More Walking

I managed to get a somewhat decent video of Mads walking this afternoon. Please ignore the close-ups of me ;)

10m 2w 1d

Walking and Laughing

Everyone has been asking for video of Mads walking, so here it is. It's hard to get a good video because once she gets close to us she dives at us, but you get the idea.





Here's a video of Mads laughing because it's too cute not to post.

10m 1w 6d

Happy New Year!

I'm horrible about keeping my New Year's resolutions, so this year I'm setting goals for the year instead.

1 - Train for and complete the 3 day breast cancer walk in October.

2 - Start meal planning every week.

3 - Create and stick to a budget

4 - Buy a house!

10 months!

At 10 months (Yikes Double Digits!!!) Madison:

- Says ball, tree, piggy & puff
- Walks! Three or four steps at a time
- Walks holding onto Mommy and Daddy with one hand
- Yells when she sees a kitty
- Has eight teeth - Four on top and four on bottom
- Wears 12 month clothes
- Wears size 3 diapers
- Loves french toast and peas (just not together)
- Loves drinking water from her sippy cup, but isn't a big fan of juice

Here she is showing off her teeth

10m 6d

Madison's First Christmas

Christmas this year was amazing! I usually really enjoy the holidays, but having Madison made everything so much more fun. I also managed to be more organized this year and had my Christmas shopping finished embarrassingly early, so I was able to relax and enjoy the holiday season.

We (well I - Matt really isn't as "spirited" as I am) started getting into the holiday spirit shortly after Thanksgiving this year. We put up our tree (which is a horrible fake tree that we've had for ages and I'm hoping we'll replace next year) when we got back from Grandma and Grandpa's house. Madison was great with the tree. I had visions of her pulling the ornaments off and trying to eat them, but she didn't tough it once. She did however like to sit in front of it and stare at the lights. We also took Mads to visit a house that has thousands of Christmas lights. She liked the lights, but she was holding onto Mommy as tight as she could.

Grandpa Robert came over from Sacramento the week after Thanksgiving, and we took Mads to visit Santa at the mall. My poor mother never managed to get a decent picture of me with Santa because I had an unhealthy fear of the jolly, old guy. I figured it was only fair that Madison would do the same thing to me, so I didn't have high hopes. Nevertheless we waited in line and when it was our turn we plopped Mads down on Santa's lap. She LOVED him! She smiled and pointed out all of the ornaments, trees and angels. I think she was actually upset that she couldn't hang out with him all afternoon.



My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, so Matt, Mads and I headed to my Aunt Lori's house for dinner. Madison loved seeing all of her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents & great-grandparents. After dinner we all gathered around so Madison could open her presents. She sat on the floor with her great-uncle David and her cousin Abby. She had lots of fun opening all of her presents and was sharing everything she opened with Abby. After presents we packed up and headed back to my Grandpa Robert & Grandma Sarah's house to spend the night.








When we woke up on Christmas morning, Santa had found us! Madison opened a bunch more presents from Santa, Mommy and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, and her Aunties. She got books, puzzles, a ride-on toy, stuffed animals, but of course she loved the tissue paper the best. We stayed for Christmas breakfast and then headed out to Matt's parents house for Christmas dinner.





Once we arrived in Upper Lake we opened more presents and snuggled in front of the fire before dinner. Madison had a fabulous time playing with all of her toys and her grandparents. After dinner we tried to put Madison to bed, but she had other ideas. After all there were a ton of toys that needed to be played with. She usually goes to bed by 8:00, but she didn't go to sleep until close to 1:00 and she'd only sleep snuggled up with Mommy! It made for a rough night, but seeing her have so much fun made it worth it.





The next morning we packed up the car, which was a huge undertaking since we had accumulated the contents of several toy stores, and headed back home.

We had a wonderful Christmas and can't wait to do it again next year!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we packed up and headed to Upper Lake to spend the day with Matt's parents. We had a great day and enjoyed spending it with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jim.

The beautiful drive to Upper Lake

Before we headed out

An attempt at a group shot - Not easy with a 9 month old

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (although Madison was much more interested in her cheese and pears than the roll and sweet potato we offered her).

Yummy dinner

Madison's favorite part of the day was getting to "play" with Grandma and Grandpa's two dogs through the sliding glass door. She definitely takes after her Mommy and loves animals!

9 months

Once again I find myself incredibly behind on my blog posts. Before Mads was born everyone told me that time goes so much faster once you have kids, and it seems during the holiday season things move even faster! That being said, I'm going to attempt to get caught up and stay up to date.

At 9 months Madison:

- Gives high fives to Mommy and Daddy
- Claps
- Says "ball"
- Has 4 bottom teeth
- Wears 9 & 12 month clothes
- Wears size 3 diapers
- Loves cheese & pears
- "Cruises" around the furniture in the living room

And because no post is complete without a picture...

Madison with her Godfather Alex