We Are The Champions, My Friends....

While we were up in Seattle, we got to watch my littlest brother, Christian, play in his championship baseball game. It was a great game, although, not a close one at all! They creamed the other team! Maddie loved cheering on each boy by name when they got up to bat, and especially loved yelling "Go Mariner's"! What a beautiful Seattle evening and a great game!

Good job Christian!

Afterward, the team all went out to DQ to celebrate... which as you can see, my girls are HUGE fans!

Chloe would yell right after she was given a bite, all ready for her next bite! I took way too many pictures because it was just hilarious to watch!!

Maddie was pretty quiet once she got her ice cream, it's a pretty serious task trying to consume all that goodness! :)

Birthday Party #1- Utah

I have been asking Maddie what she wants for her birthday for quite some time now, trying to get ideas (since I had a big gift for her, but ended up giving it to her early... cause that's just what I do!) She gave me the same answer every time, she just wants a pirate party for her birthday. Really? I pirate party?? For my little princess??? Her first birthday we did Tinkerbell. Her second birthday, TuTu cute/Princess party. Her third... yep, she got it, a pink pirate party! (Don't worry, in Seattle she got a Little Mermaid party... post to come!)

We just invited the family from around and are so glad just about everyone could make it (we missed Sarah & Miles!) Maddie had so much fun with her cousins, Kenzie & Brody, who came up from Circleville, and Ava, who was in town from Seattle. Even little AJ, so Chloe would have a friend! Maddie just loves her {my} cousin, Natalie, who turns 10 in June!

{Maddie hugging AJ, thanking him for her mermaid!}

The kids played in the water outside and loved opening presents.

But the best part, at least for Maddie, had to have been the cupcakes. You'd think I have a deprived child or something. She had already snuck 2 cupcakes in the morning while I was trying to frost them, and then somehow managed to get 2 more at her birthday party.

{I promise, we do TRY to teach her good manners}

Brody and Maddie are just 6 weeks apart, so he just recently had his birthday back in April. He was a little sad that we weren't singing to him too, so of course, our great party crowd we had, sang to Brody too! He got to blow out pink candles too! :)

Thanks to all our family for coming to Maddie's party, she loved having all of you there!

Story Time

This is one of my favorite things to see, and it actually happens quite often! I will come into the room and see Maddie trying to read Chloe a story. Chloe seems to listen to her pretty intently, as Maddie tells the story according to the pictures (she learns this from her dad :)).

Maddie gets pretty into her stories sometimes, facial expressions and all!

Look Who's Three!

My baby girl... 3 years old today. Take a look at my little Maddie, year by year!

MADELINE JEAN DUDLEY

May 18, 2006

10:50am

Weight: 6 lbs, 10 oz

Height: 19.5 inches

1 Year Old Weight: 21 lbs, 3 oz (53%)

Height: 30 inches (80%)

2 Years Old

Weight: 28 lbs, 4 oz (70%)

Height: 35 inches (86%)

3 Years Old

{Stats to come}

Daddy's {Last} Softball Game

On Wednesday afternoon's, Maddie goes to her Sunshine Generation class (a singing & dancing performing group for kids). Mike has softball games on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings up in Salt Lake so we just hung out at his office after Maddie's class until it was time to leave for his game.Maddie thinks she's a dog... this gets REALLY annoying!This is actually Mike's last softball game (probably) for the season. He decided to slide into second base, and tore ligaments in his shoulder... and wasn't even safe! It happened at the very end of the game. Needless to say, we spent the next day at the doctor's office most of the day getting x-rays! Thanks Deb for watching the girls!I'm actually kind of sad Mike's done with softball. The girls and I really enjoyed getting out and enjoying the nice spring, evening weather. I loved watching them play, and the girls loved running (or crawling) around outside!

Brittni & Rhiana

The two girls I used to nanny for up in Seattle came down for a visit with their mom. We had a lot of fun with them in the very short time they were here. They flew in late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, we went out to the copper mines and then ate lunch at Cafe Rio. We came back and rested while the little girls had naps and then walked down to the park. After dinner, we went out to 'Spoon Me' for dessert! On Sunday, we spent the morning hanging out, and made one of my favorites, eggs benedict for breakfast! Then we went down to the gateway and walked around a bit, played in the water (not really, it got windy, which made it cold, so we really just watched it), Maddie went and made her first 'Build-A-Bear' for her upcoming birthday, and ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, yum yum! Then they were off to the airport! My camera card was full so I only got a couple pictures.

Mesquite!

Mike's mom turned 50 in April and for her birthday, she wanted all of us girls to go stay somewhere overnight and get massages somewhere. So, we decided on Mesquite because it was close (for just an overnight trip), cheap, fun, and could almost guarantee warm weather.... almost! Actually, we did get lucky, it was stormy the week before we were there, but perfect, not too hot, the weekend we were there.

I was surprised our hotel room was actually decent, and the massages were good. We pretty much just hung out by the pool the whole time we were there. It was a fun little, too short, girls getaway. Thanks to my wonderful husband for staying home with Maddie and Chloe so I could enjoy the trip! :)

I missed them a lot, even though it was only overnight, but I'll have to admit, it was much easier, almost no big deal, leaving them home knowing they were staying home with their dad! And the drive down was a little weird driving alone to St. George where we all met up at Heidi's house. I haven't taken a trip alone, without kids or a husband, probably since before I was married!

Girls, Girls, and Chloe's 9 Months!!!

Picture overload!!! Here are some random pictures taken of the girls over the past couple weeks. And seriously, has it really been 9 months since I gave birth to my beautiful little baby??? I keep counting back months because I really don't believe it has been that long. I really don't remember life without her, but it still seems like August was maybe a few months ago!

Right now, as we speak, Chloe is loud as ever! She just talks and talks and talks! She says ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, and a few other random sounds that I have no clue how I would actually spell them, but are consistent sounds!

Chloe finally figured out how to crawl and is now crawling all over the place! She has only known how to scoot backwards up until now, which lead to a very frustrated baby trying to get to the toy in front of her. But last Thursday while I was on the phone with my sister, she just started to crawl, forward! She has also mastered going from sitting to crawling, which all happened about the same time! She's pretty much a pro! :)

Chloe still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! She giggles at Mickey every time it turns on. Actually, she giggles at anything and everything and it's one of my favorite sounds! She also talks to anything and everything, even little crumbs on the ground!!

Chloe currently has two teeth on the bottom and one on top. Sometimes she grinds them together which makes me cringe! It's like finger nails going down a chalkboard!! Chloe also LOVES her big sister, and Maddie LOVES Chloe! It's so fun to watch them sit and play dollies together, although sometimes when Maddie has things all set up just right, she tends to get a little upset when Chloe comes in and takes the toys or messes them up. I'm thinking this isn't going to change any time soon! :)

*My sister would love to know that they're watching Sponge Bob, both totally enthralled!

Chloe loves cords, any type of cords, usually the ones plugged in so I have to either try to hide them, or unplug them to let her play with them. Is that weird? I don't ever remember Maddie being into cords!

*Maddie has chip crumbs in front of her and told me she couldn't pick them up because she was planting her flowers... her chip crumbs being the flowers. What a crazy girl!

Speaking of Maddie, {who still happens to be my little baby}, she turns 3 years old next week!!! I asked her what she wanted for her birthday (thinking along the line of 'gifts'), and she tells me all she wants is a pirate party! Well, thank goodness they have pink pirate things now... so we'll have a pink pirate party with our family this weekend and probably at least do cupcakes and sing when we get up to Seattle with my family. Maddie, like her mom, milks her birthday for as long as she can and wants to be sung to as often as she can. Last week she went around the house singing "happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me..." Another favorite song Maddie has been singing constantly and knows most of the words to is Taylor Swift's "Love Story". It's the cutest thing to hear her sing. She even got up on Uncle Tim's 'Stage' to sing for them and he built her a microphone out of blocks... she loved it! Even shook her booty for us! :)

And speaking of singing, Maddie started her Sunshine Generation classes this month and LOVES them! She calls it 'Preschool', which it's not (she starts that up again next month). She also starts swimming lessons the first of June! We will be busy, busy, busy this summer, which I love, and Maddie needs! :)

*Can you guess who these cookies look like? Maddie wanted to make them Spongebob & Patrick. I think she did a pretty good job, what do you think, Parker? :)

Maddie and Chloe have their doctor appointments at the same time next month, I'll update their stats then!