Model Biker

I'm not the best blogger, but come on sister - it's been nearly a year! Just got this email from Cheryl and thought I'd share - look at how big my niece is now!!!
~Karen

Scott finally picked out a new mountain bike (which his brother & I went in
on together for his Christmas present this past year & it became his
birthday present from us, too!) He wanted to take a picture of it to send down
to his buddy, Wayne, in Houston, so enter his little model!

Go Razorbacks

I know I'm pretty bad at updating my blog, but my sister is SO much worse! So bad that my family guilt me into posting for her. **Sigh** The strain of being a nice person :-)

Just got this photo through on an email. Apparently it's Razorback day and Madi got tattoos on her checks in celebration. (With her red and white outfit, I personally think she looks like she's ready to support England!)

~ Karen

Cowgirl Madi

Thought I'd share this email from Cheryl with you...

This past weekend, we took Madilyn over to the rodeo in Siloam Springs for the
first time so that she could ride one of Scott's mom's horses. Apparently
at the start of the rodeo, they'll have a little "parade"around the arena for
the little kids who are too young to actually compete. Madilyn thought she
was big time stuff! Apparently she was tight because she got her picture
in the paper ... and on one of the color page spreads, mind you!!

The Good Life!!

I know you are all going to be shocked, but YES...this is Cheryl posting! Yesterday's events were just too fun not to share...I was scheduled to go for pedicures after work with some of my girlfriends in order to celebrate 2 birthdays and my graduation (Yes - I am officially finished with my master's degree - YEAH!!!). I typically pick Madi up from daycare, but since I had plans, Scott was going to do it, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get there in time. Sooo…the new plan was for me to take her to the salon with me and Scott would pick her up from there. Turns out, that plan worked out well b/c Madi had her second day IN A ROW with NO potty accidents! Yeah!!!!! That's a big deal for both the kid who is potty training and her parents who have to clean all those clothes!! When she goes a full day without any accidents, she typically gets an ice cream treat, but under the circumstances, I told her that she could go with Mommy to get her nails painted as her treat instead.

I say all of that in order to set up the attached pictures. The salon we went to actually had mini pedicure chairs for kids with a little DVD player that had the movie, Madagascar, playing. They didn’t just paint Madilyn’s toes, they painted her fingernails and gave her a full blown pedicure with salt in the water, leg massage, and warm towels!

Needless to say, she felt like quite a big girl, and was happy to show Daddy her “sparkly” fingers and toes when he got there to pick her up!!

Notice how Madi is holding her nails in order to dry them :-)

She fell at school yesterday, so she's showing the

lady the band-aid covering her "boo-boo"

Now, she's been treated to the good life!

Easter bunnies galore

The cheek of my sister! I emailed her to let her know I posted the pictures she emailed and she had the nerve to say "thanks, can you post more". Outrageous!!! She knew I wouldn't say no, though. Enjoy the feast of Madi photos.

The little boy in the picture with Madi is her friend, AJ. He's Cheryl's good friend's, Gretchen, son.

Happy Easter

Hi all, Karen here again. I'm not great at blogging myself, but it seems my sister is struggling more than I am to keep the blog updated. I thought I'd share these photos she emailed.

email from Cheryl:
"Thought I'd share some of our Easter fun with you. Technically, they're not all Easter related though. The pictures of Madilyn in the tie-dyed shirt were from an Easter egg hunt at church Wednesday evening, and the ones of her in the ISEE shirt were just playing outside on Saturday."

Ain't my niece just cute!

Snow!! Snow!!

Well, Madilyn has officially been able to play in snow for the first time in her life! When she was a baby, I took her outside to let some snowflakes fall on her face, but she obviously didn't know what was going on. Last year, we didn't really get any good snow to play in. We just got that horrible ice storm. Sooo....it was an extra special treat to have a White Christmas this year!!! We drove up to Kansas City on Christmas Eve to be with my family, and we were fighting the clock to get there before a big winter storm rolled in. We got to town literally within 30 minutes of the roads getting too slick and covered up to drive on. What we woke up to on Christmas morning was beautiful, though! We didn't know what Madilyn would think of it, but she loved it! She wanted to pick up snow and throw it every time she saw any (didn't matter if it was dirty snow or not). Turns out, she's also one of those kids that doesn't quite recognize when she's too cold and needs to go inside...mommy & daddy had to intervene a few times before the child went numb! :-)

Notice how deep this snow is! Poor child could

barely move when she first went out there!

I would point out how precious this picture is of our sweet

little girl inspecting the snow, but you can see that on your own!

What I must point out is the "dad touch" of this photo...do you

notice anything that looks odd on Madilyn's legs? I sent her out

in jeans that have snaps that allow for easy diaper access.

That didn't work out so well, though, because they kept coming

undone and exposing her little legs. Rather than taking her

inside and completely undressing her, Scott decided to just use a

bit of duct tape from the garage to keep those pants closed so that

they could play longer! I have to admit, it did the trick!

Yet one more use of duct tape discovered!! :-)

An office complex not to far from my parents house has a

great hill for sledding, so we borrowed a couple of the neighbors

sleds one afternoon before we left. It doesn't look like there's

much snow left on this hill, but that's because it had been so

packed due to all the people who go sledding here. It is

really slick! When you see me hunched over, that's really

the position I had to walk in to try to get myself and Madilyn up

that slick slope...going down was much easier than coming up!

Bless her heart, I couldn't tell you why in the world Madilyn

looks like this! After seeing how hard it was to help her walk up

the hill, my sister decided to have her lay down on the sled as she

drug her up the hill. For whatever reason, Madilyn laid her arms

up in that "helpless" position every single time! Too funny!

Luckily, the roads cleared up for us to get home on Tuesday

after Christmas, but then we had another storm roll in for

New Years! Madilyn had already discovered how fun it was

to go sledding, so she was ready to go down the

hill in our back yard in a heartbeat!

How cute are these little snow bunnies?!

(Yes, that is my headband that Scott's wearing! He couldn't

find his hat and two-year-old's aren't known for being patient,

so he just grabbed what he could find!)

Happy Winter to All!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas love couldn't be sent by a cuter little reindeer!

We hope each of you and your families have a very special holiday together!

Santa is Scary!

Well, we've reached that milestone...Madilyn will quickly tell you that "Santa is SCARY! I cry!" She's not fooled when you try and convince her that she needs to sit on Santa's lap so that she can tell him what toys she wants for Christmas either. If you tell her she won't get anything if Santa doesn't know what to bring her, she'll say "Ok." We even tried having Mommy & Daddy sit on Santa's lap so that Madi would come and sit with us - still not fooled. Oh well, the pictures at least tell a funny story of Madilyn at age 2 with Santa!

Madilyn's 2nd Birthday Party

I know every parent says it, but I can't believe that Madilyn is already 2-years-old! She is no longer my sweet little baby girl - she is a full blown active toddler who is strong willed, opinionated, and on the go! It was wonderful that her birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so that we could actually have friends over on October 3rd. Knowing how opinionated she is, I don't figure I'll have too many more opportunities to decide what kind of party to have without her input, so I wanted to save money while I could and have the party at home! I knew with active toddlers, we'd need some sort of activity, though, so it was perfect to have Scott's parents bring one of their horses over so that we could have a cowgirl party! Madilyn had an absolute blast, and it was loads of fun watching all of the kids enjoy themselves :-)

Here's our little party layout complete with different

kinds of horses to ride, hay bales, & bandanas!

...and the star of the show,

our birthday girl herself - Madilyn Savage!

Have you ever seen 2 more adorable kids?! Madilyn greeted

her friend, Ean, gave him a cowboy hat to wear, and took

him to the back yard to show him all the fun!

Madilyn played her cowgirl role quite well, and even helped

take care of "Peaches" while she had a little snack!

I just couldn't help but include this picture of Madilyn's friend,

Avah. She cracked me up how she liked wearing her hat!

Sweet little Bree was quite excited to wear her cowgirl outfit,

complete with pink cowgirl boots, to Madilyn's party!

I honestly didn't know how the hats were going to go over &

whether the kids would actually want to wear them, but all of them

(including Madilyn, much to my surprise) were proud to

have them on while riding the horse!

I was so pleased that the kids enjoyed riding the horse so much.

I was nervous that she would be big & intimidating from their

perspective, but that wasn't the case at all. They all went for

multiple rides and enjoyed every minute!

I don't know that Madilyn will grow up to be quite the cowgirl

that her cousin, Bailey, is, but she sure did think she was!

Did I mention that Madilyn went for a few rides?!

While the kids took turns riding the real horse, the others

enjoyed riding the rocking horse and spring horse :-)

That Ean sure is a cutie!

Madilyn was just as serious about riding the spring horse

as she was riding Peaches! She rocked that poor

little thing as much as it would go!

This picture is a little out of place...it was the next most

popular form of entertainment at the party.

Madilyn's b-day present from Mommy & Daddy :-)

Madilyn's cake turned out sooo cute! I didn't know what horses

the bakery was going to end up using, but one of them looked

just like Peaches! I couldn't have planned that if I wanted to!

I wish you all could have heard how excited Madilyn was

about having cake! It started with the cupcakes that she got

to take to school on Friday, but she was still

excited for more cake on Saturday!

Notice the second location Madilyn

can be seen eating her cake :-)

She's not done yet! Ms. Gretchen still has cake left

that Madilyn thinks she can get a bite of!

We do have a sweet little girl! She and AJ are very good

friends & give each other sweet hugs quite often :-)

This picture is for the benefit of my sister, Karen, since she

couldn't be there for the party (living in England, and all!)

Here's Madilyn "reading" the card Mom made

to put on the present from Karen

Yeah, Auntie Karen!

Baby bottles & a baby stroller!!!

Madi didn't mind one single bit that she got

2 different baby dolls for her birthday!

A girl must improvise when she doesn't have the necessities

needed to take care of her baby! A cowgirl

hat can always double as a blanket!

After all of the fun opening gifts, she was ready to take

off in her new Jeep! (She's going to need some practice learning

to push the pedal with her foot, though...she hasn't quite

gotten that concept completely down yet!)

Madilyn didn't mind just riding with Avah, though,

since Avah was much better at pushing the pedal :-)

Unfortunately, those who knew how to push the pedal didn't

all know how to take their foot off the pedal when necessary,

so there were a few intervention moments like this one! :-)

Even boys don't mind pink when they get to drive a car!

Thank you, AJ, for coming to my party!

This girl partied hard!

They're not very exciting when you're outside at a

birthday party, but in the evening when it's dark outside,

taking care of baby dolls is the best!

After reading stories, babies get hungry for their bottles

Their heads get cold, too, so you

have to cover them up with a hat

On Sunday, after church, we had a little bit of time to kill

until Scott's parents met us for lunch, so we stopped at a

nearby playground so that Madilyn didn't have

to stay cooped up in her car seat.

My mom was quite proud to see Madilyn in that dress

on Sunday. It was the very same dress that

I wore in my 2-year-old pictures :-)

I don't know if this game was just for fun, or to get us moving

around more since it was pretty chilly outside! :-)

Daddy & Madi jumping on the swinging bridge

Peek-A-Boo!