Madelyn kickin' it outside....

Bethany and I decided to grill some steaks a few nights ago. We figured we might as well enjoy the nice weather, so we took Madelyn's slide outside for her to play. Below are a few pics of the fun. Sorry, no steak pictures.......but it was delicious!!!!


Madelyn telling Daddy to hurry up and get outside! BTW, this would have been a great pic (but there was some particle on the window).


Hangin' out...


Climbing up the slide (one of her favorite things to do)

First Birthday

As many of you know my baby is no longer considered a baby...she is now a toddler. Through many tears and sadness I have come to accept this new stage. I cannot believe that a year has flown by. I feel like I have followed the advice that everyone gives you "cherish every moment and hold them tight while they let you." But even with this I still feel like the time has slipped away.

Madelyn has been such a blessing to our lives this past year. God has given us a precious little angel and with that comes great responsibility. As many know, she is such a little ball of energy. She had a great first birthday party. We had a wonderful crowd of family and friends.

She got some wonderful gifts.



And she loved her cake!!


...and yes the candle is lit in the first picture, she jumped into the cake before we had even started singing!!!


After everyone left she crashed!!!


What fun we had! Thanks Madelyn for the awesome first year!!

Lupinus texensis pics....

Bethany and I scoped out a location to take Texas Bluebonnet photos on the way to Austin. We located the perfect spot right outside of Chapel Hill. There was a huge field of bluebonnets and a barn (added bonus). We wake up Sunday morning ready to take pics, but there was one problem (windy conditions). We decided that we were not going to let the wind take us down! Below are a few pics of Madelyn and the bluebonnets.





If you look closely, you can see a mean little ant on Madelyn's right foot.

...taking a look at all of the bluebonnets

...sitting on Grandmother's chair

Madelyn & Mommy


...talking about bluebonnets

Roadtrip.......Austin, TX

A couple weeks ago, we hit the road and headed to Austin for my cousin's wedding. The last time Bethany and I spent an extended period of time in Austin was November 27, 1998 (yep, the clock ran out on the Ags that afternoon). This isn't going to be a blog about a football game, but I must point out that Bethany attended that game after only dating me for 50 days! Did I mention that our seats were in the t.u. student section? Ohhh yeah....I knew Bethany was something special, but this knocked it out of the park!

Back to the story. We left town around 9:30am to head up to the State Capitol. While driving, we were scoping out spots to take bluebonnet pictures (sorry...pics will be in next blog). Madelyn slept the entire trip....so Bethany and I were chatting, listening to music, and smelling all the Texas barbecue cooking along the way. We made it to Austin around lunchtime and decided to meet up with my sister and her family at Mimi's Cafe (fwiw, they have amazing muffins). Below is a pic of Madelyn and Bethany hanging out before we are served (Madelyn was very excited after a long car ride).



We hung out at the hotel for a few hours before heading off to the wedding. Below are some pics of Madelyn at our hotel. She loved running all around the room and playing in front of the mirror.



Madelyn did a great job at the wedding and loved the reception at the Driskill. Below are some pics.

Happy Easter!!!

From Chaz (& The Smith Family)



don't worry, we will add a few pics of Madelyn later on.

A quick conversation between Madelyn and a duck......

Madelyn - "Hey duck, check out what my Daddy did to my hair!"
Duck - "I think it looks quacktastic"
Madelyn - "How would you know? You have feathers instead of hair!"
Duck - "Hey! You're the one talking to a duck."

Winter Park.....Part II

The pic above brings back so many memories, I'm not even sure where to start. Well...Bethany and I are hanging out by a tree (after I spent a few minutes trying to get my skis back on). We decided it would be a good idea to take one more trip down the mountain before we went off to lunch. We are about halfway down the mountain and approach an "intersection" where some young skiers/snowboarders decided to take a little break. The only problem is that the area they left available for others to cross is very small.........let me emphasize the word SMALL. I was already worried that somebody was going to be heading down the slop when I cross and we were going to have a collision (I saw one the day before in that area and it totally freaked me out). I finally get past the crowd and hit something and lose one of my skis. I spend the next few minutes trying to get my ski back on (steep grade, windy conditions, a little icy....and did I mention that I was totally exhausted??!?!). Once I have my skis fastened, we head down the slopes. For some reason, I take a wrong turn and start down a tough area of the mountain. I totally wipe out and as I am putting my skis back on I begin to think that being somewhere sunny and warm would probably be awesome right about now. Bethany shows up and is laughing about my little "stunt" and notifies me that I am heading down the wrong slope. We make our way over to the trees and take a look at the map (pictured above). We finally make it down the mountain and we are totally exhausted......but take a small lunch break and head back out to close the slopes down!


This is one of my favorite pics of the trip. We just finished eating at Hernando's (great pizza in case you are wondering) and I forgot to bring along something to keep my ears covered while we waited for the bus to arrive. We waited for the bus for about 15 or 20 minutes (luckily another bus picked us up and took us to the main bus drop off (so we could hang out by the fire (pic below) while we waited for the bus to take us back)......it was a memorable learning experience.


Below are a few pics we took in Winter Park...