9 Months

It's that time. Time to document our babies growth. She's happy as can be and full of energy. We love being parents and are trying our best to savor every moment because it really does go by fast. My guilty pleasure of late has been to rock her to sleep. MM is always on the move that she doesn't like to be cuddled much during the day. The only time I can truly cuddle her without her looking for the next best thing is at bedtime and I can't help but love every second. 

Cony's 1st day of school was today although he starting teaching yesterday. He came home yesterday and asked how my day was and I quickly responded how wonderful it was and proceeded to tell him it was because he wasn't home. Now that may sound harsh but I didn't realize how difficult having him home all the time during the summer has been for me. I finally felt like cooking and cleaning again and getting into a routine. I'm so thankful for school. And no doubt thankful for the hubs.  

Notice he's not wearing a wedding ring? He lost it swimming at the pond. Guess we know what he's getting for an anniversary gift. 

Cliff Walk

I'm so glad we decided to get out of the house the other day and mark something off our New England Bucket List! We drove to Newport, Rhode Island and walked The Cliff Walk. I really do love New England.

Can anyone tell me why the water is red? It was just a large section of the beach. Seaweed?

Dalton

This summer has been jammed packed with activities for the youth from church. I'm just sorry I haven't been able to participate in most of them but I was however able to attend a Young Women's Conference in Mass last weekend. Sister Dalton the General YW President came and I left with my tank full. Full of inspiration and new motivation. Since it was our stake that was in charge of the conference she came on Sunday as well and we had the chance to meet with her personally and give her a little token (a gold oak leaf- which is CT state tree- thanks to Afton for being sooo genius!). She is truly a woman of God and takes her role with a heart full of song. 

Funny side story. I've been in desperate need of a new phone cover for a while and have had my eye on a Kate Spade case. Didn't feel right about having a "Kate Spade" case for whatever reason....until of course I noticed that Sister Dalton had the exact one I wanted. So yes, I've got meself a new "Kate" case.

I couldn't help myself on Saturday watch every girl that was there and think "mmm will Madelyn be shy like her? Or will she have a big personality like that girl?". Of course we all have hopes and dreams for our children, but I never thought I'd have so many. Even though I will love her no matter what- I can't help but hope that she can make it through life without any heartache. I'm not naive to the fact this is not possible, especially with crazy parents like us.  

This is Maddie's favorite thing to do in her room, open up the doors and play with the blankets. She also tries to climb in.




She LOVES that bunny! For the last week or so it's all she carries with her.


Have I mentioned that Baby Girl is now standing? Everyday she stands longer and longer. We honestly wouldn't be surprised if she just skipped walking and went right to running.




Her second tooth is coming in....


and she pulls herself up to a stand... or squat.

Lately, I haven't been able to get enough of Connecticut and its beauty.

Baby's Room

I've dreamed of being able to decorate a nursery for longer than I like to admit. It's honestly a dream come true. This room took on a mind of it's own and although it's nothing (nothing!) what I originally planned, I still love it because it's ours and everything in it has a story. 

The fabric -which was the inspiration, I found at a large tag sale the morning we found out about the possibility of adopting. I saw it, fell in love with it and had to have it. Little did I know there was an actual use for it coming our way. 

Art pieces handmade by two awesome friends!

The round pink pillow was my baby pillow and although you can't see... my name and birthdate are hand stitched by my Mummy. 

We live in a home that's over a hunded years old. Closets are a treasure around here and I came up with this idea for her clothes (since there is no closet in her room). I would like to point out that *I* cut the wood, painted AND hung the poles all by my lonesome. 

One of my favorite things is the kite hair bow holder our friend Jenn made. Have I mentioned how much I love handmade gifts? Which reminds me... most of the blankets/quilts you see on the bottom shelf were all handmade that I truly treasure. 

Baby Blessing dress & bonnet made by my Mummy. 

I have a thing for hearts which I thought was a perfect "theme" for our babies room because there is SO much love that surrounds adoption. 

This was my tea set when I was a baby girl that my Granny Joan made me. Some of my earliest memories are of me playing hard & a lot with this set which is evident with the missing pieces. 

I love these books. Charity knew how much I loved them and got my closest girlfriends together and they each sent me one individually. One of the sweetest things.....

Baby has way too many clothes for her (my) own good. 

Close up of fabric. 

Can't forget to show the cello. We have too many high hopes for this girl. Olympian, prodigy in cello and piano, and way too many other things...

Equality and Tolerance

I’ve been writing this post for a few days and I can’t get it out of my head. I don’t often pay attention to politics. If you knew my parents, this little fact may surprise you. It may also surprise you that I don't considering this is the very subject my husband studies in school. There are many reasons I don’t get involved and many reasons I don’t share my points of view here on my blog but it's mostly because this is my place to record our happy memories (and let's be honest... how happy are politics?). 

I could easily ask my husband to help me write this post so I sound more intellectual. However, I want to speak from the heart because I finally have words for my thoughts on certain topics.  People’s Rights and Equality. Most of the women in my life right now teach on this topic, join rallies on this topic and intellectually understand way more about this topic than I ever will (or care to). That being said, I’ve questioned my thoughts on this subject. Why don’t I care? Why don’t I join them at these rallies? And why don’t I care (did I mention that already?)? Here is my answer. I (personally) don’t need to. I don’t need to because I know without a shadow of a doubt that my rights as a woman/person are equal in all forms in Heavenly Father’s eyes.

I don’t care if you are black, yellow, purple, gay, lesbian, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, I know there is a Heavenly Father who loves us all the same. Let me repeat. Loves us ALL the SAME! We are all equal in His eyes. Now I understand that may have no meaning to you if you don’t believe in a Higher Being and that is your right. Just like it’s your right to boycott Chick-Fil-A because it’s president doesn’t believe in same sex marriages. But here’s a problem I’m seeing… those who support Chick-Fil-A are considered to be bigots, ignorant and evil.  I’m not saying this to start a riot myself, I’m genuinely curious how one person can be considered all these horrible things for standing up for their OWN beliefs without the vicious cycle of hate continuing? Why do we have to hate or persecute people for their own belief system? When asking for tolerance, shouldn’t we also show tolerance? I understand completely that this is difficult because some people are so extreme and go the wrong way about showing their beliefs.

Some of you may ask yourself how I- being a blonde hair, blue eyed, white girl from America- know anything about intolerance. Two words. I’m Mormon. I’ve lost friends, failed classes, didn’t get jobs all because of what I believe spiritually. But this has very little to do with the point at hand and doesn’t compare to the intolerance most people have to face daily. My point here is no matter who you believe in or don’t believe in… we can all benefit from showing each other some charity. Charity being the type of love where you can truly love someone for who they are and who they are trying to be without compromising who YOU are. And don't you think we as a human race could benefit having more charity in the world?