Here is a recap from Halloween to now.

Maddie's birthday party #1 with Grandma Baillio visiting!

Maddie's first pigtails:

Brad and Celeste came to visit, and we went to the Children's Museum:

Maddie's birthday party #2 with friends (yes I did make the 1 cake, and yes I am proud of it):

For those that were wondering, here is an idea of what my apartment looks like

*disclaimer- all the fuzzy ones were taken with a phone....nothing to do with Kyle's photography skills. :)

So, mixed in there was my birthday, which I had a nice little date night without the kids, dinner and shopping. Got some fun things. Now I am 26. :)

There ya go....a photo story of the past month. If you just mix in a lot of snot and a little coughing, and some pretty nice weather for November, that's about it.

Which Family Should Be Mine?

Brad, Celeste, and their kids came up to visit us for Maddie's one year birthday and while they were up here Celeste took our family pictures and I took theirs. I'm glad we both got some good shots since we were doing it in between getting ready for Maddie's party and time was not something we had a lot of. Celeste did a great job in taking our pictures and we have chosen the one we want to use. But as I was doing some post edits on the picture there were two styles I really liked--one a more vintage look and the other a more vibrant look. So I thought I would put them on the blog and ask for you to tell me which you like more. Thanks again to Celeste!

You can also check out Brad and Celeste's family pics on the blog at my photography site.

Family, Halloween, Bday, Bday, and probably thanksgiving....all to come!

So....sometimes I get so behind on the blog that I start to feel overwhelmed, and then I slack more and more. I'm not sure how to remedy this. I guess part of it is waiting to get pictures uploaded...which, I am still waiting for. AND I was going to leave you with a picture of Hallee, but Blogger wont let me upload right now.....So, I will say a few things about my cute family.

1. Hallee is potty trained. I am still in awe and wonder and excitement and joy. You have no idea how much I am grateful for 1 less poopy diaper to change every day. no idea.

2. Maddie is 1! Holy moly. I can't believe that she has been with us for a year. Time goes by way too fast. She just had her 1 year appt and she is 50th % for height, 75th% for weight, and 98th% for head size. Yay! She is big and healthy. And the whole big head thing was expected because her sister has one too. :)

3. I am happy. I love my little family so much. My husband couldn't be better to me. My kids couldn't be sweeter and cuter and more fun than they are. Tonight I played with playdough with Hallee right before bed, and when she came over to kiss me goodnight, she said, "thanks for playing gloop with me." How sweet is that? Goodness.

Hallee and Maddie love each other so much. It makes me so happy. Granted Maddie has some issues with things being taken away from her because of Hallee's tendencies to do just that. Here are some things that I need to document so they can be reminded down the road just how much they loved each other.

- They genuinely love giving each other hugs and kisses, especially right after one of them wakes up from a nap. It's like they missed each other during that time.

- Hallee sometimes protests when I need to go put Maddie down for a nap, or put her to bed at night, because she wants to play with her.

- One day, Hallee taught Maddie how to say ooooo, and they sat there for probably 15 minutes saying ooooo to each other and laughing about it.

- Maddie is always watching Hallee. She definitely looks up to her.

- Hallee calls Maddie "my maddie" rather than my sister, or just maddie.

- One day when I was driving home with the girls, Maddie was crying a lot, and her binkie fell over the side, which I couldn't reach, and I just couldn't console her. I was saying things like, it's ok maddie, you're ok, and so on, and Hallee started chiming in to help. Finally when it kinda got quiet, Hallee goes, "I'm sorry Maddie, don't cry maddie, it's ok, don't cry. Mommy can't reach your pacifier right now. We are almost home. We will be home soon. It's ok maddie." It was seriously the sweetest thing I have heard from a child. I got teary eyed listening to her say it that way. She genuinely cared and wanted to help Maddie stop crying.

So...there is some living proof. They really do love each other.

Ok, a picture story from the last month...to come....

compare

And here is maddie!

Time flies

This was Hallee when she was Maddie's age almost exactly. I need to upload a picture of Maddie so you can really see the difference, or similarity, but here is shot #1.

Wasn't she adorable? My baby is so big now! All potty trained and everything!

This week was.....exhausting.

I apologize for not posting on the blog as much as usual. I think I post updates on my facebook so much that it almost feels like I'm blogging...it's just so easy to when it's right there on your phone. I will try better though.

So.....recap of the week.

Monday - I went to the ER. Not because of any emergency, but because I don't have a doctor yet, and I was having a little problem, and I was advised to go to the ER, because otherwise I wouldn't be seen for weeks. And, of course, when I got in the ER, they treated me like I was dumb, and didn't know what I was talking about, and shouldn't have gone to the ER in the first place. So, overall, a VERY pointless experience.

Tuesday - Still a little flustered from Monday. Maddie is sick. Did get to watch Biggest Loser though. :) Also I forgot to go to an appointment I had made for that day. Frustrating.

Wednesday - Excited because an old friend from San Antonio, Elise Cannon, came to visit!! She had a business meeting in Philly, and she came down from Connecticut, and stayed the night at our house! Had another little visitor...we really like having people visit us, so I won't go into detail on that one. :)

Thursday - We went and saw the Liberty Bell with Elise!!

Very fun! Very interesting piece of history. We didn't get much time to look at everything around the Bell, because it all closed. But that's ok. It was really great to catch up and talk to an old friend though. Kinda made me miss San Antonio. We also went to Gino's, a popular place to get Philly cheesesteaks.

Thanks for visiting Elise!

Friday - Bad day....remember how I said Maddie was sick? She actually got sick the previous Friday. It finally passed on to me. Regardless, Friday night is date night, so we dropped Hallee off at date group and took Maddie with us to dinner and to walk around the mall. While we were at dinner though, I got a phone call from my dad...my grandma (my mom's mom) had just passed away. And we are sitting in the middle of Applebees. And I was pretty close to Grandma Redd back when I lived in Texas. She used to take me shopping almost every time we would go up to visit her. And my mom used to take me and my friends to her house to spend the night when I was little, even though she lived in Austin, 1 1/2 hour drive away. It was just fun to be there. I remember lots of Christmases and Thanksgivings spent at their house. I am really going to miss her. Even though I haven't seen her much since I moved away, I always knew she cared and loved us, and the memories have always been there. And so that's what I have left of her. A few weeks ago when I found out she was sick with cancer, I sent her a card expressing my love and appreciation for her. And just last week they told her that she had 3 months to live, but it cut short to 3 days. I am so glad I sent that card when I did, because if I hadn't, she may not have ever known how I feel about her as my grandma.....

ok, so back at Applebees...it was a pretty emotional phone call, and needless to say, slightly embarrassing crying in front of lots of people. So...then we get home for the night, and I feel kinda dizzy, slightly nauseous, hot/cold at the same time. So I went to bed.

Saturday - Megan gets the Flu. Sweet. Good thing it's on a Saturday so Kyle can watch the kids. It's one of those, my whole body hurts, my skin is burning but I am freezing, congested, dizzy types of the flu.

Sunday - Maddie gets worse, Kyle starts to get sick, Megan is on the uphill.

Today - Hallee, after staying healthy and strong through all of this, starting to get a fever....sad day. I am doing ok now, so I can do my motherly/wifely duties again. Now it's my job to get everyone else better by the time Grandma Baillio (my mom) comes on Thursday!

What a week.

It would have been 100% rotten if it hadn't been highlighted by a fun visit from a friend!

Let's pray this week goes better.

D.C. Temple Trip

I had one of the best days yesterday. Our ward had a temple trip to the Washington D.C. Temple. I have always wanted to go to the D.C. Temple so I was very excited for this trip. I hadn't been to a temple in a while and I forgot how rejuvenating it is. There is power in temple attendance and I didn't realize what a significant difference it can make in my life until the end of the day.
Going to the temple is always better when shared with my beautiful wife. She is the most gorgeous person I know, inside and out. Here are some more stunning pics.

After the session we met up with Brad and Celeste, who were watching our girls. I got to play with Hallee and Brooklyn on the Temple lawn before we left. We found a grasshopper and Hallee was not shy.

Since we were in D.C. we figured we might as well take advantage of it and we went to the Mall. We went to a couple of the Smithsonian Museums while we were there, the American History and Natural History museums. Megan had her eye on the Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum. While walking in between the museums we passed some street performers. I gave Hallee a dollar to give to one of them who was playing "drums"--he was using paint buckets and a shopping cart for his symbol. This is Hallee playing along with him.

I had a blast with the family, but mostly because I had blast with Hallee. We had so much fun in the museums and her excitement for the exhibits was contagious. At one of the exhibits there were mannequins and one had his mouth open showing his teeth. I went up to him and pretended he bit me. My partner in crime had my back. Hallee went up to him and said with a scowl, "Don't bite," as she smacked him. What a friend. As we were walking back to the car I said, "Hallee I had such a fun day with you. Thank you." She looked up at me and said, "You're welcome daddy." The fact that I'm here "daddy" makes me the happiest man in the world.

When we were leaving the Mall the sun was setting and it was a picturesque ending to a great day. On the ride back to Brad and Celeste's home I realized how attending the Temple had the power to change me. This whole week I have been hating myself for how hard I am on Hallee. I keep recommitting to have more patience with her the next day but sure enough I would fail day after day. I expected more than I should of from a two-year old and I didn't have the power to change this on my own, even though I desperately wanted to. But two hours at the Temple changed me and I felt more deserving when I heard the sweat little voice call me "daddy."