The Dimbath Family

Well if you haven’t heard, or you are just joining us the Dimbath Family has moved to West Virginia. We had a very busy Dec. and that is our excuse to the very late blog post. We have finally posted on Madison’s birthday, Christmas, and this entry will summarize our move. We loaded our truck Dec 31 and moved into our house on Jan 1st. It was lightly snowing on loading day in Ohio , and when we unloaded in West Virginia it was full blown snowing. But in West Virginia we don’t cancel things because of the snow! The gang that helped us unload were troopers. I wish I had taken a couple pictures to show the unload process but I was too busy directing traffic at the front door. We did get several pictures that week of the snow and Madison even had a play day in the snow. I think we had around a foot. Our first week here it snowed every day. And we’ve had several other snow storms as well. In our move Madison has found plenty to keep herself occupied with. She has really enjoyed the boxes. She can climb in and out of them, dig in them, stand on them and carry them around the house. Who needs toys when you have a house full of boxes. Madison has done really well in our move. Her first couple nights were rough and we’ve had some crazy days, but I think she has settled in and feels right at home. When we get ready for bed we’ll say we need to brush our teeth and she will immediately stop what she is doing and walk to stand by the bathroom door, its really cute! For Brian and I our move went fairly smooth with the exception of our troubles with Verizon. Each day we have learned to adjust to living as a family of three again and look forward to jumping into the swing of life in Oceana.

This year was our second Christmas with Madison, but I’m not really certain what she remembers of last Christmas. So it was a big year for her. It was really fun to watch Madison dig through her stocking (which was bigger than her). She even had fun with our stockings after we placed them on her feet. This is a Dimbath tradition. Brian remembers every Christmas putting their stockings on their feet, so we have passed this tradition on. We do have a mixture of pictures in the slide show. We had our Christmas first, then we traveled to my parents (Nana and Papa’s), then we finished our trip at Brian’s parents (Grandma and Grandpa). Sorry to pictures are so late, but I hope you enjoy them anyway!

In case anyone was wondering, we are still alive after our move to WV.  Unfortunately we still do not have phone and internet service at the house…after 3 weeks of waiting.  We will get some more updates on here from Christmas and our move when we’re able to connect with the world again!

This past Saturday, we celebrated Madison’s first birthday. We had a penguin themed party and the weather cooperated and brought us a good covering of snow to go with the theme. The majority of our extended family was able to brave the snow and celebrate with us. Brian spent most of the day Friday making the penguin cake for everyone to enjoy and a cupcake for Madison to destroy. Kelly decorated the house with snowflakes and penguins and made an incredible igloo cheese ball complete with penguins made of olives. Good thing we were going to keep it simple! We can’t believe how fast this year has gone and had a good time reminiscing of our adventures over the last year and all her developments. It’s amazing that a year ago she was born and now we can communicate with her, she signs, she is a pretty steady walker and is a full fledged toddler. We think she’s going to be 100% girl. She loves her new baby doll she got and carries it everywhere she goes. We can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.

Madison is now officially walking. She still reverts to crawling after several steps, but she is experimenting more and more with vertical movement. http://www.vimeo.com/7973739

Last week our family celebrated Thanksgiving together for the first time.  Brian and I enjoyed all the Thanksgiving food favorites and even tried a couple new ones (Dad’s fresh pheasant and my pumpkin cheesecake). Madison enjoyed her bread,which she loves- she could turn into a  little piece of grain,  sweet potatoes, and some fruit. What she did not enjoy was the turkey.  We tried several times but it was spit back out each time. There are some good pictures of her rejection in the slideshow. Madison also met her new cousin Elena last week. We were interested to see what she would do because she loves other kids  and really loves baby dolls.  But she wasn’t so sure about Elena. She stared her down several times and would try to touch her but when Dad was holding Elena and Madison both, she pushed Elena away. Hopefully they’ll become friends later.

Madison is getting much better at walking  and she is up to like 9 or 10 steps. Sometimes she looks pretty shaky or drunk , but she’ll either correct herself or fall.  We  are also enjoying some good laughs from Madison. I guess she is discoving some new looks, because she can give some of the funniest smiles and looks.

The last couple weeks have been fairly busy, but it is about to get much crazier. I realize the holidays are busy for everyone but this year we’ve decided to be really busy. We have Madison’s First Birthday on the 19th, several family Chrismas celebrations and and oh yea….we are moving! If you haven’t heard Brian and I accepted a position in Oceana, West Virginia at New Life Community Church.  Brian will be the Connection Pastor.  So on January 2nd we will be moving to the Mountians. Let’s pray for good weather.

We do want to thank everyone who has remembered us in their prayers this past year. They have been much appreciated and truly felt.  This year would have been much harder without the encouragement from you and the blanket of prayers we have recieved. Thank you, Thank you. We love you all!!

We’re getting ready to post an update from the last month but wanted to go ahead and get her 11 month picture up. Look closely and you can see her two bottom teeth.

Last night Kelly and Madison gave me the card they made me for my birthday and Madison was very interested in it.  She was standing up against the couch and reached for the card.  She took one step forward and tumbled to the ground.  We successfully replicated it several times, but by the time I got the camera she was getting very sleepy.  We were able to get one decent shot of her taking a step or two.  Sorry, it’s a little shaky.  She loves pictures of herself so we enticed her with a picture of her on my phone!  http://www.vimeo.com/7705327

So apparently in the craziness of our site being blocked by Google and recreating a new blog we forgot to post that  Madison  has teeth!  Her first tooth  appeared on October 5. We were so excited to feel that little white tooth even if it wasn’t in a normal spot. Her first tooth was the top left incisor.  Since October 5 Madison has been getting a tooth every two weeks.  Her second came the week of the 19th, the third came Nov 8th, and her fourth came just this week on the 16th.  So to date she has four teeth.  And I was worried she was never getting teeth. Silly me!!!  We’ve been trying to get a picture of it but she’s not being very cooperative.  If we get a good one we’ll post it.

We were finally able to get things back up and running with the site. We lost all the posts from our previous site so we’re starting over. Thankfully we didn’t lose any of our pictures! Fall is one of Kelly’s favorite times of the year so she took advantage of the great fall colors and staged a photo shoot with Madison. It was a little difficult as she was trying to set up the props, position Madison, take the pictures, and keep Madison from eating the leaves. I would say they turned out pretty good. Last weekend was quite a milestone as it was the first time that Kelly was away from Madison overnight – 3 nights! We were going to WV for an interview so it wasn’t exactly what we pictured for our first getaway alone. Madison spent the weekend at Nana and Papaw’s house with her cousin, Ann Elise. Needless to say, Nana and Papaw had a blast having both granddaughters for the weekend! Papaw even fed Madison…blueberries. There’s a good before and after picture. They say it all. For her first Halloween, Madison was a bumblebee. She has been fighting a cold so we didn’t take her out for trick-or-treat, but we did manage to go visit some friends the next day to show off her outfit. Over the last few weeks Madison has begun to associate words with actions. She can clap on command, wave hello and good bye, reach her arms up high (I like to say she’s signaling “touchdown”), point to her head and nose, point to mommy and daddy’s nose, and is obeying our “no ma’am”…most of the time. It’s cool to see her develop and begin to actually understand what we are saying. It’s hard to believe that in just over a month she will be 1 year old. The party planning committee (Kelly) has been meeting for weeks now. She loves to plan a good party.