the magic of Chirstmas

Christmas

We spent Christmas at our house this year. Shea's mom, Aunt Theresa and Ricky shared the day with us. We had a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories. This Christmas was one that I hope will stick in my memory forever. The day started off us brunch. I made a breakfast casserole and yummy gooey monkey bread.
William got up before everyone was there and opened his stocking.

Then, after everyone was there we opened presents. There were some really cool presents that I want to mention so I will remember them. First of all Shea's gift from me. I actually found his present a couple months ago. I have heard over and over again from Shea and his mom that as a child he loved to listen to a record of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I was in a thrift store a couple months ago and I found it on vinyl. I thought is would be a really great gift and cool accent to William's room in a frame. He was really surprised and loved it, but he was even more excited when I told him that it was 99 cents. That was the best present I could give him! Here is Shea cheesing it up for the camera...just for doing that I am putting your cheesy smile on my blog!


Aunt Theresa is so special to us and a big part of our lives. She is really a second grandmother to William and like a mother to me. Shea and I wanted to do something unique for her this year. Months back while I was helping her sort photos she came across a photo of her with her 2 sons. I could tell that she was really moved by the image so I swiped it. We had a float wrap made for her of the photo. It turned out so great. Her reaction was priceless.

William of course got lots of great presents. He mostly enjoyed chewing on the tags, boxes, paper and bows.....we could have saved a ton of money!



I actually made it into a photo!

Here are William and Aunt Theresa playing on the floor together.

Mama and her santa baby.


What every boy needs....his own airplane...maybe he will let his daddy fly it sometime until he gets his own to fly.
William would probably have to say about his airplane that it rides good...and tastes even better. He teethed all day, no fussing, but drooling and chewing on all of his gifts (and ours).


My super soft, comfy robe.


I feel so greatful for the blessings in my life. Days like these make you reflect of what you love, what you miss and what is most important to you. So, now that this majestic season is coming to an end, and the celebration of that sweet baby that was born more than 2000 years ago is fading into I new year I am relfecting on all that He has given me. My cup runneth over.

Lil Elf

I wanted to get some 9 month pictures of William. Since it is Christmas I thought I would add a touch of the season in them. But not too much of course, I am not a fan of cheesy.....but I may have slipped a little......



I just couldnt resist putting that santa hat on him. I have too say too that my vision was him naked with his back to me sitting on the hardwood floor. I didnt get what I wanted. He was happy as a clam being naked and as soon as I put him down and took my place he had left his place. The lights kept him still at least.



I must say too, that he was an awful "client for the day." If this was someone else's child I would have probably said that let's reschedule.
I thought he would be in a great mood, he slept in the car on the way there, just ate it should have been smooth sailing, but well babies are babies.

Aunt Theresa handed him a candycane at one point, thinking that he would just play with it. Of course the path to his mounth was inevitable, but I had no idea he could get it OPEN!
And that he did!! And when I took it from him he was MAD, I had never seen him get so mad at me before.




I did get some shots that are absolutley some of my favorite photos of him.




Now that is my sweet boy!

and finally....there is that sweet smile. The quality isnt the best, but I love that face.

random cuteness

Playing peek a boo with Aunt Theresa.

Begging for food with Willie.

Crawling all over the place...looking for mischief I am sure.

Is he doing what I think he is doing? Yes, sucking on the door, the glass door that needs cleaned nearly everyday.

and now I know why it needs cleaned everyday.

"mama, I just woke up....already with the camera?"

And here he is with the dog's bowl, this is a daily occurrence.

Tis the Season

As a child I remember my mama putting the Christmas tree up every year on Thanksgiving night. This year I decided to pass that little tradition from my mama onto our family. I have been really excited to start decorating for William's first Christmas, and honestly that is the biggest reason that I did it. The comforting thought in that is that I know I get that from my mama. The excitement.... and a little impatience too. I wonder if she felt as I did unable to wait any longer anticipating the start of the most wonderful time of the year. Having a child really has made it so magical.
We received two special ornaments last year to represent our year in 2009. One is a little stocking that says Just Married on it with our wedding date and names. The second one is this snowman. It reads "We are having a baby in 2010."

I love adding to my Christmas collection. I have bought a few things every year for the last 2-3 years. This year though I have been given a few things that I will cherish for years to come.
I haven't found a baby's first Christmas ornament yet, but Angela got this one for William to hang on the tree. It is one of the cutest things I ever seen. It really represents our year too.
This has been an awesome year for the South Carolina Gamecocks. They won the college world series in baseball, beat the #1 team in the nation in football and for the first time they won the SEC East title.
We attributed all of their success to the birth of William of course.
So I feel that this a fitting family ornament for the year 2010.My friend Amanda hand painted and gave us this little cutie. I know how much time and work goes into making something for someone. I was really touched when I opened the gift from her.
For some reason I just love this ornament. I have had it about 2 years. I think I got it for a dollar somewhere. Something about it just makes me warm and fuzzy. Okay, I cant believe I wrote that. Anyway, I just think it is really beautiful and vintage looking. I don't have an actual nativity scene so in a way it serves that purpose. Jesus is a toddler though. I think it kind of looks like my little family in a way.
This last one is really special. This weekend William and I were over at Aunt Theresa's house helping her put ornaments on her tree. She has so many. Each one she unwrapped had a story, some were 45-50 years old. I wish that someone pulled out ornaments every year with a story of me as a child. I really long for things to reflect my childhood at times. And sitting with her, I silently wished that I knew if there was ever an ornament for my first Christmas. As we looked at each one, from so many different years I came across one from the year I was born. In passing I just said "hey that's the year I was born." When we went to the put the ornament on the tree, Aunt Theresa said that she wanted me to have it. She said that she bought it for me 26 years ago and is just now getting around to giving it to me. Tis the season.......

Does Ricky know there is a monkey on his back?

9 months old

Well, what can I say about this 9 month old? First of all I must say that describing him as "cute" doesn't even do him justice. More and more each day his personality emerges. And that just makes him (if its possible) even CUTER! I like this picture of him because this is a new part of his personlity. Grunting and tensing up. It is something to see really, not read about.
He is so funny, with constant babble and chatter. He has cut his top front teeth this month. I must say that it was really a rough week around here. There was very little sleeping going on, he got way off his schedule. That hardest part as a first time mama with teething is when he acts a certain way with the fussing, drooling and sleeplessness I think right away that it must be teeth, but I really I have no idea. So after 3 nights of up and down when I thought it couldn't get worse, we had one of the worst nights and then the next morning when I was holding him on my lap he laughed and there they were 2 teeth. After they came in he went back to normal.

He had his 9 month wellness check last week. He is doing great. He is 27 1/2 inches long now and 19 lbs 3 ounces. The doctor asked about certain things like if he is saying mama, dada, bye-bye. Shea and I were both a little puzzled. He does none of that.
I wasn't really worried, I know my son and knew that he was fine. What I was worried about was his daddy. We call him helicopter because he hovers over William. The thought of something not normal will worry him. The doctor wanted to see how he would react if he walked out of the room with William away from us. He carried him up and down the hallway, stopping to chat with nurses and doctors, I guess testing him socially. I could hear them talking and laughing at him. I heard, "oh! you like to chew on cell phones!" He came back in the room and said "this is the happiest, most laid back baby I have ever seen" Of course he is perfectly normal....but even to the amazement of medical science he is truly a dream baby (now I can say he has been diagnosed).

so very thankful

This year Shea and I had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our home. I have only hosted on other Thanksgiving dinner and that was about 6 years ago with my own family. This year was nothing over the top. That is my opinion and not Shea's. He thought we made way too much. Anyway, it was a lovley day spent with Angel, Ricky, Amanda, and us. It was a small gathering, but still so much fun. My favorite Thanksgiving to date.

After we finished dinner we drove out to James Island for the Festival of Lights. I have seen it a few times in the past and Shea has seen the lights about a billion times. It's funny how much you enjoy things like that after having a child. William sat in Angela's lap as we went through the 3 miles of lights. Seeing his reaction is what makes it all the more enjoyable. He reacted in true William fashion, contently watching as we passed through. When I think about it I can still see the reflection of lights in his big blue eyes. What a magical day. Filled with loving family, a new friend and a sweet bouncing (I mean that literally) baby boy. I am very blessed woman. I have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams.

My Sister's Wedding

Last weekend was quite eventful. We went to Kingston, Georgia to the home of my Uncle Joe for my sister's wedding. A family get-together had been planned for the last weekend of October at Uncle Joe's house, but it was canceled due to his job. After that was canceled I got an email from Uncle Joe asking if I would be able to be a part of a wedding at his house for Nicki. It was a spur of the moment wedding, but it was really a beautiful weekend. My hands were so full with trying to help Nicki, and taking photos on top of caring for William without Shea being there that I didnt get as many "non-wedding" photos as I would have like to get. But here are some that I think could represent the weekend.

The highlight for any trip to Georgia is getting to see my family and of course getting to show off William. We all had a lot of fun, playing in the yard, watching the babies play and enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the Georgia mountains.
I had not seen Sid (Nicki's youngest) since he was 3 weeks old. Him and William are 8 weeks apart. He is one of the funniest babies I have ever seen. he cracked us all up with his squeels and grunts.
He is a spunky child though. Full of energy and beaming from ear to ear. I was looking forward to seeing how they reacted to one another. The grunting scared William a little and he could not handle Sid crying. William has just gotten where he is really interested in other kids. They were really cute together. Sid isn't sitting up or crawling yet, so there wasn't a lot of "playing" but they did exchange grunts and giggles and big smiles with one another.

Asher was adorable with William. He is loving, and tender towards him. He calls him "cousin" and can actually say William now instead of Willum. I have to admit that I miss hearing him say "Willum."
All of his sweetness unfortunately does not come out in his photos. When I say look at Gogo this is the face that I get.....

Those are my favorite kind of photos though.....boys of course will be boys. I believe he was saying over and over again to me "I WANT CAKE!" And yes, I meant to put that in all caps. He deserved as much cake as he wanted, because I bribed him with cake all day when we were taking pictures.

We started the day of the wedding off with some engagment pictures.
Nicki and Marvin had not had any engagement photos done yet. So we got up Saturday morning and did them.

Well I guess I should get to the "main event"....Nicki's wedding. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! The ground was covered with colorful leaves. The trees were still hanging on to many as well, which created such a gorgeous scene. The backdrop of the ceremony was a green covered mountain and fall leaves. The ceremony took place a little before sun down. This is Marvin and Asher moments before seeing Nicki. Just look at Asher's face! He is happy to be in a suit, cant you tell.

Nicki was breathtaking as she walked to her groom on the arm of Uncle Joe.
and the ceremony was really sweet. I choked back tears all while trying to get the best pictures possible.

Her beauty was not lost of one little person, her sweet son. Asher was standing by his dad as Nicki came down. When Nicki finally reached them Asher exclaimed, "Maaaaama?! Where did you get your dwess!? Maaaaama, I like your dwess!" He must have said at least five times. It was probably my favorite moments from the whole weekend. It will definatley be one of those stories that I tell him over and over again into adulthood. That is one sweet little boy.

Of course we had all three boys dressed to impress.
Since Sid could'nt sit up I did have the antique cradle on hand for him to sit in. I love these pictures but William would not smile. He was soooooo ready for a nap. The weekend was hard on his sleep schedule (an mine). I was about to put him put him down for nap and realized that we were losing light outside. That poor kid, photos always have to come first.

Here is William with his pretty Aunt Nicki. I had to throw it in because he is actually smiling a little.

After the sun went down we had a giant bonfire. We are a family of piros! The night ended with a first dance in front of the bonfire.

I love you Nicki! I hope that it was everything that you dreamed of in a wedding.