Leaping Lizards!

Today we all spent a little time outside after Maddi's nap working in the yard. Actually, Moss worked in the yard while Maddi and I watched and played! We still have never fixed the bush issue the plumbers left behind in January. So Moss is pulling the bushes now so we can try to figure out what to do with that area. While we were out there we saw a chameleon on the house and as always decided to use it as a biology lesson for Maddi. She was interested for like 30 seconds. But she did seem upset when we finally let the little thing go. He was quite distressed from being caught. He changed colors from brown to green and was huffing and puffing! That's what he gets for hanging around our house!

Maddi helping Daddy pick up sticks!

The lizard.

He's actually biting Moss here. He says it didn't hurt; that they don't really have teeth. He was obviously upset though!

Maddi watching the lizard after we let it go.

Upset we the lizard ran away!

Bed Head

This is what my child's hair looks like in the morning! Actually, it was a little tamer than usual on this day. I love her hair in the morning! It's so wild! Unfortunately, it is a little too wild to leave down like this during the day. Which is why she always has a pony tail or her hair pulled at least half back. Otherwise, it would be in her face all day. If it falls in her face, she takes both her hands and pushes it out of her face so dramatically. It is the cutest thing! Mainly because it looks like such a grown up movement. You don't see too many 18 month olds worrying about hair in their face like that. Then she usually even gives up on that and walks around with it hanging in her face like a sheep dog until I pull it back. It always makes us laugh!

Memorial Day Get Together

My family got together over at my parents house on Sunday for an early Memorial Day celebration. It was a rare occurrence that my WHOLE family was there! This is hard to do lately with all of our busy schedules! We had such a great time! Since Maddi and Sadee are getting a little older, the age gap seems to be getting smaller. Sadee is up and walking around and we had about 4 or 5 all out battles on our hands with the two of them fighting over toys, cups, food, etc. I'm sure this is just a taste of what's to come with these two! But they did have fun playing together, too. It's so fun these days to get all the girls together! Maddi was completely tuckered out when we left and barely made it off my parents' road before falling asleep! We are just relaxing at home today. My first day back from vacation will be tomorrow and I am VERY sad about this! Oh well, it had to come to an end some time. Now, I will just have to look forward to our next vacation!

Moss making friends with the horses and donkey.

The swing was one of the many things Maddi and Sadee fought over. Bud and Sissi are going to have to get a second swing!

Sadee on the trampoline!

We had the girls in their swim suits earlier in the day, but Maddi was having none of the water at that time. Then it looked like it was going to rain, so we brought them in and changed them back in their clothes. Later, it cleared up and we went back outside. Of course, Maddi decided then that she wanted to play in the water! Her clothes were soaked!

They had fun splashing Bud!

Yes, Kaily is drinking a Slim Fast. She got it out of Sissi's fridge and apparently loves them! Silly girl!

After she got all wet, Maddi decided to play on the slide which was dirty from being outside. She wiped all the dirt up with her butt as you will see in later pics!

Look at that butt! And she had no problem running around in the grass with no shoes! My little country girl!

Now, it's really dirty! Ugh! I currently have these shorts in the wash and am praying I was able to Oxy Clean it out!

The girls playing in the back of Uncle Scott's truck.

What hams!

Maddi was really serious about giving Sadee kisses! She kept grabbing her face to pull her to her!

Sadee says "Enough!"

Sadee trying to bail out of the truck!

This was the best we could of this pic!

Waterbaby Graduate

Maddi graduated from her first level swim lessons! I didn't believe it when they said at the beginning that they would be able to stay under for 5 seconds by the end. But, I'll be darned if she wasn't! She has done really well and we start Waterbaby 2 on Friday! Moss took pics again of her last lesson. But then I started thinking it was really silly of us not to bring the video camera so you can really see her staying underwater. So we will try to do that at her next lesson. I went ahead and posted a few pics anyway!

Jumping to Mom!

Trying to blow bubbles and retrieve her swim ring. We haven't really mastered this one yet but I am very proud of her for trying!

Beach Videos

Finally got the beach videos loaded! The first one is Maddi still getting used to the water. The second one she has the hang of it! You'll have to forgive my voice in the second one. My mom called and was telling me about an injury my niece had over the weekend and I didn't think about by voice being picked up by the video recorder. Enjoy!

Padre Island Vacation

I'm giving you fair warning ahead of time! This is a long post with tons of pictures! We have had this vacation planned for quite some time and had been so looking forward to some time off! And we finally got to take Maddi to the beach! We went to Padre Island and it was so great! I will say we were slightly worried it would not go over so well because about two weeks before our trip, Maddi was introduced to sand for the first time at a playground down in The Woodlands and was not all that keen on it. However, once we showed her how to dig with sand shovels and gave her a sand bucket we had nothing to worry about! She figured it all out pretty quick!

Our next hurdle then was the water! Again, it took a little while for her to get comfortable with it but once she did, she LOVED it! By the second day, she was a beach lover! And because of this, she learned the word "water." She now says it anytime she sees water when we are driving and every time she says it I remember her at the beach! It is so cute!

We also went to the Texas State Aquarium while we were there which was also a lot of fun for Maddi. She learned "fish" and "turtle." She says so many new words almost daily now it is hard to keep up!

She was also a very good traveler this time around and we were in the car A LOT! Four hours down to The Woodlands on Friday, four hours to Padre on Saturday, four hours back to The Woodlands on Monday, an hour both ways to Houston to see more family on Tuesday, and then four hours back home Wednesday. A LOT of driving! This time, however, we had our handy dandy DVD player to keep her occupied. We watched A LOT of Elmo!! We only had 3 Elmo DVDs in all so needless to say, Moss and I were going a little Elmo batty by the end of the trip. But it was still better than no Elmo, that's for sure! And the first thing on my list today was to go to Target and buy up the rest of the Elmo movies I could find so we would have more options on our next trip! But she rarely fussed in the car at all which was wonderful. But because of all the driving we did, poor Maddi never got to have a regular nap in a crib. All her napping was done in the car which were never good naps. She won't sleep for more than 30- 45 minutes at a time in the car. Her regular naps are close to 2 hours, so needless to say, by the end of the trip she was a little fussy here and there due to lack of sleep. She did great today once I got her back on schedule. Moss was back at work today, but I still have the rest of the week off! Yay!

I have some video of her at the beach, too, which I will try and get uploaded in the next couple of days. I so wish I were back on that beach! It was such a great time and a wonderful memory of Maddi's first beach experience! We will definitely be going next year again, if not sooner!

Our first day at the beach:

Getting used to the water.

At the aquarium:

Our second and last beach day:

She's a beach pro now!

Look at her chubby legs!

Family time!

Feeding the turtles and ducks with Grandpa!

She wanted to hang as far off the edge as possible and even wanted Moss not to hold on to her at one point! Which, of course, we said "no" to.

Pics with Meemaw (her Great-grandma).

Pics with Peepaw.

With Aunt Traci, Uncle Dennis, and cousin Riley!

Pics with Grandma and her other Great-grandma!

Spoiled with a chocolate chip cookie on the way home for being such a good girl!

What a mess!

Cool chic with Mom's shades!