Let the sun shine!

Mommy and I have a ritual in the morning. She opens the shade in my bedroom and sings "Let the Sun Shine." It is very exciting for me to see the day outside. Now I point and ask her to open the curtain in every room!

We were incredibly fortunate to have a lot of sunny weather last week, and we took advantage to the fullest. Here we are with our friends Cynthia & Drake at Happy Valley Park. We had never been there before, but we loved it! It was very kid friendly!

Drake is about a month younger than me. I love playing with him, but I am not always nice. Sometimes I steal his toys and pull his hair.

This pictures is taken on our hike at Tryon Creek State Park with our friends The Budd Family. We were so impressed because Ellen, 5 years old, and Isaiah, almost 4 years old, did the whole hike (around 2.5 miles!!)

On my own two feet

For those of you who said that I would walk between my 11 month and one year birthdays.....you were right!!! Check me out!!!!

Peek-a-boo & Patty cake

Where's Maddie?

Here I am!

Yay!!!!

Happy 11 Months, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy President's Day

It was a very busy week for us!

Last weekend Daddy had to work on Saturday, so Mommy and I headed over to Chelle's house for a get together and I got to hang out with Christa and Nicole. I had a lot of fun with them.

On Thursday (which also happened to be my 11 month birthday!!!!!) Mommy and I drove down to Keizer to hang out with Michael, Melissa, Emma, and Jacob. Here I am with Emma enjoying a snack. I had a lot of fun chasing them around their house!

HAPPY 11 MONTH BIRTHDAY TO ME!! Look, I got my first pair of hard sole shoes. I am ready to run....well, maybe I need to learn how to walk first!

On Friday night Grammy came up and stayed the night. On Saturday morning M&D took off (without me!!!) to the Bonneville Hot Springs. But, before they took off, they managed to snap some shots

Happy Valentine's Day!






This is a hike at Hamilton Mountain in the gorge. It was kind of an eerie hike in the fog, under the canopy of trees. But there were amazing views of two different waterfalls along the way.

If you look closely you can see that a log is stuck in this waterfall and is just being pounded by the water.

Here are M&D at their wine-tasting event. They clean up nicely for an old married couple in their 30's!

On Sunday Grammy and I met back up with M&D in The Dalles to visit the O'Parents, and to celebrate Erica and Jessica's 30th birthdays.

I love Charlie the cat!!

Neither Ethan nor I quite know how to kiss with a closed mouth! We sure did have fun playing together though.

We hope everyone else had a fun filled Valentine's Day too! Congratulations to Aunt Dian and Chuck...they are getting married!!!

The good news is that Monday is President's Day and Daddy does not have to work. It really is a great weekend! Let's see how much of his honey-do list he can get done in one day. Now that he has new job, he is working very LONG days and we are all tired in the evening when he gets home. But, he is enjoying his new job and likes his new staff. Also we are proud because he got an A in his Business Law class. Go Daddy!!!

Chocolate Fest

The Fox family is finally feeling better!! I was kind enough to pass my cold to both Mommy and Daddy. Poor Daddy was sick on his first day of work at his new job. Sorry Daddy! But, we were not took sick to go to the Chocolate Fest last weekend!

Mommy and Daddy took me to the Chocolate Fest.......and they didn't let me try even one bite! Nope, they enjoyed the brownies, chocolates, truffles, frozen yogurt, hot chocolate, and chocolate sauce all to themselves. We went with our friends, The Budd Family, and their Mommy and Daddy let them taste. Not fair!

We did get to play though. The Fest was held at the Forestry Center which had lots of cool exhibits for us to inspect. Here we are crawling through a log. Mommy was surprised that there was a snake in the middle of the log. At least it was behind glass!

My favorite was the xylophone. You can really pound on it and it makes lots of noise.

I am at the stage where I want to do things myself! I like to go places where I can get down on the ground and roam. I took 6 steps last week but I have not even taken one step since then. Watch out world, soon I will be walking!!

sick days

Hi,



I just wanted to apologize for not posting any cute pictures of myself recently. I have been under the weather. I have a runny nose, a cough, and the sneezes. M&D keep following after me with a cloth trying to wipe my face and it makes me mad! We have had to cancel all my play dates this week so I have been stuck inside all day long. Hopefully I will be feeling better by tomorrow because we are supposed to go to a sign language workshop.



Hey, speaking of language, I learned how to say "dog" both by speaking and by signing! Go figure since we don't even have a dog. I also know the word "wave" and I will wave my hands when somebody says it, even if they don't cue me first!!



We have some big news to share with our friends and family.....No, I'm not getting a new sibling......Daddy got a new job!!!!! This is very exciting news! Daddy is the new branch manager for the largest Wells Fargo branch in Oregon!! He will have lots of responsibility and people to oversee. Mommy and I are so proud of him, and we are glad that he won't be traveling anymore. Maybe we can even have lunch with him some days! Unfortunately he will have to work some Saturdays though. This is a big change for our family and we are very excited about what the future holds for us.



We are also excited for Justin and Sam, who announced their engagement last week! We can't wait to meet Sam when she and Justin come to Portland in February. Congratulations!!



Well, M&D promise to take more pictures of me once I am feeling better and my face is not so red and drippy. Hope everyone is doing well!



Love,

Maddie

Weekend Fun

We had a lot of fun last weekend ....

On Friday night we went to The Budd's house. They were learning about Ancient Africa in their home school studies and invited us to a traditional African feast. The food included a chicken dish with figs, and a rice dish with papaya juice. Everything was very yummy. The kids had made shakers with different types of beans and grains, so after dinner we made music with the shakers. I loved going to The Budd's because there are three kids to play with. I love to play chase and check out all their cool toys.

What a yummy feast!

Shake it Mommy! (Man I hope she doesn't embarrass me when I get older....)

On Saturday Mommy and Daddy took on a big job.....they babysat for two of my friends at the same time!!! Aoife's parents and Saffron's parents each got to go on dates while the girls all played at my house. It was lots of fun to watch M&D take care of all three of us! It gave them insight into what having ten month old triplets would be like. But, we all survived and now M&D have IOU's for two date nights! During the day our friends Shannon, Mark and Kyleah (19 months old) stopped by. So at one time there were 4 adults and 4 girls all hanging out at our house! Then when the parents got back from their dates, they all stayed at our house to visit for a while and have dinner. It was a slightly tiring, but very fun day. I love social activities. I am bummed that M&D didn't have the presence of mind to capture the day on camera. I mean it's not like they had their hands full or anything :)


On Sunday we hosted a playdate at our house for Nate, Ange, and Ruby (8 months old). They are old friends, and Ange and Mommy were pregnant at the same time. It was great to see them again!!

See the toy in Ruby's hands (it is actually the water dispenser to her bottle warmer). She brought it with her and I decided I had to play with it so we had a little tug-of-war!

On Monday even though it was a legal holiday and the banks and post offices were closed, Daddy still had to work. So he did not get to join me and Mommy for our outing to Vancouver to visit Grandpa Randy, Robyn and Jackson. We had a yummy lunch, and I even learned how to blow kisses! I also discovered that their house has stairs. I was great at crawling up, but then I would let go and fall backward after a couple of stairs. Luckily there was always somebody right there to catch me!

This next picture is what M&D call "Maddie one-shoe". I have learned how to kick off my shoes, (and sometimes even my socks). M&D get a little tired of constantly putting them back on, so often I go around the house as "Maddie one-shoe." It is kind of slippery when I don't have both shoes on though. For some reason I love to throw my toys on the ground and then step on them, which makes me trip and fall. Someday I will learn!

Maddie one-shoe

Oh yea, my other two favorite things right now are 1) playing in piles of clothes and 2) pulling everything out of Mommy's purse!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!!