11 Months

It has been eleven months since our world has changed. I can't explain how it feels to be a parent. It is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. It is the best feeling in the world. For those of you that don't have kids, you have no idea. You think you know, but you don't. Really, I thought I knew and I thought "my kids won't do this or that" well guess what I didn't know what I was talking about.

We ran into an old friend at the store the other day who said it best. Kids are the best thing in the world and those who don't have them don't understand.

Our friends Beau and Carrie had their first baby, Olive Mae born 7lbs 7oz 19in long. She is so cute. We were just talking to them about their experience as first time parents. Carrie and I were just saying how we had no idea until that little one arrived what it is going to be like. Everyone told us, but we had no clue. It is amazing how different you look at life and how everything is now all about Maddie and Olive.

We have a lot of friends and family that bitch that we never ask them to babysit. What people don't understand is that we don't go anywhere that Maddie can't go. We don't want to go anywhere without her. There is nothing that I want to experience in life that she can't do with us. It is not that we don't want to leave her with our friends and family, we just don't have a need to. So to all our friends and family when we have a need to have a babysitter, we will call upon you. Until then, thanks for the offers, but please don't take it personal, we just don't need a babysitter.

This month Maddie has experienced a few things. She had her first Halloween at Aunt and Uncle Horty's. She as you saw in her "official" Halloween pics below, she was a lady bug. We didn't go trick-or-treating. She is too young and none of us needed the candy. When she is able to walk on her own and understand the holiday, we will take her.

She is officially an Ironbaby. She attended the Ironman in Phoenix, AZ this past weekend. She did good for it being such a long day. She chased Rob Peterson around the Phoenix area in the swim, bike and run. She sat on the bridge and shook the "running" bell for the runners.

Aunt Melissa even got her a t-shirt to wear in support of Rob. It was very cute. Of coarse Rob did excellent as usual. He got 5th in his division, 69th overall and 63 overall men. So yes, that means 6 women beat him. But these women are tough, so I don't think he minds.

Maddie took to Rob and Josh this past weekend. She loved them both. She especially loved it when Josh would sing to here. She was mesmerized by him.

Maddie had her first Turkey day. First thing we did on Turkey day was run in the Folsom Turkey Trot. I ran through the maze of people with Krissy and Maddie in the 5K. Mike and Joe ran in the 10K. It was the first time Joe or I had ever ran in anything. It was fun. Well as much as running can be fun. It is hard to run with a stroller. Maddie slept nearly the entire run. Then we spent the rest of the day with my dad, Grandma and Grandpa Smith, Aunt Carol and Alan, Cousin Stacy and her boys, Cousins Erin and Matt, Matt's parents and Stacy's boyfriend Tony and his mom at Stacy's house in Lincoln. It was very nice dinner and nice company too.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. We didn't go shopping on "black" Friday. We never do. For those of you that did, hope you got what you wanted for cheap. How were the crowds?

On another note, Jeni had her first doctor's appointment last week. She is 12 weeks along. She is due on June 5th.

I almost forgot, Maddie is counting to 10. Yes, I said counting. Really, she is counting. She skips 7 and 8 a lot. But if you say one, she will say the next number and then you say three, she'll say four and so on. It is quite amazing. She only usually does the counting in front of people after she has warmed up to them. So when we were in Arizona everyone finally, after the second or third day, got to here her count. Here is a partial video Joe caught on his phone. It is not a very good counting time. She was mad and wanted out of her high-chair, but you get the idea.