Our Journey!: 2012

Santa Claus Came to Town

Merry Christmas everyone!
Our family tradition lies on Christmas Eve morning. We started this our first Christmas together to accommodate both Amaya and Ely's busy Christmas schedules. However, Amaya was not able to be with us for Christmas Eve 2012 and she was missed greatly.

Ely had a lot of trouble getting to sleep Sunday night. That did not stop him from getting up at 5:45a.m. ready to delight in Santa gifts and surprises. He was very patient with us as we woke up, fed the baby, changed baby's diaper, and finally headed down stairs.
From Ely's bedroom there was a trail of peppermints (Ely's favorite candy...strange child.) At the beginning of that trail Santa had left a baseball guy nutcracker (Ely's Christmas gift tradition.) He has received a nutcracker each Christmas for five years.

Down the stairs we go following a peppermint trail....

which lead to this box...

which lead to this smile....

...which lead to more peppermints! 620 peppermints in that box to be exact. What do you do with so many peppermints? Eat two each day for a year until you run out. Then pray that Santa brings you more again next Christmas.

Sawyer was on Santa's nice list too. His favorite gift was a diaper wipes warmer.

Christmas exploded in our living room again this year.

And just who is going to clean all of this up?

"Not me!"

Baby's first Christmas.

We hope that everyone's Christmas was as merry as ours!

Love and Laughter,

Jen, Ely, Philip, and Sawyer

1 Month Birthday!

Sawyer had his one month birthday! Wow is he BIG! He received his first football for a gift.

He has been playing ball with daddy and is getting very good at it.
Of course you know that Sawyer has changed so much already!
I can not believe how much he is doing after only a month of practice;) We are seeing mile stones so early with this little guy.
He noticed his hands last week as they breeze by his face. I love that, "What was that...... where did it go?" expression that he gives each time his hands cross his eyes path. I have not been able to get a good picture of him enjoying his hands. However,....
Sawyer started smiling two weeks ago. Now he is smiling in response to our smiles, our voices, and his new BFF's that he became very fond of as soon as he laid eyes on them.... these cute little bears that hang from his playpin. Love at first sight!

And I was finally able to snap a few pics of the cutest smile in the universe.

How precious is that 33 days young face? Oh my goodness I could kiss those cheeks off.

Here are some more sweet moments to enjoy.

Sleepy Baby

Looking forward to a very Merry Christmas with my family!
Happy Holidays,
Jen

3 weeks ALREADY?

Really... where does the time go? Where ever it goes, it goes way to fast.
We have enjoyed our very quick three weeks with our new tiny family member. Sawyer is growing like a weed and changing faster than he can grow.

Okay... like recovering from child birth isn't enough. This family has been put to the test. Before we left the hospital I had two shots, the whooping cough vaccination and an MMR shot (because my levels where low for some reason.) Side effects? Yes, I got most of them making me very achy (headaches included with that ache,) tired, and weak. In those same days, Ely came home from school with the belly flu which landed him three days out of school. Sawyer displayed some scary symptoms took so we made a trip to the doctor. Finally, both boys feeling better and (of course) my throat, head, and chest began to hurt. Sure enough I came down with some crazy virus that caused an icky cough. Then Sawyer began to cough and to have some nasty mucus. In the mean time, there goes Philly to the couch with the belly flu. Back on his feet rather quickly and back to work, we all had one weekend pain free!

Come Monday morning I came down with the belly flu. It is NOT easy to take care of yourself when your sick. Put a newborn on top of it and that's just not fair. So here we are at Thursday and guess what?? Ely is home with horrible symptoms again. So with all of this illness and a new baby to care for we are all in need of some R&R.

We have not failed to enjoy every single precious moment though. Here are some clips from our first three weeks together.

Thanksgiving Day-We brought our baby home