Christmas, part 3

The Monday and Tuesday after Christmas, we headed to Southern Indiana to visit all of Josh's family. We had a nice little road trip and Daddy put his diaper changing skills to the test.First, Wren got to meet her Great Grandma, Mama.
Then she got to meet her little cousins, MaKayla and JulyAnn. We hope Wren is half as good as MaKayla because she's SUCH a good, sweet little girl! JulyAnn is about 2 months older than Wren and at the end of the visit, Wren got a little fussy. It was funny to watch JulyAnn, I'm sure she was wondering what all that noise was about! Meanwhile, she didn't make a single fuss the entire day! We're looking forward to when they're a little older to see how they react to one another.Josh, Pappa, Mama and WrenNext, Wren got to meet her Great Grandpa. He left a couple days later for Florida, so we're really happy she got to meet him before he left for the winter.

We left our first babies at home, so I made quick friends with sweet little Abby. She was a good cuddle buddy as Wren visited with everyone else. Here's Great Grandpa, Grammy and Wren

Then she got to meet all of her great aunts...Kathy,

Sandy, and Aunt Sis the next day when we went back to Mama's house, though I don't have a picture.

It was a nice trip and we can't wait until the next time we make it down there.

Overall, it was a blessed and beautiful Christmas with our little miracle!

Christmas, part 2

Here are some pictures from Christmas eve...

(Love that crying baby!)And on Christmas afternoon, we headed out to Josh's parents for lunch. After lunch, we opened gifts and this tuckered Pappa and Wren out so they took a nap together...Grammy made Wren the most adorable hat and it matched her coat beautifully. We think she looks like Strawberry Shortcake.And I wanted to get some outside pictures of Wren's first Christmas because it was actually a WHITE Christmas! It was so beautiful because the snow was fresh and hadn't been muddied up yet. It was chilly, but not TOO cold, yet Daddy was convinced that Wren would freeze solid before we headed in! He's so funny. After this, we headed to my grandparents' for the family Christmas exchange. I forgot to take any pictures there but Wren got passed around like a little hotcake.

Wren's First Christmas, part 1

I can't believe Wren's first Christmas is already over! It's kind of sad really! But we had an absolutely wonderful holiday. There were too many pictures for one post, so I'm splitting them up into a few.

We started decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving and Wren was just a couple weeks old. She basically slept through everything, but she helped Dad put the star on the tree. And she helped us decorate it (that sweet face makes me want to cry!)...
Skip to this week and she's a whole lot bigger!

Grammy and Pappa bought her a Christmas tree and we put it up in her room. I am so excited to begin the tradition of getting her picture under her own Christmas tree each year. It was a little hard to get her to cooperate but we got one, sans the cute Santa hat tree topper. (Note the little doggie that was feeling left out...this is Kowe's favorite spot, she sits there all the time and looks out the window.)And I love this picture so much because Wren is giggling at her Auntie. She was putting on a little smile show!True to tradition, we had Christmas eve dinner at our house with Shell, Dan and the boys and then we headed to church. Josh cooked a delicious meal and was actually off on Christmas eve so it made for a special day.

After church, the kiddos opened their Christmas jammies. Here's Daddy and Wren unwrapping hers! She looks thrilled...we called them clown pj's because they have a ruffle on the neck. They're really actually pretty ugly...so ugly they're cute!

And here's our big girl!

Then we took a picture with her cousins. Clearly the boys weren't interested in holding her so we had to just lean her up there before they bolted and left the poor girl hangin'!On Christmas morning, Wren pretty much slept through opening her presents. But we had fun! Here's our little monster with her cute new shirt from Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Lisa and Cousin Alex!Look at that ruffly butt!

We had such a special Christmas morning. Last Christmas was so tough for us, I remember that Josh pretty much forced me to go to church being that it was less than a week after our miscarriage. Last year, when we lit the candles and sang Silent Night at the end of service, it tore my heart out, and I remember that Josh and I just clung to one another. My, what a difference a year makes. This year, we were lucky enough to cling to our sweet little girl. We feel so blessed to be her parents. Every holiday is sweeter with her here and we are definitely excited to think about how fun next Christmas will be!

7 Weeks!

Wren is still making us smile all day, every day. She is starting to really "talk" to us quite a bit which is so exciting. She is still rolling over often and we're getting ready to get her Bumbo out so she can start practicing sitting up.

She continues to be a pretty good sleeper but definitely fights falling asleep during the day and evening. Over night, she eats and goes straight back to bed and most of the time, even if she's still awake when I put her down, she will grunt and talk until she falls asleep.

12 Days of Giving, Day 3

For Day 3, I wanted to donate to Food Finders Food Bank. I touched base with my friend who works there to see if there was anything specific that they had a large need for, and she said canned veggies/fruits, rice and pasta meals. So I picked up an assortment of pasta meals and canned food and also threw in some hot chocolate. I also remembered that she recently asked for donations of jello for a backpack program that they do for local elementary schools so I added some of those in there, too. I had hoped to raid our pantry for things that we could donate but didn't get around to it. Hopefully I can get organized now that the holidays are over and I can do that soon!

12 Days of Giving, Day 2

For Day 2, I participated in a game drive that Tippy Connect did for Hanna Community Center. Hanna is the organization that we are currently sponsoring, so the proceeds from our annual events like the 5k and Kickball Tournament go to Hanna. Throughout the year, there are efforts to support Hanna by providing things that they have a particular need for. In August, Tippy Connect did a school supply drive, where members donated school supplies at an After Hours and we were able to fill school bags for kids who participated in Hanna's summer camp. So as the year began to wind down, Tippy Connect asked Hanna if there was anything they had a particular need for and they said they could use games for the kids to play and balls for the kids to play football/basketball/etc.

I decided to stick with games: For obvious reasons, I didn't make the After Hours where things were collected, so I just dropped them off at Hanna.

6 Weeks!

...and still sweet as can be!

Sassy Ladybug!

We went to church with Grammy and Pappa on Sunday and our little sassafrass looked so adorable! She finally fits into her tights, so she decided she'd get gussied up and wear a pretty dress. Here she is gooing at Daddy:And here is our first (and only) family picture! Not thrilled to be in it but I realize that I'll be disappointed in years to come if we don't have any pictures of our family together.And taking a nap with Pappa:We went shopping with Auntie on Tuesday, so she got a chance to wear her cute little shirt. I love this outfit because it's like a mini-Christina outfit. Silky shirt with ruffles on the front and a cardigan...just like Mommy!And she had her first big girl bath on Monday night. Aunt Kathy and Uncle David got her a clawfoot spa tub and we wanted Josh to be here for her first real bath. Such a sweetie!

5 Weeks!

We caught a little smile on this week's picture!Our original babies wanted in on the action, too...

12 Days of Giving, Day 1

Last year, my 12 Days of Giving was so fun, but got cut off when we experienced our miscarriage. I knew all year that I wanted to do it again this year, so I planned a little more ahead and tried to get things together earlier. I'm still working on some of them, but I had my list pulled together and started collecting things that I would donate earlier on.

Again this year, I'm not necessarily spending 12 actual days, especially with the baby, but I have chosen 12 organizations and am trying to spread it out between this past weekend and the end of the year. My friend Tressa decided to join me this year, which was really exciting! So we created the list together and we're both focusing on giving back to 12 local and/or important-to-us organizations.

For Day 1, I volunteered at CUMC's Jubilee Christmas. This was the third or fourth year that I've done this with Shell and it's always so fun. The church joins up with Lafayette Urban Ministries to find families in need of a boost for the holidays. Then members of the church buy things for the children in those families, and the church also provides stockings, a basket filled with toilet paper, laundry detergent, and other essentials, a huge box filled with food for the family and even a giftcard to get groceries. There is also a "shopping" room where the families get to go and select toys for each of their children and there is a huge collection of gently used clothing for both children and adults that they can go through.

In the past, I've always been a wrapper. Each family is assigned one hostess and a wrapper. I love wrapping gifts, so I've enjoyed that in the past, but I was excited to change it up this year and be a hostess. It was really fun because I got to know the mom of my family much better than in the past. Her name was Brittany and she has an adorable little boy. She was really sweet and so incredibly appreciative.

As always, I was really touched by the entire day. A lot of people come together to make Christmas special for many many families. It's always a really fun day and I look forward to it all year long!

4 Weeks!

How is this possible?! Our little girl is a MONTH old! I loved this picture above even though it's a little blurry because you can see her little tongue. She's really starting to discover her voice, giving smiles more readily, and she has started to find her hands a little easier to get them in her mouth.

In a crazy fluke, she ROLLED OVER!! We're pretty sure it won't be happening too often, but she definitely did it all by herself! I had put her on her belly for some belly time and though she normally loves her tummy time, she was not happy about it on this particular night. So she was up on her elbows and I stood up to take her diaper into the laundry and she was kicking her little feet and making it known that she wasn't happy, when BOOP, she just plopped right over to her back! Of course, I screamed for Josh and he thought something was wrong. Nope--nothing wrong, just her rolling over way too soon!!! We feel like she might as well be leaving for college next week at this rate!

In other news, we had her 1 month appointment on Tuesday and she is now weighing in at 10 lbs., 2 oz.! Definitely not having issues in the growing department!

She still sleeps pretty much 4 hours at a time and sometimes goes 5 hours. One night she even gave me 6 straight hours! The nice thing is that it only means getting up once at night. I don't really feel too sleep deprived and we've been out and about quite a bit this week. She's starting to be awake a lot more throughout the day (unless she's in her carseat, in which case she zonks). I love her being more alert and sociable and am looking forward to her laughing and finding her voice a little more.

She also had her first bottle this week, which Daddy was happy to give her. She took it like a champ while I stood back and cried. It was a little early for my liking but I went in and worked for a few hours on Monday so Grammy kept her for the morning. So in preparation for that, Josh fed her the first bottle and then Grammy and Pappa fed her the next day.

Growing Girl!

We had a doctor's appointment this morning and I just had to post that our little peanut is definitely not having any trouble growing! This picture is of her first appointment with Dr. Miller. She was 6 lbs 11 ounces on this day (I think she was a week and a day old).

Today, she weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces!! Oh MY!!

Dr. Miller said that she was in the 27th percentile during the first visit pictured above. Today, she was in the 66th percentile!!

We joked that we're going to have to stop calling her peanut and start calling her walnut! We're so happy that she's nice and healthy and growing so well.