Fall Fun

I remember when my sister and I were growing up, Mom loved to take pictures of us with amongst the fall foliage! Well, while Madilyn was at home with my sister a few weeks ago, Karen took care of that for me! They went outside to play for a while, and Karen actually captured some precious shots!

One of Madilyn's favorite words is "dog"!

She just loves to watch what Max is up to!

Apparently, she was easily distracted with a leaf

when Max decided to wonder off, though :)

Here's a typical scene at our house...Max is doing his

own thing and Madilyn keeps trying to catch up!

Leaves are very intriguing to a one-year-old!

Seriously....I want to meet the person who can resist a

face like that! They've got to have a heart of coal!

She's learning early how to sucker her parents!

Yeah! There's more leaves over here!

Is that some intense concentration or what?!

I wasn't there, but I would guess that Auntie Karen just asked

Madilyn to look at her and smile...she was busy, though...

why would Auntie Karen bother her concentration

on leaves at a time like this?!

Look! That leaf over there is different!

Can you believe God made all of these leaves so different?!

Oh, we must have spotted Max across the yard! :)

Happy Fall Y'all!!

Play Time

Even though I think Madilyn is absolutely wonderful, I will admit that she can be a bit moody at times! When she's in one of her "good moods", she is a TON of fun, though!

For some reason, Madilyn gets quite playful right before

bedtime (hence the paci). Here she was "tackling" cousin Bailey!

How cute is this?! Madilyn really looks like she's trying

to understand how Elyse uses that toy to count!

This is Madilyn's friend, Avah, from church.

Those two just have the greatest time playing in the rocks together!

Madilyn gives the best hugs & kisses when she wants to.
Recently she discovered this funny stuff on Mommy
& Daddy's head, though....aka - HAIR!! : )


Here she is - participating in one of her favorite activities -
emptying baskets! Am I lucky to have such
a good laundry helper, or what?!

Road Trip

After a short visit at our house, we had to take Karen up to Kansas City for a short visit with my parents before she headed back to England. As usual, Madilyn finds entertainment no matter where she goes!

My mom was taking a picture of all 3 of her girls,

and I'm pretty sure she told me that I needed

to smile better - ask and you shall receive!

Mom's grass was so pretty and Madilyn was having fun playing

in the yard, so I thought I'd try to get a good picture...the

brown leaves were much more appealing, though!

See, Mom! I found a leaf right here!

What a precious little girl!
I have this picture saved on my desktop at work : )

For those of you who don't recognize this sight, Madilyn

is holding up the lid to the tray on her booster seat at Mom's house.

Auntie Karen showed her how she could see through it and mash

her face on it so that it would fog up! They made faces at each

other through this thing at least 10 minutes or so!

I was working on putting up a baby gate to prevent

Madilyn from falling down the stairs to the basement.

Madilyn thought I should be playing with her

instead, though! Peek-A-Boo!!!

My cousin, Kinsey, has recently moved in with my parents,

and brought guitars with him! Now that's an interesting

discovery that we don't have at home!

Kinsey is actually REALLY good! Karen & Madilyn had their

own private concert while the rest of us were getting ready

for dinner one evening. Madilyn was in awe! In this picture,

Karen was trying to get her to wave her arms, but most of the time,

she just sat there and watched Kinsey in amazement!

Peek-A-Boo! Does climbing stairs ever get old?!

Not for Madilyn!!

Visit w/ Auntie Karen

After the visit with her Grandma, Madilyn's Auntie Karen came for a short visit, too, so she got to stay home and play more while Mommy & Daddy were at work!

What little girl doesn't love an Aunt who will just crawl

out of bed & start reading books with you?!

Leave it to my sister to capture a moment like this!

Words just don't do it justice!

Another one of Madilyn's recent fun discoveries...straws! She hasn't quite figured out how to use them like most people, but she enjoys them none-the-less! Is that a precious face, or what?!

Rest in Peace, old dryer!

It wasn't long after Madilyn's party that we discovered my dryer had completely stopped working. As you can tell from the pictures, my brother-in-law, Paul did his best to help Scott fix it, but it was a lost cause. It would have cost more to fix it, than it would to replace it. Since I was going to have to replace it, Scott was good to me by allowing me to upgrade to a washer/dryer set that would handle larger loads and make it easier to stay caught up on the laundry piles. It's a good thing I married him...I do love how he takes such good care of me! : )

I told you Paul & Scott tried everything....they

literally tore the old dryer apart!

The new washer & dryer is a tight fit, but it's in our little closet!

As an added bonus, the tumbling clothes provide entertainment for

our cat, Thomas O'Malley! I kid you not, he sat there without moving -

just watching the clothes tumble for at least 15 minutes!

Fun with Grandma

After Madilyn's birthday, she got to stay home for a whole week with her Grandma (my mom).

Ok, so obviously this pic wasn't taken @ home w/ Grandma,

but Grandma was the one to take the picture!

This was Madilyn watching the puppets at VBS!

Needless to say, they were quite entertaining :)

For those of you who thought I was crazy about putting bows

in Madilyn's hair, my mom was even more diligent! She wore a bow

every single day of the week instead of just on the weekends

(I don't even bother putting them in for daycare, b/c they'll barely

last long enough for me to walk out the door). Madilyn does think she's

pretty hot stuff now that she can walk all around the yard by herself!

Not sure whether this picture was taken b/c Mom thought it

was cute to see Madilyn reaching for her toys, or if she took it to

see all those curls on her head after the bath, but both were achieved!

Thank you, Mom, for introducing Madilyn to toilet paper.

What a wonderful discovery! (I'm really pretty sure she

would have been ok if she had waited just a little bit

longer for this new discovery, though!

This picture was taken just out of spite! I loathe the taste of

celery....won't let it anywhere near my mouth. Mom thought it was

quite hilarious to hand a piece to Madilyn to chew on, though.

I'm still hoping that this was just a discovery of textures, and

she didn't actually enjoy the taste. I know it's good for her,

but it will be hard for me to feed this veggie to her!

One of Madilyn's new favorite activities - opening & closing

doors...who knew it could be so much fun?!

My baby has learned quick that a girl just must have a purse!
Grandma's is a little big, but it will suffice!

Wouldn't Madilyn's Uncle Mike (a dentist) be proud of

her brushing her teeth all by herself?! (Ok, so maybe it's

more like chewing the brissles & sucking off the

toothpaste, but you've got to start somewhere!)

Obviously, this picture was shortly after her party -

the ribbons from balloons can be just as much

fun as the balloons themselves!

Anyone Want to Go for a Ride???

For her birthday, Madilyn's Grandparents (my parents and grandmother) went in together to get her a brand new wagon. One would think that this is a fairly common item for every kid to have, but I honestly think that the Savage clan gets more entertainment out of it than most! The pictures below were mostly taken later in the day after Madilyn's party, but she still loves to go for rides in the wagon...even if it's just around the yard : )

Here she is pulling the paper off of the wrapped up present

(remember seeing the pic of Kinsey & Liz wrapping it up??)

She's such a smart little girl! She saw Mommy blow the

blower, so she wanted to figure out how to do it, too!

After the party, Madilyn wanted

to "help" Daddy put it together!

For the record, these are not posed photos! She actually
climbed in and sat in the wagon by herself and then picked
up the instructions so that she could tell Daddy how to do it!
(Ok, that part may not be the truth...it may have been that
she just likes paper in general...the rest is pure truth, though!)

Madilyn didn't get to stay and help Daddy, though,
b/c Mommy made her go upstairs and take a nap with her
(remember how exhausted I was?! I didn't have the energy
to fight Madilyn to take a nap on her own, so I concluded that
it would be just fine if she laid down and took a nap with me!)
Scott's sister, Lori, filled in and helped him put
it together while we were sleeping.

In order to test the labor efforts,
Scott took Lori for the "trial run"!

Who could just let it sit there, though?!

It needed a good run outside, so Lori, Bailey,

& Scott volunteered for the job!

After Madilyn and I got up from our nap, they were still

outside playing with the wagon, so Madilyn got to go for a ride with Elyse!

As things typically do, one activity led into another and

Scott decided that if everyone was enjoying riding around

in the wagon, he'd pull his 4 wheeler out for a few rides, too :)

Isn't this sweet?! Madilyn really

was "running" to go get her Daddy!

For whatever reason, she just decided that she wanted

to be a Daddy's girl that afternoon : ) I didn't mind...those are

two of my favorite people there in that picture together!

Here's Madilyn on a ride with her Daddy (don't worry...he's

going at a snail speed). The hum of the motor ALWAYS puts

her to sleep, though! I wish you could see her big yawn better

in this picture - she'll literally become a limp noodle after too long!

This picture is a little bit out of order...you'll get the story

behind the tube in a minute. Can you tell that Madilyn

hasn't quite completely woken up from her nap, though?!

It's never a dull moment at the Savage house!

Who needs a boat & water when you have a 4-wheeler & grass?!

Here's Scott's brother-in-law, Paul, helping to set

up the rig behind the 4-wheeler for the girls

After the girls went for a few rides, Kinsey put Scott

up to the challege of seeing if he could get him

to fall off....it didn't happen!

A picture is worth 1000 words, right?!

Elyse had an absolute BLAST on this thing!

Here's Kinsey on another round. It's hard to get this

teenage boy to actually crack a smile, but he couldn't

help himself out there with Scott!

It didn't take long before we realized that helmets

would be a good idea for the riders...it

didn't quite fit Madilyn, though! :)

Never fear, the excitement of the 4-wheeler didn't take

Madilyn's interest off her wagon! (Just thought that I'd mention

that it was her Grandma who let her stand up in this thing...not Mommy!)

Grandma's sure are good for having fun

when Mommy & Daddy are at work! :)

Here we are just going for a ride around the yard

one evening (Look real close & you'll see

Madilyn making a "fish face"!)

One of Madilyn's simple pleasures in life...just sitting

in her wagon (if I had to place a bet, I'd say she's

probably watching one of the dogs)

Here we are again, standing up in the wagon & loving life!

You would think that Madilyn's Grandma would have seen her

fall enough to know better than to let her get away with this!