A VERY Merry Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as parents was an amazing experience! I LOVE this side of things!!! Sarah Katherine had not really "played" with her toys before Christmas, but she chose Christmas Eve to start having some fun (perfect timing). We first went to Christmas Eve service at church where David sang and we got to go up front as a family and take the Lord's Supper. It was a beautiful service and really helped get our focus in the right place before any presents began. We came home and had dinner, then David read the Christmas story from our family Bible. Now that he is the "dad" of the family he got to read the story, which was really neat. Then present time began and we passed out the gifts we gave each other. Not too long after that it was Sarah Katherine's bed time - and time for some karaoke excitement (I got David a karaoke game for Wii - SUPER fun!). In the morning David had to go into work for a little while, so Sarah Katherine didn't get to break out her Santa presents until that afternoon.

The day after Christmas we left to go to south Alabama to visit my grandparents. My grandmother is really weak and wasn't able to come up to us, so we took Christmas to her. She enjoyed seeing the baby and visiting with us. I even cooked a few things (and they got eaten totally up - my cooking is improving!).

All in all, a wonderful first Christmas with the kiddo. I look forward to many great memories to come and am so unbelievably thankful to have such a great family to share it with. Our family is making traditions and becoming a little family unit of our own - this is a such an exciting time!

Here are a few pictures from the big day...

Aren't these Santa's darn cute?!

He he he, I got goodies!!!

Granddaddy - buy me a pony

Yeah Gram - sing me another song!

I totally made my grandfather hold her - he is kinda leary of the little babies. I promise she won't break! :)

Hello Santa!

After one failed attempt (Santa went on dinner break right when we showed up), Sarah Katherine got to meet Santa. She was super smilely in line, but after a 30 minute wait in line she wasn't so giddy. Don't get me wrong - no crying happened (thank goodness!), but she just wasn't overly impressed by the big guy. At least the first Christmas pic with Santa is chronicled for posterity, and maybe next year we'll get a smile. :)

Also, she has found her thumb and LOVES it. Here she is sucking away and staring at the Christmas tree - another new found love!

Merry Christmas!

We went to get our Christmas pictures made, and here they are! I think she looks mighty cute, but then I am pretty biased. :) I promise I am going to work on getting Christmas cards out (especially since the whole birth announcement thing did not happen - sorry!). By next year I'll have this mommy thing down cold and I'll be able to get all this stuff done sooner than the week before Christmas. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and takes time to think about the amazing gift that was Jesus. Merry Christmas!

3 months old - already a drama queen!

This was my full week back at work, and I have been able to work with no worries about my kiddo because her Nanna came to stay with her. They have had a great time playing and smiling and just having fun. This morning my mom in law took some pic's of our newly 3 month old gal running the spectrum of expressions.

From Crying...

To Smiling...

To Pouting...

To Laughing - all in minutes!!!

Thanksgiving Pic's

Here are some group shots from Thanksgiving showing the whole clan. We had a great time hanging out with them and letting Sarah Katherine get to know her super duper cousins!

The whole fam - let me tell you it's tough getting this many kiddos to be cute at one time. They totally pulled it off though. :)

All the grandkids together posing for Nanna.

Special Homecoming

A few weeks before Thanksgiving we went up to Tennessee to see my brother in law come home from Iraq. It was such a wonderful time together with family, and such a JOY to see him come home safe and sound. He got to come home for 2 weeks when his son was born, but then had to go back. The coolest thing was to see my nephew just studying his daddy - he totally knew this guy was important. Needless to say, we all boo hoo'd and just had a great day together.

The happy family reunited!

Our kiddos are 3 months apart, so they ate slept, and coo'd together.


My sis made us all T-shirts so we could be SURE our soldier knew we were super excited to see him. Imagine a dozen family members in matching shirts and posters - he is loved!

Here's our cutie in her outfit.

My first day back at work

Well, time finally came for me to go back to work. My twelve weeks flew by, and while the beginning was pretty tough it was worth it all. As I have heard from many, many moms - by the time you go back to work they will finally start being predicable and super cute. Sure enough, Sarah Katherine has been extra precious this week and has been "talking" to me and smiling her huge smile at me all week. Luckily my first two days back happen to be days when her daddy is off work. Since he is keeping her I am totally not worried. She LOVES her daddy time and he is super good with her. I got a glowing report when I got home this afternoon. All in all, the first day back went completely smooth. Work is going to be busy but not too crazy, and I know my baby is being taken care of really well. I am so blessed to have this all work out so well!!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

To start my last week at home, Sarah Katherine and I decorated for Christmas. I even dressed her up to get in the spirit! We are getting super excited to have our first Christmas with a kiddo. I am already having visions of Santa pictures with her crying profusely, late nights putting together complicated toys only to realize we forgot the batteries, and the ever popular statement "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake"! Seriously though, I am thrilled to have a precious baby and to see her little eyes light up at me. That is the best thing ever!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, baby's first Thanksgiving went great! Sarah Katherine didn't quite get to chow down on turkey and dressing, but she had fun anyway. We went up to David's parent's house and got to see Nanna and Grandpa as well as her aunts, uncles, and cousins. All three of David's sisters and their families stayed at the house so we got lots of time to hang out and play with all the kiddos. We even took the doggies with us, so this was our first FULL family trip. Even though the car was smashed full of stuff, we made it in one piece and totally sane.

Now that we are home I am starting to get Christmas things together since we are hosting this year. Also, I go back to work on Thursday, so the full time mom time is almost over. I'm getting all the smiles and kisses I possibly can before then. It's been wonderful being home with her, but I think I'll be ok going back - truth will be told in a couple of days though!