A "Golden" 1st Birthday!

Maddex is ONE!

I cannot believe how fast this last year has gone by. It seems like just yesterday I held him in my arms for the very first time. I had a little birthday party for him on July 1st. I was glad we were able to celebrate on his actual birthday. He had such a great time! As you can tell he really enjoyed his Mickey Mouse smash cake! It was an almost perfect day....Johnny wasn't able to be here unfortunately. It is ONE of the many sacrifices we have to make with being a military family. I felt awful for Johnny missing his big day, but luckily we were able to skype during the cake smashing :)

Maddex has really grown is the past few months. He has started repeating single words VERY clearly. Some of the words he says are:

Daddy

Mommy

Baby

Puppy

Nana

Papa

Hi

Bye Bye

Yes

More

All Done

Repeats almost all ABC's

I think he is going to be an early talker!

I sure do love this little man and I couldn't imagine our life without him.

Happy 1st Birthday Maddex!

Enjoying his cake!

Some of the sweets. I thought they turned out very cute :)

Some of his loot

Little friends :)

Maddex's favorite cartoon character....he dances EVERY time he hears the "Hot Dog Dance"!

Make a Wish!

I think I'm full!

Our little family...we sure miss Daddy.

Having a blast opening his presents :)

My BIG 1 year old!

These boys are my WORLD!

The Koegel Casa!

I finally took some pictures of our new house. I love having all the space and open floor plan. It gives the kiddos room to play. I haven't finished decorating yet, so don't mind the empty walls. Enjoy!

The front view of the Casa.

The living area taken from kitchen.

Downstairs bathroom

Brayden's playroom under the stairs. Goes around the corner for more playing space.

Dining area/bar. Love having the bar seating.



Kitchen view from living area.

Another view....and Allie :)

Landing area that we made an office.

Mr. B's room!

More of Brayden's.

The boys/main bathroom upstairs. Love all the storage.

Love this bathroom...it's huge!

Guest bed/Maddex's room.

Maddex's side of the room. Still needs decorating.

Master Bedroom, it also has a bathroom and two closets (one of them is a walk-in which I love).

The backyard or the "garden" as the British call it.

Our neighborhood

Lets Play Catch Up!

It has been AWHILE and lots has happened since I last posted! Here are some pictures to sum up the past 6 months in the Koegel Household.....

Brayden celebrated his 3rd Birthday with all of his little friends! He had a Toy Story themed party of course. I can't believe how grown up he is! It is truly amazing how fast he is learning about the world. Everyday I have complete conversations with him and he never fails to say something that catches me off guard (in a good way:) He is so funny. He is going to school now 3 days a week for 5 hours. He loves it and I love having the one on one time with Maddex! It's a nice break for us both :)

Baby Maddex had pneumonia in November and had to stay 3 nights in the hospital. He wasn't able to keep his oxygen levels up and needed IV antibiotics. I felt so helpless :( Even though he was really sick he was able to keep a smile on his sweet face. Thankfully he recovered enough to go home and was able to eventually get better.

The boys and I spent the Holidays in Utah with my family since Johnny wasn't going to be home. It was very hard not having him around for Christmas. He was able to skype Christmas morning and watch Brayden open presents from Santa, so that helped. It was nice having my parents around to help with the boys as well.

Maddex and Brayden have been interacting more. Maddex just thinks Brayden is the funniest thing! He loves his brother. Brayden is so great with him. He tries calming Maddex down whenever he gets upset by singing to him. It is adorable and it works!

Johnny's family came to visit and finally meet Maddex. While they were here we took them to London for a few days. We all had such a great time! This is a picture of the London Eye. We rode it at night and it was amazing to see London all lit up!

We moved on base in February! It's so nice to be on base again. These house are brand new and very Americanized. I love having all the space and having closets in every room! More pictures of the inside to come....

For Johnny's 30th Birthday I surprised him with a flight in a Bi-Plane and open cockpit. Now for someone who is a pilot and flies all the time you would think this wouldn't be exciting, but Johnny has talked about wanting to do this forever! So I finally found someone in his squadron who could make it happen. He had a blast!

Johnny and the boys before he left for a 6 month deployment :( I have considered myself pretty lucky to have been married 8 years and escaped a deployment until now. It doesn't make living without him for the next 6 months any easier. My strength as a parent of two little ones is definitely going to be tested, but I know I can do it. What I feel most sad about is all that Johnny is going to miss :( The boys are going to change so much, especially Maddex! Hopefully the internet connection is going to get better where he is at. So far it has been awful. Being able to skype would help out tremendously. The boys and I miss him terribly already and it has even been a week. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

This little blue eyed boy just turned 9 months! I can't believe it! With Maddex it seems time has gone by so much faster than it did with Brayden. I am sure it's because I am so busy with having two. He has been such a easy baby (minus getting really sick a couple of times). Here's a little list of Maddex's tricks :)

Sits unsupported

Scoots around on his back

Starting to get up in the "push up" position

Loves to stand (I think he's just going to skip crawling)

Loves his tongue and does crazy things with it

Claps

Dances whenever he hears music or Brayden sings

Says Dada, Mama, Baba, Nana

Eating solid foods

Hates fruits

Sleeping 8 hours straight at night

Well there is a little summary of what we have been up to. I hope this update finds you all well! Hopefully I will be able to find some time to update the blog more regularly since my nights will be pretty boring without Johnny.

HaLLowEEn 2010

HaPPy HaLLowEEn!!

Halloween was a great success this year! Unfortunately Johnny missed it due to him flying in Romania :( But he comes home tomorrow and we cannot wait! Brayden absolutely had a blast with all the Halloween parties, trick-or-treating, and of course dressing up as his favorite character Buzz Lightyear. He totally got the hang of going door to door and saying "trick-or-treat"! Especially when he saw the reward for doing so! Little Maddex was an adorable Tigger. This costume we got from Johnny's Aunt when I was pregnant with Brayden. Brayden was only 2 weeks old at Halloween 2007, so needless to say it was a bit big. I am so glad we got to use it this year. It fit Maddex perfectly....so thanks again Auntie Lanie! I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures of the kiddos throughout the week. Enjoy!

Brayden's Halloween jammies

My adorable little Tigger

Brayden as Buzz Lightyear

Me and the boys before trick-or-treating

My favorite two :)

Maddex and Molly in the new
baby caravan...love this stroller!

The neighborhood Trick-or-Treat

Maddex and Mamma

Brayden on a mission for candy.....totally got the idea this year!

To INFINITY and BEYOND!

Brayden and Ellie....besties since birth!