Sammy's New Cousin!

After researching what would be the best dog for their family, my sister, Cherie and her husband decided to go with a relatively new breed called a Labradoodle, (a mix between a Lab and Toy Poodle). The idea is to get the great personality traits of a Lab without the extra large size.

As you can see, Scout is absolutely adorable! He also fits right in where they live in Park City where everyone is a dog lover. I've been excited for them; they've wanted a dog for a long time but waited to find the perfect breed. I even threw Cherie a small "Puppy Shower" to celebrate. The idea may sound silly but it actually turned out to be really fun, (plus it was a fun excuse to get together) and there are a lot of things you need with a new dog. Here are some pix from the Shower.

Sammy meeting her new cousin.

Scout & Grammy

Madison giving Scout a big hug. He was so tiny I think she thought he was a stuffed animal.

18 Month Old Update

Madison is as cute as ever running around getting into everything! She's so tall that she has an amazing reach and we are quickly running out of places to put things. It has become especially tricky when I'm trying to put on my makeup, do dishes, or cook. She loves to put on my makeup (or eat it) and she's figured out how to open the dishwasher and use it as a stool to reach just about everything on the kitchen counter (as shown below).

Here she is exploring the kitchen right before we decided to finally put childproof locks on all of our drawers & cupboards.

And using the dishwasher as a stool to reach her favorite snack.

Unfortunately our days of eating nothing but whole wheat, fruits and veggies are over. She still eats fruits and vegetables everyday but refuses to eat her whole grain oatmeal or plain whole wheat (for babies). She has decided she loves Mac & Cheese which the Daycare kids insist on having daily and also loves chips and cheetos (although we rarely buy them)...she must related to her Mommy. :)

Madison absolutely loves to dance; it's so funny! She'll dance to anything; she'll even bop her head to rap music. One of these days if I figure out how to upload video to the blog, I'll have to post a clip of her doing one of her many dances. She also loves spilling a little bit of milk on her high chair tray and drawing pictures in it. And she absolutely loves playing the piano which is exciting to me since I used to play and am hoping she gets the musical genes from both of her Grandpas.

She loves playing ball; we're hoping with her height that she'll take an interest in sports as she gets older. Her new words she has started saying recently are: "Angoo" (thank you), "All gone," "hi," "cookie," "ok" and is also understanding us a lot more.

She'll start Nursery this week in Church-which we're VERY anxious for. I teach Primary and it has become increasingly difficult to chase her around the Primary room. Last week she ran up to the piano and started playing while a little girl was giving a talk. We'll see how it goes.

Busy with Daycare

I haven't updated my blog in a while because I've recently started a Daycare which has been keeping me very busy! I would love to post some of the fun pictures from it but wouldn't want to potentially upset any of my clients by putting pictures of their cute kids on a public website. I'll most likely set up a private blog, specifically for the Daycare.

Doing Daycare has been really good for Madison to learn how to share her toys...and her Mommy :). (I didn't want her to get too used to being an only child). The first day she was not at all happy to see other kids digging through her toy box and taking turns with her sitting on her Mom's lap for story time, but it's been great for her; now she loves playing with the other kids and loves it when they come over.

My house has been slightly transformed to avoid any potential hazards; I think it's about as child proof as possible. I have some additional equipment too like two high chairs, two boosters, two audio monitors, two video monitors and a crib in almost every room. I've also invested in a used Quad stroller which has been fabulous! The kids love to go for walks in it, it's great excercise for me and I definitely get some entertaining stares from people driving by when I use it!

I haven't taken a lot of pictures of Madison lately since our nice camera broke but I will for sure post some for her 18 month update in a few days!