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!

Thanksgiving 2013!

I had the best Thanksgiving that I can remember in years!  We thought that we would be spending Thanksgiving without family again this year.  When my brother heard Adelyn wouldn't be coming down to Georgia, he suggested that everyone come to my house.  I was up for it and everyone agreed to come!  Only, no one knew that Lindsay and her family were coming.  They weren't planning on it originally but they liked the idea of surprising everyone and they heard we were frying a turkey and couldn't say no!  This is the first Thanksgiving that everyone has been together in 12 years!!  That is a long time!

The 2 months leading up to Thanksgiving were the LONGEST 2 months EVER!!  I am not good a keeping surprises because I get so excited about them!  I was about ready to burst!  I kept my mouth shut to my family and everyone was shocked to see them!

 Everyone ended up getting here a day earlier to beat the storms coming from all directions, but somehow missed Ohio.  My parents and youngest brother got here literally less than 2 minutes after I had gotten home from work.  We got their car unloaded and them settled.  Once again they told me how sad they were that Lindsay couldn't come.  I resorted back to the fact that Owen had school until Wednesday and that there was a storm coming in.  I even told her about how a teacher from my school cancelled her plans to drive to New York for the break because the weather there.  My mom finally accepted the fact that it was ok they weren't coming.  My dad fell asleep upstairs and my mom and I came downstairs.

 About an hour later, my sister texted as they got off the exit.  I made a bottle and started feeding Adelyn so my hands would be full when the doorbell rang.  When they got here I said, "Oooh, that must be my package!  Mom, can you get that for me?"  Little did she know it was Lindsay and the boys!  As she walked to the door, I followed.  She turned the corner and said, "I don't think it is your package.  It looks like some..."  She stopped mid sentence and her mouth fell open.  She just stared at Owen and Sam as they looked back at her through the window.  She dropped to the floor crying.  She couldn't even unlock the door she was shaking so much!  I let the boys in and they gave her big hugs!  My mom was speechless!  She finally got out a shakey "Michael" to have my dad come see.

My dad came to the top of the stairs and I said Merry Christmas.  The past month as we have been talking about Christmas gifts, he kept telling me that the only thing he wanted was for all of his family to be together.  His wish came true.

 Thanksgiving Crafts

 Later, my mom told me that at first she thought the kids at the door were Leisy's boys.  Dad told me that he saw Frank and knew it was him but it didn't register until he saw the other two boys.  It was a such a great surprise and I am so proud of myself for not spilling the beans!  I wanted to tell sooooo badly! 

Nathan got here on Wednesday night and everyone was finally together and the fun began! 

These two loved having someone their size to play with.  Adelyn was amused by someone being her size and constantly watched Frank. 

 Frank liked being able to pick on someone and not be the one being picked on!

On Thursday we fried a turkey and had lots of yummy food.  Luckily I had lots of help in the kitchen since I don't love to cook.

 The table Travis made was perfect and fit all the adults!

On Friday the guys went to the store and somehow they all came back empty handed except for Travis.  He bought a TV.  He has been eying one for a while!
 Then they had their annual ping pong tournament.  Look at their faces.  They mean business!

Owen was amused by the adults playing and getting so into it and yelling!

The rest of the time we spent most of the time hanging out around the house spending time together.  There was a lot of playing and running and napping and eating and talking!  We did watch Despicable Me 2.  I love that movie.  I may name my second daughter Agnes because I think she is the cutest! 

It was so great spending time with family!  Adelyn loved all the attention and entertainment!  She always had someone she could watch and the boys loved to make her laugh.  The day after everyone left was pretty rough because she wanted me to entertain her all day.  Luckily she is back to normal now!  I am looking forward to seeing family again at Christmas! 

Early Gift

For Christmas, we got Adelyn one of those sit-to-stand toys to help her learn how to walk.  Lately she has really been showing interest in learning how to walk so we decided not to wait until Christmas to give it to her.  She doesn't know the difference anyways!  So on Saturday, we put on the Christmas music, wrapped her present and let her go at it!

I had so much fun watching her.  She didn't really know what to do at first, but she did know that she wanted whatever it was and went for it!  Travis made the first little rip and she tore the rest off to discover the bright colors under all the paper!
I love the pure joy in this picture!! I just want to squeeze this little face!

 Once we got all the paper off, she climbed up onto the box to get a better look!  It was so cute!  It made me so happy that she liked it so much!  She kept spinning the little wheels. 

We gave her the wrapping paper to distract her while we put it together.  It was just as fun!

After pulling the pieces out of the box, I remember making this comment to Travis.  "It's a good thing you never read directions because they are all in Spanish."  I didn't think anything else about it.  I put the toy together while Travis went in search of batteries.  A few minutes later he came back down and greeted me with, "Aaammber (said like your mom says to you when you are in trouble), did you buy this toy online?"  I was confused and answered yes.  He pressed a button and the toy only spoke in Spanish.  haha.  We went ahead and showed it to Adelyn anyways!  She loved it!

 I contemplated keeping it because I would love for her to learn Spanish, but I am going to send it back and get an English speaking one so I can understand it!  At least we know that she likes it!  It looks like she may have to wait until Christmas after all!
I love her face in this picture!  I wish it wasn't blurry!

It is so fun experiencing things with her for the first time!  It is snowing right now.  We may venture out for her first snow adventures tomorrow if it sticks!  Then we will prepare for her first Thanksgiving! It is such an exciting time of year!

Amazon

Somewhere between Utah and Ohio, I misplaced my camera charger.  I kept asking Travis to order a new one from Amazon for me for a couple weeks but he kept forgetting.  Finally he told me to do it.  I have never ordered anything from Amazon so I needed help.  He did not know what a BIIIGGG mistake he was making by making me do it!

After finding the charger I needed, he showed me how to order it.  All I had to do was sign into his account and everything was there.  The mailing address, billing address, credit card information, everything!  All I had to do was click check out!  It was so easy! 

Needless to say, I have found a new favorite thing to do!  I love shopping, but this is even better!  I can get reviews at the click of a button, I can look up the best deals, I don't have to get up and get dressed and it is delivered to you!  Who doesn't love getting mail/packages?! 

I am excited to do some Christmas shopping and avoid the crowds!

Christmas Music

Well friends, it has already happened.  Yep, that's right.  I have started listening to Christmas music.  Not today, but a couple weeks ago!

In my family, the tradition is to wait until after Thanksgiving to start listening to it.  Let me tell you how it all started this year.  One day as I was driving home, Adelyn got super fussy!  I tried every radio station and they all were in the middle of a commercial.  I don't turn it on often, but I decided to turn on the CD player.  It happened to be the Josh Groban holiday CD that was still in from last Christmas.  Adelyn immediately stopped crying! Now anytime she starts crying I turn it on and she stops.  We have even started playing it in our home.

Just to clarify, I am not skipping Thanksgiving!  I am more excited for Thanksgiving this year than any year in the past!  My family is coming here and I can't wait!  My life truly is so great right now and I have so much to be thankful for!  I have a perfect to me family, good job, amazing friends, nice house, monetary stability, good health (for the most part-that is another post) and so much more!

This has made me think about a couple things though.  First of all, Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only time of year that we give thanks for our blessings.  We should be thankful all year round!  On a daily basis, I realize all that I have been blessed with!

Second, I think we would all do well to listen to songs about Christ more often.  We aren't listening to Santa Claus is coming to town or Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.  We are listening to Oh Holy Night and Silent Night.  I think that is part of the reason that Adelyn settles down during these songs is because she can feel the spirit.  I have found that I am in a better mood and turn my thoughts towards Christ and giving when I am listening to this music.

So, to all the Scrooges out there (cough, Jake, cough) I do not feel guilty to listening to Christmas music and will gladly sing along!

Crawling!

Adelyn has started crawling!!

I know those experienced moms will laugh at my excitement because my life will be changed.  Now I have to make sure and keep things up off the floor and worry about her eating things she isn't supposed to.  It is time to start baby proofing I guess.

I think it is so cute though!  She is much happier because she can get what she wants on her own and she doesn't have to rely on me as much.  I love when she crawls over to me and lays her head on my feet or legs.

Here she is yesterday.  I consider this her first real day.  It is the first day that she crawled across the room without stopping.  I am so excited and proud of her!

Sorry it is sideways.  I can't figure out how to rotate it.