A few pictures to hold you over

Cheryl and Scott have been busy visiting all the family over the last week or so. I thought you might enjoy a few pictures from the last few days until Cheryl and Scott have time to blog again

Seriously - how cute is this?!

The Savage Three's first Christmas

Ok, how could I refuse putting myself in the blog - come on! Madi's wearing her dress from England .. .it's a bit too big, but still cute!

And one last one of this year's star! No Scott, not you :-)

Twas the Week Before Christmas...

Lastly, I wanted to share my newest favorite Christmas
ornament with everyone - no explanation necessary!

This is one of my current favorite photos.
Is that not just the sweetest little face, or what?!
Her smiles really can just melt your heart!

Up to this point, Madilyn has continued to sleep in her
bassinet in our room upstairs since her room is downstairs
(We haven't been ready for the trips up and down the stairs
in the middle of the night yet!) Well, Scott just happened
to set Madi down in her bed one evening, while he was getting
something out of her dresser so that he could have his hands
free. She was SO entertained by her mobile! She LOVES it!
If only the music would last a little longer, I think she'd
probably stay there for hours!!

This is how Madi tells Mommy & Daddy that she's not a
happy girl...note that she's not very subtle about it!

Scott thought that we put too many of Madilyn's cute
pictures on here for everyone to see, so we should also
show you what she's like when she's not being so cute!

That same night, I was sitting on the couch and cuddling
with Madilyn as she fell asleep, but Thomas felt a little left out,
so he crawled up there, too. Believe it or not, we did not put the
two of them in this position! Thomas crawled up there under
my arm and started "pitty pawing" Madi's belly while she fell
asleep...and it didn't bother her one bit! Too funny!

During the past couple of weeks, Madilyn has started
this thing where she starts getting really fussy right
before she needs to go to sleep for the evening. It's like
she knows that she's going to have to sleep longer, so she's
fighting it extra hard. Well, in an attempt to just let her
cry it out, but also be able to eat my dinner, I turned her
around and plopped her in my lap like this. As you can tell,
she was perfectly content! We stayed like this for well
over an hour while Scott and I watched TV! It has actually
now become one of her current favorite positions!

This is a very special picture to us. As a kid,
Scott used to grow up sitting on Charlie Greening's
lap when he dressed up as Santa for Christmas parties
each year. The tradition has continued all these years,
and now Madilyn got to sit on that very same lap for the
first time this year! She didn't even cry - just a big yawn : )

You may not recognize it, but underneath
that blanket is Madilyn's Boppy pillow! Thomas
didn't think that she really needed to use it, though.
He thought he could put it to better use by curling
up and making it his little cat pillow. He thought Madilyn
should learn to share and not be stingy anyway!

Scott's boss' wife, Jane, has a hobby of knitting hats
and sent this sweet little one for Madilyn. It was
just a perfect fit for her little head on a cold evening.
We actually just got another Christmas one from her
yesterday. I'll have to get a picture of it posted later.

Madi loved her bouncy seat so much that my friends
at Tyson got us another one, so that we could leave
one upstairs and one downstairs. Madilyn often naps
in it, but this time she just cracked me up since she
fell asleep with her arm up in the air like this!

Well, I guess all these pictures weren't taken the week before Christmas, but I'm getting them to everyone the week before Christmas, so I thought that counted enough for the catchy post title! As with the rest of America, I'm sure, the Savages have been staying quite busy trying to get everything done before the Christmas holiday. I've commented several times how busy I stay, and how I don't know how I'll be able to juggle a job on top of everything else come the end of January! A good friend told me, though, that you don't know how it will all get done, but somehow it just does : )

We're looking forward to having Christmas with Scott's family this weekend at our house, and then we'll spend Christmas in Texas with Cheryl's parents and sister. Yes, Karen will be coming in from England, so that will be very exciting! We'll actually get to spend the whole week with with her, and then we'll be heading to Memphis where we'll have a good visit with Scott's brother's family, and hopefully meet up with some good friends of ours, Eddie, Amy & Tucker (Tucker and Madilyn were both adopted through the same agency in Texas!).

It's going to be a busy and full few weeks at our house, but it will be great to visit with everyone who means so much to us. We wish the same for each of you and your families this holiday season! Merry Christmas!!!!

Growing Girl

This is Dr. Carl - there's no doubt that he loves her!
Madilyn loves that he takes such good care of her,
too! We're lucky to have a good friend like him who
we know and trust to take the very best care of her!

Since I forgot my camera on our first doctor visit,
I made sure to bring it with me this time!
This is Andrea, Madilyn's nurse. We think she's great,
even though she did give us those awful shots!
Madilyn even gave her a big long stretch to show
her how tall she's gotten!

Larry's got a couple other nieces that he's already
had practice with, so he was a natural! I think he's
secretly hoping that Madi's hair will turn out
as red as his! : )

Donita was with me when we first got the call
about Madilyn. We were both in tears in the
Schlotzsky's parking lot together!
It's good to finally have her here with us!

One of my really good friends, Donita, was finally
able to make it over to the house this past weekend
with her boyfriend, Larry, to see Madilyn.
Donita has met her a couple of times already,
but this was Larry's first introduction.

My friends at Tyson outdid themselves for our
shower there! We were certainly showered with
a ton of wonderful and very useful gifts!
There's no way that I could possibly show them all,
so I thought I'd just post this one pic of her adorable cake.
It's hard to tell, but that's a little baby sleeping
on some sort of little lily pad. It was precious!

It's not the best picture in the world,
but this was just the sweetest thing to me to see
Scott reading Madilyn's bible to her for the first time
(Thomas didn't want to be left out either!)

A friend of ours gave us their car seat to use
as a spare if we needed it, and as you can tell,
Thomas, our cat, decided to make good
use of it since we weren't!

Well, there's not a ton of new pics to add, but we've got a few. Yesterday (12/5), Madilyn went to the doctor for her two-month well child visit, and to get her first set of immunization shots! The good news is that she's in the 75th percentile for both her age and height - certainly not malnourished! She weighs 11 lbs 6 oz, but I can't remember her height...I just remember thinking that it surprised me that she was taller than a lot of other babies her age. Let me tell you...it's all in her torso, because her little legs are still as short as they can be :) Dr. Carl said that she looks perfectly healthy and normal, though, and we continue to be amazed at how she's growing and changing every day!

Savage Family Photos

During Thanksgiving, Scott's brother's family came up from Memphis, so while the whole family was together (including our newest member, Madi), we decided to take the opportunity to get family photos taken together out at Scott's parent's farm. We thought they turned out really nice! Actually, the one we like least is the picture of just Scott, Cheryl, & Madi. I had to stand so awkward so that the photographer could actually see Madilyn that I feel like I look pregnant!! Oh well, we were still quite pleased.

This is the photographer who will be taking more of Madilyn's pictures during her first year, so I'm sure you'll see more of his work!

(Sorry the pictures are so small. We really shouldn't have scanned them and loaded them on the blog at all since they're professionally taken. I just thought they were so good that I wanted to share them with all of you who weren't close enough to see the actual proofs!)

Welcome to December!

We just happened to be walking through Wal-Mart after church on Sunday, and Santa was there! Believe it or not, the line was short and Madi was in a good mood, too! On top of all of that, they didn't even charge us for the picture : ) Not too bad for her first pose with Santa! She's been a good girl this year...I'm sure he'll be good to her!

At long last!!!

Here's a close up of our little munchkin!
Until next time, we send our love to all!!

We lucked out last night catching some good smiles
from Madilyn while she was playing with her Daddy!
Isn't that the sweetest little thing you've ever seen?!

Madi has really started showing us a lot of good smiles
in the past couple weeks. Here are a few I tried
to catch (excuse the nudie!)

A cute little pic to share of the Memphis girls -
Elaine, Katie, & Nicole

I just love this picture of Scott's immediate family -
Mike, Lori, Cecil, Monnie, & Scott.
The truck is Cecil's pride & joy - a '67 Chevy!

Mike, Cindy, & Katie all stayed at our house during the visit,
while Elaine & Nicole stayed at Lori's house with Bailey & Elyse.
Mike was feeding Madilyn one time, and Katie wanted
to help while she watched cartoons. This picture just cracked
me up, because Katie was determined to walk around the
house with her hat and gloves - typically independent 3-yr-old!

Uncle Mike was a natural at resting with Madi
while watching a football game! You'd think he already
had plenty of practice with 3 girls of his own, or something!!

If it looks like Aunt Cindy & Madilyn match,
that's not by coincidence! We all had our picture
taken together on the Savage farm while they were
here. We haven't seen the proofs yet,
but I'm sure we'll have some good ones.

This is Elaine & Katie, Madi's other two cousins
from Memphis. Elaine was a natural!
Katie is still a bit to small to hold Madilyn on her own,
but she was glad to help out, but holding Madi's feet!

Cousin Nicole was so excited to be able to hold Madi
for the first time! Her dad, Mike, was glad to help her.

Aunt Cindy could barely wait for us to get through the door.
She took Madilyn in her carrier and all!!!

After we left Tulsa on Thanksgiving,
we drove back home to Scott's parents house,
where his brother, Mike, and his family from Memphis
were waiting for us. This was the first chance they got
to see Madilyn. This is a pic of all the girls greeting her
as we came through the door!

Lori wanted a better picture on the blog
(since her early morning pic in Paris), so Scott took this one
of her on Thanksgiving. She cleans up well...
and Madi likes her a lot, too!

Uncle Paul (Scott's sister, Lori's husband) hadn't gotten
a chance to see baby Madilyn until Thanksgiving dinner.
You can tell by his face how cute he thought she was!

It's been a while since we had a baby at the family gathering.
Diane & Nancy sure did enjoy doting over Madilyn : )

This is Scott's family that we went to visit in Tulsa
for Thanksgiving. From the left, his cousin, Bill,
Uncle Joe, Cousin Diane, Nancy's daughter Stacy,
Nancy's husband Tony, and cousin Nancy.
In the picture, we were missing Bill's wife, Kay.
The only one who wasn't able to make it was
Stacy's sister, Holly, who spent her first Thanksgiving
with her new husband's family.

Madi couldn't decide whether watching her cousins or
eating her fist was more enjoyable : )
They kept her quite entertained!

Elyse hasn't had a baby cousin to dote on in a while,
so she's quite pleased that Madilyn is here
to play dress-up with her!

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving,
Bailey & Elyse were out of school, but their parents
both still had to work so they came over to hang out with
Madi & Cheryl. They were quite the little care givers!
Do they look like proud cousins or what?!

Just like everyone else, Michelle agreed that
Madilyn was the sweetest little princess!

Miss Marsha just couldn't wait to get her hands on
little Madilyn! She didn't even mind that Madi was hungry
by the time that we made it to see her - she's a natural!

Just before Thanksgiving, Cheryl & Madi went up to Tyson
to get loved on by several of the friends that Mommy
works with. This is Yolanda - she said that she's not ready
for kids of her own, but she sure had the right touch for Madilyn!

Miss Betty is one of the ladies that we attend church with.
Scott gives her a hard time, but hopefully she won't take
it out on little Madilyn : ) She's just just the right "grandma" touch!
She should - she a great-grandma several times over!

This is Kathy Nicholson holding Madi for the first time.
Kathy's sons grew up with Scott, and now one of them,
Chad, works with Scott at Aisle Think.
Kathy made Madilyn the sweetest baby blanket
that we just love...and use all the time!

This is Madilyn's cousin, Bailey.
She got to see her for the first time at the baby shower!
If Bailey looks a little tired it's b/c she had just run
her first 5K race...and won! She placed first in her
age group and 11th overall! Great job!!!

We had an unexpected change of venue for our first
baby shower back home due to an unexpected death in
one of our friend's family, but Holly Davis just jumped
right in and offered her home up for the location.
It was great! Thanks, Holly!

Madi just took right to her Uncle Bennie!
Just look at that face! The first time he met her,
she cued right in with her "poopie face" & filled
her diaper to make him proud! : )

For those of you who don't know, this is Ben, Scott's best
friend since grade school. He's not actually related, but he
might as well be. He certainly is Madi's "Uncle Bennie"!

For those of you who think Madilyn looks so big in all
of her pics, we thought we'd give you this pic for
perspective. This is Madi w/ our cat, Thomas O'Malley.
She still hasn't quite caught up to his 12lbs!!!

Ok, so we've got some catching up to do...this whole new parent thing isn't as easy as it looks! We've been having a lot of fun since we've been home, though, and getting into a much better routine. I still wonder if my "to-do" list will ever dwindle, but slowly but surely I'm getting some things checked off the list!

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Madi's first doctor visit to see Dr. Carl, but on 11/14/07, she went to see him on her 6 week birthday and weighed exactly 10lbs, and she was 21.5 inches "tall"! As for the rest of the updates, I'll just let you pick it up on the commentary about each of the pics :) Enjoy!!