Cheese or CHEEEEESE?

So, I've been taking Maddi's pictures so often that when she sees the camera.... instant "ham". We quite frequently say "CHEEEESE" when we take her picture and we get this very practiced fake smile.

Today, I was giving her a snack that happened to be cheese. I kept asking her if she wanted more cheese and I kept getting the fake CHEEEESE smile. It took me a minute to figure out that Maddi was associating the word that we use when we take her picture to the food that she was cramming into her mouth! It was so funny.

I love the personality that she is developing! Recently, she has also started furrowing her brow.. but I have yet to catch that one on camera...mostly because as soon as she sees the camera.... CHEEEESE!!!!!

Chillaxin'

I took Maddi to the park today while we were out. She is at the stage where other kids are amazing to her. She will just sit, watch, and laugh at them while they run around. We met another "Maddi" at the park today that wanted to feed Maddi the wood chips. Luckily, Maddi decided they didn't taste very good!

She LOVED the swing. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture to depict the faces that she was making. At one point, she just kicked back in the swing, spread her arms, closed her eyes and had this huge smile on her face. It was like she doing the "Titanic" move only she was "Queen of the Playground". It was enough to melt my heart many times over! I can only hope that the SNOW stays gone for good this time and we can spend all summer on a playground! It'll be our mission... hit every playground in great falls! I'm sure there are some real winners!!!

Maddi and The Uglies

We were first introduce to "Ugly Dolls" by Alexander, he has a giant one. We thought it would be fun to start "collecting" them for Maddi. Brianna started her off with the pink one, and we've picked up the other ones on trips that we've been on! She has 2 from Vegas and one from Seattle. We try to look for fun ones that she'll love. She keeps them all in her crib with her and loves to talk to them when she wakes up. I thought it would be fun to take her picture with them all lined up today... Maddi didn't really feel like cooperating! But it was fun anyway! And she has developed this really sillly "smile" when she sees the camera!

Easter

Maddi's 1st Easter:

It was pretty mellow I'm sure as Easter's go. She is still pretty young to understand it all, but she did have fun playing with her eggs. She loves holding the real eggs for some reason! We didn't get her a big basket full of candy, mostly because daddy would have just ended up eating it all, but we did get her a walker toy. She was pretty unsure at first, but she is starting to get the hang of it now, even though it moves a lot faster than she is expecting it to on the hardwood floors. Her other present was a set of keys, because she is always wanting mine when we go anywhere!

We went to church and afterwards Uncle Chris came over for dinner. It was a beautiful day outside so we had grilled chicken and ribs! Yummy. Anyway, Maddi didn't stay in her dress for very long, because as everyone knows, it is hard to crawl in a dress!

I am looking forward to next Easter when she will be in her prime easter egg hunting age!

Big Sky

Yeah, so I am a bit behind. These are just a few of my favorites from our weekend at Big Sky Ski Resort a few weekends ago. It was a very special weekend because Maddi got to meet Cooper for the first time (oh and Tomo and Abby too). Her "Uncle" Ryan also flew in all the way from California. It was awesome to have the gang back together again. Though none of them are as willing to admit it (or shed a tear about it) as I am, it's been hard since everyone is going their separate ways and moving all over the country. We did a lot of discussing about what our next gathering would be... we're not sure yet, but I think we all agreed that we need somewhere sunny with water!!!

I loved watching Maddi interact with everyone... She and Cooper are sure to be friends from now till the end of time (like the rest of us) and as someone else pointed out... with "uncles" like Brandon, Chris, Ryan and Tomo... look out boys of the future!!!