Hogle Zoo Salt Lake City Utah

Wedding Season!

I guess June is the wedding season. Teresa cousin Dena was married two weeks ago and now we were blessed to travel to Utah and attend Lisa and Bill's wedding. It was nice to see some of my family that we are not able to see as often as we would like. This trip was special to Madison because she was able to meet her Papa Lujan and her cousin Hannah for the first time. Dad and Lisa don't they look nice together.
It was very nice to see my Dad it has been a while. Madison was running around non stop at the wedding. Her new favorite thing is stairs and it seems like everywhere we went on this vacation there were stairs. we managed to get her stop for a picture for a brief second. Madison and her cousin Hannah got to meet each other for the first time at the wedding and they were just adorable.

It's always great to see Auntie. Now that were not right around the corner from each other Terri, Madison and I really enjoy the time we get to spend with her.

These two were inseparable during the time they spent together.

A Typical Day At The Farm

Here's Maddie at Maga and Ampa's house. She loves to be out at the farm. She was on her way to go see the new piglet whom she calls Charlotte.

Charlotte got into the pin with the bigger pigs. Madison was laughing hysterically because it was so funny watching Daddy & Ampa chase Charlotte.

Here's Madison with her best buddy, Polly.

Maddie and Daddy playing on the swing.

Madison likes to wear our shoes. She looks so funny. Since she knows how to put her shoes on, it seems like she is constantly switching shoes every few minutes. She tries to tie her shoes but gets so frustrated when she's unable to. But we're still learning.

Madison's new adventure is to climb out of her crib. After she climbed out twice, I decided to ask her how she does it. Maddie's response was: "Look at me Mommy" and started to laugh. What she does is put one leg over the rail, starts to hop with the other just high enough to give her a boost and then she pulls herself over to the other side. After my lesson on how to escape a crib, she says: "Good job Maddie"!!! She is very proud of her new accomplishment but she doesn't understand that she can get hurt in the process. Jon and I are going turn her bed into a toddler bed soon. So to make it fun, I think I'm going to buy her a new bedding.

Maddie is growing bigger and smarter everyday. She is very impatient sometimes so I'm always asking her to be patient. So if Jon and I call her more than once, she tells us to be patient. I guess we have to practice what we preach. When she gets frustrated/impatient, I give her a look and she automatically says: "I know, be patient Maddie". She cracks me up.

Last week, when I got home from work she walked up to me and said: "Mama, I a disciple- Alelulah and AMEN"! My heart was so touched. My mom bought her Christian DVDs and it's kids singing church songs. Maddie LOVES to sing along and dance. She tells us she sings and dances for Jesus. She is so special and I just love her with all my heart.

Madison's 1st Train Ride

Madison and Daddy running to get on the Amtrak.

Madison stood up and stared out the window the entire trip. She kept pointing out what she was seeing and was soooo excited!

Here's a picture of me and my two favorite people in the world!!!! I just LOVE these guys.

Our fun train ride came to an end. There's Jon and Maddie getting off and our next destination was the zoo.

Here we are at the Chaffee Zoo- Yippie!!! I had taken Maddie about 7 months ago to the Santa Barbara Zoo and she had fun but didn't pay too much attention to the animals. This is the first time Jon had been to the zoo with us so I was really excited for both he and Maddie.

Here's my cutie pie visiting her pals, the elephants. She's so adorable! She kept her sun glasses on the entire time at the zoo. She doesn't like the sun in her face.

We went to the petting zoo and she got to pet a sheep and goats. She is so fearless of animals. I think I'm more scared than she is- in fact, I know I am. She has pet a pig and baby lamb on the Grandpa/ma's farm but this was the first time she pet a goat.

There were several goats so she decided she wanted to brush all of them. If it was up to Maddie, we would've spent the entire day at the petting zoo.

Here's Maddie and Jon eating snacks and I believe we were visitng the camel who got VERY close to Maddie's face. Again, I was scared and she thought it was funny.

Maddie just visited the reptile house. Here she is sitting in a turtle shell.

Auntie came to visit us for the day. We were so happy she came to spend time with us. She and Maddie are hanging out on some kind of creepy looking animal.

After a long and fun day, Maddie is relaxing and reading a book. She loves to look at books and enjoys being read to.

Awww. Here's my little doll face. Isn't she a cutie? I just love our little princess.

We had such a fun time at the zoo. The weather was very nice and Maddie had a blast. She definitely had a better time this time around. She pointed out all the animals by name and kept waving to them. She also got to touch a sting ray. She also touched one a few months ago at the Long Beach Aquarium. It's too bad she probably will not remember any of this. The excitement in her voice and facial expressions were priceless!!! The reason we took the Amtrak to the zoo is because she has this infatuation with trains. Our next field trips will be to Disneyland in May, Utah in June, and Hurricane Harbor in July. Also, Maddie will be 2 in July and will be having 1 party at the water park in Fresno and another party in Southern Cali. with a jumper and all that good stuff. She is one lucky girl! I'm sorry for the long blog and all the pictures. Thanks again Auntie for coming and visiting us. We had alot of fun and miss you like crazy!!!

Maddie loves to garden with Grandma RuthAnn. She has her own kid friendly garden tools and loves to smell flowers.

My Birthday and The Easter Bunny

Well, last week was my 28th birthday and I celebrated with my family. Ruth Ann took me out to dinner at Tahoe Joe's before we had left for our Easter weekend trip. It was so delicious and they served us so much food. Above in the picture is my brother Jr, his girlfriend Jackie, our friend Maria, my Best-Friend Jeanette, my sister Victoria and of course, Jon and I. My brother Matt went too but he was taking the picture. We went to Dave & Busters which is like an adult Chuck-E-Cheese. We had so much fun!

Here's Maddie & I coloring Easter eggs. She would put the egg in the dye, hop off my lap for a little bit and then come back just in time to take it out.

Here's my best friend, also known as my little brother, Joseph. I miss him like crazy since I moved to Hanford but we talk every other day and we never run out of conversation. He's a 7 year old who has a lot to say about the world and of course, the second grade.

Here's Madison sitting with 5 of her 6 Easter baskets. She is so Loved and Spoiled. She wants to thank Nana Pappi & her uncles, Nina Vicki, Auntie Maxine, Ma (Grandma Ruth Ann) and Tia Kathy for her baskets and all her goodies. She got cups, clothes, a necklace, toys, her favorite snacks, juices, reading/color books, a Sesame Street movie, a couple of Disney Classics, Alvin & the Chipmunks,..... and the list goes on. These baskets were like the Mary Poppins bag- things just kept coming out. Thank you to everyone for all the nice gifts.

Daddy helped Maddie with the Easter egg hunt this year while I worked our camcorder and took pictures. It was so exciting to see her hunt for eggs since she was too young and couldn't walk last year.

Madison is counting her eggs with Daddy. When she found about 2 eggs, she would wonder off and then come for another egg,..etc. It was so funny! So she was kind of interested in the egg hunt. She had fun but I think Jon and I were more excited about the event and watching her.

Maddie and Daddy found 4 money eggs which was a total of $8.00. She made sure that she fed her piggy when we got back to Hanford.

Here's 4 generations: my abuelita Olga, my mom Patty, me and of course my precious cutie pie, Madison. I was really glad my grandma agreed to this picture because she doesn't like the camera too much. But she might be upset if she knew I posted this picture in my blog because she's in her house dress.

*** Overall, we had a nice Easter. I went to church and we spent the day with family. I had a nice birthday and got nice gifts. From the time I had walked in the door from work to the time that I went to sleep, Maddie kept saying " Happy Birthday, Mamma". She most definetly made my day.

*** Angela, Jon is going to send you a video of the egg hunt. He tried to add it to our blog but for some reason, he is unable to do so.

***Madison has been hanging out in the farm- ALOT! She helped Ampa unload the pigs about a month ago and then a few weeks later was there when twin lambs were born. When she went back 2 days later, she got to pet the baby lamb which made her day. When she goes in the pigs pen, she takes Ampa's bat to heard the pigs. It's amazing how she remembers everything Ampa and Maga teach her about the pigs and baby lambs. We have the cutest video of her with the pigs on the farm and it's funny how she has to wear her pink rubber boots and overalls just like Ampa. We'll try and post the video. We hope everyone is doing good.

Fun Filled Weekend!!!!

On Saturday, we took Maddie to have her Easter pictures taken at Sears. The photographer was really great and Maddie cooperated as well.

Here's Maddie and her new cousin Hayli. They met eachother for the first time and had alot of fun playing with eachother. Lisa, Bill and Hayli came to Hanford for Ruth Ann's birthday. We had a nice dinner with cake and ice cream. It was a nice day.

The Park and the Potty

Madison and Jon found a new park so they took me today. It's really nice and clean too. She just loves being there and has so much fun. There's this really cool swing that fits the parent and child and then it locks you in. Madison and I had alot of fun swinging on it. It's so nice to spend time with Jon and Maddie. I miss them terribly when I'm at work so I dedicate my entire weekend to them.

We finally brought out the potty this weekend. Maddie has been off her bottle for 2 weeks already and it's been great. I should've got her off along time ago. She doesn't rely on a sippy cup to go to sleep and she has never used a pacifier so we don't have that problem. She doesn't like to wear diapers and we have to be constantly chasing her to put it back on. So I put a pull-up on her which she doesn't like to wear but she is understanding the concept of pulling it up and down like underwear. When she goes to the bathroom, her toilet automatically plays music and we have stickers as a reward too!!! She is so excited about her potty. Once I'm done with the pack of pull-ups I have, I'm going to start using underwear because pull-ups are like diapers and we want to get rid of those not to mention save money on buying them. I'm going to try the plain cheap undies and when she is fully potty trained she can graduate to cute character underwear as a reward of becoming a big girl. I know it sounds cheesy but I want to make it fun for her. She has been telling us for months when she has to go the bathroom so we'll see how she does but I'm not going to push her.