Happy New Year to all! This year promises to be full of love and joy as we watch Maddie grow. It's hard to believe we are already planning Maddie's first birthday. It has been such a joy to watch her grow and learn new things. Our New Year celebration was spent in Louisiana at Nanny Trudi's house. Madeleine got to play with her newest cousin, Blake and teach him all kinds of things. The week was so much fun for all of us. Maddie learned to read the "trash magazines" Nanny Trudi likes to keep- you can see in one picture how much she enjoyed it. On New Year's Eve, we spent the evening at Uncle Stacy's house and enjoyed gumbo and fireworks. She was too cute dressed in her bear suit to be outside to watch fireworks that Daddy set off. Maddie was not at all afraid of the loud sounds of the fireworks, just so intrigued at the beautiful lights in the sky. We hope everyone has a wonderful new year with many blessings. We'll keep in touch and keep you updated as Maddie's birthday draws near!

A Most Magical Time of Year

Christmas was wonderful this year. As I told Matthew, it was by far the best Christmas I've ever had. There is just something so special about Christmas through a child's eyes. We were blessed this year to spend the holdays with ALL of our family. There was much traveling involved, but Maddie was a trooper. We celebrated Christmas for four straight days. Maddie learned to open gifts and smiled so sweetly at each new one. Of course, we did tell Maddie the story of baby Jesus and what Christmas really is all about. I'm sure she understood every word- or atleast some of it! We hope that your Christmas was as magical and wonderful as ours.