Christmas 2009

We had a fun, exhausting, kid filled Christmas.
Here are some pictures.

Most exciting thing of all was Ryan and Melissa's engagement!! We were all hiding out when they got a picture in front of the Christmas tree downtown. I could not be happier for Ryan. There is nothing like seeing your sibling so happy. And we just all adore Melissa. They make such a great, happy, fun couple and I can't wait to see what God has in store for them! You can read more from her prespective, here.



This was our first Christmas in our own house for Christmas morning. It's still strange to us that we are parents and have two little kids. I wonder when that will sink in.



Santa brought Bella some dress up clothes. She was excited and said "Princess clothes!" She is also sporting her stocking stuffer hat & scarf along with the princess skirt and wand :) So cute!!



Farrah was snuggled a lot. Here she is with Gannie:



Here's Bella with a camera to be Dad's apprentice.



Between sweet Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles, Bella got a radio flyer tricycle, a bike with training wheels and a Barbie Jeep. She just needs a drivers license now.


Thankful for family.

One month Appt & some pictures

Farrah had her 1 month appt today. She's gained 3 lbs and 2 whole inches!! Yay!!

Thought it would be fun to look at Farrah and Bella at one month. Sometimes they look similar to me, but they def have their own look!! Bella looks more like Chris to me, and thinking Farrah will favor me. Guess we'll see. They change so much so quickly!!!!

Farrah:



Bella:

Farrah is One Month Old!

My little sweet girl is one month old! (as of yesterday the 19th)

We try to take lots of pictures, but I know we'll have a hard time keeping up with how many we took of Bella (at least ones of Farrah by herself). So I'm going to do the monthly pictures of Farrah to show how she is growing! This will make sure I document those monthly milestones and have something special that Bella didn't have (I think we have daily pictures of Bella!! haha)

Here's Miss Farrah Kate at 1 month old!



What is funny is the progression of her slowly sliding down from the sitting position I put her in:


Farrah is still sleeping a lot! I seriously don't remember Bella sleeping this much, and Bella was a good sleeper. Maybe it's because I'm not as nervous and not checking on her every 2.5 seconds to see if she's breathing. haha. Or maybe it's getting over the cold. Not sure, but it's adorable. The best parts of the day is when she's awake and looking at us with those big beautiful eyes! As Bella says, "She's looking at you!"

The things about Farrah I also love right now: Her little hands that like to grab me, her little baby noises, and she's a GREAT snuggle bug!! What a blessing.

I ain't gonna lie

...two is hard.
Hard work, that is.
I start off the day (earlyyyy) with a bunch of energy.
Coffee and I have never been close. We are now BFF.
At the end of the day, I'm tired and on edge.
Doesn't help we are ALL getting thru colds.
But when I look at the sweet face of my 4 week old girl,
or now get a "I love you, mama" from my precious 26 month old,
I thank God and ask him to do it all over again tomorrow.

Then I fall asleep hard.

Not sure I would have it any other way.

Fun videos

Bella is learning some great songs at school for the Christmas Program. I know she's my kid, but I swear she can't get much more adorable :)

Santa Visit

Saturday, we visited Santa!

I wasn't sure Bella was going to love the jolly ol' man -- she was scared of the Chick-fil-a cow, but loved a life sized Elmo. She ran from the Santa stuffed toy and was scared of some mimes on TV Saturday. But, low and behold, she didn't cry! She actually just looked like a deer in headlights. We got this 2 second smile when Nana did a tap dance next to the camera:



Farrah slept soundly - she probably liked his soft coat!

Here are the past two years pictures: (2007, 2008)

First Bath

These are pictures of Big Sister Bella helping me give Farrah her first bath last week. Bella LOVES to help!! "Mama, can I help you?" Oh if I could only freeze both of the girls ages for a bit and enjoy it even more!!

Time is going by so fast. I can't believe she's two weeks old today already!!!

Once the sprayer was used, Farrah loved the bath. Just like her sister.

Farrah Sunnin'

Farrah was a little jaundice when coming home from the hospital. When the sun finally came out this weekend, she did a little sunnin' - and seemed to love it.

Beautiful baby. She is so sweet!

Christmas Decorating

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Chris and I continued our tradition of getting a Christmas tree and decorating. This year, he had a great idea to go to a Christmas tree farm instead of our usual Lowe's tree. I can see how this is going to be a fun tradition!!!

The farm we went to had hayrides, goats you could feed (although I think they were full because they just ran away when you got close!), hot chocolate, and little red wagons to pull Bella in. You could cut your own Leland Cypress, but we love the Fraser Furs, so we went with a pre-cut one of those. It is a huge 9 ft beautiful tree!

And something I have been excited about ALL YEAR (no kidding!) is the white Christmas tree I bought the day after Christmas last year. I have been picturing this "girly" pink Christmas tree ever since I found out Farrah was a girl. It is so much fun! And I can just see us adding girly ornaments every year! :) Chris captured some pretty pics of Bella helping me decorate!

All I can say is if Farrah is 1/2 as sweet as my little Bella Reese, we are super super blessed!!!!!







Farrah was awake during most of this ... and Bella shared a bunch of her animals with her :)