Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew turned 28 on Wednesday!

We celebrated by first opening presents.


Of course, Madeline liked to help.


After we ate dinner, we got to eat cake! Yummy Yummy!


Madeline seems to be a lot better at blowing out candles since her first birthday.


So, she wanted to help daddy. (And no, we didn't let her touch the fire. Those candles were already out.)


Even Madeline got to eat some cake right before bed.

Do you want some?

It's funny how Andrew' birthday post can still be mostly about Madeline. So, here are some things that I love about Andrew.

1. He is an amazing dad. He plays with Madeline so much better than me. He makes cool forts and obstacle courses for her. He gets up early on Saturday mornings with her so I can sleep in a little. He does so much for her (and me!) Madeline is such a blessed little girl. (oops! It's still about Madeline :)

2. He is a dreamer. He has so many amazing and crazy ideas. It's fun!

3. He writes and sings songs for Madeline and I. And he plays the trumpet.

4. He likes to get free Chick-Fil-A!

5. He is very good at sports. He played lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, swims, and does (has done a) triathlons. He is pretty much good at anything he tries.

6. He likes board games like Settlers of Catan.

7. He supports me staying home with Madeline 100%.

8. He is very handsome. And he is even cuter when called "DAAAAAA" by a cute little blondie.

9. He likes to do new things and be on the go.

10. He loves me better than I could have dreamed of. I could not have picked a better husband for me. God truly brought us together.

I love you so much, Andrew! I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

I Love My Chicken!

Granny B brought Madeline a giant chicken last time she came to visit.

Giant chickens are great for playing peek-a-boo...


...riding...


...lounging on...

...hugging...

...and sitting on while doing other things.

Madeline also likes to run and dive into this chicken, pick him up and carry him around and pull out his hair. This, not so small, chicken has brought a lot of fun for this little girl.

Madeline's New Obsession

Madeline has moved past her snowboot obsession on to her bibs.

She has specific ones that she likes to use or she will want them all on at the same time. If she is hungry and ready to eat, she will find her bibs and put them on and then come find me to show me that she is ready to eat.


Who knew that she would love her bibs. It seems like just a few months ago, she cried when I put a bib on her.

First Haircut

Well, Madeline's hair was getting a little long in the back and a little shorter in the front (which is sometimes know as a mullet). So, we thought it was time for a little haircut.

We went to The Yellow Balloon, which specializes in children's haircuts. We weren't sure how Madeline would do. But, she got to sit on Daddy's lap the whole time and she did great!


Cecilia, the hair dresser, was very patient with Madeline's moving head.


Madeline just took in all the comotion at the hair shop. There was a lot going on... lots of kids, movies, toys, adults, noise... it was busy!

She even got her hair blow dried!

Now, our little baby looks a little more like a little girl.

A view from the back.

Happy Valentine's Day

Andrew came home from work on Friday with a balloon, cards, flowers and ice cream (with mini chocolate chips) for Madeline and I. I thought it was so sweet that he got a card and flowers for Madeline as well. She is his little princess.


Something was really funny to Madeline while we were taking pictures. I don't remember what it was now.

Andrew and Elmo have been teaching Madeline how to sign, "I love you." So here it is...

I

Love

You!

On Valentine's day, I made heart pancakes for Andrew.

Andrew's parents came up to watch Madeline for the evening. We went to dinner and then a movie. It was fun to get out, just the two of us. Then we came home and I had a stomach bug all night and the next day. Then Andrew got it after me. Lots of fun :)

A Hint of Spring

Madeline and I really enjoyed the beautiful weather we had last week. One day we went for a little walk around our lake.

Madeline is really obsessed with things on the ground lately. She thinks they are all bugs and she will say, "bzzzzzzz". Sometimes she has a hard time getting past these things. She finds them in our house as well.

We stopped at a little area along the path that has benches and lots of rocks that go down to the water. Madeline likes to play there and there are oftentimes lots of ducks and geese to look at.

A few other families came at the same time and brought lots of bread. So, we had a ton of birds to look at.

Unfortunately, Madeline decided to never look at the camera that day. So, there are no pictures of her smiling at the camera.

Eat Mor Chikin!

A new Chick Fil A opened in Baltimore last Thursday. So, Andrew and I headed on over to be one of the first 100 people. If you are one of the first 100, then you are rewarded with 52 coupons for a Chick Fil A combo meal. That means that together, Andrew and I have 104! That's a lot of Chick Fil A.

We arrived around 11:30am on Wednesday morning. Andrew had plans to be there much earlier. But, it didn't work out. It is a good thing we didn't go any earlier because we were numbers 33 and 34. They didn't reach their 100th person until later in the afternoon, around 2. We got our tent all set up. Our tent is the little green one in the middle of the picture. It is my brother's and I remember camping in my backyard in it when I was little. The white structure to the left is a little shelter that a couple made just for these grand openings. They have it on wheels so they can just bring it on a trailer and wheel it into the parking lot. There were people there with satelite tv. People spared no luxury in this parking lot. The parking lot was completely filled with tents by the evening.


Soon after we got all set up, we were served dessert. We got cheesecake, brownies and a lemony pie thing. (I didn't really like the lemony thing. But, I'm not complaining.)


It ended up being one of the coldest days of the year. (I think the next day was slightly colder.) We got snowed on several times.


Chick Fil A rented these heaters for us to huddle around. They were very powerful. I know of at least 5 people that had something melted. I was still tempted to steal it and put it in our tent. We were allowed to go in and use the restrooms. But, we were not allowed to hang out inside (except to eat our ice cream sundae dessert at 10:30pm.) It was absolutely freezing. I believe our thermometer read 12 degrees when we got in the car the next morning. We did bring a small space heater to put in our tent. I was pretty comfortable next to it in our tent. Andrew was a little colder on the other side of the tent. But, at least we didn't freeze to death.

Chick Fil A took pretty good care of us. We got a chicken nugget lunch, a chicken sandwich dinner, a chicken nugget snack and a ice cream sundae dessert while we were there. We got to meet lots of fun people and Andrew and I got to go on our first camping trip together. It was a lot of fun and we are planning to do some more Chick Fil A grand openings. (Hopefully, they will be warmer than this one) So, if you are up for going to one with us, let us know. The more the merrier (unless you cause us to be numbers 101 and 102 :(. You can check out our video to the right of us finally getting our coupons!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Madeline was very curious about Granny's painted toenails last week. So, Granny painted Madeline's toes. I have thought about painting Madeline's nails for a while now. But, I never thought she would sit still enough to do it. Boy was I wrong. She will sit and hold out her toes and fingers to be painted. She loves it!

After her toes got done, we got even braver and went for the fingernails.


She sat like a perfect angel until Granny was all done.

I figured they would get ruined immediately. But, Madeline even knows how to blow on them herself now.