Merry Christmas!

Yikes!

I did not realize it had been so long since I had posted! Of course, the holidays are no time for slowing down; things have just gotten busier. So here is the past month in pictures!

We decided to decorate a week earlier than usual this year since we were going to see my grandmother for Thanksgiving (typically, it's Black Friday shopping, breakfast, nap, decorate). Last year at Target we got these cute inflatable penguins for like $5, and I was insistent on having them out this year (David wanted the polar bears out). Thus began the "puingen" infatuation for Madelyn. She absolutely LOVES penguins! Even though she can't say it right...although I have heard her do it once. She kept hugging the penguins saying "Hey puingen. Aw, sweet girl." It was too cute.

Oh, and a random picture that I'm too lazy to move - this bear was given to Madelyn by my cousin in Michigan. It's huge! And considering she's had it since August, she's kinda grown into it. She loves to sit with her bear & read, or feed it, or just love on it.

So anyway, we went to Georgia for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I was miserable for much of the trip. The day before Thanksgiving, I reinjured my back (I had hurt it at the beginning of October on a school field trip). Madelyn & I were doing a project and I went to grab the camera to take a picture and something in there pulled major. So an 8 hour car ride wasn't pleasant. I survived on muscle relaxers & lortabs, so I felt like a zombie. Anyway, we still enjoyed our Thanksgiving, getting to see family Madelyn rarely gets to see. After our yummy lunch, we headed out to the park across the street from my grandmother's house. Madelyn of course had a blast!

Mimi watching her play.

Such a big girl going up & down stairs by herself.

Pretty, happy girl.

Spending some time with Sophie & Aunt Sharon.

When I posted this picture, it brought back tons of memories. I was 14 when Sophie was born. Sophie is now 13. There is a picture of me & her, when she was probably just older than Madelyn, laying in the floor in the exact same pose, looking at each other and laughing. I wish I had that one handy to scan. Too cute.

Madelyn, Sophie, & Mimi (my grandmother)

Just the girls.

Since Thanksgiving, our time has flown. Our holiday festivities began on the 3rd with our church Christmas party. It was lots of fun and yummy food. Unfortunately, smart me forgot the camera, so no pics from that one. On the 4th was the Alabaster Christmas parade. We were lucky enough to find a parking place, even though it was kind of a last minute decision. It also happened to be where 2 of the police officers were stationed. *Note to self* Be sure to park next to the policed officers next year. They were incredibly nice, giving Madelyn a shirt, necklaces, candy people handed to them...she racked up. It was the first opportunity for Madelyn to begin her holiday wardrobe (which consists this year of 6 outfits of which I purchased 0 - sheesh!). She got this one from one of my coworkers. So cute.

My sweet child has an obsession with hats, hoods, and mittens. Thank goodness, because it was a little chilly, although warmer than I expected.

So happy to have finally gotten the sucker! And a necklace.

Of course, you can't go to the parade without seeing people you know. And man did we see a loooooot of people we knew!

Her flamingo that Jamie threw to us. She was very in love with it. Hugs and kisses all over.

Seeing Mrs. Joy's float brough back many memories of the many years I danced in the parade. Maybe Madelyn will enjoy dance and get to dance in the parade some day too =)

The daycare had a float in the parade. Since Madelyn had an ear infection earlier in the week, we decided against letting her be in the parade this year. She got to see the directors and some of her friends though!

Madelyn insisted that I have some of her sucker.

She had such a look of accomplishment (along with a "I kinda want that back" look) when she finally got it in my mouth.

Last weekend, we had our Christmas get-together with the Goebels & the Snyders (here she is donning Christmas outfit #2, which Aunt Valerie gave her last year for Christmas). It was, of course, lots of fun! All the kiddos played together & attempted to watch a movie, of course Baby Signing Time & Elmo are the only things that will hold Madelyn's attention still.

This past Thursday, Collin Chesnut came into the world! We were very excited for Amelia & Jacob and to finally get to meet him.

Madelyn was so funny with him. She didn't like him to cry. She kept reassuring him "Poor baby, it's ok" while the nurse bathed him. She was rather tired and very mommy clingy that day, so me holding him didn't go over too well. She got to "hold" him too, so that made her feel better.

This past month has also been a battle of illness for all of us. Between sinus infections, ear infections, eye infections, injuries, surgeries, and stomach viruses, we've been a pretty pitiful lot, with 1-2 of us down almost every day. Hopefully we can all get over this mess soon, especially since times aren't slowing down any!

New addition

I'm sure many people's heart stopped. No, we are not having another child. But we have added a new family member. Meet Lily!

Adding Lily to our family has been amazing. Honestly, we both said we never wanted any more animals. I mean, we already have a zoo for goodness sakes. But, she has been an amazing addition. Here is the story of Lily. Last Wednesday, we went to PetSmart because we had promised Madelyn the night before when we were at Target that we could go. She likes the fish...honestly I think it's as good as the aquarium for her. She also likes the cats. Since Casper doesn't want anything to do with her, cats are like the untouchable for her. There was one looking through the glass at Madelyn, so we decided to let her try to play with one. The worker there let the 3 that were grouped together out. The one we originally wanted to see was very playful, and didn't mind Madelyn rolling the ball and getting other toys for her, but she didn't want much to do with Madelyn. Then Lily (we changed her name, she didn't respond to the name the humane society gave her - Fresca) jumps in my lap and touches my nose to her. She proceeds to rub all over Madelyn, and honestly I think Madelyn was scared...she didn't really know how to react. She pet and loved all over Lily; we were shocked. After talking about it, we decided to adopt her. We couldn't get her that night, due to church, then Thursday was Disney on Ice, so we went Friday after dinner & got her. The PetSmart adoptions are actually through the Shelby County Humane Society...we went once, and it was too depressing for me to go back. We think that PetSmart may have been the last resort for Lily. She had been with the humane society for more than 2 months. Lily is 3 years old, and I swear the sweetest, best cat in the world. She has the perfect balance of love and play. She's super lovey. Madelyn likes to grab her & lay her head on her, and Lily doesn't move. All the animals have adjusted well...I was terrified about that. She hasn't done more than look at the birds, she & Casper play together (although at first he wasn't too sure about her), and Daisy is, well, just Daisy with any animal. It has been so much easier than I could have ever imagined! She's perfect...except that I really don't think she can jump...

Here are some pictures of my sweet girly in her cute dress my mom made her, holding the pumpkin she picked out at the pumpkin patch.

Cheeeeze! Such a ham...

We let her go trick-or-treating this year, which consisted of visiting some neighbors - about 5 houses total - which filled her bag half full. And who gets to eat that candy?? Hm...

She insisted on wearing her costume from last year instead of her ladybug outfit she wore for church & Boo at the Zoo. Shockingly it still fit. Oh well, she was cute anyway, and I'm sure the ladybug will fit next year.

Last Thursday we went to Disney on Ice! Madelyn was fascinated. I was so glad she enjoyed it, especially since it didn't start unti the time she usually goes to bed. My dad, in his awesomeness, kept her so she could get a late nap, which helped tremendously. Of course, she fell asleep in the car, but she made it through the whole show.

This year was themed Disney Princess. I wanted her to wear her Cinderella outfit (which was actually supposed to be her Christmas present), but David insisted she dress up as Minnie Mouse. She was cute either way.

The look of wonderment.

Silly upside down girl at intermission...or maybe that's the look of delirium?

Everything was fabulous...until Sleeping Beauty. The dragon & fire on ice freaked her out, nearly to the point that she was inconsolable. Thankfully it was near the end, and we finally calmed her down enough to enjoy the rest of the show.

Cinderella was so pretty.

My Minnie Mouse!

So that has been our November so far. Madelyn was sick yesterday & today...I took off today & took her to the doctor, only to discover she had her first ear infection - boo. Now she's all medicated, and hopefully will feel better soon. This week will be all mixed up and full of doctors, since I'm also off Thursday for Veteran's Day, and David has a doctor's appointment that morning to have a cyst removed. Pray that all goes well with that, and that they don't have to schedule an outpatient surgery!

overload

I swear, I think I'm the worst blogger ever lately. So, let me catch you up on October! Here's the weekend-by-weekend play -

The month started with our Fall Fling at work. It was tons of fun, especially for the kids. Unfortunately, I really killed the muscles in my back, which has pretty much made for a miserable month. That afternoon, we left for the beach for David's birthday! The beaches at Panama City are beautiful, but honestly, we both agreed that we probably wouldn't want to go back. For one, it was biker week, which made for tons of traffic & noise. Madelyn, in all her appropriate hilariousness, looked at two of the bikers and said, "Yucky, trash." She's such a mess!

Lovey kissy - happy birthday daddy!

Of course, she was inseparable from the pool, even though it was FREEZING! You got used to it after a while though.

For David's birthday, we went to a really cool restaurant called the Boat Yard. Besides the yummy food, the scenery was beautiful! This was one of the tour boats that was parked there.

More pool time in the cute bathing suit that David hated.

We passed this restaurant on the way down. So next time you can't decide where you want to go for dinner...here it is! This is a family joke, so if you don't find it funny...well, sorry.

For the 2nd weekend, we had birthday party fun! Madelyn helped celebrate Aidan's birthday in the bouncy house. Of course, the big kids enjoyed it too =)

3rd weekend - David was able to get Boo at the Zoo tickets again this year, so we had a repeat of fun with friends! Here are our 2 peas in a pod.

My cute little ladybug's first sucker. Yum-o.

And no, your eyes aren't messing up. The carousel this year was in black light. And it went backwards. Talk about messing with your head!

4th weekend - we had a visit from some of my family. They had not seen Madelyn in over a year, so it was lots of fun. Madelyn also got to show off her costume at out church Fall Festival on Sunday. It was lots of fun!

Today (5th weekend), we went to the pumpkin patch at Old Baker Farm. This was our first visit to there. Madelyn enjoyed getting "lost" in the corn maze, seeing animals, swinging, the hay ride, and of course finding the perfect pumpkin!

If only this was a video, you would hear my sweet child saying, "Hey pumpkin" as she pet it like an animal. Too sweet.

Found it!

Got our pumpkins, and we're ready to go!

Tonight, David & I finally celebrated his birthday by going to The Melting Pot - our favorite celebration spot. We had sort of been holding out until they had the French-themed special I've been hearing about for over a month, but as you can see, we didn't really have any opportunity to go otherwise. It was SO worth it!

So that's October in a nutshell. Sorry over the overload if pictures, but honestly I weeded these down out of 239 so just be happy I didn't give you ALL of those =) November is (literally) right around the corner!