Sears Pictures

We took the kids back to Sears on Sat. Feb. 27 to get their pictures taken. We considered these to be Madelyn's 3 year pictures and Xavier's 1 year pictures. We also did some of the two of them together. Xavier was tired and not his normal, smiley self, but we still like what we got.

Mommy's favorite of the two of them. It's like Xavier is tackling Madelyn

A sweet kiss between brother and sister

Our beautiful little girl

Mommy's favorite of Madelyn

Little dancer in her tutu skirt

Xavier and Dos the dog

Our sweet loving little boy

He's like his Mommy was, smile but don't show your teeth.

Playing at the mall

On Friday, Feb. 19 Daddy had to work all day at Target in Montrose so Mommy and the kids went to the mall to play at the playground. We are ready for springtime so we can go to the park!

Climbing up the rocks Into the boat!

Xavier had fun crawling all around

Madelyn had a thing for crawling on top of things this time.

Crawling through the log

Taking a ride down the river

"Row, Row, Row your boat"

Queen of the fire.

A little love after playing. I hope they continue to love each other like they do now.

First Haircuts

Xavier's hair was getting a little long. Daddy said he had to have his first birthday before he could get his hair cut. The back was touching his collar and the sides were touching his ears. Madelyn had only had one haircut, and that was just to cut off the mullet/rat tail at 16 months. We decided she needed a trim to get the dead ends. She gladly agreed to a haircut.

She was pretty excited to sit up in the chair with the cape on.

Kathy started to cut. Madelyn did a very good job of sitting still.

Daddy shot video while Mommy wrested Xavier and used the still camera.

After the trim, Kathy braided Madelyn's hair into a princess crown. She thought it was pretty cool.

Then it was Xavier's turn. He got to sit on Mommy's lap. He was very tired because he wouldn't take a nap that morning.

Mommy reassured Xavier that everything was okay while Kathy took the clippers to his hair. He had to hold onto a comb.

He didn't necessarily like the haircut, but he wasn't freaked out by either. He did pretty well considering how tired he was.

Once we had the back and sides done we decided to do a little on the front.

When Mommy first asked Madelyn if she wanted a haircut her response was "Yeah, I do, and I want pink hair." Mommy told her no to the pink hair and she tried to convince her that it was okay by saying "but pink is my favorite color" and "I saw a girl on TV with pink hair and it looked pretty." I told Kathy the story and she ended up finding some pink hair she once used for extensions. She tied a piece into Madelyn's hair and that was the highlight of the day for Madelyn.

She's such a beautiful little girl. She looks so grown up. Time goes by way to fast!

Xavier's 1st Birthday

Xavier has learned how to crawl down the stairs. He hasn't mastered going up, but he can get down no problem. First Birthday preparation: baking the cakes. This was Xavier's first beater! Good thing we decided to stop at two kids because Mommy's mixer only has two beaters.

Little dainty girl uses her fingers to clean off the beaters unlike her brother who makes such a mess!

He was so tired!! Even as he was sucking his thumb he wasn't about to surrender the spatula. He screamed every time Mommy attempted to take it.

Fred Flinstone? Needless to say, he enjoyed the cake batter!

Between Mommy baking cakes that morning and going to the babysitter that afternoon and she was also baking cakes, Xavier figured out how to say "cake". The morning of his party he woke up and kept repeating "cake." It was pretty darn cute, but not cute enough to get cake for breakfast. Mommy made him wait until his party that evening.

Grandma and Papa Freidenberger and Great Grandma Lois and Poppy all came over to celebrate Xavier's first birthday.

Great Grandpa Poppy worked hard with Xavier on walking. Xavier demands to walk holding onto two hands, not a brush, not a handkerchief, only hands.

Playing with his birthday balloons.

Xavier had a jungle-themed birthday party. Mommy made monkey cupcakes.

Mommy also made a monkey cake. With all the practice from Madelyn's birthday cakes this one turned out pretty good.

Xavier had his very own little chocolate birthday cake.

Treece was Xavier's buddy. After holding him awhile, Treece set Xavier down. He cried and cried as if his heart had been shattered. It took him awhile to calm down. Once he stopped crying he looked at Treece, stuck out his bottom lip and it quivered. It was pretty pathetic.

Happy to be wearing his 1st Birthday hat and bib.

Smiley boy. He seemed to like everyone singing to him.

He tried to pick up the entire cake, but Mommy stuck it to the plate with some frosting. What was Mommy thinking?

Madelyn thought her brother (or "Chubsy Wubsy" as she calls him) was pretty funny.

"I can't believe I get this whole cake to myself"

" Mmmmm, the first bite..."

"ya, I think I like this"

"Finally, Mommy helped get it off the plate. Now I really have my cake so I can eat it!"

Just shoveling it in

"Chocolate cake makes me happy. It's also pretty cool that everyone is watching me."

"Yes, I am up to something, and it's something mighty tasty"

He just kept eating the cake and eating up all the attention!

He's just pretty cute, even if he has chocolate everywhere. The chocolate just really makes you want to eat him up!

He finally grabbed a hunk of cake, yum!

And into the hair it goes (it actually took some prompting to get him to do this).

"But I'm such a cute mess!"

Good stuff!

Daddy's taking away the plate, but he's still smiling. Must be because there's enough on the tray, face, belly, hands to keep him going.

More into the hair. His eyes have that sugar overload look to them.

"Look at my belly, it's full of cake"

"Life is Good!!!"

After a bath and jammies, it was time to open presents!

He wanted to be standing to open things and would not let go of Aunt Suzette.

"Grandma, what are you doing? What's this thing on my head?"

Ripping the paper on another present.

"Is everything yellow, or is it just me?"

Amelia, Poppy and Grandma watch Xavier tear into the cake. Amelia must be practicing for cake using her pacifier.

Great Grandpa Poppy and Great Grandma Lois with an exhausted Amelia.

Great Grandma Lois holds a tired little Miss Amelia.

Papa and Amelia

Poor Xavier came down with a nasty cold several days after his birthday. Daddy and Xavier were chillin' out on the couch watching Nascar.