Chloe's 3 Month & Maddie's 2.5 Year Pictures

I went and had the girls' pictures taken back in November by Michele Reyes, who a couple of my cousins had take their baby's pictures. Check out her website.

Maddie was awful! She was so naughty while we were there. Normally she asks to hold Chloe all day long, but not at pictures... she wanted nothing to do with her. So, we got just 1 pose of them together.... barely! Chloe was very good, but not her normal smiley self. I think there was too much going on for her, Maddie was a little too distracting! But even with all that, I think the pictures turned GREAT! Chloe has grown so much just since I’ve had these pictures taken! She was just 3-months old here.

Michele really captured so many of Maddie's facial expressions. So even though I look at the pictures and comment on how naughty Maddie was in each one, I love them! They show so much of her personality!!

Chloe is cute, as usual, just not as smiley as I mentioned, which I was a little bummed about because it usually doesn't take much to get Chloe to smile. She loves attention from anyone. She'll give her big silly smile to anyone, anytime! So if you live in Utah, check out her website or her blog! She does a fantastic job!!!

Maddie's Bedroom

We put Maddie's room together a few weeks ago, and even put things on the walls... It's pretty much the only room in the house that is pretty much complete (other than 1 pretty bare wall that I'm not sure what to do with yet. I found this shelf I love that I might hang there, but it'll stay the way it is for now). I took some pictures a while ago and have been meaning to post them, but along with everything else in my life, I put it off! So here they are now....

This is the bare wall above...

Also, I didn't take a picture of it, but you can kind of see a wall on the right side of the second picture (at the foot of her bed), that is her closet. She has a pretty good size closet with nice shelving. We were going to give her the bigger bedroom with the large walk in closet, but decided to use it for the office instead, for many reasons, one of them being the coloring of the room. I do love it, it's like a 'Tiffany-Blue', with dark molding around it, but just didn't match Maddie's stuff. Mike and I went back and forth on this one... but as you can see, I won this argument! :)

Maddie-isms

My little baby is already two and a half!! Where did the time go??? I used to be so good about writing down all the little things Maddie did, and recording each and EVERY milestone, big or small! She has done and said the funniest things lately, I WISH I was writing them down as they happen, but I haven't. So, I will try to remember the ones I can... I know I will forget probably the best ones!Maddie is so beyond INDEPENDENT! She insists on doing most things by herself, and can actually do so much more than we think she can. She surprises us everyday! A few of the latest things are saying PRAYERS all by herself. She takes long pauses so I would jump in and help her, but I very quickly learned that was not necessary, her little mind was just thinking, and she can and will finish the prayer all by herself (except for the times she gets distracted and will start talking about whatever is on her mind, forgetting about the prayer... mid-prayer-- she is so her mother's daughter sometimes!) Another one is COUNTING IN SPANISH. She will use her fingers and can actually count in Spanish! She started this in the car the other day, counting on her fingers saying each number and she stopped at one of her fingers, pointing to it and asking me, "Mom, what's this one? What's this finger?" Thank you, Dora & Diego, for teaching me daughter to count in Spanish! haha! The last one I can remember, for now anyway, is SINGING: I AM A CHILD OF GOD, all by herself! I usually sing with her, she picks a song and we sing it. But another time in the car, just Maddie and I, she started to sing it so I joined in with her. She stopped and told me, "Mom, you don't sing. It's not your work, it's my work". Silly girl... and very BOSSY these days! Some of her other favorite songs to sing this week are: I am like a star, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, 5 little monkeys swinging in a tree (thank you Brooklynn, one of her favorites!), ABC's, I love to see the temple... hmm, I know there's more, but my mind is drawing a blank!

Maddie started telling me her FEELINGS. She is very aware of how she feels. One day she was laying on the ground, just messing around when she turned to me and said, "Mom, my feel shy". It was hard for me not to smile and laugh, but ask her questions like a concerned mom would do. I couldn't believe she was actually telling me very straight forward how she felt, but also, anyone who knows Maddie, or who has even been around her for less than 5 minutes knows she is anything but shy! This is one of our biggest fears with Maddie when it comes to strangers. She would go to anyone, especially if they had candy or a puppy!

Maddie LOVES CHLOE, and she will tell just about everyone! She is be sure to let anyone she sees, know who Chloe is and that she is 'her baby sister'! She always lets me know when Chloe is crying, and is the best at CHEERING her up! She will go in and keep Chloe ENTERTAINED if I'm right in the middle of something. She will go in and talk to her, sing to her, whatever it takes to make Chloe HAPPY! Yesterday, I heard her talking to Chloe in the sweetest, softest voice (we don't hear this voice often) telling her, "It's ok Chloe, don't cry. Why are you crying Chloe? Don't be such a baby." Sounds harsh... but really, she was saying it so sweet! I had to stay outside the door to keep Maddie from seeing me laugh. When Maddie's tired, she will sometimes get extra whiny and cry over practically nothing, so lots of times Mike or I will tell her (Maddie) to stop crying and not act like such a baby. I guess she passed that message onto her baby sister! Along with telling us her feelings, Maddie has started to let me know when she's mad at me. She will tell me (sometimes very randomly), "Mommy, my mad at you". I always ask her why she's mad at me and she doesn't ever have an answer, but will usually just tell me again, "My mad at you, mom". Ok Maddie! She is the SILLIEST little girl ever! All in the same day Maddie makes me want to PULL MY HAIR OUT, LAUGH so hard my stomach hurts, CRY (happy and sad cries), HUG AND KISS her sweet little face, YELL at the big mess she made, the things she's getting into, for waking up Chloe... (I hate that I'm a 'yeller' but I am), but usually by the end of the day, I could just CUDDLE with her all night long!