New Pictures...

This is the snow that we had in our neighborhood! There was so much, it was awesome. It was great for Maddie's first Christmas to be a white one! This is Maddie playing with her new toy...she loves all the sounds it makes and loves making them!
I took this picture because she was so interested in the laundry basket, I thought it was fascinating. If only I was this interested in it, laundry might get done faster! Maybe she will help with it once she gets older...

Here is Maddie standing holding onto the window ledge watching the snow fall. She could have stared for hours watching it snow. Since she is such a serious baby, she kept looking up to see where it was coming from, which was adorable!

Aunt Kadie gave her the table below for Christmas. She loves it and all the sounds it makes! If only she could get her feet to move at the same time as her hands. She wants to move around the table so badly, but gets tripped up when her feet don't move!

These were all taken on my phone, so they are not the best quality, but I wanted to share them with you! Hope you enjoy!

Christmas...

Madison had a GREAT first Christmas. Every Christmas eve we go to my in-laws. That is when they celebrate with their big dinner! Since they are Italian, they make a huge amount of seafood, including lobster tales, mussels, scallops, and shrimp. Of course, since I don't eat seafood...I usually eat pasta or something else. This year, they made so much food, it was crazy! Here are a few pictures from that night. She had a blast until she pasted out around 9:30. But she enjoyed all her new presents that she saw! Especially here new"ride" from cousin Sophia. Also, her first Christmas was the first White Christmas in Atlanta since 1882, which makes it so much mroe memorable! It is too cold her to be out, but we did go out for a few minutes last night while it was actually snowing and she LOVED it. Hopefully she will see more snow in her lifetime, becuase if she is anything like me, she will LOVE it!

This is her on her new "ride". She loved it and knew exactly where to put her hands and what buttons to push to make noise. Thanks again cousin Sophia! I cannot believe that she really is almost big enough to play with that...she is getting way too big for momma! On another note...Madison is now crawling! She started on her 8 month birthday, but has slowly picked it up. She is also cutting one of her top teeth, which has made her not very happy.

We have had a great 8 months with her, and cannot believe that she is getting so big! We look forward to so many more wonderful Christmas's with her! Now it is time to start planning her first birthday, I cannot believe it!

One of my Favorites...

This is one of my favorite pictures from our family pictures. Not quite sure what she doing, but it is just so darn cute! Enjoy!

Sick baby...

I had to post this picture of Maddie from when she was sick. She is such a sweet little girl, and even more so when she is sick. She had a fever for a few days and she was just a cuddly little bug. We tried to give her a new toy to see if that would make her feel better, but it didn't work at all. But at least we tried!

Christmas Time...

Everett makes Maddie laugh and I love it!

I loved seeing Maddie and Rylie "playing" together. It was so cute, they were playing with Maddie's new tea set! They also were wearing the same shirt, which was so cute, and not planned!
She looks so little next to the giant teddy bear! I would like to thank Miss Sherry for the giant teddy bear and the tutu!! So cute!

She just looks so innocent in this picture, love it!!

Trying to get at the Christmas tree, she loves all the lights and ornaments!

We had a great Christmas with the Laughlin's. It was great to see them as always! Maddie got tons of new toys thanks to Aunt Kadie and Uncle Matt and the boys! Rylie gave her an adorable outfit so that they can match, which is awesome!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I love the decorations and the love that is shown this time of year. I love that families get a chance to get together and create memories! I love all the memories that I have of holidays from when I was younger! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a very Merry Christmas!

Food...

Well, this past week we hit a big milestone with Madison. She ate her first real table food on Thursday at my office Christmas party, which was some crackers and some rice. Then, on Saturday night, she ate some meatball! She loved them all! She would have eaten the whole meatball if I had let her. She is now a cracker addict, which is nice because it occupies her while we eat. I will get some pictures up soon of her eating real food, but wanted to share the excitement. She is getting so big way to quickly, I miss my little bitty baby! But I absolutely love her personality and the person she is! Treasure every minute because it goes by so quickly!

Just laying around...

I am trying to get better at taking candids of Maddie. Some of her facial expressions just make me want to laugh! But they are the sweetest things ever... This one looks like she is thinking: "Stop taking pictures of me mommy, I'm not doing anything special!"

Bailey just loves "playing" with Maddie; he will lay next to her on the floor while she plays! He even lets her grab his hair, but kindly cries when she gets it too hard; the best part of that is that she knows that when he makes that noise, she needs to let go of him! So precious how they play together. I cannot wait for her to get bigger so that they can really play together! They will be best of friends for life, I'm sure.

Now that the holiday season and parties are under way, there will be tons of pictures to come!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we went to the beach at St. Simon's. We had a blast! Here a some pictures from the beach. This is one where she found the leaves very interesting...
I love this one because it shows her little tiny foot!

Love the pictures from the side, she looks even more innocent in them!

Here she is looking at her daddy!

We took her down to the beach for some pictures, and I thought it would be really cute to write her name in the sand and have her sit there...except that the ground was wet and she didn't really have fun at all doing this. But the name turned out really cute... We had a blast at Thanksgiving visiting with Kadie and the family; as well as hanging out with Mimi! We miss everyone so much, but it makes the time we have together so much more meaningful. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful family! We love you all!

SANTA!

Madison went to visit Santa on Saturday at Perimeter Mall. She did really well; she didn't cry or get upset or anything. She did like him, he talked to her before hand which was great! It was exciting to see her reaction to Santa Claus. Hopefully she will continue to do well with him! On another note, she loves our Christmas tree! She could stare at that thing all day. All the lights and different colors seem to fascinate her. She has also made some fun things at daycare the past month. For Thanksgiving, she made a hand turkey, which was adorable! For Christmas, she made a mitten aornament, a Christmas wreath amde out of her hand print, and a snowman where she "painted" it white! We have such an awesome daycare, which is a big blessing for me. The teachers love her and hate to see her leave at the end of the day!

Nothing really new to report, except that she has her two front bottom teeth now, which makes it even more adorable when she laughs! The teeth broke through on her 7 month birthday weekend. She can now crawl backwards, which is the cutest thing ever.

The Russo's: Maddie at work...

The Russo's: Maddie at work...

New Bathtub

Maddie got a new bathtub last week since she will not sit in her infant one anymore. She just wants to sit up like a big girl! She loves this one, she gets to splash her little feet in the water, sit up like a big girl, and play much more in the water. I love this bathtub too! To much easier to wash her, and it suctions to the bottom of the tub, so it doesnt slip and slide all over the place. Great investment!

Maddie at work...

On Wednesday, Maddie had to come to sit with me at work for a few hours. Rob had to go to court downtown, so he dropped her off. We went and visited people, which was so fun! Then, Rob called and he said he was going to be a bit longer, so up to the 25Th floor we went to my office. I had to do some work, so I plopped her on my floor, on my jacket, to play. Here is a picture of her in her makeshift pack'n'play. I had a blast having here her with me for a few hours. It brightened my day.

Seeing her can make any bad day so much better. Work has been very stressful lately, and having her there, made my day! She was helping me with the debits and credits! Sometimes I think that she could do better than some of the adults I work with :) But I had to share this cute picture with everyone!

Family Pictures!

Here are some pictures that we had taken last Thursday by Picture This Photography, who are awesome. They did such a great job and took so many wonderful pictures, I had a hard time choosing which ones to put up here. But I hope that you enjoy the ones I chose!

I can not beleive that my sweet angel is almost 7 months old, she is getting big and changing everyday. As of today, she cutting her first tooth! Exciting, but scary. It means that she really is growing up so fast. I love every second of every day that I have with her. She is also sitting up by herself. Another big milestone that we hit last week. She also looks like she really wants to crawl, but can't seem to get both her hands and knees to move at the same time. I will keep you all posted to let you know when she gets her first tooth!!

Christmas Time

Those who know me, know that Christmas time is my favorite time of year. I love the smell of Christmas..but more than that, I love getting everyone's Christmas cards with pictures of the kids/family and an update about everything. This being said, I always try to get mine out early with the wonderful designs from Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com). Whether you like the traditional cards, modern, or abstract, they have them all here:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

They also have cards for every event, like birth announcements, birthday parties and celebrations:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/baby-cards-stationery

Any type of card you could possibly want, they have! They are great quality and beautiful.

They even have address labels, which are adorable!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/address-labels

We have been using them for years for pictures, calenders, photo books, and much more. They have everything you need for every occasion.

Right now, they are having a 20% off all cards and free shipping for orders over $30. Act fast and take advantage of their savings. Get pictures, photobooks, calenders, and any other gift ideas while they are having the sale and save tons! Hope you all enjoy them as much as we do in our house!

This one is a front runner for our cards... look in your mail box soon to see which one we actually chose!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards/snow-flurries-cocoa-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

And have a wonderful and joyous holiday season!

"Trick or Treating"

Sunday night, we went to my sweet friend Keri's parents house to "trick or treat". All we did was walk to a few houses where Priscilla's friends live to show off the babies. We had a blast. Here are a few pictures from that night! Above is sweet baby Charlotte, 9 months old. This is one of Maddies friends!
Doing our best to get a picture of the two of them in their costumes. Maddie was not wanting her hat at all, thus it is missing!

At least one smiled!

Sweet baby Charlotte smiling, such a sweet smile when they are that age, and just learning how to really smile at things!

Halloween

Maddie was a pink bunny! Since bunnies are the theme in her room, it seemed fitting that she be one! I do have to say that she was the cutest little bunny I have ever seen. Also, we had a big weekend. You may notice that she is sitting up by herself in these pictures, that is a new thing for her. She cannot do it for a long time, but long enough. Since I was by myself taking the pictures, this was a good thing. Rob had to work that night and missed her first Halloween; but he was sent tons of pictures!
This is her sitting on the front porch in her AWESOME pumpkin shirt that Aunt Kadie made for her. I am so sad that Halloween is over and we can no longer wear the shirt. But looking forward to many more shirts from Aunt Kadie*wink*!

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we took Madison to pumpkin farm. She loved the pumpkins! We went on farm tour and saw baby calf's, but she was not too interested in them. The above picture was taken at our house when we got back, she was laughing at her daddy!
Here she is in the pumpkin patch with daddy!

Sitting all by herself in the patch, such a big girl!

Anniversary trip

In October, we headed down to the beach for a long weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Here are a few pictures from that weekend. The one above is Rob teasing Maddie with a piece of bacon, and she would have eaten it if she could have!
These are pictures of Maddie in her bathing suit just relaxing in the chair; and with daddy in the pool swimming.

We had a great time and can't wait to get back for more weekends!