The Maders

Pumpkin Patch...

2009-10-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Yay, Sophia's first FALL!!! My favorite time of year.... different colored leaves falling.... Halloween, pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, warm fires, fleece blankets, Thanks Giving, Turkeys, carmel apples, and CANDY of course.......the best time of year! Here are some pics from the pumpkin patch from last weekend....

4 Months old...

2009-10-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

October has been a very productive month so far. Sophia has progressed so much already. She is learning to sit up all by herself, using her hands, and discovering new sounds with her voice everyday. Here are some recent pics of her..

3 months old!

2009-09-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sophia is three months old already!! I can't believe it. Here are some recent photos from this last month of labor day weekend at Vashon Island, Ben's sister Amanda and her family's visit from North Carolina, and other random pics of Soph....

July & August

2009-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Her new shoes from Aunt Renee.First night in her crib :(Talking to mom ..she says "hello" now. Seriously
Her first owie.. I hate nail clippers! Never using them again :(She's found her thumb.Vashon Summer 2009 Dad bought a pool for the little ones to cool off in...

2009-07-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, what an exhausting but fun weekend! Friday night we went to Jennifer's to hang out with her and Ashley's family from California. They made a bonfire and we just sat around and talked. It was so good to see them and catch up on what everyone's been up to.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Ben's grandparents for breakfast to celebrate Ben's grandmother, Alice's birthday.
Then, Saturday night, Jennifer and Ashley put together an engagement party for Ben and I. We got to visit with Jennifer and Rick's side of the family. Rick's parents, (Ben's grandparents) were also in town from Montana to join the celebration. The weather sure wasn't cooperating for the outdoor activities but the rain didn't keep everyone from having fun. The night was filled with laughter, games, and yummy food. Thank you Jennifer and Ashley for such a fun party!

Sunday, we went to Ben's softball game, along with the some of his family. They won... 21 to 5! After the game we headed to Jennifer's to spend our last afternoon with the Sturges family. Trever barbequed abunch of Seafood and vegetables for lunch and the rest of the afternoon we all just relaxed and layed out in the sun. Overall it was a fun weekend and we can't wait to see the Mader's and the Sturges family again! Hopefully before the wedding!

4 Weeks Old...

2009-07-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sophie is 4 weeks old today. We spent the day with Ben's family in Snohomish for the Kla Ha Ya Days festival. After the festival we stopped by Hillary's to visit with her and Brad. Then it was off to Ben's softball game in Woodinville. Ben plays on his families Church team, ...the Halo's :) they won 17 to 4!! He got 5 hits with 5 RBI's. By the end of the game Sophie was pooped...

Mickey Ears...

2009-07-17T11:49:00.001-07:00

Thank you Shaunna, Ryan, Lily, and Mia for my new Mickey hat and sun dress from Disneyland...

(Also thank you for the CD! I played it for her in the car the other day and I think she likes it :)

Sophie's playdate with Maddox..

2009-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sophia's first photo shoot

2009-07-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Oh Monday night I took Sophia over to Katie's house for her first photo shoot. Katie's friend and photographer Alicia Jerome came all the way from Arkansas to take some pictures of Sophia and Payton. These are just a sneak peek of the actual pictures.

Here is her website http://nwphotoworks.com/ Alicia will also be photographing our wedding in June.

Thank you Katie, Trav, Carlie, and Andrew for such a wonderful baby shower gift!!

Payton

Sophie and mama

Sophie meets the Sturges...

2009-07-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yay! Ben's sister Ashley and her two children Hudson, and Holland came to visit from California for a few weeks. We went over to Jennifer's for dinner Tuesday night to visit with them. Sophie got to meet her aunt and cousins for the first time it was so cute!! We celebrated with a toast to Sophia with the bottle of Sofia sparkling wine Nichol and Molleigh gave us at the hospital. Thanks girls!

Three Weeks Old...

2009-07-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Sophie and Family...

2009-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th!!

2009-07-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we took Sophia to Vashon Island to spend time with family. We relaxed in the sun, ate yummy food, and watched the beautiful fireworks in the bay. Thank you grandma Louise for making it all happen!! We had so much fun. Here are some pictures....

Sophie meets the Kalamakis's!

2009-06-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yay! Katie, Travis, and Payton are finally home from their vaction in Hawaii and they stopped by today to meet Sophia. Here are some pics...

Baby pictures....

2009-06-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have put together an account at shutterfly.com with all of the pictures that we've taken of Sophie so far. I wasn't able to take too many pictures at the hospital. I'm still waiting to get those pictures sent to me from a different camera. I'll keep uploading all of our pictures to this site from now on so everyone can see them. You can order pictures off of this site as well if you see one of yourself in there. There are also pictures from the showers as well.

Go to: Shutterfly.com
Email: afitz24@gmail.com
Password: goldfish5

There is only one album so far. It's under 2009-6-26

More Pictures...

2009-06-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sophia Louise Mader is here...

2009-06-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

Born on Sunday June 21st, 2009 - Father's Day! - 4:18pm - 8 pounds 7 ounces

What an amazing way to spend Father's Day. We feel so lucky and so blessed to have been given such a precious little angel. We've enjoyed every moment with her so far. She truely is perfect in every way.

We wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of your prayers and heart warming messages, phone calls, flowers and gifts! It was so nice to have family and friends around.

Here's a few pictures of her... I'll upload more pictures from Sunday later on.

If anyone wants to come visit her please do! We would love the company!!

-Ben and Angie

She's still baking...

2009-06-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

So, it is Sunday June 14th and still no Sophie. She must be reeeally cozy in there. I haven't been feeling any changes so she might just come on time. Hopefully the next time we update this blog it will be with a little picture of her :)

Update on Soph....

2009-06-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

So.. I have a feeling that Sophie is going to be fashionably late... we've had our second weekly doctors appointment last Friday and the doc says I am slowly but surely progressing, which is good news. I'm dialated 2cm's and the doctor says she could come any day now, but I just haven't had any cramping or feelings of her wanting to come out (she loves it in there!). Other good news is that she will be here by June 16th, my doctor says she won't make me go past the due date, which is reallynice to know. I'll keep updating the blog with more info soon.

She's almost here...

2009-05-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

We had our first weekly doctors appointment last night and everything went very well. Sophie is measuring just right and her heart beat was at a 126. I'm dialated 1cm and her head is down. My doctor says she could come any day now. She also said that she's guessing she will be around 7 pounds. We're getting really excited. We have the room all ready and her little bag packed. The nerves have just completely gone out the window we just want to meet her already! I'll keep updating the blog as the weeks pass.

Mary's Baptism...

2009-05-04T07:12:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, May 3rd we celebrated little Mary's Baptism. The Baptism was held at their Catholic Church in Woodinville, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Jennifer had given Ben and I the honor of being Mary's Godparents. It was a very nice ceremony. Mary didn't cry at all, she was so good. After Church we went over to Ben's Grandparents house to celebrate with some champagne and cake.

Sophia's New Room...

2009-05-04T06:35:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of her room. We still have some organizing to do but for the most part, it's done. Thank you again to everyone who sent gifts! Her room is plugged with fun toys, books, stuffed animals and clothes! If anyone ever wants to come over and see her room we're giving tours :) it's such a fun room. Not going to lie, I hung out in there last night and pretended it was my room. She is one lucky girl.

Baby Shower # 2

2009-05-04T06:04:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came to the shower on Saturday! It was so good to see everyone, i'm glad you all made it! Thank you to Carlie, Katie, and my Mom for putting such a beautiful shower together for Sophia and me. The food was so good. Sophie liked the sandwiches and the cupcakes the best. Thank you to those who could not come who sent a card or a gift, that was very sweet (especially Margaret who is due to have her baby any minute! Good luck and I hope everything goes well :)

Here are some pictures from the shower (thanks for sending them Carlie!)

Wedding Blog...

2009-04-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to our wedding blog:

maderwedding.blogspot.com

We'll be updating it soon. As of right now the date is still up in the air. Most of the venues we've looked at are booked already for the dates that we wanted.

Getting ready for baby's arrival...

2009-04-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished stroller. Notice the adorable cozy little bear straps on the seatbelt from Jennifer :) super cute!

Here's Ben putting the stroller together my partents got us. Thank you Mom and Dad!!

Thank You!!

2009-04-20T08:09:00.001-07:00

(Jennifer sent me a disc of all of the pictures from the shower so if anyone wants to see them email me and i'll send you them! afitz24@gmail.com)

Thank you to everyone who came to the baby shower at Crystal and John's this weekend! We missed those who could not come! We had so much fun, it was good to see everyone.

Thank you to Jennifer and Crystal for putting the shower together. Everything looked so beautiful. We appreciate everything you did to make the shower so special. Thank you for all of the wonderful gifts for Sophia too! Her room is stuffed with fun clothes and accessories we can't wait to dress her up!

Thanks again!

We're Engaged!

2009-04-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well folks it's true, as of last night we are officially engaged! I still can't believe it I am so excited! I was completely blown away, he totally surprised me. It was amazing!

Last night when he got home from work he asked me if I wanted to go to Edmonds beach and go for a walk (which is something we've talked about doing but still hadn't done). I thought, "Fun! Let's go!" (It's rare that he likes to go walking after he get's off from working an 8-9 hour day). So we headed to the beach. We strolled along the pier and walked on the beach. It was so beautiful out but it was getting chilly after a while, so we snuggled together on a piece of drift wood and watched the sun set. He took off my old ring and was playing with it and when I asked for it back he asked "Well, how about you wear this one instead?" and he pulled out this little box, opened it and said "Will you marry me?" ...........................................I just about peed my pants! I was sooo surprised and excited and cold all at the same time! I said "yes!" of course, and we just sat there and hugged for about fifteen minutes. We carved our names in the drift wood and then took some pictures. It really was a moment out of like a Norah Roberts book. I am sooo happy he asked and I can not wait to be Mrs. Benjamin Mader :)

Here's us on the pier reading the sea life boards.

He asked right after I took this picture.

.... aaand here's our love log. :)

Sophie's first Mariner's game...

2009-04-15T07:28:00.001-07:00

Last night we went to the Mariner's opening day game with my two sisters and their husbands and it was the best Mariner's game I have ever been to! We originally had tickets for the first row next to third base but when we got there my brother-in-law told us to tear up our tickets cause he got our tickets changed to the presidential club seats, first row! It was amazing! I mean, you could smell the sweat from the players! ..not really but we were close enough to get a wave from Griffey at first base and we ALMOST got a ball from the first base coach from the other team. Mariner's won the game 3 to 2 in an extra inning. Here are some pics:

(Jennifer and her friends are right under the the L in "FIELD" first row)

After the game we all went to The Roanoke on Mercer Island for dinner. Hillary got Sophia the cutest onesie from the Britney Spears concert:

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone has a good Easter Sunday this weekend!

A few furniture pictures...

2009-04-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

More pics to come...

Counting down the days...

2009-04-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

So, we've got two and a half months to go. All of the doctor visits have gone really well. Her heart beat is normal and she's moving around a lot.. I actually asked the doctor if it was normal for her to be moving around as much as she has been and apparently it's a good thing, better than no movements! ..She loves to play around a night which totally freaks me out, so I'm hoping she will get on a normal sleeping schedule as soon as she comes out.

As her due date approaches we're getting more and more anxious, and i'm not going to lie, i'm kind of nervous. I'm starting to show more now and my stomach does NOT want to stretch any more. I'm to that point were people I haven't seen in a while look at me like, "hmm, ..is she pregnant or just overweight?" It's really fun. I just hope everything goes well, i've been taking notes from anyone and everyone who's ever had a child so i'm not completely in the dark. We've decided not to do the "birthing breathing" classes but I've been reading up on everything that is supposed to happen. I think i'm pretty prepared for what's to come. Plus we've had more tours of that hospital in the last year than anyone i'm sure, from everyone in our families having babies.

This past weekend, we decided it was finally time to clean out her room and purchase some baby furniture. So, we looked around online and found a really good deal at Sears for a white crib, changing table, and rocker. So far, we've set up the changing table and the rocker, the crib comes tonight so it'll be nice to have a project to work on. Ben's going to take out some shelves in the closet, paint, and take the closet doors down to add some more space. It'll look nice one it's all put together, but as of right now it's a little messy. We're hoping to have the room finished by this weekend. I'll post some pictures of the room soon.

Newest Baby Gift...

2009-03-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

OK people, I couldn't wait to post this picture.. I got to see my grandmother today and she bought Sophie the cutest little pink Minnie Mouse coat on her trip to California. I absolutely love it! Thank you grandma Louise!

Sophie's Room...

2009-03-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

So, when Ben purchased his condo, wouldn't ya know it.. the second room was already put together for a little person! ..this room really was what sold him on the condo actually, he loves it.

The room kind of has a Noah's Ark theme going on in it, with zoo animals for the border, sort of a safari feel to it. The colors are more neutral; beige, forest green, yellow and white. So I think we're going to stick with this theme for her room. We're just now starting to collect little things here and there for it. Here is a pic:

Baby name...

2009-03-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we have finally come up with a name for the baby. I was getting so tired of calling the baby "it" and "her" so, we call her by her new name now, Sophia Mader :) Sophie for short. The other names we liked were; Ella, Addison "Addy", or Angelina "Lina"

We still haven't come up with a middle name for her yet, so someone help us out! Here are some of the names we've come up with so far, let us know what you think:

-Louise (my grandmothers name and my middle name)

-Ella (This name was second in line for her real name, so I thought, maybe we could use it for her middle name? ..but then ben brought up a good point, she might get made fun of "Sophia Ella Mader... sounds like Sophia Elevator. hmmm)

-Marie (ben likes this one)
-Angela (ben's mothers middle name)
-Angelina (I love this name, little lina ...so cute)

That's all we've come up with so far...

Newest Baby Gifts!!

2009-03-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you Auntie Hillary for the turtle and duck print gymboree outfits! Thank you Auntie Carlie for the cute flower dress! She is going to be so hip this summer I can't wait!

It is soo nice of you all to get her such nice clothes, we really appreciate it.

Thank you Grandma Jennifer for the super cute pink Hurley outfit!! :) I love it!!

Happy 24th Birthday Ben!

2009-03-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

On Thursday March 5th, we celebrated Ben's birthday at his moms house. She had us over for spaghetti dinner and chocolate cake. She also invited Ben's Grandma Alice, Grandpa Ron, Aunt and Uncle Jenny and Steve, and cousins and siblings Ethan, Emma, Andre, and Mary. Some of his gifts he received were: a white Seattle Mariners hat (that he has worn everyday since Thursday), the Wii, Jumpin Monkey board game, gift certificates, and his favorite- shirts, socks, and underwear!

On Friday night, Ben's work buddies took us out to Mi Tiera in Woodinville for some Mexican dinner and drinks. After dinner they decided to take the party over to the new Big Daddy's across the street for more drinks and dancing. Fun times!

Ben's birthday part two:

The following Saturday ben's work friends planned a day of race car racing in Redmond to celebrate his birthday and to also say their goodbyes to Jake Grant who is moving on from the construction world and getting into coaching basketball full time. Good luck Jake! Ben will miss you at work.

They had way too much fun. Ben was a little upset that he finished 2nd in his last race but he still got first place in his second race! First place ended up being Kevin (Jakes dad and one of ben's bosses), Ben finished second, and Jake finished third. Good job guys!

First Baby Gifts!!

2009-02-17T18:29:00.001-08:00

Thank you to the Sturges Family - Ashley, Trever, Hudson, Holland, Hatchet, and Fern

for the Hurley outfit and little red socks

Thank you to the Buno Family-Melissa, Sam, Shelby, and Kayla

for the card, balloons, flowers, blanket, and teddy bear

Happy 1st Birthday Princess Mary...

2009-02-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ben's little sister Mary turned 1 year old on February 3rd and they celebrated this weekend at her castle in Snohomish with family and friends. Some of her favorite gifts were her new pink Vans shoes big brother Ben got her and her Tinkerbell tea set :) ..yay for princess Mary!

2009-02-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

Awww... Ben found some pretty pink balloons and carnations attached to the back of his work truck today, oh and a pink candle lol!! Those Buno Construction guys are so sweet :)

Ultrasound Photos

2009-02-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

It's a girl!!

2009-02-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

Our visit to the doctor today was so amazing. Seeing the ultrasound just makes the whole experience more real and exciting... and seeing the expression on Ben's face when he got to see her for the first time was just heartwarming.. tear! :( We watched her play around in my tummy for about twenty minutes. At one point she was trying to suck her thumb and then she'd play with her toes it was so cute. We got to see a close up of her hands and little face. She wouldn't roll over to her side so it took a while to be able to see if she was a girl or a boy, but when she did the tech said the baby was for sure a girl! We were so happy to finally find out the sex, but most of all we were just happy to hear that she is healthy and proportional. We can't wait until she's here... 4 more months to go!

(I'll upload our pictures and video soon, still trying to figure it out)

We're having a baby...

2009-02-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone...

Ben and I have decided to put this baby blog together for those who were curious about our recent baby news and to update you all on how we're doing. We will be updating this blog every so often in the coming months so check back later on to see our progress.

We are exactly 4 months along now and we have already had four doctor visits. Our first two visits went very well. The nurse said the baby's heart beat was healthy and strong. In my last visit I met our doctor, Dr. Shawnie Keys, who will be delivering the baby. We plan to have the baby at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland.

My estimated due date keeps changing weekly but as of right now the due date is set for June 17th, 2009. Our next visit is on February 5th (tomorrow!). We finally get to see whether it's a boy or a girl! (pictures to come :)

We also wanted to let everyone know that although the baby news came to us unexpectedly we are both very happy and excited. We both love each other very much and we plan to be the best parents we can. All we hope for is that we have our family and friends there to support us. We wanted to thank those who have been supporting us so far, it truely means a lot to us. So thank you and we love you all!

-Ben and Angie