She's 16 months old?!?!

Posing pretty for mommy!

Thinking she was hiding from me while playing "Peek-a-boo."

Our happy little 16 month old toddler. Geesh.....time flies!

Goofy little girl. Smiling big!

My, my, my.....yesterday our little lady turned 16 months old! She's quite the toddler with quite the personality and often shows quite the ATTITUDE. Over all she is an absolute joy to be around....and even when she's throwing a fit she's still the cutest darn little girl that ever existed.

Maddie has definitely been letting her diva attitude out lately. When something is not her way, it's no way! She is challenging her mommy more and more with grocery shopping. Apparently she wants me to hustle it up so she can get home and play. We have yet to have to leave the store with a shopping cart full of groceries, but have gotten close a time or two. She just wants to explore and play and isn't too fond of staying put in the grocery cart. Hehehe.

She continues to enjoy playing with her friends in the nursery and her toddler gym class at the YMCA. And is talking more and more now. To just the random person they would consider her talking "gibberish" but mommy and daddy certainly know what she's saying. :-) Since she was very little we have been teaching her key sign language words and most recently now she has begun asking us "please" both in sign language and in English when there is something that she wants. So cute...."peas, mama." Oh we just LOVE HER!

Playdate with Gideon

Having soooo much fun on her first carousel ride.

They were all smiles the entire time!

Gideon taking charge of driving the boat.

You can hardly see my little lady over that big choo-choo train. :-)

"Nooooooo, mommy.....I don't want to get off!"

Playing so nicely together. So fun!

Maddie taking control of the boat now....steering standing up. LOL.

My happy little lady having fun!

Gideon was asking his mommy to put more money in it. LOL.

She's a thirty girl after all that carousel fun.

Climbing through the tree tunnel.

Attempting to climb the slippery bridge. She wasn't successful.

Gideon hanging out in the "creek" with the giant fishy.

Such wonderful friends!

Last week my good friend Sarah and I met at the Supermall - its good middle of the road meeting place - so we could catch up and get the kiddos together to play. Sarah's son Gideon is just a few months older than Maddie. He's such a sweet little boy. And Maddie really loves playing with him!

We let the kiddos out of their strollers after a bit to run around and play in the indoor "playground". They also both took their first carousel ride together. They ABSOLUTELY loved it. Both Maddie and Gideon were all smiles the entire time and didn't want to get off when it was time to go. LOL.

These are a few of my favorite things......

She's found a new chair!

Little dare devil....attempting to stand up in the shopping cart. Yikes!

She loves getting in and out, in and out, in and out.

Such a fun game!

Good thing she's got long legs. Hehehe.

Coloring mommy and daddy a pretty picture.

Such an artist!

She thinks she's hiding. So cute!

I just had to use words to a song from one of MY personal favorite movies - Sound Of Music - as the title of this blog. :-)

Our little lady is quite the busy girl and is learning and LOVING new things everyday. A few months ago we joined the YMCA. Maddie and I enjoy going to her toddler gym class complete with "circle time" songs and free play in the gymnastics gym. She loves the ball pits, foam pits, and trampoline. But most of all has a BLAST just simply being able to run around. On Wednesday we had our first mommy and me swim class. Our little fishy LOVED every second of it. She was squealing and smiling with delight the entire time. She just might be our little swimmer as she was already learning to kick and splash. So fun!

Maddie also absolutely loves the movie Rio - or "RoRo" as should calls it. If we ever need a peaceful moment in the house we can turn on Rio and have a few minutes of peace and quiet. I know it's not the best thing to do, but sometimes we would just do anything for quietness. LOL.

A few of Maddie's other favorite things to do these days - besides becoming a little tornado and completely destroying out hour - are coloring, "hiding", and climbing in and out of her shopping cart. She is such a little dare devil trying to stand up in it sometimes. Hope its no indication of whats to come with her climbing out of her crib. Sigh.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2011

All festive and ready to celebrate Halloween.

She was REALLY into this pixie stick. Lol.

She had soooooo much fun running from house to house like all the big kids.

Mommy's little owl. LOVE HER!

The cutest little owl there ever was!

Trick-or-treat!

Yummy. One of mommy's favorites. :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN....from the Pepper Family!

Checking out some of her trick-or-treating loot.

"Hmmmmm....what's in here??"

Showing off her candy to grandma.

Taste testing some of her yummy treats!

Madison was absolutely thrilled this Halloween!! As our tradition holds it, we headed down to Grandma Jill and Grandpa Randy's house for pizza with them, Uncle Kevin, and Great Granny. Maddie was their first trick-or-treater.....and I must say the cutest one that stepped onto their doorstep that night. :-) We were absolutely in love with her puffy owl costume complete with matching trick-or-treat bag from Pottery Barn Kids. Glad she got good use out of it as she ended up wearing it to multiple halloween/fall gatherings.

After eating some delicious pizza we couldn't wait to get Maddie out trick-or-treating. We figured she would have no interest in it what so ever, but wanted to experience it with her anyways as the neighbors and friends wanted to see her. Much to our surprise, our little owl caught on REALLY quickly and she excitedly ran to the neighbors doors and received her treats! It was sooo much fun seeing the joy and excitement on her face as the older children would run past her. She would quickly pick up her pace in an attempt to catch up with them. It was sooooooo cute!!!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Posing with a scarecrow.

Mommy and Maddie ready for some fun at the pumpkin patch.

"Alright Daddy....get a move on it!"

Having fun riding in the wheel barrow.

Checking out the chickens.

"I want THIS one!"

She wanted to carry her "ball" soooo bad.

"Now what?!"

In the Alice in Wonderland castle.

She was in awe of the goats, llama, and donkey. They were getting some lunch.

Having fun running around.

Too distracted by all the fun to look at the camera. LOL

Whoops.....we didn't know the hat was covering her eyes. Hehehe.

Oh the fun of mud puddles.

Splashing around.

"Come on Daddy....splash with me!"

Just chilling in the wheel barrow.

Peek-a-boo.

The cutest little pumpkin EVER!

Daddy and his girl.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN......From the Pepper Family!

Checking out the baby turkeys.

Watch those fingers, little lady.

Rubber ducky races.

This girls just LOVES water.

We've got our pumpkins and corn stalks....now it's time to head home! So much fun at the pumpkin patch!!!

Since the last few weeks have been so busy we were FINALLY able to make it to the pumpkin patch today. We had originally planned on going with Grandma Jill, Grandpa Randy, and Uncle Kevin yesterday, but the weather took a turn for the worse and we decided to hold off for a bit of a nicer day. We were so blessed with a beautiful, sunny, fall day today so we had to take advantage of it. We headed down to Spooner Farms in Orting for our annual pumpkin patch fun. Maddie absolutely LOVED riding in the wheel barrow! Although we had already carved pumpkins we decided we needed a few more to decorate our front porch. Maddie did a great job picking out some small pumpkins.

After a few minutes of pumpkin picking, she had discovered the fun of MUD PUDDLES. For the rest of the time, Maddie lead us in all kinds of directions and had to be sure to step and splash in almost every single mud puddle on the farm. Maddie also really enjoyed looking at the animals and watching the bigger kids do the duck races. Always such fun times with our little girl!