Madeleine's First Birthday

To celebrate Madeleine's first birthday, we decided to have some family time the weekend before she actually turned one (on Monday, the 29th of December). Eve and Rory left Saturday morning and we decided to take a little family hike up one of the local canyons. Little did we know what a rough weekend we were going to have!

Ameri and the girls. Charley loved wearing the hat and scarf that Great Grandma 'Nece made for her!

Charley and me

Saturday night Madeleine started getting quite ill and by Sunday evening she had a temperature of 104! Ameri gave her a blessing and her temperature went down. When we took her into the doctor the next day, we found out she had a nasty ear infection and a small case of bronchitis. What a way to spend your first birthday huh? Poor thing. We still got a few smiles out of our little trooper though. She's such a sweetheart!!

Oh the birthday cake! Hmmm. I didn't realize that I had purchased FAT FREE cream cheese for the frosting until I was mixing it up and it wasn't getting stiff. Arrgh! Needless to say, the frosting was a bit goopy. Madie's stinky first birthday didn't even let her have a pretty cake! I did the best I could though and the results were, well, so-so.

My sister Katie first started calling Madie our "little bird" because she has such delicate little features. The name stuck with me though because the girl DOES NOT EAT. She refuses. She will take a bottle, but even at 1 year, she only has about 6 ounces per bottle. I'm not even giving her whole milk yet because I decided that a toddler type formula was the only thing that I could garauntee would give her the calories and vitamins that she needs. With a little extra vitamin dosage she seems to be growing just fine, but meal time is definitely frustrating. SO, short story long, I decided to give her a cake fit for a "little bird".

It was SUPPOSED to be a garden with some little birds in it. I had to keep sticking it in the fridge between applications. The following is WHAT I GOT. I figured the chocolate cake sticking through could count as dirt . . . it's a stretch!

Sad, but there it is.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE BIRD!

Christmas '08

We had a very quiet Christmas this year. We stayed in California and Ameri's sister Eve and her husband Rory came down to celebrate with us. We moved our extra "bed" out of the girls room and into the living room so that Eve and Rory could get some sleep without the girls waking them up . . . yeah, right! They took off a day early so that may be some indication of just how much sleep they really got! :) At least they got to sleep under the Christmas tree and see Santa!

Our tree.

The Stockings were hung on the bookshelf with care, in hopes that the loot wasn't too heavy to bear!

Charley's lovely gingerbread creations. Thanks Mariana!

The reindeer ears were brought out again this year!

The Christmas bake-fest! It was a lot of fun to have the four adults running around in the kitchen on Christmas Eve. Ameri and I even delivered several plates after our feast.

Tatie Eve made a beautiful "Bûche de Noël". It was fun to have a French tradition added to our Christmas Eve.

What Santa left for the girls . . .

What they left for Santa!

Madeleine trying to access Grandma Charlene's gift!

Charley enjoying her new dress-ups with Uncle Rory

She fell asleep within minutes of hitting her pillow that night!

No Husbands Allowed - Sorta.

My littler sister Katie and I took a road trip up to Utah with our kids at the beginning of December. Ameri and Ben both had to work around Christmas time so we decided to go up to Utah early and get our family fix. My sister Julie's husband was deployed to Qatar at the time and Jennie's husband Travis had just returned from his 3rd deployment to Iraq. We girls took the opportunity to have some girl time with our mom. Travis had to deal with a house full of women for a week but Jennie said it was fine because he's been around men for a year!

There are a lot of pictures! You've been warned!

The Road Trip!

Madie takes the wheel. Wassup'?

My co-pilots! Poor Eli looks like he's thinking, "Man Mom! Pay attention here!"

Charley was quite comfortable in the very back! She had quite the set-up with her movies and big 'ol Britax seat!

Finally arriving at Grandma Charlene's. Madie and Eli were pretty tired!

ELEVEN of Grandma Charlene's THIRTEEN grandkids in one room. We were just missing Josh and Emily!

A trip to the park - just one block from Grandma's.

Charley's colorful even in the winter!

My blue-eyed Madeleine.

Happy Xander!

I'm diggin' Jennie's 'do. Brooklyn looks particularly excited to see me taking a picture!

Papa Allen and Uncle Travis - looking at video from Iraq.

Olga, Rory and Eve - helping Madie celebrate her first birthday a little early.

Cash and Eli. Quite the cutie-patooties!

Attempting to re-create a picture we took in our youth. We couldn't quite get the faces right!

This one was the closest! I'll have to get a copy of the original so that you can all understand how funny this picture really is!!

Jennie looking beautiful holding Eli and Katie.

Great Grandma 'Nece, Papa Allen, and Grandma Charlene with Madie, Eli and Cash.

Cash, 'Lo, Johnny and Sydney - checking out Temple Square at Christmastime.

Me and my girls at Temple Square.

Katie and Eli. Don't you just love Eli's little head popping out?

Bundled up for the cold.

A great shot of the Salt Lake Temple from the south side.

Thanksgiving

Here are some of my favorite shots from Thanksgiving. I love my family!

Charley

Ben's (Katie's hubby) impression of "Easter Island".

Katie's . . . attempt.

Katie's little Eli and a sweet (unedited for affect) picture of Madie's evil twin with Ameri and Steven.

Katie again. She obviously got a hold of my new camera and took some action shots! You would never know she was the baby of the family.

Happy, er, Halloween?

Well folks, I finally have my business license, insurance, babysitter and a new place to train. I've quit the gym where I was working and I have a new digital camera. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have past. That means I can finally sit down and catch up a bit!

My girls were flowers for Halloween. Here are a few photos of them on the big night.

Madie's first Halloween.

I was a gardener, Madie was just a cute flower :), Charley was an Iris and, happily, Charley's best friend showed up as a bumblebee. You can tell these pictures were taken with a disposable camera!

Trick or Treating

The last good picture our old camera took - Charley the little iris!