Our Christmas Day

Christmas morning with an almost 2 year old is SO MUCH FUN!!! Santa brought Ian a Little Tikes truck and Ian is just over the moon about it! He lit up from ear to ear when he saw it and we almost didn't get him out of it in order to go to church. I think our little boy is a big fan of Christmas!

Santa thought it would be fun to have all of his stocking stuff wrapped since he likes opening gifts, but he was over it by Christmas morning. He wouldn't open his stocking gifts until that evening, but he was more than excited to do it by then. Maybe Santa will have a better plan next year!

When we were finally able to get Ian dressed and ready for church, he decided he needed to wear his Daddy's grass cutting shoes to push his lawnmower around the house. ADORABLE!!!

Loved Christmas with our boy! Cannot wait to spend next Christmas with BOTH of our sweet children!!!

Our Christmas Eve

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! We opened presents with Vernon's family on Christmas Eve . . . what a haul! Ian made out like a bandit!!! He loved every minute of it too. The first gift he opened was a football from Avery. He came really close to not opening any other presents. Our boy LOVES balls! He finally moved on to the next present . . . a stuffed giraffe from Gabe and Jill. We almost didn't have any other presents opened once more because oh, is he in love with that thing! He now sleeps with it every night. Each gift just brought so much joy and delight. He loves the elephant bank from Mimi and Poppy and has thoroughly enjoyed filling it up with coins. He got of wagon full of animals from Mam and GranPappy . . . once again, the giraffe was his favorite! In fact, it took him forever to put it down to finish opening the rest of his presents! Books, dinosaurs and some reindeer slippers were all a big hit, but the hit of the night was his lawnmower. He has ran that thing through our house more than I knew was possible! It's pretty cute.

What a holly, jolly Christmas!!!

This was my gift . . . love, love, LOVE it!!! I immediately hung it the day after Christmas and then rearranged the living room. Sometimes just adding one new thing inspires change for the rest of it!

Merry Christmas!

Blessings, peace, joy and love to you and yours this Christmas!

A Winter Wonderland!

One of our neighbors has a FABULOUS backyard of lights on display every Christmas. We were finally able to take Ian to see them and he LOVED them!!! The first thing he saw was a blow-up RV with Santa peeking in and out of the door . . . Ian said, "Hello, Santa! Bye bye, Santa!" It was a big hit! There was also a light fixture with Santa driving a golf cart. Ian kept gently tugging at the Santa saying, "Out! Out!" He was desperately wanting Santa to get off of there so HE could drive the golf cart! Hilarious!!! Thank you, Cathy and Andrew, for your wonderful gift to all of the neighborhood kids every year! It is loved dearly!

20 Weeks

Oh, my! I'm officially half way done with this pregnancy! Where has the time gone? I guess I'm actually a little bit OVER HALF way done since I was 20 weeks on Friday. Boy, do I have a lot to do in the next several weeks!

I've been feeling so great during this second trimester! I remember very well now why I loved being pregnant with Ian and that is pure joy! During my rough first trimester, I had a hard time remembering, but now the memories are all back and I'm truly loving every minute of being pregnant with my little Olivia.

The few cravings I had a few weeks ago seem to be gone for the most part and haven't seemed to be replaced by new ones. I'm still feeling pretty sensitive to smells though and that has caused me to sink to new lows in motherhood . . . I threw up on Ian the other day when I was changing his dirty diaper! Ugh. Thank goodness he was sweet about it and didn't fuss, cry or try to run away!

Little Miss Olivia definitely had a growth spurt last week. She's kicking more and more, but she's still not a kicker like Ian was. Some days I'll go several hours without feeling her and right when I start to feel a little bit nervous about it, she gives me a quick little tap to let me know she's wiggling and growing, but napping. She's not nearly as demanding about when she eats like Ian was either . . . he was VERY demanding! Lots of little differences and things to enjoy and ponder! I cannot wait to meet this sweet little girl that is already giving me so much joy and making my life so much more fun!!!

Ian's Second Encounter with Santa

Here are the pictures from Ian's visit with Santa at Vernon's work. Sweet, sweet boy! He chews on his fingers when he's just not sure about something... Santa in person is just not his thing!

Ian Meets Santa

We didn't ever take Ian to meet Santa last year, but we knew that this year would be the year to make the introduction. We were so excited to take him to meet Santa at our neighborhood Christmas party. Ian was acting excited as well. When we asked him which stocking he wanted, he INSTANTLY grabbed the one with Santa on it and just hugged it and carried it around for a while. We have a plastic Santa figurine that Ian loves and hugs often. Ian is such a social little boy . . . not only does he love all of the people that he knows in his life, he happily speaks to cashiers at stores and a lot of other people along those lines. All things were pointing to a happy introduction. I mean look at Santa . . . he definitely looks jolly and like someone Ian would want to say hello to.



Boy, were we wrong!!! Ian was happy standing in line as we were admiring Santa from a distance. He was fine as we talked about sitting with Santa. The second that Vernon tried to actually give Ian to Santa, screams and kicking began . . .



We had felt so confident that Ian would enjoy this outing that we didn't even bring his baby and paci with us. What were we thinking??? He immediately wanted both of those things and his mama. I held him and tried to sit by Santa with Ian. He only calmed down a little, so Vernon snapped two very quick pictures and we were done.




We immediately ran home and grabbed his baby and paci . . . oh, the comfort they bring! And wouldn't you know that we had plans to take Ian to see Santa at Vernon's work on the very next day! Oh, my! I'm curious to see how those pictures turned out, but I'm sure they won't be much better. He didn't scream or cry, but he definitely tried to run away. And that was after a LONG time of allowing him to play NEAR Santa with another little girl, and continuous talk of Santa having cookies. Maybe he'll like him better next year!

Sugar and Spice

To help celebrate our Livvy, I made a basket of sugar cookies to take to church on Wednesday night for my ladies class. Because you know, sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of! I love celebrating my girl! She's pretty sweet already.

Speaking of Family Pictures

Posting our Barnett Family pictures yesterday reminded me that I never posted our Moudy Family pictures from July. Yes, JULY! Can I blame the first trimester of pregnancy for this mishap? I'm thinking I will. Anyway, we now know that TWO sweet little girl's faces are missing from this picture. Cannot wait until we can take one with ALL of us present! Even though we have two girls missing, I love these treasures as well. Family pictures are priceless.

Barnett Family Pictures 2011

We had our Barnett Family pictures made in November. My how things change in a year and half! And next year, we'll have Olivia's sweet face gracing the pictures. Looking forward to that! I'm so glad we have these treasures.