4 Months!

Maddie is 4 months old today! My how time flies when you're having fun! She still hasn't rolled all the way over like I thought she would by now, but we did celebrate 4 months with the start of rice cereal. She wasn't really impressed, but we do love our stylish new highchair!

We're going to do what, Mom??

I'm not actually sure any of it got swallowed.

She also took her first spin in this thing. For the life of me, I can't think what it is called. This was a bigger hit than the rice cereal, obviously.

We were reminded how much she has grown while trying to find an outfit for the all important, 4 month photo. These pants are 3-6 months and when I put them on her, they looked a little more like capris.

I know, how about the new outfit Daddy got for Christmas?

Um, I don't know, why do you think he bought the shirt in 18 months?

You're right, it's pretty cute, but do you think you fix the shoulders?

In the end, we decided you can't beat our Christmas photo, so we're going to recycle!

Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful first Christmas with our baby girl! We opened presents at home then we were off to Gigi and Papa's house to celebrate with the family! Here are some pictures from the big day.

"I'm ready, bring on the presents!"

Dressing up for the party. Oh my gosh, I think she's SO cute!

Wishing Gigi a Merry Christmas.

Helping Uncle Josh open his present. Both in their "special" Christmas outfits.

Big Cousins Skye.......

...and River, showing off what Santa brought them.

Then, it came a full-on flurry! You have to look close, but those were snow flakes folks! Maddie missed it, she was blinking. :)

Me and Ryan

John and his Mom

Ending the day with Daddy.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We are set for Santa at the McPherson house. Maddie is all tucked in with her Christmas jammies on with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head. But before we tucked her in we let her open one present for Christmas Eve because she just couldn't wait! This one was from Aunt Bob and Uncle Keith, so we were all excited to see what it was. I think she's a natural at the gift opening! Hope you all have a Merry, Merry Christmas! I know everything I asked for is smiling back at me in these photos!

Almost a Milestone

She's almost there. Maddie is really close to rolling over all the way. She can roll onto her side completely. I know it won't be long at all before she makes it all the way over. She has gotten really good at scooting around on her back. It's funny to take my eyes off her for a second and then find her in a completely different spot than I put her. Here she is practicing her moves under the Christmas tree.


And here's a shot of our other "babies." I was trying to get a good picture of the two of them together and this was the best one. I thought it was just too funny to pass up; I felt like Kristi trying to get both the girls to smile and look at the same time!

Supermodel Baby

While we were home for Thanksgiving we took advantage of Aunt Kelli's new photography hobby and had her take some good photos of Maddie. Did she ever deliver!! I think these photos are stunning! Kelli, thank you so much for these and everything else! They really are amazing! To keep her head from getting big though, I must say she had a very adorable subject to work with. hehehe.

Decking the halls

We have really enjoyed decorating for Christmas this year now that Miss Maddie is here. Even though she doesn't have a clue, it just makes Christmas so much fun. One of the first things we noticed though was that we didn't have a place to hang our stockings by the chimney with care, so John went out to the garage and whipped up a mantle. Thanks again Rogelio for getting him interested in wood working. It has really come in handy!

Here is the before.....

And the after....much better! Now we just have to get some stockings. Hehehe.

Maddie's favorite part are the tree lights and the glittery ornaments. I put her on the floor to enjoy them this morning and she turned a full 90 degrees by herself. I was really surprised. She'll be mobile before we know it!

And finally, a chance at meeting Santa. She seems to like him. It'll be funny to see what she thinks in the coming years. Based on everyone elses Santa photos, I'm guessing this might be the last smiling one for a while.

We have laughter!

Okay, so I'm a little behind on the 3 Month posting but I guess it's better late than never. This was a quick shot at about 3 months and 1 week, but luckily Aunt Kelli got some GREAT pictures of her on the right day, so we'll swap those out for the record and just let this one be the stand in for now. These days, Maddie has taken notice of her feet and hands, she loves ceiling fans and lights. She's started laughing, and had I posted this at the right time, I'd be bragging about what a good sleeper she is; however, she's come completely "untrained!" She was sleeping from 7-7 and getting up once, but for about the last 6 days, she's been getting about 3 times. I'm not sure what's up with that, but I'm hoping it'll go back to the old routine soon! I forgot how tired you get when you only get to sleep for a few hours at time! Luckily, she's SO adorable, I don't really mind...yet.

As previously reported, Maddie has started to laugh. It's the cutest thing. I actually captured a little on video this morning. Please excuse my obnoxious fake laugh to get her going and the drool! :)

Deep in the Heart of Texas

We made it home after a really fun Thanksgiving trip to Texas. We had a blast and we were sad to wave good-bye to the Lone Star state, but we'll back soon, I'm sure. And one of these days, we'll be back for good. But until then, I'm thankful for Southwest and their cheap fares and direct flights between San Antonio and Nashville! John and I had so much fun showing off our baby girl to all her Aunts, Uncles, cousins and friends who hadn't seen her yet and along the way Miss Maddie had lots of firsts.

-First(and second) plane trip. She was absolutely PERFECT. On both flights she didn't make a single sound, and on both planes our seat neighbor said that they were probably louder than she was!

-First time to giggle out loud. I think she laughed for the first time on the flight to Texas. But for sure she laughed at Momo and Mop's house. It was hilarious! Momo was holding her and she was laughing at Mop. The sweetest thing I've ever heard! And one of the funniest.

-First boat ride, and believe me, it was in style! (Thanks Aunt Kelli and Uncle John!)

-First trip to Whataburger! (Her Mama's personal favorite!)

-First time to watch some roping, see a horse, see a steer....See her Dad ride a steer! (That was a first for everyone :)

Here are some of the highlights:

Meeting her "Aunt" Kristi

And "Uncle" Brad

One of her future BFFs, uh, Avery, I think. In my defense, I could totally tell them apart in person, it's just a little hard in photos when she is turned away. :)

With Taylor on Thanksgiving Day. Taylor was by far one of her favorite people. She never fussed a bit when Taylor was holding her!

With her Aunt Liz



Hudson and Cade showing her what she could look forward to!
With Uncle Mark and Aunt Andi
Uncle Shawn, Uncle John, Dylan and Dad getting ready to have a war on the ranch.

With Cousin Steph
And, last but certainly not least meeting Lauren and Tre for the first time. I'm not sure what that expression on her face is all about, but it sure is funny!


Looks like a natural!




Thanks to everyone who traveled great distances (Jen) and made an extra effort (Carolyn) to come meet our baby girl! We had a blast!

On the Road Again

For the past week John and I have been in Missouri working claims. Yeah! It's been a great chance to check out the new camper and see how we'll do when its on a much larger scale. We've had a few hiccups, but we love it! I will say my RV camp ground site picking leaves a little to be desired. We are in downtown which was convenient to the claims, but we are in a big concrete lot with the next trailer about 2' from us. No room this time for our canopy and my very fun party lights.

We started off the trip about 4 hours behind schedule, no big deal. We made it about 2 miles when we decided we needed to pull over and re-check (for like the 10th time) we were hooked up correctly. This is when John put his cell phone on the bumper of the truck only to be discovered when for stopped for gas in Illinois, about 4.5 hours later! I'm not joking, this picture is exactly how we found it!


Fast forward to our arrival. I decide to help John with the set up since this was the first time we've done this on our own, so I put Maddie down on the couch in the camper so I'd have my hands free. We were working on the opposite of the camper as the door so being the good mom I am, I shut the door so no one could just walk by and snatch her. As soon as I slammed it shut, I checked it to make sure it didn't lock because the last thing I looked at before laying her down were the door keys on the INSIDE of the camper. Well, it did lock and I proceeded to FREAK out! I went running around trying all the windows, John crawled into the storage hatch, but we didn't know how to actually open it to the inside and just as I was about to put a rock through the window our neighbor ambled over and told us to pick the lock with a screwdriver. So John came to the rescue and got her out. Thankfully all this unfolded in about 3minutes, but they were a long 3 minutes. And note to self, it is super easy to pick the lock, so always turn the deadbolt! After that, we seem to be adjusting well. Maddie is a "happy camper" and has slept through the night the past two nights. Yeah!

Hanging in "Maddie's Room"

The Reason she is sleeping through the night...She figured out how to suck her thumb! I'll take it, and worry about bad habits later.

Road Trip

First things, first. My baby girl is two months old! (plus a couple of days) When I took Maddie for her check up, she weighed 13lbs 15oz, (99%) and she was 23" long (73%). We missed posting the two month photo on Tuesday because we left on our first road trip. Maddie and I went to Kentucky to visit the Kennedys. It's so nice having family so close, just a mere 3.5 hour drive. Ha! We had a blast and Maddie was so perfect, she slept the whole way there and the whole way home. Our efforts were greatly rewarded as we had some of the best potato soup known to man and Sarah, Sloane and Clay kindly drove us out to a pumpkin patch so we could capture Maddie's first Halloween costume in the proper setting.

I'm pretty sure she was loving the costume on the inside.







Clay and Maddie checking each other out.



Sloane showed Maddie what she had to look forward to when she's big enough to play "dress up!"