Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone and Merry Christmas! Madeline had a great first Christmas, although she slept through most of it :) We started off at my parent's house with breakfast and presents and then headed to George's parents for dinner and some more gift exchanging. I still need to get the pictures on my laptop, but for now I will share this video of Paisley dancing. A couple of weeks ago we all went to watch her perform. Later that day, she performed at a nursing home. It was pretty darn cute...

Madeline Learning to Smile

Madeline has been starting to smile a lot lately. She is exploring different facial expressions. It is so cute!! I was glad that I was able to catch it on video :)

This and That

Hi Everyone! I hope you East Coast folks are staying warm! I realized when we were in Colorado  that I absolutely hate being cold. Good thing I live in Arizona!  Cold to me is 50 degrees...actually like 60. Haha. Speaking of Colorado, we had a very nice trip up to Beaver Creek again this year. It was Madeline's first trip. The trip to Colorado (a little bit under a 2 hour flight) and the drive up to the mountains (3 hours) was a complete success. Madeline slept a ton and was pretty much an angel. On the way home, however, there was quite a bit of screaming and crying on the drive to the airport. Eventually she did get all "cried out" and went to sleep. The flight home was smooth too. Phew! We have all seen those parents with a baby who is screaming uncontrollably on a flight. Don't you feel sooo bad for those people?? Thank goodness that wasn't us! :) I didn't do a ton of skiing b/c of the temp and Madeline's feeding schedule, but I honestly just enjoy being up there. The hotel is so luxurious that it is fun to just be there and "do nothing"! It was so great to have the Moore gang up there too...although they had a terrible time getting home (stupid airline!)

George is taking some time off of work for the holidays right now. It is fun to have some family time before I have to go back to work in 3 weeks. I go back on January 6th and we are going to put Madeline at an in-home daycare in our neighborhood. It is walk-able from our house and the lady seems really nice. Nevertheless, I know it is going to be hard to leave her.

Madeline is so alert these days. She is always looking at her surroundings and checking things out. She is also starting to smile quite a bit, which I love! 

My parents just moved into their new house. I was telling them tonight that our house feels so empty now! It was great to have them here for the past 6 weeks. They gave George and I quite a bit of help with meals, grocery shopping, and Madeline. I'm thankful for the timing of their stay with us...it really worked out so nice. 

Anyway, that's a little bit of what we've been up to. This week we are going to wrap up some Christmas shopping (I did most of mine online this year) and get ready for some visitors! Sergio and Andi (our old roommates from California) will be driving out on Friday for the weekend. We love hanging out with them and are excited to show them around. I will leave you with some pictures. 

Brian and Terrisa took Paisley to see Santa the other day. I wanted the non-Facebookers to see these pictures....

 

Terrisa said that Paisley asked Santa for pink teddybear (good luck with that one, Santa!)

Marie came over last week after school and held Madeline while I did a few things around the house. The picture of the right could not be more sweet!

 Here is a shot of the guys skiings. From left to right: Gabe, Brian, Dad, Dan, George

Gabe, Brian, Alaina, Dad, George

 While the boys were out skiing, we snapped this shot of Paisley and Parker. Haha :)

Emily looking lovely in front of the hotel's Christmas tree. I always say it, but isn't Emily the most photogenic person ever?? 

Here are a couple of Madeline on George's lap. He is the expert at getting her to smile!

I meant to share this a couple of weeks ago, but forgot. Emily got us (and B&T one for Parker) "chalkboard art" of Madeline's birth stats. She had them done by a girl at her church, who has a custom hand-lettering business. I love it and plan to hang it on the wall her nursery! 

GOODNIGHT!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! It was nice to have everyone off of work to hang out with Madeline and me. Hannah and Emily came "home" (our house is home for now) for the long weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving at George's folks' house...they hosted all of us (11, including the kids) plus some of their family. There were about 20 people total and Rachel (George's sister) did almost all of the cooking. She really enjoys cooking and wanted to take it on. I enjoy cooking too, but not for 20 people! :) Anyway, she did a great job and prepared a nice meal for everyone.

Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, and Parker went onto San Diego for the rest of the weekend to see Terrisa's family. My mom, Emily, Hannah, and I did some Black Friday shopping on FRIDAY (not Thursday)! We weren't very hardcore this year. We started at about 7AM and finished up around 2PM. It honestly wasn't that crazy when we were out shopping. I think that the crazy people that started on Thursday night were back home, in bed, by the time we started. On Friday, we also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (recorded). Hannah's high school, Mountain View, was in the parade -- it was really cool to see them. Going to the parade is actually on my bucket list....some day!

Most of us (minus Hannah and Jeremiah b/c they have finals) will be heading to Beaver Creek, Colorado this Thursday morning! This will be our first trip with Madeline so I am a little bit nervous about the flight and car ride up to Beaver Creek from Denver (2 hours). We are all on the same flight so I'm sure the business men will steer clear of us, the group with a toddler and two infants. This is a trip that we all look forward to every year. Can't wait!

I have some sort of random pictures to share today (I didn't get any from Thanksgiving).

I thought this was a cool picture that George took the other day when he was out working on the yard...

This one cracked me up. Notice that Madeline and George are making the same face... :)

My mom bought Terrisa and I iron-on monthly milestones for the babies. I think I've mentioned it before that Madeline is a squirmy baby. Here is proof...she was not really into cooperating for picture. Haha :)

Madeline relaxing with Aunt Hannah this weekend...

Newborn Pictures

We got the newborn pictures of Parker and Madeline back the other day. They turned out so cute. Here are a few of them :)

This is one is my favorite of Parker. I love his pose and facial expression.

Got to love those lips!

Big sister Paisley with her little brother. Paisley was very serious during the photo shoot. 

All business :)

I have to start with this one of Madeline. She must have been having a great dream.

Such sweetness :)

Trying to get a picture of two newborns together isn't as easy as you'd think! 

Love this one of the two of them cuddling together :) 

Photo credit to Karen, Terrisa's coworker at school. She was great with them!

Mom and Dad's New House

My parents are getting ready to move into their new house in a few weeks (December 10 is the approximate closing date). I thought some of you would be interested in seeing some pictures of their home. Here is a virtual tour...

The outside of the home is a Spanish style elevation. The garage door and front door still need to be painted. 

When you walk in the front door, there is a beautiful long hallway that leads to the kitchen/family room. You can also see the backyard from the the entryway (they have a wall of glass along the back of the house). 

Here is a detail shot of the rotunda...

My Dad's man cave/office (I love the windows and flooring in this room)

 Here are several shots of the kitchen...

I really like this backsplash!

Here is the wall of glass that I mentioned earlier. It retracts into itself and makes a great indoor/outdoor space. 

Marie's Wedding

Hi All! I am hoping to squeeze in a post before Madeline wakes up from her nap. Madeline is three weeks old today...in some ways it seems like it has gone by so fast, but on the other hand, it is hard to imagine life without her now! 

George is back to work now and Madeline and I are "on our own" during the day. My parents have been staying with us for a couple of weeks. They will be here until they move into their new house in mid-December. It has been very, very nice to have the extra help so close by :) Terrisa and I got some professional pictures of the two babies taken on Sunday so I should have those to post in the next week or so.

Today, I wanted to post some pictures from Marie's wedding. On Saturday, my longtime friend Marie got married to her fiancé CJ. The ceremony and reception were at Stonebridge Manor. It was a garden setting and the weather could not have been more perfect! Marie put a lot of DIY touches on the wedding day, which I am always a big fan of. Here are some pictures that Emily captured...

The bridesmaids (me, MOH Sammie, Becky, Brittany). Marie had us all wear different dresses within the same color family. It turned out great! 

Some good looking people at the reception :) 

Mr. and Mrs. CJ Mueller during their grand entrance at the reception...

Of course, everyone is the most interested in the bride and her dress, so here are a few different angles of it. I loved the lace detailing on both the dress and vail.

Congrats to Marie and CJ and THANK YOU for letting me be apart of your day :)

Day 12

It is day 12 of Madeline's life and I am really enjoying "getting to know" her. Madeline is a squirmy little baby when she is awake. She is constantly moving her arms, fingers, and legs. She also loves to be held and cuddled...which I enjoy :) The sleep deprivation has definitely set in, but George and I are starting to develop a system to cope with that (although George goes back to work this week, so we will need a new system). She is starting to get the hang of feeding and I think after this week, we will have it mastered. Even though the lack of sleep and fussy times can be challenging, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I really love being a mom to our sweet baby girl! 

Like I mentioned earlier, George goes back to work this week (Wednesday). Madeline and I will need to develop our own routine over the coming weeks. I will be off of work until early to mid January and George will actually take another 2 weeks off in December to hang out with us. 

I have to start out this post with the cutest picture ever. Here are Madeline and Parker relaxing together in the bouncer. They didn't seem to be bothered by each other. 

Emily was able to snap this picture of Madeline with her eyes wide open yesterday...

Here is big sister/cousin Paisley with her babies...

On Halloween, George and I sat on our porch with Madeline and handed out candy to the kids. We had a ton of trick-or-treaters. Madeline wore this little outfit...

Sleeping beauties! 

I started working on Madeline's baby book this past week. George and I tagged teamed to get her footprints. There is also a spot for her handprints, but we decided that handprints are way too difficult for now!