Wedding Pictures

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have our wedding photographer offer to send us the cd of all of our wedding pictures and give us the rights to use them however we wanted. I was beyond excited. We have an 11x13 picture that hangs in our living room and a wedding album that came along with our package and that has a bunch 8x10's and then the pictures that either my mom or a I took. We had been planning on getting another album from him that was less formal for our 1st anniversary but decided that just wasn't a very good plan since on our anniversary we had a 3 week old baby. So this was really a huge unexpected blessing that I still can't really believe even after a few weeks. Here are a few of my favorite pictures, but I had such a hard time choosing that I may have to do another post just so I can add some more! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

This is one of my favorites. I love the stained glass window behind us.

Here is the whole wedding party. We are so lucky to have such amazing people in our lives.

I love the simple beauty of our rings and my flowers.

I normally hate pictures of just me, but this one is a rare exception.

My gramma and I have always been really close. She normally doesn't take

good pictures, but everyone with her in it turned out just amazing.

Potty Training and Mommy Jealousy

For the past few weeks I have been wanting to get started on potty training with Madison. We had started using a potty chair quite a while back and things were going pretty well but out of nowhere she lost all interest in it, so we let it go for a while. So tomorrow we are going to start actively working on it again, but this time we are going to make some changes to our plan of action. Starting tomorrow the only time that a diaper will touch her cute little butt will be at night (hopefully not even then after a few weeks!).

• I am going to have her in a shirt, big girl undies, and socks so that a) we can get her on the potty faster and b) we will have less laundry to wash as we go thru the accidets that we know will happen in the beginning.
• First thing in the morning we are going to pack up our remaining regular daytime diapers for mommy to give to the other little boys and girls, like baby Gavin, that need them. I am totally going to use him as part of it because she is completely in love with him so I think it will give her some extra motivation to do well!
•  We are going to make fluids available all day long and encourage her to drink as much as she wants. So that we will have even more chances to perfect her potty skills.
• As of right now we aren't planning of bringing her to the bathroom at set intervals because we want her to tell us on her own when she needs to go, but that could change as we actually give things a try. The most important thing I have learned as a mom is that you need to be flexible.

As I have been thinking about this the past few days and weeks I have started feeling some "mommy jealousy". By that I mean those times where I have compared Madison to another child and felt like she was behind in some way because a child her age or younger is doing something that she isn't. I remember feeling it when she was 18 months and still having a few bottles a day or when she was taking a lot longer to start talking. When she stayed in her crib until maybe a month ago and now with potty training. But the longer that I have thought about it all the more I have realized how crazy and pointless it is to think like that. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter at all. When she is getting ready for college someday I doubt they will have added a question about how old she was when she stopped using bottles or started sleeping in a big girl bed to their applications. With the exception of her speech, everything has still happened within a normal time frame. And once we were able to get her hearing back to normal her speech quickly got into the normal range again. So she drank bottles a little longer than recommended, it helped comfort her during a time where I was in the hospital more then I was out of it. Bottom line is that your child will do things when they are ready to and unless they are taking a bottle to school or wearing diapers to prom don't even worry about it. Wish us luck with potty training!

Family Time

We have had a lot of family time over the past week or so. We share a house with my parents so we see them on a daily basis (obviously!) but we have been enjoying some time with other members of our family. Last weekend started off with Madison and Zach going to the circus with Zach's dad thanks to another awesome gift from his parents. Madison had a blast and especially loved the pony ride that she got to go on. But she decided to pass on the chance to ride on the camel or the elephant. Maybe next time she will decide to give them a try too.

Then Zach had a softball tournament on Saturday and Sunday and it was beautiful weather to play some ball. He and I went to the first game without Madison but decided to go get her for the second game. She loved watching the game, cheering on her daddy, climbing up and down the bleechers (and up and down, and up and down...), and riding on the mechanical elephant that they had there. Sunday morning my mother and father in law picked up Madison to hang out with her for a while and then came down to the softball fields in the afternoon to catch Zach's last 2 games with me. By the end of the tournament Zach had played 6 softball games, I was sunburned on the left side of my body, Madison had climbed the bleecers about 1000 times, and we had all enjoyed a beautiful spring weekend outside.

Thursday my father in law came over in the morning for a round of golf with Zach. Then he and I headed to home depot to get supplies to do some gardening. So far we, along with Madison's "help", have planted orange and green peppers, tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. Next week we plan on doing cucumbers, spinach, parsley, and cilantro. We also may end up doing some flowers in our front lawn along our garage/sidewalk. I've never really done any gardening but am really excited to see how it goes-cross your fingers that I don't end up killing everything.

Finally on Friday night we headed to my cousins house for a family get together with my cousin and his girlfriend who live in Hawaii and haven't been home for over 3 years. This was his first time getting to meet Madison and baby Gavin. Madison in in LOVE with my cousins son Gavin and talks about him all the time. Friday was no exception and she followed him to whoevers arms he was in and wanted to "help". She picked up his pacifier anytime it fell, would hold it in his mouth for him (a little too hard at times), wanted to hold his bottle for him (even when he didn't want it anymore), and would gently rub his head and give it a kiss. I also got a chance to get my baby fix and held him most of the night. Recently I have been getting baby fever but know that right now I am not healthy enough to even think about having another baby. All of this family time has just reminded me over and over how lucky we are to have the family that we do. They are always there to lend a hand or help support us when we need it.

P.S. I am working on a new look for my blog so I apologize if things are a little wierd for a few days.

Ear Piercing

Zach and I have debated since Madison was maybe a few days old about if we wanted to get her ears pierced. We both have wanted to and thought it would be so cute, but couldn't decide if we should wait until she was old enough to decide for herself. A few days ago we decided that after her ENT appointment (which went great) we were going to go get them done. We had talked to her about it and told her that it would hurt for a minute but when it was over she could have a sucker. She did great, I mean she obviously cried but was such a big girl. We let her pick out a couple pairs of earrings to wear once she is allowed to change them out.

Getting the sucker ready for afterwards.

Crying right after they were done.

The final result.

Even when she is sad she is still so beautiful