When it Rains it Floods!

Well I was sitting here today enjoying the sounds of a little thunderstorm, unaware that above our house a river was raging! We live at the base of the National Park and we were aware that we bought our home in a flood zone. Tony was very Leary at the amount of rain that was falling but I was oblivious to it. I put the baby down for her afternoon nap and he came running inside to tell me that we needed to get ready to evacuate. I kind of thought he was out of his mind not knowing that the burm by house was giving way. I got ready and started to grab things we would need: Clothes~Check, Cell Phone~Check, Purse~Check, Baby~Check. He came running back in to tell me we needed to exit the back of the house, Our entire front and street were now a swift, loud raging, river. I had him cross the rising waters with Madison then I came, next he ran in to get the dog, after that each cat, one at a time. He had so much trouble with Rosie, the gray one, she bit him to peices and tore is arm up, but he managed to get her. We may end up taking him to a Dr about those bites. Maybe Brother Michael can advise him if should go or not HINT HINT! It was so loud and it reminded me of a raging rapid like back home at Buford Dam when they open the dam and let the Chattahoochee fill up. It was so terrifying. As we drove away my last thoughts were for the people in the houses below ours. I remember thinking, "I hope they got out of their homes already." Tony cut a path through our back yard all the while the waters were chasing us. We got on the main street and waded through until we hit the park center, we were covered in mud from the knee down and Tony was soaked through. I didn't have time to take many pictures of the flooding waters only with my camera phone. . .pretty good pics though for a phone. We went to a friends house for a few hours and then came back home to acess the damages.

Please do not be worried for us, we are all doing well and are very blessed by God to have each other!

That's it from the Desert~there is so much going on right now!!!

These pics are the ones from the camera phone of the waters as they were tearing through the yard





these are my dirty feet, I took them out of my mud soaked shoes EEEEEW



Thankfully we have flood insurance! I have been working on the claim since yesterday~wish us luck!

Madison's First Birthday Party

Well we celebrated Madison's birthday with her friends on Saturday the 12th. (I know it was a week ago!!!! Sorry! We got a little busy. . . .) We invited them to Sunburst Park in Joshua Tree for a Poodle in Paris turns ONE party; they have a water Sprinkler and the kids had a blast! I wanted to make sure that there would be plenty of activities to keep them all busy since all her friends were different ages. From 5 weeks old all the way upto 10 years old. I also wanted to make sure I had a water feature and shade because I knew it would be hot. However, Mother Nature had her own idea of what she wanted the weather to be and it was perfect! I couldn't have gotten a nicer day if I had ordered it myself. We grilled hamburgers, hotdogs and ate watermelon, and birthday cake. My friends were so helpful too, but even then couldn't get me to relax and enjoy their company. . .I just felt like there was so much to do the entire time. I can see why people hire someone to do these events for them; Hey now there's an idea. I wonder if I could make any money at that. . . ? HA! Madison was such a trooper through it all, she missed her morning nap and then bless her heart she was so tired she didn't even pull off her crown! She normally pulls anything that's not tied around her neck off; poor thing! I feel like the day was a blur. . After the kids played and we ate lunch, it was time for PRESENTS! Madison got a Princess Gift set: with a purse, dress, and crown with wand, a Leap Frog Radio, a Leap Frog Farm Fridge magnets, a Baby Doll, a Care Bear, Little People SUV, a Shopping Cart with tons of food, some beautiful clothes and hairbows, a gift card, a Noah's Ark musical toy and a bath time toy from her wonderful friends. Tony and I got her a ball pit, Little People Circus set, books, a DVD ~"the Sword in the Stone", and a Tea Set. I found some poodle gift wrap and I wrapped everything in pinks and purples; I got a banner personalized with poodles on it. After the presents my friend Tricia brought the cake and we sang, "Happy Birthday", then we cut the cake! It was yummy, marble with buttercream icing mmmm; I will start my diet tomorrow =) After we left the park I thought for sure Miss Madison would take a nap in the car and be out for a while but NOPE; Not at all! My child stayed awake all day until 7:30 PM!!!!!! I was thoroughly impressed; but exhausted to say the least. When we got home and unloaded our loot and gear I let her get in the ball pit; she had a blast. Peaking out the windows and going in out of them too. I tried to explain that the big holes were for going in and out but she didn't seem to care. I am a blessed mommy to have this girl and I will always remember this day as perfect! However, I do have one regret (there is always a but with me). . .I must also apologize and beat myself up over the fact that we didn't video tape any of it!! We were both so overwhelmed with the festivities we forgot to even get out our video camera! We are horrible with that thing! I know I am being rough on us but we do need to get better about that. I mean wow, how much more of a milestone can you get and we both just dropped the ball on that one! Oh well, we got lots of photos to remember the day. And of course I will have a great time Scrapbooking the party later on, when I have a chance to. Sorry if you couldn't be here with us but I Hope you enjoy the party pictures!

I will blog again soon, we took her to get her ONE year pictures today so they will be on the website in the near future! Okay we'll see when I get to it =)

Love you all,
Erin Davis

busy mom of one!

Sesame Street

Sunny Day, Chasing the Clouds away, Okay well I know it's been a week since we saw this but I wanted to post it anyways. I took Madison to see Sesame Street on the base. It was a free USO preformance. The characters came out and talked about feelings that are related to missing your parents. It was really wonderful for our kids to hear from their favorite Character about something so personal for our families! Of course, Madison hasn't had to miss her Daddy for a deployment or long trip nor did she understand what was going on. We don't watch Elmo yet, we are into another channel of educational shows. She didn't seem to be upset with them, I did take her down to the stage to see them up close but we were too close to the speaker to hang around long. I also didn't get any great pics because my camera will only do one special function at a time. So I could adjust for the light but not the movement. Those little boogers wouldn't stay still long enough for my camera to focus without blurring them and making streaks. So the pictures you see are basically the best of the blurred ones. I know I am silly we have had our camera for almost 3 years and I still don't know how to use it. Tony would have been a big help with the camera but he wasn't feeling well and decided not to come. Okay well I have to post the Birthday Party, so that's it for this post. ..

Madison turns ONE and 1st 4th of July!

On July 3rd my little baby turned 1! We celebrated her birthday here at the house. I baked a small 6 in cake and decorated it with what else? A poodle of course. I hadn't decorated or made a cake in 3 years. I as you can imagine was not happy with the artistic portion of the cake but Tony told me it was pretty anyway. I just need to practice more. . .we'll see. We had dinner and then we let her open one of her gifts. It was a poodle-in-the-box and when you turn the handle it plays "Alouette", then Fifi the poodle jumps out; too cute. The Grandmother's called to wish her a very Happy Birthday; she won't remember it but I will write it down in her scrapbook so she will know. Then Tony gave her the cake. She needed no prodding what so ever! She dug right in and made a huge mess in about 5 minutes. There was cake and icing everywhere. . . she dropped most of it into her lap and when I undressed her there was even some down her shirt. I guess she was saving that bite for a snack later on! We were so excited to watch her and the cake, we forgot to light her candle and sing to her on the video! Both her grandma's sang Happy Birthday to her, so it was part of the day =)! Tony and I are having a party for her with her little friends this Saturday so we will make sure to sing and have the candle for that. We even forgot to take close up pictures of the poodle cake, but at least I did get some of it before she destroyed it!

Baby's First 4th of July! Okay so we all know her birthday is July 3rd but since she was in the hospital last her on the 4th of July (and we were on the road to get to her), we didn't get to celebrate that holiday. I decided that we would pretend that last year's 4th of July just didn't happen and this year would be her First! For this year we decided to do something new and attened the fireworks on base. It's funny we have lived here for almost 6 years and Tony and I have never went to the event on base. We lived so close when we were on base that we could watch them from our back yard so that's what we usually did. It was a fun new experience for the whole family! We met my friend Nancy and her kids there, Taylor, Jordan and Peyton (Madison's little boyfriend). Her older kids went to watch the show with their friends and Peyton and Madison played on the grass and had a good time. I was ready for the show to start because Madison is walking now and when you put her down she is just GONE in 60 seconds HA! She has no boundaries either, she will just walk up to anyone. So it was exhausting and she didn't seem to realize that "WE are her PEOPLE; and THEY are not your PEOPLE!" "Your people are over here; not over there!" Tony and I took turns on baby patrol. She was up late, about 2 hours past her bedtime so as soon as we put her in the car she was OUT! I was impressed that she stayed awake for every bit of it; even the walk back to car in her stroller she was wide eyed! She's like her mama; she loves being social and going out in public **Oh My! We also saw some of our friends and our daughter's were wearing the same outfit. Katelynn looked so adorable and they are about the same size so I always call them "the Twins" HAhaha. Too bad they moved; we will miss them.

Today we had her 1 year well baby check up and she is doing very well. She weighs 19 lbs. 11.1 oz, and is 28 inches tall, they measured her head and it was 44 cm. She is now walking and has a pretty big vocabulary for her age. Her Dr was impressed by all the things she could do. We did have a little decline in her weight gain, no doubt from all the walking she does. It is exhausting to watch her. She never rests for a second unless she is asleep! She got 4 shots today too, that part is never fun, she cried and screamed. I hate it just as much as she does. Glad that's over with and we won't have to go back until she 15 mos.

Look out for more updates; July is turning out to be a busy month. We are going to see Sesame Street tomorrow on the base! I can't wait to see what she thinks of the big yellow bird and Elmo?! So far she is not impressed or put off by characters but we will see. . . now that she is a little older. Tony and I are both looking forward to the show.

We'll keep you posted; hope your summer is going well!
Erin Davis

Playing before bed time

Madison loves to play peek-a-boo with her Daddy. So last night I was putting her to bed and Tony came in to say good night and she started to "play" with him. It was so funny because neither of us prompted her to do it. Needless to say we were able to get some of it on video! Enjoy. . . .

An Early Birthday Surprise!

MY PINK POODLE ROCKING HORSE!!!!

Yesterday there was a large package on our front door step and it had Madison's name on it! Her Gammy sent her an early Birthday Present. So I called my mom and asked if she wanted me to save it until July for her actual birthday. She told me to go ahead and let her play with it and take lots of pictures for her to see. We opened the box and it was the most adorable thing I have ever seen; besides my most adorable baby in the world ! I let her touch it and then when I put her on it, she was like Oh My Goodness this is so much fun. She would shake her legs to try and make it "work". I had to hold onto her and make it rock at the same time. Looks like I will have toned arms if we play with this everyday. Thanks to Mom for the gift and Madison for the extra workout!

As usual all my family and friends are in my thoughts and prayers, may God continue to bless you everyday in everyway. . . . .

Much Love from our little corner of the world,
Erin Davis

Aquarium of the Pacific

We took Miss Madison to see the Fishies on Saturday. We stared off by stopping half way and having Chick-Fil-A!!!! We live an hour away so it was a big deal. We got her picture with the Cow Man and she never even cried. She was just trying to figure out what it was?? If it had been me at her age the trip would have been over! We got to the Aquarium and she woke up so it was smooth sailing. She got to see all kinds of Ocean life forms and the Sea Lions were like big water dogs. She and I leaned over the Shark Tank to get a good look and she reached her hand out. Just as she did a Great White came up out of the water to get a better look too! The people standing around had been there for a bit and they were saying that was the first time that any of them had come out of the water. So it's official Madison is a yummy temptation. I have always told her she is gonna get eaten for being so sweet. I would have had to jump in the water and "Slap a Shark" if it came any closer to my baby's hand. Madison wasn't bothered; she was like make it come up again Lady. We got to see some baby stingrays too and they didn't want to come close enough to be touched by Madison. The workers said we could "pet" them with two fingers but Madison ignored that rule to "play in the water" with both hands. They had a baby tiger shark in there too. The lady in charge told us it didn't like to be petted and it wouldn't bother us. However, every time Madison put her hand in the water it would come really close so it must have liked our baby a bit more than the lady realized. She liked the fishes and different colored lights in the exhibits. We stayed about 2 and 1/2 hours and then it was time to turn around and head home. It was short lived but it was nice to do something different. Of Course I took many many pictures that day but when I uploaded them to my computer from my camera; I had a major fiasco! I named them and the computer numbered them the same as another folder in my pictures. I was trying to organize some of my pictures and when I tried to combine them together; my Aquarium pictures were over-written. The only pictures I could recover are the ones on the slide. Unfortunately, I could only get two pics with Dada in them back. I even had one of all three of us; but the overwriting distorted it too badly to see, along with some other great shots. I am just glad they weren't all lost and I learned a big lesson! Thankfully I married a computer Geek because if he wasn't here with me I wouldn't have even recovered the ones that you are viewing now! God I love my man! Although, we took some video I still wanted my pictures and we both worked on the long process for 7 hours yesterday into the wee hours of the morning! Needless to say I was hurtin' for certain when I had to get up with 4 hours of sleep. Okay well I will write again soon. . . . .


Duck Family

Sea Lions



Sea Lions Part Two




Sharks




Baby Stingray's

She's 10 months and Cruising!

Yep my little angel had no sooner learned to crawl on all fours when all of a sudden she had to start pulling up (ON EVERYTHING) and creeping around! The books call this "cruising"; she loves to stand! You can't put her in the floor without getting down there with her. She just won't stand for it. She starts crying and fussing if you try . . . .not so easy anymore. My activities are properly planned around her awake times. It goes a little like this: 5:30am-7am Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Bakey, Breakfast between 7am and 8am, Play Play Play, Nappy around 9am (Sweet Sleep) until 11am or 12pm, Lunch, more Play Play Play, Nappy #2 about 2pm until 4pm or so, 5pm Dinner, Play Play Play, 7pm or so, Nite Nite. I try and get her to stay asleep until 7am but lately the Sun is kicking my butt; if the sun is up she thinks she has to be up with it! Today she woke me at 5:50am so I decided she would go yardsaling with me. I try to do my cleaning and working out during her two long nap times; they are a blessing to me (I know they will fade here pretty soon). She sure does need them too; she is a cranky little booger when that time approaches. She is a funny little girl the first thing she communicated with me was to shake her head NO. You could ask her anything and the answer was a forceful head shake NO! "Madison is your name Madison?" Her reply is a forceful head shake NO! But after many long months of showing her sign language, I am very happy to announce that she made her first sign last Sunday (the first of many; I hope). She smiled, waived and said something that sounded like hi! Then on Thursday she made the sign for Milks; Saturday night she made the sign for Eat! It is a great feeling that she is learning something so valuable from me. We will be understanding each other so much better now! I found her about a week later standing on her own for 3-5 secs, and then promptly hitting the ground on her bottom. I don't care what anyone else thinks; after the 3rd time it's gotta sting a little. That's all I can think of that's new for now but I have some pictures posted here of the things we have done since the last update.

We went to an awesome streetbike and motocross stunt show on base. The Riders were amazing and they were so awesome to the Marines and Families. They gave away prizes and signed anything and everything you would want autographed! It was amazing the stuff they were doing. The first set of jumpers were "Riders for Christ" and the street bike guys were famous from the Speed Channel. I don't know their names though. The Motocross flips in midair the Streetbike surfing; absolutely awesome! Afterwards we met with a friend of mine that I have not seen in 4 years and had dinner with her and the fam! It was awesome to see them and meet her children. It was a long day but Baby Madison was such a trooper through it all. . .

These are some great photos of our playgroup friends: Peachy and Jane; Katelynn and Jenn; and Madison and Me. We try and meet with them once a week. They are a great bunch of ladies and babies and it's a wonderful way to socialize for both Madison and Mommy! Thanks to Aunt Shelly Madison's pink car is always a hit with the kids too. No matter what age they love going in the car and being pushed "faster" and "faster". It's so popular Miss Katelynn is getting one after she has her tubes put in her ears. Her mom thinks the car will be a wonderful treat after the scary ordeal.

Tony and I threw a last minute BBQ. The first of the Season. Some friends came over, the Mcbrooms and the wives (me, and Monica) played with the baby and cooked. Lindsey and Joey Buffamonte, showed up later with her friend she traveled with. It was fun just getting together and hanging out. A few weeks later we met up with the "Buff's" for a little relaxing poolside. We took Baby Madison to the big pool for the first time. She had a blast! We dunked her underwater and she didn't cry, or drown. I was so impressed with her. She had a good time splashing around and driving her little water car. The pool had a timed sprinkler and I ran through it with her. The water was freezing but I sucked it up for my baby! Tony just wanted to get a tan but he was beet red by that night. Sunscreen babe? Miss Madison was just as white as the day I had her; good job parents, good job!

We hung out with The Sutton and Douglas Families for Cinco De Mayo. We had Mexican food and a few Mexican Beers to celebrate. The Baby was enjoying herself and spending a little time in the ball pit (we gotta get one of those)! I got a stomach bug the very next day and have been sick ever since. It wasn't from the food I ate because no one else got sick. . . .Probably from some baby germs that my sweet daughter shared with me; I am just glad the worst is over!

Today was pretty hot and we are trying to be conservative with the air conditioning. The desert is a really expensive place to live for electricity. To beat the heat I got a pool for the baby to cool off in. She had a such a good time! Even though the water was super cold to begin with, the patio concrete heated it up after a quick dip. I put my feet in the water and that helped to cool me off too!

When I was out yardsaling today I bought the husband an RC Monster Truck. The gal I bought it from said she got it to chase her dogs around with for them to get some excercise. She said her dogs didn't budge so she was getting rid of it. I did get it for Tony but we decided to see if our dog would "chase after it"! She loved it! She was hopping after it like a gazelle. Too bad it broke after 10 minutes of play time. The best $40 dollars I spent at a yard sale. . .well that's not true; but it was fun while it lasted!

We love and miss you and hope to hear from you soon. She will be 11 months in one more week. We have decided to stay in CA for her birthday and she will have a Chuck E. Cheese party on the 5th or probably the 12th. We will let her dive into a cake on the 3rd so she won't have to do that a Chuckies!

We will be in touch!

9 Months going on 10 years :) And the longest Blog Ever!

Miss Madison turned 9 months old on Thursday. We had her well-baby check-up and her stats are: Weight= 18lbs, 4.2 oz, Length= 28 in, and Head Circum.= 17.2 in. She is progressing very nicely around 50th percentile in all categories. So we are blessed that we have a healthy baby! She has 6 teeth, is crawling on hands and knees, can click her tongue and will do it back if you do it to her, does not like being told, "NO", is waving hi/bye and just started to pulling up on things. On Friday we lowered her bed to the bottom notch when I noticed she was standing when I entered the room; frightening! Tony found her messing with the DVD player this morning. She had the Disc Drive open all the way and was pushing all the buttons; aaaah we have a GROWING CURIOUS BABY!


We have been busy with site seeing this week. We took Missy to a Wild West Show, and a few hikes. All the actors are volunteers and they pay for all their own costumes. The "Old West" town is an old movie set that was used and can be seen in lots of the Western Films from the 1950's. Gene Autry and of course "The Duke", John Wayne; as well as, even earlier movies with Barbara Stanwyck as Annie Oakley were filmed there. It was kind of neat being surrounded by so much movie history. Tony and I have been to Pioneertown before, to Pappy and Harriets; which is like a biker honky tonk with live music and great bbq. This was the first time we had walked through the little town and saw the show. It was their first show of the season and it was a little rough but alright for unpaid acting!

The first hike we went on was 49 Palms Oasis; in 29 Palms. We took the Bailey Dog with us but it was against Park Rules to have her on the trails. Don't tell anyone; please :)! She had a good time but we won't take her again because we could have been fined. It was a great to day to go because the wild flowers were blooming and the weather was wonderful. We had a nice breeze and it was late enough in the afternoon that the sun wasn't going to FRY us to death. It was a very treacherous hike (I didn't remember it being so tuff) the baby and dog made it a little more risky. I guess that is part of the adventure. We all made it out safe and sound. Bed time was right around the corner when we got home!

Today we went to Tahquitz Canyon; in Palm Springs. After today that makes Madison's 5th hike to date. She has decided that she loves hiking but that stopping stuff has to go! We tried the toured hike in the Canyon today and she was none too thrilled with our tour guide stopping to explain the desert flora and fauna every few steps. We ended up ditching the guided tour and just visiting the Water Fall by ourselves. Oh well, you take what you can get with a little woman! We found out before we ventured off on our own that Tahquitz was a bad Native American. He actually was a bad man that would steal the souls of young maidens and some of the male's of the tribe too. The Story is that he was not about promoting health and well being for the other tribe members so they banished him to the canyon. He supposedly disappeared in a green puff of smoke to the top of the ridge. Some of the tribe members would say they could see him on the ridgeline and would yell out, "Tahquitz leave this place and leave our souls they are not yours", they say he still lives there today. We decided we would kick his butt if he tried to take our "young Maiden" from us! Thankfully for him we didn't see him today ;)! Our biggest problem is trying to get Madison to keep her hat on! She doesn't like it at all so we have to do a "hat check" every few feet. It is usually off or covering her face -it's a little big still. But I like it because it has a big brim and keeps the sun off her face and arms when it sits right! Really important in the Desert. . .

It was really hot out there but when we got to the waterfall it was perfect! The water is very cold and you are allowed to go swimming in it if you dare to. We dipped the babies feet and hands in the water, but she didn't like it. She started crying when we put her feet in it. . .too cold for her. It was a neat little hike. About 1.8 miles and on our way back we met up with our group again. We would have never made it if we had stuck it out with them! The guide was a good at telling stories so we missed that but I don't regret a thing about today. It was great; enjoyed the scenery and all the wild flowers, seeing all those colors was neat. We were told that some blooms haven't been seen in 50 years so that was a real treat!


I have included pictures from the circus and the cookout with our friends at Luckie Park, in 29 Palms. Missy had Cotton Candy for the first time and she was trying to figure it out. She didn't quite understand why it went away once it got in her mouth. But she liked it because she opened her mouth for more! The Circus was very small but I didn't mind because my camera battery was dying on me. I didn't get a pic of the little Palomino Pony :(, oh well I will get one from someone else that went and got it. At the BBQ chasing bubbles was a blast and her little pink car was a hit for her boyfriend Peyton. I know his mom will use the pictures she got oh him in the car later for torture when he starts dating!!!! We had a good time that day and as usual the grass was cool and a great change from our sandy/dirt yards!

Hope you were able to see all the pics and read all the info. I know I put too much information in one blog. Happy Reading and I will upload more video now that I know how to do it!

Love and Miss you all