8 months!!

Yes, it has been a while... it seems I only am getting on here about 1x per month! Oh well... at least I am trying...! :)
Madilyn Belle turned 8 months old on December 17th, 2009, and she is growin, growin! I am not sure how much she weighs, but she's growing as she should be. She's in some 9 month clothing, but mostly still 6-9 month clothing. She is still in size 2 diapers (but I don't think for much longer) and size 2 shoes. She's a petite little thing, and I love it! She's definitely very girly and sweet. She is not yet crawling forwards, but she is scooting backwards. She is pulling up on EVERYTHING also. I found her standing up in her crib for the first time the other day after her nap. I was so shocked! I also walked into the nursery a couple of Sundays ago and there she was standing up holding on to a toy and barefoot! (She constantly is pulling off her socks!) She is too funny! I keep thinking that she will crawl, but she gets in the position, rocks back and forth, and then rolls to her back. Then, she will proceed to roll across the room to whatever it was that she wants to get to. lol! Her 3rd tooth is FINALLY breaking through, I can see it right under the skin and just know it will pop through at any moment. It has been coming for, um, what... over a month?! I brought her into the doctor last month and she told me she was teething and even pointed out the swollen gums... but just NOW the tooth is coming through. Luckily just last night was when she really started to be crabby about it. She refused to eat dinner and was very very clingy to mommy. I didn't mind a little extra Madi time though :).
I have a TON of pictures to put on here, but I can't remember where my card is at the moment, so I will have to post them later. I have us getting our first REAL Christmas tree, and Madilyn seeing it for the first time. John setting it up...etc. It's quite humorous really, he was SO excited. Madilyn just wanted to suck on the ornaments, but she is really liking all of the lights and Christmas decorations around the house. Our neighbor, whom we call "Miss Marilyn" came over last night with a dancing santa and Madilyn went crazy for that. She was squealing and kicking her legs, soo cute! That's one thing about Madilyn though, she sure does squeal. I am not sure if she's singing, listening to her voice, or just talking. Sometimes it gets so high that I really truly think that dogs might think it's a dog whistle. It has actually hurt my ears... lol! I am not kidding! She makes me laugh so hard sometimes! She will probably start talking early, but for now, it's squealing. She says "dadada" a lot, and "nananana", we have yet to say "mamama"... oh well, she will eventually. I am thinking that she is starting to know that John is "dada", because yesterday morning I asked where "dada" was, and she looked for him, and smiled when she saw him. SO... I think she's starting to know what we are called.
For Thanksgiving John's dad came into town, and it was so much fun. Sadly, we didn't bring the camera with us, and when we did, the battery was dead! We only have 1 picture from the whole time he was here, and it's on John's cell phone. We are pitiful! I made the entire meal for the first time, and of course, had my wonderful husband's help in the kitchen. We pulled it off though. I wouldn't say it turned out perfect, but it was pretty good for our first time doing the whole meal! Our stuffing was... well, terrible... lol! I put WAY too much bread, and not enough liquid, so it tasted like flavored bread crumbs... HA! The green bean casserole, I thought you were supposed to use frozen beans, and it's supposed to be canned. SO... the beans were still a bit crunchy when I put them on the table. The sweet potato casserole... my hand got bumped when I put the vanilla extract in it, so lets just say it definitely had the aroma of vanilla to it... oh man. I was pretty proud of the turkey though, it looked and tasted awesome. All of the food was hot and ready at the same time (which is quite a feat with one oven I found out!) and we had a great meal. Madilyn slept through the whole thing :). She'll be awake for it next year. The next day we took John's dad to Charleston and spend the day there and then went to the James Island lights. It was so much fun! Madilyn slept through a majority of the lights, but we got her out to roast marshmallows and warm up by the fire. I let her taste some graham cracker, which she thorougly enjoyed.
Christmas is going to be a nice quiet Christmas. Christmas Eve we will go to the candlelight service at our church, then that night we will be doing our family tradition at my parents house (who live in Columbia also) and having FONDUE!! YUM! Then Christmas morning we'll wake up and wait for my sister and her family and my brother to show up... and we'll have gift opening and then... just relax! Nice huh? I sure am looking forward to it.
Well, I will be posting pictures soon, I just wanted to make sure to get this up. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!