Thanks for Being Our Neighbor!

This is a picture of Madison and her cute friend Annie. We were so lucky these past three years to have such wonderful neighbors living in the lower portion of our duplex. Madison loved visiting Annie and their dog Sydney. Her eyes would just light up when she saw them and she was amazed at all the things Annie could do. Thanks Matt, Kerri, and Annie for all the fun times! We miss you and we are excited for your new adventures in your residency program.

Seven Months Old!

Madison turned 7 months old on the 21st! In the picture she is wearing a dress that I made for her! Yep, move over baby gap:) You can't see the full dress very well in the picture but the ribbon ties in the back and there is some cute lace at the bottom of the dress. It still takes me a long time but I hope to get faster. I really need some sewing lessons!
If you look close you can see her two bottom teeth that she got in this last month. Her personality is really coming through and she definitely knows what she wants and doesn't want these days. Madison is very observant of everything around her and she loves to watch people, look at patterns, watch the animals at the zoo, and she especially loves to watch other kids. She loves to look at books and turn the pages herself. She also loves to hold her own bottle and tries to feed herself the baby food. It can get so messy! She loves to sleep on her tummy and is trying so hard everyday to figure out crawling. She says ma ma and da da and learned how to shake her head no. We are having so much fun watching her discover new things everyday! We love our little girl!

Mother Daughter Outing!

This is the best picture I had to show where Madison and I went tonight (the little cafe is actually around the corner from Wixey). I took Madison on a mother daughter date to Likity Split which is just down the street from our house. Even though everyday is full of mother daughter outings, especially when Jake is out of town:), it is still fun to call it a mother daughter date! Likity Split not only has wonderful ice cream treats, they also have really amazing cheeseburgers. I enjoyed my meal and Madison enjoyed chewing on her frozen peach inside her mesh teething bag. After dinner we walked down the street to the park and watched the boats sail down the river. It was a beautiful day and I always love taking walks in our park. Usually we see lots of squirrels, a few bunnies, geese, ducks, and an occasional deer or beaver. I love it when all the fireflies come out and make everything sparkle. What a fun place to live!

Need a Place to Stay?

I was looking for a picture for the above post and ran into a picture that Jake and I took back when we first moved out to Ohio. We took a trip to the granary for a service project and we saw this motel on the drive home. We were amazed at the artistic lettering done with the medium of spray paint:)

Happy 28th Birthday!

I love this picture of Jake! He is such a cutie:) We did have a big surprise party for him a few weeks ago however today is his official birthday! He is in Guatelmala right now serving a medical mission for his OB rotation. Jake is having a lot of fun even though it is in his words "3000 degrees and 5000% humid". He is in the city of Flores, here is the link to information on the town with some pictures http://belizex.com/tikal-Flores.htm. We miss you Jake and we will be so excited for you to return:) Happy Birthday!

Happy Father's Day!

Jake! This is your first father's day as a dad! Madison is lucky to have a dad who is so hard working, caring, loving, and playful. As soon as Jake gets home he gives me a kiss and then Madison. He loves to come home and play with Madison and make her laugh. He is always happy to take her on daddy daughter dates so I can run errands or get things done. Originally Jake crossed his fingers for a boy but now he can't picture having anything else than a girl! He loves to spoil her with so much love and affection and already has a pink tackle box for Madison's first fishing outing. Madison loves her dad so much and her face lights up every time she sees him. Thanks Jake for being such a great dad.

Happy Anniversary

On Friday the 13th of June Jake and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary! Wow, I can' t believe it has been two years already. This is our first anniversary that we could spend together. Last year I was at girls camp with the youth in the ward. It was probably good I was gone that week since that is when Jake took the biggest test of his Medical career. Jake all of Friday off since he was post call. Earlier that week he had sent me a brochure that gave me choices of things to do in the afternoon, for dinner, and for dessert. He is so creative and good at surprising me. I choose to go to the zoo with Madison in the afternoon, Stella's for dinner and Maggie Moos for ice cream. We had a great time. Stella's is a really cool restaurant in downtown Perrysburg. There is a beautiful glass sculpture hanging in the middle of the room and live music. When our waiter found out it was our anniversary he gave me a mini glass sculpture made from the same artist. Thanks Jake for making it such a fun day! I am so lucky to be married to such a wonderful husband who makes me feel so special!

Bath Time!

As soon as Madison gets in the tub these days she starts splashes like crazy! She gets water up her nose, in her eyes, and all over mommy! It's so fun to watch her experience new things! I can't wait to take her swimming:) I think she will like the giant bathtub experience.

People Really Do This!

Memorial Day weekend there were a lot of fun things taking place. Parades, church functions, Jake's surprise birthday party, and of course a battle reinactment! I thought those things only took place in movies like Sweet Home Alabama! Well, we had one right here in Maumee, a neighboring town of Toledo. Saturday afternoon we headed over to watch the battle reinactment at Fort Meigs. It was quite an interesting event. I spent most of the time covering Madisons ears from the loud booms and Jake had fun taking pictures. This once in a lifetime opportunity is something that I am o.k. only experiencing once in my life.

Plaid Shorts

A couple of weeks ago I enjoyed the unique opportunity to come home for lunch with Jenny and Madison. Normally I am stuck at the hospital eating free meals provided by pharmaceutical reps... oh wait, my school banned those meals for fear of any conflict of interest that may arise. For me there is no conflict, I love free food. Anyway, that is all beside the point.

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While we were sitting down eating and visiting Jenny's phone rang and she became quite anxious looking at the caller-id. After a brief hesitation she answered and began speaking nervously to the caller on the other end of the line. I was perplexed, you see, the caller was Lindsay Dockter, one of the other moms from church, I could think of no reason why this would cause any distress.

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Jenny's nervousness as she spoke about "meeting up to choose patterns and sew" clued me in to what was really going on... Jenny was planning a surprise for my upcoming birthday.

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You may not know this but I am a novice Sherlock Holmes, gifted in crime solving and other detective work. Thanks to my gifted mind, it took me all of five seconds to realize what this mysterious phone call was all about. You see, on a recent shopping excursion, Jenny had recommended that I invest in some new plaid shorts, the kind that are oh so popular right now. Being my frugal self, I declined the purchase, but told Jenny that if she used her new found sewing skills to make me some plaid shorts that I would gladly wear them. Now the clincher... Erik Dockter, the husband of Lindsay, with whom Jenny had conversed so nervously wears plaid shorts from time to time. Ah ha! There you have it. Jenny was planning to get together with Lindsay so she could sew me some plaid shorts! So simple, yet beautiful.

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Jenny denied any sort of plan and laughed hysterically when I boastfully presented my conclusions to her. She thought it was cute that I was so confidently wrong.

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It turns out that I was wrong about the shorts, but right about the surprise. On Friday, May 24 Jenny and I headed over to the Dockter's home for a "game night". I thought nothing special was going on as we approached their apartment. There did seem to be some excessively loud talking as we walked to the door... and strangely... all the talking came to a hush when we knocked. But I still didn't think much of it. And then... SURPRISE!!! People were shouting and singing, it took me a few seconds to realize that this "game night" was really a surprise party for me. How would I have ever seen it coming? My real birthday is not until June 16!

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Great times were had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and brought such thoughtful white elephant gifts. Special thanks to Jenny, Madison and friends for putting this all together. The great thing about it is that with my real birthday still a few weeks away, there just might be time for another party!

Six Months Old!

This cute little girl turned six months on May 21st! Wow, I can't believe it! Pretty soon she'll be one years old. Time has gone by so fast, just like everyone tells you:) Madison is showing her personality more and more everyday. As you can see from these pictures she looked really excited in the beginning and then let me know when it was time for a nap. "No more pictures mom!" as she hid her face in the blanket:) She is doing a great job sitting up and she loves, loves, loves, eating food. The whole time she eats her baby food and rice cereal she says mmm, mmm, mmm, and always has her mouth open ready for the next bite. She has become quite social and loves to scream these cute girly screams, especially for dad. She loves to laugh and is learning how to make new noises everyday. We are having so much fun watching her grow!

Who is Anthony Wayne?

When Jake's parents were here visiting in Toledo, his dad kept asking us if we knew who Anthony Wayne was. The Anthony Wayne Trail is a nice express way a few blocks from our house that we use almost everyday. I never really knew who Anthony Wayne was until we visited the Fallen Timbers Monument here in Toledo. Apparently the Fallen Timbers Monument metro park is a very significant battle ground in the history of the Revolutionary war. It took place back in 1794 and is called the "last battle of the American Revolution". "Mad" Anthony Wayne, as they call him, was the general in command of the legion. The battle took place among the trees just north of the Maumee river. Here is the link for those historians who would love to read more http://www.fallentimbersbattlefield.com/. It was a fun family outing! There were some really pretty trails and Jake had fun taking pictures of all the wildlife. It is still so weird to me how many deer there are in the middle of Ohio's metro parks! I guess living in Utah you are used to the deer being in the mountains.
We especially had fun going on this bridge that runs across the Anthony Wayne Trail. The evening ended with a beautiful sunset behind the newly constructed Fallen Timbers Mall. The sunset luckily is brighter than the glowing letters of the Dillards store sign.

I Love Our Zoo!

The Zoo is just a ten minute walk from our house. Madison and I often visit there on our afternoon walks. It is so much fun to look at all the animals and we especially love the aquarium! I am so glad I have a baby to go to the Zoo with because I think I enjoy it a lot more than she does and I would feel silly going by myself all the time:) She loves to look at all of the colored fish and we had a lot of fun watching the gorillas throw dirt at each other. Today, in the jungle area, we even found the sloth! I have looked for the sloth many times on our visits and today it finally moved! It's hiding in the bushes.

Sewing is so much fun!

Thanks to a very talented friend, Emilee Wells, I have been able to learn some new skills. She sews so many cool things and we were lucky to have her share some of her skills before moving this last weekend. Emilee, you will be greatly missed!
At the sewing activity and I learned how to turn the pattern on the left into the skirt I am wearing in the bottom picture! And... the greatest part is that the material came from a sheet at Goodwill (Ohio's version of D.I.) I felt like Maria on Sound of Music when she made dresses out of curtains.
Since it was the first skirt I have ever done it took quite a long time. Jake was so great to take Madison to his Guatemala Medical Mission meeting and another meeting on campus so I could have some time to work on this fun project.
The past few months I have been experimenting with sewing a few things but this is my greatest accomplishment so far. I am working on a dress for Madison and I will let you know how that turns out.