Fun with Cousins

Yippee!! I posted pictures in the same month that they were actually taken! The Savage family always gets together at New Years to have our Christmas get together so that all of the girls can be at their own homes for Santa. It actually works out quite well, and we always have a good time together.

Since there are 6 girls in our family, we affectionately refer

to Bailey & Elaine as "the bigs", Nicole & Elyse have become

"the middles", and Katie & Madilyn are "the littles" (Sometimes

Madilyn becomes "the little bity" since Katie is a bit bigger than

she is). Anyway, here are our "littles" taking a bath together -

Katie wanted Madilyn to smile for the camera!

No commentary needed - just precious water

babies (no matter how old they get)!

You just can't pose fun like this! It has to be captured in the

moment! (It looks like Madilyn had let go, but she did

have Katie's hair pulled up and playing with it)

And this is how girls have fun on their grandparents' farm!

Bailey drove one of the little tractors out to the hay bales

and they all ran around on top of them, jumping from one

row to another (with the exception of Madilyn)

While the other girls were hay bale hopping, Madilyn

was trying to figure out how to drive the tractor

My favorite girls in the whole wide world! From left to right -
Madilyn, Katie, Bailey (up top), Elyse, Nicole, and Elaine

A Day in the Life of Madilyn

Just in case you ever wondered how a one-year-old enjoys spending her time....

Our little Miss Thing LOVES to empty cabinets and drawers -

unfortunately, she's not as good at putting the stuff away

(notice my mom's tupperware on the floor)!

Another fun thing to do is walk around the

house in your diaper & hide things that

other people have left laying around!

This is how you kindly hint that you're hungry and ready to eat!

We haven't quite taught Madilyn that drinking
and driving doesn't have good results!

We're not always the most graceful about

getting on and off of our toys!

As you can tell, sneaking into the bathtub

while nobody is looking, is lots of fun!

Exploration is the key...you never know until you try!

Now we know what soap tastes like!

Playing with the dogs outside burns off lots of energy!

Sometimes, this life will just wear you out!

A little dirt won't slow this girl down!

Too bad you couldn't get the full effect...Madilyn had dirt all over her face from falling and planting her face in the middle of that wet, dirty ball several times. Then, of course, her hands were filthy, and she's got a chocolate milk drool down her shirt. For those of you who didn't think that I ever let her get gross, I wanted to show proof! Next time, I guess we'll have to aim for more mud! :)

Christmas Day

See! I told you I would get caught up! There really was a house full of people, but Madi is the only kid, so she's obviously the primary focus :) I'm not 100% sure they were all actually taken on Christmas Day, but you'll get the idea.

I told you Madilyn crashed after opening presents!

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby :)

For those of you who don't know,

this is my mom & Aunt Dotti with her.

I'm pretty sure that this was my mom's favorite

part of Christmas...having Madilyn in her arms :)

Check it out! We actually had a White Christmas in Kansas City!

Did I already mention that Madilyn's car was by far her
favorite gift?! Here she is coming for her "drive-thru"
feeding window! There wasn't much that tore
her away from that car...not even food!

Sorry, Mommy...you've got a red light because Dotti

is pushing me through this intersection in my new pink car!

Great-Grandma doesn't like having to use a walker,

but Madilyn sure thought it was fun!

This is what happens happens when my mom takes too

many pictures - Scott starts making them interesting!

Madilyn had so much fun having a house full of people

to play with! It sure makes the "normal" day with

just Mommy & Daddy look boring!

I love this picture to death! Madilyn is really

studying and listening to her Great-Grandma!

Scott appropriately likes to call this picture "Sweet as Apple Pie"!

I may have gotten my pictures messed up here...I honestly

can't remember if this is the Thanksgiving or Christmas

turkey! Either way, Madilyn is a very good helper!

Madilyn ate her green beans and roll off of one

of her new plates just like a big girl!

This was Madilyn's first time to ever see her Great-Grandma,

so that's why there are so many pictures with her! You can

tell that my grandma just soaked it all up! Of course she

thinks that Madilyn is just the most beautiful, smartest,

and best little girl there ever was!

This picture just cracks me up. I have no idea what my

mom was doing. She takes so many pictures of the rest of us

that just make us shake our heads, so it's nice to every now

and then get a funny one of her that will make her shake her head at us!

Madilyn loves to read books. In reality, she doesn't give

you much time to read them b/c she likes to flip the pages.

It sure is cute to see her stand in front of you and then

start slowly backing up before she sits in your lap, though.

Scott thinks she needs to make that "beep, beep, beep" sound

like a school bus when it's backing up! This picture is Dotti

reading Madilyn a Christmas book that she got her. I have yet

to see a book that Madilyn didn't like to read. She even

enjoys the bible and song book at church even

though they don't have pictures!

Opening Christmas Presents

TOk. So, I know that I said that I was going to upload the rest of our Christmas pictures soon, but I have a REALLY GOOD EXCUSE for not doing so! Madilyn was sick and out of daycare all last week, so Scott and I were taking turns staying home with her. She literally didn't start feeling better until this past Sunday. Turns out, that on top of the congestion that everyone is struggling with, she had the Rosiolla Virus (sp?). It's one that you run a high fever with for a few days and when that goes away it's replaced with a rash...in Madilyn's case all over her tummy, back, face, and neck. To make matters worse, her equilibrium was apparently off because of her sickness, so she couldn't walk straight if she wanted to. On Friday, she fell in the doctor's office with the doctor, nurse, and I all right beside her, and cut her eyelid! Then, on Saturday, she fell and bruised her ear on one of our coffee table legs. Has anyone else ever bruised their ear?! I'd never seen such a thing! I was certain that when she went back to daycare on Monday, they would think that we had beaten her all week she was home! :)

I think all 3 of us have now recovered from that crazy week, though, and I'm slowly but surely catching up on everything that got put to the side....including blogging! It's only a month late, but here are pictures of us opening Christmas presents...

Poor baby didn't make it all the way through...she

fell asleep on Grandma before everyone had finished.

This is one that I'm sure we'll treasure for years.

How sweet is that with Madi showing her Great-Grandma

the mug she her? It has a cute picture of Madilyn on it

with the phrase "I love my Great-Grandma lots & lots"!

Everyone else's pictures from Christmas morning all

show them in pj's and "bed head", too, right?!

Madilyn LOVES this book that her Auntie Karen bought her

in Paris, France. I guess if you can't read, you don't know it's

in French and you just think it has neat animals in it, huh?!

My sister knows that Scott enjoys watching The Simpsons,

so she found him these two animated figurines. Turns out,

she should have given them to Madilyn instead. Madilyn had a

blast pushing the button and swaying to the songs they sung!

Madilyn got her a new iPod engraved especially from

her...a treasure that any Daddy would certainly love!

Sometimes Santa is pretty practical. Plates just aren't

that especially impressive compared to the other toys!

Here's Madilyn checking out her little toy MP3 player.

Scott and I kinda wish that she'd let it finish playing one

song before continuing pushing the button over,

and over, and over, and over, and over again!

This was the funniest thing...my sister bought Madilyn

this baby food that was brocolli, pears, & apples (or something

along that line), but instead of spoon feeding it, it came in

that pouch that you just let them suck it out of. I don't know if

it was b/c she was starving or that she really loved it, but

that thing didn't last longer than 5 minutes! It looked gross

to the rest of us, but it was a big hit with her!

Every kid needs a Magna Doodle, right?!

I think we're going to have a leftie on our hands!

Yeah!! Chocolate!!
No stocking is complete without it!


It just doesn't get any better than this!
Is there any doubt that Madilyn enjoyed what Santa brought her?!


You can't really tell from this picture, but Scott is holding
up a gift card for a gun that has been on his wish list as long
as we've been married. There's no doubt that after waiting
that long, it was a huge surprise to see that in his stocking!

If anyone is ever in doubt about something to get for Madilyn,
you can't ever go wrong with Elmo. The girl goes crazy for him.
I think that face might be her getting ready to give him a kiss!

Grandma & Grandpa got Madilyn an Elmo book personalized
just for her! The story is about Elmo, Madilyn, and her
friends Bailey & Elyse (two of her cousins). It even talks about
them going to Madilyn's house on Dale Rouse Rd. How cool is that?!

So for those of you who were wondering, she really didn't pay much attention to the boxes, paper, or ribbons. Madilyn really had a fantastic Christmas and loved all of her gifts! It was equally as much fun for the rest of us to watch her taking it all in.

Monthly Update

Ok, who are we kidding....we all know it seems to be too hard for me to load pictures more than once a month! Sooo....you're just now getting the update from all our December happenings!

Obviously, most of that is going to be Christmas related. We had a really good time visiting with both of our families. My grandmother, aunt & sister all flew in to Kansas City, and we drove up there to have a big Christmas get-together at my parents house. Since it was Madilyn's first time to ever meet her great-grandmother and great-aunt, it was extra special. It was also Madilyn's first time to really be able to open and appreciate her gifts, so that was fun, too! The common question I get asked is whether or not she was more entertained with the gift wrap and ribbons. Believe it or not, she didn't pay them much attention. She was really good to focus on the actual gift (I don't know if that's more of a complement to her or the people purchasing gifts for her!)

I've got a bunch more pictures that I'll try to load tomorrow, but here's "Round 1" - pictures all taken before Christmas.

This is my Aunt Dottie at the Plaza in Kansas City on

Christmas Eve. One of the Gilbert Christmas traditions is to go

looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve.

The plaza was done up quite nicely as you can tell.

There's no real story behind this picture - it's just Dotti & Madilyn

looking at the Christmas tree, but I just thought it was really

neat how pretty my mom's tree showed up in this picture.

It was a lot for a one-yr-old to take in!

Isn't that a precious face?!

This one is actually late getting posted.

I think it was actually taken closer to Thanksgiving.

Too cute not to share, though!

Madilyn didn't quite understand the concept that the

presents under the tree weren't all for her, and they weren't

supposed to be opened until Christmas. She thought they looked

pretty and she should tote them around the house all month!

Believe it or not, Madilyn was actually very good about

not bothering the tree or ornaments too much. I was curious

how she would do and purposely didn't put any breakable

ones down low. This picture was just sweet of her being curious

and discovering new things each day. I love that

about the age/stage she's in right now!

HeeHee!!

Remember Madilyn sitting on Charlie's lap last year?

Well, I told you she didn't do as well this year!

Another shot of Little Miss Madilyn

showing off her good looks!

One evening Daddy had to run in to Wal-Mart while Madilyn

and I waited in the car, so while we were waiting, Madilyn

thought it would be great to see if she could figure

out how to drive Daddy's truck for him!

I don't remember exactly when this was taken,

but this is a classic "cutie pie" face of Madilyn's. I don't know

how she ever learned to tilt her head and grin with those big

blue eyes, but it's a heart melter! We can already see that we're

going to have trouble with the boys later on down the road!

If I haven't mentioned it before, Madilyn LOVES bananas!

Seriously, the child would live on bananas alone if we let her!

(We knew she was really sick yesterday when she didn't even feel like eating a banana!)

After this little experiment, we discovered that we had to

give them to her in bite size pieces, though, because she

didn't understand the concept of not trying to put

the whole thing in your mouth at once!