What a Year!!

Whew...What a difference a year will make.

I remember sitting at our friends house on New Years Eve last year and I experienced my first Braxton Hicks contraction. I didn't make a big deal about it, but I just remember thinking - WOW. I'm really going to have this baby!!


We actually had Christmas with the Tylers on New Years Day last year, so that was a wonderful start to a new year - with family.


In March we were about done decorating the nursery and my showers started. Wesley's brother got married in April, and then before we knew it, Hannah Kate was here May 1st! (almost 3 weeks early)

May 16, Wesley's brother graduated from Pharmacy School! What an accomplishment!!

(I had to miss it because I had a very new baby!!)

May 20 (a few days late!) our niece, Marley Elizabeth was born. What fun this was!! It was so exciting to have a newborn and get to experience her best friend being born!!


Then in July our nephew Grayson Layne was born, right on time. Poor little man is going to be surrounded by girly girls.


In August we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. This was our first date since Hannah was born!

The rest of the year was spent watching our baby girl grow. From rolling over, to sitting up, to ALMOST crawling.

What a blessing our life is.

The Lord has done GREAT things for us, and we are filled with joy! Psalm 126:3

Christmas with the Tylers!

After spending time with my family, we headed to the Tyler's on Christmas Eve. Hannah was excited to see her other set of grandparents that were eagerly waiting for us (well...her!)

We woke up Christmas morning and Santa had come and filled all our stockings. 2 new stockings this year. One for Hannah and one for Jenn! Unfortunately there are no pictures of opening stockings. Too early for pictures!

After spending time with Jenn's family, Jenn and James came over and we had a little celebration with all of us.

Rachel - after opening the best gift in the world. A Chi. If you know me, you know that I idolize the chi straightening iron!

Did you know that the inventor of the chi is running for governor?! Anyone that brilliant should be elected.

Here is Hannah - more interested in the ribbon than any real gift!

We headed over to Granny and Pawpaw's house that evening for the big family celebration. My family is so small (although it's growing quickly), so I always love being around Wesley's big family.

I think Hannah looks 2 years old in this picture. She just looks so big!! - And adorable.
Wesley getting ready to play some Christmas music

What a fun time Chirstmas was with the family and reflecting on our blessings.


The next evening we headed over to James and Jenn's new place. It was so nice and Jenn cooked yummy enchiladas for all of us.
And a sleepy, but happy Hannah!
It was fun to see and celebrate with everyone!!

Christmas with the White's!

Wow. I am sorting through all of my pictures from Christmas and there are just so many....so I decided to do 1 post of pictures with my family and another with pictures from Wesley's family's Christmas.

We started the holiday with my family. It was so much fun and the 3 little additions this year made things even more chaotic, but triple the fun! However, I don't think there was 1 time that all the babies were awake at the same time, so no pictures. Can you believe it? They were all on opposite schedules! Individual pictures will have to do:

Marley playing in the high chair

Hannah in her 'my first Christmas' bib
Grayson - totally exhausted after opening presents!Can't forget our oldest babies....

Carter playing with Spike Jr.

London waiting her turn to open a presentAnd here's Justin....no words....
(Notice I included him in the 'kids' section)

Mom is always in the kitchen! She's always making seafood, steaks, ribs or something else so yummy! Here she is seasoning the steaks....
Our little family - First Christmas with Hannah!
Practicing Christmas songs
There are so many more pictures, but I know all of you have your own family Christmas pictures, so you don't want to feel like you were at my family Christmas, too. Ha!

What a fun time we had at the White House and celebrating the birth of Christ!

All things GIRL!

On this day a year ago, we found out we were having a precious baby GIRL!


I would have been just as thrilled to find out we were having a boy, but I was SO THANKFUL to be having a little girl. I fell instantly in love with all the cute girly things!!

Then, when she got here I fell even MORE in love with girly things and having a real-life baby doll!!


I just love being a mommy of a girl. We have so much fun together and I can't wait (well, yes I can!) until she's old enough for shopping trips and late night talks.


I love you, Hannah Banana!

Gifts

I love having friends and family that don't yet have children of their own. Hannah benefits greatly from that. Since they don't have kids of their own to spoil, they spoil mine. haha!

Aunt Jenn and Uncle James gave Hannah this precious outfit last Christmas. Hannah wasn't here yet, but they were already spoiling her. They gave her the socks when we saw them at Thanksgiving. They look like little Mary Janes. So cute!


My best friend Ashley gave her one of our personal favorites from childhood....


Ash and I had never talked about this before, but when Hannah (I) opened the book, I was SO EXCITED. I remember checking these books out every time I went to the library. I'm so glad Hannah has one now!

And my friend Dara made Hannah this ornament. LOVE it. It will look fabulous on her pink tree next year, don't you think?!


So until all of you have your own kids, I give you permission to keep spoiling mine. haha.

And just because this was cute...

Joy & Thankfulness

I've been reluctant to post something new, because I just hate for the pictures in my previous post to not be on top! I just love all those pictures and I'm so glad Wes decided to get such an amazing camera. Of course, it helps when your subject is as cute as ours!

Saturday night Hannah woke up several times during the night, which (thankfully) is pretty unusual. She did the same thing Sunday night. After talking with a friend, who suggested Hannah may have an ear infection, I brought her to the doctor. Sure enough, poor darling had a mild infection in her left ear. After just a few doses of an antibiotic, she feels much better! I guess since she wasn't sleeping too well at night, she decided to take a little nap on the floor...

Sweet girl!

Yesterday I was cooking dinner and Hannah was playing and rolling around in the living room. When I came around the corner, I didn't realize that she had decided to play hide and seek...

I thought this was the cutest thing and got out the video camera. Adorable!

Then today I put on Baby Einstein for Hannah while I was cleaning the kitchen. When I walked in to check on her this is what I saw:

She was sitting straight up in her bouncy seat. She kept leaning forward and I was scared she was going to topple over the front of it! I guess it's time to retire it. How sad!

As I think of the past 7 months that Hannah has been here I can't help to be filled with joy. Each day she makes me smile a thousand times. There is no way to describe a mother's love for her babies. I'm just so thankful for her and Praise God for his wonderful creation and I thank him each day for this incredible blessing, among many, many more.

One other thing that is extremely heavy on my heart tonight is my friend, Lindsey. Lindsey is my age and has been diagnosed with cancer. AGAIN. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. Just when she thought she was in the clear, it hit again. I encourage you to read her blog and I know more than anything, she would appreciate your prayers. Specifically, that the cancer is localized and has not and will not spread. I can't begin to imagine what she and her husband are going through. Their faith is strong and although I'm sure Lindsey is confused and scared, she is confident that the Lord will carry her through, as he already has once before.

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and carry
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.
Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

100 Posts!!

On November 18,2008 I created my blog. Since then, all of you have heard from me 100 times!! You can click here to see my very first post!

Wow, things sure have changed!

In honor of my 100th post, I figured I would post the most ADORABLE pictures. Possibly the cutest, ever!

I started this blog so that our families out of town could keep up with our lives and see pictures of Hannah regularly. It has turned into a hobby, and a digital scrapbook for me. I told Wes when I reached 100 posts I wanted to print everything out to put in Hannah's book. I have blogged about everything from pregnancy, Hannah's showers, Hannah's birth and all of Hannah's milestones. Without this blog, I would have no record of any of that.

My sister recommended a site called Blog2Print, but it appears that this site really messes up the formatting. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

I really enjoy blogging more than I thought I would, and I appreciate all of you readers who make it even more fun! Your comments are so fun to read.

I'm excited to see what I'll be blogging about at 200 posts and what milestone Hannah will be at...

Love to you all!

Momma's girl

A few weeks ago I posted a poll on my blog to see who everyone thought Hannah looked most like, me or Wes. Well the results came back with most people saying they saw a little of both of us.

I don't have any baby pictures of Wes, but here are a couple of mine.


Don't you think Hannah looks like me when I was a baby?


Hannah is 7 months in this picture and I was about 4 months.

O Christmas Tree

I saw this adorable Christmas tree on another girl's blog. I fell in love. Had to have it. I went to Wal-Mart and they were sold out. I called the other 2 Wal-Mart stores in town and they didn't have it either. I called my mom and her Wal-Mart had it. So excited!! The only problem is that my mom lives 3 1/2 hours away. By the time she shipped it to me, we would be leaving town to visit them. So, I don't get to use it this year. Bummer. But I'll have it for next year and the following years. Doesn't every little girl need a PINK Christmas tree?! We will use this tree for all of Hannah's homemade ornaments that she makes at church and any other special ornaments we get for her.

My friend Tamala (who is SO crafty) made this ornament for Hannah. Isn't it precious?! This is on our tree for now, but will be on her pink tree next year. Can't wait!


And when I asked Hannah if she was excited about the new tree, this was her reaction!

I think she's as excited as I am!!!