Halloween costumes

Although I did buy a halloween costume for Madeline last year, I technically did not ever put her in it... whoops. Therefore, I felt obligated to maximize her outfit choices this year (especially since I found cute costumes at Sam's for only $12)! So here are the options: #1. Butterfly type animal and #2. Giraffe!

New words

Madeline has a BUNCH of new words including boo-boo, again, cracker, and cheez-it. Her favorite words are still HI and thank you! I'm pretty sure that one time she said "you're welcome." She also is an expert at making monkey noises and hooting like an owl. And a couple of times she neighed like a horse :)

Labor day rocks!

We had an awesome weekend! Aunt Riri, Uncle Curty-wurty, and Anna came to visit. Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out very often... but I did snag this pic of the Stokes eating breakfast one morning (and I'm sure Maria will be very thankful that I posted it here). We had lots of good times hanging out, checking out the parks, and catching up! We even went to the Dickerson Park Zoo, not quite as big as the St. Louis Zoo, but better than a sharp stick in the eye!

Thank you

Madeline has been sort of saying thank you for a while, but tonight she said it very clearly. It was so cute! We've been having tons of rain and thunderstorms, and she seems to be fascinated by the thunder.

15 month update

Madeline is happily adjusting to our new home in Springfield, MO. She loves getting the chance to hang out with Granny, Poppy, and Aunt Jenn more often! She is running all over the place. Tonight she officially had her last bottle... we will see how things go tomorrow night. She loves to point at pictures of animals so that we can tell her what they are, and Madeline can point to several different items that she recognizes if you ask her! She loves sitting in her rocking chair and any other chair that she can climb into. She is the BEST dancer ever. She loves bobbing her head, waving her arms, and/or shaking her hips when she hears some good music. And it appears that her dancing skills aren't the only thing she picked up from Auntie Jenn... when I gave her a crayon to hold, several times in a row she moved it to her left hand before she started "writing" with it! She has started styling her hair into a ponytail (like Pebbles) in order to keep her bangs out of her eyes. She likes to say "hoo-hoo" like an owl, and her other words are HI, doggie, dada, uh-oh and uh-eee (I think she's combining uh-oh and whoopsie), mama, that, and last but not least "eehhhhh." Of course, she misses all her friends in St. Louis, especially Naomi! Now for some pictures: Madeline enjoyed picking up the nuts that fill our backyard, so we let her put some in her bucket:

Here she is enjoying breakfast with "little-little" and a "kiss-kiss bear" (remember those from hallmark?)

Happy Birthday Mommy

We went to the Metropolitan Grill for dinner! Madeline stole the show (as usual)!

Michael and Jenn:Poppy and Granny:Dinner was awesome, and after we got home Madeline started taking flowers and shoving them into Ed's mouth. It was pretty entertaining!

Happy Birthday Granny

We went to the Tower Club for dinner!

Ed and I took turns chasing Madeline around the floor. Why would you want to sit still when there are so many new things to see?

Lock the doors

We'll be locking all of our doors routinely now, because Madeline can open them! We have the handles that you pull down (instead of the round ones). Life is getting more dangerous every day :)

And she is running

I would say that Madeline is officially running now. Sometimes, when she gets really excited, she runs with her arms jutting out behind her a little bit (like she is holding her superwoman cape). It's pretty stinkin cute!

Moving day

Well, we survived moving day (barely). We loaded up the truck on Friday... with the awesome help of C.J. Reed, and drove down to Springfield on Friday night. It was quite an ordeal and too long of a story to type out adequately, but we finally all made it to Poppy and Granny's house, including Mary and Naomi. We spent the night there, and then unloaded the truck on Saturday. We spent our first night in our new house last night! Yay! Poor Madeline had a bad night, but she's feeling much better today. She does not like to be awake past her bedtime. Here are a few pics from the first night in our new home:

Naomi having fun in her pack-n-play: Mary and CJ, the best moving helpers ever!!

Granny's excited to have Madeline less than 15 minutes away!

Tickle tickle

At least that's what it sounds like Madeline has been saying a lot lately. It is so cute, she says it really fast, like "tickle-tickle-tickle-tickle." The other words that she says include: hi, dada, dawdaw (for doggie), mama (very rarely), and ehhh (very frequently). She has been eating better lately, and is good at biting pieces off when you give her a whole cracker/cookie/banana.

Blowing bubbles

I'm not sure if you can hear the bubble blowing, but you can definitely see a good reaction to it!

Jean shorts

I took some pics while we were getting ready for bath time...

Waiting on Aunt Jenn

Today, while we were waiting for Auntie Jenn to arrive in STL, Madeline did some relaxing in the rocking chair. It doesn't look very comfortable, but she seemed to enjoy rocking back and forth like this:
Then we went to lunch at the Crepery! Madeline snacked on some apple butter while we were waiting for our food:

Cleaning up the house

Lately, we've been trying to consolidate as much as possible in preparation for the "big move." Today I was cleaning up around the kitchen, and Zoe was kind enough to help me out in the pantry:

Fun at the zoo

This morning we went to the zoo with Katie, John, and Ben. Everyone had fun! Madeline especially enjoyed playing with the chain while we waited for the train:Madeline and Mommy went for a ride on the carousel. Next time Daddy will go with Madeline for 2 reasons: #1. poor picture taking skills, and more importantly #2. mommy gets motion sickness.

More laundry basket fun

Poor Madeline, maybe we need to start saving up so that we can buy her some decent toys! Ha-ha.

Where is the deer?

There it is! Madeline was fascinated with the stuffed deer head at Granny and Poppy's.
Oops, I might have falled over, but I'm still pointing at the deer!

Thanks for the awesome shirt Uncle Brandon and Aunt Jasmine! But, did you see the deer? Thanks for pointing with me, Daddy, but I don't think you're pointing at the deer!