Today She's ONE...

A year ago today, December 19, 2009, Madison Mae Fargo was born. She has been the biggest joy ever brought to our lives and we cannot imagine our lives without her. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by so fast. Madison is a very happy, healthy little girl and we are very blessed.

To our dear sweet Madison, you are amazing, beautiful, fun, and precious. We are so very proud of you and can't wait for many more wonderful years to come. We love you more than words can describe. You are becoming such a big girl and our baby no more. Thank you for letting us be your mommy and daddy.
Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! Love you always, Mommy and Daddy

These are two pictures from her birthday party yesterday...a huge sucess!! More pictures from the party to come!

Climbing Boots!

Today Daddy bought Madison some new snow boots and I think they made more of a climber than she already is (she managed to get the boots off though before all of her climbing excursions)! I was cleaning out one of our downstairs closets today and Madison found her way on top of the Bumbo box and into the crockpot...yes, the crockpot! She is such a big girl now and she loves her big girl snow boots!

Posing with her new boots on...and holding those shapes...she LOVES those things!

Onto the Bumbo box, which started to cave in!

"I'm going to get in here mommy!"

"I think I'm stuck!"...she really wasn't, it was just a funny face she was making :)

"What did I do?"

Ice Skating and Sledding!

Today we went skating/sledding in downtown Louisville at Winter Skate and had a great time! It was a cool, clear day, so we bundled Madison up and pulled her in the sled! She especially loved going around the corners...I of course was a little nervous, but we all had lots of fun! We are lucky to live in such a great town and have such fun winter activities for Madison to do!

Ready to go...and still lovin' that tongue!

Skating with Daddy...don't worry he went REALLY slow and is a very good skater!

All bundled up in the sled

Off they go!!

She had SO much fun and loved when Daddy spun her :)

"Is that it dad?!? Can we go more??"

Two Silly and Messy Dinner Nights!

Madison is such a crazy girl! As most kids do, she gets very messy while she eats, especially since she prefers to eat "big girl" food now rather than being spoon fed purees. So before I cleaned her up, I had to get a few silly and VERY MESSY photos!

"Look at that mom!!"
Madison thinks its so funny to tilt her head to the side and have people copy her :)

Climbing on me while I was trying to take a photo :) Not sure why I didn't clean her up before I got her out of the highchair?!?

She is getting so big and looking like a little kid...she's not a baby anymore :(

She loves to say that she is "SO BIG!!"

She's Standing Alone!

Madison's balance and "walking" (with support) has been getting stronger each day. She's not quite walking by herself yet, but getting so much closer. This last week, she has started to stand alone and is getting quite good at it! Tonight we captured a few pictures of Madison showing off her new skill! We are so proud of her :)

Balancing while holding a toy in her mouth

She thinks it so funny!

At one point, she even lost her balance and started to fall forward, but then was strong enough to pull herself back up without help (and while managing to hold onto the toy)!! That's skill!!

She looked like she was about to take a step...

And she did!! She took one step!!! Not sure if we should technically consider this her first step, but she did take one and it was SO exciting!!

Our Christmas Tree is Up!

Today our family put up our HUGE Christmas Tree (it was a little bigger than we expected...an 8 footer!!) We had a lot of fun decorating it while listening to Christmas music. Madison especially enjoyed grabbing for all the ornaments, but we were actually quite surprised that she never went for all the pine needles :) We can't wait for this fun season!

Matt and I decided that we would buy a new family camera for our Christmas gifts to each other this year. We spent almost the entire day in Mike's Camera Shop today and finally picked out the perfect one! As you all know, I love taking pictures and this will only encourage my habit (except now I will have good quality pictures) :) So this is one of the up-close photos that Matt took of one of our tree ornaments.

The BEAST! It's a great tree, but really big!!

She was NOT a fan of the "Man in Red"!

Madison's first trip to Santa was...well... not so plesant for her :( This was to be expected though. I am not sure how many babies happily go to a strange man in red with a big white beard! Although she was terrified, she managed to sit with Santa long enough for a photo...what a mean mom I was! Oh well, maybe next year :)

Of course Santa was perfectly posed...he was very patient though and said that he has seen MANY crying babies before!

Such a sad girl, but so cute in her matching Santa dress! Don't worry I rescued her pretty quickly!