Happy Holidays!

8 Months Old 12-21-08

Christmas Eve


Caroline decided to sit on Claire since it was her chair!

Gran, Caroline, and Claire

Matt, Caroline, Claire, and Daniel

Christmas Morning

Claire's older cousins, Caroline (1) and Kate (2)

Daniel (4)

Will (4)

Opening presents with my family Christmas Day

My Dad (PePaw)

My Mom (Gran)

Let me start out with saying what a wonderful Christmas we had thanks to our great family. My preacher talked last Sunday about the use of the word 'wonder'. I can honestly say that he would agree in my use of it to describe our family gathering. I am blessed to have the best husband in the world. We celebrated our 5 year anniversary on 12-20. He is a true rock in my life. I know I take him for granted, but the truth is I couldn't make it one day without him. He loves me and Claire more than I could ever imagine. He is a WONDERful father who I thank God for everyday. Not only do I have a great family to share my day-to-day life with, but I also have the best parents, brother, and sister and all their families to be thankful for.

That being said, it has been a while since I blogged so I will summarize what we have been doing the past 2 weeks. As I said, Bucky and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. My in-laws came down Friday (12-19) after work to keep Claire. We ate pizza and hung out at the house. Saturday morning, Bucky and his dad went hunting. I went to Wal-Mart (in the rain) to get some groceries for baking. When we all got home and got ready, Bucky and I left do some shopping. My sweet husband went with me to pick out my gift. We went to several local jewelry stores before we found what we were looking for. He got me a gorgeous pair of diamond hoops. They are so pretty and I know I will wear them everyday. We also did some Christmas shopping at Academy. We went to eat and stayed the night at the Robert Trent Jones in Opelika. This was a BIG deal for me because I have not left Claire over night since she has been born. She did pretty well for the Streets and Bucky and I got some much needed rest. We got up and ate breakfast. We were pretty ready to come home to see Claire. We all went to church. We spent the afternoon baking and wrapping our last minute gifts. We also celebrated Claire's 8 month birthday (not really). Every time her month marker comes around, I always think back to the day I went into labor. The time has gone SO fast and I am amazed at how much she has grown and developed.

I had to work Monday, which wasn't too bad. Tuesday I took Claire in because she hasn't been eating that well. I thought it might have to do with pressure in her ears because of the positions she nurses. She has never had any problems with her ears (or any illness), but I wanted to make sure before we went out of town. Everything was clear and they told me it is probably due to her teething. She has 2 teeth coming through on the bottom. Claire and I packed some when we got home. Then we went to Burger King with the Harkins, came home and napped, and went to Good Ol' Boys for dinner. Larson and Smith Harkins came over and exchanged gifts with Claire. They are so sweet to her. Claire gave Larson the biggest hug. So cute!

Wednesday, we packed up and went to Bham pretty early. We got to my parents house and ate lunch. We hung out and got ready for church at 3:00. We took Claire into the service because it was a children's service. She actually did great considering she had only had a 30 minute afternoon nap. We went over to my brother's house after church. We played with the kids and ate dinner.

Thursday, we got up and opened Claire's few little gifts from Santa. We decided not to get her much because both her grandmothers got her EVERYTHING she needed. Instead, we bought her the PACT plan so we don't have to worry about college tuition anymore. I went back to sleep with Claire which was a nice Christmas gift. We got ready and the Street's came over to see Claire. We snacked and waited on everyone to get there. My sister and her family came from Panama City. My brother and his family came over and we ate a late lunch. We opened gifts from each other and all the kids enjoyed playing together.

Friday, my aunt & uncle from Mississippi came over. The men (except Bucky) played golf and we all stayed at the house and let the kids play. Bucky and I ended up leaving about 3:00 to come home. Claire has so much fun with her cousins, but she was tired. We have been unpacking and getting settled. I hope to get some of the Christmas stuff down tomorrow. I am NOT excited about that. It is so much more fun to put it up. Hopefully Claire will cooperate and not make me hold her all day, like she did today. We'll see!