our little piece of heaven

Havasu 2011

2011-11-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Our second annual Havasu trip was so much fun this year! We miss our Arizona friends so much and we had such a blast on the lake with them for a weekend. October is the perfect time of year to go to Havasu - it's cooled off to the 90's by then instead of 120 degrees.... much more manageable with babies. This year, it was our family, the Mays, Mulleneauxs, and Derrick too.

Easton & Maddie always love playing together. It's good for Maddie to get some boy time in... she has a sister and lots of girl cousins to play with, but no boys.

This was Macey's first lake trip. Macey is a bit sensitive anyway, so she fussed about the life jacket, the heat, and the unfamiliar surroundings. Despite all the upheaval, she did a lot better than I expected.

Flashback two years ago to Maddie in the same life jacket...

I can't believe how much she looks like Macey!

Macey loved playing on the shore and kicking her little feet in the water... even though she looks like she hates her life in this picture.

Macey went wake surfing with Brandon for the first time and didn't mind it too much. He is such a fun dad and always takes the girls out for a ride. I love these pictures of my water babies.

Maddie has always loved the boat, the water, and wakesurfing with her dad. I don't know what these two were talking about, but I loved this sweet little moment. They have such a special relationship.

The kids were all happy to get off the boat and run some energy off. Maddie practiced writing her name in the sand while we were there.

A lake trip is not complete without Derrick. He is so much fun. He helps out so much with anything that needs to be done and always has a smile on his face.

Here is my little three year old teenager. It scares me when I get little glimpses of her in ten years. All that (boys, make up, teenage drama, driving) can wait!

Maddie & Mommy

Macey was much more contect on dry land. She had a lot of fun playing with the very handsome Asher May. They are 9 days apart - so much fun!

I love little baby feet in the sand! Here are Maddie's feet - her and I got new matching Roxy flip flops at The Flip Flop Store while we were in Havasu.

And here are Macey's little chunky baby feet in the sand :)

We always have such a fun time with our Arizona friends! We sure miss them and our weekly Sunday dinner parties. We got to laugh a lot, play the Newlywed Game (a tradition that guarantees lots of laughs and funny stories), and eat lots of yummy food. We miss you all already and we are so looking forward to next year's Havasu trip!

Fall Photo Shoot!

2011-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

I had a quick photo session done with the girls earlier this month because Macey is changing so much and Maddie is growing up too! Before we got to the studio, I bribed Maddie with a big cupcake from Martha Green's Bakery on State Street if she would smile for the pictures. I should not have done that. She tried so hard to smile. It turned into a squinty-eyed grimace instead of her beauitiful big, brown eyes and pretty smile. What you can't see in the photo is what we call "Maddie's happy hands." Since she was 6 months old, whenever she is super excited about something, she extends her arms, balls up her fists and then stretches her fingers straight out and then back into fists again. Her aunt Laura says she'll do this on her wedding day. I hope so :) - that's when you know Maddie is really happy about something.

Macey did not think anything was even remotely funny at the photo shoot. She is normally a pretty happy girl with big, gummy smiles showing off her 2 little bottom teeth .... but not this day.

This was the end of the photo shoot. By this point, I told Maddie to stop smiling. That's why her face looks the way it does. Macey had started to clap a little, but still was very skeptical of the whole situation. Not the best photo of my two girls, but I still love it.

In conclusion, I do not think my girls do well with ten minute mini-photo shoots. They have never smiled on command and in order to evoke the real smiles and laughs that I see every day, we need more than ten minutes. So, we'll be doing a longer family photo shoot in the next few weeks that will hopefully capture those big, gummy smiles and happy laughs I love so much.

Sister Love

2011-10-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest joys of being a mom is watching my girls be sisters with each other. They seriously LIVE for one another. Nobody can make Macey belly laugh like Maddie does and no one can make Maddie instantly happy like Macey does. I know they loved each other before they came to this earth. It's almost as if their spirits remember each other somehow. They inherently know they are each other's sister and are fiercely protective of each other. If a cousin starts to be a little too rough with Macey, Maddie senses it from a completely different room. She comes tearing in there and saves her. If Maddie is sad about something, Macey crawls over to her and smiles and laughs at Maddie until they're both laughing and happy again. I love watching them and imagining little snapshots of time in the future - first days of school together, boyfriends, slumber parties, sister fights, etc. Our sweet girls are literally a piece of heaven in our home and we are so blessed to have them in our family.

Here are some fun pictures and videos of the girls...

Maddie is very careful to always include Macey in whatever she is doing, without any prodding from us. She has always been very concerned and considerate of her sister's feelings. Maddie loves to play with the Little People animals and line them up. This was a sweet moment one morning when Maddie kept handing animals to Macey to make sure Macey had one to play with too.

Maddie & Macey are extreme couponers in training. Look at Maddie's face ... she was super excited when her Macey was finally big enough to graduate from her car seat to actually being able to sit up in the front.

:) Oh my goodness. Is there a word to describe moments like this?

These are older videos from when Macey was just a few months old.

Here are those Maddie-induced belly laughs I was talking about...

Stay tuned for more updates on our busy lives .... the ongoing renovations to our house, potty training, Halloween, fall photo shoots, and more :)

Macey - 8 months!

2011-10-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Macey is 8 months old and is so much fun! She is a little sensitive sometimes, but we still love her.

Macey had her 6 month check up in August. These were her stats then, I'm sure they have increased by now!

WEIGHT: 17 lbs, 12 oz. - 80%

LENGTH: 25 3/4 in. - 47%

HEAD: 17 1/4 in. - 83%

Macey likes to just be part of the action. Whatever is going on, she is content to watch it happen. Sitting in the shopping cart, watching me cook dinner from her high chair, or crawling after Maddie, she is happy to be part of our family. And we are happy she is part of ours!

She loves her Uncle Derrick so much! She kicks her feet and flaps her arms and squeals when she sees him. He is so wonderful with our girls and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. He took Macey out to draw with sidewalk chalk on the porch one morning - so fun!

Macey's first ponytail! And the first picture of her bottom teeth!

Macey shopping at JoAnn's Fabrics! She feels like such a big girl now that she can sit up in the front of the cart by herself.

Macey loves to splash and play with toys in the bathtub! Can you tell?

Macey sitting up at church!

She is a happy girl and has accomplished a lot in her short life...

sits up on her own
crawls
pulls herself up on everything
says Mama, Dada, & baba
claps her hands
raises her hands above her head and say "Tada!" - my favorite!
throws a ball - and she has a pretty good arm!
stands on her own
walks if she can hold your hands
has her two bottom teeth

We love our sweet Macey bug, but no one loves Macey as much as Maddie does. These two girls LIVE for each other and can't stand to be apart.

We are STILL working on getting Macey to sleep through the night (don't ask) and when she fusses a little on her way to dream land, Maddie gets big, wide eyes and says, "Mom! Macey's awake! Can we go get her?" I have to physically restrain Maddie from running in Macey's room and thwarting my efforts of a full night's sleep.

This video is from a few months ago, but I love it. It shows Macey's true personality. She is content to just play on the floor by herself as long as she has toys to chew on.

Macey's other favorite past time is jumping. She loves to jump on your lap when you hold her hands, but she really loves to jump in the jumparoo Grandma bought for her to jump in. She literally will jump for 40 minutes straight. It seems like quite a workout and she is thinning out from her jumping sessions. She is so thrilled to be able to jump independently.

We feel so blessed to have our two beautiful little girls who bring so much happiness into our lives. They are so sweet and loving and bring the spirit of Christ into our home every day.

Maddie!

2011-09-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Maddie is at such an entertaining age right now. She has a wild imagination, loves to sing her own original melodies, dance to any type of music, and her favorite past time is making her little sister belly laugh.

She is able to articulate how she's feeling - "Maddie's not happy." "Maddie's tummy hurts." "Maddie loves you too." - that's my favorite one :)

Maddie loves to:

go to gymnastics on Monday evenings with her cousin Jasmine
go to the park and run as fast as she can
go to church on Sunday and see her friends in the nursery
get doughnuts with Dad on the weekend mornings
be the first one in Macey's room when Macey wakes up from her naps
do all her floor puzzles at once
organize things by shape, color, and size
be outside
color, draw, paint, and play with Play Dough
eat pasta, beans & rice, corn, peas, apples, pineapple, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, & "cold milk"

Here are some fun pictures and videos from the past couple of months:

Maddie is a very curious girl and is always discovering things. This morning, she discovered how much fun it is to play in Grandma's flour.

Maddie recently got her hair cut. It was long and stringy and in need of evening out. Fantastic Sam's was not as much fun as Cool Cuts 4 Kids was in Arizona, but there aren't any places like that out here. She sat still and her hair looks a thousand times better. Her hair is getting thick and more blond. We wonder if it will turn dark like ours or stay light. We'll have to wait and see!

Robin & her boys came out for a visit from Utah and we had so much fun playing with them! We went to Pharoah's Lost Kingdom and the kids had so much fun playing in the water park. Kristen worked as a lifeguard there over the summer and got us in for free! Thanks Kristen!

We had another fun visit with the Hinckley cousins from Texas! Katie, Tyler, & Jamie came to visit for a few weeks and we had lots of fun playing with our out of state cousins. One night, I took Maddie, Tyler, & Annie to the park and then we went to get ice cream cones. It was so much fun! My back seat had three car seats with three cousins singing and laughing and playing. We rolled down the windows and stuck our arms out the window and ate ice cream cones - so much fun!

Maddie turned three in August and we had an ice cream themed birthday party for her at Wildwood Canyon Park. She had a great time with all her family.

She is such a little girl now - there is no baby left at all!

Here is the birthday recap from the birthday girl herself-

One of Maddie's favorite things to do is hang out with her dad. She loves to water the citrus trees with her dad at our house.

Maddie loves to read. We love to go to the library and find new books to read together. She asks to read the same books over and over again until she can read them to me. I am thrilled that she loves reading as much as I do. I snuck up on her one day reading to herself and it just makes me happy to hear her little voice.

Maddie still loves her tumbling class and asks to go several times a week. Here are some videos of her on the trampoline-

Maddie loves life and is such a sweet girl. We adore her and can't wait to see what she'll do next!

Photo Shoot!

2011-08-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you non-Facebookers, here are the pictures from the photo session I had done with the girls a couple of months ago. These are Macey's 3 month and Maddie's 3 year photos...

Maddie was bribed with a cookie from Martha Green's bakery next door and she gave some great smiles out. I am not ashamed to admit I bribe my children.

Macey and those cheeks! I love her dimple and I love that she's sitting in a miniature leather chair. So cute.

I don't love this picture of the girls together, but with a 2 year old and a 3 month old, I guess you get what you get. Just prior to this photo, Maddie forgot she was supposed to hold onto Macey. Macey toppled over & the crying started. Neither one of them was very happy at this point. Oh well. I do love that Maddie's cheek is resting on Macey's head. She loves to snuggle her sister and she is very protective of her.

I love having girls and I love that they each have a sister. I thoroughly enjoy hunting around for matching clothes for them - they are so adorable and fun to dress up!

Happy 3rd Birthday Maddie!

2011-08-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today....

On Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 12:05am, I became a mother. We were happy before we had our girls, but we never imagined how full our lives would be with them in our family.

Maddie is a little piece of heaven in our family. She has summery blond hair, big dark brown eyes, and the thickest, darkest, longest eyelashes I have ever seen. She looks like me, but is 100% Brandon. She is super intelligent, very stubborn, and extremely independent. She is constantly happy, innocently curious, brutally honest, filled with Christlike love, is in love with her little sister, is smart as a whip, notices and remembers EVERYTHING, and has us wrapped around her finger. When she is happy, the joy in our home is indescribable. When she is sad, our hearts break and we want to fix it to make her world right again. Maddie is such a gift from our Heavenly Father and we are so blessed to have one of his sweetest spirits in our family.

Happy third birthday love bug!

You are our world and we love you so much!

An Ode to Blankie

2011-07-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Blankie is a dear member of the family. Maddie and her blankie are inseperable. She has loved this blanket since she was 3 months old. She refuses to go to sleep without it. She likes to "wear" blankie... as a shawl wrapped around her neck and shoulders, as a cape, and as a turban around her head.

We are trying to help her seperate a little from blankie, so we have her leave it in the house if we are going to run an errand. She runs and tucks it away behind a couch cushion or under a table and proclaims, "Blankie is alllll safe. You stay right there, Blankie!"

I've noticed Blankie is present in a lot of her pictures....

On road trips-

At Grandma's House-

Watching TV with Dada - Love her little hand in this picture :)

At Target in the freezer section-

We have to wash it 3 or 4 times a week because it gets so filthy being dragged around the house and outside. As it's going through the cycle in the washing machine, she frequently stands in front of the washer and reassures everyone that blankie is in the washer getting "Allllll clean!" In reality, she's really just reassuring herself. She is in charge of moving the blankie from the washer to the dryer. And it is a glorious time when Maddie and Blankie are finally reunited. They hug and snuggle and celebrate!

This blog is our family journal and I want to remember her love affair with Blankie, so thanks for indulging me in this silly post.

Macey - 5 months!

2011-07-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

Macey is 5 months and is working hard to catch up to her sister. She loves to watch Maddie play and can't wait until she can run around with her sister.

Macey had her 4 month check up!

Here are her stats...

LENGTH - 25.5 inches (90%)

WEIGHT - 15 lbs, 7.5 oz. (77%)

HEAD - 16.5 inches (86%)

Maddie decided she should eat the "mollipop" for Macey. I love this picture! Look at those rolls and her wild hair. She is such a jolly baby!

Maddie was very upset about Macey getting shots, even though we talked about shots the whole way down to the doctor's office. She does not like it when Macey is sad. Anytime Macey starts crying, Maddie says, "Oh no Mama, Macey's not happy." And then she yells over Macey's crying and says, "Macey Kay-yate" in a sing-songy voice to calm her down. Amazingly, it works!

Anyway, Macey is a happy healthy baby!

Here's what she's been up to:

Sleeps 9pm to 6am (most nights)
Eats 5 ounces every 3 hours during the day
Has had rice and oatmeal cereal, prefers oatmeal
Everything goes in her mouth
No teeth yet, but she is a drool monster
Really, really, really wants to be a thumb sucker
Loves her Cloud B Gentle Giraffe Sound Machine
Does not like sitting in a dirty diaper and will let you know it!
Still will not take a binky :(

She is always smiling, laughing, and talking. Her eyes are a very pretty light blue. We're interested to see if they stay light or if they'll turn dark like Maddie's.

Macey & Adeline are less than 3 months apart, but it looks like a lot more than that! Macey outweighs Adeline by a few pounds :) We were over at Bennett & Gwynne's house for dinner one night and left the 2 babies on the floor to play. We heard Adeline fussing, so we went in to check on them and found Macey's big Pillsbury Doughboy arm laying over Adeline's neck! Poor Adeline was flailing her arms and kicking her legs. Even after I took Macey's arm off Adeline, she put it right back on her. They love looking at each other and making silly baby noises at one another.

Some more Macey smiles... such a happy girl!

I'm pretty good about taking pictures of the girls, but I have been making a real effort to take more video of the things they do. They change so often and so fast, I almost want to follow them around with a camera & document their entire day.

Macey loves her exersaucer and spends a lot of time playing in it during the day. Our family members lovingly refer to it as her command center. It kind of is like a command center. Macey loves sitting upright in it so she can see all the action. One of Maddie's favorite things to do is make Macey laugh. Here's a fun video of Maddie running around like a lunatic & Macey loving every minute of it. Grandma was sleeping so I had to keep shushing Maddie. I love watching these girls with each other.

This is a video from the first few days after Macey started laughing...

And this is more recent. She has a great belly laugh! Maddie always made us work hard to get a laugh out of her and even then, it was a courtesy laugh. Macey is always ready to give a real laugh.

Macey found her tongue while we were on our way out the door one day. So funny.

In exciting Macey news, she has mastered rolling over from back to tummy! I've seen her roll from tummy to back a couple of times, but most often, she just gets stuck on her tummy and yells until someone comes to roll her back over. Then she flips right back onto her tummy and yells some more.

We love our sweet Macey bug and can't imagine our family without her!

My Baby Sister Graduated!

2011-07-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

Times like these make me so happy to be living back near family. That and the fact that temperatures have been soaring above 115 degrees at our house in Apache Junction, AZ this week. Definitely don't miss that extreme heat.

My baby sister Kristen graduated!!!

My mom was able to get us graduation tickets at the last minute and we were so happy to go! Here are some pictures while we waited for the ceremony to start-

Grandma Eatough & Macey

Me & Maddie

(classic Brandon look on Maddie's face)

Me & my mom - sunglasses picture!

Maddie playing around in the grass

Here she is! It's official!

Kristen with Mom & Dad

Me & Kristen!

We are so proud of Kristen! She is a hard worker and is super smart - we can't wait to watch her go to college and change the world!

Macey's Blessing Day

2011-06-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

We blessed our sweet Macey Bug on May 1st. She looked beautiful in her blessing dress - the same one Maddie wore on her blessing day. Everytime I pull that dress out, I can't believe how amazing it is. Brandon's mom did an amazing job when she sewed it 3 years ago. I love that we have a grandma-crafted, family heirloom dress for each of our daughters to wear on their blessing days. Maybe they'll even have their daughters wear it when my grand daughters are blessed.

Here's my sweet Macey - such a doll baby. She is also wearing the same bracelet Maddie wore on her blessing day. I love traditions :)

We love our huge family. They are so supportive and involved in our lives. Here is a big group picture of everyone who came. We missed you Desatoffs, Hinckleys, Farrs, & everyone else!

Gwynne (who looks amazing for just having given birth 48 hours earlier!!!) came and brought sweet baby Adeline. We were so excited they came so soon after having their baby. Adeline is super sweet and so fresh from heaven. This is the fourth grand daughter in the Milloy family! We've got two more girls coming this year - that's six grandchildren total ... all girls! Hooray for pink!

Our family!

Brandon & Macey

Me & Macey

Great Grandma Milloy & Macey on the porch swing. Grandma is so sweet with the babies in our family - we just love her.

A mingling picture...

Grandma Eatough & Macey

Thanks to everyone who came to Macey's blessing! She is so lucky to have all of you in her family and she already loves you all!

Easter 2011

2011-06-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Easter was super fun this year! Maddie totally understood the concept of the Easter Bunny and had a blast hunting for eggs and finding treats in her basket. After hunting for weeks for matching dresses for my girls, I finally found two that I loved. And then Maddie was sick on Easter, so we couldn't go to church anyway. So, no Easter picture of our family this year :(

Maddie and all the eggs she dyed...

Here's what the Easter Bunny left for the Milloys this year...

Maddie hunting for eggs...

This year, Brandon & I held the 1st Annual Milloy Ca$h Easter Egg Hunt on our property behind our new house. We hid 60 eggs with candy and cash inside. It was so hard to find the eggs! There are actually still about ten eggs somewhere out there that have not been located yet.

Everyone took off running as soon as the hunt started!

Maddie didn't care about finding money, she was just thrilled to open the eggs and see candy inside. Green M&M's are her absolute favorite candy!

Here's the whole clan with their loot!

Derrick found the golden egg with the $20 bill inside- lucky! Maddie is snatching it out of his hand in this picture.

Hope you all had a beautiful Easter!

Grandma Sandi

2011-06-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am still way behind in blogging and am just getting through all the March & April photos, so that explains why this post is 2 months late.

On March 14, 2011, my sweet Grandma Sandi passed away. Two months later, as I'm typing this, I can't believe she's really gone. This was no ordinary grandma that we only visited on holidays. She was intricately involved in each of our lives. Grandma Sandi helped raise us when we were babies, played Barbies on the floor with us when we were young girls, went to concerts with us when we were teenagers, and gave great advice as we married and had children of our own. She religiously called us on our birthdays, anniversaries, and weekly to check in and find out what we were up to. She ALWAYS was the first person to leave a comment on my blog posts. I am sad as I type this knowing she isn't going to comment on this blog post.

Her greatest joy was her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She just loved her family. Here is a picture of Grandma Sandi and Maddie when she was 6 weeks old. Maddie was her first girl great grandchild and she just ate up all the girly clothes and bows.

This was from a visit to Grandma Sandi's home when Maddie was less than a year old. She laughed and laughed as she watched Maddie chase her dogs around while she chanted, "Gog, gog!"

The only positive thing about Grandma passing away was the opportunity it gave all of us to come home for her funeral. It is very rare to have all six children together with all of our spouses and children. Grandma would have loved having all the family together.

We took the opportunity to get all of Grandma's great granchildren together in a picture. Here is everyone except for Annie - I think she was sleeping, maybe?

From left - Jamie, Tyler, Macey, Maddie, Adam, & Noah

And one more with all seven of them in their Sunday best!

Some fun twinner pictures - I love my Robinetta so much and I treasure the time we are able to spend together since we live in different states.

Maddie loved playing with her cousins. She ran after Adam & Tyler all week. We wish they all lived closer!

Me & my girls on our way out the door to the funeral. I dressed the girls in matching dresses because I knew Grandma would have loved it.

Macey giving Derrick some love.

All the moms and their babies! What an amazing legacy Grandma Sandi left behind.

We are all so happy that Grandma is with her family and is no longer in the pain she so bravely endured for so many years. See you soon Gramoo! :)

Our Maddie

2011-05-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Maddie is so much fun! She has an amazing vocabulary, a photographic memory, a silly sense of humor, and a little bit of attitude all wrapped up in a string bean body!

Here are her stats:

WEIGHT - 26.4 pounds - 14%

HEIGHT - 36 inches - 32%

HEAD - 19 inches - 45%

Maddie is a total sponge and loves to learn new things. She loves floor puzzles and will work on them for hours. She builds them and then tears them apart and assembles them again. She loves the anticiapation of finishing the puzzle, so before she places the last piece in the puzzle, she looks around to make sure everyone is watching. Then she put the piece in upside down just to draw out the moment even longer. When she finally finishes the puzzle, she runs around the room shouting, "Maddie did the whole puzzle!"

Here she is with three of her favorite puzzles - she likes to dump all the pieces in a big pile and do all three puzzles at the same time.

Maddie goes to preschool story time at the library and she loves it. It's such a cute little program. They have songs with actions, story time, and a craft. Maddie loves the toddler section of the library. I'm so happy she loves the library as much as I do! We can be bookworms together.

We spend A LOT of time at the park. Yucaipa has lots of beautiful parks with big open areas of huge trees and lots of green grass to run around in. Maddie is like her mom and hates to wear shoes and socks. She is constantly taking her shoes off and running around barefoot at the park.

Maddie at Seventh Street Park. She calls this park "Turtle Park" because there is a stone turtle sculpture for the kids to climb on.

Maddie is such a sweet girl. She calls the other kids at the park "friends". I love how she looks at any new people as friends - I should be more like my Maddie.

I love this girl :) She still has the most intense eyes and the longest, thickest eyelashes I have ever seen on a little girl.

Maddie sitting on a caterpillar climbing structure at Wildwood Canyon Park. She calls this park "Ladybug Park" because she thinks the caterpillar she's sitting on looks like a ladybug.

Maddie loves music. She loves to learn new songs, especially ones that include actions. Grandpa pulls out his guitars most Sunday nights after family dinner. Maddie loves to play along with Grandpa. He is so sweet and patient with her. He lets her use his "picnics" (guitar picks) and pluck his guitar. He also prints out sheet music for children's songs and plays songs she knows. She thinks Grandpa is so amazing that he can play "Hokey Pokey" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on his guitar. She frequently makes requests for him to play songs from Toy Story or Lion King. She just assumes he knows every song.

Maddie & I were waiting at the pediatrician's office for the doctor to come in and she decided to sing some songs. Here is a medley of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Popcorn Popping", & "Wheels on the Bus".

Maddie loves to sing to Macey. And Macey just eats it up. They are in love with each other. Here is a Maddie original called "Roxy Tonight". She loves Laura, Bryant, and their dog Roxy. She frequently sings about them, plays pretend and names her toys after them, and asks about them.

And here is a spirited rendition of "If You're Happy & You Know It". She sang this one with her cousin Adam. This is one of her favorites.

Maddie's other fun thing to do is attend tumbling class. She goes to Tumble Tots and learns all kinds of fun things. They are so great with the kids - the instructors teach them stretches, songs, and gymnastics tricks. Maddie just loves it. She asks to go to tumbling every day when she wakes up.

Here she is at circle time, stretching and listening intently to the instructor.

She has so much fun every week - this is a real Maddie smile.

One of the stretches is sung to "Humpty Dumpty" and it's Maddie's favorite one. She re-enacts it at home all the time.

Look for Maddie to be joining the USA gymnastics team in about 15 years. Here are the beginnings of a backflip.

At the end of each class, the instructors pull out the parachute and let them play with it.

They finish up by letting the kids ride on it while we sing "Ring Around the Rosy". Maddie looks forward to it every week and just squeals with delight as she spins in the middle with her friends.

Maddie such a wonderful big sister and such a joy in our family. We love to watch her grow and develop each day. She keeps us laughing all day long.

Macey Bug!

2011-05-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

Macey is 3 months old and has completely turned into a happy, content baby! Her first few weeks were a little rough. She had some gas/acid reflux issues she needed to grow out of.

Here is her list of milestones so far...

Hold head up - on her birthday!

Smiling - 2 weeks

Cooing - 5 weeks

Sleeping through the night (medical definition - 6 hours) - 6 weeks

Batting at toys - 9 weeks

Laughing - 11 weeks

At 3 months, she is perfectly happy playing in her exersaucer, bumbo, or jungle play mat for a long time. She absolutely adores Maddie and loves to watch her play all day.

And in the most exciting Macey news...

SHE IS SLEEPING ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT! She consistently sleeps from 10pm to 7am or later - that's NINE hours! Wahoo! I owe all of her good sleep habits to her Aunt Jessica who has faithfully taken "night duty" since the night we came home from the hospital. She is my own personal baby nurse! What new mom gets to just go to bed and not wake up every couple of hours with their newborn? Lucky me!

Here are some fun pictures of my sweet Macey baby over the past few weeks...

First smiles starting to appear! Such a pretty girl.

A video of Macey cooing - I love those sweet baby noises.

Grandma Eatough LOVES to bathe her grandbabies. Macey took a bath in Grandma's kitchen sink one night and loved it. Naked pictures of Macey are so funny because they show how truly big she is. She has major fat rolls and a big muffin top tummy. I love how her chunky cheeks sit on her chest hiding her invisible neck. She is so different than my string bean Maddie!

Grandma Eatough is such a fun grandma! She calls Macey her Angels lucky charm because every time she watches an Angels baseball game with her, they win!

Me & my Macey bug!

Love that chunky face!

Uncle Richard is such a softy when it comes to his nieces and nephews. He loves to hold the babies and play with the toddlers. He always asks my girls for hugs and to hold them. Underneath that fake smile, he is secretly loving holding his newest niece!

More smiles!

Macey's 2 month check up was on April 12th - here are her stats...

Weight: 13.5 lbs - 92 % (no surprise there!)

Length: 22.25 in. - 35% (oh no, I hope she's not short like me!)

Head: 15.75 - 72%

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my fat, naked baby on the exam table. She was cooing at her pediatrician and having a fun time making the exam table paper crinkle under her arms and legs.

And then came the shots :( In true Macey fashion, she sucked down the oral immunization faster than you'd believe. She thought it was quite tasty. But, as you can imagine, she did not care for being stuck in her legs. Oh well, maybe one day she'll thank me for immunizing her against all the scary diseases. Maddie came with us to the doctor and was very protective of her sister. She didn't want the doctor poking around in Macey's ears or mouth. And she was the first one to console Macey after her shots. She is such a good big sister - or "fister" as she pronounces it.

Macey is really into textures right now. She absolutely is in love with the sweet baby blanket Laura made for her. She finds it in her bed, curls her chubby hands around it, and chews on it.

We love our sweet Macey girl & can't believe how much she changes every day!

A Visit from the Farrs!

2011-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the worst things about moving from Arizona to California was leaving Laura & Bryant. We love them so much and spent a lot of time with them. Laura was a second mom to Maddie. We all cried when we moved. But, Laura & Bryant came out for a quick visit and it was so fun to see them!

They brought their sweet little dog Roxy with them which just thrilled Maddie to pieces. She has missed playing with "Rockies". They came to the park with us and Maddie had so much fun playing with them.

Laura got to meet her new niece Macey and the first order of business was putting her in a super cute outfit and matching bow. Laura was always so great about dressing Maddie up and pulling out her next size up clothing. Maddie & Macey are so lucky to have you for an aunt!

Maddie took Roxy on lots and lots of walks. Poor Roxy probably slept the whole way back to Arizona after Maddie was done running her all over Southern California.

Laura & Bryant took Maddie to the beach for her first trip to the ocean! Macey was still a little small for that long of a trip, so they took Maddie for an adventure. I sure missed her, but I'm so glad she went. She had lots and lots of fun.

She came home and told me all about the big lake (the ocean), the sand, and the birds.

She had lots of fun feeding Nutri Grain bars and graham crackers to the seagulls.

Maddie on the pier.

Maddie just soaking up the So Cal beach reading a good book with some good snacks.

Headed down to the water - I bet it was FREEZING!

Such a sweet picture. My baby's toes touching the Pacific Ocean for the first time!

Laura & Bryant took Maddie down to the water and told her to run away from the waves. She took that advice a little too literally and kept running and running and running. She is so silly.

Maddie's idea of heaven - endless sand to play with, get dirty in, and draw pictures in.

Looks like a snake to me.

That's my Maddie girl!

Laura & Bryant, we miss you guys so much! Thanks for a super fun visit and for being such a great aunt and uncle to my babies! We'll see you soon!

PS- We are SO EXCITED to see Baby Farr in November! What a lucky baby to get you both for parents! What a miracle. Prayers are always answered!

Wildflowers in Yucaipa!

2011-05-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

The wildflowers this spring have been amazing after an especially wet winter. We took Maddie out to her favorite park so we could take a walk through the wildflowers. She had so much fun!

She has recently discovered dandelions and how much fun they are to blow. She calls them "diddy-wyons" and tries and tries to blow the dandelion apart. After a while she hands it to me so I can blow it for her. While the dandelion seeds are floating around, she runs around in the cloud of them and yells "BUBBLES!"

The trail was beautiful all lined with wildflowers.

Maddie loves the park. She asks to go every day and we usually end up there every day so she can run around and soak up some sunshine. She likes the slides and swings, but she mostly likes to explore. She is a wanderer. She loves to find rocks, flowers, and dirt. She was in heaven with all these wildflowers she could pick.

Maddie sat down against this fence post to smell some flowers.

Love this picture.

My Maddie flower in a sea of flowers. She couldn't believe how many flowers there were. She kept saying, "Look at all the fwowers!"

Hiking up the last part of the trail. The scenery in Yucaipa is such a beautiful backdrop for photos.

Maddie loved sitting in the flowers and did not want to leave!

Smelling the flowers - she's learning how to actually sniff things. Usually, she picks up a flower and blows on it, imitating the sniffing noise.

We are loving the beautiful spring weather in sunny Southern California. Hopefully the wildflowers stick around for a while - they are amazing!

Sisters by blood, friends by choice...

2011-04-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

My parents gave me the greatest gift ever ... siblings. I LOVED growing up in a big family and look back fondly on all the memories created with four sisters and a brother. Of course, there was the inevitable bickering and clothes stealing, but those memories are crowded out by all the fun times. Like staying up late laughing on school nights, helping each other get ready for formal dances, talking about boys, and having someone to talk to when mom and dad just didn't understand. I love each of my sisters and my brother and feel so grateful to have built-in eternal friends.

That's why I was so excited to give Maddie a sister.

Maddie was very thoughtful and quiet the day Macey was born. She was very sweet and gentle with her from the beginning. Here she is with her "Big Sister" shirt on! Macey was about 5 hours old in this picture. I love to think that the day Macey was born, a sister was also born in Maddie.

One of Maddie's favorite things to do is have Macey lie in her bed with her. She giggles and balls up her fists, shrieking with delight. I foresee lots of sister slumber parties!

Maddie spends a lot of time inspecting Macey. And Macey inspects Maddie right back.

Matching pajamas!

I love that look in Maddie's eyes - she ADORES her sister.

More sister slumber party time!

When I initially recorded this video, I thought it was ruined because Maddie decided it would be funny to startle Macey by hitting her. After watching it back, I think its a funny sibling video that should be shared.

Here are my favorite highlights:

:04 The Mischievious Sideways Glance

:08 The Attack

:14 Loving A Little Too Rough

Maddie sings and sings and sings all day long. I love it. Her latest favorite tunes are "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping". She comes up with her own original songs as well. Here she is singing a song to her sister Macey. As you can see, she is very animated when she sings.

Maddie & Macey at 7th Street Park.

Matching dresses!

I can hardly wait to watch my two girls grow up with a built-in best friend. They will bicker, steal each other's clothing, and not always like each other, but I know they'll always be there for each other just like my siblings are always there for me!

First few weeks at home!

2011-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Macey came home from the hospital and fit right in with our family. She LOVES to sleep on your chest. She snuggles in as close as she can to your neck and will sleep that way for hours. She also LOVES to eat! She eats every two hours and never spits up - she's like a bottomless pit. She won't stop eating until milk is spilling out of the sides of her mouth and even then, she gets mad when you take her food away. She loves to hold your fingers while she's eating. She flails her hands around until she finds a finger or a hand to hold. She is a super sweet girl and we are loving watching her grow and change every day.

Maddie is enthralled with her little sister. I thought for sure she would be jealous of Macey, but she has never expressed anything but love and concern for her sister. In fact, I'm not sure she trusts us with Macey. She is constantly worried about where Macey is. I feel like she thinks we lose her all the time. I always ressure her that Macey is in her swing or sleeping in her bed, but I love how Maddie is a little mommy to Macey. If she's crying, Maddie brings over her binky. If that doesn't work, then she opens the refrigerator and gets her a bottle and shoves it in her mouth. If that doesn't work, she starts shushing her. I have a post planned for thir sisterly love for each other, so I'll stop there, but they are so sweet together.

Here is a short video of the girls when Macey was less than a week old...

Macey visiting with Great Grandma Pope. My girls are so lucky to have both sets of great grandparents (on Brandon's side) so close and so involved in their lives. We love our huge family!

First Check-Up at the Pediatrician at one week old.

This picture is deceiving ... Macey loathes her car seat and riding in the car. She screams whether it's a 20 second car ride or a 20 minute car ride.

She has been trying to hold her own bottle since the week she came home. This girl loves her milk!

Macey's first bath was on the dining room table! It's been a pretty chilly California winter, so we set her bathtub on the dining room table with a space heater next to her to keep her warm and cozy. She loved being in the water.

Big sister Maddie supervising the bath. She was so excited, she wanted Macey to have four baths that day.

Macey loves natural light - she always cranes her head around to find a window or door.

Macey at one month

She has changed so much. She looks so different than she did when we first brought her home. The first few weeks, Macey was a bit of a fuss bucket. She had a hard time with gas and tummy troubles. We tried Mylicon gas drops, Dr. Brown's anti-colic bottles, I'm not eating or drinking any dairy, Colic Calm, etc. She'll be three months old next week and she has really settled down. I think she just needed to grow out of some of her gas issues. She's still a little bit of a diva, but she'll entertain herself in her jungle play mat or activity chair for a long time now. We love our little Macey Bug.

First Videos of Macey

2011-04-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos of the first few minutes of Macey's life...

Macey needed some oxygen before she could really start crying. You can hear the nurses commenting on her size before the official weigh-in. I couldn't believe it when they said she was 9 pounds 2 ounces! The last part of the video is of Brandon putting her diaper on. One of my favorite parts of seeing my newborn babies is hearing their sweet little voices for the first time. Maddie had a quiet little cry. Macey squeaks. After nine months, it's so fun to finally get to hear their voices.

Macey Kate Milloy

2011-04-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

A late blog update is better than no update at all, right? I am slowly working on uploading all the pictures and videos from the past 2 months, so blog updates will be coming! Here is the first of several posts...

Our newest baby girl....

Macey Kate Milloy

February 2, 2011 - 10:51 am

9 lbs. 2 oz. - 20 inches long

Based on my labor and delivery experience with Maddie, I expected to be a week late and have to be induced. On February 1st, I was five days overdue and at work when I realized my water was starting to break. I wasn't sure if that's what was going on, because I had no early labor symptoms with Maddie to reference. After work, I called labor & delivery and they said to come in right away. So, Brandon & I drove down to the hospital, the nurses checked me, & decided my water had broken! No one was more shocked than I was that my body had gone into labor on its own. Maddie had to practically be forced out!

We spent the night at the hospital and I had manageable contractions all night. At 6am, the nurses decided to put me on the dreaded Pitocin to speed up labor since my water had been broken for so long. Within 15 minutes, I was in unbearable pain. The contractions were one on top of the other and I could not breathe through them anymore. The nurses were doing a shift change and said they would bring me pain medication as soon as they were done. I was in agony and the nurses were not in any hurry. So, my super hero husband stormed out to the nurse's station and raised hell. I love him. :) He was successful and brought a nurse back with him who gave me something for the pain. Whatever they gave me took the edge off, but also made me instantly dizzy to the point I could not lift my head off the pillow. I was vomiting when the nurses came in to ask me if I wanted an epidural. YES PLEASE! I don't remember much between the time that happened and after I woke up with an epidural. I do remember life being much more pleasant when I woke up with no pain or nausea. Shortly after that, the doctor came in and three pushes later, we had a new baby girl!

This birth experience was so much easier than Maddie's was. What a difference it makes when your body puts itself into labor, rather than being forced into it!

Brandon seeing his new daughter for the first time

Brandon putting her hospital bracelet on her ankle

No one could believe it when Macey weighed in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces! Maddie was only 7 pounds, 13 ounces, so this was a total shocker. Even the doctor who delivered Macey guessed she would weigh 8 pounds. I don't know where this giant baby came from!

She looks so little next to his hand.

Love those baby feet and tiny toes.

Such a sweet moment.

My baby girl looking at her mommy for the first time.

I am still a little drugged in this picture and we're both exhausted, but I was so happy to see that she was healthy and even more excited not to be pregnant anymore!

Derrick & Jessica brought Maddie to the hospital right before I was getting ready to push, so she got to see her new sister when she was less than an hour old. The only way to describe the way Maddie looked at Macey is reverence or awe. She was quiet and thoughtful, but her face says it all.

She got a little nervous when Macey started to cry, but was okay after we told her that's how babies talk. She patted her back and gave her kisses and was super sweet with her. I was sad to leave Maddie for our hospital stay - we've never left her overnight. But, she got a new baby sister out of the deal, plus with all the fun she had with Grandma, Jessica, & Derrick, I'm not sure she even noticed we were gone!

Later that evening, we started getting serious about naming our new baby. I really really really wanted her to be Kate, but I just didn't feel like she looked like a Kate at all. One of the other names on our list was Macey. We asked Maddie which name we should give her sister and she said "Macey Kate". It sounded so sweet in her little Maddie voice & my heart just melted! That was it - she was Macey Kate Milloy.

We are so blessed to have two beautiful healthy baby girls. I am so excited that my girls have a sister. Brandon and I absolutely loved growing up in big families with lots of siblings. More to come on the first few weeks at home, lots of family, and our new house!

Random Pictures

2011-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Some random pictures from the past few months...

Maddie LOVES the park. No, Maddie is OBSESSED with the park. She talks about the park, the slides, and the swings non-stop. Here are some pictures of her hanging out at one of her favorite places - Wildwood Canyon Park.

Now that we are back in California, we've had several visits with Maddie's great grandparents Milloy. We always enjoy our visits with them. They are so sweet with Maddie - Grandma always has a bucket of toys and a snack ready for Maddie. Maddie loves their home - she runs up and down the steep driveway, explores Grandpa's orchards, and loves to visit with all the stone animals scattered around their property. She is especially fond of these stone frogs on the deck. She always carries them over to the fountain and takes them for a swim.

Maddie is a total snuggle bunny and loves to cuddle in Mom & Dad's bed any chance she gets. I love this sweet picture. Maddie loves her dada and she has him wrapped around her finger.

Just a funny picture of Maddie posing. She found this hat and wanted to wear it while she played with her legos. She never tolerates anything on her head, so it's funny she put it on herself. And this little pose is so funny too. What is going through that little head of hers?

Maddie & I get to take trips to the motorcycle store with Brandon every now and then and Maddie loves to run around and check out the kid sized toys. She calls them "Maddie's motorcycles" and she climbs right up onto them while making motorcycle noises.

It's time for another belly picture! This was during Christmas weekend, so I was exactly 8 months. I'm not sure how much bigger I can get or how much more stretch I can get out of my maternity clothes, so hurry up & come Baby Girl!

Okay, I think my camera is officially cleaned up now. Just in time to fill it back up with pictures and videos of the new baby!

Maddie's Favorite Songs!

2011-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Maddie sings all day and even in her sleep sometimes! She is super animated and funny, until she sees a camera. Then she acts shy and reserved. I really wanted to document her singing because I know she won't do it forever, but these versions pale in comparison to the real singing she does. Oh well, this will have to do for now. If I can capture any better renditions, I will share those here on our blog.

Side Note- Please excuse my terrible singing voice. :)

"The Wheels on the Bus"

"ABC" - The Yelling Version

Tumbling Class with Jasmine!

2011-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Maddie's cousin Jasmine goes to a fun tumbling class every Friday in Redlands and Maddie has tagged along a few times. She loved it so much, Brandon bought her a year membership so she can tumble all throughout 2011!

Here are some fun videos of Maddie and Jasmine being silly and getting out lots of energy...

A Cousin Visit & The Petting Zoo

2011-01-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

I found some videos on our camera that were never posted, so here they are! I borrowed some pictures off Katie's blog too - thanks Katie! :)

Katie came to visit from Texas with Tyler and her sweet baby Jamie. Maddie thought her cousin Tyler was just the coolest ever. Especially when he jumped off Grandma Eatough's fireplace over and over again. I have no idea where Maddie's shirt went.

We took Maddie to the Pumpkin Patch at Halloween with both sides of our family including Katie and her cute kids. We found the petting zoo and Maddie loved running around with all the animals.

A giant sheep sneaks up on Maddie...

Maddie being silly with the goats...

Some of these animals were a little friendly...

A goat came up and snatched little baby Jamie's sock right off her foot while we were there!

Brandon decided he would wrangle the goat and try to steal the sock back. Ha. That goat had other plans...

The Eatough side...

Stay tuned for more delayed pictures and videos that I am cleaning off my camera!

Milloy Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

*I have FINALLY cleaned all the pictures off my camera! There will be a new post every day for the next several days to re-cap our lives the past few months. Check back every morning to see what we've been up to!*

The Milloy 2010 Christmas was super busy, but tons of fun this year. We got to visit with lots of family, eat lots of yummy food, and spend time with each other.

Maddie was two and a half years old this Christmas, so she understood more than last year. She was lots of fun and enjoyed lots of the different parts of Christmas.

Such as, her dad reading "Twas The Night Before Christmas" to her...

And Grandpa Milloy playing Christmas carols on his guitar for the girls...

Christmas Eve was spent with the Pope side of the family with a delicious breakfast for dinner. We ate pancakes, hash brown/scrambled egg casserole yumminess, sausage, bacon, and all kinds of other yummy breakfast foods.

Maddie LOVED the train that circled the Ridge's christmas tree. It was torture for her to look only with her eyes and not with her hands. When the temptation became too great and she derailed the train, her dad fixed it.

She could have laid there all night and watched the train loop around the tree.

This was Maddie on Christmas morning at 8:30am. We finally had to wake her up so we could head up to Grandma & Grandpa Eatough's house and start the day's festivities. Of course, the one day she decides to sleep in is Christmas morning.

When she did wake up and stumble out of her room, she found a shiny new bicycle under the Christmas tree!

Safety first!

We opened gifts at Grandma & Grandpa Eatough's house first. Maddie got a bathtime Ariel doll from Santa and lots of other fun gifts like floor puzzles and cupcake pajamas. She also enjoyed helping Annie play with her new toys. Maddie has this talking purse, so she wanted to make sure Annie knew how to use it properly.

It's been super cold and rainy in Southern California this winter. Here are some fun pictures of us all bundled up. We are having to re-aclimate ourselves to the colder weather after several Arizona "winters".

I love that smile.

We hope you all had a great Christmas too!

The Big Catch Up Post

2010-11-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

I am completely aware that I have been a terrible blogger these past couple of months - I am sorry for the lack of updates on our family! Our lives went from stable and predictable to craziness overnight.

Let's take a look at the last 2 months...

It all started out with some bad news at the end of August ... I got laid off from my job with ProfitKeeper in Mesa, Arizona on a Tuesday morning with no notice. My job was literally outsourced to India and unbeknownst to me, I had been training my Indian replacement during my last month of employment. This was a major problem for our family because Brandon was still out of work, which means we immediately had no income or health insurance. This is not good news for anyone, but this was especially stressful to us with me being 5 months pregnant.

About a week later, we got some more bad news. We went back for the second anatomy ultrasound and the technician thought our baby's head looked small. She did some measurements and decided her head was measuring two weeks behind her body. We were referred to a high risk ultrasound facility to take more detailed measurements of her skull plates. Needless to say, we did not need this stress added onto our already stressful situation. We worried and prayed and finally went in for our appointment. Thankfully, the doctor there said she looked perfect and although she was a little petite, she was consistently petite all the way around. This took a huge weight off our shoulders and we are so blessed to have our healthy baby girl developing as she should.

September was spent on the job hunt and I sent out hundreds of resumes to any job opening I could find in Arizona. I did this for a month and got zero calls back. Very discouraging. One day, I decided (mostly for fun) to apply to jobs near our family in Southern California. Almost immediately, I got a call back for an accounting position at Perricone Juices - a natural juice company five minutes from our home town. I completed a phone interview (again, mostly for fun) - I didn't think I'd really get the job.

While we were in Lake Havasu with our friends, I got the call that I had passed the phone interview portion and would be interviewing in person the next week. Wow! I wasn't expecting that. I still didn't think I'd get the job because I was visibly 5 months pregnant.

We went home to California so I could interview and we could visit family. The interview went really well, probably because I didn't think I'd get the job anyway, so I wasn't nervous. While we were home that week, we went to Bennett's fire station pancake breakfast. The sheriff's helicoptor made an appearance which absolutely thrilled Maddie to pieces. She couldn't stop touching it and was so excited to be inside the "he-copter".

I hadn't heard anything about the job interview, so we packed up to head back to Arizona. We were about 20 minutes into our trip, when I got a call asking me to come in for a second interview/training the next day and to show me where I would be sitting. We pulled off the freeway to have a family meeting about all this craziness. We decided that our family needed to go where employment was and maybe there was a reason why I was not able to find an Arizona job after a month of applying and I was able to find a job on day one of the California job hunt. We had always planned to move back closer to family, but we certainly hadn't envisioned it happening like this!

While we were making plans on the side of the 10 freeway, this train came by which delighted Maddie. She kept telling us the train was "very loud."

Derrick the Dare Devil watching the pennies he laid out get flattened by the train. I circled him in the picture - that's him squatting next to the train and Brandon yelling at him to back up. Why are boys so dangerous?

So, after our roadside meeting, we turned our road trip around and headed back to Yucaipa. I went in the next day for my second interview/training and met with the owners. And I got the job! I trained for a few hours and was told my health benefits would start day one of employment. This was a huge blessing because most employers make you wait 90 days and this company normally has a 6 month waiting period. So, when I left, they let me know they would mail me out an offer letter. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to find employment so close to where we wanted to live, but there was so much up in the air too. We are planners and we don't move out of state over a weekend, but that's exactly what we did! I got my offer letter on a Thursday and we packed up as little as possible and drove back to California that Saturday, so that I could start working Monday.

That last week at home was bittersweet for us. It was so strange leaving our home of 5 years with no notice and without taking any of our belongings, since we moved in with Brandon's parents. We were also sad to leave all of our Arizona friends. We made the best friends we could have asked for during the last 5 years. We had regular Sunday dinner parties together, we went to the lake, we watched football games, and as we started having children, our kids played together. We will miss seeing them regularly, but we are excited to be with our families so much more now.

I especially was worried about Maddie. Everything in her life changed overnight without notice and without explanation - she had to leave the only home she's ever known and everything familiar to her. I took some pictures that last week of her playing. She loves this magnetic dress up doll set from her Great Aunt Joy and she was content to play with "dolly" in her Pottery Barn armchair for almost an hour.

This was her favorite spot in our Arizona house - her uplholstered arm chair. This picture breaks my heart. She's so comfortable in her home with her blankie and in her chair. She fell asleep watching Mickey Mouse and Pluto cartoons before bedtime. I just feel awful that she had no idea all this change was coming in the next couple of days.

She asks me regularly to "go home and see Darla" which just rips my heart out. She's old enough to miss her old home and the familiarity of it, but she's too young to understand why all this change had to happen. I'm probably being overly emotional because I'm pregnant, but I just hate creating chaos in my baby's life. She is the same old silly Maddie and is having lots of fun being adored and doted on by all of her extended family in Southern California. She is definitely not lacking love and attention. We are lucky to live with Brandon's parents during this transition time until we find something more permanent, so she has live in grandparents who love to watch her learn and play. Plus, her other grandparents are just up the street and are always thrilled to see her for visits too. We have bath time at Grandma Eatough's a few times a week - what a treat to be so close to so much family!

In other good news... Brandon was also able to find employment with Titan Telecom a week after I started my job. It is super hard, labor intensive work that we thought we had left behind after we went to flight school and started down the aviation path. He is such a good man providing for our family and doing whatever it takes to make sure we are moving forward. He leaves at 4am every morning and drives through ridiculous LA traffic to climb cell phone towers all over Southern California. He works hard all day and we don't see him until 8 or 9pm. Maddie misses him, but she gets to say goodnight to him most nights. I know they miss each other a ton- they became best buddies the whole last year while Brandon was able to stay home with her. We are so lucky to have such a hardworking daddy.

On the weekends, the boys have gotten some fun time in to ride their dirtbikes up in the mountains. These tough guys are Brandon in the back and Derrick in the front. They get to spend lots of brother time together with Bennett and their dad and they have lots of fun.

During all this chaos, Halloween came and went. Maddie wanted to be a bumble bee again, which was fine with me. She wears her bee costume around the house regularly shouting, "Maddie's a bee!", so she didn't mind dressing up in the same costume 2 years in a row. I only have one picture of her in her costume - this was at the ward Trunk or Treat. She had lots of fun bumbling around and joining her cousin Jasmine in swiping cookies off the dessert table.

After the Trunk or Treat, Maddie and Jasmine decided to cook up some trouble in Grandma Milloy's kitchen. Jasmine found a bag of Sun Chips, held it upside down, and they both enjoyed a late night snack together. Oh, these two trouble makers...

The actual night of Halloween, Bennett and Gwynne hosted family dinner at their new beautiful home in Redlands.

While we were there, they announced Gwynne is 4 months pregnant with their first baby! We are beyond thrilled to see their sweet baby. A week later, they found out they are expecting a girl. We feel so blessed that our baby girl will have a girl cousin so close in age - based on due dates, they'll be less than 3 months apart!

As usual, we got to enjoy two Thanksgiving dinners this year! We had dinner #1 at my parent's home where they had a deep fried turkey and a Cajun oven roasted turkey. I loved seeing my Grandma Eatough's serving dishes being used. We always had the Eatough Thanksgiving dinner at their home, but now that they are enjoying Thanksgiving together in heaven, we get to remember them with the same mashed potato bowl and other serving dishes that have been a Thanksgiving fixture since I can remember. And I always love to see peanut butter balls (an Eatough tradition) on the Thanksgiving table. Maddie tried a bite of everything on the table, but only ate rolls and crackers. Oh well, at least she tried new foods. She also ate her first peanut butter ball this year and loved it.

Dinner #2 was at the always beautiful Ridge home. Everything was very low stress and relaxing. We did a potluck style dinner and everyone brought something to share. It was nice that one person did not end up with the bulk of the cooking duties. We had a great time eating yummy food and enjoying everyone's company. One of my favorite Milloy Thanksgiving traditions is when everyone stands in a circle before the prayer and expresses gratitude for the blessings they have in their lives. It brings such a sweet, peaceful spirit to Thanksgiving and gives everyone an opportunity to be thankful.

Laura, Bryant, Gwynne and Bennett at the kids table.... just kidding!

Maddie and Aunt Jessica AKA Jeka in Maddie language

Maddie being my Maddie...

David's parents brought their sweet dog Sophie to Thanksgiving dinner and Maddie was beside herself. All she wanted to do was kiss Sophie all night long. Poor Sophie just wanted to rest. I think we need to get this girl a dog.

One of our favorite things about California Saturday mornings is getting doughnuts. We have lived in Florida and Arizona and no one makes doughnuts as good as Southern California. Brandon and Maddie have a standing daddy-daughter date on Saturday mornings to go get doughnuts in their pajamas. She loves rainbow sprinkle cake doughnuts, which she calls dah-nuts. As you'll see in the video below, she eat the frosting and sprinkles off the top and then throws the rest away. It's a good thing she likes to brush her teeth. She has a raging sugar tooth just like her mom.

Through the last couple of crazy months, I inadvertantly stopped documenting my pregnant belly. I just realized I haven't taken a picture since I was betweeen 3 and 4 months. Now I am 7 months pregnant and quite a bit rounder. Sorry for the grainy picture, it was a dark picture that needed to be lightened up.

I am very proud of the fact that I can still wear my wedding ring at this late stage of pregnancy. My fingers were like sausages by the six month mark with Maddie. I am attributing this success to starting out a little thinner than I did with Maddie and eating more healthy foods. Or it could just be a lack of swelling because I'm not 7 months pregnant during the Arizona summer. I choose to think it's the first explanation. :)

So, that's what's been going on with the Milloys! We are looking forward to settling down somewhere before our baby girl arrives early next year and hopefully having a quieter 2011. As we enter this 2010 holiday season, things are different, but we are still very blessed. We are both employed, our growing family is surrounded with loving extended family, and we are all healthy. What else could we ask for?

Is Maddie getting a brother or a sister?

2010-09-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

Maddie's getting a sister!

Our new little baby girl was stubborn as can be this morning. She was all tucked up, breech, and asleep. She was not moving out of her cozy spot no matter what we did. Finally, towards the end of the ultrasound she finally moved her leg and found out she's a girl!

We were just excited to find out she had all her body parts and is growing perfectly, but to find out we're getting another sweet girl is so exciting! And it's also so helpful financially, seeing as everything in our home is pink already. Having a boy would have been fun too, but there is something so sweet about a newborn, snuggly baby girl.

Here are some pictures of our pretty baby -

I wonder if she'll have long, dark eyelashes like Maddie.

Baby Girl decided to go back to sleep after all this picture taking, so the sonographer was not able to get good measurements of her spine. So, we have a follow up ultrasound scheduled for next week. I'll drink some orange juice before I go so she'll be more active the next time around.

Quick California Trip!

2010-08-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Late Friday, we decided to take a quick trip home to California. Bennett & Gwynne closed on their new home in Redlands (yay!) and the boys couldn't wait to get Bennett's Camaro back to him so it was officially home in Bennett's garage.

I'm so glad we went - if we didn't, we would have missed this amazing sunset.

One of Maddie's favorite parts of Grandma Milloy's house is the swing in her front yard. She always runs straight to it and even makes sure to say goodbye to the swing whenever we drive away. She loves it when her dad lifts her super high, counts to three, and let's her go. Here she is ... focused with as much anticipation as a 2 year old can have.

Sheer joy. I love that Maddie smile.

We also went to the park for a night time rocket launch. Maddie had lots of fun running around in the cool air and green grass - we don't have either of those things in Arizona right now. And, what's that? A sweater? We haven't worn sweaters in Arizona in months. We sure miss California.

Ever since Maddie was a baby, Brandon has rolled down her window so she can feel the wind on her face and it also distracts her from the fact that she is strapped into a car seat. She loves it.

Thanks for the fun trip home and the cool weather!

A Thursday Evening with the Milloys...

2010-08-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last night, after dinner, Maddie and I made some cupcakes. She can hear the sound of the Kitchen-Aid mixer from across the house and she comes running to "help, Mama, help." She grabs a chair from the dining room table, drags it across the kitchen, and samples the batter/dough/mix. She is quite the little baker - she likes to add ingredients and turn on the mixer.

This video is called, "It's So Yummy." That's her newest phrase when she's eating. She also brings out her excited arms and some excited jumping too! Her sugar intake was more controllable when she thought bran muffins were cupcakes.

After the cupcakes were in the oven, it was onto playing in Mom & Dad's bed. When we tell Maddie its bed time, she says, "Ga-night Mama Dada's bed!" and then runs off to jump in our big bed. She likes this new game she invented where she counts to three and falls straight back. She especially likes it when Mama, Dada, and Derrick all join in the falling straight back at the same time. She even tries to get Darla to join us. Silly girl.

Just another fun night at the Milloys with our sweet baby girl!

Quick Havasu Trip!

2010-08-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

We met my family out at the river for a quick, fun weekend!

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here's a fun one of a cheesy Brandon smile.

Me & Maddie Lovebug.

Maddie, Dada, & Derrick hanging out on the back of the boat. Maddie had lots of fun watching the fish swim around and throwing her Flounder toy into the water for Grandpa to retrieve.

Derrick exploring the bottom of Lake Havasu.

Do not be alarmed - this is not a dead body. This is Kristen- my tan obsessed sister soaking up all the UV rays she can. What a diva.

We had lots of fun visiting our family! We ate yummy food at the Golden Horseshoe restaurant and went cosmic bowling.

Some fun pictures from the drive home...

Like father, like daughter...

Derrick the road warrior.

I was the back seat navigator...

I love this guy...

Doctor's visits for both of my babies!

2010-08-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, Maddie had her 2 year check up! She loves the fish aquarium in the waiting room and always looks forward to saying, "Heh-wo fish" as they swim by.

My independant girl did not want her throat looked at. She clamped her jaw shut when the doctor tried to check out her teeth and mouth. We had to pry her mouth open with a tongue depressor. She also did not appreciate having her ears looked at. She took the ear light instrument thing out of the doctor's hand, handed it back to her, and said, "No." I think I have a little firecracker on my hands.

Here are her stats:

WEIGHT: 22.8 pounds - 7th % - My litte string bean

HEIGHT: 35 inches - 80th % - I think she'll be tall like her dad!

HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE: 18.5 inches - 50th % - A perfect little head.

I couldn't believe how tall she's grown over the past 6 months... and how skinny she still is. Since her 18 month check-up in February, she grew two whole inches and gained 1.2 pounds. I hope all of my children inherit their dad's height and metabolism. It looks like Maddie may be headed in that direction!

Her check up also, unfortunately, included 3 immunizations. My poor love bug. It is so awful because she doesn't even know its coming and then she has no idea why she's being stabbed over and over again. Oh, it breaks my heart every time. Maybe one day she'll thank me that she never got polio or measles, mumps, or rubella. She quickly recovered after she got to pick some bubbles out of the toy treasure chest. Bubbles make everything better- even painful shots.

I also went for my monthly check up so we could see how the little sweet potato is doing in there. That's the size of Baby Milloy #2 this week - a sweet potato or 5.5 inches. I always like to get my weekly baby email updates so I can see what vegetable or fruit my baby is this week.

I am happy to report that we are both healthy and doing well.

Here is baby's heartbeat ... you can hear the nurse naming off the heart rate in the recording.

Next month, we'll find out if this sweet potato is a brother or a sister for Maddie. By the looks of our baby gender poll (top right corner of this blog), it appears the majority think Maddie will get a little sister. What do you think? Stay tuned....

PS- Check the right side of our blog for updates on Maddie's measurements & all the things she does that keeps us laughing.

An Arizona Thunderstorm

2010-08-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

This week, we had a pretty impressive monsoon storm pass over our house. We got almost 2 inches of rain in just about an hour. There was plenty of thunder and lightning too! We went storm chasing in the Toureag and found lots of flooded roads and super heavy rain. We LOVE the rain - it cooled the temperature down from 105 degrees to 70 degrees within an hour.

When we got back, Maddie ran around in the rain until she was completely soaked. She had tons of fun jumping in puddles and spinning around in the rain with her excited arms. She called the thunder "airplane" - I guess thunder does sort of sound like an airplane. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures and video... the camera was dead, so I took all this with my phone.

Belly Picture - 16 weeks

2010-08-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have a respectable bump now that I am 16 weeks, so here is the first picture of "the bump". I have a doctor's appointment this week for a check up and then we get to schedule the gender ultrasound to see if Maddie will get a baby brother or a baby sister. What do you think it is? Vote in our baby gender poll at the top left corner of the blog. We'll see who guessed correctly in just a few weeks!

Maddie is TWO!

2010-08-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in California for Maddie's second birthday party this weekend! Her birthday party theme was hot pink, black, & rhinestones - because I love having a girly girl! We had her party at the Ridge's beautiful home and Brittany made the most amazing cake and cupcakes ever! She is so talented!

Here is the candy bar buffet for guests to take home sweet treats with them.

This cake was SO gorgeous! It was painful to cut into it!

Some framed prints of Maddie's 2 year photo shoot next to the cupcakes...

Close up of the cupcakes... They were beautiful AND delicious!

And here's the birthday girl!

If you have been following our family blog for any length of time, you know my Maddie refuses to smile on command. Most of her pictures are of her frowning or giving you "the Brandon look" (click here for an example). I am beyond excited to have a picture of a REAL Maddie smile. I wuv my baby girl!

The loot....

A picture of mingling at the party - I love our huge family so much! We ate Pizza Chalet for lunch and it was so yummy! We always find an excuse to get Pizza Chalet when we come home to Yucaipa.

The beautiful Ridge girls...

minus Emma, who was probably playing with Maddie. Those two are best buddies and have tons of fun together.

Opening presents!

Maddie got an Ariel Barbie doll from me and Brandon. Since I have the inside Mom information, I knew she would love it. She watches "The Little Mermaid" multiple times during the day and she also loves Barbies, so it was a perfect combination.

Grandma & Grandpa Eatough got her a Mrs. Potato Head - another hit! She loves Toy Story and instantly fell in love with Mrs. Potato Head. She spent the rest of the weekend assembling Mrs. Potato Head.

I should have had her open Ariel last because all she wanted was Ariel out of the box while we were trying to open the rest of the presents. Eventually, Ariel made it out of the box. This birthday was an Ariel windfall... she got an Ariel nightgown, Ariel birthday cards, & the Ariel Barbie. Some of the other fun presents she got were a Toy Story ball pit from Aunt Jessica (which Maddie & Jasmine lived in the rest of the weekend), tons of awesome books from everyone, and lots of super cute clothes. Thanks everyone!

Grandma & Grandpa Eatough and Maddie!

Maddie and her magnificent birthday cake!

Brandon & Derrick have discovered a new hobby in the past few weeks - rocket launching. They built this rocket and we have had several launches, including this one at the Yucaipa Community Park. It is way louder than you think it will be and it shoots so high in the air, you can't see it anymore.

Here is the group prepping for the rocket launch. I love how Jasmine is right in the middle of the action, checking everything out.

Some cousin love at the park ... these two are so fun together.

A video of the cousins at the park...

We also went swimming at Grandma Eatough's house. Maddie thought it was hysterical that mom's dog Chance will jump into the pool to chase balls, so she was content throwing balls for him all afternoon. Kristen & Richard came swimming too. Kristen has a rocking tan from working as a lifeguard at Pharaoh's all summer. And Richard has always had a great tan since he was a baby.

Richard tried to dunk me, but he forgot I spent 5 years on the swim and water polo teams. I handled him.

Thanks to everyone who helped pull together Maddie's party, to everyone who came to celebrate, & to everyone who brought Maddie fun gifts! We missed everyone who couldn't make it. We love you all!

Oh... and just in case you missed our last post...

Baby Milloy #2 is on its way! I am almost 4 months already. After the miscarriage earlier this year, we wanted to wait a while to spill the beans so we could make sure everything was progressing well. My due date is January 27th... but we all know this baby will not make its debut until February. Maddie was over a week late when she was induced! I am starting to come out of the nauseous stage - thank goodness.

2010-07-30T15:17:00.001-07:00

Maddie's 2 Year Photo Shoot

2010-07-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

I may have picked the worst day ever to do Maddie's 2 year pictures, due to the high humidity and triple digit temperatures. We were all sweaty and miserable, but here they are. My little stinker refuses to smile on command so any half smiles or smirks you see are the result of us dancing around behind the camera.

Here is a slideshow of some of the best photos:

4th of July California Trip!

2010-07-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

We spent some time in California for the 4th of July weekend and enjoyed the cooler weather and family time. Maddie got lots of play time with her cousin Jasmine at Flag Hill Park.

Maddie is such a big girl going down the slides by herself.

Climbing the monkey bars.

Cousins!

Jasmine trying to give Maddie some cousin love.

Family fun at the park!

I love these girls together.

Maddie chasing after Jasmine yelling her name over and over again.

Maddie coming down a slide all by herself.

Maddie and Jasmine running down big, grassy hills.

The cutest 4th of July girls ever! So festive.

And a quick update from our garden, the cherry tomatoes have beaten the odds and are producing all kinds of fruit. The strawberries have been fried by the heat along with the larger tomato plants, but those cherry tomatoes are coming right along.

Coloring with Maddie

2010-07-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a look at the inner workings of Maddie's mind. At first glance, this video appears to simply capture an afternoon of coloring with Maddie. But once you start watching, you'll realize she really just wanted to trick her mom and roll all her crayons off the table. What a sneak. :)

More Havasu Pictures!

2010-07-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

I found a bunch more Havasu pictures that I forgot to pull off my camera! Here is round 2 of our Havasu trip last month!

Maddie and Dada cooling off in the water

Maddie & her "odda mom" Robin. That's what Maddie called Robin all weekend.

We had the most amazing Hawaiian shaved ice ever on the London Bridge. It was SO yummy! I'm not sure if it was so good because it was so hot or because it was really that good. Maddie sure loved it! She got her first taste of brainfreeze, but it didn't stop her from eating a ton of shaved ice.

Dada showing Maddie some fish swimming around near the docks.

Me & Maddie on the boat

And some more fun pictures...

Ok, I think that's all the pictures now! This week in Lake Havasu, the temperatures will be right around 120 degrees. Maybe we'll wait until September or October to go again.

Havasu Trip 2010

2010-07-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last month, we got to spend a few days at the river with my family! We had so much fun hanging out with everyone and it wasn't too hot yet, so it wasn't miserable.

Me & Maddie cooling off in the water with her best pal that week - "Turtle".

Fun Cousin Time! Maddie & Adam in the water.

Here is a perfect picture of where Maddie was all weekend. In the arms of her other mother, the best replacement possible, my twinner Robin. She called her "mom" all week and reached for her from my arms. I was not offended at all, I got to hold Robin's new sweet baby Noah all week.

Maddie had a blast walking up and down the shore collecting rocks and shells and playing in the dirt.

Lauren & Annie - the baby with the best on demand smile ever!

Me & Maddie

Twin picture!

We were getting the cousins all lined up on the couch to take a picture and Maddie couldn't get enough of Noah.

With 4 cousins aged three and under, this is the best we could get.

The moms and their babies-

And one more with grandma-

Thanks for the fun time everyone! I'm glad we got out of there before it got over 110 degrees the next week.

Maddie Videos

2010-06-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

I always procrastinate loading videos of Maddie on our blog because they take so much time to upload! Sorry for being so selfish and keeping these to myself!

Here is one of Maddie and her latest phrase, "Where are you?" which sounds more like, "Where dar you?" She was in the tub looking for her purple easter egg and upon finding it in a cup full of water, decided to dump the cup of water onto the bathroom floor. Lovely.

And here are a couple of other movies...Click the blue text to see the movies.

This one is of Maddie naming off animals and other familiar objects on her wall. Brandon built her a wall hanging rack to display her art work. There are all kinds of animals and plants on it that she likes to point at and name. After she's done with that, we move onto reading a book. Some of my favorite Maddie words are on this video including muttafly (butterfly) & gug (bug).

This one is of Maddie playing "Cat". That is what she calls the spelling game Brandon and I have for her on our phones. It was downloaded in the middle of sacrament meeting one Sunday while we were trying to keep our little firecracker quiet. She loves to drag the letters around and spell out words. She definitely knows her letters and can point them out in every day life.

First Fruits from Maddie's Garden

2010-06-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

We had 4 tomatoes ready to be picked this morning! So, Maddie headed right out in her Santa pajamas and was so excited to pick her "tay-tos."

On a side note, the roley poleys were not deterred by soap flavored strawberries. We are now spraying vinegar on the strawberries. I will keep you posted...

June Happenings

2010-06-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Maddie's Garden Update

Alright roley poleys, this means WAR!

I tried to be nice and just spray them off with a hose. No more.

This morning, I headed out to the garden and found out the few roley poleys eating strawberries last week have now multiplied! Apparantly, they called all their buddies and invited them over to eat strawberries for breakfast. The party is over.

I sprayed all the plants with dish soap and they all scattered. We'll see how long that deters them. My next weapon is vinegar.

I also found this in the garden this morning...

What do you think? A bird? More bugs?

Well, whoever it is, I hope they like Dawn flavored tomatoes.

Here are the other tomatoes - just starting to turn red...

These are beautiful!

A couple of more days and these will be ready to pick!

And here are the strawberries the roley poleys haven't gotten to yet.

If I can keep the pests at bay for a couple of days, I think the strawberries will finish ripening and we can pick them. We'll see how well the dish soap spraying went when I check on the garden tomorrow morning.

Canyon Lake Trips
Well, we are over 100 degrees here for the duration of the summer, so off to the lake we go. It's so nice to have Canyon Lake so close that we can take our dinner to the lake and have a nice evening trip on a weekday after work.

Blackberry Blueberry Muffins

I had a ton of fully ripe, fresh blacberries and blueberries smiling at me in my fridge, so I adapted this recipe and came up with these little beauties.

I altered this recipe using one cup blueberries and one cup blackberries and using raw sugar crystals to top the muffins instead of regular baking sugar. They were delicious. As I pulled them out of the oven, a couple of the muffins had berry juice bubbling out of the top. Yum. I had no problem letting Maddie eat 4 of these in one day. She calls them cupcakes. They're made from scratch & think of all the anti-oxidents she's getting in her system- yay!

Here's what I came up with...

Blackberry Blueberry Muffins

18 muffins

Prep: 15 min. Bake: 20 min.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1-1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon raw sugar (to sprinkle on top)

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (I used half blueberries, half blackberries)

Directions:

In a bowl, cream butter and 1-1/4 cups sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fold in berries.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffins cups two-thirds full. Sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.

Nutrition Facts:

1 serving (1 each) equals 172 calories, 6 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 38 mg cholesterol, 172 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.

Maddie's Garden - Update

2010-06-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Maddie's Garden is in full bloom!

While we were in California, Great Grandma Milloy gave Maddie a special rock to put in her garden. Grandma knows how much Maddie loves rocks, so this was a wonderful addition to the garden. This rock was given to Maddie's Great Grandma Milloy by her father, so we are excited to have it! Thanks Grandma!

Here are our strawberries.

These are doing surprisingly well for the amount of heat and sun they have to endure. We have a ton of new green strawberries sprouting up every day. However, as soon as they start to turn red, someone else decides to eat it right off the vine.

Nope, not this little bug....

This little bug...

Our strawberries are covered with these little guys every morning! I don't want to spray pesticides on our fruit, but I'm also not sure I want to supply a strawberry buffet to the roley poleys. Does anyone know of any "green" ways to deter these little guys?

Our tomatoes are growing bigger every day!

I can't wait for them to turn red.

And our cherry tomato plants are really starting to perk up. We weren't sure if they were going to make it. They seemed kind of droopy and unhappy, but last week, they decided to pull through and we have our first cherry tomato growing.

The next morning, Brandon and I checked on our garden and the cherry tomato was bright red! Our first fruit of the season. Yay!

We are having so much fun with our little planter garden. I am already excited for next year to come so I can plant bell peppers, peas, green beans, and other fun things!

Memorial Day Recap

2010-06-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend marked our first 100 degree temperature days here in Arizona. Welcome back triple digits! I am sure there are many more of you to come! The boats were rented out all weekend, so we spent a lot of time cooling off in the backyard. Maddie loves her pool and she loves it when Dada and I are in the pool with her. It makes for a tight fit, but neither one of us can resist a request from Maddie.

This is Maddie's new swimsuit this year ... I love her in yellow and I love the girly ruffles.

While shopping at WalMart last week, I found the Dizzy Daisy on clearance for $3.00! You stake it into the ground, hook it up to the hose, and it whips water all over the place. It is a lot of fun for $3.00!

Here is Maddie inspecting the Dizzy Daisy.

She was okay with it at this point.

And here she is after we turned it on.

Not too sure about that unpredictable flower...

She has warmed up to it now.

We spent the entire weekend grilling outside. My most favorite dinner is kabobs. I really don't believe there is anything more delicious than grilled chicken, pineapple, and veggies. And I love that it's such a healthy meal for our family. Oh, and the mess and the heat stay outside instead of in the kitchen - that's my favorite part.

Here's the before picture with chicken, pineapple, bell peppers, zucchini, potatoes, and cucumbers:

And the after...

It's 7am as I am typing this and I would eat this right now. Yum!

As I've mentioned before, we are self-proclaimed, fair-weather fans of our home town sports teams. If the Cardinals or Suns are doing well, we are on board. We had a ton of fun watching the Suns sweep the San Antonio Spurs and we watched every playoff game against the Lakers. Especially the heartbreaking loss on Saturday night. Darn those Lakers. And darn this guy.

Kobe, we hate you. You are so darn good.

Please come join the Suns. :)

We also got to catch up on some movies...

a luxury not commonly enjoyed with a 1 year old.

We Red Boxed "Dear John" and I liked it until there was no happy ending. I don't like those kinds of movies. I like to feel happy & resolved at the end of movies, not sad.

Our friends Cody & Emily brought over "Ironman" for us to watch and it was so good! I usually am not a fan of action movies like this, but I loved it. So after seeing that, we decided we needed to see "Ironman 2"!

I thought this one was just as great as the first one. Some of the fighting scenes dragged on a bit, but it was great! Maybe the Milloys are action movie fans now...

We hope you all had a fun and relaxing Memorial Day weekend too!

California Trip!

2010-05-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

We came home for a quick visit with the family last weekend. It was super cold and even stormed for a bit on Sunday! What in the world is going on with the weather? Someone needs to send Dallas Raines a memo that next week is June! We came from 100 degreee temperatures in Arizona, so we packed shorts and flip flops and were freezing the whole time! We still had a ton of fun and got to visit with lots of family members.

Maddie has become quite attached to Chancie. The first person she wants to see is Grandma. After that, it's Chancie. He is such a good dog. He let Maddie lay on him, put her blanket on him, and feed him her food she was supposed to be eating.

Our big Milloy/Eatough family went to dinner at La Mexicana and ate lots of yummy food. Here are some fun pictures from dinner:

Grandpa Eatough & Maddie! My poor dad ... look at those tired eyes. He is chronically exhausted from working so much overtime at work, but he drove home from L.A. to visit with us for a few hours before leaving for work on Sunday morning again at 3am. That is work ethic. Love you dad!

Super fun Aunt Gwynne & Uncle Bennett!

Maddie & Jasmine had so much fun cousin time. They are really starting to interact with each other and they are so much fun to watch. Here they are giving each other cousin love - hugs & kisses!

One, Two, Three, Four, FIFE!

2010-05-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Maddie is learning so much, so quickly! She recognizes and names colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. She can draw circles and she loves to practice counting!

Here she is at Grandma Milloy's house playing with an animal pop-up toy. She sits and names all the animals (my personal favorites are "ji-rap" for giraffe and "burr" for bear) and counts the numbers on top of the boxes.

Puppy!

2010-05-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Our friend Rachel brought over her new 2 month old puppy last week to play with Maddie. Maddie could not get enough of the puppy - she was laughing and squealing so much, she could barely breathe.

Maddie wanted to give the puppy her blankie, but the puppy wanted to play. Then, it turned into a game...

This all happened right before bed time, so when it was time for Maddie to go to sleep, she had a complete meltdown because the puppy was still at her house and she couldn't play with it. Brandon put the puppy in her crib with her and she laid right down and said, "Night, night!" Oh dear, I think Maddie may need a dog.

Our silly little love bug

2010-05-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

Silly things Maddie is doing this week...

Blueberry muffins are "cupcakes" & doughnuts are "cookies"
She has taken up private reading time in her room. She sits quietly in her room in her Pottery Barn armchair and reads, "Goodnight Moon" to herself. She says "Night night moon!" as she turns each page.
Sings "Old McDonald Had a Farm" mumbling all the words until E-I-E-I-O comes, which sounds more like "Yi-Yi-Yi-Yi-O!"
Maddie is obsessed with the boats and each time she sees one of them, she yells "Da BOOP!!!"
She LOVES her life jacket, which she affectionately calls "jacket". She wears it around the house and spends hours clicking and unclicking the belts.
She manipulates us by asking for something and then says, "O-kay!" like she's already decided she's getting it. For example, she'll say, "More peas? O-kay!".
And, my favorite, she gives you the tightest, shakiest little hug she can around your neck and says "happy." It makes my heart melt to hear the happiness in her little voice.

We love our silly little love bug.

Weekend in Havasu!

2010-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's not an Eatough summer without a trip to Havasu. Brandon, Derrick, Maddie, and I drove out to Havasu and met my family for a fun weekend in the sun. It wasn't deathly hot yet, so it didn't feel like an oven outside.

Maddie had lots of fun playing with Grandma and her favorite person of the weekend, Grandma's dog Chance.

We got to spend lots of time with Kristen & Richard. They are so silly and so much fun.

Derrick - Master & Commander of the Malibu Wakesetter

Brandon making wakesurfing look easy.

These are the tired Havasu eyes you get after you've been out on the lake for a couple of days.

Those tired eyes lead to this...

Thanks Mom & Dad for a fun weekend. We wish we were on the boat right now!

A Delayed Mother's Day Post

2010-05-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

We were out of town for Mother's Day, so I get a pass for posting this so late! I just think of it as extra time to celebrate our moms! :)

We are so lucky to have such a young, fun mom. She was (and still is) energetic, active, and always going ten different directions at once. She made sure we had lots of fun family time boating, watching movies, and visiting family. My mom is the glue that holds together family relationships. She always hosts big family gatherings at her home and makes sure extended family is always connected. She is the first to remind us to call our family members on their birthdays and to keep in contact. My mom has said she knew all she ever wanted to be was a mom - and she is great at it. She raised six children and taught us how to serve others, to be grateful for the blessings we had, and not to judge others. I also learned compassion from my mom. She is always adopting stray animals and doing whatever she can to help others in need. She has become the most amazing grandma to the grandchildren in our family and we are so lucky to have her in our lives. Happy Mother's Day! We love you!

How can I not love the woman who raised the man I love so much? I have the best mother-in-law in the entire world! She has been my other mom since high school, so when I became an official Milloy, it was so exciting to have claims to her as my REAL mother-in-law. The earliest memory I have of Peggy is of her speaking in sacrament meeting about Emma Smith and the qualities of a wife and mother. I was so impressed by her talk, I went home and wrote about it in my journal. I was 13 then and as the years pass, I have been priveleged to see her raise my husband and all of his siblings, organize & host beautiful weddings, and now my favorite, I get to see her become a grandma. A job she was born to do! Peggy has so many amazing qualities as a mother, but one of my favorites is her devotion to her children. She is the biggest fan of her children. She celebrates in their accomplishments and shares the sorrow of disappointments as if the world has stopped and nothing else matters. She is the ultimate care taker and as our family grows, her heart just expands to include the next family member. I am eternally grateful for the wonderful qualities she has passed on to Brandon. I see her compassion, her home making skills, and her unconditional love of family members in Brandon and for that, I am indebted to her forever. Happy Mother's Day Mom! We love you!

This is my second Mother's Day and I feel incredibly blessed for my sweet baby girl. Maddie is literally the center of our world. I have never felt as close to my Heavenly Father as the moment I looked into my daughter's beautiful eyes and saw the most perfect combination of Brandon and myself. My soul changed the day I became a mother. I never imagined I could feel so much love, feel so fiercely protective of, and feel so connected to anyone. I feel the weight of what it means to be a mother and I try every day to be the kind of mother I have seen modeled by those I look up to.

I hope you all had a beautiful Mother's Day!

Summer Memories

2010-05-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

The tans will fade, but the memories will last forever.

Robert Bridges

Maddie and one of her best friends Easton soaking up summer.

Summer is a sacred time in a child's life. Brandon and I both had the most wonderful childhoods and have such fun summer memories. Childhood summers are made for soaking up sunshine, exploring the world, running in sprinklers, getting dirty, and having bare feet in the grass.

We are so looking forward to this summer with Maddie. She is so curious about EVERYTHING and she reminds us of the important things. Like how interesting roley poleys are, how delicious summer watermelon is, and how much fun it is to run through the sprinklers with your clothes on.

A Day at the Farm!

2010-05-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Maddie is INFATUATED with farm animals right now. She loves her "Old McDonald" Baby Einstein DVD. She loves to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm", especially the E-I-E-I-O part. And she spends hours putting together and then taking apart her farm animals puzzle from Aunt Jennifer. We hear her in her room naming off the animals as she puts the puzzle pieces in their spots. We thought it was time for her to see real cows, chickens, goats, sheep, & horses.

We spent Saturday morning at the Superstition Family Farm in Mesa. Laura & Bryant came along with us and we had so much fun! I had no idea this super fun place was so close to our house. We learned lots of things on our outing... like, did you know all the cows milked at a farm are pregnant? It makes sense when you think about it, but I had no idea!

Maddie petting a calf. The farmer who took us on our tour said at least 5 calves a day are born on the farm! Here's Maddie petting one of them. I think she said cow over 500 times. She was so excited.

Maddie with the chickens. She really had fun with these guys. There were probably 50 chickens running all over the place and Maddie had so much fun running with them, clucking, and yelling, "Chicken!"

This is my favorite picture from the day. I think we need to get some chickens for our house so Maddie can be part of a flock.

Maddie and a rabbit. She was pointing at his eye, showing Aunt Laura that the rabbit has an eye. She liked the bunnies. She even gave him some rocks. If you know Maddie, this is the ultimate showing of affection. Maddie loves her rocks and if she bestows one upon you, you are in a small, privileged group of Maddie's friends.

Maddie just started saying "rabbit" in the past few weeks so she was very excited to use her new word for the real thing.

Meet Toby. He is the farm dog and chases chickens, sticks, & lays in the funniest position I have ever seen a dog lay in.

Maddie got to feed a carrot to a horse. I am pretty sure this was one of the top ten most exciting days of her life.

Mom & Maddie on a hayride!

Sunglasses picture!

Maddie wanted to get down and run around with the chickens. That's way more fun than standing in front of a tractor.

Such a fun family day! For our local friends, if you want to go to the farm too, here is the website for Superstition Farm.

Pink Race Horse

2010-04-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is the pink race horse who lives in our house.

Grandma Milloy gave it to Maddie for Christmas. The horse has been sitting dormant, content living in Maddie's room, but it has turned into a racing horse lately. She doesn't look like much, but when Maddie saddles up, this horse takes off! Daddy races Maddie through the house on her horse and she loves it!

As you watch the video, note the following:

#1: A-Gee = again.
She loves to repeat fun songs and games over and over again, and we can't help but give into her "a-gee" requests.

#2: Excited Arms

You can see how excited she is when she realizes Dad is coming back to do another lap - she brings out the "excited arms"! I LOVE Maddie's excited arms. She does this whenever she is so happy that words cannot contain her enthusiasm.

Sunday Morning Hiking!

2010-04-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

We went to the top of Meridian today and trekked off on an unknown trail. There are lots of trails that start out there, so we just picked one. We found out later this is part of the Mountain Pass trail, but we just figured we would hike for awhile and then turn back. The wildflowers are still blooming and it is just beautiul in the morning!

We saw lots of lizards on our hike sunning themselves on rocks. Maddie loves watching them run off into the bushes and tells Dada everytime she hears one.

We hiked about 2 miles in and found a mountain to climb to the top of. The breeze felt fantastic after hiking in the Arizona sun for a couple of hours.

Here is our trail guide having a reflective moment.

Me & Maddie... and some of the rocks she collected along the way.

Our little extreme hiker konked out on the way back. Don't worry, her eye isn't really pressed up against the canopy string - it's just the angle of the camera. She loves her backpack. She is definitely riding in comfort back there.

Maddie's Garden

2010-04-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our second 2010 family goal is checked off the list ...
Maddie's garden is in full bloom!

We planted new flowers in the front yard and we planted strawberries and tomatoes in the backyard.

Our strawberries are really taking off - we can't wait to see what they taste like! Maddie calls these "debberries". We have to distract her from these when we're in the backyard. She doesn't understand that the debberies aren't quite ready to eat yet.

The tomatoes aren't too far behind. There are tiny green tomatoes growing on each plant. We have 4 tomato plants total. I'm hoping they produce enough tomatoes for us to make homemade salsa- yum!

Local wildlife spotted in the backyard...

UPDATE- I forgot to add this photo in! Maddie & Daddy actually planting our garden. Maddie's got the drip line ready for Dad when he needs it.

Petroglyph & Lost Goldmine Hikes

2010-04-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

One of our hike excursions in the past couple of weeks was the Petroglyph Trail in the Superstition Mountains. A petroglyph is a rock carving made by ancient people. This trail takes you right up alongside some amazing petroglyphs carved by the Hohokam Indians around 1200 AD. It is amazing to think these carvings have been there over 800 years!

Maddie had lots of fun playing in the water trickling through the rocks. She is developing a beautiful Arizona tan from all this hiking! Brandon is the dad of the year and carries Maddie over miles of desert terrain on his back. What a rockstar dad!

Maddie & her dad also hiked the Lost Goldmine Trail a few days ago. They didn't find any gold, but they did find an abandoned mine.

There are ancient tales of lost gold in the Superstition Mountains. Brandon & Maddie are on the hunt - we'll let you know if we find any... or we may just disappear and move to a private island in Fiji with our treasure.

Welcome Summer!

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

It has officially hit 90 degrees in Arizona, so I am calling it summer. To the Milloys, this means the start of lake trips, watermelon, & flip flops!

Welcome back summer - we've missed you!

One 2010 resolution checked off the list...

2010-04-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Laura, Bryant, Maddie, and I ran a 5k on Saturday to benefit Haiti. Well, Maddie rode while we ran. Bryant did awesome and won a medal for his age group. Show-off. :) Laura and I almost died, but we finished.

We had lots of fun and it felt so great to get out in the beautiful Arizona weather and run.

After the run, we went back to Laura & Bryant's house where Maddie met their cat, Ginger. She kept pulling Ginger's food bowl around while the poor cat tried to eat. Sorry Laura! I hope we didn't traumatize your cat.

We walked over to the temple to see the beautiful new spring flowers they just planted. The landscaping is always amazing and we were not disappointed. Maddie had lots of fun pointing out all the "fowers" and running around in the grass.

What a fun Saturday!