merry christmas.

ours was the.best.ever. and now... between the food, the toys & the visiting... we feel like we've all been hit by a train. our two-year old had a major meltdown tonight when we told him that it was time to go to sleep. bless his heart - he did NOT want to put his choo-choos away. i was wishing i could have a meltdown like his. i really am that tired.

but it was fun. and we had fun all week with family and dear friends. onto bed... until our lil' miss wakes up to eat.... gotta love it!

wishing ALL of you and yours a merry christmas and a wonderful night's sleep.

{december 15} patrizio's.

every year {and i mean EVERY year} since we've been married, and really even before, we have gone to patrizio's in highland park with our very dear friends to eat and then look at christmas lights. 

we even laughed about it this year - as each of us ALWAYS order the same thing. i think we could probably order for each other. funny.

AND this year, matt and i saw jerry jones. and when i say 'saw' i mean that he was standing RIGHT BEHIND ME while we waited for everyone else to get there. i so badly wanted to talk to him but matt looked at me like i was an idio! that is until he left and then matt asked why i didn't say anything to him!

and just for fun - here's a look at our previous trips:

2008 and 2009

{december 15} gingerbread houses.

we had so much fun making a gingerbread house this year.

and if you have a toddler - THIS is THE way to go.

ashley's mom teaches preschool and gave her this idea.

 

use your GLUE GUN to glue the graham crackers together. and then janet had the GENIUS idea of gluing the whole house to the plate. PERFECT.

then we just used regular cake icing to get the candy on.

the kids had much more of an attention span than any of us thought they would. 15-20 minutes of 'quiet concentration'. beautiful.

luckily - we were blessed with a beautiful day outside - so we could send the kiddos to work off their sugar high. pure greatness!

{december 11} j & b.

saturday night we had j's office christmas party. it has always been an overnight party at the westin stonebriar, but i thought for sure that we'd just make dinner this year and then go pick the kids {or at least charlotte} up and go home. 

nope.

the hubbs really wanted to spend the night - especially since it's their treat - and he knew that it would be good for us as well. PLUS the grandparents {mimi & papa} offered to do the middle of the night feedings... in fact, they seemed excited to do it. 

well. last week was R.O.U.G.H. lil' miss decided she didn't really ever want to sleep. naps? nope. nighttime? nope. unless it was her randomly falling asleep, she wanted to be awake. i mean, really? 

so our night away {although it gave me a bit of anxiety} could NOT have come at a better time. i was not 'worried' about charlotte - i was worried about mimi having to wake up several times at night to feed her. i was worried i wouldn't have made enough bottles, etc. HOWEVER - at the suggestion of a friend - i left a bit of formula in case she was still hungry and didn't have enough to eat... that made me feel so much more at ease. especially since she'll take both b-milk & formula no problem. PLUS mimi stressed to me when we dropped them off that it was her treat to wake up and rock her at 3 a.m. 

more power to ya, mimi!

so off we went - and we had a great time. most fun christmas party-ever.  probably because i know more people now and don't worry about 'impressing' j's lawyer co-workers who are married to lawyer wives. i'm over it. and i don't think they cared anyway. ha. 

these pics are from a photo 'booth' they had at the party. super fun. ours were more tame than the others - as i'm sure you can imagine.

i do have to record this part of the party though: each year they do a 'price is right' game at the beginning with tables full of prizes and whoever guesses closest to the total dollar amount gets first dibs - and so on. last year we were 5th or 6th to choose {out of 30 or so}. we won a wii. i love it - except the hubbs won't play with me because he says i'm too competetive. this year - i would have been 5th or 6th again. i had a beautiful gray kate spade purse picked out for myself. but the hubbs added $3,000 to my total right as i was handing it in. ugh. 

we were last to choose. we ended up with an iPod nano. which is a great prize, it's not like the towells that were last year's last choice. but the thing is - neither one of us need one. i have an iPod that i like just fine... it's 4 years old but it works great. and jeff uses his iPhone. 

so - someone in our family just might be getting an iPod nano for christmas! :)

one whole month.

**all photographs in this post are by summer photography**

{and these aren't even the cutest - we're keeping those a surprise for christmas presents!}

on saturday, our lil' miss turned ONE month old. uhhhh... what? 

if you've ever had a newborn, you know that as fast as the time goes, it also can go SO slow. that's how i feel. looking back, it seems so fast and yet it still feels like a HUGE blur! i can't remember what i did an hour ago - yet it feels like just yesterday we were in the hospital!

i realized also that i haven't even told about when charlotte was born.... so.... for MY sake here's a quick recap:

since i had a c-section with brady {he was laying straight across} we went with our dr's recommendation to have another c-section with the second. we scheduled it for the 11th. woo-hoo, a planned trip to the hospital. so much easier with a toddler at home! we were so excited and sooooo ready. 

we got to the hospital at 10 a.m. and i felt like we didn't have to wait at ALL to get into our room. {last time i felt like we were in the waiting room for at least an hour}. they got me hooked up and started with the millions of questions, tests, etc. soon enough, they asked me if i was in any pain. i told them i was really uncomfortable but i wouldn't say 'pain'. i knew i was having BH contractions but apparently..... they were VERY regular and pretty 'intense' to be BH. so..... i apparently was actually in labor even though i was never dialated or effaced. {i just have to put that in there!}

an hour after we were scheduled, they wheeled me into the OR. i hadn't really thought about it at all - but as soon as i was in there - without my dear husband - i got EXTREMELY anxious. i mean, i'm not really an anxious person and i.was.shaking. {it's cold in there too - but they put what seemed like 10 hot blankets on me and i was still shaking}. they were concerned as they were giving me the epidural/spinal tap because i was so stiff... i could.not.relax.

finally, jeff came in there and they got started right away. at 1:11 our little charlotte was born. {not to her liking though... the doctor had to literally get up on the table & put her knee on my chest to push her down & out...}. and in case you didn't notice - she was born on 11/11 at 1:11. {yup - the nurses asked dr. wells if he could do it - and he said he didn't think so - but apparently he did!!} p.s. i remember them saying the first cut was at 1:05. it was that quick.

charlotte came out screaming. much different than her brother, but much more like her personality, i'm coming to realize. i was so grateful - with brady i panicked because he didn't make any noise, but charlotte was making noise as SOON as she could!

brady did great at the hospital. much better than i could have ever hoped for or expected. it was a true answer to prayer. the first week at home was hard for brady {and me} - although he didn't associate the differences with charlotte. he was mad at me and didn't want to have anything to do with me at certain points... which, of course, would hurt any momma's feelings. but now that we're in somewhat of a routine, he's pretty great.... not to mention, GREAT with her. 

so the first month with charlotte was......... blessed, rough, wonderful & a blur all in one. there's a reason that GOD makes you forget what it's like having a newborn - or you'd never have another one. now that we're adjusted to the 'lack' of sleep it's not too bad. you just go with it. but let me just say this: she is NOT a sleeper. brady always was. with a little 'training' from momma, he slept great during the day {still does} and at night he was a champ. i don't remember ever really letting him cry this young - but with her - man, she just likes to be up.... BUT we're working on it and maybe making a little progress??? i dare say that because last night we actually got 4 hours of sleep in a row after an extremely rough week at nightime. hmmm....

she has beautiful gray eyes. they kind of deepen in their 'gray-ness' with every day. i wonder what color they'll end up as - but i love the gray and would LOVE for them to stay that way. i have dark brown eyes - like brady's - and jeff's are greenish brown with yellow specks... so if they end up gray i have no idea where that comes from.

she is staying 'awake' remotely after every feeding the last few days. hopefully this will help with the nights, right??

she has an adorable 'button' nose. again, we have NO idea where this comes from. 

she doesn't seem to really like to be in her carseat. too bad, since she's in it A LOT. 

recovery for me has been waaaaay better emotionally than with brady. enough said on that. 

physically - i've had a lot more 'weird' things going on - but all normal. the good news was that my blood pressure/pulse issue has not surfaced AT ALL since i gave birth. no shortness of breath, no racing pulse or lightheadness. praise the lord. i'm so thankful.

aunt 'tay-tie'

last week, aunt 'tay-tie' {katie} stopped by and gave the bug a little gift.

his first ring pop. 

why?

because she asked him to be the ring bearer in her wedding!

should be interesting to see how he does.

nevertheless, he loves his aunt tay-tie and we can't wait to be a part of her wedding!!!!

{december 2} baking cookies.

{yes, i know i'm going backward on the dates.... remember - my brain is fried from long newborn nights. that's my excuse anyway}

{don't you love his apron? my brother gave it to him when he was born!}

{december 4} children's parade.

we woke up bright & early saturday morning to head downtown for the adolphus children's parade. 

super fun.... and beautiful weather. we luckily beat the cold front!

brady was SO excited about the train. 

{maybe even moreso than the parade itself!!!}

i look so tired. i really had a great time, i guess i'm still in a bit of a 'fog'.... 

lil' miss woke up for oh - about - 5 minutes of the parade??

waving to the floats passing by...