Christmas Season

Well, it is that time of year again. WOW - what a difference a year makes! This time last year, we weren't even bloggers :). Since then, ourselves and a lot of our family members blog to keep in touch. Last Christmas, Tim and I were still getting settled into our house and beginning to think it may be time to start a family. Well, here we are Christmas 2007, and we now have little Drew with us.

About this time each year, we do a "year in review". This lets us rethink what we experienced and learned from the previous year, and what we'd like to improve on or do differently in the upcoming year. (It also makes for something to pass the time while we drive across the country for the holidays) :) Anyway, we really enjoy remembering the highs and lows from the past year, especially in a year such as 2007!! Tim and I have had two amazing life-altering years here lately. In 2006, we got married, and in 2007, we had a baby. It just doesn't get any better than that! Here are our 3 stockings. Tim is Santa, I am the snowman, and Drew is the elf.









We really do have a lot to be thankful for this year. It is so easy to forget how lucky we are and how blessed we are for all that we have. This year, more than ever before, family has taken a new meaning. The holidays are always about family, but now since Tim and I have expanded our family, it has a very special meaning.

It's amazing how much having a baby will change your life. Things that you never really thought about before suddenly become very vivid. One thing that I've noticed is Christmas songs, especially the old classics of Away in a Manger and Silent Night. I couldn't tell you how many times I have sang these songs over the years, and I know they are about baby Jesus. But this year, they have new meaning.

After having a baby, suddenly I'm filled with emotion over what Mary must have felt having no place to have her child. You sing the lyrics "Away in a Manger, no crib for His bed", but I never really thought about before what this truly meant. I know things were much different all of those thousand of years ago, but the passion a mother has for her child stands throughout time. I could not fathom being in labor and not having a safe place to have my child. And, then having my child and having no place to put him except in a stable. It gives a new appreciation as to what Mary must have experienced on a physical/emotional level. Of course, this not even considering what she was experiencing on a spiritual level.

Anyway, I know I'm getting a little deep, but so goes being a new Mom - still full of emotion! That is another thing that I've realized. I was already a sentimental person, but WOW - it's on a completely different level now.

Well, Tim and I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope that you take time this year to remember the past year and soak it all up before 2008 is here and everything is new. Remember to be thankful for your familes and for everything that you have been given and to give back to others. Many, many people are not as fortunate as most of the people who will be reading this blog.

Drew Update

Drew is almost 12 weeks old!! Crazy! At his last checkup (9 weeks) he weighed 10lb 14oz. So, hopefully by now he's well into the 11lb range. Poor little guy is still so skinny, but he eats all of the time! So, we don't know what to do to make him grow faster. Oh well. He's now 23" long, so he's getting a little bigger. Most of his 3month old clothes with feet in them don't fit anymore, so we are now onto 6 month old clothes (for sleepers). The 6 months are still quite large on him, but better to be too big than too small at this point.


If you read the email below this one, you know that Tim is home with Drew. Thankfully, Tim's company has paid paternal leave, so we took advantage of that! Tim and Drew are having a lot of fun at home hanging out. Drew just smiles so big when Tim plays with him; it's just precious. Drew will talk more to me, but we wants to play with Tim.





He's layed out in this picture :).






So, yes, he has quite the little personality. Thankfully, he's becoming more vocal and trying to express what he wants/needs more vocally instead of crying. He talks all of the time (or tries to talk) :). Sometimes you can tell he really wants to say something, but just can't get the sound to come out. He's almost giggling. He did giggle once, but that was it. He loves playing with his little doggie. I've posted a video to the right showing this. He now will hold onto doggie and take him around the house when we pick him up. It's so cute :). Of course, he would also love to eat doggie. He will put anything into his mouth these days.






I'm watching TV.


He's starting to sleep much more at night, so this is nice. He usually goes to bed around 7-8:00pm and most nights will make it to around 4-5:00am, so that's good. He's so cute when he's going to sleep at night. He sucks his little thumb and rubs his head with the other hand. If you ever can catch him doing this, then you've got him! It's time for bed. Of course, some nights he'll quickly wake up and act like he wants to play if he was caught drifting to sleep. Anything to stay awake for 5 more minutes.

This outfit came all the way from England. It's a soccer team in the UK. Our friend, Alex, gave Drew this to make sure that he started out life supporting the correct "football" team. :)







We have a lot of cute Christmas pictures that we took of him in search of the perfect photo for a Christmas card. But, we can't post these yet, since then you won't be surprised when you see your Christmas card. But, we'll post these soon. We didn't use this one picture, so I'll post it now.

What's New With Us

I will preface this post by saying that while I do agree that all good posts should have a photo, I don't think this one will. Sorry :(. But, we will post more pictures very soon!!

So, all of the posts lately have been about Drew, so I thought I'd take a minute to update you with what Tim and I have been up to. I was able to stay home with Drew for almost 10 weeks, and now Tim is able to stay home with him until January. We were very lucky that Tim's company allows paid paternal leave for dads!!

Another exciting thing that has happened is that I am about 2 weeks away from receiving my MBA!!! I am SO excited and cannot believe that it's finally over. After 2.5 years, I must say that completing this degree has been a pretty big accomplishment for me. All along the way people kept saying that it would be too difficult to finish, trying to work full-time and go to school full-time, especially when in the middle of all of this, I got married, moved cities, and had a baby!! I even had teachers telling me that I would struggle to complete the program. Well, I did it!!! All of my requirements for graduation are complete, and now I am just waiting on the final grade. Tim and Drew even went down to school with me last weekend, so we made a family day of it - the last time I had to drive to Columbia, SC for school.

We stayed here over Thanksgiving and enjoyed just some quiet time and hanging out. It was actually very nice, since we have always travelled for the holidays. However, we are very much looking forward to Christmas and getting to see all of our families.

I have a new nephew!! My brother, Justin, and sister-in-law, Rebecca, just had a little boy. He is just precious! We cannot wait to meet him and introduce him to Drew!! Christmas will be very special this year. Both my brother and I have both become parents in just the last few months.

Tim has finished another year of "busy-season" with his company, which is always a good thing. For the most part, their job is nice and very flexible, but from Sept 15th-Dec 15th of every year, it is "busy season", which means lots of travel and late nights. But, Tim was able to skip out on some of this since his paternal leave started mid November.

Well, hope everyone is doing great! Just wanted to give an update.