What a year

I can truly say that other than the year I married Corey, this has been the very best year of my life!!!
See if you can tell why......

We safely made it to 11 weeks and were able to share with all of our friends and family that we really were going to have a baby!!!

I finally started showing

We found out we were having a Girl!!!!

God blessed us with our angel, Madeline Rose

Hannah became a big sister

Madeline was baptized

Our first road trip to Austin to celebrate Christi's baby shower

I learned to sew!!!

You ate solids for the first time

You had your first play date

You sat up

Your first Halloween

Your second road trip, this time to Lubbock for your first Thanksgiving and...

to meet Yeh-yeh and Peepaw

You met Santa

You celebrated your first Christmas

Madeline, you are so beautiful inside and out...we love you dearly.
Thank you for making this year....the best one yet!!!

And one we can only thank God for every single day.

Family Photo Shoot

Since all 8 of us were in town with our families, Mom was dead set on us getting a family photo.
Now, if anyone knows my family you would know that we are NEVER, as a group, on time or all quiet and agreeable at once.
But.....for Mom and Dad we will do just about anything.
We were told to be at a location in downtown Dallas at 12 on the dot.
All 25 of us were there, well...almost all of us. We had to wait on my brother-in-law whose plane landed at 11 that morning. Poor thing..he rushed in for the picture and had to rush out. I'm tellin you we will do ANYTHING for our parents.

I was not able to get any pictures of us as a group, but as soon as we were done I couldn't resist an opportunity to take a few shots of my girls.

I can't wait to see the end result.

Traditional Sister Dinner

I was so thrilled that the 4 of us were able to get together the day after Christmas for dinner at PF Changs. It was so good and so fun.
Me and Gianna

Camille and Mary Madeline

Hmmm..what is Mary Madeline doing???

Then we had dessert...like we needed one more darn thing...I think Mary Madeline liked hers.

I love a tradition and I hope we can continue this every year.
Love you sisters.

Christmas at Mom and Dads

Christmas at my parents house is so much fun. There are so many of us and we eat and talk and play games and just have a great time.
We always do a "white elephant" type gift exchange.
Here we are on the floor waiting for our number to be called. That's Madeline under there eating if you can't tell.

Some of the boys

Pop and Madeline

It is always a struggle to decide what we are going to get Mom and Dad...they want nothing!!!
So...since Dominic and Andy live in New York and they have never been there together we decided to plan them a trip to....you guessed it.....NEW YORK!!!!
Here they are opening one of the 3 boxes

Here is Dad trying to figure out what is going on. I should tell you all 8 of us are yelling and screaming with excitement at this moment.

They were overwhelmed. The trip is planned out to the very last moment. They are going to a Broadway show, one of Andy's fashion shows...sitting front row, I might add, and then heading to West Point where Mary Madeline and her family are now living. I think they will have an amazing time.
How will we ever top this one?????

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas

The one and only picture of me and my girl.

It has been a busy past week.
The 23rd is my brother, Vincent's birthday. I hosted the party here and can you believe it...I did not take a single picture:( We had so much fun. We had enchiladas, chips and homemade guacamole (made my momma)...it was delicious! We have done this the past two years and I am pretty sure it is a forever tradition.

Christmas Eve is always celebrated at my Aunt Prini's house. We have a huge breakfast for dinner. Corey, Hannah, Madeline and I had gone to church prior and Madeline was getting so sleepy. So.....I decided to just put her to bed and skip Christmas Eve. I can't remember the last time I missed it, but it was ok. Corey and Hannah ended up going and having a great time and even bringing me home a plate of food.

We always celebrate Christmas morning at home and then head to moms for breakfast and presents with everyone else. I love that we are all able to be with our own families and then can come together to celebrate with mom and dad.

Here is Hannah checking out if Santa got his snacks...

And reading her letter that he left her

Distributing presents

This year we did things a little differently at our house. We did not go big gifts....crazy, I know!!
We decided to only do stockings and with the money we saved we adopted a family off our churches Angel Tree. All around, I think we all felt like we received more this Christmas than ever before. Corey and I decided we are pretty sure this is how Christmas will be from now on.
Hanny opening her earrings

Since Madeline was not awake when Hannah was ready to open gifts we decided to sorta reenact the whole thing for her, well...for me I guess...so I could get the pictures.
The girls coming down the hall

Hannah was such a help with Madeline.

Madeline was so happy.
It was a perfect first Christmas as a family of 4!!!!

8 months

Madeline Rose you are 8 months old.....yesterday!
I am late getting this up because Madeline never got out of her jammies yesterday. I kept thinking I would get her dressed, but we never did. Finally after I gave her her bath last night I decided...what the heck...and took them then.

Little girl you have accomplished so much this month....
You are now sitting all by your self and you love it. You play and play on your blanket and love having the freedom of not being on your back or belly all the time.

When I put you on our bed you tuck your knees way up under you and rock back and forth. it seems to me that you may want to crawl soon, but I am hoping it takes you a little longer still. I just don't think I'm ready for it. You still do not have any teeth and I am ok with that too, since you are still nursing and all.

You are wearing size 3 diapers.
You eat 3 'real' food meals a day and nurse every 3-4 hrs.
In this picture you are wearing 12mth jammies, but in pants you wear 3-6mth cause you are just so darn skinny, but also so darn long. You are lovely.
You still light up when you see pretty much anyone that you know and it takes you a minute or two to warm up to new people.
You are talking more and more everyday...it's beautiful.

You are such a sweet girl and I fall in love with you more and more each day.
I am so excited to celebrate your first Christmas with you this month and the birth of our Savior.

Santa????

Yesterday Madeline and I went to meet my mom and my sweet Aunt Patricia who is in town form Colorado. This was their first time to meet....Madeline loved her.

Funny thing...we met them at Luby's and as we were walking in so was Santa..I know, crazy. So..being the smart person that I am and knowing that we will NEVER make it to the mall to get it done, I ran over to him...very politely, I might add, and asked him if we could take a picture. He was so sweet and said yes.
I think Madeline liked him.

She wanted to pull his beard

It was a weird and funny thing to see at Luby's of all places.
But, at least I can say she met Santa this year:)

It's looking a lot like Christmas

How lucky am I to have such a wonderful friend that makes my blog so beautiful and festive.
Thanks Christi......I love you!!!!

Just cause

Madeline has found the Christmas tree..and she LOVES it!

And the rest of these pictures are just me trying to capture the beauty of my sweet girl...I don't want to miss one single second.

We ended the day with a little time with daddy

love to you all!!!!!