Busy!

Its been a month since I blogged. Its been a busy month. We had a lot of Christmas celebrating to do. We spent about 10 days  in IL visiting family and friends. We did our yearly cookie day with my friend and her family. We had such a blast! Madison had fun playing with Mathew. She would not let him out of her sight. It was so very adorable. If he left, she would call him and go get him and drag him back.

I got a day of adult time. My mom took Madison for the day and I went with Roberta to the spa for facials & massages. We then went to lunch and did a little bit of shopping. It was so nice. I don't remember the last time I had a day like that.

Madison and I were then given a covert mission to get Papaw's gift inside the house and wrapped without him knowing it. We were very successful.

We had lots of family time Thursday thru Saturday morning as my brother and his family were staying with our parents while we were there too! It was great fun watching Madison get to play with her cousins. We celebrated Christmas with them Saturday morning. Then Dan arrived around noon and we were off to go see Roberta and family to do Christmas with them. It was full of good food, great people, fun times, some tears & awesome gifts.

Then there was Christmas day! Oh the best day of all. It was nice to have our family together to celebrate. Madison got tons of gifts and she loves all of them! My favorite gift of all was that my husband didn't have to work the next day and got to stay with us for another night!

We drove home the day after Christmas and have been busy ever since. I think this may be the first time I've sat down for an extended period all week. I have taken down Christmas and made a lot of meals for the week and for freezing.

Madison had her 18 month well baby. She received 4 shots, but now we don't need any more until she is 4! The Dr confirmed what we already knew. That Madison is a tall skinny girl! 33 inches tall & 21 lbs! Other than having a cold she is healthy!

Looking forward to our last Christmas celebration tomorrow with Dan's family! Ringing in the New Year with them as well.

Tired & Crazy

So we just got Madison back to sleeping at night and then all of a sudden Wednesday night she was up for hours and ended up in bed with us because we needed sleep so we could drive 5 hours to Michigan for Thanksgiving with Dan's family.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because the whole family gets together. We have always had Thanksgiving with my family. This was the first year we did not see my family. My parents had gone to Bama to see my dad's family and well this was the first year Dan's brother hosted Thanksgiving plus the first year Dan was not in Chicago for work. We got to see Dan's brother's new house and see his whole family. We had a big slumber party at their house. It was fun. We took the dogs and they played with and hung out with their dogs. I'm not sure who had more fun and enjoyed it more the dogs or us.

Friday morning we figured out why Madison wasn't sleeping well. She popped another tooth through! Yep more teeth. We drove home on Friday and didn't do much after we got there. Madison still wasn't sleeping well.

Dan got up and went to hunt Saturday morning & Madison and I just lounged around as we didn't get much sleep plus it seems as though Madison had caught a cold. We did go out to lunch when he got home and we just started making the house look a little like Christmas. Madison enjoys that there is a light up Santa on the front porch.  She didn't sleep very well  Saturday night either and because we didn't have the guest bed put together, I slept on the couch because my shoulder, neck & back could not take having her all over me again, so Dan slept with her and skipped hunting. I still barely got any sleep because its not a comfy sofa to sleep on plus I can hear the dogs in their crates! Then Maggie decided that at 5:30 am she needed to go out and eat.

Finally Sunday night I got Madison to sleep in her bed. She woke once in the night and I had to soothe her and sit by her crib. Then the last 2 nights She woke up crying and once each but within 5 mins I got her calmed and asleep again. Now if I can just get her nose to stop running we would be doing great.

Well, we have lots to do between now and Christmas and then even more to do after Christmas. This is going to be interesting. I have to finish making it Christmas in the house, we have a few more presents to get and everything still needs to be wrapped. Plus there is packing to go to my mom's and Cookies to be made for Cookie Day! OH, we still need to take Madison to see Santa! Can't wait for that! Many, many adventures to be had over this Christmas season!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Random Things

There isn't too much to report. Madison and I spent 5 days at my parents while the hubby did his yearly fishing trip to MN. We had a blast. We hung out with them and I got to see a couple of friends back home. It was really nice.

Halloween snuck up on us pretty quickly. We took Madison to 8 houses- 6 in our neighborhood and then a friend's house and then to my SIL's house. Madison was a cute little Zebra. A nice warm costume for a semi-chilly night. She didn't understand what was going on at first but after our first neighbor dropped some candy in her bucket, I guess a light went on her head. Since she can't say trick or treat yet, she held the bucket out and said "agh, agh" I tell you every time she did it the person would drop more candy in her bucket. So she made out and probably got about 3 or 4 pieces per house! She did always say "thank you" as I turned her around to walk her away. Our friends & my SIL had a "goody" bag ready for her with gold fish & animal crackers instead of candy. This is nice since I try not to give her a lot of sweets.

We are still waiting to hear about our plans for the house. The real estate agent is coming here next week to look at our place and make suggestions as to what we should do to get the house ready for sale. I really want to get it on the market in Feb. I'd rather sell it and have to find temporary living arrangements than to try to carry 2 mortgages.

Its hunting season now, so I am a hunting widow on the weekends. Kind of sucks, but without it hubby would not be a happy guy. Plus lets face it, he works hard for us, so he deserves to play hard too.

I will be putting my Christmas tree up in about a week. I know, I know, way too early! I usually don't do it until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I want to get Madison's picture in front of the tree this year for our Christmas cards & I am going to attempt to do this all on my own, so I need extra time in case I screw it up and need to do it again.Of course since the tree is going up, I'm sure I'll get the bug to put it all up. Oh, well!

I need to get going and finish my cleaning as my parents are coming to visit!

Starting to feel it already!

I'm so excited! We are going to build our house this spring! I cannot wait! There will be so much to do. We have our builder and our basic floor plan, but there are some tweeks that the builder is making for us on the plan so we are waiting now for him to get the plan itself re-done so we can approve that and move forward.

So I have to start looking at flooring, tile, appliances, stone, cabinets, lighting, etc. to figure out what I want and of course what we can do in our price range. This is very exciting but also very nerve wrecking. We will also need to get our house ready to go up on the market. We will be listing in February, if I have anything to say about it.

We have a long road ahead of us to get to the ground breaking point but we will be there this Spring! So by this time next year I will be sitting in my new home!

Things are coming together

Since my last blog, Madison has decided to sleep through the night again. Although for a few days she was getting up at 6:30 instead of her normal 7:00 am, but we are now back at 7am! Woohoo! Dan is settling into his new job and coming home every night. Its starting to not feel so weird having him home all the time too.

We've had a pretty busy week this week. We spent Tuesday morning with my friend Jill, her daughter and the 2 boys that she watches. Madison had a blast playing with the kids. She is usually very standoff-ish with kids, but she just dove right in a played. I had a good time catching up with Jill and playing with the kids as well.

Wednesday, we went to the dealership to get an oil change done on my truck. Come to find out they need to drop the gas tank in my truck to look at the fuel sensor again as my gas gauge isn't reading full when it is. So I get to go sit at the dealership for 3 hours on Saturday!

Today I went to spend some time at the bank, while Madison played with her Aunt. We have been talking about building a house forever well, we are moving forward and have an estimate and no a pre-approval! Woohoo! We need to discuss our next steps and then fill in our builder and our realtor. So things look like they are going to get pretty busy around here for me with picking out stuff for the new place and getting this one ready for market. I can't wait!

Madison seemed to have had a blast with her Aunt today as I came home to almost every toy out of her toy box and the 2 of them sitting on the floor playing with all of them!

We are also ready for Halloween! Madison has her costume. She is going to be a Zebra!

We are also working on a new routine/schedule for Madison as she keeps trying to skip her afternoon nap. So I'm trying to ditch the morning nap and keep the afternoon one. So far so good.

How are things?

Things are going pretty good here. Better than I imagined they would since Dan is now home. I really pictured us bickering and fighting for the first few weeks or so of him being home every night as we got use to being around each other all the time again. Its really been quite the obvious. He doesn't mind coming home to find the house with toys strewn all over from a good day of playing with Madison! He actually has told me that I don't have to cook as often as I have been and said I could make easier meals (boxed/mac n cheese type instead of the stew/soup/roasts I have been making). I have, honestly, enjoyed being able to cook big meals!

Madison has really been the problem, well more like Madison's sleeping has been our problem. She's been waking at least once a night lately. We can't really find the problem to make it better, so we are just hoping it stops soon. It actually started the night before Dan started his new job. I had hoped that she would realize Daddy was home every night and that would end it. Oh well, She is at least falling back asleep sooner and easier than she really was.

The Air Smells of Change

I guess my blog title could really stand for two things. The first being the fact that today is the last day of Summer and tomorrow brings on Fall! My favorite time of the year. However, I am more eluding to the fact that things are changing for my little family and for the better.

My husband gave notice at work last week and today is his last day there. This is huge for us! With his job he traveled Monday through Friday, so we only saw him on the weekends and I pretty much became a single mom during the week. Now, he is starting a new job on Monday. The job is 20 mins from home and he will be home everyday!

There is going to be a huge adjustment for us all. For us to have him home and for him to be home. I'm sure there will be lots of tripping over each other and him trying to figure out where everything goes now. Plus there will be lots more time for us all to spend time with each other. OOOO... and I get some me time too! The fun part here is that since my husband bought our townhouse (before we met) I don't think he has spent more than a week there at a time!

I wonder if he will get the itch to go places since he won't be traveling like he was.

Well, stay tuned for more fun things!