Year in Review...

2012 was quite the year in our home!

This is my obligatory recap post. What kind of blogger would I be without this?

Let's take a quick stroll down our memory lane....

JANUARY

 Rang in the new year at The Avett Brothers concert in Greenville, battled a cold with mucinex, visited friends and the zoo in Norfolk, and started our house hunt

FEBRUARY

Only one picture is needed for the highlight of this month!

MARCH

Shared the good news with our families, had our first ultrasound

APRIL

Visited San Diego, announced that we had a baby on the way

MAY

We became homeowners, visited Colorado for a friend's wedding, found out we were having a GIRL!

JUNE

Moved into our new home, finished up the school year and packed up my classroom, J had knee surgery, I went to Disney World with my family

JULY

Began making our new home feel like us, started working on projects for the nursery, celebrated our 4th anniversary

AUGUST

Visited Westport, NY with J's family, continued working on the nursery, my belly kept growing, first baby shower in Richmond

SEPTMEBER

Baby shower #2 in Charlotte, finishing touches on the nursery, assembled lots of baby gear (the dogs helped!)

OCTOBER

Waited for our baby to arrive, and then we we welcomed her into the world on October 25!

NOVEMBER

My mom came to stay with us, we celebrated M's first Thanksgiving and we hosted my in laws, loved on that cute baby, I turned 29 and J turned 28

DECEMBER

Someone started to give real smiles, celebrated M's first Christmas!

Meeting new friends!

We are back in Charlotte after a great week in Virginia with our family. While we were there, M got to meet so many special family members and friends. I was so worried about traveling with a small baby for the holidays, but she was a champ. She was great on the drive and did fairly well in many new places.

Last Saturday night, one of my very good friends from home, Jeanne, had a bunch of my high school girl friends over for a small get together. I took M along with me. Here she is with our hostess...

We got to meet my friend Jenna's little boy who is about a month older than M. You would never know that M was the younger one. She looked like such a big baby next to him. She's a big girl!

My good friend Sarah with both the babies!

All the girls + the babies!

On Sunday afternoon, my mom hosted a sip n see for me so we could introduce M to a few other family friends. She did okay here, but was really clingy and not crazy about others holding her. She is definitely a momma's girl right now!

My favorite part of the night...we had a few guests still hanging out, and my dad offered to change M for me when she started to get fussy. He comes back and her pants were gone. A little while later he walked out the room with her on his shoulder so she could look around as she was starting to get fussy (this child loves being on your shoulder!), and he comes back a few minutes later and she was in just her diaper and happy as a clam. I guess her grandaddy knew best! SO much for the cute clothes her mommy put her in!

tutu cute

Someone had a very merry first Christmas....

She's a bit of a "tacky" baby, but she's awfully cute when looking so tacky!

Lots to blog about and document. I've taken about a million photos this week.

There's no rush though....I'm going to keep enjoying our time with family!

Christmas Crafting

Last weekend we used Kate's salt dough recipe to make some ornaments with M's little handprints...

After a few tries of getting the perfect handprint....

...I gave up! This child would not unball her fist! 

It didn't matter what I did, she kept those hands in tight fists.

So, off went the clothes and we went for footprints. I figured this would be the next best thing.

She wasn't too crazy about this, but it worked!

 We ended up with some cute ornaments (even though Layla chose to eat a couple...). Maybe next year we'll try again for a handprint!

Santa! I know him!

My husband works directly across from our mall here in Charlotte, so Friday morning we picked him up midday, and the three of us headed to see Santa in hope of finding a very short line. And  we were pleasantly surprised to find just one other child waiting in front of us! 

After paying a small fortune, we walked away with some cute shots of M and Santa:

Here's our roly poly baby and Santa...

Santa pretended to sleep along with her

Then she decided to open her eyes!

As you can see, she was pretty unimpressed by the whole event! 

I'm sure a year from now our pictures with Santa will look quite different!

Christmas Card Carousel

Today I am linking up with Faith for her Christmas Card Carousel! 

Fee free to join in and share your holiday card!

This year's card is definitely my all time favorite. 

I think it has something to do with that sweet thing in my arms in the picture!

Here's our 2012 card from Shutterfly....

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Human Photos by Lindsey Lee Photography

Puppy Photos taken by Yours Truly!

Scenes from our week...

Cloth Diapering

I'm two weeks into cloth diapering with our Bum Genius 4.0's....and I love it! I have to admit, a part of me thought I might hate it and buying all the diapers would be a big waste, but right now, it's proving to be easy and I really like it! 

Working Out

I had my 6 week follow up with my doctor earlier this week and he cleared me to work out again. So yesterday morning I put on my tennis shoes and headed to the Y for a "Baby Power Hour"...this class was perfect for a new mom! You get to bring your baby in her stroller to class and it's a mix of cardio and strength. You can incorporate baby into exercises if you want, and you avoid putting your little one in childcare! I'm really glad I went.

Enjoying our holiday decor...

Thank you to my mom for our new stockings!

My Christmas card wreath that I made last year is slowly filling up!

Eating white chocolate and peppermint m&m's....these are so good!

Drinking Coffee?!

I've never been a big coffee drinker, it's always made me feel a little sick...but lately I have been enjoying a cup every afternoon. This is so not like me! And it's not due to a lack of sleep. I am pretty darn sure that I am getting more sleep with a baby than I got as a teacher. What does that say about my former profession?

And just loving on this precious seven week old!

Where did the last seven weeks go?!

birth announcements

A few weeks ago we sent out birth announcements for our baby girl to all of our friends and family. 

Now that everyone should have received theirs in the mail, I want to share it on here.

We used the two of the photos from our newborn photo session with Lindsey Lee Photography. I could not be happier with the photos she captured. I am so glad we have these precious pictures.

I know she's ours and all, but seriously...is she not the most precious baby?

Side-note: I can't get over how tiny she looks here. She's so big now, one month later. Slow down!

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Meeting the twins...

Right before Thanksgiving, M and I went to see my friend Faith and her beautiful twin girls, Emery and Kinley. Her twins were actually due this week in December, but they ended up arriving in early November, just eight days after M's birth. I love that I not only have a new mommy friend in the area, but our girls are so close in age. M looks giant next to the twins! All three girls slept through our whole get together. I'm sure that will change as they get bigger!

In the next couple of months there are MANY more Charlotte "blog" babies on the way. In a couple of months once everyone is bigger we're going to have some fun play dates!

Favorite Ornaments

Is there anyone who doesn't like a Christmas ornament and the story it tells? I doubt it!

I know that many prefer trees that match and are coordinated with beautiful mesh and ribbon, but I have always loved a tree that is full of memories and stories. Maybe one day we'll have multiple trees and I can have a "pretty" tree, but there's nothing better than a tree that makes you reminisce through the years.

Here are just a few of my favorite ornaments on our tree this year...

1. This ornament came from my friend Whitney's ornament exchange in Virginia Beach a few years ago. She's from South Carolina and I can't look at this ornament without hearing "Merry Christmas Y'all!" in her southern twang! (Miss you Whitney!)

2. I have no idea the story behind this homemade angel ornament, but it's always been one I loved. When my mom let me pick out some ornaments from our family tree a few years ago to take and put on our tree, I took this one. As a little girl I was convinced that she was made of crystals....

3. The cabbage patch doll is probably my favorite ornament on the tree! Most children grow up with a blankey or a stuffed animal they sleep with...I had Lori, my cabbage patch doll. I snuggled every night with a doll who had a HARD plastic head. And this is my Lori ornament! I no longer sleep with her, but she still hangs on our tree each year!

All of these ornaments came from my Nana. Each year for Christmas she has gotten me an ornament and puts the year on it. And most years the ornament was related to some sort of life event from that year. I love looking back on these because they definitely do a good job reminding me what I was into at the time!

4. This school desk ornament is from 1989; the year I started kindergarten.

5. My JMU snowman! She gave him when I graduated in 2006.

6. The ballerina is from one of the two years I did ballet, 1990. Clearly, ballet wasn't my thing!

7. After my cabbage patch doll ornament, this is probably my next favorite...my Layla ornament! I received this one in 2007, Layla's first Christmas!

8. In the last couple of years, I've started to enjoy buying ornaments as a souvenir on trips. The Santa hat with Mickey ears came from my Disney trip this summer. I dated it on the bottom because I'm sure it won't be my last trip to Disney!

9. J and I picked this one up at the San Diego Zoo this past April. This was our souvenir from the trip.

10. Our newest ornament! My mom sent me a birthday package last week and this cute ornament was in there. I love it!

11. This is another one from my Nana, but it was for J and me; our "First Christmas" ornament from 2008!

So what kind of tree do you have? 

Is yours a hodgepodge of ornaments and colored lights like mine? 

Or do you need it all to match? 

What ornaments are special to you?