06.26.11 - Tea Party

Today we cleaned Maddie's room and set up her table with her tea set and fruit. Maddie and Nate were very excited to see it all set up and had to have a tea party right away.


Maddie cheesing for the camera. That's my silly girl!

06.19.11 - Dancing queen

Maddie tore up the dance floor at Mac and Amanda's wedding last night in Erie. With a couple of self-described wallflowers as parents, it's unclear where the lack of inhibition comes from.


The wedding was at a golf course in Erie. They sat (mostly) still for 20 minutes then we let them run free before hitting the reception.


Golf carts provided a lift to the parking lot for those interested. :)


Hold on!


At first, Maddie wasn't sure what to do. She just kinda walked around playing with the balloons.

But, she's very observant and figured it out pretty quickly.


Then she showed her brother.


They chased each other all night.


She kept saying, "I want my Nater-Tater," even when he didn't want to play anymore.


At times she was the only one on the dance floor. We're going to have to find a wedding to crash soon so we can let Maddie dance again!

06.02.11 - "It's raining!"

That's what Maddie kept saying as she chased Nate with the garden hose. To his credit, Nate didn't mind a bit. He actually thought it was quite funny, which is good because Maddie wasn't about to share it.

04.24.11 - "I find 'em!"

Maddie was super excited that the Easter bunny was coming today! After church, we headed over to Gramma Karen and Grampy Keith's house for brunch and an egg hunt. She knew there'd be an egg hunt and on the way, while giggling somewhat sinisterly, said "I find 'em!"


And she did! We think she had more than anyone else. We're pretty sure she'll beat up her brothers in the coming years if they find more than her.


What's in this one? Chocolate? Jelly beans? A quarter?


There's the Egg Hunters for the day! From left: Nate, Taylor, Keiton, Emerson, Savannah and Maddie.

01.02.11 - Woooo Hoooo! Maddie's 2!

Rubber Ducky you're the one, you make birthdays so much fun!


Someone thought they'd be funny and sneak some contraband into the party. I didn't think I had to worry about stuff like this until she was a teenager!


She liked 'em. Ugh.


Blue punch! (Because ducks swim on water, duh!) Maddie's got one clever Mommy!


Opening her first gift. Harley wants to know if there's anything to eat.


Nope, it's Maddie's first camera!


What's this one? "A BOX!" Well, yes. But look over there. There was actually something in the box, silly!


Get outta my way, tissue paper!


Grampy Keith and Nan and Pop watch as Nate tries to get in on the action.


Maddie lets Nate help open a gift.


Maddie sneaks a bite of icing before we can sing Happy Birthday to her. She ate the icing, ice cream and M&Ms but pretty much turned her nose up at the cake.


She had no problems blowing out her candle.


Her most special gift came from Nan and Pop. Nan's dad (that's Maddie Great Great Grandpa Scheer) made this baby bed for Nan when she was a little girl - nearly 75 years ago! And if you ask Maddie how many babies she has (between Christmas and her birthday) she just says, "more."

And in our house, ain't that the truth?!! Happy second birthday, Maddie Girl!

10.31.10 - Happy Halloween!

Maddie and Nate pose with their "punks."


Dressed as a K-State cheerleader (because she refused to wear her original cupcake costume), Maddie's first stop trick-or-treating was at Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd's house.


She wasn't much into taking pictures. When Grandma Shepherd asked her to blow me a kiss, she made a fish face.


From there, we headed to Nan and Pop's house where we trick-or-treated in the neighborhood with Brent and Tori and their kids. Gramma Karen and Nan (and Harley!) went along, too.


Maddie held tight to her Tootsie Rolls.


Checking out her loot at the end of the night.


We thought she was going to want to sleep with her basket of candy. She didn't want to let go of it to be buckled in. We got home and she danced around the living room a bit but it didn't take her long to wind down.

10.16.10 - Headin' to the Punk Patch

In what's becoming an annual tradition, Gramma Karen and Grampy Keith treated us to an outing to the "punk" patch. This year, Gramma Karen won four free tickets to Applejack Pumpkin Patch. It's the only one we've been to but so far it's our favorite! It's located on Kellogg between Andover and Augusta. Maddie loved walking all over the place. In fact, most of the pictures I have of her are from behind because she wouldn't stay interested in anything longer than five seconds and I couldn't always predict where she was gonna go!


She found several that she liked although she ended up getting one from the patch with Grampy Keith.


There were a ton of activities and games in addition to the patch. While most kids were mesmerized by actually trying to push a plastic duck from one end of the water ramp to the other, our daughter was busy splashing in the water tanks below. "Wha-der! Wha-der! Wha-der!"


Really, she was only interested in walking. And walking. And walking some more. We switched shirts at this point because it felt more like summer than fall.


We photographed Maddie in front of this sign last year but, as you might have guessed, she's have none of that standing still nonsense long enough for me to get a photo of her this year. Nate, on the other hand, did great with a little help from his mommy.

08.24.10 - Another milestone

Maddie is 20 months old today. Today also marks the one-year anniversary that Maddie has been going to daycare at Lisa's house. One year ago, Angie had to hold on to her so she wouldn't fall over. Today she had to hold on to her so she wouldn't run away!

08.06.10 - Scheer Family Reunion

The day after the Royals game, we did a little shopping then headed out to the Scheer Family Reunion. Angie's grandma, Nan, is one of 11 Scheer children. Maddie went swimming in a big pool for the first time before we headed inside to watch a magic show. Truthfully, I think the way Gramma Karen and Nan look at Maddie and Nate is magical, but that's just me. After dinner, we made the drive back to Wichita. Angie even volunteered to drive for a bit so I could ride in back with the kids. We listened to lullabies as the setting sun burned on the horizon. What a great weekend!

08.06.10 - Royals with the Swearingens

Our friends Brian and Emily, and their boys Cayden and Carter, met up with us in Kansas City last weekend for a Royals game. Here are a few snaps from our seats in the upper deck and hotel. Be sure to check out this photo of Nate watching the fireworks after the game. Check back soon and I'll share some photos of Maddie swimming at the family reunion.

07.13.10 - Sprinkler mats, garden hoses and fountains, oh my!

You mean water shoots out of the ground, too?

To say Maddie has been into water play lately would be an understatement. Tonight she frolicked in the fountains at NewMarket Square.

05.26.10 - We've been invaded!

Our house has been invaded by babies and all their stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03.31.10 - What a great day!

And busy, too! Angie and the kids went over to Nan and Pop's before picking me up at work to go to Maddie's 15-month and Nate's two-month checkup. Maddie was all smiles in the waiting room but was anything but when it was time for Dr. Green to examine her! She's doing well, though, measuring about 31 inches tall and 20 pounds, or the 85th percentile and tenth percentile, respectively. She's gonna be a tall skinny minnie, as we like to say. Nate, on the other hand, is a chunk! He weighs 12 pounds, 12 ounces and has grown to about 23.5 inches. Both are at the upper ends of the percentiles for those measurements.


After we left Dr. Green's office, we headed back to Nan and Pop's house as they'd invited us for dinner. Maddie enjoyed a story with Pop, her great-grandpa, before we ate. It's only been in the last month or so that Maddie wanted anything to do with him. Now she'll read stories and share snacks with him.


Because the weather was so nice and because we always eat too much at Nan's house, after dinner we took another walk around the lake. I think Maddie enjoys it more than Nan but I'm not quite sure on that!


I just love this silhouette of Nan pulling Maddie. This probably would have been an acceptable stand-alone weather feature back in my newspaper days but photographs like this mean more to me now that I'm able to include in them the people I love. Click here to see the entire entourage over on Nate's blog.