— my little corner of randomness —
My brother took more pictures of Maddie after she turned 6 months old. He recently gave me all the finished and edited pictures. They turned out great! Here is a small sample of the fabulous pictures he took!
HERE is a link to the rest of the pictures he took.
And if you need a photographer, he comes highly recommended! You can find more of his work at his website, NorlingImages.com.
This is how Maddie likes to sleep. She also usually burrows her head into one of the corners of the crib.
She looks so snuggly!
Last weekend we went to my brother’s house to celebrate my mom’s birthday. We snapped this picture of my mom, step-dad, brothers, future sister-in-law and Chuck, Maddie and me. It turned out so nice, I wanted to share it!
And, this picture turned out great, but wait until you see the ones my brother gave me that he took of Maddie when she was 6 months old! They turned out great!
My dad came over last week so we could make some salsa using some things from my garden. We used a ton of my tomatoes in the salsa as well as garlic, green peppers, other peppers and cilantro. Here are the things I picked the morning we made salsa.
And here is a picture of the salsa we made. My dad even taught me how to can the salsa using my grandma’s recipe! Canning seems like such a lost art. It was so much fun and the salsa turned out fabulous and spicy! I eat it every day! I may need to make more! 
Mmmm….just looking at this picture makes me want to eat some!
Here are a couple pictures of Maddie I captured in the last couple days on my phone.
She is growing up so fast! I’m excited for her to walk, talk and be more self sufficient, but I am definitely enjoying every moment I have with my baby while she is still a baby!
The last weekend of the State Fair, we decided to go eat some food and see how Maddie liked the great Minnesota get together. We went on a pretty cool day, hence why she looks like it’s winter time!
We ate lots of food and even got to spend the fair with my dad. It was fun to go with him. I hadn’t been to the fair with him in years! It was like being a kid again. 
Here are a few pictures we took.
My motivation level to blog has been quite low lately. I have been spending my day chasing Maddie around the house and seeing what thing she is going to climb into, onto or over. It’s so cute to see her growing and changing everyday. Then when she naps, I need to get other house things done. So here I am with excuses! I am hoping to get a few posts done to get things caught up a bit.
Have you been up to anything fun these days?
The other day I wrote about a purse I wanted when I was away, but I was too cheap to get it. Well, my very sneaky, very fabulous, loving husband got it for me! He sent my friends text messages to find out where we went and he had the picture I sent him to work with. It was delivered to the house today. I told him he got a package and he told me to open it. And inside was my pretty purse! He told me I deserved it. How sweet of him!
Here’s a reminder of what it looks like!
So I just needed to let everyone know that Chuck is wonderful. I am such a lucky girl!
I took this video a couple weeks ago, but I still think it is cute and worth sharing.
She has gotten really fast. Even faster than she is in this video. She is still army crawling, but her legs and getting much more involved. So sometimes her legs go faster than her arms and she topples on her face. It makes me giggle. When Maddie gets something in her sight that she wants….watch out! She makes a run for it!
We made it through my first weekend away. I only cried once late Saturday night. I was getting homesick and was sad that I was going to get home kind of late on Sunday. Turned out, I was gone exactly 48 hours. 
Friday night, Chuck had a softball game, so my mom watched her and put Maddie to bed. Friday night, I went out with friends and danced and danced and danced.
Saturday, Chuck took Maddie to his sister’s house for lunch and then his mom came over in the afternoon to hang out. Saturday, I went shopping with a couple friends, we had lunch while we were out, then all 14 of us when on a pontoon for a while. Then had dinner and went out dancing again.
Sunday, Chuck tried to keep Maddie entertained when all she really wanted was to be in his pocket. Sunday, I woke up, had a tasty breakfast, then dropped my friends off and came home. We were all happy to see each other.
And Monday, Chuck and I happily went back to our jobs and were both very happy about it!
Chuck sent me pictures while I was gone. It was so fun to get some updates and pictures. Here are the pictures he sent me.
Chuck tried out our travel chair for the first time. It worked well, he told me.
Chuck’s mom and Maddie. Maddie is sticking her tongue out and Linda has a caterpillar toy on her leg that she made Maddie. (The caterpillar and something else she made Maddie deserve their own post!)
They played at the park. Chuck said Maddie was not interested in trying new things like the slide. And she wasn’t happy in the swing either. She is scowling in this picture!
Maddie….mid sneeze…drooling.
Maddie with her very own remote!
Maddie LOVES soda cans.
I sent Chuck a couple pictures, too. This one was the purse I really wanted. It was $42 and I am too cheap to spend that much on a purse. But by the end of the trip, I almost stopped back and picked it up!
And then, this is me Saturday night. A friend who sells Mary Kay makeup did most of our make up and then another friend did my hair! And the shirt was borrowed from a friend. I looked a little scary, I know, but it was tons of fun and the girls said I looked awesome.
And finally, Sunday night before I put Maddie to bed, she snuggled right up on Chuck’s shoulder and I had to snap a picture. She looks so content and Chuck is so happy! I love this picture!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!