Ponytails and Juice Boxes

It is becoming more and more undeniable that my little girl is becoming a big girl. The other day I was picking up Madeline from Kelly's house when I had to admit Madeline was a big girl.  I walked in and was greeted with the usual "Momma", but I had to do a double take.  Madeline had a sweet tiny ponytail with a pink ribbon in her hair...adorable. I have been putting bows with clips in her hair for quite a while, but never thought I could get her hair in a pony. She had her hair done like the other big girls and had the largest grin on her face. I am sure I was grinning ear to ear too!

    Then it was time for the kids to get juice boxes, usually the babies just watch the big kids while having their sippie cups.  Madeline was so thrilled to see the juice boxes come out that she sat down right in front of Kelly's chair where the drinks get passed out. She was the first one there and began to use her sign language for the word more and began to say mo... mo...( more, more). She was looking at the other kids like YES! we are getting juice boxes aren't you excited too?!! She had another huge smile on her face as she did her best to sit still and wait for her big girl drink. How could anyone deny this little (big) girl? Of course her cute-ness won us over and she got to have a big girl drink. She does pretty good with the juice boxes and straws. She loves to drink from a straw!!! Madeline sat so proudly holding her juice box!

     I just sat there and did my best to soak up that moment. I was in awe of this amazing, beautiful, healthy girl who always is happy and brightens up my days! This seems to be another stepping stone that came too quickly.... my heart grew even more (if that is possible.)

I had to take pictures of this first pony tail!!!!  Thanks Kelly for melting my heart!!

Madeline's Birthday August 1st 2009

So here is where I should have been if I didn't give up blogging in 2009. I did not get to complete Madeline's first birthday, but I will because it was so special to us to leave out. (I am going to have to figure out if I can re arrange postings..this might be confusing)

August 1, 2009 and Madeline Elizabeth is one year old! She was born at 11:45 PM, so throughout the day I kept looking at the clock trying to remember what I was doing a year ago.(I remember that day, like it was yesterday) We were lucky enough to have our family and friends come over and help us set up for Madeline's special day. We had a cupcake party, we invited friends to come over and have some fun because our little cupcake was turning one! We also decided to add an evening party for those who could not make it to our first party.

Charli and Madeline

Kade, Evan, and the birthday girl

Sammy and the one year old

Addison and Madeline

Troy and Madeline

Couldn't of had that beautiful pink cupcake without Aunt Jen. Madeline thought it was too pretty to eat because she didn't dive into like we all wanted her to.

Okay, after some time she decides to touch it and play with it first. It took some time for her to actually try it.

Looks like lip gloss, but it is frosting. She does know how to put on lip gloss though, I learned that she can't just hold a lip gloss. She can open it and apply.

Destruction!!!

And she is finished...she wiped her head with her hand covered in frosting and she did not like that. She was quickly escorted to take a fast bath.

Presents.......this is one lucky girl to say the least. She recieved dolls, talking tea pot set, videos, bath toys, shopping cart, Madeline dolls, a personal book with photos of Madeline, college money (way too much Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jen), books, talking piggy bank, clothes, clothes and more clothes. From Grandma and Grandpa Clarke she recieved a custom painted pink wagon (thanks Vandemon). Ever since the day I discovered I was pregnant I wanted a wagon, and this was the wagon to get. There are pics posted underneath. It just didn't fall in order of this picture story.

Yay, we had a great time!!

A princess must have her rest. She was getting ready for her evening party.

When she woke up Grandma and Grandpa Clarke brought out the wagon. It was in pieces, here is the back piece that you can see as the wagon passes you by.

Here are pics from another day, but you can see how cool it really is.

 

She had a much smaller cupcake this time and she appreciated that. The look on her face says that she doesn't know what to do about the candle. We sang happy birthday to her ( I got teary eyed when we all sang Madeline, that day was a big day for me, our Madeline was turning "1"!)

And Mommy got to blow out the candle.

Grandma Clarke, Mary and Dianne catching up. Next time please remind me to take more pictures of everyone else or to make someone else do it. We had some of the most important people at the parties and they got away without being in the pictures. We will get you next time!!

Dad's turn to help open presents.

We made chocolate covered marshmallows and Madeline enjoyed them

Right before bed Madeline got placed into her cupcake pajamas. They read "sweet thing"

We had such a wonderful day with our family and friends, thanks for making it such a memorable day for us. Madeline has brought an abundance of joy to our lives, we were proud to celebrate a year of her life and look forward to sharing many more! We love you Madeline Elizabeth!!!XOXOXOXO

A Simple Powerful Word

January  2009...nope 2010, I will have a difficult time writing that year, I am sure I will be corrected by my students plenty of times (hey, teachers make mistakes too). This year I am borrowing the idea of focusing on a word that I can post around the house, school, or where ever to keep me focused and help make it a priority in my life. (Special thanks to Tawny who brought this idea to my attention.)

Being an educator has also taught me that the learner needs to be exposed to that new vocab/word at least eight times to make it there own (interesting fact I thought). So the first place it is posted is in the kitchen. I created a word web, found synonyms, antonyms, examples, non-examples, and posted a picture of me demonstrating this word.

Live: to possess life, to exist, having life, or being physically present
To better explain, Jake and I thought about how sometimes we just go through the motions and not really enjoy parts of daily life. We often turn down opportunities or invitations because we are too busy or dealing with whatever life has thrown at as at the time. As we get older,  I want to take time to slow down, but instead I hear people say that they can't wait for another day (especially Friday). I want to live for today and live in today. I want to soak up every moment I can, and make time to accept the invitations and experience as much as we can.  We are all lucky to live in a country that allows us to live freely, why not take advantage of what is so often taken forgranted. This year the Kings are focusing on living now, focusing on what we really want to live for, and enjoying our life!
Stayed tuned for more ways that we live!

Black Eyed Peas

Jake's Great Grandmother, Grandma Davis, believed in a southern tradition of eating black eyed peas in the new year to bring fortune and luck.(Fun fact: the music group the Black Eyed Peas named themselves that because they wanted luck too) I never knew this until this year, so what did I do? Quickly ran to the grocery store to find these peas and through them into our home made tortilla soup. (Yes, my first dinner of the year and I cooked! It is one of my many goals this year.)

We had the Byrd family over to celebrate the New Year and our friendship! Erin and I have known each other since high school and have rekindled our friendship. Not only is our friendship great, our daughters' is too. Charli and Madeline enjoy playing together and are working on the whole sharing thing. Hopefully, they will have a life long friendship too!!

Madeline and Charli eating dinner too!

Jake took a picture of his girls.

Madeline is such a big girl playing on her glider, she can get up on it all by herself.

Charli loved the Mercedes, watch out Byrd family!

So sweet!

They are too cute together! They had the whole house to play in, but they loved the crib!

I made cupcakes that had tens on them, for the New Year! (kind of hard to see)

Preparing for the New Year

Okay, okay, I have been horrible about blogging to say the least, but I now have a beautiful 27" iMAC and have no more excuses. I was having the most difficult time uploading pictures,and found myself being discouraged from it all, but not any more! This new baby can hold oodles of pictures or as Jake would say "a s#*t load" of pictures. This computer can do amazing things and I will be taking classes to learn more about it at the Apple store (and maybe I can bribe Tawny to teach me more with photoshop too.)

Please have patience with me as I catch up on a lot of great memories and pictures. I will my best to keep them in order. Alright, I am done with excuses and ready to move forward with the new year. It is going to be another great year! Bring on Twenty Ten!!