Our Little Climber

Now that Maddie is crawling, it's hard to keep her still! :) Yes, she still loves to be held by mommy, but when she's not cuddling, she is all over the house. Her newest discovery is the stairs. For a while she would just sit in front of them and stare up (we think she was contemplating how to get up them), but now she is ALL action. One night before bed she just decided she would try to climb up them..she almost got to the top of the first flight of stairs (we have a split level apartment). It is so hard to believe how quickly the whole process started. We waited and waited for her to crawl and then one day she crawled from the living room all the way into the kitchen--who knew!?!? She had it in her the whole time, i suppose, but she's such a good natured baby that she was okay with "point A" and didn't really care about getting to "point B". But now the fun of baby proofing begins, especially since she thinks that stairs are free reign for her now--Mom and Dad have to watch her pretty carefully...

Here are some pictures of the journey...

Day One: Sitting close to the stairs...


Day 2: Attempting...still a little unsure


Day 3: Success!



(notice I'm spotting--she's still a little shaky)


almost there--"I think I can, I think I can"
(her face is very determined here, I think)

She is just growing up TOO fast! Her little personality comes out each day and she is sooo quirky and funny! She loves to dance, and will even dance to commercial jingles. Her favorite show is American Idol (with High School Musical 3 being her favorite movie), and she will dance right along to the music as she watches it faithfully. She's our musical prodigy. lol. She also LOVES to clap, wave, and literally say "ha" (hi) to anyone who looks at her. What a social butterfly!! Each day is a new experience, that's for sure, and Maddie is definitely keeping us laughing.

Spring is here! And with it comes outside activities...

Now that the weather is beautiful here, we decided to take little Maddie to the park for the first time. It was a BLAST! She had so much fun going down slides and on the see-saws, but her favorite above all was the swings! I sat her on my lap while we swang and she squealed and laughed the whole time. It was fun to watch her enjoy the park so much--we'll definitely have to continue going during the summer.

In other news, my parents have been here this week and we've had a blast. They initially came to help my brother with some job hunting searches, but he quickly found one that suited him so we were able to enjoy their company. Maddie's got to know her grandma and grandpa pretty well, too. My mom was quick to take her during the hours that I work and Maddie warmed up to them in no time. She really enjoys their attention and love. :) We'll be going to the zoo on Saturday since it'll be in the 70's that day. Stay posted for more pictures!

But here's two cute pictures that Spencer took with his phone while we were at the park. (My mom has better ones from her camera, but i don't have access to those quite yet.):

The good, the bad, and the cuteness...

There's ALWAYS something happening with the Empeys, that's for sure. This weekend, however, the happenings were sickening, literally. A flu "bug" has been traveling around at work, and unfortunately I caught it. Needless to say, on Friday I spent the night with a bucket next to my bed. Hopefully I will get to feeling better, but for now i'm trying really hard not to get my little family sick.

My family will be here on Thursday! Very exciting to have them spending time with us on their spring break!! :)

And, as promised, here is a picture of the b-day present we made for my mom. As you can probably tell, the butterfly wings are maddie's precious little handprints. Her footprints are on the back, along with a copyright title for "Madisen's Creations." We had a lot of fun making it and are planning to go back and make more for other family members and for ourselves too! Spencer was the creative master for the border and I did the detail work for all the bugs, etc. GREAT teamwork! What do ya think?!?

And here's an updated picture of Miss Madisen. She is getting cuter and cuter and her little personality continues to shine brighter. Her favorite activities now are "peekaboo" and "pat-a-cake". And she absoultely LOVES talking with Grandma and Grandpa on our new webcam! :) (Thanks again for that great gift!)



Since it's daylight savings time already, I better get ready for bed--hopefully i'll be able to make it to church tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!

Surprise!

So we just found out that my parents will be coming out to visit during their spring break in March! :) What a fun surprise for us!! I will be seeing my mom at the end of April when we go to DisneyWorld, but I was sad that my dad wouldn't be seeing Maddie since he won't be coming to Disney World with us. But he'll be here in two weeks!! We're very excited to have them come and we always look forward to having family close by.

Only 62 days until Disney World! I cannot tell you how excited we are. Our countdown is still going strong, and we look forward to taking a link off of our chain every day. I've been reading all I can find on how to have a good experience with a small child, and from what i've read so far--going with a small child is the BEST time to go! I think i've called our hotel at least a DOZEN times to see what kind of accommodations they have since we'll have bottles to wash, etc. Long story short, I can't wait to share that experience with Maddie. Now i know everyone is probably sick of hearing about Disney World from us, so i'll stop my Disney commentary short here. Just know that even if i'm not writing about it, i'm still WANTING to. :) Hope you all have a great night.

Happy Birthday tomorrow, Mom! Wish we could be in College Station with you, but we hope you're enjoying Kimmy and Gramps!

P.S. Hope you like your gift. You could say...Maddie had a "hand" in it. lol. (We'll post pictures tomorrow of the present we sent my mom--don't wanna ruin the surprise beforehand).

Maddie Screams

So Maddie has now learned to "mimic" people when they do certain things. In this little video, Spencer was screaming a little and Maddie picked up on it..take a look..

*CAUTION: Make sure your volume isn't all the way up, or her screaming will burst eardrums!!*

Same ol' Same ol'

Not much to report on thus far in the week--still trying to get all references and background checks done for our new applicants--and what a long process that is (job security, i suppose). One day i'll finish with it all, but until then i'm trying to keep a positive outlook. Keeping busy DOES make the days go by faster so then it seems that I'm home before I know it spending time with Maddie and Spencer which is the BEST and MOST FAVORITE part of my day.

Stressful Week...Is that an Understatement?

So far, this week has been ANYTHING but relaxing. At work, we started out the week with "New Resident Sign Ups" and BOY were we asking for it! We had lines out the door and down the street full of girls waiting to sign up to live at Liberty Square. And now, I get to try and place all these people while trying to accommodate all their preferences. What a nightmare! And that's only the first part of accepting the application--now our office girls have to check references (slow going so far...) and then all these new residents have to be entered into our system. NOT TO MENTION--this all needs to be done within two weeks! I suppose the good news in all of this is we're already almost full for girls after a day of accepting applications (To give you an idea of how massive yesterday was, we have a total of about 400 girls spots and they're ALMOST full!). Work now and then relax later, i guess.

In other news, Maddie is just as cute as ever. She had her first Cheerio today and LOVED it. :) Mom almost had a heart attack when she gagged for a second at the texture (I thought she was choking!!) We also found out that she absolutely loves peas! Who knew?!? We were a bit surprised and taken aback when she fussed for more. After all, aren't babies supposed to hate vegetables? If so, our baby is going against the grain. She seems to love them--her absolute favorite (so far) is squash and will eat a WHOLE jar with no problem. Funny how babies are so different, eh? She's getting closer to crawling--she's learned to push her back and bottom into the crawling position and rocks back and forth--no motion quite yet, however. We're not complaining though. We hear that once they're mobile there's no stopping them, so we're enjoying the last "hour" of a free baby-proof home. Although...we can tell she's almost there!

If it's even possible, we're becoming more and more excited about our upcoming trip to Disney World! :) Yes, it's 84 days away, but that gives me something to look forward to every day that I have to go to work. It'll be fun to have that week off to spend at the happiest place on earth with my family! I'll spare you the Disney clipart THIS post, but expect to see it more often than not.