Oh boy, the pain that one little tooth has caused us is unbelievable. Last week Madi's tooth popped through and you would think we had a different baby living in this house. The next day, she was taking naps again, sleeping all night, going down without a fuss, AMAZING!!! We also started a bedtime routine and it works!! She is asleep within 15 minutes now and I have at least 2 hours every night to sit and do nothing before I have to go to bed. I tell you what, we have to remember these things and hopefully number 2 will be much easier.

Madi is also a crawling fool now!! She gets where she wants to go, usually into things she isn't supposed to be into, mainly the DVD player and movies under the tv (time to move those). Now she just needs to learn to get herself into a sitting position on her own and we will be set. She is so close but just won't slide her hand to push herself up yet. We practice. It will probably be like crawling, it will just happen on its own one day.

Today is Madi's 8 month birthday. It has gone so fast!! Today is also my mom and dad's 27th Anniversary, Happy Anniversary!!!

Stay warm and have a great weekend!!

Love, Amy

Just a quick note...Madi has a tooth!!!! We found it yesterday. I think we may have found the reason for the restless nights!!!

Love, Amy and Madi

Brrrrrrrrrr!! It is cold!! It has been in the single digits to low 20s and it is down right cold. Even in the house. I know it is cold outside when it is cold in the house...since we haven't left the house since Thursday. Such bums we are!!!

Still having some trouble with Madi sleeping. We are trying something new, which is to let her cry when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She has been doing better and crying herself to sleep after about 10 minutes. But this is soooo hard. We can't figure out what is waking her up. She wakes up and cries out at least 6 times a night. We also have changed her bedtime routine and it has worked so nicely the last two nights. That is until Oliver (our dog) went in last night to "check" on her which swung her door open all the way. She woke up and could see the lights on in the livingroom and could hear the tv and then there was no falling back to sleep. Oh well, I keep telling myself this won't last forever...but it sure is draining. (Andrea, I am so jealous after reading your wonderful bedtime story...this will get better before she is 2 right? Ella needs to come teach Madi her tricks!)

Our new excitement around here is that Madi is starting to crawl!!! I don't know if I should be happy our sad, she is growing up so quickly. She is still learning and will only take about 2 little crawls before her butt gets swaying so fast that she falls over. But she gets back up on her hands and knees and tries again. Between the little crawls, rolling and lunging, she gets around the livingroom pretty well. Time to baby proof!!!

Take care!!
Love, Amy

Not much going on here. I have been trying to get Madi back on her schedule since Christmas. But she is having a terrible time sleeping at night. I don't know what is going on. Some nights she sleeps all night and others she is up half the night. We have been shut ins for two weeks now. Which isn't all bad.

Chris has been busy. He was in Concordia last week for three days and not getting home until 9:00 at night. He has two extra guys helping him out for awhile. He was down at the shop all day Saturday getting his office organized and getting paper work rounded up for the end of the year.

I am starting to work on sewing again. I have several blankets I want to make and especially one for Madi...which I still haven't done yet.

Take care and have a good week.

Love, Amy

We woke up New Year's Eve Day to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. It continued to snow until early afternoon. We ended up getting 4-6 inches. So, we have another first in Madi's 7 months...First snow. I took her out today on the back porch and let her sit in it. She is so cute in her bunny snow suit!!!

We have had a week filled with new things Madi is starting to do. The day after Christmas she started saying Mama (how exciting!!). She had her first fruit on Friday and we are now eating 3 meals a day. Saturday, while spending the day at my mom and dad's with Jason and Tabatha, Madi started playing Peek-a-Boo with PaPa (grandpa). I was holding her and dad was behind me and he would peek over my shoulders and Madi would sway back and forth looking for him. She had so much fun and she was all smiles whenever she saw papa. And Sunday she saw her first snow and partied till midnight for New Years!!! What a wonderful and blessed year we have had!!! And we are looking forward to a whole bunch more.

Happy New Year!!!!

Love, Amy

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!!! Of course it is Madi's first Christmas and it has been very special. She did pretty good with opening gifts on Christmas morning with us and Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's house. As you could imagine, she received a ton of toys. I had to find a bigger basket to go along with her other basket of toys!!!

Thursday night we went to Kennedy and Coe (Chris' dads work) to see Santa. She did really well and received a present from Santa. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Helm's house to meet Beth, Walt, Tommy and Marybeth when they arrived in town from SC. Friday, Linda came into town from NH. The rest of the week was go, go, go. Tommy and Marybeth stayed here with us. We had a nice time visiting with them.

Sunday we had Christmas at my mom and dad's house. Jason and Tabatha were there and we spent the day hanging out, playing games, and of course eating. Mom and dad had a nice spread of snacks and soups which made for a nice relaxed day.

Monday we woke up and Madi opened her gifts. Then off to Dan and Jane's house. We opened gifts with them and Jon. They headed to Grandma Betty's for breakfast and we headed home to open our gifts to each other and start getting food and the house ready for supper here at 5:00. Beth, Marybeth, and Tommy came over in the afternoon to help Chris and I get ready and to also help entertain Madi. Dan and Jane also came over later to help. Madi and I both caught a cold Sunday and had a miserable night. So of course Monday, we were both dragging and Madi was a bear. Sunday night we had 23 people for supper and opened gifts. It was a wonderful evening!!!

The last three days, Madi and I have been trying to catch up on sleep and getting the house back in order. We are both still fighting this cold and Madi is having a heck of a time sleeping, which of course means I am also. She has also been very clingy and I can't be out of eye range for too long or it is a total melt down.

Here are some pics from the weekend and have many more on Winkflash. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and hope you have an exciting New Year!!!

Love, Amy

Just wanted to pass along some pictures today. I love sitting in my bed and holding on to the side. I am trying to pull myself up, but I just don't have the strength yet. But once I am up, I can stand holding on for a little bit. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

Love, Madi (Merry Christmas everyone!!!)

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas....means clean, clean, clean. It seems that is all I have done this week. But, it has been nice. We finally got all of our pictures and memoribilia hung up downstairs. I have been wanting to do this since we moved in. It looks so nice. I also was able to get my sewing room organized and hopefully after the first of the year I can get started again. I have so many projects started and in mind.

While Chris was at deer camp I started hacking at the bushes in front of our house. I hate them!!! They are so overgrown and look awful. Wednesday I hacked at them again and then had to haul all the branches off. They still don't look the best, but I trimmed them and they look better. It will do until this spring when we finally cut them all down.

This week I have to finish my Christmas shopping. Madi is done, the rest of the family is done except Tabatha and I need to start shopping for Chris. This is the first year without a list...it should be interesting. Especially since I have to shop with a 6 month old. There won't be any running all over town this year, two stores at max. And then I have a whole list of baking and snacks that I want to make. I have also found with a six month old that I need several days to get things done where it took only one day before. So, snack mixes will get started today and cookies and dips will have to wait until the end of the week.

Madi is doing well. I have been awful about taking pictures this month. But I am sure we will make up for it this weekend. She loves her food. We had carrots this last week. She is so funny!! She sees me making her food and she starts saying MMMMM!!! After every bite she says MMMMM and she opens her mouth big and if I wait too long for each bite she gets mad. Her little personality is showing up BIG the last couple of weeks. She is sitting up well, still needs some practice. She doesn't catch herself all the time when she starts falling and is still a little wobbly. But she wants to move so bad, shouldn't be long now. She is doing the rocking thing when on her hands and knees.

Well, my list isn't getting any shorter. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and safe traveling.

Love, Amy

Madi's first vegetable. She had squash last night for supper. She did really well. Her first bite she just sat there with it in her mouth for a couple of seconds with a wondering look on her face and then she ate it. She loves the rice with apples...so she will continue with that and squash for a couple of days and then carrots are next.

We had a busy day yesterday. We went and had family pics done at Sears. What a joke!!! By the time we were ordering Chris was ready to get up and leave and not order a thing. We had a new lady, she didn't now a thing she was doing, and we had 18 pics to choose from. That was it. We were there for 2 hours!!! We figured out what we wanted and then asked about the same day pics. It is all over the studio, "Same Day Portraits", "Take your pics home today". What it doesn't tell you is that it is an additional $3 a page to have them today. So, we asked when would we get them if it isn't today. "Oh, they'll be in on Dec. 20." There goes Christmas cards, everyone would be receiving New Year's Cards. Well, we went ahead and had wallets printed at the store...everyone will be getting Christmas cards this week. As you can probably tell, we won't be going back to Sears and having our pics done again. Which was what Chris said the second we walked out. I didn't tell you, this is all at 9 am, on a Sunday. I told Chris it should be faster, no waiting, we should be in and out if we do it early. Oh well!!!

So, after the Sears fun filled morning we went home, Chris and Madi rested. Then we went to Wal-Mart to do some Christmas shopping. Next year, I am shopping in July!!! What a madhouse. But we had fun picking out gifts. It really is more fun to give than to receive, especially with all the little ones in our family!!! Christmas day is going to be awesome this year!!!!

Can't wait to see all of you!!! I've got to get busy. Chris finally brought in his hunting stuff this weekend.

Love, Amy

The guys are back from deer camp and they did really well this year. Chris got his first buck with horns. Very nice 10 point antlers. He also got a doe. We will be having alot of venison now!! Between the five that went out this year, they brought home 8 deer and a coyote. We spent the last two nights down at the shop cutting the meat off. Everybody gets it cut how they want; steaks, roasts, ground. Now, the next couple of evenings will be cleanup. I don't have any pics yet, but will post some when I get some.

Not much else going on. Madi is doing well with her cereal. Tonight we will try rice with apples...see how that goes for a week and then next week she will start yellow vegetables. How exciting!! Tomorrow night she is going to her first movie. The Stiefel Theatre is showing the classic Holiday Inn from 1942 with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The Stiefel shows different Christmas movies every year. It will be so neat to see the movie on the big screen. It's one of mine and Chris' favorite Christmas movies.

Other than that, I am just trying to get the house in order and ready for family to come for Christmas. Chris' Aunt Beth and her family is coming from SC and Aunt Linda from NH and Chris' cousin Chantelle and her boyfriend from TX. We will be having Christmas dinner here for everyone on Christmas day. It will be a lot of fun!!

Take care.
Love, Amy