Wordless Wednesday = Highchair Play Time

...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! :)

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).

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)

The Seasonal Rush

Man, it's been busy lately! Sorry for the absence on here...there has just been too much going on. We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving recovering (well, at least I did). We also gave Lainey her first taste of oatmeal (first taste of anything besides my milk!) that Saturday after Thanksgiving. She made a few weird faces but she did great with the spoon (she kept wanting to grab it) and the whole feeding thing. Troy would go, "Ahhh!" and she would do it too and he would stick the spoon in her mouth. Voila!



She gobbled it up but then she had a rash the next day so we waiting a little over a week to try again just in case it was a reaction to it (it wasn't). We've only given it to her three times but she seems to like it okay. And that old theory that it makes them sleep through the night is so not true. That hasn't worked at all for us!

On December 4th Lainey saw her first snow. It was the perfect kind...the trees and grass were covered in white but the roads were clear. My Mom had come up to do some shopping with me and it was perfect to put us in the Christmas spirit!



Somehow, I have managed to get our house decorated for Christmas. I love this time of year and I love Christmas stuff so I always like to get the house decorated right after Thanksgiving to enjoy it as long as is reasonable. And since Lainey is still so little, there's no need to childproof so I could put out all the usual stuff. Here is our tree when it was nearly done (we did eventually get out the real tree skirt...the cat was just a stand-in).



What with everything going on, we have been tired! We've had shopping, parties, decorating, cleaning (okay, not really)...you get the idea...we've been busy! That will really wear you out.



But with everything going on, we did make time to go see Santa yesterday (despite Troy's concern that his lap was a breeding ground for germs). The line actually wasn't too awful and everyone in line was very nice and patient. I think the holiday spirit was actually rubbing off on some people! Lainey took a nap in her stroller so we had to wake her up when we got close to the front of the line. When we plopped her in Santa's lap, she just looked around. She wouldn't smile but she didn't cry and that was good enough for me. Instead she just looked at us like we were crazy (because, well, we looked crazy...us and Santa's "elf" shaking bells and a light-up Rudolph trying to get her to smile or look at the camera). But I think the picture turned out really cute and she was so cute in her dress that her Aunt Kristen got her!



And finally, be sure to bundle up...it's cold outside!

Thanksgiving Recap

Well...we made it (mostly). It's a good thing Lainey won't remember her first Thanksgiving because it wasn't terribly memorable. I ended up getting strep throat but had to suffer through the holidays undiagnosed which wasn't pleasant. I yo yo-ed between freezing with chills and sweating out fevers. My throat hurt so badly that I wasn't even much in the mood to eat. We came home from Goldsboro on Friday and I sacked out on the couch for the weekend while Troy did stuff around the house. It was actually really nice...just snuggling on the couch with my baby. We put our tree up and turned the fire on and it was very cozy.

So now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it is full-speed ahead to Christmas! It's just a little more than 3 weeks away and I am not even halfway through with my shopping. But this is my favorite time of year and I am excited that we have a baby to celebrate this year. She may be too little to be all excited Christmas morning when she gets to open her toys but her Daddy will make up for it. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are excited about Lainey's first Thanksgiving. She can't really enjoy the food this year but it's the holiday for her favorite toy, Durkey (we can't tell if it's a duck or a turkey but she loves it. I'm sorry I don't remember who got it for her but thank you!!). She's also been enjoying some arts & crafts with April:





I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving! From our turkey to yours. :)