Christmas with Friends

This morning, we had a small get together at our house so that the kids could exchange Christmas gifts. Katie had so much fun playing with her friends, and I am sure the other kids had a great time, too. This has been an ongoing tradition for a couple of years, but only this year did we think to take pictures of the kids on the couch. It will be neat to see how the kids change over time!

Leslie and Nathan

Caleb, 13 months

Isabella, 5, and Evelyn, 5

Katie, 2, opening her gift from Evey and Lily

Caleb and Tiffanie

Lily, 11 months

Caleb and Tiffanie opening the books from Katie and Nathan

Isabella and Evey opening their American Girl Picnic Sets from Katie and Nathan

Lily investigating

Evey and Isa in their pretty wings

Katie (2), Isabella (5), Nathan (1month), Evelyn (5), Lily (11months) and Caleb (13 months)

Noemi, Me, Tiffanie and Leslie (we are all 28, except for Leslie, lol)

Merry Christmas!

TJ and Lindsay brought Danica over a couple weeks ago, on the 18th, so that we could exchange gifts with them. I can't believe that it is already Danica's first Christmas! She has grown so much.

Katie

Awesome new backpack

Danica and Lindsay

Cutie Pie!

And for our final Christmas celebration of the year, we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa this afternoon after the kids were done opening their gifts. They drove into town last night, and will be staying with us until after Katie's birthday party!

PJ's and Book from Gam Gam and Great Grandpa

Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer

Yorkie Calendar for Papa

Kindle Fire from Mom and Papa... when she opened it, she said,
"I thought you were getting Grandpa one?!?" He got one, too.

Grandpa and his Kindle Fire from mom and papa

Jon, Me and Nathan

Nathan's new outfit from Gam Gam and Great Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa's birthdays recently passed on the 27th and 23rd respectively, so we took them to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner and dessert.

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year! After Kaitlyn went to bed, Santa made his stop by our house and oh my goodness was our living room overflowing with presents! Someone must have been extra good this year! **This post will be very picture heavy; there were so many pictures I wanted to share!**

We got started opening presents as soon as Katie woke up and Jonathan came over. Katie had so much fun ripping the wrapping paper off the presents and seeing her new toys. She wanted to play with them, of course, as soon as they were open, which made it a bit difficult to get through present opening in a timely manner. It took her a couple of hours to open everything and she immediately needed a nap when she was done.

Katie in her "The Night Before Christmas" PJ's

Katie's new bean bag from Grandma and Grandpa

Nathan helping Katie open her present

Katie's first tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa!

She was really good at ripping off the wrapping paper!

Mom and Papa got Katie Tupperware dishes; this was my favorite gift she received, a tupperware cake server. I think I screamed louder than Katie did when she opened her dishes! I had this when I was younger and made cakes for my Grandpa on my Easy Bake oven. I was so excited to see this toy again! :o)

Sesame Street Playset with figurines from Grandma and Grandpa

Mom and Baby Duck toy from Uncle Jon

Play food from Paul and I

 Mom started making lunch for us and the rest of us opened up our gifts while Nathan and Katie napped. We had a delicious lunch and Paul's mom and step dad stopped by right after lunch to bring the kids their gifts. Paul's dad stopped by earlier that morning after he left Michelle's and on his way to Melissa's house to deliver presents.

Jon received new law books from Mom and Papa

Paul received a new drill from Mom and Papa

Washington and Lee gym shorts!

Santa brought Paul an iPhone 4s

Uncle Jon gave Nathan a stuffed elephant

Papa gave mom a beautiful diamond necklace

We gave Jon a flask with "R" engraved on the front

Santa brought me an iPhone 4s, too!!

Beautiful throw for mom from Tara and Kevin

Mom got Papa a drill set, too

Cool camo cover for his iPhone from mom and papa

This was Paul's favorite gift Nathan received. Paul had a shape sorter like this when he was a kid.

Monkey Animal and Blanket from Uncle Jon for Nathan

We had a lazy and fun day playing with our new toys and setting up the kids gifts. We stayed in our PJ's almost all day, and I never did get the kids dressed in their Christmas outfits that mom got them. The day just flew by too quickly!! I wonder if this is an indication of how Christmas will be next year, too??? I felt like I was in slow motion all day! LOL!

Katie and Nathan taking a wagon ride in Nathan's wagon from Grandma and Grandpa

Katie's Christmas Gifts (minus her art easle and a few outfits)

Nathan's Christmas Gifts (minus a few outfits)

Doodle Bug's Self Portrait

What a wonderful and special day it was, though. Our family is so very blessed to have such wonderful parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.

Christmas Eve

Growing up, I was ambivolent about Christmas Eve. Some families wait until Christmas Day to open up gifts and eat as a family, and my family was no exception. One year when my mom was growing up, my mom, aunt and uncles convinced my grandparents to let them open up their gifts on Christmas Eve.  Christmas Morning was a big "let down" for the kids because they didn't have more gifts to open, and needless to say, that was the first and last year Grandma let them do that. My family didn't even open one gift the night before Christmas, so when I was little, Christmas Eve was usually spent pestering Grandma and Mom, watching movies and playing with my cousins.

Paul and his family, however, have always celebrated on Christmas Eve. Ever since we have been together, his mom's side of the family has celebrated, eaten dinner, had drinks and brought presents to exchange the night before Christmas. For me, this is pretty cool because it is double the celebration! We generally spend Christmas Eve with his mom, open presents Christmas Day as a small family, and have lunch with my mom and dad. Paul's dad has also joined us for Christmas Lunch for the past several years in between his trips to deliver presents to Paul's grandma and the rest of the family.

Our Family, Christmas Eve 2011

Katie (23 months) and Nathan (3 weeks)

This year, we started our Christmas Eve off with the Greer Family Open House. We had such a great time celebrating with our friends, and I hope this is a tradition that we can continue! Mr. and Mrs. Greer had a bunch of finger foods, desserts and drinks for us to enjoy while we mingled. Tiffanie and Jeremy were in town with their son, Caleb, who is 13 months old. Her sister, Katrina, was in from Korea. Noemi, Brian and Isabella were able to come, as were several of Katrina and Tiffanie's friends from around town. Tiffanie's parents are wonderful hosts, and we had to pry ourselves away from the party when it was time to leave.

Tiffanie and Nathan

Isabella, Katie, Caleb and me

Tiffanie, Nathan, Noemi and me

Noemi and Nathan

Caleb

Katie Bug

Brian and Isabella

Jeremy and Katie

Our next stop was Paul's sister, Melissa's, house where his mom's side of the family was gathered. We were greeted by his mom, Aunt Esther, and cousin, Cynthia, who were anxious to meet little Nathan.

Aunt Esther, Nathan and Cynthia

Grandma Irma and Nathan

We had some really good brisket, prepared by Jason, and Katie played with Paul's cousins Sophia, Derek Jr. and Zoe in the playroom. Paul's step-dad, Ramon, his Uncle Derek, his cousin, Ryan, and Melissa's mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law were also there with Melissa, Jason and Charlie.

This year's Christmas Eve was a lot of fun surrounded by so many people that we love. I couldn't have asked for more!

Christmas Preparations

I am really excited for Christmas this year, although with all the craziness, lack of sleep and adjustments around our house, it is hard to muster up the energy required. Fortunately, I did most of my shopping far enough in advance and online. We were able to get our house decorated for Christmas the day before Nathan was born and Papa, Jon and Grandpa helped Paul put up the Christmas lights outside right after we got home from the hospital.

I can't wait to see how Katie reacts to everything. She is old enough to understand unwrapping presents, yet she isn't old enough to understand Santa and the "countdown" to Christmas doesn't resonate with her like it will in the coming years. This is also Nathan's first Christmas. Of course, he is much too little to understand what is going on at all. I am more grateful and excited that he has made it here to be with us and that we have such a wonderful and healthy son than I am excited to see him open presents. He needs quite a bit of (total) assistance with that. :o)

Papa and Mom went with me to take the kids to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa today since Nathan wasn't here for the Christmas Pictures we took with Santa earlier. When we got there, they were passing out tickets to see Santa at 7pm, and it was noon. I think Katie's patience is a little short for that. I know mine is! However, I did get a couple of pictures of the kiddo's at home before we left. It is much more challenging capturing two little ones looking at the camera at the same time!

Sesame Street Live

Today was such an exciting day: we went to see Sesame Street Live at the Freeman Coliseum! A couple of months ago, mom and I were reminiscing on when she took me to Sesame Street Live as a little girl and when we looked online, we saw the production was actually headed to San Antonio. We thought how much fun Katie would have and knew we should get some tickets for the show!

Mom and Katie getting a Sesame Street Program

Last month, we took Katie to Sea World, and she was pretty scared of the monsters in person, so I was a bit nervous about whether she would get scared to see them at Sesame Street Live. I shouldn't have worried, though, because she did great! She was enthralled with the show! Grandma and Grandpa spoiled her, of course, and got her a new ball, t-shirt and light up toys before the show. When the show started and all the monsters started to sing and dance, her eyes were glued to them. The only time she broke her stare was to ask Grandma and/or Grandpa for more snow cone....yes, snow cone! She loved that part of the show, too!

Sesame Street Live

Watching the show with Grandma

Snow Cones!!

The show was about 45 min long, then an intermission and another 30 minutes of show. Some of the kids had a hard time hanging in there through the show. The monsters came off stage a lot to dance in the isles and interact with the crowd. Katie didn't want to get that close to them though, and would just walk back and forth between mom and papa and Paul and myself. She actually paid attention for the majority of the show and didn't have a melt down the whole time we were there. She got a really cool Elmo balloon during intermission, too!

Katie and Daddy

Sesame Street Crew

Elmo Balloons!

Countdown to Nathan

FIRST TRIMESTER
Week 1-4: 0 lbs
Week 5-8: +0.4 lbs
Week 9-13 : +1.5 lbs

SECOND TRIMESTER
Week 14-17: +1.5 lbs
Week 18-21: +2.8 lbs
Week 22-26: +8.2 lbs

THIRD TRIMESTER
Week 27-30: +10.5 lbs
Week 31-35: +12 lbs
Week 36-38: +15 lbs

Two Week Postpartum: