Our Holly, Jolly Christmas!

This is your warning:  very loooong blog below!  (But there are lots of pictures of a very cute baby to get you through it!)

Part 1:  Our House

Santa came early (and in the evening) for AR's first Christmas!

 

All of AR's goodies, except her little pinky ball and cd player

"Um, seriously, I don't wear this brand!"

Part 2:  My Side of the Family

We visited with Nana at the nursing home and she so enjoyed seeing AR

Playing with Cousin Pearl!

They only want what they other one has!

AR was sooo tired and wouldn't fall asleep so she cuddled with mama... which she never does!

Opening presents with daddy



Visiting with JJ



Uncle Clint helping to open some more presents

New bath toys from Aunt Katie and Uncle Clint!

Grand Daddy and Lovey opening presents

This girl loves her some Buddy

Before church on Christmas Day

Before leaving we had to make a stop and visit with Nannie!

 Part 3:  William's Side of the Family

This is what happens when we don't use a sleepsack!

Cousins by birth, best friends by [mother's] choice! haha

What really happens when trying to take pictures of them together!

Our family Christmas dinner

Grandchildren get to open presents first!

These girls love their great Grandmama!

Blue eyed beauties

Loving on Uncle Andrew!

Our only Christmas picture as a family

Meet my soon to be sister in law, Sarah!!  We loved having her with us for Christmas and AR is so excited to have another aunt!!

WHEW!  This blog actually took me all day, as I just added some here and there!  I hope you enjoyed sharing in our Christmas with us!  I plan to post another blog on our "thrifty" Christmas!!

8 Months

Here is our 8 month update!!

Stats at 8 Months:.

-no doc. appt, so we will have to wait until her 9 month check up to see how much she is growing!

What she's up to these days:

-uses rolling as her main source of transportation, which doesn't always get her exactly where she wants but gets her far from where she was!

-still sleeping 12 hours, give or take

-still nursing 4 times a day, 3 with solids

-pulling up onto her knees and onto her feet if you give her your hands to hold on to

-loves to look at herself in the mirror

-has more fuzz coming in on that head of hers!

-sits up without falling except for very rare occasions

-goes from sitting to her belly with no problem, just can't get those legs to crawl (which I am okay with, please take your time!)

-still takes 3 naps, though she'll sometimes skip that morning one if we are out running errands or she's in the nursery at church

-won't keep a bow on her head anymore which means I'm often told how cute "he" is... I just smile and go on

We can't wait to tell you about our first Christmas with this little girl!!  She's the best present we could have asked for this year!!

A Christmas Season of Copays and a Baby

Where to start?!  We have been keeping very busy this Christmas season!  I have come to realize that I really must get an earlier start next year with buying presents and planning our family activities!  Things have been so much different with a baby - errands are harder and more difficult to accomplish but the holidays are so much sweeter.  I don't think that AR got a normal morning nap at all last week due to the running around we had to do.  But she's a trooper and adjusts well for me!  For those of you who have a grandparent or two in town, know how blessed you are!

Last week I had to deal with a sinus infection(copay #1), which I blame on the Christmas tree... which is no longer with us :(.  A few weeks ago I had three moles removed (copay #2) and all came back atypical, which means not cancer but the potential to come cancer.  So now I have to go have more tissue from each area removed and they will only do one area at a time.  Monday I had the first one done(copay #3) and am feeling a bit sore today.  I dread having to go back two more times though!

I think William was a bit jealous of my stitches and therefore decided to turn his ankle Monday night.  We ended up at urgent care(copay #4) and it's not broken but he is suppose to see a orthopedic soon (which he says he won't do).  Right now he's in a boot but not using the crutches like he was told to do!  Now we are just waiting with excitement for all these bills to come in! 

Since our last blog we have:

Baked and decorated cookies.  William was a real sport and helped me so much!

Become more mobile!  AR rolls like crazy and is always finding herself in new places!

Tried to sneak a peek in a few gifts!

Slept like there was no tomorrow! 

Found a new love for bows!  (BTW, the hair bow was only attached to few strands of hair and lasted long enough for a couple pics)

That is one cute girl, don't you think?!

Wanted to know what Cousin Caroline was getting and if she was getting one too... and she might be:)

Our house before the tree came down: 

I keep seeing all these cute ways to wrap on pinterest, but I'm too cheap (and maybe too lazy) to ditch the bows!

The mantle... loving the window decorated for Christmas

Craft that Dani and I did via pinterest!

Our advent calendar that we really haven't done well with yet.  Will plan better next year, plus AR will enjoy and be able to do more next year!

Santa Claus and New Videos

We have been staying busy around here getting ready for Christmas and all.  It's quite different with a baby in the house and things have taken a little longer than usual.  The house is done but we haven't really started on the advent calendar like I had wanted.  I guess that's okay considering AR really isn't old enough for a lot of it anyways.  We did however get one done today and that was visit Santa!  I saw that he was going to be at our Chick-fil-A so I thought we'd give it a try rather than standing in a line at the mall.  I thought it might be a zoo at CFA but it wasn't and we actually walked in and right up to him.  She wasn't hesitate to go to him at all and seemed intrigued by his beard.

She's looking at her daddy here and was about mid smile when I took it.

 

The next picture is quite disgusting, but it has to be documented!  For those of you who have yet to enter parenthood, we promise it's all worth it!  ;)

Yes, that's what you think it is!  (Meredith, I hope you and Jack are ready for this!  haha!)

Here are a few other pictures since the last update:

Sitting in her portable high chair at Mr. Salsa!

 

Sleeping babies are absolutely the sweetest

 

She is playing with her "practice gift".  I thought it might be a good idea to give her a gift bag and fill it with toys so that she could practice pulling them out.  I heard Santa was putting her toys in bags this year to make it easier for her.

The latest videos:

I'd say we might have a crawler before too long.  She's starting to be braver about reaching to get things and figuring out how to use her arms to get her there.  This two videos show her progress.

Video #1

Video #2

We also have some major separation anxiety with mama. 

And my favorite - laughing at daddy!

Thanksgiving

We were able to celebrate AR's first Thanksgiving with both sides of our family and had a great time doing so.  On Thanksgiving Day, we took off for Lovey and Grand Daddy's house... that is after my sister and I hit up CVS for their Black Friday deals!  We had a good time seeing my family and missed the ones who weren't with us this year.

Visiting with Lovey and JJ

One of our trail runs for the family Christmas card... the sun was messing our faces up though

Below you will see the same picture, but can you figure out what is different?

 If you noticed, I had a bottom reduction... haha.  This was too funny not to share.  I had stuff a burp cloth into my back pockets and then pulled my shirt over it, not thinking I'd be standing sideways.  Thanks to my brother in law, Chad, for fixing this for us!!

Grandchildren have the ability to get anybody they want on the floor with them!

Playing with Grand Daddy

About to fall asleep on Aunt Katie

On Friday, we headed to Mimi and Papa's house.  Now that there are three grandchildren there is always something going on! 

When your grandmother is a former music teacher you play with rhythm sticks!  Grayson was especially loving our music time!

We also had bells so we could sing along to Jingle Bells of course!

Grayson loving on Abby Ruth.

AR with her Mimi and Papa.  She is wearing one of my old sweaters with a tiger on it.

Thanks to both families for housing us and especially for the fantastic food!  We enjoyed seeing everybody and can't wait until Christmas!!