Where it all began...

So obviously I have been very neglectful in blogging for the past few months but I really do have good cause... Madi is doing well and is growing up and getting into everything. She has figured out how to walk on her own but she refuses simply because if she doesn't have a hand to hold then she knows that no one is following her... She also has started talking quite a bit and is very social. With the addition of 2 new nephews and a new little friend she also has become very interested in babies. She is very sweet when she plays with them but doesn't quite understand why they won't come when she calls them. The biggest news for us is that we finally closed on our house February 19th!!! Yes we own a home and yes we have yet to live in it :-(. This new house has kept us quite busy, hence the lack of blogging.

Now to explain the house situation. Yes we did buy a brand new house and it is wonderful, however we were very grateful to be able to make our house exactly how we wanted it and started the home improvement projects only a mer few hours after we signed the papers! First we pulled up the carpet and linoleum in the front room and kitchen. I didn't want to have to worry about constantly cleaning the front room carpet with a kid, dog, and mud for a yard so I really wanted wood in the front room. We decided that putting the wood throughout the whole main level would really open up the house so we finished that project and continued to the rest of the house. The builder build our house with a bonus room above the garage that they leave completely unfinished. We chose to use that large space as our master bedroom and so we had to add a bathroom and closet and finish the room up. With the upstairs started we carried on down to the basement. We have a full unfinished basement that we finished about half into a tv family room. So as you can tell these aren't the smallest or easiest projects but about 6 weeks later we are finally ready for the final inspections and will hopefully be moving in sometime this week!!! I currently have the before pictures and will post the after ones when I get things cleaned up! I definitely like the after better than the before what do you think??

Before: unfinished bonus room

Madi's room (1 of 3 others they pretty much all look the same)

Before: Kitchen
After: Kitchen

Before: Kitchen looking to front door
After: Kitchen

Before: Looking into kitchen from front door

After: Looking into kitchen from front door

Walking...kind of

So my daughter is incredibly stubborn (surprise surprise!) We know she can stand on her own and we know that she can walk because we have caught her a few times when she doesn't know we are looking, however she absolutely refuses. I'm pretty sure that it is only because she can definently get to where she wants to go by crawling or by holding a hand but oh well. We decided to try the walker again, she really enjoyed it when she was younger and I thought that maybe it would help her get more comfortable walking. Well.... as you can see she is walking but not really using the walker as she should.....oh well soon enough I guess!

Oh and a small house update. We have an official closing date of February 19th and right now the house is almost finished. If anyone wants to take a peak let me know and we can stop by anytime!

Family and 1 year pics

Christmas Birthdays and 2009 Wrap-up

Well with 2009 coming to a close I realized that I had yet to send out a christmas letter this year. Thanks to all who sent theirs to us we had fun reading them and maybe you will get one from us next year! We've had a crazy couple of weeks but it has been so much fun. I will get pictures up soon but I figured a written update was better then no update at all.

Madi had a great first birthday on the 23rd and despite the weather we were able to celebrate with quite a few family and friends. She definently knew how to open all the presents and it was fun to watch her excitement, however she had her 12 months shots in the morning so by the time we had cake she wasn't feeling well at all and didn't even try it :( She did however througherly enjoy the left overs a few days later. Her 12 month check up went well. The doctor is happy with her progression so far and thinks that she is doing exceptional even though she was a month early(gratefully she doesn't seem to be having any problems being behind like they thought she might.) I am happy to say her height is finally catching up to her weight!. at 30 inches we finally moved from the 10th percentile to the 52th. Her weight is still in the 70th at 22 lbs but she did loose 2 lbs from her 9 month visit! (Thanks to all the moving trouble she is getting into.) She is so close to walking now that it is just getting frustration for all invloved. She knows how to walk just holding 1 hand and can stand on her own when she wants to but has yet to put it all together. (soon though I know!)

Christmas was a lot of fun as well. We had a great Christmas eve spent with Tiffany's parents and then were able to spend christmas day and the following day with Joe's family in Pine. We had a great time but poor Madi was so overstimulated from all the excitment of the week that she was pretty crabby on christmas day and unlike her birthday wanted nothing to do with her presents only her cousins new toys!

We were no able to be in our house for New Years like we would have liked but the progress is going well. So far they have finished almost all of the outside and have the drywall up inside. It is finally looking like a house we can live in and we are looking to close sometime around the middle of February.

here is a brief look at 2009 for us

January was busy with Madi and she came quite a bit sooner then we expected. With the economy and housing downturn we were worried about Joe's job with Stock but luckily he survived all the layoffs.

February Madi got to meet all her great grand parents, aunts and uncles during a trip to Utah for Tiffany's cousins wedding. She also got pretty sick but was able to bounce back wonderfully. Tiffany also had to start back to work at the end of the month.

March was pretty uneventful with nothing to exciting happening other than Madi getting bigger.

April brought some big change as Joe was able to leave Stock and started a new job with Smith and Nephew which he absolutely loves. We were very grateful as Stock soon filed for bankruptcy and closed.

May we started the process of looking for a house to rent and decided that it might be a good time to buy instead. We started looking at that point in Aurora and more south denver.

June we moved in with Tiffany's parents so that we could save some money we still hadn't found a place we wanted to move to. At this point we were hoping to be moved in by the end of summer.

July we celebrated both Joe and I birthdays and were able to go to Utah for the 4th of July to suprise Tiffany's grandparents with a family reunion of all Tiffany's mom brothers, sister, and grandkids.

August was much of the same with nothing really happening. We had some fun camping trips and enjoyed summer with some BBQ parties.

September started with the annual Haynie family campout over labor day. It was so cold that we were worried about Madi and ended up staying only 1 night. We also were getting discouraged with the house hunt as it was getting closer to the $8000 tax credit expiring and we still hadn't found anything we could live it. We then expanded our search to North Denver and set a final looking date of the last weekend in september, we finally found our house by the end of the month on our last weekend looking.

October we were able to go to Austin Texas to visit Tiffany's sister and had a great week out there visiting and seeing Austin. Madi had her first plane ride and did great! We dressed Madi up like a monkey for halloween and she was able to trick or treat with her cousins at great grandma Nona's nursing home. Joe also started taking some classes at Front range in business.

November they finally started digging the hole for our house and we started the countdown. We had a fun Thanksgiving with Joe's family.

December brought us closer to moving into our house, Madi's birthday and Christmas and all the excitement from the begining of the post.

Happy New Year to all and I hope 2010 find us all happy and well.

Christmas 2009

So here are all the christmas decorations at my parents house this year. The lights outside are really cool this year and they flash to music. The video is just the flashing part because when it is to cold outside the music doesn't like to work :( I'll get the music on here soon.

The new and improved old village :)

All the stockings hanging in a row...

The Christmas tree

The garland with the new lights

The Celestial tree

The house lights

Halloween, thanksgiving, and Madi

I can't believe that Madi is already 11 months! No one ever said that the 1st year would fly by this fast! Halloween was a huge disapointment for me this year as I got food poisoning friday night and had to stay home all day saturday. Joe and Madi were able to have a good day with his family trick or treating and enjoying time together. Madi was a monkey for Halloween. Grandma Angee made this awesome costume for her, she was sooo cute. This little fairy came to be after she raided the walmart bags I brought home. See a few days after Halloween all the costumes were 75% off. I raided some of the kiddie ones and got some cute dress up outfits for Madi for like a buck. I figured that she would enjoy them when she grows up but apparently even little ones can enjoy sparking wings and beaded necklaces. She's been wearing those beads non stop since.

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Haynies again this year. Grandma Hazel and Grandma Nona were able to join us and we had such a great time! Madi likes the turkey, sweet potatoes and olives and rolls. She did not however like mashed potatoes at all! Everytime Joe tried to give her some she would scoop them off her tounge with her hand and make a horrible face. It was very funny.
Early in October we took a family vacation to visit the Rich's in Austin Texas. It was the first time either Joe or I had been to Texas and I got to see my sister so it was tons of fun. The weather was a little cool for Texas but great for us as it was about 70 all week. We had a great time sight seeing and boating all week. Madi really enjoyed the boat and kept saying more long after we had left. She even enjoyed the tubing!Madi is getting so big. I can't help but wonder where my little baby has gone. She is now pulling herself up and trying to walk on her own. She thinks however that she needs to hold 2 hands before she can take any steps...(we are working on the confidence thing) She is definently getting better and we can't keep her still! She has mastered the stairs and now will not stay in the family room. I will say it is nice to have a little helper in the kitchen when I am cooking dinner! She also has become quite the little diva lately. She will now sit in the middle of the bed with all her cloths on it and dig through the piles until she finds something that she wants to wear. it pretty cute but I can only cringe a little to think that she is going to be just like me! The good news is that she will let me do her hair now! It is so cute she will sit on the counter looking the in mirror while I do it and then will clap her hands when it's all done. She also has 3 teeth and it growing like a weed!

10 month pictures

Precious..

Best Buds. The 2 of them will now follow each other everywhere. Madi will even bark at Bailee to get her to come.

Cheesy...

Trying to get happy pictures...it didn't really happen...

Its dirt..Its a hole...Its a House!!

Well our house is coming along well! So far they are about a week ahead of schedule and it looks like we will be closing around January 27th. After we close we have a few things that we need to get done and hopefully we will be moving in sometime the middle of February!! Here is it progression in pictures...

The first look at the hole

The foundation was pored!

Stairs and lumber delivered and basement is poured

11622 River Oaks Lane :)
Framing of the first floor and garage
Second Floor framed

Windows and a roof

It finally looks like a house but it is still very sureal that it is ours!!