Christmas Day

After we had our private Christmas with Adaline, we joined the other 50 or so members of my family for breakfast in Hilmar.  My grandparents, their 5 kids (my dad being the oldest), their 10 children AND all their families (of which we added Adaline as the youngest member!)  It's always warm, busy, loud and filled with love and laughter.  We had a great time showing off Adaline to all the family that had yet to meet her in person (facebook just doesn't count), but it was really overwhelming for Adaline.  She's a slow-to-warm up baby and she did not want both Travis and me out of her sight at once.  We spend as long as we could there, and left right before a meltdown.

Julie (the next youngest great-grandchild) and Adaline.  

It looks like Adaline is hugging her, but I think she was really pushing her away!  

We raced home, packed up the car as fast as we could and headed back up the hill to have Christmas night with Travis's family.  Adaline only slept 30 minutes in the car and was pretty groggy and cranky, but she did her best to stick it out with us.  She seemed to really like opening her gifts and playing with her new toys and stuffed animals.

Look, I really was there!

            

Adaline's first Christmas dress (thanks Cousin Laura!)

We had a rough night (not surprising after all the exciting events) but woke up to snow on Sunday.  Well, Adaline woke up to snow, we were still up when the rain turned silent and everything turned white :)  We took her out to see it, but didn't play in it yet.  We came home and spent the rest of the day resting and putting away our Christmas decorations.

A busy couple of days, but really fun!  Hope you all had an enjoyable holiday, too!

Christmas Eve-Eve

We spent December 23 getting ready for Christmas and baking a little bit.  Mid-afternoon we headed up the hill to Sonora for Travis's mom's birthday dinner.  Sara picked a fantastic restaurant, Diamondback's, and we had tough decisions for our entrees.  Travis picked the skirt steak with a blue cheese/horseradish sauce and shoe string sweet potato fries (my favorite!) I picked the Alaskan Salmon patty served on an english muffin, topped with wasabi dressing.  It was soooo good.  I ate somewhat quickly and didn't get to really savor my food (we were eating with a baby), but what I tasted, I like!  It was Adaline's first dinner in a restaurant and she did fine for being up past her bedtime and being overstimulated with sights, sounds and smells.  I didn't take my camera so I have no pictures to post, but the restaurant was really cool. I'm looking forward to our next visit to Diamondback's so we can take a little more time and fully enjoy ourselves.
Happy birthday, Linda and Grandpa Hank!

Baby's First Christmas(es)

We had so many holiday celebrations this year that we're exhausted!

I documented as many of them as I could:

First was Christmas Eve with my immediate family:

You want to know how hard it is to get three kids to smile at the same time?

Almost as hard as getting three kids and two adults to smile at the same time. 

It is so fun to see Christmas through the eyes of little children.  My niece and nephew were so excited to see the tree full of presents that is was reallllly hard to wait until after dinner to open them.

We had our first Christmas morning as a family and it was fantastic!  

Adaline was ready to go:  

 She loves her bath time rubber ducky so "Santa" knew this would be a hit...and it was ;)

 Lots of new books AND a pair of shoes:

 I received my first Christmas gift, too (as a mommy):

 Then Adaline helped Daddy open his gifts:

Tanner was feeling a little left out, so he inched his way onto Trav's lap for a hug:

More of Christmas Day, later...Baby just woke up so my blogging time has ended.

Fundraiser for Turlock Baby

Friends and Family,

A girl I went to school with, Monica Summerlot-Woods, posted this on facebook Christmas Eve.  With her permission, I repost it here.  As the mom of a healthy baby girl, I ask you to please take a moment to read and pass on if you can:

"If you are not doing anything for dinner Janurary 7th, think about coming out to a fundraiser in honor of my newborn son. We have not shared this before via FB, but he was born on Dec. 13 with multipleheart defects and had open heart surgery on Dec. 15th. We have known about this since I was 20 weeks pregnant. Currently, he is alive and doing well. My aunt has set up the following fundraiser:

What: Tri-Tip Sandwich with Chili and Salad.
How: Dine in or Take Out.
Cost: $7:00 a ticket
Where: American Legion Post, 75 Bothum Road, Turlock
When: January 7th from 5:30 to 8:30 pm

You can purchase tickets by calling Lisa Stuart at 209-404-5497 or Penny Shabazian at 209-678-8200. Tickets will also be sold at the door of the event.
Penny is my aunt. If you would like flyers, I think you can contact her and she can get you some."

~Please forward this to all the Turlockians you know! 

More boxes

We moved into our current house in September and people told us (with completely straight faces) that we'd still be unpacking at Christmas.  We laughed and shrugged it off.
*sigh*
Guess what I did today?  Unpacked another box.  And there are still so many to go!
Our "guest room" is really our still-growing yard sale pile.
The "office" has turned into a realllllly big closet.
The formal living room/front room has turned into my yoga/pilates room (the one room I'm not complaining about!)
It's not so much the unpacking as it is the organizing.  Where the heck do we put everything?  Will it ever end?!  Will I ever be able to park in the garage?

Photo time

It's so tiring being this cute.

See what I mean?

Oh my gosh...

it's December.  DECEMBER!!!!