Now I see it

People have been telling me for several months how much Maddie looks like me but I haven't been able to see it. Today, my Dad brought over some pictures of me and my sister Tracy as babies and I can definitely see it now. What do you think, does she look like Spencer or me or a combination?

Maddie

Spencer

Spencer

Me

Me

Me

Me

Tracy

A Hot Day at the Dallas Arboretum

We went to the Dallas Arboretum with some friends from work today. Man oh man, was it hot! I did get a few cute pictures of Maddie though.

Some very baby wise friends let me know that Maddie is old enough to have a cracker now. This is a picture of her very first one. She took to it like a pro and knew exactly what to do with it.

Of course, this new skill has led to a whole new level of messiness!

We went to Houston to visit Spencer's brother and family last weekend. This is Jackson, he is about three months older than Maddie. I already know that they will be great friends.

Of course, friendship doesn't always go smoothly.

By popular demand

I've been told to put up some more pictures of Maddie ASAP, so here you go Mom!

How to Be Adorable | eHow.com

I wrote this just for fun. Enjoy!

How to Be Adorable | eHow.com

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Before and After

The other day I was going through some of Maddie's old clothes and I cam across her preemie outfits.  It is hard to remember that my chubby little baby was ever so tiny.  To show the contrast I made up a short slideshow of pictures from her first few months and recent pictures.

Writing Update

Somehow I think I missed April.  It just flew by and I don't know where it went.  I didn't get as much writing done, but I was able to write about 12 articles on Helium.com.  I need to make sure that I don't slack off.  My goal is to write a minimum of one article on Ehow and Helium every day.  

This is a screenshot of my ehow.com earnings.  So far I have 29 articles written and have earned about $35 on them.  I made $19.86 in April, but the cool thing is that I didn't write any new articles in April.  This is what I love about writing for the web.  The articles I write now will make me money for months to come.  I am constantly learning what kind of articles earn the best, and how to optimize them for the search engines.  Eventually, I hope to have several hundred articles which are making me a few hundred dollars a month with little additional work.

This is a screenshot from my Helium account.  I've only earned $5.63 in views, but I have earned $80.00 in upfront payments and marketplace sales.  Basically, I earn $1.50 for each article I write, plus a share of the site revenue based on my page views.  I have also sold four articles to the Marketplace for $10 each.  The marketplace is where publishers request articles on specific titles and indicate how much they are willing to pay for them and how many they are willing to buy.  I am getting a lot of experience writing for them and am building up my portfolio at the same time so I can start getting freelance work on my own.  I have two other articles I wrote for Marketplace that I haven't heard back from.  If they are selected, I'll earn another $50.

So far, my progress has been slow, but I kind of see it like a snowball.  I really think that it will keep building until it will finally become large enough for me to stay home with Maddie.