Christmas 2010

This Christmas was so filled with love and joy and happiness. We are just in such a different place than we were last year and we were just so filled with hope and thankfulness for the blessings that God has given us. This was also our very last Christmas with Just Jonathan. We knew that everything was about to change for him and for us, and we wanted to make this Christmas super special. Jonathan will always be our first born son, my baby, my sweet baby love.

Christmas was wonderful. Mark and Jonathan did a great job decorating the outside of the house. I was a little OVERLY pregnant to be of any help, but Jonathan was a great helper to his Daddy. The two of them decided that we needed MORE stuff in our yard, so they made a trip to Lowe’s one day and came home with two huge inflatable’s for the front yard – Santa and Frosty. Jonathan loved them and they guarded our yard for the entire month.

Jonathan was very excited about Santa this year. He saw him three different times – church, preschool, and at the mall. Each time he asked Santa for a Spiderman toy that shoots webs and things, a Superman toy that flies around the room, and a radio to listen to music in his room. Well, someone must have known what he told Santa, because one of his friends got him a cool Spiderman toy that shoots webs. Also, Santa had a very hard time finding a Superman toy. So Santa decided to bring Jonathan a very cool Spiderman mask and gloves, a Toothless and Hiccup dragon, and a radio. Jonathan questioned a little why Santa had changed his list, but was very excited by his toys.

 Jonathan and Daddy at church waiting to see Santa

Jonathan with Santa at church

Putting the star on the top of the tree. VERY important job.

 Seeing Santa at preschool.

Santa at Park Plaza Mall

My parents and Mark’s parents were able to come spend Christmas day with us. We had a great time being together and opening a TON of presents as usual!! Jonathan had a blast with all of his new toys. Mark gave me a beautiful new pearl ring to go with my pearl necklace from when Jonathan was born and my pearl earrings from our wedding. It is beautiful and was such a nice treat. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see a little blue box from Sissy’s under the tree!

Cookies and eggnog for Santa. Jonathan stirred in the nutmeg himself.

 Checking to see if the reindeer ate their carrots.

 

 Toys from Santa Claus

 Darth Vader mask from Aunt Kim

 

Beautiful pearl ring from Daddy and Jonathan

  .

Art desk from Grandad and MaMa Deb

We went to Portrait Innovations, a new budget photography place, to take some pictures for our Christmas card. It was a fun night and we got some really good shots. Here are my favorites.

Christmas Card 2010

I used the Creative Memories digital scrapbooking software to design our Christmas card this year. I have had so much fun designing scrapbooks for Jonathan and cards for different holidays. I was really happy with how this year's card turned out. Next year's card will have pictures of sweet baby Daniel on it!! Excited about that too.

December 2010

December is ALWAYS a busy and wonderful and tiring and special month for our family. There is always just so much going on and we are usually exhausted by the time Christmas break rolls around. This year was no different. But we had a great time with lots of great memories.

December normally starts for our family with Jonathan’s birthday party. This year we had his FOURTH birthday party at Wonder Place. We decided to do it on a Sunday afternoon (December 5th) so that we could rent the entire building. I’m so glad that we did, because we had a TON of kids and even more adults show up for his party. We are so blessed to have made such great friends here in Little Rock and so blessed that Jonathan has made such wonderful friends as well. The kids had a blast with the water table, sand table, vet area, grocery store, kitchen area, arts and crafts, blocks, wind tunnels, etc. The big event for me was finding THE cake that Jonathan wanted. When asked, he said that he wanted a SUPER HERO cake. But he didn’t want just one super hero, no, he wanted ALL of them. I checked out different places and the only place that would/could do what I wanted was Kroger. Yes, you heard me, Kroger. And let me tell you, that cake rocked! The lady did an awesome job. Jonathan loved it and so did the rest of the kids. It tasted great too, which is always a plus! Both sets of grandparents came up for his party as well which was special too.

It just so happened that Jonathan’s first choir concert for church was that Sunday night as well. Needless to say, it was quite the busy of days. The concert went…well pretty good… and Jonathan had fun. That’s the important part! None of the kids sang very much, but I think they had fun playing on the stage. We had fun and Mark’s parents were able to stay and see his first performance. After church, Santa Clause made a special appearance at church. That was a lot of fun and Jonathan sat on his lap to tell him what he wanted. Here’s the list: a Spiderman toy that shoots webs and things, a radio to listen to music in his room, and a Superman toy that flies and stuff. Those are his words. He told Santa three different times this list.

 

December 8th was our sweet Gracie girl’s first birthday. It just doesn’t really get easier. Changes yes, but we still miss her each and every day. So much. So very much. Her birthday was a nice day though. We spent some time out at her garden. Put new flowers on her marker. Ate cupcakes that Mommy made and just remembered her and her life.

That weekend, I had my second baby shower given by the girls at my work. We had a great time at Carrie’s house. They had planned a bunch of silly games and the girls truly showered Daniel and our family with some super cute gifts. Special props to Mandy for the personalized diapers. It is a long standing joke from when Jonathan was born. We didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl, so she didn’t make him any. I’ve been harassing her about it (in fun) for the past four years, so she and I were both glad to be able to put Daniel Andrew on the back of a diaper!! They are very cute and everyone was so very loving towards our family.

The next day was the December birthday celebration for children in the preschool at our church. Mrs. Susan always does a great job remembering the children’s birthdays. Jonathan loved singing “Happy Birthday” again and having MORE cake!

 

For Jonathan’s actual birthday on the 21^st, I made his cake. He has been very big into Superman lately, and my good friend Edie let me borrow her Superman cake pan. Mark very sweetly bought me some new cake decorating supplies so that I could decorate the cake a little easier.  It was hard, but I had fun, and I really think that the finished product turned out really nice. Jonathan seemed to like it anyway!! I had also gotten him a Superman card for his birthday. When it got time to open presents, he decided that he needed to put on his Superman costume from Halloween to open his presents. It was so cute and we all had fun watching him play with all of his new toys.

Most of the month was spent in anticipation and preparation for the arrival of our new baby boy. Mark worked so very hard on his room. He painted, put up a chair rail, new base boards, and new vertical boards in Daniel’s room. We bought some new furniture for his room that matches the baby furniture in Jonathan’s room. So now the furniture in both of their rooms match and can be switched out as we need to. I am just so happy with the way that Daniel’s room turned out. It is exactly how I had it pictured in my head and just a happy place for me to just go and sit. We had saved all of Jonathan’s clothes from when he was little. Opening all those boxes, washing the clothes, and then putting them away was such a nice trip down memory lane of Jonathan being little and preparation for new memories of Daniel in those same clothes. Of course, so many people gave us so many new, wonderful things too. And, then there would be the things that I bought. I’m not going to lie, I had fun buying baby clothes and stuff for him!

I was just convinced that Daniel would come in December. Just seemed to be the month for our kids. I left work every day prepared not to come back. At our appointments, the doctor was seeing progression, and even she thought he might come early. Her words were, ‘after Christmas, but probably New Years.’ Well, we were all wrong! All those intermittent contractions were truly just practice! My work is closed the week of Christmas and I thought he’d be here that week. Nope! He had his own ideas!! Of course, that is just fine. We just wanted him to be safe, and happy, and healthy. But his story is for another post…

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was fun and busy. Jonathan's class had a Thanksgiving Feast at school the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They were given the choice to dress up as Indians or as Pilgrims. Jonathan thought he was one hot Indian! They also had personalized placemats which were very cute. There was enough food there for an army and of course all the kids wanted to eat was the sweets. It was a very fun party though, and I was glad that I was able to go.

We left Wednesday night and headed for Monroe and my Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. We missed our family so much last year, so we were very thankful to be able to be with everyone this year. Jonathan had a blast playing with all of his cousins, well really, he had fun playing with everyone! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and went to my Uncle Danny and Aunt Ninette's house on Friday night for some delicious gumbo and jambalaya! I got to do a little shopping on Friday morning, but didn't buy hardly anything. Just too tired and too pregnant to shop it hard this year. I did get to spend some time with one of my best friends, Melissa, and her Mom, though while I was shopping, which was so nice. I hate her living so far away, but we always have a good time when we are able to get together. Mark did get up and get us a new fancy remote at Best Buy. That was probably the best thing we bought all day!

 Jonathan playing with Grandad.

 Our Family Picture. Grand Bode was feeling so bad that she's not in the picture and we are missing Christine's bunch.

 Our silly family picture. :)

 The kids saw the BIG kids climbing up in the tree and wanted to get up there too. Jonathan and Preston LOVED it, but Kendall was not too sure of being up that high.

 Jonathan did not want to get down. I think he would have stayed and played up there all day.

My cousin Athena (30 weeks) and I (33 weeks) have been sharing this pregnancy journey as well. It has been a difficult road for both of us and we are just so thankful to have these two babies coming to our homes. They are so loved already. Addison and Daniel, we are ready to meet you!

 We left Saturday morning and drove to Monroe to Mark's parents house for Thanksgiving Part 2! We had another great feast and enjoyed spending time with Mark's parents, his sister's family, and his Aunt and Uncle. That afternoon, Jonathan and Lacey decided to roll down the hill in front of the house. They must have rolled down that hill 50 times! They had an absolute blast and I'm just glad that they enjoy playing together. We drove to Clinton that night to see Tangled at the theatre. Unfortunately, Jonathan passed out in the car on the way there. He was just exhausted and couldn't make the drive. So, we ended up turning around and driving back home. He was so disappointed when he realized we missed the movie but I promised him we could go to the movies in LR the next week. We headed back home Sunday night. It was a very busy couple of days, and we were exhausted when we got home, but we really did have a very nice time with everyone.

Paw Paw had fun watching the action, but for some reason decided not to roll down the hill with them!

November 2010

November ended up being just as busy as October! Probably don't have as many pictures, but trust me it just FLEW by. The month started off with Mark working on the baby's room. He thought this was going to be a weekend project... Hmmm...well it was a weekend..or two..or three! It turned out to be a bit more work than either of us had realized, but the finished project is completely worth it. Mark did a fantastic job and he had a great little helper. Jonathan painted one entire wall blue and really did a great job painting. Here is step one of the process: painting the room blue. Many more steps to come!

We had another baby shower at work for Michelle, another PT. She is two weeks ahead of me, expecting a little girl. The shower was a little bittersweet as her husband has gotten a new job in Dallas and they will be moving at the end of the month. She has become a great friend to me and they live in our neighborhood, so I will be very sad to see them go. But it was fun to give her fun gifts for this little girl.

We signed Jonathan up to take the Big Brother/Big Sister Class at Baptist Hospital where we will be delivering. This class is supposed to help them with the transition to having a new baby in the house as well as alleviate some of the fears of seeing their Mommy in the hospital. Jonathan just absolutely LOVED it, every single part of it. I have to say that Mark and I highly enjoyed ourselves as well. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time as watching Jonathan and the other children answer questions, change diapers, and play in the delivery room. He made a great card for Daniel's crib in the hospital, fed a pretend baby a bottle, changed a diaper, had a birthday party for the baby, went to visit a labor and delivery room, visited a mother/baby room, and even got to see a real live baby through the glass in the nursery. I have to say the class was great and I would highly recommend it to other Big Siblings!

 Card he made for Daniel

 Feeding his baby a bottle

 His Big Brother certificate and pin (we also got him a t-shirt).

Jonathan went to a birthday party the next weekend for Megan. It is so hard to believe that she is 3! Seems like she was just born yesterday! Jonathan had a great time playing with everyone at the party and did a great job decorating his crown all by himself.

 That same afternoon was my baby shower from the girls at church. It was so very nice and just so filled with love. They had done a bear thing which I just loved. From the invitations, to the decorations, to the food, it was just perfect. My Mom and Mark's Mom and Aunt were able to come share the special day with us as well. Everyone had a really nice time and I am just so appreciative of the love that was shown.

 Me at the shower - 32 1/2 weeks pregnant

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