Beck Caroling

Josh's family has a neat Christmas tradition. Every year they go Christmas caroling the Sunday before Christmas. They have been going for the past 30 years. Traditionally, they choose people's homes who cannot get out during the Christmas season. The elderly people we visit are always so appreciative. This year there were about 65 people caroling with us and 83 people at the dinner afterwards. This year 4 generations of Becks participated in the festivities.



Maddie, Daddy, and Brian (Josh's Cousin) singing....Fa La La La La La La La La...

Auntie Abby and Uncle Blake helped Maddie with Jingle Bells!

Uncle Cory and Aunt Shannon also had fun singing with Maddie!

Where's Maddie??

Worthington Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad's side of the family at my Aunt Marsha and Uncle Doug's house. It was so much fun!! Maddie had a great time learning from all of her cousins!! It was so much fun spending time with them!


Maddie was a big Grandma's girl! She wanted Grandma to hold her for the first 30 minutes we were there!


Maddie fell in love with her cousin Reid! He is 9 months old and a doll! Maddie liked him so much she was still talking about him the next morning at breakfast!!!


Reid's older sister, Reese, gave Maddie some Sit n' Spin lessons!

Like this!!

Important construction in progress!

(Left to right Owen 4, Reese 6, Ryan 4, Quinn 7, Maddie 1)

Reid was entertained with his socks!!

Aunt Marsha showing Maddie how to use her new CD player!! Thanks Aunt Marsha and Uncle Doug!!

PLAY DATE!!

Sandra, one of my best friends from high school came home for Christmas with her family. It is so weird to think that we have been friends for 18 years now!!! She lives in Texas, so we aren't able to see her family near as much as what we would like. We were able to get our little girls together to play. Vivian is SOOO cute!!! The pictures don't do her justice. She has the cutest little cheeks, I just want to squeeze them!!! We had so much fun playing!!! :)


Maddie tried to teach Vivian how to make a tower of blocks!


Vivian's favorite toy!! She didn't want to get out!! Every time someone would open the door, she would pull it back shut.


Maddie was having trouble sharing, so both girls tried to use the car at the same time!! It lasted all of 2 minutes before Vivian decided she had enough of Maddie and tried to climb out the window Dukes of Hazard style!

You can't tell me you don't want to just pick her up and squeeze her!! :)

I wish we would have gotten Sandra in the picture too, but here are the girls and me!

Random December Pics

Josh and I were walking Maddie down the stairs the other day. I was holding Maddie's hand and I said "Maddie your hands are cold." Maddie's response was "Brrr snowman cold!!" I just thought it was so cute! It is so much fun seeing her come up with things on her own. You never know what is going to come out of her mouth now. She talks NONSTOP and is always telling us some kind of story. I love it!


We liked Santa so much the first time, we had to go back and see him again with Daddy. It was so cute every time we drove by "Santa's House" Maddie would say "SANTA! Reindeer all gone." Jingles, the reindeer was only there for a few hours each Saturday for the kids to see. I think she liked Santa even more the second time!


Checking Santa out. I love this picture!


I guess he is alright...he did give me a candy cane!

Styling in Mommy's sunglasses!

Maddie "breathing". She has had to get 2-3 breathing treatments each day for the last month. She is doing surprisingly well with it. She likes to be a big girl and hold the mask herself. We snuggle up on the couch and watch the mouse show. The mouse show is a little 13 minute movie about a real live mouse who gets lost and finds his way home. It completely disgusts me as the mouse climbs through donuts, on cakes, sandwiches, etc...Maddie loves it though. I think that we have probably watched the movie at least 100 times!

Our Christmas Card picture!

Daddy and Maddie...We were ready for church early one morning, which almost never happens, so we did a mini-photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree. They turned out really well!

Daddy's favorite girls!

I love this picture too...it is just so "Maddie"

Christmas Day 2010

We had a fabulous day on Christmas. Josh, Maddie, and I all woke up, read the Christmas Story and opened presents. Maddie got a Little Tikes Kitchen and still hasn't stopped playing with it!! She has been cooking up a storm. One morning I was wiping my refrigerator with a dish cloth and she said that she wanted it. So I gave her one and she went and wiped her refrigerator off. It is so much fun. My family came over for lunch. We had never hosted Christmas before, and I was pretty nervous but everything turned out well. I wanted to make sure that my mom was not stressed out at all about getting ready for Christmas.

Jonathan and Jessica welcomed a new son, Logan David Worthington on December 21st, so they were not able to come up for Christmas. All of them are doing well and as soon as I have a picture, I will add it! I have heard that he is adorable and can't wait to meet him!!!


Our traditional "Santa Cakes!" Maddie loved them this year!


Uncle Josh and Maddie playing an intense game of Uno Moo!


Grandma Patty after opening presents.

Grandpa was pretty excited about all of his presents too!

All the "Big Kids" had fun with Maddie's kitchen too. It was pretty hilarious! They all sat and played with Maddie's dishes, toaster, blender, food, etc...I guess people always say that the kitchen is the gathering place in the home. I didn't think mini-kitchens had the same power!

Beck Christmas!!

We celebrated Christmas with Josh's family the weekend before Christmas this year. It was so nice. Josh's mom made a wonderful dinner and we were able to spend time with both of his grandmas. Josh's brother, Cory and his wife Shannon were able to attend too as Cory was still home on leave. Josh's sister, Abby and her husband Blake were nice enough to allow us to stay in there home while we were visiting!

What a nice picture of Great Grandma Dorothy and Maddie!


Josh's dad read the Christmas Story to all of us...


Come on Grandma...Open it!!! Maddie had a blast opening presents!

Aunt Abby got recruited to help open presents too!

This was my daughter's favorite present!! I think she does take after her mom!!

Uncle Cory and Maddie rode off into the sunset together!

So pooped after opening presents all day!

Santa Claus!!

Ok...our town has the most wonderful Santa Claus ever!! He is old and has his own beard. To top it off he is great with the kids and just so darn nice. Maddie and Brayden went and saw him together last year and they both screamed their heads off, so we thought we would try again this year to get a good picture.


This is the picture from last year....

You can't tell me he is not the perfect Santa Claus!

Hi Santa!! We made it without screaming!!!!

Oh, poor Brayden!! Brayden did not want to have anything to do with Santa, so Santa sweet talked Jessica into sitting on his lap too.

Maddie also loved young Mrs. Claus and her doggie "Pookie"

Jingles the reindeer was Maddie's favorite part. Everytime we drive by Santa's house she says "Deer!?!" She started crying when we told her we had to leave the reindeer and go home!

Update....

Long time no post...Things are crazy as ever at our house. A few days after my last post I found out that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. It is a very rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. Her oncologist has only had one other patient with this form of breast cancer in his 15+ years of practice. She started chemo treatments very quickly after she was diagnosed and is scheduled to get her 3rd treatment of 6 this coming Friday. Right now she has good and bad days. It is so hard to watch someone you love so much go through this...

On a happier note, my sister-in-law, Shannon is out of the hospital!!! She came home the weekend before Thanksgiving. She is still goes to the hospital to get therapy a few times a week, but she continues to improve daily. It is so nice to see her smiling face again. :)

Peanut went to a new home...he bit Maddie a few months ago and then he snapped at her when Josh was home with her one day. I think he was just too jealous of her. Everytime she would walk by him he would growl. We decided it was just a matter of time before he really hurt her, and that we would never be able to live with ourselves if that happened. He is living with a family with teenagers now, so hopefully he will do better.

Maddie has been sick off and on for the past month. I feel like it is just one long cold that won't go away. She coughs so much and so hard that she has been vomiting....We took her to the doctor a month ago for it and the "on call doctor" said that she thought Maddie may just be constipated?? I took her this last Friday and our regular doctor spent about 25 minutes with us, diagnosed her with bronchiolitis, and sent us home with a nebulizer and two bags full of medicine. She has to have breathing treatments 3 times each day. It is hard trying to get an almost 2 year old to sit still for 20 minutes for a breathing treatment! If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.


Last days of fall...


Playing with Uncle Cory at the hospital


What cuties!

Maddie and Uncle Josh had fun on the Halloween walk...

The young witch with her old bat...hee hee

Maddie has the best seat in town on Grandpa's shoulders!

Lets find some candy!! I don't know who is more excited Maddie or Grandpa!

Grandma, Grandpa, Josh, and I took Maddie trick-or-treating down our street. We live on a cul-de-sac with about 16 houses and Maddie's pumpkin was over flowing!! We had to take candy out and start putting it in our pockets so there would be room at the last couple of houses. Maddie's favorite part was "pushing the button" aka ringing the doorbell. After our neighbors gave her candy she would say "Thank you" and continually say "Bye!...Bye!...Bye!" until we were safely to the next house. It was hillarious.

I LOVE TRICK-OR-TREATING!!!

Handing candy out to trick-or-treaters was just as fun for Maddie. She stood by the door and would let us know whenever a new group of kids was coming. This was great, because it gave all of the adults a chance to sort through her candy and get the good stuff out!

Brayden turned 2 November 9th!!!

Brayden had a great birthday party in Indy...Grandpa had fun with his two favorite grandkids!

Grandma had fun showing her photography skills off to Brayden and Maddie.

Smiles all around!!

My little ladybug is so happy!

How can you not fall in love with that smile! You can sure tell his mom is a dentist!

Brayden with Jessica's mom, Grandma O

We were able to spend a lot of time together at Thanksgiving. The kids are so funny. They found the chairs to my old little tikes kitchen and they love sitting in them playing school. They sit and listen to stories and then they ask to sing songs. It is the funniest thing! My family is NOT MUSICAL AT ALL, but everytime my mom, Jessica, and I finished a song both Maddie and Brayden would jump up, start clapping, and ask for more!! I love this age!

If you are happy and you know it, your face will surely show it...

The sitting ovation!!