Holiday Season

Sorry for such a delay in posts.  As anyone with a newborn will tell you, your time is very limited!  And when you finally get a break, you usually are too exhausted to do anything that involves thinking!  As Abby gets older, organizing the day gets easier and I am not sure if that is because she is getting bigger and therefore easier to handle, if I am getting better at reading her cues and taking care of her or a combination of the two.  Either way, I'll take it! ;)

After Grandma J's visit three weeks ago, Rock, Abby and I spent a week by ourselves as a family and really enjoyed our time together.  Abby started to smile in response to faces and also giggled for the first time!!  That has to be the single most sweet and amazing sound I have ever heard and it completely melted me into a big pile of mommy goo.  She also started to "talk" or coo and it is just as precious.  She doesn't "talk" often, but when she does, she says a lot!  She will go on for sometimes up to five minutes and I wonder what she is really saying because she is very emphatic!  I guess we'll just have to wait until she can really tell us what she's thinking!

During that week we also did a crazy "Awkward Family Christmas Photos" photoshoot and had a blast.  The pictures we got are HILARIOUS and they make me giggle all the time.  The idea of an awkward family Christmas photo started back in 2007 in Augusta, Georgia, when it was just Rock and me and our furbabies.  Our local Petsmart put on an event that you could bring your dogs to and get photos with Santa.  All the money benefited SPCA so Rock and I wanted to support it, but we thought it'd be funny to wear super nerdy/awkward outfits and act ridiculous.  I think the photo we got is funny/creepy but so many people thought that it was a "real" family photo that it makes me wonder, "Am I really this awkward/creepy??"  LOL!  Here is the original:

Since we have added a new member to our family, we thought it apropos to take another to include her in the craziness!  I hope Abby can find the humor in the photos or she is in for some fun boyfriend introductions/family reunions!  Here are some pictures from our photoshoot:

Then on the 23rd of December we packed up Rock's truck and headed out on our first road trip to NY to go to Mimi and Poppy Sweeney's house.  Abby slept almost the whole time and we only had to stop once to feed her and let the dogs out.  Other than that, the trip went very smooth and was uneventful.  All my siblings came for the holidays as well as my mom's mother, Nana, and my older sister's children, Makayla (9) and Makai (4).  It was SO great to see everyone and for everyone to meet Abby.  I had to wrestle her back from people to feed her because no one wanted to give her back to me!  Abby was in heaven because for the whole ten days we were there I don't think she was ever put down except for diaper changes!

Poppy holding his third grandchild

Poppy and Abby napping together

Tia Taylor holding Abby for the first time

Hanging out in the kitchen

We enjoyed a great Christmas and New Year's Eve together as a family and even survived a blizzard that brought 2.5 feet of snow!  We had such a good time that it was really hard to leave everyone, but we will all be together soon down in North Carolina!  I can't wait because not only will I have my family close, but Abby will be able to grow up having her grandparents, aunt and cousins in the same state which is something I could never claim!

Abby's first Christmas Outfit (from Grandma Stevens)

Christmas Dinner in PJs! (Notice my sister's facial expression...nice Kate LOL!)

Abby with Great-Grandma Jensen

We headed home on the 2nd and are just trying to get back into the groove of things here in Maryland.  Rock and I are trying to purge the house of anything extraneous before our move in February.  It's a lot of work though because the amount of things a family accumulates in a three year period is overwhelming!  Especially when you consider that the biggest item we moved here with was our bed and we bought everything else here.

Rock's parents are coming up on Friday for the weekend so that Rock's dad can meet Abby and we can all see each other before Rock and I move down South.  I am excited to see them and it will be a nice diversion from the craziness of getting the house/family ready for the move!

That's it for now!  I will post pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Stevens with Abby after this weekend!  And I am also going to post a blog about my labor experience for posterity.  I have gotten a lot of questions and I want to answer those as well as have my experience written down while it is still fresh in my memory so if we have another child, I can look back at it...so be looking out for that, too!