Love You Mom

So yesterday morning, Madi was playing with Brandon and I while we were still lying in bed. She would crawl over to me and lay her head down, then go back to Brandon and lay her head down on him. This is her way of giving hugs. One of these moments when she put her head on my side, she said "love you mom". Or at least that is what Brandon and I both heard her say. Other words and phrases we have heard her say: dad, dog, cat, ok, yeah, hi, grampa, (I am sure there are others, so I will keep adding them to this list as I remember them.)

Madi is getting closer to walking everyday. This weekend she was taking 4-5 steps at a time, unassisted, between us. She didn't have any preference who she was walking too, she was just excited to be walking. We still have to make sure she is standing on her own before she takes off, otherwise she takes a nose dive.

Madi also broke another tooth this weekend. She now as three teeth that are through the surface (two on bottom and one on top). There are two more on the top that I can see through her gums...so she will soon have five teeth.

We had a very nice weekend, my first in a couple of weeks. We enjoyed spending time with my grandparents who were up from Colorado. We also enjoyed taking a break and relaxing this weekend. I know it has been a while since I have posted pictures. I will try and work on that this week. :)

Home Sweet Home

Well, I made it back to Gillette Monday afternoon. I left my hotel at 2:30 am Mountain time to make my flight, and I was exhausted by the time I made it home. Madi met me at the airport and I came home to a clean house and clean laundry thanks to my wonderful in-laws! It feels good to be home, but I am very ready for a couple of days off.

Brandon left Gillette on Sunday to go to Anaheim CA for a conference. He is expected back to town here shortly, and I am very glad that he is on his way home. It has been 2 weeks since we have been in the same place, and I am ready to have him home again.

Just thought I would drop a quick note to let everyone know I am home. I hope to post more this weekend when I am not quite so tired. :)

Update from New York...

Well we are approaching the half way mark for our training. I have been pretty busy here, buss leaves the hotel at 7:30 am and we are at the college until 5:30 each afternoon. Then we usually have some sort of homework for the evening. By the time I eat dinner and finish my homework I am ready for bed. So not a lot of free time here.

I am excited about teaching this class next year...there are lots of neat projects for students to do to help learn the content. Here are some of the things I have been doing.

This is a marble sorter. It takes a bunch of different colored marbles (3 colors) and uses light to sense the color and sort it into the correct bin.




Here is a video of our temperature controlled fan:

Today we made "dog bones" from aluminum and brass, in the machine shop, that we will be using later in the week to test the strength of the material.

I also used Autodesk Inventor to "build" a lego car out of pre-programed parts.


I am doing good, a little tired with the non-stop action, but things are going smoothly. I do miss my little girl and being at home with my family. I will definitely be ready to see her when I get home on Monday. I suppose I better get back to work, just thought I would send out an update.

A Couple of Firsts

This week has marked a couple of firsts in our lives...

Wednesday afternoon, when I picked Madi up from Grammy Cone's, Madi gave me my first hug. I was nuzzling her cheek with my nose and she pressed her face against mine holding it there for a while. Then she released the hold momentarily and then again pressed her cheek against mine but this time she wrapped her arms around my head and held me close for a quite a long time. I am guessing that she was sensing the next big first.

Thursday morning, I left Gillette for a 12 day trip for school to Rochester, New York. So this is the first time Daddy had his little one by himself overnight, which sounds like it was interesting trying to get her to go to sleep without her mommy there to tuck her in. It was sure hard to know that she was missing me and I couldn't be there to help. Hopefully she will adjust soon.

Today is pretty laid back until registration begins about 5:00 eastern time. Then it is off to the races. Class will be from 8-5 every day (including weekends) starting Saturday and running through next Sunday. I leave here Monday morning to head back to Gillette.

Brandon leaves Sunday the 31st to go to California for a few days for a different conference. Luckily my parents agreed to watch Madi in the overlap. However, I won't get to see Brandon for two weeks. This will be the longest we have been apart since we started dating 3 years ago.

So I know I promised belly pics, but I guess those will have to wait until I get back to town. It was decided Monday that I would be going on this trip, and it has been a bit of a crazy week preparing for this last minute.

I suppose I should go put my feet up for a while before our evening session starts tonight...wish me luck.

27 Week Check-Up

I saw my OB yesterday for a check up on baby number two. Things are progressing nicely, she says my weight gain and blood pressure are perfect and that the baby is growing right on schedule.

The office is in the process of switching from the OB performing the ultrasounds, to having technicians performing the ultrasounds, and there has been some confusion. So my OB did a quick ultrasound yesterday just to make sure that she was getting the right information from the scans.

The due date we are officially using is April 12. The scans we did yesterday had us measuring right on the due date we found in our first ultrasound from September. So that bit of confusion has been resolved and we can now say with confidence that our due date is April 12.

After two scans that didn't show any boy parts, we can feel fairly confident in the fact that we are having another girl. So far the name we have chosen is EmmaLea Ruth, although the spelling might change before she arrives. I am getting excited about meeting our Emma. Although life will definitely be a little crazy with two babies 13 months apart. :)

Madison is going to be a great big sister. She is already trying to help out with her cousin Aiden who is 2 months old. Last week she was trying to give her bottle to Aiden while they were at Grammy Cone's house during the day. She is getting closer to walking every day. She can pull herself up on anything, including the wall. She is getting braver about letting go to stand on her own and even tries to take a few steps on her own. She still needs to improve her balance before she will be walking independently.

Well, with today being the 12th, that means that Madi is 10 months old, and three more months until Emma joins our family. I will post some pictures soon. I have belly pictures, ultrasound pictures, among others.

Sledding with Grammy

Madi got her first sled from Grammy and Grampa Hitt for Christmas. We received 5 inches of snow this past week, although most of it drifted into much bigger piles. Grammy took the afternoon off yesterday to take Miss Madi sledding for the first time...she really seemed to enjoy every minute.





After I put the camera away, they ventured clear to Grammy's house and back before Madi acted like she was ready to be done. Thank you Grammy and Grampa for the fun new toy.

Madi's First Christmas in Pictures

Playing in all of the packages...




Christmas Eve with the Cones...








Christmas morning with the Hitts...



The day after Christmas at Great-Grandpa Hitts...





Random pictures from the week...







Our Christmas Blizzard...


The new aquarium all set up...


Overall, we had a wonderful couple of days...with more to come!

Madison's 9-Month Check-up, Among Other Topics

Madison had her 9-month well baby check up on Friday. She is growing great and seems to be right on track developmentally. She was 21 lbs and 4 oz (if I remember right) and 28 inches long, which puts her in the 75 percentile for both height and weight. She seems to be balancing out quite a bit in the chubbiness department.

She is officially crawling all over the place now. She is super curious about everything and wants to be in the middle of whatever we are doing. So, we have had to rearrange some furniture to keep her safe.

She doesn't like to be left alone however, so we have several areas around the house where she has a safe place to play. After she was very clingy yesterday, I took a peak at her gums, and I think we are working on some more teeth. She has two already, and her upper gums were sure swollen and white last night. Hopefully they will break through soon so she can be more comfortable.

Brandon and I bought a 75 gallon aquarium this past weekend and are working on getting it set up. We have been wanting a large aquarium for some time to merge our two smaller aquariums into one, and we found one in Rapid City this past weekend when we were Christmas shopping.

However, before we can set up the aquarium, I had to paint the living room. When we bought our house, two and a half years ago, the walls were just primed but never got painted. I have been wanting to paint the rest of the upstairs ever since. I figured that now was the best time to paint, so that we don't have to move the aquarium once it is set up. So...

I picked out a nice neutral color and Brandon's mom and I have been painting this week. Brandon, Brad, Amber and Brandon's dad have all pitched in to help the process and we are now about 2/3 done.

I am really happy with it so far. It has sure made the house feel finished...

Here is the new aquarium. Brandon painted the back wall black to help enhance the colors of fish in the aquarium and to hide all of the cords and tubes. The filter and filtration system should be here this afternoon so we can continue to get it set up. I will post pictures when we are finished.

Here is a picture of the living room after painting. Notice the aquarium in the corner.

We are hosting Christmas this year. Our tree has never had so many packages underneath it. It is fun to have a room full of gifts to open. Jack seems to like it too...we have chased her off of nearly half of the presents already, and they have only been in place for one day.

I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas. I will be posting throughout our two week vacation, so stay tuned for more pictures and stories of our adventures. ;)

The Abominable Snow Baby

Watch out....

here she comes...

the abominable snow baby.

We have sure had our share of cold days around here. It is sad when 20 degrees seems like a heat wave. Madi's snow suit is a little big still, but she is sure cute in it.

Other popular opinions on what she looks like in her suit: Ewok from Star Wars, or the Racoon Suit from Super Mario Brothers 3.

Pictures, as promised

Hi everyone, Madi here. I wanted to fill you in on all the happenings around here lately. My Grammy Hitt made me my Christmas dress, it fits perfectly and I will be able to wear it for a long time. Thank you Grammy.

My Grampa Hitt had a birthday a few weeks ago. We went next door to help him celebrate. I like spending time with my Grampa.

Great-Grandpa Hitt came down to help celebrate too. He sure seems to have an eye for me. :)

Here I am in my Santa dress showing off my walking skills. I still need to have some help, but if you give me your fingers, we can walk forever.

I like to pose for the camera. I start smiling and squinting when I see the camera come out. That flash is bright!

Don't take your eyes off me for a second, I am on the go and you better try and keep up.

Mommy and Great-Grandma Frisbie decorated the house last weekend. They set up a village with all kinds of bright lights and moving parts. It is really pretty and I like looking at it. They also set up a big tree in the living room, and lots of other interesting things around the house. I like looking at all the lights on the tree.

Aunty Amber taught me a great trick today...if I put my knees underneath me, I can move! I have been "swimming" to move forward for a while now, but tonight I came even closer to a full crawl. Won't be long before I can go where I want. Watch out Mommy, here I come!

I still love watching the dogs play. Tonight, I thought I would play along too.

Mommy and Daddy tell me that I am going to have a little sister soon. They showed me some pictures of her...I can't see much, but maybe you can pick out her profile,

or her fist punching Mommy,

or her foot, Daddy says the toes are pointing up,

or her spine and head in these two pictures.


Well, I am one tired little girl. After "crawling" around the floor all night, I am ready to go to sleep for the night. Mommy starting moving things around today in my room, I wonder why...

With love, Madi