Rice cereal is Deeelicious!

Well, Madison decided she likes rice cereal! The last couple of times we have fed it to her, she has just gobbled it down! It is so strange how just in one day things can change - she went from gagging and spitting to opening wide for the spoon and wanting it faster than I can get it to her. I think she realized that it will fill her tummy, but she wants it as fast as she can drink milk!

Since she has been doing good with the rice cereal, I decided to give something else a try. I bought some oatmeal and some other baby food to start introducing slowly over the next few weeks. Last night I asked Dylan to pick out her first vegetable and he picked peas! ...giving daddy all the credit for that one. ;o) The first couple of "bites" went ok and then I think she realized it wasn't rice cereal... Needless to say, she wasn't a fan.

The Christmas Marathon

We were really looking forward to celebrating Madison's first Christmas this year and getting to see how she would react to all of the presents, people and festivities! It was a great Christmas! Santa was very good to Madison. She now has more toys than she knows what to do with and our little clotheshorse has quite a few more outfits for her closet too! What can I say, she just gets cuter and cuter everyday and neither her Gramma, Nana or I can pass up all those precious tiny clothes!!

Here's Miss Claus, herself, in a Santa hat that Aunt Holly bought her...

As I mentioned before, we had quite the adventure traveling across the state. Dylan says it was a "Christmas marathon". I think we celebrated Christmas a total of four times, so we have tons of pictures to share! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family and hope that Santa brought you all that you wished for! :o)

Christmas in Austin

We had a great time in Austin!  Allison, Dylan's cousin, flew in from L.A., so it was really fun to see her again and for Madison to meet her.  

Holly, Sherry and Ron babysat for us one evening so Dylan and I could have dinner at Joe DiMaggio's with Justin, his girlfriend, Catherine, and Allison.  Thanks again, Justin and Ali, dinner was great and a lot of fun!  

We even got to see Dylan's grandparents' new place. They moved into a resort-like retirement community that is absolutely gorgeous!  It is in a very hilly part of Austin - the scenery is beautiful.  They treated us to a great lunch in the dining room our first day there...it was definitely a treat!  ...and for those college football buffs - they live directly across the hall from the, one and only, Darrell K. Royal!

Even though it was a quick trip, we really enjoyed seeing everyone and they were great hosts, as always!

Christmas in Beaumont (x 3)

We left Austin for Beaumont early in the morning on Christmas Eve (we didn't plan on leaving SO early, but Madison decided it was time to get up, so we did)! We stopped at home to eat lunch and pick up Cobber, Brody and the Christmas presents.

We finally got to Beaumont around 3 and quickly got ready for Christmas Eve at Luke's parents', Mary and Alex, house. Every year we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve at Mary and Alex's and then later that evening at my mom's and Luke's. This year we started at Mary and Alex's at around 5 in the evening and ended the night at my mom's and Luke's at around midnight! Talk about a Christmas marathon! :o) It is always lots of fun though - good food and lots of presents! Katie's boyfriend, Terry, had to work until 10:30 on Christmas Eve so we all played Scene It until he got off and then opened presents with my family.

We got to Dylan's parents' house around midnight and had Christmas with them and Devin on Christmas morning. We then headed back to my mom's and Luke's for an awesome lunch that my mom made (all of my favorite dishes) and then back to Dylan's parents' house for a very nice dinner and another spread of great desserts!!!

Before going home the next day, my mom, Sherry, Katie, Landon, Madison and I all braved the mall for some post-Christmas shopping. I always like to check out Dillards' Christmas decor the day after Christmas because they have a lot of beautiful stuff and it all goes on sale. I got quite a few more things to add to our collection for next year, so that was fun!

Everyone did much more than they should have for us this year! We got lots of great presents and ate enough sweets and yummy food between the three houses to last us a month! It will be hard to top this year, but we're already looking forward to next year. Madison will be about a year and a half old and will be a lot of fun for sure!

We love Christmas!!

We love Christmas (who doesn't??) and this year we are even more excited since it is Madison's first Christmas. We have a busy holiday weekend planned - headed to Austin for the weekend and then driving in to Beaumont Monday morning to have Christmas there with both of our families. Wanted to share some pre-holiday pics with you...

We hope you all have a very safe and merry Christmas!

Silent Night

Dylan's Aunt Sandi sent Madison the cutest Christmas onesie after reading my posts about some of our sleepless nights. Madison got to wear it to school today and it looked adorable! The ladies at Primrose loved it too. Here are some pictures of her ready to go this morning. She was so interested in the pretty blanket that she was sitting on, which my grandma made for her, I couldn't get her to smile for the life of me!

Thanks again, Sandi!

Family photo shoot

A couple of weekends ago, we got up early and got everyone ready for some family Christmas pics. It was just us at home, so it was a little bit of a challenge to get everyone (and dogs) in place before the picture snapped. Madison was in her first fancy holiday dress and was very cooperative. The dogs, on the other hand... They caused too much of a distraction to Madison so we couldn't get her to look at the camera for any of the family pictures. Some came out quite funny. :o)

Not so sure about Santa

Santa came to Primrose to see all the kids and babies there. As you can see, our little serious baby girl was not too impressed with Santa, either that or she wasn't sure what in the world was going on! I think it still turned out to be a cute picture.

Spoiled ROTTEN!

As I mentioned before, Dylan's mom and dad just bought a new home in the Fannett area. It is so beautiful and we couldn't be happier for them. They have been working so hard to get moved in and have been spending a lot of time decorating. My mom and Sherry have been busy recovering chairs, painting grout, and all kinds of other stuff! We finally got to see the finished product this past weekend. It looks great! Madison even has her own little area at Nana and Grandpa's now. What a spoiled little girl. :o) Sherry bought a crib and she and my mom picked out material that matched the room she wanted the crib in and then my mom made the bedding. It turned out SO cute!

Here are a couple of pictures of Madison in her new crib.

Our little cutie sitting up!

It is really amazing how fast Madison is growing and changing. It all goes by too fast, but every day brings more excitement and lots of surprises. She is so much fun!