Valentine's Day Photo Shoot!

Madelyn and I had a photo shoot last weekend with the same photographer that took her newborn photos.  She was offering Valentine's Day mini-sessions and I thought it'd be a perfect way to get some updated pictures of Madelyn and mommy to send to David on the ship!  Here are a few from her "sneak peek" - there will be lots more to come very soon!!

Dancing Discman

Thank you grandma and grandpa Gardner, I sure love my dancing discman!!  Daddy took this picture of me playing with it during out Skype time last weekend :)

Love,

Madelyn

Bye Bye Guam!

David's first port visit has already come and gone but he sure enjoyed himself while it lasted!  He and a friend got a hotel and rental truck and explored some of what Guam had to offer!  They had a beautiful view from their hotel room and dipped their toes in the nice warm ocean!  Before we know it, we're going to have the first month of this deployment under our belts, yay!!! 

Green Beans Please!

Madelyn gave green beans a try tonight and loved them!  She now has tried carrots and now green beans and handles them like a pro!  When she's not grabbing at the spoon, she's generally chewing on her bib between bites making sure to smear the pureed goodness all over herself!  Next up...squash (in four days)! 



USS Milius

The ship found out that David was a photographer and decided to take advantage of that :)  Here are some of the pictures he has taken so far! 

Our Growing Girl!

Our little Madelyn will be 5 months old on Thursday - how is that possible?!  We decided to go ahead and try out our first baby food (other than rice).  After some thought, we settled on starting with carrots - who doesn't like carrots, right?  Well, as you can see...Madelyn was definitely a fan!  It took a few bites before she figured out she was going to enjoy it but once she got used to the texture, she was gobbling it up!  Before we got all messy with carrots, we figured we should take some nakey baby pictures since mommy hasn't done a lot of that.  I think she was enjoying being "free."  Everything continues to go well out here.  We miss daddy everyday but are so thankful we can hear from him via email...hopefully before long, we'll get to Skype!



"D" Day

Well, the day we were all dreading has come and gone but I can happily report that all parties involved are doing just fine :) Thank goodness for technology! David and I have been able to email and facebook chat several times since they have left - it makes this all so much easier! It's touch-and-go at times but that's better than not at all. Madelyn and I are staying busy taking pictures, video and working on care packages for daddy! David's days are crazy busy so he's not having any problem staying busy to keep those days flying by. We look forward to our first Skype session which could be within the next week so fingers crossed we're able to make that happen!! Our first week is just about under our belts, I'll continue to keep you posted on the latest and greatest - for now, enjoy these pics from "D" Day (the first two, David took - he's so awesome!)

Date Night!

Last night David and I went out for dinner one last time before he deploys. Our wonderful landlords volunteered to watch Madelyn so we knew she was in great hands! We decided to dine at Ruth's Chris - we have been there before and were very impressed with the service and food and I must say, it was just as great the second time around! David enjoyed lamb chops, creamed spinach, and au gratin potatoes and I loved my lemon garlic butter stuffed chicken breast with au gratin potatoes and ceasar salad - yum! For dessert we split an apple crumb tart with vanilla ice cream, we were already stuffed but still managed to put that away with no problem! We really enjoyed our evening out together but were happy to get home to our little girl who was already sleeping soundly in her crib :)

Daddy and Madelyn

We needed to get some pictures of Madelyn with daddy in uniform for a quilt we are having made for her so we had a little photo shoot one morning when David got home from work. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out! Enjoy :)

Madelyn Rolls Over!

Madelyn decided to ring in the new year by rolling over! Check her out, she's getting to be such a big girl!