Monday, February 21, 2011

Madi at 23 Months

Well we are officially counting down to the big second birthday for our Madison Marie. It is hard to believe that our baby will be two in a few short weeks.
Madi is a very active little girl. She is running everywhere and climbing everything. She loves to play and is very good at playing with her cousin and sister. She is learning how to share, usually this entails bringing her sister or cousin another toy to replace the one they are playing with. She loves to read and do puzzles, play with her doll house, cars, and golf clubs.

This is one of Madi's favorite toys. Aiden and Madison got these cars from Santa for Christmas, and they are definitely the toy of choice for all three kids. They have so much fun climbing in an out, honking the horn (which plays songs) and putting things in the "trunk". They do a pretty good job of sharing even though Madi is usually playing in the green car while Aiden gets the pink one.

Madison loves to go places. She is always pointing to her shoes, hat or coat and waving "bye-bye". She loves to go visit the horses, Grammy and Grandpa Hitt, or go into town. I have a feeling that once warmer weather hits, it will be hard to keep this little one indoors.

Madison is still not talking very much. We have heard her say dozens of words....once. Then we never hear them again. We have been working on getting her to use more words and we are seeing slow progress. We have a running joke that Emma will be talking before Madi does. We took her to a developmental screening, and she was at or above age level for every thing else other than expressive language.

Madison is growing into such a big helper. She wants to help me to do my chores around the house. She steals my broom, dust cloth, etc and "helps" me clean. She is really getting good at picking up her toys (when she is in the right mood of course) and helps me put dirty clothes in the laundry room and trash in the kitchen. She is always trying to take care of her sister and cousin. She brings them cups, bottles, snacks, and toys. I love my little helper.

I just love the picture above. It really looks like I have a little girl instead of a baby...I guess it is time to admit that I do...haha

We are busy getting ready for Madison's birthday party. Brandon and I received a birthday party planning catalog in the mail and each picked out a theme for Madison. I choose this cute barnyard theme, with cows and horses and chickens...it was adorable with phrases like "Cock-a-doodle-two". Brandon chose a pink John Deere theme, which I do have to admit is cute, but I am not nearly as into John Deere as Brandon is. So we let Madison decide...I asked here three separate times which one she liked better...and every time she picked the John Deere theme. So I guess I got outvoted, and John Deere it is...Daddy and Grandpa Hitt are quite pleased with their girl.

Madison has already had her first haircut. She has beautiful curls in the back, but the top layer isn't quite as curly. So I got brave one afternoon and decided to give her some layers to help her hair curl. I didn't do to bad of a job, and I love the way her curls...I am almost jealous as I have always loved curly hair.

Madi is working on becoming a big girl now that she is almost two. She has given up (not by choice) her binki during the day and only gets her pacifier at bed time and nap time. She is starting to show interest in the potty, and loves playing with the potty she got for Christmas from Uncle Brad and Aunty Amber. She hasn't quite figured out the timing, but knows how to take her pants and diaper off, sit on the toilet and wipe....which she would do for hours if we let her...sit down, stand up, wipe, repeat.

Coloring is quickly becoming another one of Madison's favorite activities. She has crayons and markers (the wonderful color wonder ones that only write on the special paper) and several coloring books. She asks to color nearly every afternoon when we get home from Grammy Cone's. We are pretty sure that we have a left handed girl...her great-grandma Hitt would have been proud to have another lefty in the family.

Madison's favorite people in the world are her grandparents. She loves getting to see them everyday, and usually asks to see YaYa (Brandon's grandmother) first thing when she wakes up. She gets to spend so much of her time with her grandparents, and I am so excited for the close relationships she has with them. She spends all day during the week with Brandon's parents and grandma, and then on the weekend she usually gets to spend a night with my parents. We are so grateful to have all of the help we have and know that we are very lucky to have these 5 grandparents in town. Thank you to all of you for your help!

I sure hope that I will be better about posting now that our camera is fixed. Brandon also ordered a new lens for the camera since that is what I asked for this year for my birthday. So please check back for more pictures.

Emma at 10 Months

Well, Brandon fixed our camera this weekend, so I can finally get some quality photos loaded of my babies. I know it has been a while since I have posted so I will try and give a quality update on my Emma Lea and the happenings of the Cone household over the past couple of months.

Emma is now 10 months old, and is quickly becoming more and more mobile. She is crawling everywhere, and boy is she fast! She pulls her self up on everything, and will walk along the couch, coffee table, behind toys, and with one hand. It won't be too long before she is joining the toddlers in our house.

Bath time is still a favorite time around our house. The three kids take baths together most nights and love to splash around and play in the tub. It is a busy time every night but we enjoy the quality time we get with the girls each night.

Emma is starting to say a few words. We have heard mama, hello, papa, and hi. She is starting to learn rules and has even had her first time out. Not sure she understands it all yet, but we are trying to get to her follow the same rules as the older three.

Emma is our persistent one...if she wants something, she will do anything she can to get it...she will even try and jump out of your arms if you aren't careful. Emma Lea's favorite sound is a scream, and boy does she let you know when she is not happy.

I imagine that Em will be our most detail oriented child. She spots any and every little thing on the floor and makes a bee-line for it, and of course, it goes straight to her mouth. I can vacuum and not 2 minutes later, she can find something to put in her mouth. Of any of the three kids in our house, Emma is the only one who has ever paid that much attention to the little things.

Emma likes to read too. She is really interested in learning how to turn the pages and to look at the pictures. I often will sit on the floor and one of the kids will bring me a book, and I will read to the three babies. They will listen in shifts in between playing with other toys. I really am proud to see these kids loving to read already. I sure hope that it continues throughout their lives.

Emma currently has four teeth, but there are nice little bumps for another four just under the surface. Emma's 9 month appointment came a little late due to the doctor rescheduling, but on Monday, Emma weighed 17lbs 10 ounces and was in the 13th percentile for her weight and was 28 inches long, the 30th percentile. The doctor wasn't too worried about her change in percentile for her weight, so hopefully she will hit a growth spurt before her one year appointment in April.

Madi and Emma are great buddies. They always want to know where the other one is, and Madi sure makes sure that Emma has toys to play with. Madison loves to give Emma hugs and kisses. Emma loves following her sister around and trying to participate in the big girl activities. I pray that this relationship will always be a close one, and that they get along more than fight.

Emma's favorite toy at the moment is a toy picnic basket that Aunty Amber and Uncle Brad bought for her. It has plates, forks (big plastic ones), different shaped food, cups, and a picnic blanket. Emma loves taking the items out of the basket, and then putting them back in again. She practices this skill a lot.

On an exciting note, Brad proposed to Amber last weekend. Since Amber is expecting baby #2 (or 4 depending on how you count it) I think they are planning on getting married in August of 2012. Congrats you two!

Emma is still the most ticklish of the three kids. She squeals and giggles when you tickle her under her chin or on her rib cage. I love her laugh, and I will be sad when the baby laugh turns into a big girl laugh.

I can't believe that Emma will be one before we know it. It will be busy around here in the next 6 weeks as we plan two birthday parties. I can't believe how fast my babies are growing up. It is so much fun around here with these kids. There is never a dull moment, that is for sure!

Emma is our worst napper out of the three. We are lucky if we get one good nap out of her in a day. Some days all we get is 30 minutes here and there. She is just too busy to slow down and nap. For as good a sleeper as she was when she was itty bitty, she is now not as good. Hopefully this is just a phase, and she will grow out of it soon.

I finally got my minivan on my birthday. Brandon finally ended up driving the tahoe down to Colorado Springs and picked up the van for me. It was such a nightmare waiting for the dealership to deliver it, but it is over now and I love my new van...it makes life so much easier!!

Well I suppose that I should wrap this up so I can help deal with the kids. I hope now that the camera is fixed I will no longer have an excuse to procrastinate posting. I know that a lot of people follow our lives through this blog so I will try and be better about sharing.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Happy Birthday!

This past weekend we went to Pueblo Colorado to surprise Nanny for her 90th Birthday. She was very excited to get to see and hold her great-great granddaughters. We had a wonderful trip and loved getting to visit with family.

The girls were AWESOME!! They slept in the car, played with their cousins, and were in great moods the entire weekend. I was really nervous about spending a minimum of 16 hours in the car this weekend, but they did great!

On Friday, I got to buy my birthday present...a brand new 2011 Toyota Sienna...I love it!! It had to have a part replaced before we can get it however, so it will be delivered to our home sometime in the next week to 10 days.

Here is a link to the dealerships website and the vehicle that is now ours.
The color is south pacific pearl...which is a deep blue/green color that really reflects the sun light beautifully...these pictures don't do the color justice. I will take more pictures when it arrives. I am so excited!!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas 2010

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and having little kids around makes it that much more special.

Granddad Cone works for BNSF Railway and every year, Santa comes to visit the Depot. Amber and I took the kids to see Santa (and to let Granddad show them off). The kids really liked the cookies and playing with the other kids, but weren't so fond of Santa...they all three cried when they went to sit on his lap...oh well maybe next year. (Granddad...Amber...I guess I don't have any pictures from Santa's lap...do either of you have them?)

The kids really got into the hang of opening presents this year. Madison really had it figured out. There were so many presents for the kids that they were kind of overwhelmed at first, but gradually they opened enough presents that they stopped fighting over the toys they opened.


Since the lens to our nice Cannon camera is broken, Amber and Brad bought me a small point and shoot camera. The kids loved being able to look at the pictures right away. The quality of the pictures is not quite as good, but it is sure better than no camera at all. Thanks Guys!








I am noticing now that I failed to get pictures of the time we spent with my family. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Linda came up this year and we had a great time with the "Wade Clan". We had Christmas dinner over at my mom's house on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed games and smoked pork loin and ribs on Christmas Day. Christmas night was spent playing Kinect on the X-Box and learning how to play Bones...a domino game that Chuck taught us all.

New Years Eve was a blustery cold night with lots of snow. So friends of ours, Tony and Elizabeth, came over along with Jenni for Bar room Olympics...it was a lot of fun to welcome in the 2011 with friends and family.

Overall, we had a fantastic holiday and loved every minute of our two week vacation from school. It was sure hard to leave those girls Monday morning!

I guess that is all for 2010...Blessings to all for 2011.

Emma Lea is 8 Months Old

It is hard to believe that Emma Lea is already 8 months old. She is growing and changing so fast!

Emma is crawling everywhere...she is not up on all fours yet, but she can slither with the best of them. She loves being able to follow Madi and Aiden around. She can also go from crawling to sitting...which still impresses me every time I see it. Madison and Aiden took a lot longer to master that skill.

We jokingly call Emma our "Little Vacuum" as she will search out any little thing she can find on the floor and put it in her mouth...thus I have started to have to vacuum daily and I still can't seem to keep her from finding hair, dirt, fuzz, etc.

Emma loves her older sister and cousin and tries to follow them everywhere. She has even followed them through the tunnel a few times. She gets so excited when they play with her, and doesn't even complain when they walk/crawl/fall on her.

Emma is a mommy's girl for sure...If I am in the room, she wants to be with me...and heaven forbid I walk through the room and not pick her up...The good news is, thirty seconds after I leave the room, she is fine and will go back to playing.

No more baby food for Emma...or at least that is what she thinks. She wants to eat whatever we eat and she wants to eat it now! This was great until she caught a stomach bug this month and couldn't tolerate any solid foods for two weeks...she was not happy that she was stuck with formula, pedialyte and rice cereal.

Emma Lea is definitely the most persistant of our "three" kids. When she wants something, she wants it now...and will do everything in her power to get it. You have to hold on tight when you are carrying her because she will try and jump out of your arms to get to something.

Emma is sleeping through the night wonderfully by now...However, she still doesn't like to nap very well. She did better over Christmas break, but some days we are lucky if she will sleep for an hour total during the day. She is way to busy to take a nap...or so she thinks.

Emma and her daddy love to play together...as long as mom isn't in the room. She loves to be tickled and completely goes limp when you tickle her. She loves to play with jewlery and hair...we are working on not pulling on these but haven't quite got the hang of that yet...much to the demise of a few of my necklaces...and is the reason my hair is up 90% of the time. :)

This morning, Emma was standing up in her crib when Brandon went to get her ready to go to Grammy Cone's house. I guess it is time to lower her crib to the lowest setting tonight...

Emma Lea Ruth, You are such an amazing baby. I love every inch of you and I am so excited to see parts of your personality emerging. I am hopeful that you will keep your loving attitude and your persistence as you grow up. Your hugs melt my heart and I will treasure these days for the rest of my life. I love you baby girl and pray for the best for you. I love you, Mommy.

Giving Thanks for Family

Okay, so once again I am behind in posts...oops.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving along with some sprinkled in from the following weeks.

Madi and Grammy getting ready to go feed the horses. Grammy Tammi is no longer Grammy...just the horse lady. Whenever Madison sees Grammy...she wants to go feed the horses.

On December 10th and 12th, Rick and Marie celebrated milestone birthdays. We had a small get together at our house for them both. Here is the cake Karen bought for the occasion...notice the candles...50 + 80=130...haha.

The week before Thanksgiving, my Grandma Bonnie and Great Grandma Boyce came to visit and to see the girls. We tried to capture some more family pictures...but the girls were not exactly in the mood for taking pictures. Here are some of the best pictures Jenni was able to take.

5 generations...

Daddy and Emma...

Mommy and her girls...

Great-Grandma Bonnie and her Great-Granddaughters...



Great-Great-Grandma Boyce with her babies...


Jenni's Christmas present to the Brandon's family was to take family pictures for her Christmas cards. Here is my favorite of the whole clan...