Caroline's First Christmas...

Since it has taken me this long to even get around to blogging, I am going to just write one big Christmas post instead of writing five separate Christmas celebration posts (my extended family, my immediate family, Greg's extended family, Greg's immediate family, and our little family of three). Please feel free to skim, as this is mainly just for me to remember things by. This holiday season has definitely been a whirlwind! We started out our Christmas celebration with a trip to North Carolina...Yes, two adults, two dogs, one one-month-old baby, and 7 hours of driving. And guess what? It was fantastic!! Caroline was a champ and only cried for about a total of 30 minutes each way and we still made it there in our usual 7ish hours! On Sunday we went to my aunt's house for an extended family get together. It was great getting to introduce Caroline to everyone! As usual, the food was fantastic and the company was even better! I had a great time catching up with the cousins and just hanging out with everyone. As is tradition, the adults participated in a Dirty Santa gift exchange and we ended up with a cake pop maker and a grilling set, both of which we were pumped about! After an few hours there, we headed over to my grandmother's house to meet Santa (which will be a separate post). After taking pictures with him, we packed back up and headed back to Raleigh to my parents' house. Monday we celebrated Christmas with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, our niece and nephew, and my grandmother. This year we decided to have the adults draw names and it was so nice!! It was fun getting to see who had who to buy for and what they picked out for us! My dad drew me and got me the drying rack I wanted and a new rotary cutter. My brother had Greg and got him extra caffeinated K-Cups for his new Keurig. Caroline got a some new toys, outfits, and cloth diapers. We loved watching the kids open their gifts, their ages are just SO fun this year! On Tuesday, we woke up bright and early and headed back home to Georgia. I was SO glad that we were able to make the trip and spend time with my family!

Our next celebration was the Friday before Christmas with Greg's extended family. Cindy and Thomas hosted this year and we had a great time! The food was so delicious and we had a BLAST playing all the Minute to Win It games Cindy had planned. The first game was to see how many cups you could stack with your dominate hand behind your back, the second game was seeing who could blow their cup across the table the fastest using a straw, the third was balancing pencils on the back of your hand and tossing them up and see how many you could catch, the last was a marshmallow tossing game, but I came in during the end of it so I'm not sure of the objective. It was so much fun seeing everyone's competitive side! After games, the kids all opened their gifts and then the adults played a fun Secret Santa game where each number has a little poem that went with it and told you what gift to get or who to steal from. We ended up with a decorative clock and a movie gift card. We had such a fun time!

Our next celebration was our own little family's! A couple of years ago we started the tradition of celebrating together on Christmas Eve, so we continued with that this year. This was such a special year for us because we've added our sweet baby girl to our family. We talked about how we couldn't get over how last year we were hoping and praying to get pregnant, and this year we were celebrating as a family of three! Caroline was pretty fussy all evening, so we waited to open our gifts to one another until after she was put to bed. Greg got me several new shirts, two pair of boots, pajamas, The Help dvd, and a night away at Lake Blackshear Lodge and Resort, which we will be going to in March! I got Greg a few shirts, wallet, 2 belts, k-cups, and 12 pre-planned/pre-paid dates- one for each month of the year! One Christmas morning, Greg got up with Caroline so I could sleep in a bit longer (so sweet) and then we took pictures of Caroline with her gifts from Santa! Santa got some great deals over the past several months so the gifts have been stored for a while =) She a got a musical table, tiny diner place mat, snack cups, sippy cups, shape sorts, stacking blocks/cups, and a few more goodies! We spent the day in our pajamas then got ready to go to Cindy and Thomas' for our last celebration.

Our last celebration at Cindy and Thomas' was a great way to end the Christmas season. We all enjoyed a delicious meal by Cindy before heading to the living room for our gift opening extravaganza! It was truly a sight to see the tons of gifts under the tree...blessed for sure!! SJ was SO cute this year opening his gifts! It made me excited for next year, since Caroline will be about 3 months younger than that. SJ and Caroline slept through most of the gift opening (although Caroline decided it would be a good idea to cry though a lot of it), but the adults ans KA had a great time going around one by one and opening our gifts. I always love seeing what everyone gets! We received SO many sweet gifts! Greg got several new accessories for his Big Green Egg, some new clothes, and more and I got some nice new sweaters, several gorgeous scarves, a new crockpot and dutch oven, and lots more! Caroline racked up as well with tons of new cloth diapers, outfits, a photo session, books, headbands and more! We had a fabulous time with everyone but had to hurry out after the gift opening to put a very tired girl to bed! She gave us her own Christmas present that night by sleeping 9 straight hours!!

As mentioned before, Christmas was a whirlwind this year, but despite all of the hustle and bustle, we always remember the reason for the season and thank the Lord for what this holiday truly means. We have been abundantly blessed and I hope to never take it for granted!

Free slideshow made with Smilebox

One Month...

Caroline turned one month old on Tuesday! I just can't believe it! In some ways it seems like time has absolutely flown and in others it seems like she's been here a lot longer than a month. I know everything is a first with a newborn, but with it being the holiday season it seems like we have packed in a ton of firsts into the first month! Some of the big ones are first Thanksgiving, first time meeting Santa, first road trip to North Carolina(!), and of course all the others like first bath, first nap in her crib (and partial night), first doctor's appointment, first time out in public, etc. We have had so much fun getting to know her and figuring out this parenting thing =) She truly is such a sweet baby and we have been so blessed with how "easy" she is (pray this continues lol). She is a great sleeper at night (we're still working on days) and a great eater, which are such huge blessings! To have a one month old sleeping 5-6 consecutive hours, waking to eat and going right back to sleep for about 3-4 more hours is HUGE! Here are some one month facts about Caroline that I'd like to remember:

What she loves:

• Being held! She is definitely spoiled in this department. I'm pretty sure she didn't get put down AT ALL while we were in NC! And of course, she is asleep on me as I type this =)
• Bath time. She is so content in the tub and only cries when you wash her hair (and that's only sometimes) and when you take her out. But she stops when you lotion her up after her bath.
  
• Being swaddled...but only at night.
• Riding in the car- praise the Lord! Hope this on sticks!
• Being patted on the back...f.o.r.e.v.e.r.
• the Moby Wrap- only if she is in the mood.
  

What she is not a fan of:

• her pacifier...I'm working on this because she sucks on her hands and I don't want a thumb sucker
• naps...lame. Not everyday.
  
• Being swaddled during the day
• Wet diapers...if she is crying she is either tired, hungry, or wet... she doesn't mind poopy diapers which is lovely lol.
• Her carseat when it is not moving

One Month Stats:

• Weight: 9 lbs even (41%)
  
• Length: 21.75 in...which is still up in the air. At birth they say she was 21.5 inches, at her first appointment they said she was 20.75 inches...so either she shrunk lol, or the got it wrong in the hospital. either way (84%)
• Eating: every 3 hours, around 3-3.5 ounces
• Sleeping: Our routine is a bath around 8:45, eat around 9pm, put down for bed around 10pm. Wakes to eat around 3-3:30am, sleeps until 6ish and wakes to eat, sleeps until around 8:30 and eats at 9am to start our schedule for the day.

Milestones:

• First Real Smile- TODAY!!

Randoms:

• Baby acne came on STRONG this past week...booo!!
  

More pics from this month:

Customize your own free picture slideshow

2 weeks old...

Well, this post is a few days late, but oh well! I can't believe Caroline is already 2.5 weeks old! When people say time flies, they aren't lying! All of my days run together and I absolutely cannot believe how quickly December is going by. I feel like a recluse because I can't take her out yet, so we spend the days chillin inside which is only so much fun for a few days. I've taken her out a few times just in the car so I can grab lunch or something...and because she falls asleep immediately in the car (I promise not to make that a habit lol). The past 2 weeks have been exciting, exhausting, sweet, eye-opening, and so much more! I really enjoyed having my mom and dad here for a few extra days, because that was a HUGE help!! And a few afternoons this week Cindy has come to keep her while I take a nap, which is also a huge help because Caroline has decided it's a good idea to stay awake pretty much all day. However, she is awesome at night, so I figure it evens out! Last night I was d.o.n.e. after a full day of barely any napping and a lot of crying, so Greg took over around 8:30 for bath time and I went to bed until it was time for her to eat again and that was excellent! Then she slept most of the night...success! Other than her lack of wanting to nap during the day, Caroline is an excellent baby! She is so sweet and is generally content...especially if she is being held. I've tried really hard not to just sit around and hold her all day...buuut then I figure she's only this little for such a short time and I've held so many other babies all day, so why not hold my own?! I'll probably pay for it later when she won't sleep in her crib, but until then it's a price I'm willing to pay =) She is a great eater which has been such a blessing because I was nervous about not being able to breastfeed. Now I will say, this has to be one of the most selfless acts of all time because it hurts like hell most of the time, no one else can help out, takes forever, and there have been days where she cluster feeds and has literally nursed for almost 3 hours straight...and yes, we were both crying! BUT despite all that, I do enjoy it and I enjoy knowing I'm doing the best thing for her. On that note, Caroline successfully took a bottle from her daddy this week which made me SO happy! We had tried before with the Avent bottles and she nearly drowned herself, so I went and bought the Tommee Tippee bottles and she did great! Hooray for being able to share feedings with Greg and babysitters! She also started to take a pacifier much better this week. I was hesitant to introduce it, but she keeps her hands in her mouth otherwise, even at times when I know she isn't hungry, she's just trying to soothe herself. She hated the paci at first but the past 2 days she has taken it pretty well. That's about all the time I have for now...time to go feed a hungry girl!

Thanksgiving...

We obviously had a LOT to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but top of the list would have to be our sweet baby girl who was born just four days before Thanksgiving day. This year was, of course, MUCH more low key than previous years and we celebrated turkey day by my grandmother cooking our traditional Thanksgiving meal at our house and eating it with her and my parents. We had to skip out on Greg's family's celebration this year since it included the extended family and we couldn't take her around that many people yet. Plus, with just two days of being home, I'm not sure I would've been able to make it out myself! However, we still got a sweet visit from GiGi, Granddad, Aunt Katie, Uncle Saunders, and Katie Anne and SJ. This was Caroline's first time getting to meet her cousins so I was excited about that! SJ is SO cute with her and kept smiling so big every time he looked at her. Katie Anne was adorable as well and I know that Caroline will look up to her so much and have so much fun following her around! It was a relaxed day of eating and football watching and baby holding...the perfect Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, we didn't have the flash on the camera so all of the pictures are very yellow. Oh well! At least I remembered to take a picture lol.

(They're not uploading...I'll try again later- someone tiny has to eat)