growth spurt?

**even while she's playing...she stops for a break:)

I cannot figure out what's going on with madelyn but the girl must be growing! That's all I've got on why she has been so exausted lately. I mean, granted, we did have a very busy few days with a lack of good, quality naps but she should be more than caught up with all the sleeping she has been doing since. I'm serious! If you recall she had been teething and pretty much not sleeping through the night consistently for the last 2-3 months. Maybe a night or two a week but I could pretty much count on her waking up around 3am-ish. She has now been sleeping for at least 10 hours straight for over a week now and when she wakes up, she sucks down a bottle and is back down for another 3-4 hours!!! She has not been awake any earlier that 9am since the Monday before Christmas!! And most days it's around 9:45-10 that she is waking up. Once awake, the girl plays and has breakfast and is back down for a nap withing and hour and a half! Crazy. She usually takes morning naps but they are shorter. Not lately, her morning naps are at least 2 hours and then her afternoon naps are pushing 3!! She's even been known to wake up from her afternoon nap at 6 o'clock (twice this week) and STILL go to bed by 8 or 8:30! WOW- growth spurt? The other thing is that when I put her down for her nap awake, she is out in...no joke...3 minutes max:) (I timed it today...1:10)

I am planning to ddo a little shopping once she wakes up from her morning nap and hopefully I can make it and get her to hold off on the nap for a few hours. We'll see. We are meeting daddy for lunch, hitting Kohl's and then to Sam's to order her bday cake:)

Anyone else's child sleep this much?? I definetly get a lot done around the house! :)

Goodbye junky Nikon coolpix....HELLO SWEET CANON REBEL XSI!!!!!!

I'm not sure what is was this year but I got some really awesome gifts!!! Maybe it's being a mommy and always sacrificing my things and money for my daughter and hubby that put me top on the list for great gifts this year. I seriously haven't gotten excited over Christmas presents since I was maybe a freshman or sophomore in college. I was so excited on Christmas Eve, to open up a little silver box containing a pandora bracelet:) If you haven't seen or heard of these things, they are the latest charm bracelets on the market. I guess they have been around for years but are now coming back around?? I hadn't heard of them until my aunts went ga-ga over them last year. Next thing I knew, my mom was ga-ga over them as well as my grandma's....well gosh, I better get in on this too! So I said "sure I'd like one":) I only have 2 charms for them right now but I am excited to continue filling it up in the future. As my Uncle Brent told Robert " They're great- you're all set for Christmas, bdays, mothers day...anything, all you have to do is buy charms!" One stop shopping! haha
Thank you so much Grandpa and Sharon!!!

On to my next and most definely the best present I've ever recieved to date....There was a lot of anticipation put into the opening of this gift. I haven't been allowed to look at the bank account for probably the past month or snoop around at any deliveries that came to the door. Robert rarely puts much effort into gifts or surprises so when he told me over a month before Christmas, that he had already gotten my present, I thought he was kidding! After much thought and brain racking, a camera did dawn on me but all I was thinking is "there's no way he would spend that much," Then he said not to get him anything bc he spent more than enough, I thought is it possible? Let me tell you this camera is AMAZING!!!!! Thanks to my Uncle Mike for setting the standard really high when he bought the same camera for my aunts bday in June...I now have the sweetest camera everrrrrrr!! I am excited to be able to take pictures of madelyn and have them turn out great. I took 250 pics on Christmas day alone. The best part is being able to grab the camera, press the button and having it take the picture that exact second so I don't miss what I wanted to capture. The shutterspeed is SOOOOO FAST! My old camera was horrible and delayed and I was always missing the moments I wanted to get on camera. There is still so much we have to learn about this camera and all it's bells and whistles but we have a manual that we have been keeping closeby at all times. haha
Notice how awful this pic is...that was taken with the OLD camera...

The next one of the eye, now that is the NEW one. Pretty sweet huh?Tonight we have 1 more Christmas with the Millers (my MIL family) and then tomorrow we are off to the waterpark and hotel....I can't wait to relax and get this house back in order...

Madelyn's 1st Christmas:)

The day began when I got up around 7:30ish (to my alarm) for coffee and breakfast and to bake a couple of things I still needed to do. Robert got up around 9 I think and we exchanged gifts. I'll write more about that in anothe post:)

Madelyn slept until 10:15!!!! I was so glad though, bc the poor girl has been up so late and dragged (is that a word?) everywhere the last few days that I knew she desperately needed some sleep. My poor sleepy girl. I really wish I could say I enjoyed the morning more than I did, but that's so far from the truth. I felt so rushed from the minute I got up that I didn't have time to enjoy it or just sit and play and have family time. Especially since we didn't do madelyns present until 10:30. We were supposed to be at my in-laws at noon to open presents before going to my parents for Christmas dinner and all that jazz. Blaaah I definetly didn't like that part and I'm not sure how but I will do things differently next year. I don't want to be anywhere until at least 2pm. I even teared up on the way over there and that's not the way to start what's supposed to be a great day, is it? We spent the day at my parents' house having dinner, opening presents and playing American idol on the wii. SO MUCH FUN!!!! (the american idol thing) It's like kareoke but you get judged and points based on whether you stayed on key throughout the song. According to Simon, I am one of the top 3 vocalists he's ever heard!!!! hahah

Later again, we went back to Robert's parents' house to hang out. It's been a lot of fun because his brother Tim, his wife Sara, and their daughter Savannah are visiting from VA beach. They are also expecting a baby boy in March and haven't all been to Michigan in quite a few years. So we've been spending a lot of time with them and it's been great. That pretty much sums up our day. I'll post more pics on facebook eventually. Hope you had a great Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve at the lake...

Christmas Eve we always have a celebration at Lake Columbia where my grandparents live. I this gathering is the best part of Christmas. Not sure why, but I look forward to this more than the day of. Anyway, we had a lot of fun with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, grammy's and g-pa's. Madelyn impressed everyone at how well she stands up from a sitting position without any assistance or anything to hang onto. She was taking a few steps here and there if we bribed her but that's it for now. Later in the evenng we went to my in-laws for a short while before heading home to bed. I didn't take any pics there bc I was messing around with my camera and got the settings all screwed up. The pics started being all blurry and the lighting was crazy so I said "to heck with it" and put it away. Plus...I had a little inkling that I just may be getting a NEW one in the morning....hehe :) We enjoyed the family time and of course we were exausted at the end of the night.

visiting Santa:)

My "to do" list for today

Agenda for today:

• First off, Madelyn MUST get her naps in and get some good rest. She was all messed up yesterday bc she missed her morning nap, which threw her off the rest of the day. She played in her bed for over 2 hours!! I needed the time so since she was content, I let her be. After 2 hours, she was still making noise and I was finishing up something and then went into get her. The girl had fallen asleep SITTING UP! She was sitting up and leaning against the side of her crib. This was just the time Robert got home so I grabbed the camera and he grabbed the video camera....in we went....and she woke up before we could capture the moment. It was hilarious! She is so silly sometimes. I guess she just really didn't want to take a nap. hahah
• baking a couple of things- chocolate crinkles, some kind of bread- I forget the name.
• buy my last present that I keep putting off....for no reason except that I haven't wanted to get out of the car bc it's too dang cold! I've been done shopping for 2 weeks except for this one but I know what it is and where it is so no worries.
• fingers crossed that tradehome gets a new shipment in for these boots that I so desperately need! I can't wear heals and carry a baby when I'm running errands(dangerous and cold!)
• finish wrapping- just a couple more and that's all.
• last but not least....pay santa a visit at the mall later tonight.

** Oh and ONE more thing....This is soooooooo annoying!!! So last night I went to Walmart (hate that store but it was the closest for what I needed- diaper genie refills and splenda) Anyway, I was so happy bc I found a close parking spot so it really was a quick stop. I was in my car ready to leave and I backed out....crunch! It really sounded BAD (prob. bc I've never hit anyone or been hit by someone) Oh crap! I had looked both ways but it was dark and with the crammed parking lot the way it was, this car was directly behind me and both her head lights and tail lights we blocked from my blind spot so I saw nothing. I was thinking "you have got to be kidding me!!" It was a girl, prob. a bit younger than me and I went over to her and she was fine and surprisingly, nothing was done to my car and I didn't notice anything with hers but I think we decided there might be a tiny dent. blaaah So now I have to call my insurance company??? who knows- we had no idea what to do. I called Robert and he didn't either. I've never been in an accident and the fact that we were in a parking lot-we had no clue what the heck we were supposed to do. I could be dishonest bc she left with just giving me her first name and phone number and none of my information. The annoying thing was that she was actually all cheery and nice to me but smoking a nasty ciggarette and blowing it, I mean blowing it directly at me! I wanted to say something bc apparently my constant coughing and turning of my head didn't ring a bell that I didn't appreciate her smoke in my face. I was just glad Madelyn was not with me. uggh I went away smelling smoke for the entire ride home.....blah.

At least no damange on my end (and I doubt hers either) was done but I still should call...right?

Babies, babies, babies!

Yesterday Madelyn and I ventured out onto the icy interstate and high winds to have a playdate with 4 other babies and their mommas. The roads were scary but going 40 all the way there, we made it and luckily most other cars were going pretty slow too. I really am suprised that I stuck it out and didn't chicken out at the beginning of the drive. We played for a couple of hours and it was fun to see all 4 of them together and interracting. They were usually taking toys from one another or grabbing at faces, arms, heads etc. I even caught Madelyn biting an arm or two while they were squished together for a group pic!!! Nooo! I hope that was a one time thing bc that was a first. I'm thinking it's just part of her age and the fact that she puts everything into her mouth still anyway. But yeah, we had a great time anyway:)