Weddings...

The past two weekends we have been busy celebrating weddings of two good friends. Two weekends ago all of my family was in town to celebrate the beautiful wedding of Ashley and Phil. The wedding was perfect and so much fun to have everyone here. It was nice to get time out knowing we were leaving Madelyn with some of the best babysitters possible. Thank you Aunt Sue who stayed and spoiled Madelyn on Friday so Derek and I could go to rehearsal dinner and thank you to MaryAnn on Saturday. Madelyn loved having her Nanny here to spend the night with :) Derek and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend of being with some of our closest friends and family. However, we paid for it the week after. Apparently being parents has aged us and our ability to stay out late and go off little sleep.  As always the weekend flew by and it was hard to see everyone leave!

This past weekend we headed to Gatlinburg, TN to celebrate the wedding of Derek's good friend Darren that he has known since 6th grade.  I had heard a lot about Gatlinburg and most of all heard it had fun shopping :) We took Madelyn with us since we didn't get to spend much time with her the weekend before and wanting to spend my birthday with all of us together. The wedding was beautiful and it was really nice to catch up with friends that we just don't seem to get to see often enough.

After, these two crazy weekends we are beyond excited for a weekend at home this coming weekend to relax and play catch up.

As today is May 1st it is almost impossible to believe that next month we will be celebrating Madelyn's 1st birthday, yikes!!! She has developed such a personality that makes us smile and laugh everyday. Here are her recent developments.

Words she currently says:

• Mama, Dada, 
• BO (still her #1 word) 
• Go (anyone that comes to our house knows we have to yell at Bo to go to the bathoom when we let him out, so now she stands at the door and says GO, lol)
• Bye-Bye
• Car
• Teeth (and will point at your teeth, we think she is going to be a dentist because she LOVES teeth!

Her favorite activities:

• opening and closing doors (by far her favorite activity)
• chasing Bo (goes on for awhile since everytime she gets to him he isn't about it and moves to a new spot)
• will clap and play patty-cake with you
• Getting into anything she shouldn't be in (she has become very observant and learns quick. For example this morning she watched Derek step on the lever to open the trash can lid in the kitchen and this afternoon she was all into that and opening it)
• Mimicking what we say ( especially weird noises and fake coughing)
• giving kisses

She is standing for long periods of time and is trying to figure out how to step and keep her balance. No walking yet though. She has become an eating machine. Thankfully, she is not a picky eater at all anymore. She does a really good job during meals using her baby sign for "more" to let us know how much she wants. She has become a big fan of scrambled eggs!

Here are some pictures and videos...

The Bridal Party at rehearsal 

Family picture at rehearsal dinner, minus Dad, Dorice and Aunt Sue :(

With El :)

With the beautiful bride getting hair and make-up

Ashley and Phil's Wedding 4-20-13

Opening all my gifts Aunt Katty brought with, including my new fedora hat!!

THANK YOU AUNT KATTY!!!!

An ice cream-aholic!