Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Our sweet little Maddox is one year old today. Wow! I can't believe how quickly the time flies! One year ago at 1:06pm we welcomed our little boy to this world. He has been such a blessing in our lives. He has grown into such a sweet little boy that loves to learn and loves to love! (I have quite the cuddler on my hands) Here are a few Maddox facts:

• He has 7 teeth.
• He cannot walk yet but is starting to stand alone.
• He has visited San Diego, Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Utah, Island Park/Rexburg, ID, Denver, and Fort Worth. (A few of those places he has been more than twice. Not too bad for a year!)
• His favorite things are balls and anything with buttons.
• If he is in the right mood, he will give you a cheesy smile when the camera comes out.
• He loves to go on walks and be outside.
• I don't believe there has been a day we have gone out that we haven't been stopped with a cuteness comment.
• He loves to climb the stairs and is getting pretty fast. (We are working on getting him down!)
• He understands "no" and usually obeys it.
• He plays catch with us.
• He is a pretty picky eater so far. :/

Well, tonight he is having his party where lots of family members and friends will be attending. Maddox, you are SO loved!

Texas

So, we have been gone for like, forever! ...or two weeks! For about 10 days Maddox and I went to Texas to spend time with Grandma Winfree and see my little sister get married! We are so happy for her... and of course we had a ton of fun seeing all of my family. It was great!

Maddox and Daddy at the Temple

Maddox loves his binky's!

Ok, so after we were in Texas for 10 days, we went to San Diego for the rest of the weekend to celebrate Tommy's father's birthday and to attend a wedding for one of Tommy's best friends from school. We had SO MUCH FUN. We miss it there soo much! Maddox always has fun with his Aunt Stacey and Grandma and Grandpa Hainline...

One day we went to the park to feed the ducks/geese...


face to face

Then we went and played on the playground.....

He wasn't so sure about the swings at first.

Here he is just chillin on one of the toys. He had so much fun playing on the slide and all the different toys they had there.

So, we also went down to La Jolla and went out to eat at "Alfonso's". Delicious Mexican food. Later we walked down by the beach and stopped at the place that Tommy proposed more than three years ago..

Well, there it is, our travels for the month of February. You would think we would stop and take a break right? WRONG. We don't rest!! Stay tuned for more of our adventures........

Cake Contest

So, I know this is WAY late but for Valentines Day we had a little contest at church and this is what I made for it...

.....all the hard work payed off. 1st place!

The LONG treck.... up the stairs!

This is how we spend our time...

We had such a fun weekend together! Saturday we were super busy attending Maddox's friends first birthday party!!! Maddox and Kaden were born about 5 weeks apart and have since always had fun playing with each other. It was great to be there to celebrate Kaden's FIRST birthday and we are getting more and more excited for Mad-dog's BIG 1 PARTY!

Here is Maddox riding on a few of the toys. I think he started pretty freaked out about it all but ended up having so much fun!

Here is Maddox going at his cupcake. We figured he should have a trial run before his party.

...and here is the Birthday Boy! He was so careful with his cupcake... pretty cute!

So, later Saturday night, a few girls in our ward got together for a chick flick while the boys went and watched the UFC fight. It was so nice to just hang out with the girls!

On Sunday we went over to another couple's house (from the ward) to watch the Super Bowl. We are here in Glendale, right next to the Cardinals stadium, so everyone had a lot invested in this game. We all know the outcome which sucks... But we had a great time getting to know a few more people and eating some delicous food. It was a quiet ride home though...

So Tommy recently joined a soccer team here so we thought we should go out and practice. Of course we had more fun watching Maddox play with the ball and just being himself.

I mean really, have you ever seen a cuter kid?

Sooooo cute!

Sorry this post was so long... We are just very exciting people with a lot going on all the time. HA!

Jail Bird

So, Maddox has been climbing stairs for the past few weeks... Crazy! And I think the whole reason he wants to get upstairs is to play with this gate... He loves it!

Sorry it has taken so long to post again. Our camera was out of commission for a while and, what is a post without pictures?! So, we are back on! A lot has happened over the past few weeks...

Tommy was in New Jersey for two weeks in training for his new position. I felt so bad for him... They had to stay at the training center for like 12 hours everyday and if any of you know Tommy, you know that staying in one place for very long is torture. He had to take 3 HUGE tests but did amazing on all of them. He came home for 4 days before he had to leave for Kansas City for a few more meetings. Luckily, his family came into town and suprised us!! So instead of me being alone for another few days I got to hang out with his mom and Stacey (thanks again you guys.. I LOVED having you hear!). Tommy starts is new job this week! I am so proud of him for working so hard to achieve his goals!

Maddox... Oh Maddox! Other than climbing stairs, he is walking along the furniture and exploring more than ever! He can (kind of) say ball. He knows what it is anyway.. He loves just running his mouth and has recently learned how to jump on his bed (hanging on to the rails of course). Unfortunately, he has been sick this past week so he hasn't been himself. He has had a fever and has lost most of his appetite... :( We are working on getting him better!! He is so sweet and always puts a smile on our faces.

Megan... Well, I have been to a lot of movies lately! Which has been kind of nice because I hadn't been in so long. Maddox and mommy now have movie dates every now and then and I love it! I am working on getting back into the swing of things from Tommy being out of town so much... I feel like I have to relearn how to cook! I am trying to figure out what and where to start back to school. I am SO excited to have school in the near future!!

So, that is what is going on with us. We have a few weeks of down time before we all head to Texas for my little sisters wedding! We are all sooo looking forward to this!

I will try to get a good video of Maddox climbing the stairs and I promise to be better about posting more often!

Christmas Morning

So, Maddox had his first Christmas, done twice this year (does that even make sense?) On Christmas Eve, we had a "Christmas morning" at home with just the three of us. It was so fun to watch Maddox react to the tearing of paper and all the new, fun things he had to play with. Tommy and I are so grateful to have him with us, he is such a fun blessing!

(this video is mostly for you, mom!)

So, after we opened all those gifts we packed our bags and headed to California to surprise Tommy's family. We had been planning on just driving over Christmas day but we were all getting restless (Tommy had home study for the previous 3 weeks) so we decided to go early and surprise them. When we arrived at their house we put Maddox in a box with a huge bow on his head, rang the door bell and ran! When Tommy's dad opened the door he thought it was a doll but soon realized it was Maddox and everyone freaked out in excitement for the next few minutes... It was so great to have all of Tommy's family there... It reminded me of how important our families are and it kept "the reason for the season" in perspective. I am so glad we chose to go early, we had so much fun with them.

The rest of the time that we were in California was spent doing what we do best, relaxing!... But we did make it to some pretty fun places! We visited Balboa Park and went to a museum...

A few days later we went to this place down by the bay (I forgot what it was called)... And we walked around a few shops and then Stacey took Maddox on his first merry-go-round ride... they are SO cute!!!!

A few other favorites.....

On New Year's Eve, Tommy and I visited a few NY's parties, hung out with the fam and then went with some friends to watch fireworks down at the beach...Gee, isn't Cali aweful!? :)

Well, our trip ended on New Year's Day when we made the drive home... We were so sad to leave but are always glad to come home! We had a wonderful vacation!