This past weekend was a busy one for Mads. It started off Saturday morning with her first mommy and me gymnastics class. The "mommy" was a combo of Derek and I seeing as I'm 6 months pregnant and we didn't think the trampoline and other activities would be the best for me :) Madelyn loved it. By the end of the 30 minute class she was exhausted. It was a great way for her to be active, interact with other kids and practice listening to directions.  She of course has a long ways to go before joining the US Olympic team:)

She also had two playdates this weekend. It is fun to watch her interact with other kids now that she is of an age where they actually play together. She also went for her second time to play in the toddler room at church this morning. Drop off wasn't near as smooth as last week. Lots of tears and Derek had to send me away because I never would have been able to leave her, but once we left she did much better. After a weekend of running and playing with all these kids she has never crashed as hard for bed as she did tonight!

Last weekend we bought Madelyn a potty to see how she would do. She had started running and saying "poop" or "pee" every time so we thought maybe we'd try it. Of course the night we bought it  she sat right on it and went to the bathroom. The potty sings when she goes and then we gave her an M&M which was SO exciting to her. The weekend was full of several more successful attempts at the potty. We should have known it was too good to be true. I think for a moment Derek and I actually thought we had a chance at having her out of diapers before we have another one in them in May. But as of Tuesday she no longer wants to use it. I guess the excitement wore off. We have backed off and aren't pushing it as we have read and been told you can't make them until they are ready. So for now we are on a potty break:)

All ready for "nastics"

Miss Hollywood on our way to the sitter

After our bath in our cute robe:)

Coloring on our new color mat from Aunt Sue

Someone was so excited to finally have a nice day to ride in her car

Christmas 2013

This year we headed to Iowa for Christmas. As always this trip was nothing near smooth. We had delayed flights, cancelled flights, lost luggage for 3 days, etc. However, it was all worth it for the perfect week with family. We packed a lot into the week; baking cookies, sledding, shopping, hitting all our favorite restaurants, Derek's birthday, catching up with good friends, you name it we most likely did it!

Madelyn loved Christmas this year. It was really fun to see her getting into it. She loved opening presents and got very excited about her gifts. We would have to take breaks and let her play with some otherwise she got overwhelmed. Some of her favorite gifts were a kitchen, little people amusement park, stroller for her baby dolls, pink toddler broom to sweep like mom, hug me Elmo, an activity suitcase, an awesome color pad, a whole new wardrobe and lots more. She was spoiled rotten thats for sure! Baby W even got some presents this year. Thanks to Aunt Sue, Krystie, Kerra and Elly he got his first outfits. It was fun for Derek and I to get blue things as we have gotten so use to pink:)

We couldn't have asked for a better week and we are so thankful for everything. It is getting harder for all the family to get together anymore that we have really grown to appreciate and cherish the time we  have with everyone! It was especially neat to see Madelyn and Beckett playing together. They are at an age that they loved playing with each other and when Beckett left Madelyn walked around the house calling for him:( Here are lots of pictures from Christmas this year!

It was a white Christmas for sure!

Someone LOVED sledding or as she called it "more slide"

B and Mads sledding :)

Derek's Birthday Party!

Baking Christmas cookies with Nana

Someone got a taste of the frosting

Cutest little aprons thanks to Nana!

Telling stories before bed

Christmas Eve morning at Grandpa and Grandmas!

Someone was pretty excited about Elmo!

Helping Grandpa play card games

Christmas Eve

Yummy strawberry Santa treats that Grandma made

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning, Santa CAME!

Madelyn opening her stocking from Santa

Some many great gifts!

Giving Nana kisses for all their fun new gifts!

Christmas Day at Aunt Sues, we couldn't get a smile but the holding hands was precious! 

Christmas Day :)

Family Picture Christmas Day

Great picture from Christmas Day

We were taking a girls pictures and Madelyn came running in, apparently not happy we left her out, haha!

Opening gifts at Aunt Sues, Madelyn was very excited about her new pans from Aunt Elly and Aunt Kerra!

 And the entertainment of the week, Nana's new ride for the grandkids! They loved riding in it and lets just say their driving skills were the best laughter we had all week!

BOY oh BOY!!

It's a.... BOY! I kept telling Derek this time I thought it was a boy but to actually go to the ultra sound and hear them say "It's a boy!!" was so exciting!! We feel so lucky that we will soon have a little boy and girl :) I think relief best sums up how Derek felt! As we sat down for the ultra sound Derek took a deep breath, lol! Not that he hasn't loved being a father to a girl, he just has been told by many people they think he is going to have all diva girls like Mads :)  Safe to say he was on cloud 9 when little baby W showed off his goods right away! For the record when we polled the family for votes on Madelyn, the majority by far was boy. This time when we polled the majority by far was girls, guess we know who not to count on for predications lol!

This weekend we are moving and last night was offically our last night sleeping in our old house. It is bitter sweet as we are so happy we sold but it is hard not to think of all the memories made in a home. All I keep saying is thank goodness we leave for Iowa on Friday, if I didn't have that excitement to keep me going I don't know how I would make it through this weekend/week! I think it is safe to say we will never move again at the holidays, with a toddler, while pregnant!  Thank you to Derek's dad Dale and brother in law Andy for helping with the movie and for his mother Mary Ann for sending some food our way to help during the move!

Last weekend we had breakfast with Santa. Madelyn loved the breakfast part but not so much the Santa part! Everyone needs a good screaming Santa picture, right?! LOL! Have to keep this a short post as I really should be packing! Here are a few pics/videos!

No twins!! Our vision was Madelyn would run in and open the box and lots of blue balloons would come out, clearly with a cranky 18 month old things never go as visioned haha!

With Mama at Breakfast with Santa, gotta love that new smile!

Priceless, haha!

Sitting with Daddy at church for a play one of my students was in,  someone was SO good!

Thanksgiving

It seems every year we have more to be thankful for. This year we are so thankful that we have been given the most amazing daughter. We can't imagine life without her and don't know how we got so blessed to have her! To top that off we are beyond thankful this year to be expecting another baby! We also are under contract on our house and so thankful for how everything has worked out with this.  The buyer requested a 30 day closing, so on top of holiday stress we are packing and trying to move. Since we don't have time to find a house we want due to the short close, we are renting a friends house who has had it on the market for awhile. It will be stressful because this of course will mean two moves instead of one, but it is worth it to make sure we find the right home and in the right area! Lastly, this process has reminded us how thankful we are for the amazing friends and family who have supported and helped us through this crazy transition!

For Thanksgiving this year we headed up to Virginia on Wednesday to spend it with Derek's family. As always we had such a great time with all the family. Madelyn absolutely loved being with her grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. She hasn't stopped saying their names since coming back to Charlotte. We had a great meal and hated it had to be such a short trip as we needed to get back to pack!

Madelyn has been a learning and talking machine lately! I wouldn't even know where to start to list all her new words. One big thing is she has started counting really well. We have worked on 1-6 and she does it all on her own. (minus often skipping 4 haha) She also will repeat all her ABC's and can do A through D on her own. Our favorite story from this week was she was busy playing and was counting to herself then we heard her say this:... "A,B,C,D, G,I, 8, 9, YEAH!" Apparently her mind is on overload of the abc's and counting, haha! 

This Thursday we find out if Madelyn is getting a BROTHER or SISTER :) We can't wait to find out!!!

Such a cutie on Thanksgiving

Blowing Kisses :)

Family picture over Thanksgiving

 Nanny and Poppy with Tate and Mads

Our new cheesing smile when we ask her to smile for a picture, haha!

Dermatologist Appointment

Today we took Madelyn to the pediatric dermatoligst. We were happy to finally take her as we have fought her diaper rash badly since about 7 months. The visit went great in the sense they took a culture and the doctor was able to diagnosis her immediately after looking at her. She let us know Madelyn has irritant contact dermititis, basically extremely sentsitive skin. Where in most babies/children when irritants in soaps, detergents, lotions, etc. contact their skin they produce oils to bring the balance back to a normal level, Madelyn's is so sensitive she can't. Therefore everything we have tried over the past 9 months has actually made it worse because it was just more chemicals on her skin. We were happy to have an answer however, the solution isn't going to be the fun part. We can no longer use any soaps, lotions, even baby wipes on her!! In the bath we have to use baking soda, wet paper towels and vaseline instead of wipes, etc. For right now during each changing we also have to apply this thick prescription zinc oxide compound paste to her. The doctor explained it that this will be a pretend layer of skin to protect her and to let hers heal, while we use no products/chemical irritants on her. Eventually we will be able to just use the cream at night. The bad part is this cream is not covered by insurance and costs $60 a container, yikes!! Of course all of this will be better once she is out of diapers so lets say we are very motivated to start training her, haha!

Cutest little patient!

Woah guys 26 lbs, I may need to lay off the milk some!

A quick lunch after my doctors appointment!

Loving the leaves!

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year with Madelyn! We only took her trick or treating to a few neighbors and then brought her home to help hand out candy to the other kids. At first she wasn't so sure about all the kids in costumes but after a few she had a good ol' time handing out candy. I wouldn't say she was the fastest at handing out candy so I am sure some of the kids were ready to get their candy and go by the time Mads got it in their bag!! 

Of course she is in this stage that is about near impossible to get a picture of her. Before you can even snap a pic she is off. To make it worse right after we dressed her up I took her out to the front steps to try and get the perfect picture and right as we got out she fell and busted her poor lip! So for the rest of the night she was a cat with a fat lip and no perfect picture lol :( 

This weekend Derek's parents came down to spend some time with Madelyn. She is really getting attached to family who come and all day after they left she kept asking for them. We really enjoyed having them here for a quick visit!

Right before Trick or Treating :)

Waiting for trick or treaters to come!

Practicing handing out candy to dada

Looking at all my goodies the next morning!

little helper

Playing with Poppy

Reading with Nanny, while eating an apple (someone is obsessed with apples right now)

Showing Nanny and Poppy how smart I am on the IPad