A New Addition to the Family!

And No, it's not a baby!! For as long as I can remember Maddi has always wanted a kitty. So a few weeks ago we got one for her! She is a Bengal kitten, which means that she is part Asian Leopard. She is going to be the normal size of a regular cat, but she is colored beautifully because of her grandparents! Because of her bloodline, we decided to name her Raja, the name of Princess Jasmine's Tiger in the Disney movie Aladdin.

Maddi absolutely loves her and she has quickly become a part of the family!

She treats Brandi like her own personal, mobile bed! Brandi doesn't seem to mind!

It's Official!

Sadie is officially a walker now! For the last 2 weeks she has been walking more than she has been crawling. It's so cute to see her waddle her way around the house!! They're growing up too fast!

Fun to Come!

Today I signed Maddi up for Pre-Ballet class and a Sports Class put on through the city of Topeka!
She will start ballet towards the end of October, it is every Saturday morning for 5 weeks, and she will begin her sports class, where she will learn a new sport every week, towards the middle of October and will be going to that every Tuesday night for 4 weeks! She is super excited!
Pics to come soon!
Two friends of mine and I are also going to sign up to be in the city's Christmas craft fair the 5th of December! I am going to make all kinds of burp cloths, Christmas hair bows, and even a few diaper cakes, it should be fun!

Maddi's 1st Day of Preschool!

On Monday Maddi went to preschool for the first time! She only goes 2 days a week, and for only 2 hours a day, but I couldn't help but wipe away a few tears as I dropped her off. She really enjoyed it though and couldn't wait to go back!

We arrived at school a little too early, so I took her (and Sadie) to a nearby park and took some beautiful pictures of her to kill some time!

Sadie's 1st Birthday and More!

August 19th was a very special day for us this year, not only was it Sadie's 1st birthday, but my parents and niece also flew in on that day to spend Sadie's birthday with us! It was SO wonderful having family here to make her day extra special! After picking them up from the airport we went to the T-Rex restaurant to have a special b-day dinner for Sadie! She loved it, and they even sang to her and brought her a birthday cookie!

The next day we celebrated Sadie's birthday by having a small party. Although she was tired, she had no problem digging into her cupcake! She got it all in her hair requiring an immediate hair washing as soon as she was finished!

A couple of weeks after Sadie's birthday I started a part time job at Gymboree in the mall. I work nights so that Matt is home to take care of the girls, and occasionally on weekends. I don't make much, but the little bit of extra income is nice, although it is SOOOO hard to not spend all of my paycheck on the clothes that we sell! I really like it though, everyone that I have worked with so far is very nice, and the 40% discount on clothes is a wonderful bonus!!

Today while playing with Sadie in her room she took 19 steps in a row! She is really getting more stable, she even stopped to clap after taking about 10 steps and then kept on coming! I am so proud!

Maddi's New 'Do!

Maddi has been wanting to cut her hair to her shoulders for a while now, and I kept trying to wait it out, hoping she would change her mind and not cut off all of those gorgeous curls, but yesterday I gave in. I nearly hyperventilated when the hair stylist put Maddi's hair in a ponytail and then *SNIP* it was gone! Of course if you know me you know that I was prepared with a Ziploc baggie and I kept that pony tail!!

Maddi's new 'do looks absolutely adorable! It's a little shorter than I wanted, but Maddi loves it and can't keep her fingers out of it! She has already asked me when we can go back! Hopefully with time her curls will come back, her new cut makes her look so much older!!!

I know I haven't posted an update in a while, I'll try to get on in the next few days and update about Sadie's 1st Birthday and my new job (yes, you read that correctly!)!

XOXO

May for a minute!

I can't believe that the month of May has already come and is nearly gone! Where does time go? All in all though, it has been a great month. After arriving back in Kansas on the 6th, we had Maddi a little birthday party the following Saturday. She wanted to have a Minnie Mouse party so she could wear her new Minnie outfit and the party turned out really cute! We had about 12 people over (including my mom and dad who were in town visiting) and all of the kids had a great time playing in Maddi's new pool that she got for her birthday.

The following Sunday was Mother's day, and although it was a bummer that we had to take my mom and dad back to the airport, we had a very nice day. The girls got me flowers and a card, but being the mother of those 2 amazing little girls was enough of a gift for me! After dropping off my folks we did a little shopping at a nice outdoor mall in KC, then we headed back to Topeka and went to Outback for my Mother's Day dinner. YUM!

The rest of the month has flown by! Sadie turned 9 months old and went in for her 9 month check up last week. She seems to have slowed down on the growing, and is now just under 20 pounds. Instead of being in the 90th percentile on height and weight like she has been at the last few check ups, she is now in the 70th percentile. I think her constant crawling and pulling up is giving her a good workout because even her clothes (and diapers!) that were beginning to get a little tight on her are now fitting her perfectly again. Here's Sadie on her 9 month birthday:

Some close friends of ours are leaving today to move to Florida and it seems like we have been doing something with them almost every day for the last week and a half. That's one of the hardest parts about being in the military, it seems like you are constantly saying goodbye to friends and family. We did have a nice Memorial day weekend though, we didn't do much, but we spent a lot of time outside because the weather here has been amazing! We ended Memorial Day weekend by going to "one last" dinner with the whole gang last night.

Jen (the one who's leaving today), Echo, me & Angelica.

Sadie and Maddi on Memorial Day!