Growing Maddie

I'm so amazed at how fast Maddie is growing up. She is so smart and remembers things so well. Last Monday we went to the park to feed the ducks with Casey's family. She couldn't get enough of the ducks and throwing bread into the water. Days later, if I would mention anything related to the day she would begin rapid fire words about the day. If I said Grandma, she would open her eyes wide and say, "Ga? (Grandma) Nas? (Nikolas) Ducks? Bread? Papa?" Maybe it's because I have no previous experience with kids, but every time she does something like this, it's so exciting and new for me.

She is learning so fast and I love teaching her new things. She loves for me to draw her shapes, she's learning her letters and colors, she's starting to try and sing-a-long with songs and she will often just say a word I never taught her. In short, I love being a parent. I love this new experience of seeing my baby develop and progress into a little person. It's so rewarding to be a mother.

1 Down, 11 To Go.

I made a goal to read a book a month this year, and, although I actually started this book a while ago, I'm gonna go ahead and count it for January. Check.

I'm going to give this book a rating of, "Eh". I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it. It was very poetically written. Unfortunately, I've never been a huge poetry fan. I kept finding myself skimming the pages for some useful plot information. Also, it was a little too emotionally intense for me. I enjoy a book that makes me happy...or at least makes me smile...at least once during the book. This book provided none of the above.

Here's the basic plot. A doctor is forced to deliver his own set of twins. One of the twins has downs syndrome, so the doctor hands the baby to his nurse and tells her to take the baby to an institution of sorts. The doctor then tells his wife the girl twin died during birth. And as you can imagine, then comes the emotional drama.

As for February, I've started Ender's Game. I'll let you know how this one goes.

Just Whistle While You Work

Maddie's current movie obsession is Snow White, or White as she calls it. She is so cute when the wicked queen is creating her transformation brew. She is usually standing while watching, and she slowly walks backwards towards either Casey or me without ever taking her eyes from the screen. She creeps back until she is safely by our side.

I would like to thank Disney for encouraging my daughter to clean and eat apples, both activities have increased drastically since her receiving the movie for Christmas.

Reflections and Aspirations

Top Ten 2009 Memories
10. Utah trip: Our first family vacation, with many hours spent in the car.
9.New Pilot: We're so grateful to my mom and stepdad for the uneven trade. We love having more room and feeling so high class.
8. Quitting transcription: A valiant few months of trying to bring home some bacon for the family ended when I could no longer contain my inner beast.
7. Bootcamp: I started bootcamp in September and hope to carry on this year.
6. Soda and Felicity with Casey: I suckered Casey into watching Felicity with me. I borrowed all four seasons from a friend, and we're trying to get finished so we don't have it forever.
5. New camera: We finally saved enough to buy a quality camera. This year perhaps I'll focus on taking quality pictures.
4. Christmas: We did so much more this year as a family. Lots of baking, several trips to look at lights, movies.
3. Maddie turning 1: I've loved watching our little baby grow into a little girl. We've watched her go from immobile to crawling to walking to running all in one year. She's saying so many words and understanding so much. I can't get over how much she makes me smile and laugh everyday.
2. 2 year anniversary: I love that we're still in that honeymoon stage where we just love hanging out with each other. He's such a wonderful husband; I'm excited for all the years to come.
1. Sewing: I'm so happy I've taken up this new hobby, despite all the grief my sisters give me. I truly love it and am so excited to keep learning more and more.

As for 2010 I have a few goals on my list:
1. Pray everyday with my family and study scriptures with my husband daily. I know I need guidance and I know this is how to get that.
2. Exercise one day a week on my own.
3. Read 1 book a month (I'm very open to suggestions).
4. Learn to sew clothing for Maddie.
5. Paint one picture. It's something I haven't done in years.
6. Learn about one new thing a month.

Wish me luck!

Christmas 2009

Maddie quite enjoyed Christmas this year, and we loved it because of her. She woke at 5:30 am, not out of excitement to open her presents, just to wake up. Nana (my mom) got her a cute table and chairs that we put together the night before, and she loved it. She wasn't as enthused about opening presents as we had hoped, but she did get excited after we opened them for her. Her favorite by far was her Super Why dvd. She carried it around all morning and would set it down to open a present, look at the new present, then pick up her Super Why again. She also loved her nesting dolls, her plastic frogs, her Mr. Potato head from Aunt Kristi and Uncle Rich, her rocking chair from Grandpa and her games (Legos and Hungry Hippos) from Grandma and Grandpa.
I think her favorite part of the day was getting to play at cousin Nikolas' house for a couple of hours. She LOVES him, and he tolerates her as she tries to play with all his new toys.
It was a fun Christmas, oh did I mention Casey got me pearls? He is such a cheater and went over our budget of $50 for eachother. I did too, but maybe $20 over. I forgive him though; I love my present and his thoughtfulness.
I am excited for my life to go on as normal now. I used the excuse of having a messy house because I had to use all my time finishing Christmas projects, so now on to keeping it real, one dish at a time.

Happy Christmas Eve

Casa de ginger-pan

El hombre de nieve tiene un sombrero y moustache es muy guapo. Los pez son muy colores. La puerta es abierto. Me gusta mi casa de ginger-pan.

Two years of high school Spanish, two semesters of college Spanish. My teachers would be so proud.