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!!

Pictures!!!

Ok, so I still haven't gotten any pics uploaded since we've been back in Arkansas, but I do have some for you to see! The professional photos that we got taken while we were in Paris are available to view online : ) My first thought after seeing the proofs was that they weren't as good as I had hoped for (part of that was the photographer not taking baby photos that often and the other part was that Madi wasn't in the best of moods since it was her feeding time...she wanted to be fed, not photographed!). However, the more I look at them, the more I like them. I hope you do, too.

Just as a side note, some of the proofs online haven't been cropped like the hard copy proofs we got. You'll notice when looking at one of our family poses that you can still see a red stool that I'm sitting on, and Scott looks like he's in a very uncomfortable pose. That's because he is! However, when the picture is printed, it's cropped to where you don't see my big thigh or Scott's rear...makes it a much better pic! :)

Anyway, check them out at www.dixonphotographytx.com, then scroll down to the bottom of their screen and click "online ordering". There should be a photo shoot for Cheryl Savage that comes up. If it asks you for a password, it's "Savage". You should just be able to click continue and our proofs will come up. Let me know if you have any trouble, and also let me know which ones are your favorites since we still haven't ordered yet!

Our apologies!

Karen did a great job updating for everyone yesterday! She just about got everything covered! The only thing that she left out was that while juggling all the activities she mentioned, I'm also still working on my MBA, so I've got school work to throw in there (which I must admit usually gets done very late at night!)

I do have a few pics that I need to get added to the blog, but I've got to get Scott to hook up our camera dock to the computer first. I was hoping to have that done this afternoon, but didn't get it done since we were gone the whole day.

Madilyn is doing great, though! She's growing like a weed! I know parents always say how fast their kids grow, but we weren't prepared for her to grow every week! She's starting to bust out of her newborn clothes and is now on the verge of wearing some of her 0-3 month clothes. Her face has filled out quite a bit, and for those who thought she had plump cheeks before, just wait for an updated pic! Hopefully, we'll manage to get it done soon!

Love to all!

Busy times

(This post is coming from Karen, Cheryl's sister.)
I was tired of checking the blog with no new entries or updates, so I had to resort to phoning to find out an update on my neice. It sounds as if the Savage 3 have had a busy week, and no time to keep blogger land updated. Cheryl said she's had a lot to do like buying groceries and feeding Madilyn and taking care of Madilyn and trying to get sleep whenever possible and updating the baby registeries that posting a blog wasn't top priority...I must remember to have a chat to Cheryl about how she prioritises :)

From what I learned in our phone call....
The Savages went home to Arkansas on Tuesday; they got home 2:30 and were asleep by 3. This messed up Madilyn's sleeping schedule so instead of sleeping a good 3-4 hours at a time she was only sleeping 2 hours.
Wednesday was Madilyn's 6 week 'birthday' and Cheryl took Madilyn to see Dr Carl. Madilyn is a healthy baby girl weighing in a 10lbs. Unfortunately Cheryl forgot to take her camera to the doctor's office - luckily Dr. Carl (who's a friend) had a camera, so they have a picture of the first doctor's visit.
Thursday Cheryl went on a far over due grocery shopping trip. Apparently their cupboards were bare and what little food they had spoiled while they were away for 2 weeks. 4 hours later and $300 lighter they headed home from WalMart (Cheryl did say that she also registered at WalMart for those of you wanting to know what they need).
Yesterday Cheryl's friend Paige came round to meet Madilyn. They took a trip to Target to update the registry. Nana and Papa (Scott's parents) came by that evening for a visit. After that big grocery shop the Savages feasted on - wait for it - fish sticks! Scott was making tater sauce but didn't have enough mayo (I guess Cheryl forgot to get mayo). So Scott went to the convenient store to get some where met some good friends of theirs that moved down to Texas a while back. So [good friends]* got to come around and meet Madilyn as well. (Why does everyone get to meet her before me...that's just not fair.)
This morning was an early start so they could make it to Madilyn's first baby shower. There were a few last minute changes in the shower's location, and a friend needed to go to the doctor's unexpectedly and needed some help with her son. So it's been a chaotic morning by the sounds of it.

And that's all the news I have. I know Cheryl and Scott live out of town and thus only have a dial-up internet connection. So their posts might be slow in coming. Cheryl did say she hoped to update the blog tonight or tomorrow, she'll be able to woo everyone with new pictures.

*didn't catch the friends' names, sorry.

We're Going Home!

Sorry - No pictures to add with this post. Just thought we'd let everyone know that we got the call from our agency around 3:30, or so that all of our paperwork was filed and in the correct hands, so we can legally cross the state line and take Madilyn home!

Scott was caught up with what he needed to do at his job, so he almost immediately got in the truck to come get us (I think he misses us, or something!) Right now, he says that he's up for the round trip, but we'll see how he feels after he gets here. Cheryl's dad (aka Grandpa) is also on his way in from Tyler so that he can get one last little visit in with Madi, and Sherry (aka YaYa) plans to stop by to steal one last kiss, too. We sure are going to miss everyone here in Paris, but we're anxious to get back home, too!

Fashion Show

This pic is for Madilyn's Daddy's benefit.
He picked this one up for her the other day.
We tried putting our blue jeans on with it, but we haven't quite
grown big enough for them yet. They just looked a bit rediculous : )

I have to admit, this one is pretty cute.
She's still got quite a bit of growing room until it actually fits,
but the shirt has buttons down the back -
what were they thinking back in the 70's?!

This little sleeper is already too small!
I can't believe how quickly Madilyn is already growing.
We can all tell she's gotten bigger since being in Paris.
We're anxious to get back home to Dr. Carl
to see how much we weigh now!

This was not the easiest outfit to get dressed in!
Just like onsies today, it has snaps all the way down,
but they're in the back -
try managing that with a squirmy baby!

These pictures are mostly for Grandma's behalf. When we arrived in Paris, Grandma had some of Mommy's old baby clothes laid out on the bed waiting for us. She's been bugging us all week to put Madilyn in them, so we went ahead and did it this morning. Sorry for the paci part...it was getting close to time for a nap, and we refused to part with it!

Whoo Pig Sooie!

We're still sure she'll want to be a Harding Bison some day,
but I'm sure Madi will cheer for the Razorbacks on game day : )

Madilyn looks like a big baby in this pic,
but I promise she's still in her newborn clothes!
For those of you who know Madi's grandma,
she did not like that Madi's clothes were clashing
with the blanket & seat, but I couldn't resist the
picture of this tuckered out cheerleader!

If you look, you'll see a hint of a little grin -
isn't the the cutest little Razorback?!
Thanks Addison for the hand-me-down outfit!

Madi was ready for her paci by the time we
wanted to pose for pictures, so it's not the best shot of her.
I promise I heard her yell "Whoo Pig Sooie" for
Uncle Bennie, though!

Naked baby playing with Mommy...
until she spotted a light (a regular distraction)!

Mommy & Madilyn playing
(Madi usually gives good smiles when
you play with her cheeks and lips)

Daddy usually gives Madi her baths in the tub,
but since he was gone, Mommy did it in the sink
(with a little help from Grandma, but she was mostly
too busy taking pictures!)

As Daddy stated, while he was at work, Mommy & Madilyn got to play dress up! We wanted to show everyone back home that we were thinking about you. Hopefully we'll be home soon!!!

Thank You Auntie Karen!

We've got a little while until we grow into it,
but we'll use this car seat for quite a while.
Thank you, Auntie Karen for helping to keep me safe!
Mommy opening the present
(she spotted the add'l Babies R Us coupons quickly!)

Madilyn & Mommy thanking Auntie Karen on the phone

This was the left side
(Cheryl's birthday present)

The right side view
(The Christmas portion of our gift)
(I realized a bit too late that I should have rotated this picture)

This was the front of our box
(The baby part of our gift)

After a long night, I woke up this morning to a big pink box waiting for Madi and I in the dining room! Apparently, Auntie Karen (who is in England) conspired with Grandma and Grandpa to pick up the car seat we had picked out at Babies R Us for Madi! What a wonderful surprise!! When Grandma was up in the middle of the night last night, she took the opportunity to wrap it up as our baby, Christmas, and Birthday present from Auntie Karen : )

Daddy Had To Leave Us!

Since Grandma took care of Madi over night, she nestled
her snug between some pillows on her king size bed rather
than putting her in the bassinet where she would wake up
Mommy. She sure is sweet after she finally conked out!

Daddy gives Mommy & Madi one last
smooch before hitting the road

Remember that Mommy was sick before you laugh at
her hair too much! Daddy still loves her and Madi,
though, and will miss them while he's gone!

Daddy stole as much Madi time as he
could before he had to leave

Grandma helped to feed and burp Madi since Mommy
was sick and Daddy was packing up his truck.
Isn't her new burp cloth the cutest?!
Thanks, Nabors Family!

Sunday was not the funnest day for the Savage 3...Mommy got sick right as it was time to start getting Madi ready for bed, and she stayed sick the whole night (and part of the day, too). We're assuming it was one of those 24 hr viruses, but since we didn't want Miss Madilyn to catch anything, Daddy took care of Madi the entire night. He also took Madilyn to church by himself (well, not exactly...Grandma and Grandpa were there, too).

Unfortunately, in the afternoon, Daddy had to leave us so that he could drive back to Arkansas and go to work on Monday morning. We sure do miss him!

Then, after a long day of sleeping, Miss Madilyn was ready to be awake and play when Mommy thought that she should be going to sleep! Mommy was so worn out from being sick all day, that it was a good thing Grandma was here to relieve her in the middle of the night. Grandma took care of Madi all night so that Mommy could get her rest. Thank goodness that Monday was a bank holiday and Grandma didn't have to go to work!!