Addy's First Christmas

Christmas 2011 was a big one. Not only was it Addy's very first Christmas but it was also the first Christmas in our new house and our first time to host Christmas dinner!

Originally, my parents had planned on coming up Friday to spend the weekend with us, but they got snowed in! The road from Las Cruces to Albuquerque was closed and it continued to snow almost the entire day in Cruces. If you are from anywhere near New Mexico, you might know that this NEVER happens! Only a couple hundred miles north, we were enjoying one of the sunniest days we'd had in weeks and my parents were snowed in.  So, instead of going to see the River of Lights, we dressed Addy in her Santa suite and went out for Indian food.... and painted our entire bedroom. (Photos to come!)

My parents were able to make it up Christmas Eve and joined us for the Christmas Eve service followed by a little get together at Matt's parent's house.

 

 Showing off her new Jacket and hat from Grandma.

Christmas Eve at my in-laws. You can't tell in the picture but that's a ginormous, 12 foot tree that my Mother-in-law surprised us all with. Also, my shirt has a reindeer on it... cute right?

On Christmas morning we woke up and found that Santa came and left Addy with her first top tooth! Poor thing was super snuggly that morning and not quite herself the whole day.

Those cute pj's were a gift from Matt who re-created one of my family's traditions of getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Momma got a pair too.

Side note: In a previous post I might have referred to Matt as a wanna-be Grinch. I am going to have to retract that statement. He's not a Grinch at all.

These cute little bath animals were another gift from Grandma and the one of her favorites. She carried one in each hand all day long.

Christmas!!!!!!!!

My brother and sister-law weren't able to make it down to Albuquerque this year. They were missed but we were able to skype them for a while. Addy opened her gift and showed off her mad peek-a-boo skills.

 

Boo!
(I don't know why this picture won't get any bigger. I've had some technical difficulties today)

Your first Christmas is pretty stressful and even more so when you're teething. Snuggling with Grandpa makes it better.

See, all better.

I gave a lot of handmade gifts this year and everyone was such a good sport about it. My parents even said they were hoping to get one of my crocheted beanies. My Dad was pretty excited about his as you can see.

Christmas Playtime

Matt's family joined us Christmas night and Addy got to open another round of gifts. This teddy bear used to be Matt's and now it's Addy's. Such a sweet gift from Grandma Ree!

Cousin Cater came over too. Addy tried to help him open his gifts.

He's such a handsome little man.

Well, I'm pooped! It was a fun filled weekend and I haven't even told you about our Cajun Christmas dinner. You'll have to come back tomorrow for that post. :)

The Weather Outside is Frightful....

It looks like a lot of New Mexicans might get a white Christmas this year!

On the Today Show this morning, they kept talking about winter storms building up in the west. If you were watching, did you notice how all those clouds were right over New Mexico? It snowed almost all morning here, big fluffy flakes. There are winter storm warnings in almost the entire state and Steve Stucker, our local weather man, suggested not going anywhere unless you have to and to stock up on food for a couple of days. Uh oh!

Why does all our winter weather come on Grocery Store Day?

Watching the snow come down

I wasn't planning on being stuck at home today and I'm finding myself fighting to be joyful, remembering that I really have no reason to be grumpy.

There's a roof over my head

I have a heater, fireplace and a space heater to keep Addy and I warm all day

My hubby doesn't have to work out in the snow and

In less than a week we will celebrate Christmas with my family and the birth of our savior

now that's really a reason to be joyful!

Joy to the World

Addy has been a fan of peek-a-boo for a while now. She would giggle and giggle when her Dad and I hid behind the counter or a wall and popped out suddenly. Recently, she figured out how to play peek-a-boo on her own and it's the silliest, cutest thing ever. She will duck down behind pretty much anything, her pink car, an ottoman, the computer screen and pop back up suddenly. Most of the time, there isn't anyone on the other side to say "boo!" but it still makes her smile and keeps us laughing.

The video below might not bring joy to the world, but it brings a smile to my face every time I watch it. 

On an even happier note, I've been thinking about the song Joy to the World today and I've decided I really like it. What a great reminder of the joy, the hope and the salvation we have in Christ. I've included a few of the lyrics below. Enjoy!

Joy to the Word, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room.
Joy to the World the savior reigns!
Nor more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love.

Scary Ghost Stories

I came up with a great idea; I'm going to use Christmas song lyrics for my post titles until the 25th. It's already proving to be a challenge. I couldn't come up with anything good for this post but I've had "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" stuck in my head and I've been wondering, who really tells scary ghost stories at Christmas?

Anyways......

It's been pretty quite around the blog this past week. 

I've been busy making pretties like these:

 And wrapping them in packages like these:

I've gotten all my Christmas wrapping inspiration from Pinterest. Isn't Pinterest great? It makes me feel so creative when I am really just stealing ideas from other people.

I've crossed a lot of items off my list so hopefully you will see more of me around here this week.

Happy Monday!

Addy is 9 Months Old!

Miss Adelyne turned 9 months old on Friday!

Addy is more mobile than ever these days which makes our monthly photo sessions pretty challenging. Mr. Monkey and I both got a little frustrated and decided to call it quits a early this time.

So, this month, I thought we would do something a little different and show you a glimpse of what daily life is like with this smiley 9 month old.

Mornings are usually pretty relaxed for Addy. She plays in her pj's while I eat breakfast. I moved some things around in the kitchen so she could have her very own cabinet, full of tubberware and other plastics. She loves it.

 
A basket full of toys and what does she want to play with? An empty cardboard box.

Sometimes I let her play in our closet while I get ready in the morning. She climbed up on this box all by herself.

Mommy and Addy both love nap time. On most days, she will sleep for two hours in the afternoon, sometimes longer if we're lucky. On those days, she wakes up with rosy cheeks and some awesome bed head.

We've been experimenting with bows lately, her hair is just barely long enough. 

 Evenings must be her favorite time of the day. And why wouldn't it be? Dad is home and she gets attention from both of us, playing peek-a-boo (her favorite game) reading books, and getting lots of hugs and kisses.

We are so lucky to be her parents.

HAPPY 9 MONTHS ADDY GIRL!

Snow Day

Sometime between 10:30 last night and 5:30 this morning, it snowed. We woke up to a pretty blanket of snow in the 505 this morning. Schools are either closed or on a delay and it's a cold 22 degrees outside.

All morning, I have been debating about whether or not we should make our weekly trip to the grocery store today. We were out of town all weekend and besides a pan of brownies, our cupboard is pretty bare. But since it's snowing as I type this, I think we might just stay put. I wouldn't mind braving the cold, icy roads and crazy New Mexican drivers by myself, but I feel irresponsible taking a kiddo with tiny hands and feet out in this weather.

Looks like the perfect day to for an extra cup of coffee and a little sewing!

What would you do with your snow day?

O Christmas Tree!

If there was ever a time that I wish I had mad photography skills it's at Christmas. I really really wish I had the ability to capture the beauty of our tree and share it with you. 

My favorite part about Christmas is decorating the Christmas tree. I love it! I love getting out the old ornaments and reminiscing about when and where we got them. I love the way the ornaments look with the tree lights shinning on them. I love the way the tree makes our living room so much more cozy. I just love it! And this year, I am loving the smell of our very first real tree and I'm evening enjoying watering it daily.

 I haven't finished decorating yet, I want to make some stockings and add a few other things, but I thought this was appropriate for the first day of December. Even if the photos are horrible, you get the idea and I think this precious smile, makes up for the blurriness, over exposure and whatever else went wrong while taking these.

Happy 1st of December!

Christmas Tree Shopping

Usually, I use this blog to write about big moments in Addy's life, like her first Halloween and her First Thanksgiving. But today, I am writing about a first for all three of us; Christmas tree shopping!

You may be surprised to hear that neither Matt or I have ever gone Christmas tree shopping (at least not that we can remember). We always had a fake tree growing up and for the past three years of our married life, we've put up a cute little tree that Matt surprised me with for our first Christmas. I never knew what I was missing out on, in fact, before this year, I would have told you fake trees are the way to go. (Depending how much of a pain the clean up process is, I might say that next year too.)

This year, we wanted a bigger tree for our new house and after shopping for a fake, pre-lit tree, we decided to try a real one. We ended up buying one from Lowes but not before shopping around at a Christmas tree lot. Can you believe, this was my first time at one of these?

It turned into quite the fun little outing. I kept saying "This is so fun, I've never done this before!" and Matt would say, "Me neither!" We took pictures, bought Addy her first pair of shoes in between tree lots and stopped by Starbucks for an Eggnog Latte and Peppermint Mocha.

This photo is from a different outing, but I had to throw it in, it's too cute.

On the way home Matt said, "And you thought I was a scrooge." Clearly, I was wrong.

In the Shop

Remember Addy's pink car?

She hasn't been driving it much lately. It's been in the shop getting some work done.

Ever since she started pulling up on things, she hasn't wanted to sit in her car. She would rather stand around it. We like to say she's "working on her car."

 The tag is, of course, her favorite part. 

(Why is my house always in such disarray in pictures? There's a plant that goes on that stand.)

 "Looks like you're due for a tune up."

That's her little grease monkey laying beside her.

Good as new!

Addy's First Thanksgiving

I realize that by now, everyone is probably completely over Thanksgiving and into full Christmas mode, but for scrapbooking purposes, I thought I would share some photos of our first Thanksgiving with sweet Adelyne. But first, a little glimpse of what we were up to this week:

Exploring the living room.
This is how she likes to roll: no pants, one sock.

Helping Mom with the dishes.

On Thanksgiving morning, Addy played with the grocery bags and Mom burnt the bacon.

That afternoon, we went over to Cousin Carter's house. He had been busy fixing up a fine Thanksgiving meal.

Cousin Carter and Aunt M, our gracious host. We're so thankful for them.

How did Addy become so photogenic? She didn't get it from her Mom.

After dinner, Addy and Carter decided to browse the Black Friday ads.

So thankful for that big smile!


Hope you all had a wonderful day!