Picture overload

Zach's parents gave us a check for Christmas and told us to use it on something fun...so we did! We bought a new digital camera, since our old one didn't want to take clear pictures. (I knew it wasn't just me shaking the camera since the pics were still blurry when I would set the camera on the table to take the picture) So we have spent the last few days playing with the camera. It has some really neat features. 

Madie playing with her water baby

Madie trying to be a water baby :) (For those with no water baby experience that pink funnel is the one you use to put the water into the water baby)

Zach playing with one of our filters (this is not a feature of the new camera, we have a few filters)

Cutie pie

more of the cutie pie

ditto

This is not a photoshop-ed picture...this was actually done with the camera

I know, it's pretty cool.

One more of the cutie pie...for good measure

We have this dancing snowman that Madie just loves! She always gets excited when we turn it on (she sometimes gets excited just when she sees him) so we video taped them together. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Thank you to our amazing family for all of the wonderful things you gave us today. We truely appreciate it!

I would like to show off a little bit, though. Here are some of the things I made for others this year.

For two of Zach's sisters I made them journals. I didn't actually make the journal part, I just decorated it super cute! I made a cookbook for his other sister, but it isn't very cute just to look at so there is no picture of it.

For my little sister, I made bookends that spell her name and match the colors of her bedroom. I think they were a big hit. :)

I made a wreath for my mom out of picture frames. She likes to hang a wreath during the holidays and I thought this way she could have one up all year long. I know the colors look kind of Christmas-y but it actually matches the colors of her living room.

For Zach's parents, I made the following wall hanging. 

Here is Madie on Christmas morning playing with her slinky and opening presents :)

Zach got me this picture that says, "The greatest work you will ever do will be done within the walls of your own home." Very appropriate for this year :)

Picture time

We took Madie to get her picture taken with all of her cousins on Wednesday. The results were much better than the last time. :)

Catching Up

Brace yourself...this might be a really long post! 

Notice: There aren't any pictures on this post yet. I have to get them off of people's cameras but hopefully they will be on here tonight, so check back :)

Thanksgiving was good. We went over to Zach's aunt and uncle's house for some socializing before we left to go eat with my family. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to his cousins sealing, where we ran into the Merkleys. It was nice to see them again. We had to leave Madison, which was kind of hard since that was only the second time we have left her with someone other than myself or Zach. She did pretty good though. I feel a little better leaving her now that she will drink from a sippie cup. Since she would never take a bottle I always felt like if I left her I would need to be back in time to feed her. 

Last weekend we went to Sedona with my family (minus Nick and Lindsay, since they live in California). That was a lot of fun. I realized just how much work it is to go out of town over night when you have a baby. No more will be the days of just picking up on a Friday afternoon and going away for a few days (not that we ever really did that before, but it is not so much an option now). Madison did pretty well on the 2 hour car ride up there. She was a little bit fussy for the second half but we kept her pretty well entertained. Luckily she slept the whole way home, so that was good. We decorated gingerbread houses, went on a little hike (it was more like a walk, but what do you expect when you have 6 kids under the age of 5 with you), and had a guitar hero tournament. It was true tournament style, with everyone playing the same song on the same level of difficulty as a qualifying round to determine who had to play on which level of difficulty for the actualy tournament. We did a double elimination bracket style, and yours truely went undefeated to take the title. I'm still not sure how that happened. 

Madison decided that she wanted to play in the tournament too! :)

Tomorrow is baking day! Hooray for baking day! All day with my mom and sisters baking goodies...what's not to love! 

I love the holidays but they can really wear you out! I still feel like I have so much to do. Sometimes I feel like I am almost done with the Christmas presents I am making for people, but other times I wonder if I am going to finish before Christmas!

Hopefully, tomorrow we will get a cute family picture for the holidays. I am excited to be taking family pictures for some of our friends. It has been a while since I took pictures of something other than Madie and I often miss it. And hooray for getting together with old friends. I can't wait to see you next week, Alissa :)

I am cheap! I couldn't find a baby's first Christmas ornament that I liked for a decent price (I have a hard time paying $15 for an ornament) so I decided to make Madison's first Christmas ornament. Her bedroom, which is pink with purple butterflies, was my inspiration. So for a grand total of $1.25, here is what I made her.

Here is our lovely Christmas tree, all decked out. 

Smarty Pants, Five, Awesome Parking Skills

Zach got his grade back for project 4...he got 12.94 out of 13! It was the highest grade out of all of the students, and there are about 350 students in his class! So that makes at least 2 out of 6 projects that he got the highest grade in the class! I'm so proud of him!!! On Monday he should find out his grade on project 5 and he turns in project 6 (his last one, HOORAY!). So in just a few days I will get my hubby back, for a couple of weeks at least.

Madie has a new trick. She likes to give high five! It is more like a low five, but close enough. It is super cute to see her learning new things. She also got a sippie cup today. I figured since she won't take a bottle I might as well try giving her a sippie cup. She does pretty well with it. I handed it to her and she immediately put it in her mouth and started chewing on it. After a few minutes I could hear that she was sucking on it, so I put some water in and it she drank some of it! Hopefully, this will mean that I can start leaving her with other people and not have to worry so much about getting back in time to feed her. :)

So I took Madie to a drs appt yesterday up in Phoenix and when I got there, there wasn't really anywhere to park that I thought I could fit my mom's Trailblazer into. But I wasn't going to park on the street, since I didn't have any coins to pay for it. So I figured all I could do was try to park in one of the three spots that had cars parked on or over the line. I settled on one and somehow managed to get the car in without hitting or scratching any of the cars. I was quite impressed with myself, so I took a picture of each side so you can see how close the other cars really were. 

There was probably between 12 and 18 inches on this side 

(good thing I was planning on leaving the carseat in the car)

I had just enough room to get out on this side, so maybe 6 inches!

Those of you who drive bigger cars are probably laughing that I am proud of myself for this parking job, but keep in mind I usually drive a neon. 

And because I can't post without a picture of miss Madie... here she is enjoying her squash :)

Dangers of Nyquil, Birthday and 6 months!

Saturday night at 3:00 Zach got up to blow his nose. Well it woke Madie up (she had been sleeping in the swing in our bedroom because she had a stuffy nose) and she wouldn't go back to sleep. So I got up with her and when I got back in bed Zach was hoging all of the pillows, which is not his usual behavior. I was quite annoyed with Zach, because he knows better than to just blow his nose with Madie right there (this was not the first time he has awakened her with such noises, but usually we are both still awake when this has happened). I come to find out in the morning that he has no recollection of this what so ever! How could he not hear our screaming child, you ask? He took some Nyquil before going to bed to help with his cold. I told him that he is not allowed to take such drugs before bed since it makes him, as he put it, sleep walk. (Call it what you want, he's not the one that had to get up with Madie)

Thanks to all my familiy for the wonderful birthday gifts and wishes. It is always nice to know people are thinking of you on your birthday (for those who don't know my birthday was on Monday).

And speaking of Monday, Madison had her 6 month check up. She turned 6 months last Saturday. She is 15.5 pounds and 26.5 inches long. This puts her just average for her weight and in the 75th percentile for her height. She is doing really well with eating "solid" foods. So far she has only had squash and carrots. She really liked the squash and she liked the carrots at first but the last two times I tried giving them to her she didn't really want them (not sure if it is because of the taste or because she just got shots and so she isn't her normal self quite yet). In another couple of weeks we are going to try giving her real solid foods, starting with puffs. We'll see how that goes! Here is a look back at our sweet baby girl's 6 months of life. (I will try to not put pictures that I have already posted, but I make no promises)

I have been all cheeks since birth!

1 month - A rare moment on my tummy

2 months - I can hold my head up now

3 months - I got blessed by my awesome daddy

4 months - right before first attempt at rice cereal

5 months - I love to give kisses!

6 months - My arms are getting so much better...I like to chew on my thumb...

and get into everything. I especially love to empty the diaper bin!

Anything I can see I need! Don't I look so great in mommy's sunglasses!?!

Happy Halloween

Madie was a ballerina for her 1st Halloween. I made her tutu and it turned out soooo cute and pink and fluffy! She didn't really seem too impressed by trick-or-treating, but I wasn't really expecting much. Two of Zach's sisters and one of his brothers stopped by for pictures with Madie (I will have to post these pics later since I left my camera at my sister's house) and his parents sent her a 1st Halloween card in the mail, I thought that was so sweet. 

Madie's arms are starting to make some improvements. Her elbows still don't bend all of the way but she can now get her pacie in her mouth on her own! Hooray! Just in time for us to start limiting pacie use to the crib and carseat, go figure! She is getting to be quite the little smartie. She knows to bring her hands together when I start to sing "If you're happy and you know it" to her. She can't clap them on her own yet...but it is still super cute. 

Zach hasn't received his official grade for his last project yet, but when the professor walked by last week to look at his model he made the comment that it looked like a 5 out of 5, perfect, just what they were looking for. He was so excited about that that he called me as soon as his class got out. It was cute. He only has 2 more projects for the semester for his uber time consuming class! YAY! If he continues to get super good grades like he has then he will be finished with that class before Thanksgiving!

And for your viewing pleasure...

Ballerina Madie

She is so proud of herself when she picks something up off the floor while sitting up!

She also likes to drink out of my cup...she always thinks she needs it when I go to take a drink.

Photo Shoot

Sometimes I can't believe how quickly Madison is growing! She can sit up all by herself now. She actually started doing this a week or two ago. I thought it would be fun to get pictures of her sitting up. 

She loves to read...her favorite book right now is her Minnie Ballerina book that she got from her Aunt Kristi. 

She also loves her COW rattle (it is a COW, Lori!!!). It is one of the easiest for her to get into her mouth :)

Apparently my computer didn't save the red eye removal on this picture :/ But I still think she looks super cute!

I loved this picture, with her looking away...too bad it is blurry :(

Other than our child, who is growing like a weed, not much is new. We are still working on getting everything with the car worked out with the insurance company and still waiting to hear from the other specialist about an appointment for Madie's elbows. Zach is doing really well in his classes, which he should be given how much time he spends working on his projects.  

Keep your eyes out for a post with Madie going trick-or-treating on Halloween with her cousins (she's going to be a ballerina).

Rollie Pollie

Our little miss Madison has decided to be a rollie pollie. She figured out how to roll onto her tummy a few weeks ago (she has been rolling onto her back since she was 6 weeks old) but hasn't rolled much, until this week. She apparently decided that she enjoys rolling all over the floor and she has done it more and more each day this week. Almost every time I put her on the floor yesterday she started rolling...so I video taped it. Enjoy :)

I've Been Tagged

I think this is my first time being tagged (at least that I've noticed...I wasn't very good at reading other people's blogs until recently) so here we go...

8 OBSESSIONS

* Madison...what more need I say?

*Zach...especially now that he is so busy with homework all of the time
*Making crafts, mostly as Christmas gifts for family
* Making bows for my beautiful little girl's head
* Scrapbooking...I've come a long way from my days of simply putting a picture on a piece of paper all by itself
* Hanging out with my family
* Reading other people's blogs...yes, I even read blogs of people I don't know
* Trying new recipes...if any of you have a good one feel free to let me know!

8 WORDS OR PHRASES I USE OFTEN
* Hello missy boo
* Doh
* No mas aqui (usually when Zach is tickling me)
* Uh oh (when Madie drops her pacie)
*Well now you lost it (when it is the third or fourth time she has dropped it/spit it out)
* Good heavens
* Madison Taylor, you're ok (Madie cries almost any time I leave the room)
* Momma's gonna get you

8 THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE
* Go on a mission with my love
* Have more kids
* Graduate from college (although this would require picking a major)
* Take a church history tour (yes I have done this before but I was so young...I would like to do it again)
* Buy a house
* Go to culinary school
* Take up photography again...I miss it sometimes
* Ride on an old-fashon horse-drawn sleigh through the snow on a wintery evening with Zach (yes, Heather, I stole this one from you)

8 THINGS I'VE LEARNED
*I need other people's help sometimes
*How to switch the laundry with one hand
*How to do the dishes with one hand
*How to do just about everything with one hand (Can you tell miss Madie likes to be held)
*I would rather be sick than have Madie or Zach be sick
*How to make hair bows (don't get me wrong, I'm no pro)
*When I feel like I don't fit in it is usually all in my head
*Marriage can be a lot of work sometimes

8 PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO GO
*Hawaii
*Salt Lake during Christmas time, I want to see the temple lights
*The Nauvoo Temple
*The San Diego Temple
*Disneyworld
*The Portland Temple (this is Zach's temple)
*The beach...just about any beach as long as the water is warm
*One of Paula Dean's restaurants

8 THINGS I CURRENTLY WANT OR NEED
*I want to sleep through the night for more than a few nights in a row (ok, so maybe that is too much to ask of a 4 month old)
*I want more time with Zach
*I would love for Madie to take a nap for longer than 30 minutes on a consistent basis
*I want the desire to excercise more
*I need to be better about writing in my and Madie's journals
*I want it to be Christmas time
*I want to not get so upset about the little things
*I want to get our smushed car fixed

8 PEOPLE I TAG
*Mom
*Kristi
*Lori
*Lindsay
*Joyln
*Desiree
*Ashlee
*Summer

I know it only says to tag 8 people but I actually want to tag anyone that reads our blog :)

That actually was harder than I was expecting it to be!

Crunch

So Zach got in a car accident on Saturday. It pretty much crunched the front passenger side of the Saturn. I was not a happy camper to say the least! The lady was willing to admit that it was all her fault and has been pretty cooperative so far. He was turning left onto Country Club getting off of the 60 and a lady ran a red light (trying not to be late for work...don't you love the irony?) and smashed into Zach. Luckily he is ok...sadly the car is not so much. The picture doesn't really do it justice. Then we found out yesterday while working with the lady's insurance company that she no longer had coverage with them. She is an illegal and drives her ex-husband's truck and he apparently cancelled the policy...go figure. Hopefully we can get this whole mess worked out pretty soon here. 

On a different note...Madie has her appt with the orthopedic dr tomorrow. I'm really hoping that will go well and that there are some excercises I can do with her to loosen up her arms and that there isn't anything serious that is wrong. 

And as usual, here are some pics that I just thought were cute, for your viewing pleasure :)