Madi's Birthday Bash!

Madilyn had her first birthday last week! We had a little get together with family to celebrate! By little I mean BIG!! We had 14 adults and 9 kids packed into our house. It was so much fun visiting with everyone and watching the kids run wild! Luckily the weather was nice so they played in the backyard for most of it! Madi had fun being the center of attention! Thanks to everyone who was able to come celebrate Madi's birthday. We love you!!

Madi being silly! This pic was actually taken the day before the party. It was just too cute not to post!
Aaron and Madi laughing!

This was when we were singing 'Happy Birthday' to Madi! She was so excited when she saw her cake!

When she was finished eating her cake she pushed it onto the floor. She was so happy when everyone laughed at it!

Part of the crowd. Standing behind the couch is Aaron's Mom and Dad. Sitting in the back is Jessica. Sitting in front is my Mom, Sara, and Chase. The kids are Jayden (in the red), Kassidy (in the purple), and Kennedy (in the white). I think the head in the pic is Amber and the arm might be my Dad.

All of the kids were so excited to help Madi open her presents!

This was Madi's "smash cake". If you can't tell its a kitty, Madi's absolute favorite thing in the whole world!!

These were supposed to be kitty cupcakes but they looked a little more like mice! But hey, kitties and mice go together....don't they??

Catch up!

Sorry I haven't done a real post in ages! Its too depressing thinking about how much Madi has grown, let alone putting it down in words for others to read! In just a few short weeks Madi will be turning one and its crazy at how fast this last year has gone! I think about what was happening last year at this time and everything is so different. Last year we were eagerly and anxiously waiting for Madi to make an appearance. I remember being so jealous when my other friends and cousin had their babies and I was still pregnant! Never mind the fact that I was due after them!

It's amazing to think of how much she grows and changes from week to week. She has 8 teeth now! She hasn't started to walk yet, but she's getting closer every day. She is constantly getting into things she shouldn't. She says the usual dada, mama and other variances of those words and different baby sounds. She has 4 "real" words that she says; kitty, hi, bottle (though it sounds more like boo) and her personal favorite meow. She also says daddy but I'm not sure we can count that as "real" yet. Her hair is now long enough to fit into a ponytail...kind of. It looks more like a topnot, but its still cute!

I'm sure I can continue to go on and on about the many different things she does but I need to save something for her birthday post in a couple of weeks! Anyways it's probably getting old! Enjoy the picture!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to bake. I'm not much of a cook (and trust me there's a big difference). Lately my old chocolate chip cookie recipe has been failing horribly. I found a recipe online that looked promising. So I tried it out and HOLY COW AMAZING! These cookies could easily pass for bakery bought. They're big, chewy, and have tons of chocolate chips. I like this recipe so much that I wanted to share.

Big, Fat, Chewy, Chocolate Chip Cookies (with this name who wouldn't want to try it out?)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt. Set aside.
2. Cream together melted butter, and both sugars until well blended. Beat in vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Until dough is stiff.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto prepared cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15-19 minutes or until edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

*hint the top of the cookies will appear slightly uncooked when you pull them out but will harden up a little while they are cooling. Yields 15-18 cookies.

Wow!

As of today Madi is 9 months old! I can't believe that my baby is so close to being a one year old!! Here are some pictures of when Madi was first born and some pictures of now.

Over the Holidays

Christmas is always an exciting time of year. This year even more so because we have Madilyn to celebrate with. She wasn't that interested in the whole unwrapping gifts thing but she did like to play with the paper and boxes afterword.
We celebrated Christmas in Delta this year with my family. We opened presents a day early because my dad had to work Christmas morning. It was fun watching all the kids play with their new toys and became addicted to my mom's new Wii.
The next day (Christmas day) we just hung around Delta, played games and ate junk food. We also took a drive out to Sunstone Knoll to collect rocks.
Then Saturday we headed over to Cedar City. It was a rush trip but still fun (if you ignore the fact that both Aaron and I were coming down with the dreaded GongBoo!). We visted with my grandma, had lunch with a bunch of friends at Brad's (Yum!), and then hung out with some more friends for a little bit before heading back to Delta.
We didn't really do anything for New Year's. Aaron wasn't feeling the best so we stayed home, ate pizza, and played Scrabble.
That about sums up our holidays! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and good luck in 2010!! (Does anyone know what happened to 2009?)

Too soon!

I was folding laundry in Madi's room and turn around to see what she was so happy about. And there she is standing up! What the HECK! I am so not ready for this!! Here is a quick clip I took before I lowered her crib....again.

More?!!

This clip is cute and funny!