Tuesday, January 18, 2011

...and we're back!

It seems like every one of my posts lately starts out apologizing for my absence due to being so busy. I won't do that this time...but, really, we've been busy! ;)

I guess I'll start off where I left off...Christmas. In a lot of ways, I can't believe it's only been about 3 weeks since then. It feels like a lot longer! We had lots of celebrations as usual (4 Christmases in all this year...I think in the near future we will be scaling back the travel and separate celebrations). On the morning of the 23rd we drove to Goldsboro to celebrate with Troy's side of the family. That was fun because a lot of that crowd had never seen her so she was a big hit. We spent the day with Troy's Mom's side which included his stepsister Ashley and her family. Lainey enjoyed watching her boys play and open things and all the shiny bows and paper. We were all spoiled with gifts and have been getting lots of use out of everything! That evening we went to hang out with Troy's Dad's side of the family since some of that crowd was heading out of town before Christmas Eve. They were all thrilled to see Lainey and she got some more good stuff. On Christmas Eve we headed back over to celebrate with Troy's Dad's side at the annual brunch that his Uncle Kenny & Aunt Marilyn host. It is so delicious!! After that, we had to pack it up and head on to Greensboro (with a stop at our house on the way to unload newly acquired gifts and grab the Greensboro gifts). We spent a relaxing Christmas Eve evening and Christmas day morning at my parents' house. It took hours to open presents!! Most of them were for Lainey from my sister (she is just a little spoiled by her Aunt Lala!). Once we finally finished, we went to Lexington to have lunch with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins on my Dad's side of the family. The best part about Christmas day though was the snow! I thought it was pretty neat that Lainey's first Christmas was a white one. But it did make for a treacherous ride home that evening. But it was such a pretty snow and was the perfect topping to the holidays.

Now, you'd think that with a 5 month old baby, that would be the end of our travels but I was just getting warmed up. We packed up and went home on Sunday but Lainey and I were just there one night before heading back to Jamestown. We spent Monday night and got up Tuesday and rode with my Mom to take my grandmother back home to Georgetown, SC. We just spent one night in Georgetown but got to see my aunt, uncle and cousins while we were there. Lainey hadn't been down there since she was 2 weeks old so it was fun for them to get to see her now that she's getting so big! Then it was back to Jamestown for a night and then finally back home for me on Thursday. Whew! Lainey and I were both tired after all of that but it was great having a 4-day weekend to rest up before heading back to work.

New Year's Eve was a new experience now that we're parents. We went nextdoor for dinner and to watch the ball drop. Lainey fell asleep on the couch and us adults had some champagne and watched the Dick Clark special (which was sad to tell the truth). Lainey woke up about 1 so we packed up and went home and all went to bed. So it was just slightly different from last year when we went out to a club (even though I was 12 weeks pregnant). But even last year I left at 12:05 and went home and went to bed so not too much different! Staying up is just not the same when you still have to get up to nurse your little piglet about 5:30 or 6 a.m. and then she is generally awake for the day.

So that was our exciting Christmas break! I will have to add in pictures later (because let's face it, that's really why you're here!). But more to come...there's been a lot going on! :)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Giggles & The Clown

Lainey started laughing the other day and it is the cutest little noise you've ever heard! So far she will only do it for Troy (because he's the only one who acts foolish enough to elicit her happy giggles). That makes him super happy though. He says that he knows she'll soon be doing it for everyone but for right now, it's all his. I tried to take video of it but of course she wouldn't do it when the camera was on so I have 3 minutes of Troy jumping around looking crazy and an amused but not laughing baby watching him. It was pretty cute though...take my word for it. Troy said when he heard it, it just melted his heart. He apparantly missed an Army conference call that he totally forgot because he was so into playing with her. He realized it yesterday morning but said he didn't care and that he would have jumped around all night just to hear her keep laughing. I'll keep working on trying to get video of it (and then figure out how to get that video on this blog).

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Quick update

Wow...has it really been since the middle of December since I posted on here? Things have been busy, needless to say. We had several rounds of Christmas including lots of travel. Then I had a nice 5-day weekend last weekend at home to just get stuff done and relax a bit. We put away all the Christmas stuff, I organized my closet and Lainey's and we shampooed the living room carpet. Do we know how to have fun, or what?

I promise to get on here and post a better recap of the holidays but to tide you over, here is some cuteness:



(This is what she wore on Troy's birthday)