Happy Chanukkah

Well Madalyn is being raised Catholic, but since Shawn and his mother are Jewish she will also be taught about Chanukkah and what the festival of lights is all about. Today she helped Daddy light a menorah and received a Channukah present from Nana and Papa Swanson. It is a ride on toy like a rocking horse but looks like a little bug and sings the alphabet song. Madalyn is enthralled. She also has a ton of fun crawling under the tree an looking at (and eating) all of the presents there. She has already pulled off most of the bows on the presents.... silly baby.

Maddie and Santa Claus

I am so blessed to have a happy go lucky baby, because Lord knows I love to dress her up and do stuff with her and she is so laid back about it. The tradeoff for that is that she is into everything, climbing, crawling, now standing and trying to cruise along furniture and things.

Monday we took her to meet Santa Claus and she was very happy to sit on his lap and take a picture. She wouldnt leave her hat on, but thats the trade off for the smile in this picture.

Santa Baby

I know its early.... but I can't help myself!

Good Karma

Since Shawn and I have moved into our house we have been planning to turn our master bathroom into a masterpiece. However.... masterpieces cost money and that is something we havent had a lot of... so our bathroom has had the door shut and has been unused for months awaiting some money and time. We recently have started looking at things for the bathroom and absolutely fell in love with some black granite tile at Lowes. The only problem- it was $7.99 a square foot. The other problem- we needed over 130 square feet for just the walls- never mind what we needed for the floor of the shower! We sadly decided that we would wait on the shower, and look other places.... since the tile alone would be well over $1000.


Shawn looked in Williston at the tile "outlet." The same tile was $12 a square foot! The owner didnt even care that they had the same thing cheaper at Lowes. We checked at Home Depot and it was over $7 a tile....so once again our shower was on the back burner.

Shawn had graciously offered to remodel Brian Minnich's mother's bathroom for her, because she has been trying to sell her house and houses minus a bathroom usually do not sell well. He has been working on it in his spare time so that she can put the house on the market. Well yesterday he went to Home Depot.on Newberry Road.... and found our tile for $4.49 a square foot- well within our bathroom budget! I truly believe that this was a blessing from God in thanks for Shawn helping someone. If he hadnt been helping Brian's mom then he never would have gone to that Home Depot and seen the tile.

Today, as with many days, I truly feel as if God has blessed me and my family. It is nice to know that good deeds have their way of finding their way back to you.

I love being a Mom

I love being a Mom. I love those early mornings, when I hear Madalyn wake up and start to play in her crib. I love hearing her coos and squeals as she wakes up, ready to start the day. When I go in to get her, she always greets me with a huge smile and immediately puts her arms up for me to pick her up. When I pick her up she will put her head on my shoulder and cuddle into my neck. This absolutely makes me melt. I love changing her diaper... no matter how much she squirms and tries to fight me... she just hates sitting still long enough to get cleaned. Madalyn is so inquisitive... she is always looking for something to get into. I love the early mornings when she will sit and play with her toys... everything is so new and exciting to her after a good nights sleep. I love watching her scoot around on the carpet and lately she will attempt to crawl a few paces to get around to her toys. For a baby who isnt crawling completely she sure gets around! I love how she watches me watching her... wanting to see my reaction to her adventures. And adventures she has.... I cant get enough of watching her learn. She studies everything, wants to touch everything, wants to taste everything.

When I call her name to get her attention she smiles.... her face lights up and there is nothing more amazing in the entire world. She has a dimple in her left cheek.... similar to the one her uncle Ben has. And her eyes are so big and so blue....with the longest lashes framing them. (Thanks to her Daddy!) I think she has my nose, and my ears... not sure whose smile. My mom swears that she has her fathers eyes... and I think she has my fathers cheek. Her fingers are just like mine, and her toes are the same as Shawns. She is the perfect blend of Shawn and my families... all come together to make the most beautiful baby I have ever laid eyes on.

Bathtime is special time for Mommy and Baby.... and we play in the tub. After her bath I give her a baby massage and then I just want to hold her and cuddle her, breathing in the scent of baby shampoo and lotion. She is always touching my face with her little soft hands... feeling my mouth and letting me kiss her fingers.

Madalyn has learned to kiss.... thanks to Allie! She opens her mouth and gums at your face, simulating a kiss. And when I kiss her back she giggles.... her laugh is so infectious! When she laughs, I laugh, then she laughs even harder and then I am crying from laughing so hard. She laughs the most when we play Peek A Boo.... and I say "wheres Mommy?" and then hide and show my face and say "there she is!" Madalyn thinks this is hilarious. So of course I want to do it more and more to see her reaction.

I think my favorite time with her is nap time. When I am home I will sometimes get her to lay down with me in bed, and we snuggle then and fall asleep and take a nap. There is nothing better than having her snuggle against me and fall asleep. When she wakes up before me she will stroke my face of my hair (okay, sometimes she pulls it!) until I wake up and play with her.

Madalyn loves to wave "hi" to people and its always so cute to take her in public and see her wave to people. It makes me so proud to see her interact with other people. She especially loves other babies and waves at them until they notice her. I can already tell she is going to be a social butterfly when she gets older.

Being a Mother has been the most rewarding thing that I have done... and the most challenging thing. It has been quite the challenge learning to juggle Mommyhood with working and being a full time student... but it makes me proud to say that Ive been able to do all of these things. I have definitely learned how to manage my time!

I look forward to many more milestones that my precious daughter will reach... and I know how special it is to be able to view the world though her eyes.

Puffs Please~!

Madalyn loves puffs... these little cheerio-like snacks that are made for young babies because they melt in their mouths if they dont chew them. Madalyn hasnt quite figured out how to eat them... but she certainly loves putting them in her mouth and sucking on them! Allie also loves puffs... because Madalyn loves to share with her!

Little Miss Mischief

Today Madalyn fell asleep while I was giving her a bottle, so I layed her down in her crib to see if she would take a nap. I turned on her baby monitor and didnt hear her usual cries of protest so I assumed she was sleeping. Silly me. About half an hour later I heard her squealing on the baby monitor so I went to peek in on her. She was sitting up in her crib, holding both of her socks and playing with them. I had been folding laundry so I decided to put it away in her room while she was occupied with her socks... and when I turned back around she had pulled the bumpers off of her crib and pulled herself up to stand. What a little troublemaker! I swear she looks around for what trouble she can get into.... nothing is safe anymore!


Look Mommy.... my socks are so fun!

I like this nap time stuff!

So proud!

She's standing!
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Big Girl Bathtub!

Ever since she was a little baby Miss Madalyn has loved the water. She loves bathtime. So I decided to buy her a blow up tub that goes into our tub and she can sit in it unassisted by me. We had been having bathtime together but that was an accident waiting to happen as Maddie constantly tries to "swin" in the tub and put her face in the water. So last night we blew up her duck and had big girl bathtime. She absolutely loved it!

Some Recent Photos....

So this evening I got a new digital camera.... watch out world, just want I needed! There will be many many more of these to come... but these are some cute ones I have been needing to upload for awhile....

Pumpkin Patch 2007

I think this will be a yearly tradition.  The week before Halloween we went to Ocala and met up with Jenna, Brad and Savannah to pick out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.  We all had a blast taking pictures of the babies with the pumpkins... though we have discovered how impossible it is to get both girls to look at the camera at the same time! We are working on it though!

LUAU~

October 20th we had a party to celebrate what would have been our wedding day had we not decided to get married on the beach in June. We had lots of fun and thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!

Happy Halloween!

Long Overdue Update

I have been horrible about updating this... which there is no excuse for! Just had a lot going on, I guess. Things are going very well with us.... we had our party on October 20th (thanks to all who made it!) and we had a wonderful time. Our house is going great... we are kind of at a standstill with projects because we have both been working so much, but we are mostly settled in. We are in the middle of painting the house from brown to white with blue shutters, so that will make it look much better when we are finished.


Madalyn is getting so so big! She isnt crawling yet, but she is close... though she may have given up on that and now just wants to stand. She constantly puts her feet flat on the ground and her hands down and try to stand up. It is adorable! She is also so cuddy.... always wanting to snuggle with Mommy, which I love.

Work is... work, but is going well. I am teaching a lot. I finally have my own station, for now at least.... so that is nice. Shawn is working a lot doing some plumbing stuff on my days off so thats been a big help!

We just got back in town from seeing Jenna and Brad for Halloween. Last night we went to see Jimmy Buffett in Tampa which was a lot of fun. I will have to share some Halloween pictures.... Savannah was Winnie the Pooh and Madalyn was Piglet, which was adorable. We werent able to get any spectaculat pictures of the two of them... there was no way with them both fiddling with their costumes and doing other things... but we tried!

Best Friends

Jumparoo Time!

Happy Half Birthday!

Today was Madalyn's six month birthday which we celebrated by a visit to the doctor's office. She is 16.2 pounds and 26 inches, which makes her right on track. Babies are supposed to double their birthweight by six months, which would have made her 17 pounds but she is way within where she should be. Of course she got her shots, which she hated... but she only cried for a minute as opposed to the 10 minute she has cried in the past. But when she stopped crying and saw the nurses were still in the room, she stuck her lower lip out and started the water works again... little miss drama queen. She was actually really good today after the shots and wasnt too fussy, which was nice.

Madalyn Months 4 and 5

Vacation Slideshow

Summertime...

As far back as I can remember the beach has been my favorite place to be. This summer my mother decided to get a hotel room on Longboat Key in Sarasota for her birthday week. It fell on a weekend I was off and I did a trade time for Monday so I had a whole 3 days to spend with my family on the beach. It was such a great weekend. Jenna and Savannah came down from Riverview and my Dad came up when he got off work Saturday afternoon. We had such a great time.... with Savannah and Madalyn playing together especially. Savannah calls her "Ladaly" and is so affectionate with her baby cousin. She is going to make a great big sister come February!

It was appropriate that it was the first day of Fall while we were on the beach because the weekend itself felt like a summertime wrap up.

My mom, or Gigi as the babies call her, bought Miss Madalyn a raft for the beach and the pool. It is a little froggy raft with a palm tree that hangs over it for some shade. Madalyn absolutely loved her raft, especially when we took it in the ocean. There Maddie had her first surfing lesson, where I pushed her into the waves. She also loved dipping her fingers in the ocean and sucking on the salt.

Madalyn also discovered what a great nap she could have while rocking back in forth on the waves. While we were out in the Gulf she put her head down on her raft and fell asleep. It was the cutest thing. I have put my head down many times on my surfboard and taken a quick nap because there is nothing more relaxing then sleeping with the ocean waves there.

When we came home and I gave Miss Madalyn a bath she stuck her fingers in the water and tried to suck on them.... looking for the salt I assume. Obviously shes a beach a baby.... like Mommy like daughter....