we love giraffes

Maddie loves her Sophie the Giraffe toy that Aunt Jess, Uncle Nick and Cousin Bridger gave her for Christmas. She loves that Sophie has a long neck to hold tight to with four long legs to chew on and a pair of horns to suck. Perhaps she acquired the love of Giraffes (well mostly those dressed as one) from me.

toes

look who found a new little something to suck on...

solids & sippy cups

Our New Years Eve was eventful for Maddie. She had her first taste of real food (if you consider baby food real food that is). I can't really say it was her first taste because one day my mom, dad and I were out to lunch and I came back to the table to find Maddie sucking on a lime my dad had offered her and she loved. Liz told me you know when to give them solids when they eye your food and Maddie was not only eyeing, she was reaching for.

I buckled her in for the ride and made a make-shift bib...we were on vacation.

If you can see past Cody's thumb her reaction was pretty funny.

Here is a bit of footage for those who have sometime and yes there were 20 people there the celebrate with us.

Maddie loves all varieties of food now including green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatos, prunes, peaches and pears.

I read that they will tell you when they have had enough. Well, this is the signal I get.Although a terrible picture, Maddie is starting to love her double handled sippy cup that she can grab and bring to her mouth. It is pretty amazing how natural everything is to babies.

favorite toys

Look who are already starting to play so well together...our two little youngsters. Funny enough I think they are both just recognizing they live under the same roof. Drake needs to teach Maddie how to make her toys make more noise because he totally has that one down (his goose honks all day long).Grammie and Grandpa sure made Maddie one happy girl this Christmas. Now she just needs to grow a few inches to get her feet on the ground. She leans all the way onto one side and gets one foot down so far.

california for the holidays

My family talked to our sister missionary, Alexis, on Christmas and then headed her way for the holidays. We drove to St George, stayed the night in Cody's parents place Christmas night and then headed the rest of the way Saturday. We had some time before check in so we made a stop in Vegas.

Sunday we were able to attend a nice sacrament meeting in Oceanside and ran into some of Cody's neighbors and Liz saw a friend from thier ward in Huntington from a few years back.

Monday we (and oh so many others) headed to Disneyland. It was perfect weather and the Christmas decorations were tops.

Cody ordered some giant turkey leg and naturally thought Maddie needed some. Funny thing is she happily gave it a try and wanted more when Cody put it down. She loved "Its a Small World" although one would not be able to tell from this picture. She was likely wanting to look around at the great decorations from all over the world, Christmas style.We did get to go on a few adult rides and this picture catches it perfectly. Cody and my nephew Josh (in the front) spashed water on each other the whole ride. It didn't matter once we hit a big spash and Josh turned around with water dripping from everywhere. Maddie was one of the main attractions there. I had multiple people come up and want to take pictures with her which was pretty weird. The rest of the week was spent on the beach, surfing, watchimg those surfing/sailing, singing to Jeff and Cody on the guitar, Rock Band, site seeing and a little shopping.Old Town San Diego is a really cool historical site with some delish mexican food. This is a picture of us at the San Diego Mormon Battalion Historic Site where Alexis will be serving upon completion.We are also pretty excited for her to have such an amazing temple to attend and serve at.

All and all, as you can see we had a fabulous holiday and vacation and can't wait until March 2011 to pick our little sister up and have our own personal tour guide.

christmas

Maddie and I had a good time one afternoon after we finally put up our Christmas tree. As I was walking through a store during Christmas time one kind old man mentioned how cute Maddie was and said to me she was the best gift anyone could get, true that is how I wished I had replied.