We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Yes, I am still sticking with the song titles for every blog - as I have done for the last few months. I'm a little belated with the Christmas post, but that's nothing new for me. Perhaps I will be better in the new year!

We had a great Christmas celebration as a family - it was nice and low key which we certainly needed after several busy weeks! As has been the tradition for several years now, we went to Doug's parents' church for Christmas Eve service. My parents join us at this service every year and then we head to the Joneses for a Christmas Eve dinner.

In my family growing up, it was a tradition to get to open one present on Christmas Eve, but it wasn't a spoken tradition. We always had to beg our dad on the way home from church service to please let us open something when we got home. He would give us plenty of reasons why we couldn't and shouldn't and then ultimately, he would relent and let us pick something. I'm going to carry on the same tradition but I'm not going to make Katie beg - but I am going to be the one to pick what she opens. Is that selfish?

Katie's Christmas eve present was a children's board book (perfect for her because she puts all books in her mouth) about the true meaning of Christmas. I want her to always realize the reason we're giving each other gifts this time of year is to celebrate the beginning of God's perfect plan for our salvation, the birth of His son and our Savior, Jesus!

Like most other one year olds, Katie enjoyed the wrapping and ribbon more than the actual gifts. She had fun playing with her Aunt Nancy and her new green ribbon!

I did tell Katie about Santa and that he only comes on the condition of her good behavior. I caught her looking out the window watching for him later. Please excuse our makeshift tree - we actually didn't get a tree this year and at the last minute, we decided to bring in one of the trees from the porch to put all the presents underneath!

Doug had a present picked out for me as my Christmas Eve gift too! It was some pajamas for me and matching ones for Katie (or maybe the other way around since they came from The Children's Place)! I know it is very cheesy and I can't believe I'm even posting this horrendous picture of me, but I thought it was the sweetest thing in the world! I have a feeling this is going to be a new tradition for me!

Then it was off to bed with Katie so that Santa and his elves could get to work. She slept until 5:45 am, she must've know that something was up! We had a realxing morning at home with Doug's parents. We exchanged gifts from one another and Katie had fun pulling things out of her stocking.

Around 11:30, Doug's siblings (minus the DeVoe clan) came over for lunch and more presents. Katie got two little purses for Christmas which she totally loves! Grandma and Grandpa Jones got her a plush purse with plush phone, makeup compact, keys, and coin purse. It is seriously cute. And Cousin Dylan got her a purse shaped like a horse that she has filled with all sorts of things. I think I saw Aunt Mari coveting the horse purse seeing as she's a horse vet.

And speaking of Aunt Mari, she and Eric announced that they are pregnant and due in August. We are so excited for the two of them. Katie's hoping for a girl cousin to play with but we will be happy for either one! Whatever it is, it will enjoy the outdoors and absolutely love animals and will help Katie and her parents learn to be more laid back!

After all of that excitement, we headed over to my parents to hang out with them and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gabriel who made the two day drive from Texas to share Christmas with us! We had a great time hanging out and exchanging more fun gifts! We got some great gifts for our new house including a clock, some gift cards to Home Depot, and a fun poem from my parents telling us they're going to handle getting all of the blinds for the new house! We were so excited! They also got Katie a playset for the backyard that will be fun to have for our little nature loving girl!

The Lord has really blessed us in 2009, as he always does. We have learned so much as new parents and I can't wait to see what the new year holds for us. My only wish is that it wouldn't go quite as fast. I want the time to go slower or atleast I hope I cherish each moment more.

Me and My Monkey (guest post from Katie)

Mom and Dad, there's someone I'd like you to meet. He's very special to me and I want you to keep an open mind about him because he's a monkey. His name is George and he's unlike any of the other boys I've ever met.

He has the most beautiful dark eyes you've even seen. I find myself getting lost in them at times. He tells me I have pretty eyes too.

We first met over drinks and had an instant connection. He bought me some apple juice, but don't worry - he diluted it with some water.

He tells the funniest jokes - Have you heard the one about the chicken crossing the road? You'll just die laughing.

I know you think I'm rushing into things, but I love him - I really do.

We're going to be together but it would mean a lot if I had your blessing.

All the Leaves Are Brown

And the sky has definitely been quite grey! It's been such a dreary fall in Columbia, in fact I think October 2009 was one of the wettest Octobers on record! But the temperatures have been mild for the most part. I think I have only worn a jacket once so far.

 

We had some family pictures done for Katie's birthday and did some casual shots hanging out in the backyard playing in the leaves. The photographer (Brooke Turner - I've mentioned her before) is so fantastic! I love every picture she takes even the ones where I look fat or old or have bad roots showing.

 

Katie still continues to just love the outdoors. Any bad mood she has is quickly turned when we step outside so the dreariness of fall has been a bummer to her!

 

I was glad the weather held out for our picture day and that we got to get some good shots outside when Katie's personality is at its best!

 

Movin' On Up!

So we're not moving to the East Side like the Jeffersons, but as many of you know, we've been in the process of building our new house since July. The house didn't acutally get started until September 14 and we are hoping to close sometime in mid-late January.

We will still be on the Northeast side of town and because of our proximity to the highway, I will be about 10 minutes closer to work.

Doug's parents house is about 6 minutes away from where we're building so we've been able to go out a good bit and monitor the progress.

Things seemed to have moved painfully slow some weeks, but then there are weeks when we come by and it feels like a ton of work has been done in a short time.

We've had a few snags with some things - doorways in the wrong places or the wrong door knobs altogether. Doug has been excellent at working with the project manager at getting things taken care of.

We're getting closer and closer - There really isn't too much left to do, but I'm a simpleton when it comes to stuff like this.

Our main goal is to be in and settled before the Super Bowl! We are keeping our fingers crossed.

It's My Party & I'll Cry If I Want To

I'm terrible - really I am! My child really should cry over the fact that it's taken me over a month to post about her party. Katie's birthday fell on a Saturday so we were able to have her party on her actual birthday! We woke up early that morning, as usual, and Katie wore her special birthday hat (a present from her great-aunt Betsy before she was even born). She seemed to know that something was going on and was in a really good mood all morning.

When Katie went down for her nap, I finished the preparations for the party. I picked an apple theme and accented everything with green and pink and polka dots. I had so much fun decorating and making things for the party. I took two days off of work to plan the menu and shop and cook so that her actual birthday wouldn't be too stressful.

We had what's become my signature dip - a spicy spinach sausage combo along with cocktail weinies, toffee apple dip, apple streussel cupcakes, apple caramel cookies, and birthday cake. I bought myself this really cool green apple pot to use for something - I ended up using it for the cocktail weinies - but I just loved the pot. It is cast iron and easily weighs 10 pounds but it was fun to use as the center of decoration.

I also made these little apple baskets of her some of my favorite pictures from each month of the year for Katie.

Katie got lots of presents from everyone and had some help from her older 2nd cousins learning how to open them! Just before her birthday, she started making "oooh" noises and it fit in perfectly while she opened her presents.



And the cake...We sang happy birthday and placed the cake in front of her. She kind of just stared at it for a minute or two and then she dug right in! She loved it.


We had sort of stripped her down for the cake event so she was headed for a bath right afterwards. She smiled so big and was so proud of herself! I was glad we had really waited to give her anything sweet so that she could really enjoy the newness of the cake!

All in all, it was a great day. I loved every minute of it. I was really sad and overwhelmed with the thought of her turning one and losing my little baby girl but the fun and excitement of the party and the day spent with friends and family helped take my mind off of it!