christmas!

Brandon and I have said so many times this year, "Christmas is so much more fun now that we have children!"  Seeing Christmas through a child's eyes is better than I could have ever imagined.  Lucas was totally into it this year.  From our neighborhood's Christmas lights to decorating our own Christmas tree to reading Christmas books and playing with his manger scene, he was all about Christmas all the time.

When we had Addy's newborn photos taken, our amazing photographer snapped this picture of our two sweet babies.  Immediately after she took the picture, she said "oh my gosh I just got your Christmas card picture."  And sure enough, bam.

Left you speechless, right?  Whew.

Lucas wrote a letter to Santa this year with Brandon's help...and I must explain the shark.  He saw a toy at Target that he named the shark.  It's a big bath tub boat with a cage that drops down into the water to catch a shark.  So it has been appropriately named "shark" when it comes to making Christmas lists.  And a cement truck and a fork lift?  That's all he talks about.  I love it.  These three gifts have remained constant, even when Lucas talked to Santa at the mall.  Santa is thankful for the consistency, little buddy!

MiMi and PaPa came to our house for a few days before Christmas and were able to go to Christmas at DPAC with us.  It was so fun!  Then Nana and Poppy came on Christmas Eve and stayed until we all left on the 26th to head to Asheville.  It was so helpful to have them here to help us get on the road for our first road trip...details to come in another post.

But for now, Christmas!

[Trying to get these two to both look at the camera is equivalent to trying to get a herd of cats to all look at the camera...yikes.]

So thankful our mantle has 4 stockings hanging on it this year.

Santa (a.k.a. Poppy) brought Lucas a Jeep.  A 2-seater so that he can have space for Addy one day.  Pray for us, please. 

 

 The long awaited cement truck!!!

And this is what happens when you try to get a picture of your precious children on Christmas morning in front of the tree after the eldest has gotten into his stocking candy.  The infant ends up with blue sticky rock candy on her head.

This picture perfectly sums up our Christmas day clan.  These are my people, and for them I am so thankful!

I am so thankful for this Christmas season and for the little Baby that came to earth to save me.  I pray that my kids understand the magnitude of Christmas soon, and grow to love the Baby who changed everything.

Merry Christmas, friends!

addy: 1 month

It's hard to believe our sweet Addy is already one month old!  She had an appointment with the pediatrician and pulled out all of her tricks, showing off during the appointment.  She held her head up like a boss and was so interactive with the doctor.  When I told the doctor that she had given us a few social smiles, our sweet pediatrician just smiled at me and nodded as if to say "sure sweetie...go ahead and think that she's smiling at you, but in all honesty those are gas grins."  I knew that was the sympathy smile and nod, and I also know that a baby's first smiles are gas grins...and I also knew that the grins we were getting were different.  And right on cue, Addy looked at the pediatrician straight in the eyes and SMILED at her!  I saw the pediatrician's face change and she said "oh you weren't kidding!  She just smiled at me!"  Yes ma'am, she did.  You're welcome.

Addy weighed in at 9 lbs, 11 oz.  She's still much smaller than her brother was at this age, but she is just like him socially. She's easy going and pretty predictable and rarely cries.  Her eyes are still mysteriously grey, some days hinting towards brown, other days blue, and recently hazel.  She's keeping us guessing!  And her hair is totally strawberry blonde!  We see the red mostly in her little expressive eyebrows.

My mom stayed with us for the first two and a half weeks after Addy was born.  She left on a Sunday and I had a pretty predictable meltdown in the driveway when she left, thinking how on earth am I going to do this without her?  She's superwoman, I tell you.  Cooking, cleaning, playing, and everything else all without batting an eye.  It didn't help that Brandon had to be at church all day in the day she left, so it was just me all of a sudden home with two kids.  She left during Lucas's nap time and when he got up from his nap we ventured out to one of his little friend's third birthday party.  I walked into the party with Addy strapped to me in the Moby wrap and Lucas tagging along beside me.  We survived the party and it was actually a really nice distraction, and when we were leaving Alicia (the birthday girl's mom) helped me out to the car.  After I buckled both kids in, she hugged me and thanked me for coming and called me super mom...and I busted out into tears in her driveway.  Typical, right?  I tell you these hormones...

The next day Brandon went to work and here I was again with both kiddos.  We survived!  That night we bathed both kids and collapsed into bed.  Please disregard the fact that even though we had two squeaky clean children in this picture, I had not showered that day.  Baby steps, people.

To catch you up on the first month of our baby girl's life, here are some more of my favorite pictures:

My MawMaw and PawPaw came to visit when Addy was 3 weeks old.  It is such a rare blessing for our kids to know their great grandparents.  

Addy girl, we love you so much!

addy: 2 weeks

It's hard to believe that our sweet Addy girl is two weeks old!  Time has flown by yet it feels like we have known her forever.  In looking back over pictures from the past two weeks and trying to pick out some of my favorites to share with you all on here, I failed in being brief...so, you're welcome for the overload of pictures.  

We can back up a little bit to our first pediatrician's appointment.  We got all dressed up and arrived (on time!) wearing a cute little outfit and matching headband.  It's a pointless act, really, to get all dressed up for the doctor.  Because they just make you strip the baby down as soon as you get there anyway.  But nonetheless, here's our pretty little thing at just 4 days old:

Wide eyed in the car, we still have no idea what color eyes she will have.  They are the mysterious gray...teasing us between brown and blue.  Like mama or like daddy, we will have to wait and see.  

She was a gem at the appointment.  Weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 oz, the doctor was pleased with her weight.  I immediately was surprised to see she had lost a few ounces since birth, but had to remind myself that is normal.  Lucas never lost any weight, he was always a moose!  

She still doesn't have much hair, but what she does have is light.  Are you going to be a blonde like your dad and brother, Addy?  What a little mystery you are!

The night after the appointment, we gave both kiddos a bath.  Lucas played in our tub while we tag teamed Addy on the bathroom counter.  

She screamed to high heavens during the bath until we flipped her over onto her tummy. She liked getting her back rubbed down.  High maintenance?  Maybe :)

After her bath was finished, Brandon took her to dry her off. Before he could get a diaper on her, she decided to christen him with pee down his shirt.  That's my girl!

Success! Two yummy smelling babes. 

The first two weeks have been filled with lots and lots of snuggles from the proud big brother.  

 

 

There has been lots of kisses and vying for the attention of Nana especially.  She has been so so helpful to give Lucas extra attention that her snuggle time with baby Addy has been pretty limited!  Lucas is quick to tell Nana to give the baby back to mommy...rotten.  

In other two week news, Addy naps in some pretty great positions. Most of them involving her hands up by her face...just how she posed for her ultrasound pictures and just how she entered the world. 

 

 

Her awake time is filled with her bright curious eyes, a love of tummy time, and a really strong head!

 

I could just eat those squishy cheeks up.

Addy girl, baby Addy, Addy Beth, whatever you are being called today, know that we love you to pieces.  You are beautiful and are the perfect addition to our family.  Happy two weeks!

tis the season to be thankful

Just a few days after we brought Addy home from the hospital, Brandon turned into Buddy the Elf and decided we needed to go and get our Christmas tree.  So we did what any good parents would do...we bundled up our 3 day old baby (yikes) and headed to the Christmas tree farm!  I say hey, it's our second baby.  Would we have ever done that with our first?  Not in a million years.  But YOLO, y'all.  

We went to Boyce Family Farms again this year and Lucas ran and ran through the rows of trees. 

He found an little bitty one that he fell in love with.

And found some little scraps growing amongst the big trees and went Charlie Brown style on it and gave it some love.

After we got our tree, I wasn't expecting to decorate the rest of the house quite yet. It wasn't even Thanksgiving, mind you.  And traditionally I think it's just plain old wrong to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  I was resting on the couch and closed my eyes for a little while, and when I opened them there were boxes of Christmas decorations all over the living room surrounding Santa's little helper, also known as my husband, grinning with the giddiest Christmas grin you've ever seen.  Now here I was, 3 days postpartum.  Decorating my entire house for Christmas isn't on my immediate to-do list, you know.  Instead my priorities involve trying to feed a baby and get up and go to the bathroom and shower by myself.  The struggle is real those first few days, and here I am looking at boxes of decorations.  

I didn't have to say anything, my face said it all.  My little elf then informed me all I had to do was point.  So I stayed on the couch and traffic directed my husband to decorate the house for Christmas.  And everyone was happy!

My mom candidly snapped this picture of us decorating the tree, and it just makes my heart sing.  Oh, how much we have to be thankful for, especially this year.  Lucas was totally in to decorating the tree.

 

Some of our sweet friends brought a gingerbread house for Lucas to decorate.  Poppy helped him build the house, I did the frosting, and Lucas placed all of the candy.  He was so meticulous with it, we sat there together for almost an hour while he worked.

Our other Christmas craft was painting letters to go on Lucas and Addy's stockings.  Lucas said that we had to put the letters on there so Santa will know whose stocking is whose. 

Brandon helped Lucas write his list to Santa.  This kid cracks me up.

 

And then there was Thanksgiving!  This picture of the 4 of us sums up the holidays pretty well this year.  Brandon and I look so so tired, Addy is just being a newborn, and Lucas is wild and ready to party.  Whew.

We had a house full for Thanksgiving and it was lovely.  We had Nana and Poppy, Uncle J and Aunt K, and Farrin and Hershey for a belated Thanksgiving.  We did a big dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was overwhelming to me to be celebrating with a new addition to our family.  

Happy Thanksgiving!