Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This may be the longest post I've ever done, but I have lots of catching up to do. We had a wonderful holiday season this year with our families and friends. I decided to share some pictures in order of events.

CHRISTMAS with NANA, PA, GEORDIE AND MIMI
This was the first Christmas that Geordie was away since he and Mary went to Texas. So we celebrated early with my family. Maddie was the center of attention (imagine that) handing out presents to everyone and saying "oh boy" and "ooooooo" whenever anyone opened something. She quickly got the hang of opening the gifts and had a great time.

CHRISTMAS EVE with GRANDMA, GRANDPA, KIM, AND SAM
Well the day didn't start so great on Christmas Eve. Maddie got her first ear infection and we ended up in urgent care. I knew something was wrong so I took her in. After 4 hours of crying, she finally got some relief with ear drops. So we picked up her antibiotics and headed to Chantilly. She rallied and started acting like herself again and we had a great time at Chris's parents' house. Maddie even met Santa (Grandpa) and again had a great time opening gifts. She got her first baby doll and lots of fun things from everyone.

CHRISTMAS DAY
We spent Christmas morning here, just relaxing before we went to my Nana's later that day. Maddie got a stroller for her dolly from Santa and TMX Elmo, among other little things. She is one lucky little girl!

CHICAGO, CHICAGO....(think Frank Sinatra)
The weekend after Christmas, we went with Chris's family to the suburbs of Chicago for his cousin Heather's wedding. It was great to see everyone and we had a great time staying with Chris's aunt Sandy and her boys. Everyone was so sweet with Maddie and she tried to keep up with the big kids. The highlight of the trip for her though was seeing real big snow flakes for the first time. Grandpa was happy to take her outside during the reception, but she didn't want to come back in! She kept leaning against the window and saying "snow!"

This picture is not in Chicago, but she's all ready for some more snow in her beautiful new snowsuit from Aunt Kim. I just love this picture that my mom took of the little snowbunny!

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We had a great NYE this year at Paul and Michelle's house. We successfully got all four girls (under the age of 4) down to bed by 7:30 and then enjoyed each other's company. They did a wine and cheese theme and Paul successfully got us all a little snockered by midnight....we almost missed it! As you can see in the picture, we tasted LOTS of wines! It was a great time and even included a conga line!

"I O You"

Madeline's speech is taking off! She is saying so many new words lately and it's so cool to listen to her speech develop. The best of all is that she has learned to say I love you. Well, her version is more like "I O You" but it melts our hearts. At first she would just say it back whenever we said it to her, but now if we give her a hug or a kiss, she'll say "I O You." I tried to get her saying it on video and she says it a couple times, but she saw the camera and thought we were taking a picture so she kept saying "cheese"!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

That's a face only a mother and father could love!

I had to include this picture of our beautiful daughter. Ha! Maddie looks like she's been in a bar fight recently. She scratched herself one night and it left a cut. She's bumped her forehead three times this week all leaving bruises and she STILL has a red drool rash. So when Chris dried her hair with a towel during her bath tonight and gave her crazy hair, I had to get the camera. Hopefully this picture won't show up later in her life as a way to embarass her. Sorry Maddie!

Our Kitchen Helper

I'm afraid we've created a monster in the kitchen. Whenever we are doing something in the kitchen like cooking, doing dishes, or emptying the dishwasher, Maddie is right there. She pushes us away from the counter by pushing on our thighs, then says "up, up". She loves to be held up to see what we're doing. Well this has become difficult since she's heavier now and plus ties up our hands. So one day, I pulled a chair over to let her stand on it and watch me. Sure, just watch....what was I thinking? She wanted in on the action so we gave her a spoon, bowl, etc. and now she LOVES to do this. Instead of asking for "up" now she pushes a chair over to the counter and says "chair." Here are some action shots of her whipping up a masterpiece and playing in the drawers. Maybe she'll be cooking for us someday!

"No, No!"

Our discipline is actually working (sometimes)! The biggest problem we've had since Maddie started walking has been our plants. We moved most of them, but still have a couple big ones in the living room and dining room. After countless times, cleaning up dirt and telling her "no, no" it's finally sinking in.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

Go Hoos!

As we do ever year, we watched the UVA vs. VA Tech football game with my family. We pulled out Maddie's size 6 months T-shirt and squeezed her into it for the game, hoping it would bring the Cavs some good luck. It's a big rivalry game and even more so for us since Geordie went to Tech. My mom says she is rooting for the offense the whole game (so she doesn't have to choose sides). Well the shirts didn't do the trick, Tech won and went on to win the ACC championship (again). But UVA had a great season and will go to a bowl game. So we'll get out the T-shirt again! Wahoowa!

Oh the joys of self-feeding!

Maddie is starting to try and use a fork and spoon to help feed herself. Sometimes she's fine with us helping her and sometimes she just wants to be an independent toddler. The other night, she took over and fed herself spaghetti. It seems that Maddie follows Nora (my friend Mia's daughter in Colorado, who's 4 months older) and does so many similar things, 4 months later. So Nora and Mia, these pictures are for you! Look familiar? Nora's blog had a similar post a few months back. Needless to say, she took a bath right after dinner. What a mess she was! She's like her Mommy, she loves her pasta!

A Beautiful Fall Weekend

We spent last weekend down at Lake Anna with our close friends. Dre's parents were kind enough to let us use their house. We usually go down there every summer, but we all thought it would be fun to do a weekend in the fall. We had a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner, drank wine, played outside with the girls, drank beer, sat around the campfire, drank hard hot cider....lots of eating and drinking basically! It was so much fun and Maddie had a great time playing with the girls and everyone else's toys. Her favorite toy however, was Livia in her walker. She could not get enough of pushing Livi around in it. Chris got a few seconds on video.



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had a fun one with our little Pink Leopard. Maddie had a blast being outside with all the kids. Our neighbor organized a parade again this year and it was a huge success. We all gathered in the court, had snacks, took pictures, then paraded around the end of the street. Paul, Michelle, and Livia joined us this year. Livi is the little pig. Adorable! After the parade, Maddie stayed in the house and loved handing out candy to everyone who came trick-or-treating.

"Elmo, is that you?"

The neighborhood crew, with the ring leader Amy and her 1 month old Tigger!

Pulling up the rear in the parade!

Here is a video of Maddie in her costume. We wanted to get her on video giving a big "roar!" It's hard to follow her around with the camera now. I'm going to have to start taking video in the high chair where she can't run around!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting