What a great Christmas!

Wow, we all had so much fun! For anyone who still didn't know, Madison's most favoritest present in the whole wide world is her new slide! She loves to go up and down up and down up and down. She really loves everything she got though. She had fun everywhere we went. To run down our busy extended weekend... Friday we went to Indianapolis. We went to the State Museum, which was really cool, and then we went to the circle to see the lights. There were lots of pretty lights, but Maddie especially loved seeing the horse carriages. She was neighing pretty much the whole time. It was very very cute! Saturday she got to open one present and her stocking in the morning. We let her open her Colts jersey. Bootball!! She loves that jersey! She immediately put it on over her pajamas. She got a little football in her stocking, and she just thought she was the queen. She would have been thrilled if that was all she got for Christmas. We went to church Saturday afternoon and she danced her brains out, as usual. After church we went up to Hartford City to my parent's house. She and Audrey had lots of fun. I'm glad to see that she is getting less nervous around Audrey. They were so cute, they even hugged when it was time to leave. After all the excitement, we could barely get her to settle down and we didn't get to bed until 2am. Which meant Daddy was up even later, setting all her presents up for Christmas morning! Christmas morning/afternoon, lol, was really fun. She didn't see the slide at first, she just wanted her baby that Aunt Kelli had given her. Once she saw the slide, she was all over it. We could barely keep her off of it to open the rest of her presents. Then every present she opened, she had to play with first, before she could open anymore. If it was clothes, she tried to put it on her baby. So cute! The we went BACK to Hartford City to go to Granny's house. We had more fun there! She was exhausted and slept all the way home, but was woke up just in time to watch Daddy put together her Weeble treehouse that Grandma & Grandpa had given her. She loves that thing! We were up late again, and we were supposed to be in Madison at noon Monday. Ack! Well, we didn't make it to Madison by noon, but not because we overslept. The email server at Curtis's work went down, so he had to fix that before we could leave. That's okay, though, because we still got there with plenty of time to play! We met Madison's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Alisha, and her 2 cousins Bailey and Kendall. Kendall is only about 2 or 3 months older than Madison and they were almost exactly the same size! That was really fun! We also met Curtis's Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Barry and his cousin Kelly. We had lots of fun hanging out with all of them plus Grandpa, Terri, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. It was wonderful to finally meet everyone! Madison got a really cool My First Leap Pad desk, which we haven't put together yet, and another baby! She loves these babies! Whew! All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas for all of us! Thanks everyone for making it so much fun! Kimberly

Maddie says...

Is it Christmas yet??? Now that her presents are all wrapped, it is all we can do to keep her from ripping them open. How weird that she never tried to open Audrey's present, but can somehow tell that these new ones under the tree are for her. Kids are funny! Her gifts have tape on top of tape where she has torn them and I have repaired them. Haha, and Curtis wanted them to look pretty. We turned Madison around in the car, and I'm not sure anyone likes it. She is nervous now that there isn't anything in front of her, and I know she would have been safer staying rear facing until she was 30 lbs. Besides, I can't see her in my rearview mirror now. But... we wanted her to be able to see the lights when we went to Marion. So we turner her around and she loved the lights! Ooooh, light! That is what she says every morning when I turn on the Christmas tree. Soo cute. I am working on a 2 page layout of Christmas 1985, so that is fun! The pictures are pretty poor quality, but I tried to touch them up as best I could. I will go back to that now, so I can get to bed! Good night all! Kimberly

Almost ready...

We have most of Maddie's Christmas presents bought, but not wrappeed. She was with us when we got them, but like most things she sees in a store, she doesn't expect to have them at home. This is probably the most fun year for Christmas, as she can actually pick out her own presents, yet still be surprised when she gets them. There is one, however, that she didn't see yet. It will be, by far, her favorite, and I can hardly wait until Christmas to give it to her. She uses her imagination constantly to pretend that she has one. But I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'm not telling you what it is. Haha! Watch this space...

Santa visit

We took Madison to see Santa Claus at the Mounds mall on Thursday. As was expected, she wouldn't go near him without screaming in terror. So we compromised and let me sit up there with her. She wouldn't even sit close to him! I had to sit her on my opposite knee. Poor thing... she liked him from a distance and would wave to him when we walked by, but absolutely refused to go near him. The let her hold a teddy bear to cheer her up. It helped until she looked over and saw that he was still there. So Curtis started being silly and I tickled her a little to make her *almost* smile. This was the end result. Hope you like! Kimberly

Christmas stuff

We put some decorations on the tree last night and Maddie had a ball! Literally, lol. She loves the Christmas balls! It was fun. I will put together some pictures later. Probably both in the photo album and for scrapping. She really loved this one particular snowman ornament. When I told her to hang him on the tree, she grabbed him and ran. It was too cute! Saturday we played outside and built snowmen. One of them was kinda psycho, hehe. I built him in this annoying unused bucket on the patio that has a pole in it. So, naturally, since he has a pole sticking out of his head, I had to make it look like he was bleeding. Sick, I know. The other one was a weensy little girl with grass hair and a bucket hat. Neither came to life... So much for the Frosty myth. I wrapped Audrey's present today, and Madison grabbed it and ran around saying "Aw-doo's!" It was cute. Duh, lol. Kimberly

Is this considered a milestone?

She did eventually get it off all the way. She just wanted to hang out like this for 5 minutes or so.

Sorry to leave you hanging!

First off... this is what she looked like after playing outside today! I had to drag her in because her nose was running all over the place and her cheeks were redder than I thought cheeks could be! Back to the head injury... We were watching the Colts play Sunday afternnon while Maddie ran off some energysprinting from the living room to the kitchen and back. Oops... Jubilee's scratcher thing (really just a cardboard drink holder from McDonald's) is on the floor. Go around it Madison! BAM! She alls right into the corner of the staircase. Wow was it loud! I didn't even look at it at first I just hugged her. When I did look (all of 5 seconds later... felt like 5 hours) it was already a ginormous bump. Within 30 seconds it was black! Yikes! Curtis and I fumbled over what to do... I tried ice but she screamed and pushed it away. She stopped crying and laid her head on Curtis's shoulder looking really woozy. I know you are supposed to keep them awake for an hour after hitting their head, so we made sure she didn't doze off. I called the e.r. (waste of time, don't do it), and they told me all I could do was come in if I thought it was necessary. So we did. She was cranky pants super tired girl, and we waited in a little exam room forever. Finally they took her for a CT scan. Ugh... try holding a terrified 16 month old still for 5 seconds! Finally, they let both parents in with her (don't tell their boss, only one is allowed) and I sang Where is Thumbkin at the top of my lungs over her screaming. Apparently she was still enough for a good reading, which was normal. Thank you God! She got a handful of DumDums, and we went back to the room. The codeine, benadryl and screaming combined had pretty much worn her out, so she was happy to lean on Mommy in the rocking chair and watch football while we waited for the results. It was scary, but she is fine, not counting the "owie owie owie!" you get if you touch her head with any pressure at all. Now I question why DumDums are on paper sticks... don't they know plastic sticks are much more durable? Kimberly

OWEEEE!

Ignoring the bucket... see the bruise on her head? That is 3 days after the fact... details to come. :)