Life as we know it...

Gabe and I were talking tonight and he had a good idea about blogging about our life as a medical student family. I have always focused all the attention on our little girl, so I think I might give it a whirl. What might be even more interesting is I think we all might see a post or two from the medical student himself in the future!

My husband works harder than anyone else I know. He has worked extremely hard to get where he is at today. As a third year medical student family, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (although that light is still really dim). The first two years while we lived in Kentucky were beyond stressful. He went to school all day, ate dinner, studied all night, went to bed, and then got up and did the same thing the next day (this included the weekends). Spending time together was rare, but when we did it was very much cherished. When I found out I was pregnant the end of his first year it came as a big surprise. Our little bundle was not planned, so of course it was an added stress to our already hectic lives. She was born in February of his second year in the midst of his most difficult exams of his student career. Gabe took it like a champ though, spending as much time as possible with his new daughter. Maddie and I moved back home in June and Gabe followed in July (after we spent about a month apart so he could study for his step 1 board exams). Our family makes tons of sacrifices everyday and those sacrifices are only going to get bigger in the future. I would do it over and over because this is Gabe's dream. But he always puts us first before anything. He is working so hard to land a good residency close to home so we don't have to move too far away again. I am thankful for him each and every day for everything he is doing for us. He really is an amazing husband and the most wonderful daddy to Maddie.

Life as we know it today involves living off of student loans (lots of lots of student loans), hours of studying, working many hours for no pay, moving somewhere new every couple of years, and just the uncertainty of where to next. I keep telling myself that it will be worth it one day (maybe when I am 40!) Trust me, I can hardly wait until that day when we are finally settled in one place and we are in our first home...it is just taking a little bit longer for us. We will get there....ONE DAY!

Afternoon at the park

Even though Maddie has been sick with a cold, we decided that it might be good for her to get some fresh air and for us to get out of the house! It was really beautiful on Sunday, so we headed to the city park! We have officially come to the conclusion that our daughter HATES the swing. We bought her a swing for the house last summer and she has been in other swings, but she has never seemed to enjoy it! We thought as she got older she would like swinging more...well we were WRONG! As soon as we put her in the swing she just got that look on her face like "get me out!" and her entire body just stiffened up. She never screamed, but you could tell she didn't like it.
Other than the swing she really had a blast! She loved climbing on the animals and giving them kisses (yep, I know that is really nasty, but she already had a cold so what is a little more germs?) She also liked going down the slide with us and walking underneath all the equipment. She is so curious about anything new and has no fear! It was fun to get out of the house and take Maddie somewhere. I am definitely looking forward to warmer weather!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated valentine's day this year by just staying home and being with each other! I made shrimp alfredo for both my mom and Gabe...it was very tasty, I must say so myself! I also made some cupcakes for Maddie (and everyone else!) Our littlest valentine has been sick for about five days now. I hate to see her sick-it is just pitiful. She has a cough and is very congested. I am just praying that she starts to feel better SOON!

Maddie with her Daddy (and the new coffee mug she gave him)

Thanks Mimi for the new bath towels and cute summer clothes!
Maddie was holding up a valentine that Mom got at school!our sick valentine :( You can tell she doesn't feel good!

Thank you Regina for my awesome new books!
I love getting packages in the mail!
The beautiful flowers that Gabe got for me and my mom.
The roses are mine and the daisies are my mom's

Birthday Party Pictures

Maddie's Party was a pink & green cupcake theme! I have to give a shout out to the blog that really inspired my theme. Thank you Sweet Craft Cakes! We had a wonderful day celebrating with our family and friends. Maddie is one blessed little girl!

Everybody raved about the cupcakes. They were raspberry-filled vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting. Yummy! The recipe can be found here.

For food we served chicken salad croissants, chips and salsa (I made green salsa to go along with the theme), fruit and pink dip, and raspberry punch.
I think these cute little cupcake marshmallow pops are the cutest things! They are super easy to make. Just stick a marshmallow on a stick, dip in melted chocolate, and top with a m&m and sprinkles! I found the metal buckets at Target in the dollar bin!
No 1st birthday party is complete without the baby's year of pictures! I can't believe my baby is a year old already!
I made the favors out of baby food jars. My wonderful hubby helped me sort through about six bags of valentine's day M&M's and clearance Christmas M&M's that I happened to spot in the grocery store. Needless to say we have a huge gallon size bag of red candies all ready for a red-themed party!

The birthday girl ready to open presents!

Ready for cake...

Happy 1st Birthday Maddie Moo!

Our baby is now ONE year old! I guess she is considered a toddler now. I feel like it was just yesterday that we were preparing for her arrival and now here she is a year old, walking and "talking". The year just flew by. We try and cherish every moment (good and bad) because it goes by way to quick. This little girl surprises us every day by learning something new. It is just amazing to watch her little mind work. She takes everything in and doesn't miss a beat!
On her actually birthday (February 3) we took her to a local restaurant where we could get her a grilled cheese and green beans. These two food items are definitely her favorite. She shovels them so fast into her mouth that we can barely keep up! We didn't really celebrate on her birthday because her actual party was on Saturday! We had about 25 family and close friends over to our house to celebrate with us. The theme of the party was Pink & Lime green cupcakes! I will post more about the party later, because I have tons of pictures to upload. We had a wonderful time and we feel so blessed. Maddie received so many awesome presents and I think she is going to look pretty cute this spring with all her new clothes!
Maddie also had her ONE year well-visit. The doctor said that it was time to get rid of the bottle and for Maddie to be drinking her milk from a cup. Easier said than done. I have tried to give this child a cup with milk in it and she just throws it and gets so mad! She loves her sippy cup any other time, but she doesn't want to drink milk from it. We will just keep on trying...I am not too worried about it right now....a mom has to pick her battles :) But she has given up her nighttime bottle. We brush Maddie's teeth (which she loves) and then gets a sippy cup of water. She has done great with this! Other than that Maddie is right on track!

At 12 months:
24 lbs 13 oz (95%tile)
31 inches (96%tile)

I was actually surprised that she is still so high in the percentiles, because to me she doesn't look that big! She is one healthy baby that is for sure!

At 12 months old Maddie is doing so many things

• walking without looking like a mummy (almost running in some situations)
• bending down to pick things up without losing her balance
• claps hands
• does "biggest girl" (raises arms above her head)
• will imitate the "where is pointer" song
• loves to dance
• loves to turn light on and off...she is starting to almost say "on" and "off"
• uses different voices when playing with toys...almost like she is making them talk
• really starting to pretend play (will have a tea party and drink from the cup and eat the dessert) and loves to walk animals around on the floor
• is trying to imitate the animal sounds monkey and lion
• understands A LOT of what is being said to her
• points
• can climb the stairs and likes to go down them holding on to the rails (we really have to watch her because this child LOVES the stairs!)

I am sure there is more...but this is just the short list :) I will post more about the party soon!

1st Birthday Pictures

I was all geared up to take Maddie to have her first birthday pictures taken in a studio, because I was worried that we wouldn't be able to capture her smash the cake pictures the way I envisioned them. We have always taken all our own pictures, so it would have been the first time getting "professional" pictures taken. To my surprise the weather on Sunday was just beautiful. Sunny, with a high of about 70 degrees seemed like the perfect day to capture some outdoor pictures of our almost ONE year old. We got her all dressed in her cute (homemade) tutu and number 1 shirt (clearance at Target last summer) and got the big cupcake (that I baked the day before) out of the fridge. We got some great shots of her on the stairs inside the house first-she loves the stairs, so we knew that would work! We then took her outside and let her have a ball smashing into her giant cupcake! She didn't really hesitate at all. She didn't get as messy as I thought she would, but we ended up with some great pictures. I am so happy the way they turned out. My mom and I combined took about 400 pictures! It is so hard to go through them, because they all turned out so cute!
Maddie's first birthday is just 3 days away. I can hardly believe it. We are getting all geared up for her big party. I am really excited to see how everything turns out!