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!