Maddie Kate is 12 Months Old!

Maddie Kate is 12 months 14+ months old!  Clearly I'm a failure bit busy these days and with MK's birthday being right before our favorite fall activities begin and because for some reason documenting our girl's milestones has seemed overwhelming to me I've just gotten behind.  It's probably because she's just so fabulous and there is so much to document...or maybe it's because two kids and the holidays will keep a mommy and daddy a little occupied.  We've enjoyed our babies this holiday season.  We've enjoyed them a lot.  Maddie Kate is at such a cute age and Landon is too!  

So, Maddie Kate turned a year old back in October and I'm certain I didn't get her 12 month pictures until she was at least almost 13 months old.  What can I say about our girl?  She is the sweetest, orneriest, smartest, independent, cuddly, kiss blowing, best baby girl we've ever loved.  In short - we like her.  An awful lot.  She puts on shows, pretends to be shy, calls any man with a hint of gray hair Papa and can hold her own with her big brother.  

At her 12 month appointment MK:

Weighed 22 pounds and 2 ounces (59%)

Was 30" long (67%)

Had a head circumference of 18% (62%)

She's not only walking...she runs. Fast.  Especially when she has something she isn't supposed to have.

She puts everything in her mouth - including cat food, and most recently sequins.  That will be a sparkly diaper!

She is a good eater.  Her favorites are mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, ham, monkey juice, yogurt, pears, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, applesauce, cinnamon bread, cheese, cheddar rice cakes, gold fish, whole wheat ritz crackers, and anything with sugar in it.

She has fully transitioned to whole milk but isn't completely off the bottle yet.  We'll get there.

She has started trying to use forks and spoons but isn't great at it yet.

She can drink from a straw and sippy cup like a champ.

She talks...a lot.  She says momma, dada, bubba, cat, that, juice, cheese, nana, papa, hi, bye bye, and her favorite lately is no and no-no.

She can wave bye bye but her most favorite send off is blowing kisses. And that's our favorite.

She gives the very best hugs.

She has the best girly giggle.

She still refuses to sleep consistently and I don't want to talk about it.  But I do talk about it.  A lot.

She likes to play with her babies and I've found that the maternal instinct is just that - an instinct.  I've never shown her how to love on her babies or give them a bottle but she knows.  It's precious.

She has amazing dance moves.

She loves her cousins.

She loves going to school and does great at drop off.

She has 8 teeth - she got them early but hasn't gotten any more.

She's wearing a size 4 diaper, size 4 shoe, 12-24 month clothes.

And her brother is playing donkey kong as I type this and just yelled "for the love!!" when he didn't win.  Really?! Silly boy...it's past time to start watching what we say around the house.

Maddie Kate, we love you a lot and hope so much that we can raise you to be a nice young lady.  We want you to know that we love you to the moon and back.  You make our day brighter with your beautiful blue eyes, smiles and hugs.  Happy 14+ month birthday.  Love, Mommy and Daddy.

Halloween 2012

Halloween with our kiddos was so much fun this year!  Maddie Kate was just a week old last Halloween and this year she was walking around and was the cutest owl we've ever seen!  Landon loves Mario Kart and I was surprised when he said he wanted to be Luigi for Halloween...at one point he wanted to be a ninja and at another it was Spiderman.  I'm sure glad he chose Luigi - I think the mustache is the funniest thing ever and he was so excited to dress up as a character from his favorite Wii game!  Our friends the Waggoner's had their annual Halloween get together complete with a hayride and we had fun visiting with our friends.  Then Jim took Landon trick or treating while MK and I passed out candy at our house.  After Jim and Landon got home they had fun sitting on the porch passing out candy to the last of the trick or treaters in our neighborhood.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

I know I'm all out of order posting our fall activities after I've already posted Santa pictures but I want to be sure to finish our 2012 posts before the new year!

We took the kiddos to the pumpkin patch this year and they had so much fun!  Maddie Kate wore her cute pumpkin outfit that she wore at her birthday party and she had fun running around looking at pumpkins.  Landon rode the cow train all by himself again and had so much fun sliding on the slides in the hay stacks and they both enjoyed the pig races and petting zoo.

Maddie Kate's First Birthday Party - Part III

What?!  

You mean all of my favorite people and all of these fun decorations are for me!?  

You have got to be kidding me!

And I get a birthday card too?!  This is the best day ever!

Mimi, I love the fabulous quilt you made just for me!

All of my friends had fun playing at my party and I'm so glad they were there to help me celebrate my very first birthday!

Maddie Kate's First Birthday Part - Part II

Maddie Katie was a super huge fan of her cake!  She didn't much care that it was lopsided!  She definitely has a sweet tooth and it was so much fun to watch her dig in!

Maddie Kate's First Birthday Party - Part I

Well, here we are in December about to celebrate our sweet Baby Jesus's birthday...which is exactly two months after our sweet baby girl's birthday and I'm just now posting about her party.  And you know what, it's all her fault...if she'd sleep regularly I might have more time in the evenings to blog.  Okay, that's not entirely true.  She does sleep okay some nights - it just so happens on those nights I've not felt inspired to write.

Maddie Kate's birthday party was on October 20th at our house.  I had so much fun planning for her big day!  I searched Etsy for inspiration and when I found the cute pink and orange polka dot and pumpkin theme I knew that's what it had to be!  We had her party in our back yard and under our car port.  We really do have the perfect backyard area for parties and Jim takes such good care of our yard.  It really looked great!

We enjoyed a fun day celebrating with our friends and family and Maddie Kate enjoyed being the center of attention.  She has the cutest personality!  I really think she knew everyone was there for her!  She enjoyed her cake and loved toddling around in her squeaky shoes!  Instead of presents we did what we did for Landon's first birthday and took donations for our friends at Our House shelter.  We collected art supplies, diapers and wipes.  They were excited to get fun stuff and we were excited that we could help!

This is the invitation I found on Etsy.  I loved it and it really did set the stage for the rest of the decorations!

Maddie Kate's Daddy and Pocky helped hang these fun paper ball globes!

 I set up a pink kid's table with tiny pumpkins to decorate with stickers.

I decorated with a lot of pumpkins and mums.  Fall is my favorite time to decorate so I was more than happy to buy extras of my favorite things!

We set up extra tables and the kiddos enjoyed the swing set!  The weather was gorgeous!

I made a monthly picture banner to hang above the treat table.

I also made the pennant banner for her high chair and even used my "amazing iron-on skills" to make her #1 bib!  

We had pink and orange frosted cupcakes, pumpkin cake pops, german chocolate bars, orange m&m's, pumpkin candies and orange swirl lollipops!  I made our girl's smash cake - and yes, it was supposed to be lopsided.  Not really.