back into our laps and settle in for a good story. :) SO sweet.Here she is, just settling in with her book.
So serious.
It sure makes you want to join her and find out what makes it such a good book, huh?
Oh, how very blessed we are to have this sweet monkey in our lives. 
Monday, October 4, 2010
Seasons change, if only temporarily...
A week ago, temperatures went soaring into the triple digits down here. If you didn't catch the national news, LA hit a record 113, which is the hottest day ever recorded in history. EVER. Remember me? Jackie? The one who gets hot and bothered really fast? Well, if you heard that news report, I'm sure my sweet little face was the first thing that popped into your head. I want to reassure you that I actually did okay during the day time hours. We got our air conditioner to work better, so the main living area stays pretty comfortable. Sleeping, however, was non-existent for a couple of nights, due to the lack of cool air in our room. Regardless, we survived yet another heat wave.
A few nights ago, Brant read an article declaring this week's weather pattern to be in a "cooling trend." Whatever that means, right? Admittedly, I laughed out loud when he read the "cooling" to be temperatures in the 70s, with 20% chance of precipitation. Where I come from, when I flip my calender over to the month of October, I have submitted myself officially to the season of fall, and all its glory (i.e. gray, rain, wind, change of colors, leaves on the ground, hot chocolate, fires, blankets, sweatshirts). So, in preparation for this "cooling trend", I got excited and invited fall into our home by pulling out all of my decorations. I did have fans on in order to give a slight "chill" to the room, as I decorated - I also did this because, although my house welcomed fall, it was 84 degrees and sunny outside.
I will say this about the seasons down here and the "cooling trend" we are experiencing. We have had a few thunderstorms, clouds, and (gasp), RAIN. Rain!! Yes, it has been raining all day long today. Now, we don't need to get into technicalities here...the rain, although steady, has been more of a gray mist and not a downpour. Nonetheless, it is moisture coming down from the clouds above, so it qualifies. I was very happy to wear a jacket outside today when I left for work (I was still in flip flops :) ), and when I came home, I was very quick to light my "pumpkin nutmeg pie" candle my dad bought for me last June when we first moved in (thanks, Dad!).
To end tonight's post, I will leave you with a wide array of pictures, signifying the change of seasons in southern California. I took a lot of these pictures to remind myself that cooler weather does exist, come Sunday when it is predicted to hit 90 degrees again. :)
Thunderstorm in the distance, at Sunset (view outside our window).
Yes! There is wet pavement down there!
Rain on our window! We haven't seen this once since we have lived down here. Amazing!!
Pumpkin nutmeg pie candle...mmm....I bet you want to come to my house right now just to smell this! Trust me, you do.
Our table centerpiece. The flash sort of ruined the coloring, but you get the idea.
Another little touch of fall in our house.
C'mon, now. You didn't really think I would leave Disneyland out, did you? They change seasons, too, you know!
Main Street, USA, in all it's autumn glory.
Walt and Mickey are happy to see me again. I'm an old friend. :)
And finally, what would a post with pictures be worth, without a picture of Maddie? This was during our last trip to Disneyland (last weekend), when it was in the upper 90s - we were under a water mister in this picture, trying to stay cool. She loved it!
Happy fall, everyone!! :)
A few nights ago, Brant read an article declaring this week's weather pattern to be in a "cooling trend." Whatever that means, right? Admittedly, I laughed out loud when he read the "cooling" to be temperatures in the 70s, with 20% chance of precipitation. Where I come from, when I flip my calender over to the month of October, I have submitted myself officially to the season of fall, and all its glory (i.e. gray, rain, wind, change of colors, leaves on the ground, hot chocolate, fires, blankets, sweatshirts). So, in preparation for this "cooling trend", I got excited and invited fall into our home by pulling out all of my decorations. I did have fans on in order to give a slight "chill" to the room, as I decorated - I also did this because, although my house welcomed fall, it was 84 degrees and sunny outside.
I will say this about the seasons down here and the "cooling trend" we are experiencing. We have had a few thunderstorms, clouds, and (gasp), RAIN. Rain!! Yes, it has been raining all day long today. Now, we don't need to get into technicalities here...the rain, although steady, has been more of a gray mist and not a downpour. Nonetheless, it is moisture coming down from the clouds above, so it qualifies. I was very happy to wear a jacket outside today when I left for work (I was still in flip flops :) ), and when I came home, I was very quick to light my "pumpkin nutmeg pie" candle my dad bought for me last June when we first moved in (thanks, Dad!).
To end tonight's post, I will leave you with a wide array of pictures, signifying the change of seasons in southern California. I took a lot of these pictures to remind myself that cooler weather does exist, come Sunday when it is predicted to hit 90 degrees again. :)
Thunderstorm in the distance, at Sunset (view outside our window).
Yes! There is wet pavement down there!
Rain on our window! We haven't seen this once since we have lived down here. Amazing!!
Pumpkin nutmeg pie candle...mmm....I bet you want to come to my house right now just to smell this! Trust me, you do.
Our table centerpiece. The flash sort of ruined the coloring, but you get the idea.
Another little touch of fall in our house.
C'mon, now. You didn't really think I would leave Disneyland out, did you? They change seasons, too, you know!
Main Street, USA, in all it's autumn glory.
Walt and Mickey are happy to see me again. I'm an old friend. :)
And finally, what would a post with pictures be worth, without a picture of Maddie? This was during our last trip to Disneyland (last weekend), when it was in the upper 90s - we were under a water mister in this picture, trying to stay cool. She loved it!
Happy fall, everyone!! :)
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