Maddie’s hair is finally long enough for tiny pigtails. 
Thanks to all of the Wagner girls (Maddie and Mackenzie’s sitters while I work), the first thing out of Maddie’s mouth every morning now is “ponies, Mom.” It’s so fun to have hair to do things with now! Hope you get a kick out of the pictures and the video…they crack me up!
I just realized that all of the above pictures show a partially naked Maddie…really, I do put clothes on her.
Mackenzie and I went on a slightly last-minute trip to a wedding in Bozeman, Montana and had a blast. Mackenzie couldn’t have done a better job the entire trip, which made it so much easier for me. It’s pretty stressful traveling alone with a baby, but I have nothing to complain about. All Mackenzie wanted was to be held and cuddled, which fit well with our couple of days since we spent most of our time on the airplane.
Here are some pictures of the weekend…
Mackenzie in a sling that Rachel Treur let me borrow…It was awesome and worked perfectly for flying, and Mackenzie loved being in it! (Thanks, so much, Rachel, and I will wash it asap and get it back to you)!!
I had to get a shot of our rental car. Here’s Mackenzie by it in her carseat, all smiles the afternoon of the wedding.
It was so great to see Kari, and doesn’t she look absolutely beautiful?! Unfortunately, Mackenzie wasn’t so agreeable in posing for the picture.
This is a random picture I took of Mackenzie on Sunday after church. She’s in a dress that my sister Vonda let me use…so cute!
Nick, Julie, and Eva were over…Maddie and Eva had a blast together. Here they are kissing each other good night…so sweet.
It was a big day in the Leonard house…Maddie made the transition from baby to “big girl.” Thanks to some friends from church, we just got a twin bed. We hadn’t really figured out when we’d make the switch, so it just worked out well that one just fell into our laps…we’re so thankful!
It was kinda funny putting Maddie to bed tonight. We thought it would have been different putting her in a real bed for the first time, but she just crawled in and kept saying “night night” over and over again. We were trying to savor the moment by making a huge deal of Maddie being a big kid and all she wanted was to just go to bed! I got a few pictures before she nearly kicked us out of her room.
I took these last two pictures earlier this afternoon. Maddie LOVES to “hold it,” as she refers to holding Mackenzie, and Mackenzie is sort of like Mina…she just puts up with it.
You’ll see that most of the following pictures involve water…both the girls enjoy swimming, baths, and anything else related to being in water. I was giving Mackenzie a bath the other day, and Maddie wanted to help, so I let her hop in the tub, too. She had a blast…actually, they both did!
Mackenzie has just started on solid foods, and this is her feeding station for now.
Maddie loves her little sister…and her toys!
Maddie’s all ready to go swimming, and she does very little without her baby.
Swimming in our little pool in the backyard
Mackenzie enjoying watching it all from her cozy bouncy seat
The pictures I’m posting are from the end of last week through today. We had a fun weekend in Escondido where I played for church, and we also went to the San Diego Zoo. I didn’t get pictures of the animals, but I tried to capture some of the excitement of that day.
I know she’s showing a bit more skin than is appropriate, but cut her some slack–she’s little and is still growing into her outfits!
Mackenzie is sitting in the jump-a-roo, thanks to the Schenkels who are letting us borrow it.
Play Doh and bubbles…two of her favorite things! Then you throw Daddy into the mix, and it’s just perfect.
There’s a swimming pool at Paul and Danae’s house, and Maddie loved swimming and jumping off the side to Daddy.
Mackenzie enjoyed watching everything in her bouncy seat in the shade. Even though she didn’t go swimming, it was still fun to put her swimsuit on.
The next set of pictures are of our trip to the zoo…
As you can see, Maddie and Caleb are pretty excited to get going!
This was taken during the sea lion show.
One of our highlights of the zoo was the “tree lady” who walked around, blending into the trees. Can you spot her in the picture above?!
Debbie Southworth was in Redlands for a short time, so we got together for a Starbucks and a nice visit. It was so fun to see her. It almost looks like my girls could be hers…all those blue eyes!!
And the following video is of our cute little “bat-girl.”
I was talking with my cousin Siri who is now living in California (yay!!), and she had mentioned how her son, J, was wondering why it had been so long since I had posted something on our blog. So, J, this HUMONGOUS (spelling??) post is for YOU! Many of you are my facebook friends, so I apologize for the redundancy. It was just way easier to use the same photos from the ones I posted on facebook. My time for blogging is limited.
So while both girls are napping, I’ll give a shot at explaining the next large batch of pictures that are from the last month or so. We’ve enjoyed a wonderful trip to MN as you can see by the many pictures. If any of you are interested, I have many more on our smugmug site.
Here are some of the highlights of our trip:
Maddie and Grandpa Leonard had lots of fun being goofy together.
We made a quick stop at the lake for a yummy lunch/dinner (Thanks, Vicki!!) and had to get a picture at the end of the dock.
I think this sweet photo was taken at the Leonard Family Reunion in the Minneapolis area (can’t remember which suburb)
We got this family picture at the Fargo airport. I think it was Mark’s greatest moment of his trip…maybe is one of the best moments in his life…seriously! When we turned around a corner at the airport, Mark was in sight, and Maddie SCREAMED and ran toward him. It was the greatest! We hadn’t seen him in over two weeks, so it was a fun moment for all of us. I’m just so bummed that I didn’t get it on our video camera.
It was great to see my grandparents. My mom’s sister Donna and parents drove to Watertown, and we all stayed in a hotel and hung out for a day.
Here’s Brad and his dog Marley and Mackenzie
Maddie loved riding the jet ski!
Here’s a fun shot with my dad and all of the grandkids.
And here’s a similar shot with my mom with all of the grandkids.
This is my oldest niece on the Dekkers side and Maddie.
Maddie was pretty much in love with the 4-wheeler, as you can see by this picture.
It was so fun to be all together…with all of us 5 kids. That doesn’t happen very often!
Camille and Carter caught two turtles while at the lake, and the little kids loved looking at them.
a close family friend, Beaver, Mackenzie, and me
Maddie loved riding the little Gator while at the lake…it’s the cutest thing to see the little kids riding their own toddler-sized vehicle.
One of the few chances I had to cuddle with Maddie.
Thanks for your patience in waiting a long time for me to post! Hope you enjoyed the pictures, J!
Here are some more videos that I’ve taken in the last while. The first one is of Carlie reading to Maddie. Maddie sure followed Carlie’s every move while they were together! The second one is of Great Grandma Kooi holding Mackenzie, and the last two are of Maddie playing in the West Acres Dinosaur play area. She loved it!
We can’t wait to see Mark in only TWO DAYS to join us in our adventures!!!
It’s been busy so I haven’t had a chance to post anything in the last few days. We left my dad’s house and are now at my mom’s house in Fargo.
We have been having an awesome time everywhere we go, and Maddie especially is loving all of the time with cousins and other family. She definitely wears herself out every day!! We have a common exchange every morning that goes something like this:
Jill: “Guess what we get to do today?!!”
Maddie: “DADDY!!!!!”
Jill: “We’ll see Daddy soon but just not yet.”
Maddie: “DADDY!!!!”
All in all, we’re having a blast, but we sure miss DADDY/MARK!!!
