Christmas Day in Georgia

Christmas morning was so much fun!  I have a feeling it is just going to get more fun as the years go on!  Children make Christmas magical!  

Adelyn was having the time of her life!

 Discovering the things in her stocking!

Out of all the things in her stocking, the chocolate was her favorite!

 Santa brought the older kids a bubble gun.  Adelyn was fascinated by all the bubbles!

Opening presents with the family!  Adelyn was definitely spoiled!

 Travis got the perfect gift/advice!  Never Say No To a Princess!

 Nathan

 Andrew

 Dad

 Christmas athletic clothes!

 Helping to take down all the Christmas decorations!

Thanks for a fun Christmas mom and dad!

Santa Baby!

I may have a slight obsession with taking pictures of my baby.  I just think she is so cute that I want to capture every move she makes.  Also, when she is a rebellious teenager I can look back at how sweet she was! 

Since this was her first Christmas, you know there is a picture overload!  This is from Christmas Eve. 

 Somehow, when you are a baby you can do whatever you want!  Mom let her open a present early!

  This is my favorite picture!!  She was so proud of herself for climbing on the box! 

She kept looking at me to make sure I was still watching!  Such a little ham!

 She was seriously so happy the whole time! 

  Testing out her new toy wagon.  She doesn't know what to think about it!

More pictures to come!

9 Months

For some reason, this seems like a big milestone to me.  Adelyn has now been alive longer than she was in my belly.  It is kind of weird to think about.  It seems like she has been part of our family forever!  It doesn't seem like I was pregnant for that long!

I think that 8 to 9 months has been my favorite age so far!  She is so much fun right now!  She is interactive, responsive and just downright happy!

At 9 months, she:

Loves to eat cuties, bananas, avocado, puffs, strawberries and anything that we are eating.  She is over baby food and love to eat people food! She still doesn't have any teeth though!

Loves to climb all over me and everything else she can reach, stand on everything, hang upside down, find every crumb off the floor to eat, put everything in her mouth, take baths and bang on the table and windows!

Likes to read books, play peek-a-boo and carry little toys in her mouth.

Does not like to be put in her carseat or sleep through the night anymore.  :(

Loves to make noises like dada and sing, smile and be the center of attention!

I love this baby girl to pieces! 

First Stop: South Carolina

This has been an exciting Christmas break with lots of family and friends!  We started off our journey on Friday evening after Travis got home from work.  We got off later than expected and ended up only driving halfway that evening.  Luckily, my best friend from high school lives in Knoxville so we got to stay at her house over night.  This was the first time she got to meet Adelyn!  I think they will be good buddies!

On Saturday we left early to finish our drive to South Carolina to visit Travis' mom.  She is living in Columbia for a year while serving a mission for our church.  She hasn't seen Adelyn since she was just a couple weeks old!  Adelyn loved playing with Grandma Barlow and exploring her home!

While we were there, it was 78 degrees!  I was shocked at how warm it was!  We even got to go out on a walk around the lake by her house.  It was a good break from all the cold weather we have been having in Ohio! Grandma Barlow was able to show us around Columbia and the office she is working in.

 We went to church with her on Sunday where they had the Christmas program.  Grandma Barlow played the piano for most of the musical numbers.  She did a great job!  The ward (congregation) was so tiny!  I think she said there are about 70 members!  There are over 250 members in Dayton!  I think we have more primary kids than they have total members! 

I LOVED the program!!  I told Travis that I want to have a new tradition of going to a small ward for Christmas Sunday.  Last year we went to one with my dad.  I just feel like the spirit is so strong there!  It always touches me how people are so willing to do anything, even if they aren't perfect.  The program was not musically perfect, but it was perfect because of the spirit that was felt!  It really touched me and helped me realize why we celebrate this time of year! 

Meetings in small wards just remind me that we go to church to worship our Savior.  We don't go to socialize or to get out of the house.  We go to feel the spirit.  Everyone in Columbia was so friendly and welcoming and talked about how wonderful my mother-in-law is!

Since Grandma Barlow did not get to see much family for Christmas, the family came to her through video.  Each sibling (there are 9 of them) was assigned a scripture about the believers spreading the word about Jesus' birth.  We could read/act out/ do whatever with it.  Travis' sister put it in a video to send to their mom.   

Here is the semi-final copy.  It is pretty long.  Adelyn comes on around 6:35. 

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=129a4e413cf88469d9ce82b&skin_id=3001&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

I love that the Barlows do fun things like this with their family!  We have all sorts of neat keepsakes to share with our kids when they get older.  

Merry Christmas Grandma Barlow!  Thanks for letting us come a visit!

Snow and a Tribute to Montreal

The past couple of weeks we have had some snowy weather here in Ohio.  Last week Travis had to go to the grocery store and he sent me pictures of empty shelves because when people here hear the words "winter storm" they think the end of the world is coming!  We did end up getting around 5-6 inches I think, but nothing too outrageous!

School was cancelled last Friday because of the snow and then again this past Tuesday because of icy conditions.  I can't complain because I loved having the day off to spend with Adelyn and get things done around the house.

Today church was cancelled.  This is only the second time I remember having church cancelled in my life!  The first time was when I was serving a mission for my church in Montreal Canada and we seriously had a blizzard!  This made me start thinking about my time spent in Canada.  I LOVE the people there.  We really should go back to visit since we are so close right now.     

Here are just a couple pictures from the winter time in Ottawa, Ontario and Montreal.

This is standing in our driveway.  We still went out and worked!

 I don't have a picture, but there is a machine that blows the snow into dump trucks to be hauled off out of the city.  The snow dumps have snow through May because there is so much!

 In the winter when the canal freezes, people skate to work.  Driving in the city is terrible and even worse in the winter so skating is the most efficient way to travel!  I think it is so cool!

This was the road the day before the blizzard hit.  I remember this day because as we were driving we saw someone stuck in the snow so we got out to help.  When we did, I somehow knocked our cell phone out of the car and into the snow.  We didn't realize it until after we got the lady out and left.  Miraculously, someone else found the phone and it was not damaged by the snow.  We were able to meet up with her and get it back!

 I love this picture!  You would see mounds of snow everywhere from the cars.  I wonder how many cars get damaged by snowplows because sometimes you couldn't tell if it was a snow drift or car!

I took this picture one Sunday after church.  This is the land right behind the church.  Snow makes everything look so pretty!

 The next day a bunch of the missionaries got together and played in the field.  We built forts and tunnels and did flips and had snowball fights!

 Looking back, I don't know how I survived the winters!  We were out pretty much all day in the cold, wet snow.  My first winter there was definitely way worse!  I think the coldest I actually experienced was -40.  I remember going out to our car one day and thinking, "it is warm today!"  Then when we got in the car I saw it wasn't even 0 Celsius.  That is when I knew I had acclimated to the cold!  I remember walking the street and feeling like my toes were wooden blocks because I could not feel or move them.  I would try to write our number on pass along cards and my fingers could hardly move.  I came home one day and my legs were on FIRE!!  The member that we lived with looked at my legs and said I had a mild case of frostbite!  I survived and it was all worth it!  I love Montreal and I love Canadians!   

Santa

One of the perks of living in a community are the community events.  There have only been a couple of things since we have moved in and for some reason or another we have never been able to make it.  When I got the email about Santa coming, I made sure to put it on my calendar.

The sales reps at the model home thought of the idea to have the neighborhood kids come in to get their picture taken in exchange for canned goods instead of money.  I thought it was a great idea and it keeps me from having to battle the crowds elsewhere!

Adelyn did great and everyone thought she was adorable!  I wasn't concerned about her crying because she loves people.  She did look at Santa funny at first because she has never seen a beard before!  After the initial shock, she gobbled up all the attention from the sales reps and camera lady.  She was smiling and waving and putting on a show!  Silly girl!

                             
 We hadn't planned on it, but they talked us into getting a family picture as well.  I am glad that they did!  Look at Adelyn's smile!  She was loving all the attention!

This weekend Travis and I ran tons of errands and did a lot around the house.  Adelyn just went with the flow!  I told Travis that this has been my favorite stage so far with Adelyn!  She is still my little baby, but she is starting to get more independent where she doesn't need me constantly.  In the car she would just entertain herself and when we did give her attention she smiled and giggled and melted our hearts!  She would just hang around the room we were in and watch us as we worked (sometimes trying to help).  It is just so fun watching her grow!  

Oh Christmas Tree!

Before everyone left, I wanted to make sure and get a Christmas tree.  Saturday afternoon was beautiful so we headed over to Fulton Farms.  Nathan went with us to help carry the tree and be a photographer!  It was perfect!

We walked around quite a bit to find the perfect tree!  We finally found the perfect one and the boys got to work chopping it down!

I only remember going to cut down a Christmas tree once as a child.  Maybe we did it more often and I just have a bad memory.  Apparently Travis thinks I had a deprived childhood and doesn't want our kids to be the same so he wants to cut one down every year.

 They had horse drawn carriages. 

 Looking for the perfect tree

 Getting Adelyn's approval!

 This is the one!

 Cutting it down.

 Glad Nathan was here to carry it out for me!

 First Christmas in our new house!

Adelyn loves the lights and decorations!  She has been pretty good about not touching everything now that they are up on the tree!

Thanksgiving Visitors

Not only did my family come for Thanksgiving, but we had some friends from college stop by to say hi too!  By coincidence, one of my friends from before I met Travis ended up marrying one of his friends from before he met me.  They live in New York now and were here visiting family.  We have not seen them in at least 3 years! It was fun to see that they have not really changed a bit.  We caught up on their lives and talked about our old friends. 

It is weird that we are all grown up with real jobs and kids now.  It seems like not long ago that we were young college students just living life care-free!  It was so great seeing them!

Thanks for stopping by to see us Ashley and Brett!  Carson is a cutie!