munchkin's merry christmas

a few weeks ago mae started to rip the paper off the wrapped presents under my parents tree.  So christmas morning we found a few presents that had wrapping paper missing from the corners.

this girl had a great christmas.  it was so much fun to see how excited she was about opening gifts, and playing with all of her new toys.  i had a blast just watching her.  i didn't get very many pictures of christmas eve, but munchkin looked pretty cute in her christmas dress.

 with our little early bird, we were able to have our own little christmas before everyone in my family woke up.  she figured out pretty quickly the idea of ripping the presents open.

 then we headed upstairs for christmas with my family

 first up...some new kicks. 

 and a scooter!!

 a new rain coat for texas.

 and another pair of shoes that she did not want to take off!

afterwards, we headed over to cody's parents and had christmas with them.  the best part was that we got to skype with his sister kasee on her mission in mozambique!  it was so fun to be able to see her! modern technology is awesome.
needless to say, this girl got way too much for christmas.  we are so blessed!

new tricks

mae has recently discovered her love for climbing.  and at gram and gramp's house there is much to climb.  i was lucky enough to capture her most recent conquest...the bench and kitchen table

i'm so glad i got these, hilarious.  at least she amuses me while she wreaks havoc.

the move

well, if you haven't heard these baldwins are headed to austin.  cody received an awesome job offer from HP, he told me if i didn't want to move he wouldn't accept the offer, but i knew right away that this was something we had to do. overnight our little world was turned upside down.  i'm so excited for cody, and what a wonderful opportunity this is for him.
however, the last two weeks have pretty much been chaos for us. i'd like to just forget them, but they were pretty life changing for us. because cody is starting so soon, we've had to quickly meet with our realtor to get our house on the market.  and trying to pack, clean and get a house ready to sell with a 15 month old was not easy.  sometimes it seemed like everything that could go wrong did...but, we made it!

we have totally purged.  we got rid of a lot of stuff.  so it left our house quite empty.  mae looks so lonely eating all by herself...

 her new favorite activity was climbing into her little stroller.  and having us push her all around the house. 

 if you can't tell, homegirl is not always fond of clothes.  she's learned to unzip stuff, and is always trying to pull her clothes off...wonderful.

with all of the packing going on, little lady had a ball climbing on top of all of the boxes and bins that were all over the place.

 girlfriend is always putting on a show for us...

 amidst the packing she discovered old toys...and learned how to climb in them.  i'm pretty sure she likes this bouncer more now than she did when she actually fit into it.

 

we've had some abnormally warm weather the past few days, so we took advantage of it and headed to the park. 

now that our house is clean and on the market, we are staying with my parents.  cody's headed to austin soon, and as soon as the house sells and we find a place mae and i will join him. 

mae's first snow day

yesterday we got a pretty good amount of snow.  it was so beautiful to watch!  i don't know what it is, but i don't mind snow in december, but other than that i really could do without it.

with all the snow, church was cancelled so we spent the day inside...which if you know me was pretty hard!  after the snow stopped, we ventured out to clean the sidewalk and cars, and for mae to experience the snow.

needless to say we don't really have snow clothes for mae...so we made do with what we had.  there are pictures of erich and i with bags on our feet when we're little, and we used to give our parents a really hard time about that.  what goes around comes around i guess...

 i'm pretty sure it took longer to get her dressed than the amount of time we actually spent outside.  but it was worth it.  she loved it!  she wasn't quite sure at first what to do.  so she just stood in this spot for a while.  then she took off to explore.  i've said it a million times, but i love to experience new things with her!

we thought we would just keep a gate around the tree this year, and that would keep her out...i seriously underestimate this lady sometimes.

she figured out how to get in there multiple times.  so, i gave in and moved all the ornaments to the top half of the tree, after she broke a few of course.

we also have figured out how to get onto the chairs at the table.

and from there onto the table...

mornings are hard when we're stuck inside!  this little girl likes to get out as much as i do. 

Turkey Day

we had a great thanksgiving this year.  with bre, joseph, and lucy in town, we spent lots of time over the break with the baldwins.  we had a blast.  it was fun to visit with them, and also to see mae interact with lucy.  she loved her...but definitely doesn't understand to be soft with her!

while cody went to play in the turkey bowl, mae and i watched some of the parade.  she loved it.

 this year i brought the stuffing for dinner.  the gardineer family stuffing is legendary...you think i'm joking.  well, in our family the stuffing is a bigger deal than the turkey.  as in, some people don't even go near the turkey because it's all about the stuffing.  so, i was a little nervous to venture out on my own and make it.  but, i must say it turned out delicious!

 my mom got mae a turkey bib for thanksgiving...

 karen bought lucy and mae matching outfits for thanksgiving. we tried to get a picture of the two of them...but neither of them was too excited about that. this was the only picture we got of them together...their faces crack me up in this picture.

 bryan is amazing with the camera!  and got this fantastic shot of mae during an impromptu photo sesh.  which is pretty much the only way we can take pictures anymore.  we got all dressed up to do our family pictures again, and she was not having it.  so, we'll see what shot makes the cut on our christmas card this year!

 

prepping for black friday...

new horizons

cheesy title...i know.  before i start

another gem of a picture that  i recently came across....

 

 haha. love it.  she still makes that blank stare face. all. the. time.

what a busy week.  a lot has happened.  cody has been looking for the past few months for a new job.  he turned in lots of resumes, and had some interviews, but nothing was happening.  it was hard to see him struggle in trying to find what he wanted to do, and where his career should go.  we've prayed and fasted a lot to have direction, and it seemed like nothing was happening.  the whole time, i had this feeling that something that we didn't expect was going to be the answer.  then last week two companies that he hadn't applied to, reached out to him for interviews.  he wasn't really excited about either one, but going for the interview never hurts.  so he went.  within a day, one of the companies made him an offer.  we still weren't sure about accepting it.  on saturday we headed to the temple, and literally on our way, the other company called to make an offer.  in the temple, we both had the feeling that this was the offer he needed to take.  i know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers, and answers them.  not always in the way we want, or think.  but He does answer them.

we're excited for cody to start this new experience.  it will challenge him and help him to grow.  and overall we know it is what is best for our little family right now.

this week, i decided to tackle taking mae to the gym. she does not like it.  she cries the whole time.  they've had to come get me during my workout because she's crying so hard.  so, i'm still debating what to do.  do i keep going, and hope that she'll get over it?  or, do i just stick with my routine of working out at home?  i'll keep you posted.

caught her in action trying to climb onto her little scooter

 her new favorite thing is to pull up to the end table and read/play with her books.

this week bre, joseph, and lucy are coming into town for thanksgiving!  we're so excited to see them, and to meet our little niece.  we're letting them use our infant car seat, and cody got it down from the attic the other day.  mae loved playing in that thing.  it's so nice when something occupies more than 2 seconds of their time so you can get things done!

"that kid"

i was going to start off by saying we had an accident-free week...but that would be a lie.  i think every family has "that kid" that is always getting hurt...and i'm pretty sure mae is going to be "that kid" in our family.  growing up "that kid" was coleman.  so there ya go coleman, she takes after you!

i feel like overnight my little baby has become a toddler.  i took this picture a week ago, and when i looked at it, she just looked like a kid.  not a baby anymore.  it's crazy!

her little personality is so much fun, and it's actually not that little.  she is so full of life, i love it.  she loves to jabber.  she says a few words, her first was go, quite fitting for this one.  but mostly, she just jabbers to herself. 

she loves to play on the deck, and it's nice because sometimes i can just let her run out there while i get things done around the house. although she figured out how to drop things from it, so we'll see what fun things i'll find on the ground.

she loves her littler scooter.  she's just figuring out how to push herself.  before she would just sit on it.  but now she pushes herself all around.

and sometimes she gives rides...

 of course just scooting would be boring.  so, she figured out how to stand on it.  and as you would expect...took a spill.  "that kid".

she's a fun girl.  it's hard being a mom.  but i have to say, i got pretty lucky with this kiddo.

halloween

i've always liked halloween.  but it is so much more enjoyable with kids!  this was mae's first "real" halloween.  last year she was only a month old.  so this year we actually did some trick-or-treating.  well, sort of.  we went to gram and gramp's house, and then to grandma and grandpa's.  i figured she can't even say trick-or-treat, so i didn't see the point in going out.  but she did have fun in her costume and seeing her grandparents.  and she loved watching all the kids that came by trick-or-treating.

this is the little munchkin last year on halloween...it went by so fast!

 this year we decided to dress her as a clown.  my mom made these clown costumes for erich and i like 20 some years ago.  back when we were the dynamic duo.  all four of us at some point have dressed as clowns in these costumes.  and my mom still had them, so mae suited up.  coleman asked me what she was going to be, and i told him she was going to wear the clown costumes mom made, and he was like "those things still exist?"  that's how old these bad boys are.  but, they are still adorable.  and a clown seemed quite fitting for our little goober.

 hamin' it up for the camera

 she be-lined for the candy bowl at both houses.  and she figured out real quick that she got to take it and put it in her little pumpkin.

it's so fun to watch her experience new things, and to create our own traditions as a little family.

the not so greatest week ever

last week was not the greatest week ever.  homegirl had a rough go.  she's been getting some molars which is not fun, she had a cough for a few days, wasn't sleeping very well, was really clingy and was cranky pants.  so by wednesday i decided (with the encouragement of my mom) to take her to the doctor.  well, the cough was just a cough, but the poor thing had a double ear infection.  i had no idea because she didn't give any of the tell-tale signs.  the doctor asked me why i hadn't brought her in especially when she had a fever, but i just chalked the fever up to her teeth coming in.  worst mom ever award...but it continues to get better.  so we got her some antibiotics...luckily she is really good at taking medicine

last weekend we stayed with cody's cousins while his aunt and uncle were out of town.  it was busy, but so much fun.  the boys were so sweet with mae, and so great and helpful.  despite not feeling well, mae had so much fun with them!  and so did i.  i played more games than i have in a very long time.  enter worst mom ever award number two.  i was taking on noah in a mario soccer game on the wii. and of course was not at that moment watching my child.  mae likes to carry things.  she always has something in her hands.  well, at this moment it was a tv remote and a screw on lid to a jar.  she tripped on the rug, and couldn't catch herself because she didn't want to drop her precious items.  so she face planted.  her teeth cut up her lip, and inside her mouth, and she landed on the jar right under her eye.  which resulted in a swollen right side of her face.  and a nice cut under her eye. 

 this wasn't the best picture, but the other pictures are on cody's phone and i didn't have a chance to upload them.  this is 2 days after the incident.  luckily, no blood got on marci's carpet...oh yeah, and that the jar lid barely missed my child's eye. 

the first night we were there was a doozy.  mae was up for a while during the night, and usually when she gets up, she ends up going back to sleep.  but it had been about an hour and a half.  i went in and got her, and she fell right asleep.  so i tried to put her back down...no dice.  lady would only sleep if i was holding her.  needless to say, it was not the best nights sleep i'd ever received.  the next two nights were a little better, but she still was up quite a bit.

i have started to dread bath time.  she hates it.  which is weird, because she used to love it.  but now, she just stands there and scream/cries.  so, we have super quick baths at our house.

still mad about bath time and it's over.

i have to say, she has been pretty good for a sick little girl.  she's been clingy, and more cranky than normal.  but, i'm pretty lucky to have such a happy girl.


oh, did i mention there's a wild turkey that lives in our neighborhood?  yes that's right.  we pretty much live on the corner of a busy intersection, and there's a wild turkey lurking around.  this thing is scary.  and it can move!  i didn't want to get too close to it, but i had to get a picture!

although, i haven't seen him in almost a week...and it's getting awful close to thanksgiving.