Back from Florida

So you may have been wondering where the blog updates have been!?! Well, we took a little family get-away to Florida! We returned this week, but I've been busy catching up with work. Sorry 'bout that. So I've included some pictures from our trip. For Madeline, this was a trip of many firsts....first airplane ride, first trip to disney, first time sitting on an alligator. We were just outside of Orlando, staying in a house my Mom and Aunt have rented. My brother Matt and sister Jenny were also there so there was lots of family togetherness! The weather, as you may have heard, was not incredible. It was cold for 4 out of the 7 days. Our last 3 days there it was warm enough to swim. We kept busy though with lots of day trips and outings. My favourite was our trip to Gatorland.

Here's Mads at Gatorland, riding the gator:

Her first trip to the beach! We took a 2 day road trip to Clearwater. It was cold at the beach!

Her first time at Disney World! We spent the day there with Matt and Jenny. Here we are riding It's a Small World. Classic.

Breakfast with Daddy:

As you can see here, it did get really warm. Swim time:

More Gatorland fun:

Bring on 2010

It's with great pleasure that I share with you my resolution for 2010. This resolution was born out of many months of dinner time frustration. Most nights, our time from 5pm-7pm is dedicated to Madeline. We're wrapping up work, picking her up from daycare, playing with her, then feeding, bathing and getting her to bed. We have a great routine figured out and it goes pretty smoothly each night. Michael and I are both involved in the routine, which is great because it means that we're each getting some time to play with her.

7pm then hits.

She's in bed and we stand and stare at each other wondering what we're going to do for dinner. We usually point a few fingers in an effort to determine whose turn it is to come up with an idea for dinner. We then make spagehetti (because we have nothing else in the house to eat) and watch tv. I have no idea why I don't weigh 500 lbs.
In an effort to avoid this 7pm craziness (and lack of inspired, boring, repetitive meals), my new year's resolution is to become an excellent meal planner. I hope is that by planning out a week of dinner ideas, I'll:

1. Only have to hit the grocery store once (probably twice) in the week. I dislike grocery shopping and this would be a real treat.
2. We'll try more recipes....not just the same 5 things over and over again. My goal is to try one new recipe per week.
3. We'll look forward to dinner time and not fight over who is responsible for dinner each night.
4. We may save some money - everytime I go to the grocery store I buy crap we don't need! I will now be making a list that coincides with our plan for the week. Therefore, no unnecessary purchases (or at least fewer).

So we're on day 2 of the meal plan. So far I have only had to shop on Sunday and I already know that I have enough groceries for dinner each day of the week! That feels good. A good start to the year :)

Christmas Mornin'

This was our first Christmas morning where we woke up in our house as the 3 of us. You may recall last year we had Michael's family stay with us on Christmas Eve. That was great (of course!) but there was also something really nice about having Madeline all to ourselves this year. Here are some pictures from first thing in the morning.
Wearing her new "Christmas PJ's"....entering the living room to see that Santa had come.
She spots a new play house by the Christmas tree....

.....and heads straight for it. She didn't say anything or even look at us. She just went straight for the houe and started to play with it.

Then we showed her her stocking.....

This Strawberry Shortcake doll was responsible for the look in the picture above. She was VERY excited to check it out.

More pictures from later in the day to come....

Christmas Carols

This is my family at dinner on Christmas. They sang to Madeline while Michael and I packed up the car. Please note the sycronized hand jestures. Enjoy :)

Halloween

I'm not sure how I only ended up with 4 pictures of Madeline on halloween. In 3 of them she's not even looking at the camera. Believe it or not, the picture above was the only picture I got where you can kinda see her costume! She was a puppy this year. She really liked that costume and carried it around the house for about a week prior to Halloween.

We had a great night....went to a little street party at the house down the road from us. There are about 10 little kiddies all around Madeline's age which is really nice. We got to meet a few new people from the neighbourhood.

After that, we came home and Aunt Katie and Uncle Lee came over for dinner and to help with the trick-or-treaters. It was actually a pretty quiet night - we probably only had about 20-25 kids come to our door. Waaaay less than last year. I guess I didn't need the 300+ pieces of candy I bought.

Sleepy Girl in the Morning....

Most mornings in our house start off the same way. Maddy wakes up and starts to chat to herself in her bed. I, barely awake, stumble to her room. She sees me and starts to get excited - she waves her arms and laughs and kicks her legs. I bring her back into bed with us. We spend about 30 minutes cuddling. This is mostly just a ploy by Michael and I to try to get some more sleep. We keep her happy with songs and when that fails, MIchael gives her his keys, wallet and watch. She's usually very happy in the mornings....so even though I'm not a morning person, it's my favourite part of the day. Here are some recent morning pics.

Peaches

We packed our bags and headed up north to the cottage for an awesome weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect. We had a couple of friends up there with us which was great - lots of amazing food, drinks and a little bit of cranium action.
Best part of the weekend....discovering Maddy can eat a whole peach. We picked up groceries Friday afternoon on the way up to the cottage. When we arrived, we moved everything into the foyer. I let Maddy hang out here while we brought stuff to the kitchen. A few moments later I return to find her tearing into a whole peach. Took me a few minutes to find my video camera but I was able to catch some of the destruction. Enjoy.

Birthday Party Pictures

It's late....but I wanted to post some pics from Maddy's party on the weekend. I'll put some description in so you get an idea of the afternoon we had. Then, I must go to bed.

We had the party at my parents house - their place is much larger than ours and can fit my family + Michael's family.
Here is Michael opening Mad's gifts. She seems to like the peek a boo book....

After every gift we applauded and then Maddy would applaud. She did this for EVERY gift. You're not an Easter unless you applaud after opening a present.

Eating her birthday cake. This cake was amazing. We had the bakery that did our wedding cake 5 years ago create her birthday cake. We went with the same flavour as well - Lemon and Raspberry. Did I mention how much I love this bakery? This cake was filled with amazing real raspberries. Highly recommend them if you're looking for a cake for a special occassion and I thought the price was very reasonable.

First taste....that cake was soooo tall...so many layers of yumminess

Cake with Mom and Dad

Family picture

My sisters and I. We did not plan to all wear green.

The cake. Super cute. I'll stop talking about it now.

Happy Birthday Nana

Nana celebrated her birthday last week and Madeline made her a note. We took pictures with the note and then tried to throw it down the stairs.

Reunion Pics

Back from Chicago!! Had a lovely (and very busy) time. But busy is good as it helped keeping me from missing little lady too much. I was so excited to get back on Saturday afternoon to see her. I swear she changed so much in the 3 days I was gone.

I had mentioned that Rob took some pics of Mads when we were at the family reunion. Here are a few - I'll try to get more up soon! I love tha she wasn't posed for any of these shots - Rob just hung out with us and grabbed a bunch of shots. I think they turned out beautifully.

Here she's playing with her cousin Alabama.

With her da-da. I love this pic. I see Michael and Maddy together like this all the time and it's just really great to have it captured.

Love this...

Reunion Pics

As I mentioned, we went to Michael's family reunion on the weekend and I promised to post some pictures. Here are a couple of Mads. Rob, Michael's brother who is a fantastic photographer also took some pictures of Maddy and I hope to be able to share those soon.

Maddy met her cousin's for the first time. Here she is with Alabama....

With her Great Aunt Noreen....

Climbing all over 'Bama
Pretty in the sun....

Monkey Weekend

Maddy had a fun filled weekend! Friday night my parents came to watch her while Michael and I went to our new favourite restaurant for dinner. It was our 5 year wedding anniversary. Maddy seemed to have a great time showing Nana and Grandpa all the new tricks she's been learning. She especially seemed to enjoy when Nana played peek-a-boo with her. She even went to bed on time and didn't seem to have any problems falling asleep.
Saturday we went out looking for some patio furniture. Michael and I seem to disagree on the style we should buy, so nothing was purchased. I want living room-style furniture for the deck and he wants dining room-style. Hopefully we'll find common ground before the summer is over. Here are some pictures from Saturday around the house.....

More to come tomorrow

Grandpa's Bday

We headed up to Markham on Saturday to celebrate grandpa's birthday. Maddy met her second cousin Alekai for the first time. Even though they're about 5 months apart, they're almost the same size!!
Here are a couple of pictures Rob took....

Saturday - Party Dress

We headed to Markham on Saturday night to visit Michael's Dad for dinner. Maddy decided to get dolled up in her party dress.

We had a lovely dinner and Mad was on her best behaviour. We were on the road home by 7pm and she was in bed by 7:30....can't mess with the schedule when it's working :)

Gotta run - Christina (Chrap) is on her way for a visit today. It's her first time meeting Maddy.