New phone and a little drama

Today I had a few last minute errands to run so after Madelyn woke up from her nap off we went. We met Spence at best buy to get me a new phone, that's right I no longer have the phone that takes me five minutes to type a short text. I have the fancy dancy  Droid incredible by htc and no I do not know how to use it but I have it. It was a little early Christmas present from my sweet hubby. We were in best buy a lot longer than I thought we would be. Madelyn did not want to sit still so Spencer chased her around best buy while I got everything from my old phone switched over to my new one. I really just wanted my contacts and my pictures ( I have baby pics of M and puppy pictures of Keyser on that phone) but the guy said he would switch everything over. OK I didn't think there was anything else to switch over but he's the phone tech guy so I just said ok. After we leave the store I go to the gas station to get some gas when I get my first text on my new phone. As I'm pumping gas I'm trying to figure out how to check my message and then I see the message from one of my girlfriends- ????. I thought that's weird why would she send that. Then Spencer calls me to ask why I just sent him 7 texts. Apparently when the tech guy transferred everything over, my new phone thought that the text messages that I had sent throughout the month from my old phone were new texts that needed to be sent again- all 100+ of them. So I have to call Verizon tomorrow and make sure I'm not charged for those.
As for my phone I love it and can't wait to be able to figure how to use it. Our next stop was Toys R Us. Yes dumb me thought it would be a good idea to take Madelyn who was getting hungry to a toy store two days before Christmas. All I have to say is DRAMA. We get inside and she does not want to get in the cart, after some kicking and yelling and me threatening she finally gets in the cart but she was ticked off. Of course it was complete ciaos in the store, I was going as fast as I could to grab the last few things needed and then we had to make a potty break before checking out. We come out of the bathroom and who does Madelyn see? This guy........

She was so excited saying Barney! Barney! I had to make a phone call and as I'm on the phone Madelyn is getting louder and louder yelling Barney Barney. Trying to calm her down I start handing out goldfish and candy which she throws on the floor only to scream louder for Barney. I was that mom in the store that people were looking at thinking "oh my gosh can't you shut your kid up". Smart me thinks ok give her Barney so she will quit screaming and I can get off the phone then we can check out and leave. As soon as I hand her Barney she is happy and starts hugging and kissing him. We get to the checkout and I'm putting everything on the counter and see that Madelyn has a death grip on Barney.
Me- "ok Madelyn give Barney to the nice lady so we can go"  and she gives him up. That was easy. As I hand her Barney I quietly say to the sales lady we are not getting him and Madelyn goes ballistic. I don't know how she heard me but she knew I was not planning on getting Barney and that I had tricked her. She was mad. This sweet little face below

started screaming at the top of her lungs Barney Barney Barney! I was so embarrassed, I could feel my face turning bright red. My child has never acted like this much less acted like this in public. What do I do- I panic saying to the poor sales lady ok we are getting Barney just scan him and give it to her. That's right I was that mom in the toy store who's kid is throwing the mother of all fits and I give in. Way to let your child know who is in charge. As I leave the store mortified, I look down to see Madelyn just loving on her new Barney that just cost who knows how much because I did not look at the price because we were not buying him. As we are waiting in line to get out of the parking lot I look back and see my sweet little angel has come back and I'm no longer dealing with a demon child. I whip out my new fancy phone that has a camera with flash and snap this...

So even though Barney had embarrassed me and made my child act a fool in public he has made her one happy little girl. Now I just need to remember not to panic and give in next time the monster child comes out of nowhere.

My favorite present ever

My favorite present ever, the one that keeps on giving and becomes more fun every year is.....

 this little jewel

She is the best gift I have ever received!

Cousins Christmas Party

All the cousins on Spencer's side of the family got together for a little Christmas party last weekend. We had great food, played dirty santa and chased toddlers around. This year was a little more crazy than last year since we now have 3 baby girls (20 months, 18 months and 16 month old) and a three year old all trying to be the center of attention. Raleigh was smart and hung out upstairs where the little girls could not bother him. At the end of the night everyone was exhausted but had a great time!

 Playing horsey

 These little girls love their fun cousins

 Opening presents

Trying to take pictures of the little ones, Madelyn did not want to participate in the picture taking.

Yes that is my child in the back screaming and crying and encouraging everyone else to bail out of the picture. I was so proud!

Holiday Craziness

From a couple days before Thanksgiving until after New Years I feel like my life is complete ciaos. We have been so busy lately. We had pictures with Santa, which didnt go great because that was the start of Madelyn's double ear infection that would not go away (when my child is sick she does not smile for the camera) but we did end up with a few great pictures.Then the day before Thanksgiving we had my dad's birthday then Thanksgiving then Pop's birthday and then the Auburn Alabama game. War Eagle!!! Then Papa came into town to visit for mom's birthday. This is when we had our family photo shoot for the Christmas card and Madelyn just wanted to play with Grandma not take pictures, as seen in the picture below.

 She just wanted to take pictures with her grandparents that do not spoil her one bit. Ha!

  and take pictures with Papa because he's lots of fun too

We went to the mall and Mymy took us on the carousel. Madelyn just looked at everything and held onto her horsey. Then when it stopped she tried to shake her horse to make in go.

I've been doing a ton of monogramming. So much that my house has been a wreck for weeks but I can not complain because this is a good problem to have when trying to start a little home based business. This is the link  for my monogramming website if anybody is interested.  http://whatsthemonkeysay.blogspot.com/

It is still a work in progress but I wanted to get something up and going before the Holidays.I'm also still doing some real estate too, so if anybody wants to buy or sell a house just give me a call. 

We got our Christmas tree put up and Madelyn tried to eat the lights (weird, I know) so we have a huge homemade gate keeping her and Keyser (he likes to eat the ornaments) out of the dinning room.I did'nt put my beautiful nativity scene out this year because I knew baby Jesus would end up getting thrown across the house and the animals would disappear. I kept the decorations inside to a minimal but Spencer made up for it when he put up the outside lights and decorations. Let's just say our house is very bright and you turn on to our street and say wow now those people love Christmas. I think it looks beautiful and so does Madelyn. Madelyn had her Christmas party at Mother's day out. She loves going now, she goes in and starts playing not even caring that I leave. Then when I come to pick her up she's never ready to leave and always gives her teacher and her little friends hugs and kisses, that's my sweet girl. 

Last weekend we had our neighborhood group Christmas get together at Cocina's. We had such a great time and are so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors that have children that all play good together.

A few days ago Madelyn's cousins came home from Brazil for Christmas. She was not sure about having to share Mymy with two other little girls but she got over that quick. Her and Aubry played together all night while Paisley slept from their long trip home. On Friday we took the girls to get their picture taken and oh what an adventure that was. Madelyn was super clingy and whiny which she hardly ever acts like that, so I just knew it was going to be hard to get good pictures. Just imagine a 18 month old, 20 month old and a 3 year old all in one picture, smiling and looking at the camera. I do not know what that is like because Madelyn started screaming as soon as we put her in the chair. Yes my happy go lucky smiley baby cried and screamed for pictures. It was exhausting. We finally got a few good pictures and a lot of hilarious ones. I think my favorite was the one with Aubry in the middle smiling like a little angel, Madelyn running out of the picture and Paisley throwing her head back crying. When we finally got home from taking pictures and Madelyn woke up from her nap she had a 101.8 fever! No wonder she was so awful when we were taking pictures, I felt like the worst mom ever. Spencer and I had plans to go to his office Christmas party but since Madelyn was feeling so bad I did'nt go. Spencer took us to my parents house so they could take me to get my car and he had to go solo to the party. The picture below is Madelyn and Keyser (he had to go to my parents house too, he loves being there) in the back seat of Spencer's car. Madelyn's motrin kicked in and as soon as I pulled out my camera she started saying cheese cheese and smiling so big. Really child? After the disaster we this morning and now you decide to put it on for the camera. We got to my parents house and Madelyn was acting fine, of course. Then I called the car people to see when my car would be ready since they had told me it would be ready at noon and it was now 5:30. They informed me that it would be ready tomorrow by noon at the latest. Great! Now we have no way home. We put up some ornaments on my parents tree and played and then Madelyn started feeling bad again. I took her temp and it was 103.1! I gave her some more medicine and my parents took us home so Madelyn could get a good night's rest. That did not happen she was up all night, then woke up at 5:30 screaming boo boo. I asked her where her boo boo was and she pointed to her nose. I thought ok why does her nose hurt? I put her in our bed and she finally slept for a while. She woke up and ate breakfast and played all morning. Now she's down for a nap and has not had a temp all day. Oh and before her nap I called to see if my car was ready so we could go get it then come home to take a nap, no it won't be ready for a couple more hours. 30 minutes later as I'm putting Madelyn down for her nap the lady calls and says my car is ready. Really lady? Now I'm going to have to wake up my running a 103.1 temp child from her nap early. So we plan to go get my car then go to the cousins Christmas party if Madelyn is not running a temp. Then tomorrow it's off to church in the morning then lunch then nap for Madelyn while I show a house and then off the Chase's 4th birthday party. This week I have to finish all my monogramming orders, finish Christmas shopping, which I'm almost done with and take Madelyn to zoo light safari.Oh I love this crazy busy life of mine and all the people in it!!

19 Months

Madelyn is at such a fun age right now. At 19 months:
she weights 24 pounds
wears size 4 diapers
wears size 5- 5 1/2 shoes
wears size 12 month and 18 month clothes
has all her teeth except her 2 year molars
loves to be the center of attention
loves to put on a show
knows how to "work" people to get what she wants (especially her grandparents)
loves to be chased
she says the funniest things, the other day we were upstairs walking to our bedroom and keyser was downstairs whining and Madelyn looked through the banister at him and said "oh just hush". I think the way she says things makes it even funnier because she is very sassy. She has also become quite bossy lately but she is polite too. She says please and thank you and sometimes yes mam (even to men) I guess I should start working on yes sir. She will hand me something and say thank you, if I'm not paying attention she will stand there and say thank you thank you over and over until I take it. She always wants a bite of what I have to eat. She loves to drink out of straw like a big girl. When she wants someone to come with her she says hand or she will call them like a dog and pat the side of her leg and make a clicking noise (like I do at the back door when calling Keyser) it's so funny. She loves taking care of her babies and pushing them in the stroller or in her car. She has a new obsession with horses to go along with her obsessions of cats and dogs. She still loves Keyser and tries to ride him like a horse. She likes to take bags (grocery bags, gifts bags, purses, etc) and walk around the house and say bye bye and wave. I love to just watch her play. She says so many different things now but my favorite is I love you, it's the sweetest sound Ive ever heard. The next sweetest sound is her laughing, I wish I could just bottle it up so I could listen to that sweet baby laugh forever. She's so funny the way she does things and what she says. Sometimes when she gets in trouble and I'm talking to her about it she will try to grab my face with both hands and kiss me, I have to turn my head because it's so funny but she's in trouble.She has been getting in more trouble lately because we will tell her not to do something and then she smiles and does it anyway. She is just a little hardheaded and knows exactly what she wants. I can definitely see the terrible twos starting to come out in her already. Madelyn is so busy all day long and full of energy, by the time she's in bed I'm ready for bed because she wears me out. I would have never thought my sweet little baby would be able to wear me out but that sweet little baby has turned into a sweet little toddler with a lot of energy, a lot to say, some tantrums and a whole lot of love. I just wish I could slow down time because my baby is getting so big so fast.

Christmas cards

Oh Christmas Tree Christmas Card

Personalize your Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

So I finally have some pictures that are good enough to use for Christmas cards. I have been playing with different pictures and cards at Shutterfly and I just can't make up my mind. I really like this one because I will always be able to look back at it and remember how difficult it is to take family pictures with a toddler but also how happy Madelyn usually is.

Sick Baby

Madelyn has been sick for what seems like forever. We went to the doctor before Thanksgiving and she had a double ear infection or as Madelyn calls it a boo boo in her ear. She started taking amoxicillin and I thought she would be feeling better in no time. Well she kept saying she had a boo boo in her ear still and then Sunday night she woke up screaming and had a temperature of 104.3. We were up all night and went to the doctor first thing on Monday morning. Turns out the amoxicillin did nothing and her ears were even worse than better and on top of that she has the fever virus. We got some different antibiotics to take and have been taking motrin/tylenol every 3-4 hours to keep her fever down. The past two nights she has ended up in our bed sleeping on one of our chests. I know you are not supposed to let your child sleep in your bed (we made that mistake with the dog) but she screams in pain if she's not propped up and I was so tired last night that I feel asleep in our bed trying to get her to sleep. I think she is finally starting to feel a little better because she is in her bed taking a nap. I'm so ready for my happy smiley healthy baby to be back in action.

 Piled on the couch with her Keysie, blankie, frog and juice.

 There is a little smile to go with those sick little eyes

Oh how she loves this dog

Happy Thanksgiving

Our 2010 Thanksgiving was crazy as usual. We watched some of the Macy's parade and cartoons then it was football for Spence and Madelyn and cooking for me. Then we were off to my parents house for the big feast.

One of the people I'm most thankful for and her daddy of course. My beautiful Madelyn Louella.

Taking Grandma on a walk to find meow.

Poor meow was hiding under a bush

Feeding the fish with Grandpa. Yes the reason she's not smiling is because she is eating fish food. I don't know what it is about the fish food but she always tries to sneak some pieces to eat.

Sassy girl in her 9 month Thanksgiving dress from last year and her new boots.

What a great way to end a great Thanksgiving naked and loving on Otis.

 Happy Thanksgiving!!

Let it rain...

because Madelyn has a super cute raincoat and boots to wear.

she loves her boots so much that she had to wear them to Target yesterday to show them off- even though it was not raining.

Guess who got a new car...

Madelyn of course!
We went shoe shopping with MyMy yesterday and came home with a new car. Like I have said before Madelyn is not spoiled one little bit!

Helping Daddy put her car together

 She just could not wait for it to be put together, she had to get in her car!

 Helper girl trying to install the steering wheel. She said ride ride about a million times while we were trying to put it together.

 Finally finished. She's not the best driver but she loves her car. She did not want to go to bed last night and leave her car. She even gave her car a hug and a kiss good night.

Shutterfly Holiday cards for FREE

That is right Shutterfly is doing a 50 free holiday card promotion. All you have to do is go to this link: 
 http://bit.ly/sfly2010  and post a blog about it. We love Shutterfly at the Sirmon household. I used Shutterfly for Madelyn's birth announcements and  for our family Christmas cards last year.Last year I also made a picture calendar through Shutterfly and it turned out so cute, I love that each month has different pictures from the same month the year before. They also develop pictures and send them to you and the quality is great.  They have so many cute new card designs this year, I don't know which one to choose.

I think this one is so cute and modern looking
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/elegant-cranberry-damask-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

 I love this one!
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/most-wonderful-time-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

 I love this one too.
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/all-stacy-claire-boyd-holiday-designs/gingerbread-delight-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

Decisions, decisions. They have way too many cute designs to choice from.I tend to like the ones that
have multiple pictures on them since we are a family of three now. I like to do one family picture and then some of just Madelyn. With so many to choose from I should probably start narrowing it down now!
Of course this sweet little face below will look precious on any of them.

Happy Halloween

 Little ladybug ready to go trick or treating

 Buzz her partner in crime/ future husband

 Cute ladybug with her daddy

 Talking with her friend Princess Alyssa

 Catching a ride and sharing her candy

 We had to stop every so often for a candy break

 Madelyn loved this cat, it's head moved back and forth and she thought that was hysterical. We stayed at this house a long time just laughing at the meow.

 Getting down close to see the meow

 Family pictures with a sugared up 18 month old are a little difficult

My wild little lady bug!

Madelyn had so much fun trick or treating. She was so excited and wild. She loved seeing all the other children dressed up. She also loved seeing some of the neighbors dogs, that she of course had to hug and kiss on. Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, MyMy, Pops, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Brian for coming to see us on Halloween and handout our candy so we could go trick or treating with our ladybug.

Our Pumpkin

 Scooping out our pumpkin.Madelyn was not real thrilled about this, she thought we were hurting her pumpkin.

 Daddy craving our pumpkin

 Saying cheese with her pumpkin

Giving her pumpkin a kiss

and a hug because every pumpkin needs a hug and a kiss.

Our meow pumpkin as Madelyn calls it. She was very upset when I blew the candle out. She probably would have slept with this pumpkin if we had let her.