Christmas Update

Well, the festivities have come to an end and I must say that we had a fabulous time! Our Christmas started at my Dad's house on the 23rd for a visit with Grandma D's son Dan.

Abby meeting Uncle Dan and Amber for the first time

Abby in some of her Christmas attire

Gramps got Abby a Santa suit--we enjoyed our early visit with little Santa!
Amber's dog, Bear, has a suit of his own! So fun!!

Next came our Christmas Eve visit at the Johnson's. We kept it simple and had yummy pizza and salad from Benito's. This was a great idea because we had more time to visit and less clean up...I think we are on to something here! Anyway, here are some pics of the evening:

Abby and Nana

Here is a picture of Chrissy and Mark's kids:

Julia, Gracie, Connor and Brendan

Abby was in the middle of a 2 hour nap, we got lucky!

Chrissy opening gifts for her newest addition, due in May.

They just found out on the 23rd that they are having a girl--finally!! CONGRATULATIONS Chrissy!!!

The news of a girl is starting to set in...so exciting!

Opening Abby's gifts:

With a little help from her cousins :)

We had hoped to make it to the 6:30 Christmas Eve Mass, but Abby slept too long. So, we decided to go to the 10:00 Mass thinking Abby would sleep through it since it would be way past her bed time. Boy, were we oh-so-wrong. I hung out in the hall for the last half...maybe next year we will make it through it!

Here is Abby with our friend Erin before Mass started.

Needless to say, Abby was super sleepy and we had a bit of a rough night. She has started to come down with another cold and was a bit "Snarphy" so I suctioned her nose after feeding her...BIG mistake, Huge. When I laid her down, boogers shifted and she started to gag. Next thing I know there is a stream of vomit spewing from her mouth, across her mattress and down the side of the crib and her cute Christmas sleepsack. Most of you realize how hard it is to change crib sheets so you completely understand having Abby sleep in our bed for the night.

Christmas morning was the best! Abby slept in til 10 which gave me time to shower and make breakfast before our festivities began. Since we have our own kids now we decided that we will be staying home on Christmas Day. I took full advantage of this and bought all of us new PJs to hang out in for the day, which was great. I think we are going to make this a little family tradition!

Abby and Daddy in their PJs in front of the big tree

Since we are staying home on Christmas Day, we decided that part of our new tradition would be inviting our parents over for a visit if they would like. Both our parents decided to take us up on the offer, though the Johnson's were not able to make it because MJ's dad wasn't feeling so well. My dad and Dara came over about 11:00 and much to our surprise, they were not alone:

Here are some of the pics from our visit with Santa:

Truly Priceless!!

Since my mom is in Virgina, we Skyped her and chatted for about an hour. I love the Internet and modern technology--it makes keeping our long distance family informed so easy and fun. Sometimes it is like Grandmama is right here with us!

Well, our Christmas fun continued on the 26th with a family visit to my Dad's house. Dara made a great turkey dinner with all the fix'ins as well as Christmas cookies and chocolate pie. Yummm!!

Here is Peanut in the reindeer outfit from Aunt Wendy. So cute!

Abby and Aunt Wendy:

Gramps got Abby a GIANT stuffed caterpillar who he named Sir Webster of Oxford (Webster because he has the alphabet running down his back). Webster is about 8 feet long, super fluffy and very colorful.

Abby loves Sir Webster already!

Our Family

(Sir Webster is in there too!!)

Santa was a very busy man this year! He managed to have time to show up to this Christmas celebrations as well! And yes, his reindeer were there too! I think my brother and sister enjoyed the visit as much as we did the day before!

One Last Grab at Santa's Beard:

All in all this was a PERFECT Christmas! It was great to be able to share Abby's first Christmas with our entire family so they could be part of the memory and joy that this special day brought (and I'm happy to share it with you as well). I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas tool!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I'm working on a little video of our day and visit from Santa himself. Keep an eye out for an update to this post!


Merry Christmas!!

Rolling Update

It is SUPER official now! Abby just rolled over, on her own--without a single squeal or complaint! No push from mommy (I was busy wrapping Daddy's Christmas presents), no uneven floor to assist! Totally on her own! I can't tell you how happy I am to be home to witness this for myself! Marisa, if she has done this before at your house....don't tell me, just let me live in my little world of happiness ;)

Abby, Mommy is so VERY proud of you!

Visit with Santa

One of the best things about having a child is reconnecting with the magic of Christmas. I can't tell you the last time I went to see Santa or the joy that the visit brought me--seriously, it has been that long. All that changed last week when we took Abby for her first visit with Santa.

I was a little scared because I wasn't sure how it would go. You know how you always see the babies crying on Santa's lap out of fear? I thought there was a good chance that that would be Abby--I assumed the beard would scare her. But, the mall was 45 minutes from the house so Abby took a nap on the way there and then was all smiles from the moment she saw Gramps and Aunt Wendy (actually she stared at Wendy for awhile trying to figure her out but then it turned to more smiles). Michael and I quickly put her dress on and took her to see Santa while Gramps caught it on the video camera.

Abby went to Santa without a single complaint. Actually, I think she enjoyed her time and conversation with him. Santa told her all about leaving out some Chocolate Chip cookies and a big glass of milk for him to snack on while filling her stocking and she just sat and listened with a smile on her face. Then, Santa talked to Michael and I for a bit. I was amazed with the twinkle in his eye, joy in his words and love in his heart. Santa truly made this a memory for a lifetime and not just another picture.

So, without further adieu, here is a picture of Santa and Abby:

OH Pics

What a fun weekend! I think that Abby and Kate are going to be good friends--Kate just loved to be close to Abby and got sad when she left the room. It was so cute! Here are a few pics of our bow-loving babies:

I love the big bow, thanks for lending it to us for the day! I'm going to have to order some big ones for myself.

Michael and I had a good time catching up with Ande and Ben. I can't believe that we haven't been down to see them since before MJ popped the question! Here is Abby and Ande:

Here is Kate with her fish finger puppet book. She sure did love to try to grab the fish as it swam. So cute!

A big Thanks to Ben and Ande for letting us stay at their place and for the chiming bells--Abby played with them all day today!!

OH, OH, OH!

Hello from Median, Ohio! We are here visiting with our friend Ande and her little girl Kate--you might know them from her blog. We left late last night (so Abby would sleep on the way down) and got here about at about 11:30. We visited for a bit then hit the hay. Today, we are hoping to eat at The Cheesecake Factory then do a little site seeing. Pics of the day will be coming soon!!

Check Your Mailbox

Our Christmas cards were mailed today!!!!!!!! I can't wait for you to see them! We decided to go all out on our Christmas cards since we didn't do birth announcements and I must say they turned out pretty good! I'm posting some of the rejects from our photo shoot as to not completely spoil your enjoyment of the card...Abby was clearly annoyed by her teething, she wouldn't stop sucking on her lower lip or fingers and the drool was a bit out of control at times. Oh well. Check out the cuteness:

Chillin' in the "snow"

Yummy Finger

Chewin' My Lip

Found My Toes!

When Did I Grow a Beard?

Are We Done with Tummy Time Yet?
I'm Gonna Roll Over and Nap Now, K?

Needless to say, by this point she is ready for a nap. Still, so cute!

Roll with it

Abby is starting to get the hang of rolling over! It has been a slow start since she used to hate being on her tummy. But she is learning to deal with it and manages to hang out on her tummy for 3-5 minutes at a time. We have been working on rolling from front to back, but usually she gets too mad, arches her back more than I have ever seen and forgets to try to roll. So, like a good mommy I gently push her hip to show her how it is done.

Well, today we were taking some pictures with her on her tummy and of course, she rolled over 3 times! Of course she did it the one time I really didn't want her to! I must be honest, she had a little help from the uneven surface she was laying on, but hey she did it without mommy's little push :) So, I declare today as the first time she rolled over. I tried to get the next one on video, but needless to say, it was back to the old ways. Oh well, consistent rolling will be here in a week or so!!

Momma Needs a New Job

So, this week is what I call my "Week From Hell". It happens the second week of the month, from August to May. No, it has nothing to do with the reproductive system--that would be too much information!!!

This is the week that I have my night meetings for work. They start at 6 p.m. and run for 3 hours on average. Then I get to drive home-read 10 to 30 more minutes. I start the week in Oxford, then Wednesday I'm in Brandon, and Thursday I attend the meeting in Clarkston. Luckily, this year I had Lake Orion switch their meeting from the 2nd Tuesday to the 1st Tuesday of the month, so that helps break it up a bit. I hated this part of my job last year--and this year I loath, despise, and detest this part of my job. I hate that fact that 3 nights this week I will have to miss my evening with Abby. It is so sad to not be able to spend the end of the day with with her, cuddling in the rocker after a good feeding while singing our lullaby's. I just have to remind myself that it is only 4 nights of 30 each month...that is until I have to do a training or a committee meeting.....

Thankfully, I get a break in June and July. Working is for the birds--hope I win the Millionaire Raffle in January.