Christmas, New Year's and a little snow

We spent Christmas in Benton with my family and had such a good time. Here are just a few pictures of the very many that we took while we were there. We put together a gingerbread house and made Christmas cookies together. Julie was so excited for Santa to come and still talks about "when Santa came to Papaw's house and brought her a kitchen." Too cute. Aaron slept through most of it but that's alright, he wasn't left out, we opened his gifts for him. : )



Over the New Year's Eve long weekend, Ben's brothers Paul and Dan and their families came over for a short visit. Julie REALLY enjoyed having her cousins over to play. Claire slept in Julie's room with her while they were here and the girls had a blast together. I think there was more giggling than sleeping taking place but it was just precious to hear them having a good time together. I hope we have many many more opportunities for these cousins to be together. While they were here we went to Chuck-E-Cheese and had a great time too. What a good weekend!





We got a little bit of snow last week and the temps stayed low enough for it to stick around for a day or two. Julie loved it! Ben stayed home from work for a hour or so in the morning to play with Julie outside. They made snow angels and a little snowman. Ben put the snowman on the table in the back yard right outside our dining room window so Julie could see him whenever she wanted to. She has checked on him everyday, a couple times a day to see if he has melted yet. Today he started to melt and fell over. She was a little disappointed but I think she understands that snowmen don't hang around too long around here. Here's a couple pictures of our snow day.

Getting ready for Christmas

We are getting ready for Christmas and having fun doing it! A few weekends ago we went to the Children's Museum of Memphis to take part in their special Christmas activities. Julie got to see Santa, make a few little Christmas crafts and, her favorite part, get a purple butterfly balloon. She was quite timid at first at the thought of sitting on Santa's lap but then he gave her a gift and they were good friends.






We were invited to a cookie decorating/exchange party that was this past Sunday. It was so much fun! Julie and I made some Christmas sugar cookies to take with us and then she got to decorate a few cookies while we were there with the other kiddos. We had such a good time that we just might have to do this ourselves in the future!






In non-Christmas related news, Aaron has begun smiling! He smiled at Julie and I for the first time on Dec. 4th. How exciting! He smiles everyday and is such a cute little guy.
Here's a picture I took of the two of them this morning in front of the tree. I finally got around to wrapping some gifts this weekend so it's beginning to look like Christmas around here! I still have to wrap all of Julie's and Aaron's gifts so I'm looking for a chance when they are both asleep today to do that. I am just so excited about Christmas this year. Having little ones to celebrate Christmas with is so much fun!!


Merry Christmas everyone!!

How are we doing?

So, how are we doing as a family of four these days? We're adjusting, but loving it. Ben and I both have talked about how having two kiddos just feels right to us. We're tired, sleep-deprived, and busier than ever. It's going well so far. Julie is LOVING being a big sister. She loves on him and tells him that he is so sweet. She sings to him still, and is always concerned about whether he is awake or not, because if he is, she wants to "see" him, meaning be in his face all excited about him. It's cute.

We decided to take the big trip to Texas over Thanksgiving after all to visit with family and introduce Aaron to everyone. It was quite an undertaking with a 5 week old but we did it and are happy to have gone. Everyone loved meeting the little guy and we were excited to see them again as well. Julie rode down with my parents and stayed with them at the hotel so that helped a ton just to be able to have both Ben and I caring for Aaron most of the time so we could try to get some rest along the way as well. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

In Gorman, TX, visiting my Grandma, Aunt JR, Uncle Mike and Cousins:

In Mansfield, TX, visiting with my Aunt Doris and Uncle Larry:

Back in Benton on the way back to Memphis, Julie playing with her Aunt April on the porch:


Ben and I used to skip the Christmas tree at the house since we would be at my parents' house for Christmas. Of course now that we have kiddos, it's lots of fun to have a tree. Julie has really gotten into the whole Christmas thing this year, the tree, ornaments, gifts and of course Santa. I feel as excited about Christmas as I did when I was a kid, thanks to Julie. : )

Julie putting the first ornament on the tree here at home: