Tia is home!!

On Saturday a.m., Maddie and Soley went to All About Kids together and had a great time running around together.

 Soley's turn at the big slide...is Maddie brave enough to go down herself?

Of course! She loved it!

My parents flew down to Orlando on Thursday to drive back home with my sister. I know she was really sad to leave Disney life (who wouldn't love going to Disney World every day for 4 months?!?!) but we are so so happy to have her back home, even if it is just for a short time before she heads back to Georgetown.

Madeline was so excited to see her tia...she wouldn't let her put her down! Mercedes held her for hours literally! At the restaurant for lunch, all over the house, etc, etc.

Playing with her new Belle baby doll

Eating her snack on tia.

  Sharing her snack with Tia!

Cedes came over tonight to see the house for the first time. We played in the playroom for awhile before it was time to put Maddie to bed.

Playing a song...the next famous singer/songwriter?!

Madeline wasn't the only one excited to see Tia....Stella went NUTS.

Now, if you know Stella, this probably looks like a normal reaction for her. You know, since she's totally crazy. But, she did seem a little bit more excited than normal.

One more hug from Aunt Mercedes before bed.

So happy to have you home, kiddo. Glad you got to have such a great experience! We love you!

Birthdays!

On Thursday, our sweet Madeline turned 2! I can hardly believe it! Maddie is truly such a joy in mine and Chris's lives. She is a spunky little girl with lots of personality. I love watching her grow and learn every day. She is truly a nurturing little soul, she loves all of her babies and animals. She enjoys singing, dancing and being silly with mommy and daddy. I love this picture, she's reading a story to bunny.

December 27, 2010

December 2011

December 2012

Ha! The above picture was taken on Friday at her 2 year check-up. She checked out great. A little small  on the national scale, but growing steadily. Tubes look good and her bloodwork came out great. The nurses are fantastic at her ped's office. She brought one of her baby dolls, Carol, and Carol got her height, weight and temperature checked.  Carol also got bandaids on her finger and thigh, just like Maddie. Maddie got a kick out of that! When you look at her little chubby legs, its hard to believe she's only 15% for weight, right?!

For Madeline's birthday, we went to Chuy's for dinner and Maddie got her two favorite foods: macaroni and 'olee. 

While she was waiting for her food, she liked putting stickers all over daddy!

Hmm....do I want the macaroni or the 'olee next?

THE OLEE!

On Friday, Chris turned 29! We had a yummy lobster dinner with his parents, Laura, Cory and Dane. Chris is such a great husband to me and daddy to Madeline. I have now spent 13 birthdays with him and am looking forward to so many more! 

Chris blowing out his candles with his hands since he has a sinus infection. 

On Saturday, we had our first snowfall of the season. Maddie and Dane played out in the snow for awhile. At first she wasn't too sure about the snow, but she loved the sled!

Saturday night, we had a small little party for Madeline. 

Eating pizza with Hudson and Dane!

 Cousin Dane playing with the puppet theater

 Opening her Belle dress that Tia shipped from Disney World

Pretty princess!

 Blowing out her candle on her cupcake!

 Bye everyone! I'm out of here, and I'm taking all of my presents!

Tis the season!

We have been having a wonderful holiday season at the Hughes house!!

We celebrated cashing our Family Feud checks with some jello cocktails topped 

by the $20,000 answer - cool whip!

We went to Old Navy for some jeans and Madeline won a furby! She has no idea what it is but was still excited! 

We did Madeline's first pigtails and they were hilariously cute!

Took Madeline to Chuck E Cheese - she had a blast! It was actually a lot of fun and a great way to spend a cold Saturday morning. She had so much fun she worked up a big appetite- she had 2 slices of pizza!

Maddie spent Christmas Eve morning with daddy while mommy worked. 

You know you want some leopard PJs, admit it.

Then, that night, Santa came!

Madeline loved all of her presents.

 She liked pulling items out of her "boot" as she called it.

Then, we went to grandma and grandpa's house.

Playing with her make-up vanity

Putting her baby to sleep in her bunk bed.  

After a big breakfast at grandma and grandpa's house, lots of skyping with Tia and LOTS of presents, we headed to nana and papa's house for more fun!

Putting Sally in her bassinet. 

Opening Alice, her Baby Alive doll.

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!

After nana and grandpa's house, we went to Aunt Germaine's house. It was great to see all of the cousins and Madeline had so much fun playing with everyone. She was zonked after a long day; she slept til 8:15 on Wednesday!!

Feeding Alice.

She was AMAZED when Alice actually did go to the bathroom. She checks her babies every night and always says "no poop." When she opened Alice's diaper she stared at it for a full 30 seconds before screaming, "SHE POOPED." She ran to the diaper bag and pulled out her wipes case, a new diaper and started screaming, "NASTY DIAPER."

Chris has taken the week off work, but in typical Chris fashion, he is not relaxing. He's building pantry shelves.

Making great progress!

In the meantime, we have booked our 5 year anniversary trip to Bermuda...and I am determined to get back in a bikini! Well, at least get the last of my baby weight off. So I've started working out again. It's a bit crowded though...

This is just me and Maddie - Stella usually tries to weave between my legs as well. I think I burn twice as many calories this way.

AND!! The celebrating continues in our house! Today is Maddie's birthday and tomorrow is Chris's birthday. I'll do another post this weekend with pictures of the two and how we celebrate their special days.  She is at school right now to have her daycare party. We're picking her up early for a night out on the town with mommy and daddy!

One of her birthday presents!

I truly hope everyone got to spend Christmas with their loved ones and that they remember the reason for the season!

Two weeks til 2!!

This past weekend, we got together with Kyle, Danielle and Hudson. We took both kiddos to Old Chicago pizza. They did pretty good. They play pretty nicely together, considering their age gap. Madeline kept following Hudson and then bending down to give him a hug. It was so sweet. Between Hudson and Mason, I think she might be a little boy crazy. Pray for Chris!

Privacy please, mom. 

 We went to Bass Pro this weekend and Madeline LOVED the big fish tank. Look at her happy face here. 

It's December 19th and we are nearing December 27th...Maddie's birthday!! (And then, one day later, daddy's birthday!!) 

Maddie is moving to the 2 year old room right after her birthday so we've been talking about all of the changes coming her way. Tonight in the bathtub, I asked her if she was going to start going bathroom in the potty. She gave me this face.

 Then she picked up her doll and said, "She go poop." I said, "Oh no...in the bathtub?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No mom. She go poop in the potty." So the doll sat in Maddie's potty and did her business. When I asked Madeline if she wanted to try, she said no. She knows what the potty is, and what you do with it, but I don't think she's quite ready to take the leap. We'll see what kind of magic Miss Kelsey works in a few weeks.

Finally, we took a few pictures of our big girl this weekend and I love how they turned out! It's a little sad though because she looks so grown-up here! We truly do have a toddler, not a little baby girl anymore! 

Stomach bug, part two

Well, remember when I said Chris and I felt a little queasy? We had one day where we all felt ok enough to play and Maddie got to go outside and drive her car. 

The next day we got the full on bug. Chris found me lying on the bathroom floor when he woke up. He felt horrible too so my parents came and evacuated Madeline. They watched her for a bit and then transferred her to Chris's parents house where she stayed the night. We are so grateful!! Outside of the time I got some weird Canadian flu and was sick for a solid week, this was by far the sickest I've been. I couldn't MOVE. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say, if this bug happened to miss your house, you are lucky!!

*In other news*

Since, we've moved into the house, Madeline has been afraid of her bath tub. She would cry whenever we'd start to run the water. She always loved her baths before, so I was really confused. Finally one day she told me, "NO BATH, buggie in there." She thought there was a bug in her bath tub. I have no clue where this came from. It did really bother her when she saw her bathtub dirty when we were under construction so I don't know if that's it or not. Anyways, we bought a brand new bath toy and slowly but surely she's been starting to enjoy her baths. 

 Her two dolls which have like 30 outfits (with hats, shows, accessories, etc.) they can wear in the tub. She likes to dress them in some crazy things.

Sitting down in the tub with no tears!

We got some new office furniture which I love! I work from home two days a week and enjoy my new space!

Stella came home!! We got Stella's invisible fence finally and she got to come home. She sniffed around like a crazy woman and then made herself right at home. (Note: she also got evacuated in the bug so she's really been a nomad.)

I got my Family Feud checks! Here's Chris when he realized our money could have been doubled, had he not been too shy/embarrased to go on tv! Then he recovered and said, "Oh well, I wouldn't have wanted to high kick, even for $4,000." So, there you go. I guess he's perfectly happy letting me high kick on national tv, but whatever.

Being sick all weekend put a damper on a lot of plans we had made for ourselves. We've been playing catch-up this week preparing for the holidays. Lots of shopping and wrapping. Maddie loves playing with the wrapping paper rolls!

This weekend we have some holiday parties to go to and are looking forward to just being able to get out of the house and enjoy some time together. Madeline has a dinner date with Hudson tonight so I need to pick her up and get her ready!

Have a great weekend everyone!