Ella Kate's first Christmas

Here's our precious one in an adorable Christmas outfit from Chris' co-worker, Betty. When she was born I thought this outfit would still be way too big for her by Christmas, I'm amazed by how much she's grown in just a couple of months!

Chris' cousin Will and his wife Tiffany (who is due this summer) sent Ella Kate one of her favorite Christmas presents. It's the Fisher Price Waterfall Soother . She is enchanted by lights and this one has lights, music, and a swinging monkey! Thanks, guys, it's been a blessing!

Just some cute shots of our sleepy angel. She loves this mobile from Tiny Love. She's made good friends with the cow (we've named it Mini Moo), the lamb (Lollie the Lamb) and the donkey (Donna the Donkey). Another lifesaver!

Christmas Holidays

We've been busy here for the last couple of weeks! The weekend before Christmas we had our house on the neighborhood home tour, so I'll start with those pictures.

In preparation for all the visitors (we guess there were between 50-100) that came through this year I thought I'd make some cookies. So, I started with ginger snaps. Well, something didn't turn out quite right so I just moved on to sugar cookies. The ginger snaps may have been ugly, but they tasted great so I took them to my "girls dinner" where Laura, Claire, and Kellie didn't discriminate about the appearance of the snaps!

Of course, we had to have our Baby Santa who was the star of the show :)

And here are some of our Christmas decorations.

Our good friends John and Amanda of John Black Photography did a wonderful baby shoot yesterday evening. Ella Kate cooperated beautifully (which might explain the screaming session at 11pm last night). We did poses of naked baby with Mom and Dad, naked baby alone, baby with Pooh and a plush Pooh blanket, and some of her in a fancy little baby outfit. John and Amanda did our fantastic wedding pictures, which we still get compliments on all the time. If you live anywhere in or around the East TN area you should check them out at John Black Photography, they are amazing!

Mom finally got to try out the Baby Bjorn. It was pretty cool, I liked it for a few minutes-- long enough for Mom to make "pacifier soup!" All for me :)

I went to a Christmas party on Saturday night and wore this cute sweater outfit, but since I didn't get out of my infant carrier the whole time I didn't get to show it off.

After bathtime, all cuddly in my Pooh bath bag!

Baby Updates

Well, she's almost 6 weeks old and here are a few of her recent developments:

• She opens her eyes wide and follows an object, or our faces, as we move.
• She recognizes our voices and turns her head toward the familiar sound.
• She can almost hold her head up unassisted.
• When on her tummy, she can lift her head and watch her mobile or look in her mirror.
• On her tummy, she can push up with her strong little arms
• From her tummy, she can roll over almost all the way to her back
• She sort of mimics us when we make funny faces especially big smiles and wide eyes with eyebrows lifted.
• She talks to us, if you consider coos and grunts!
• She can hold her little hands together
• We think she may be smiling at us :)
• She can reach for and kinda grasp at rattles, toys, or little blankets

We expect by next week she'll be singing her ABCs and reading The Cat in the Hat!

Great minds think alike! Two black and white toile diaper bags with monograms! The one with my initials is from Melissa and Nic (it is UGA colors, just what I wanted!) and the one with Ella Kate's name and the polka dots is from Lauran. What perfect gifts!

Christmas Card Shots

We are trying to actually get our pictures out before Christmas Eve this year, so we spent some time with the self timer function of our camera yesterday. I think we landed on a good one and should have them in the mail by the end of the week!

Lazy Saturday morning, how much better does it get than this?

Look at my super cute crib shoes? They have teddy bears on them and paw prints on the bottoms!

I had my picture made with Santa today and I am so happy about it!

Ella Kate holds her head up, well, almost!

Happy 1 month Birthday, Ella Kate!

It's been one whole month since she arrived; some days it feels like we've never been without her and some days it feels like she just came into our lives. Either way we are still in awe of our beautiful baby girl. It's amazing that we've created this perfect little being!

We got the Christmas tree on Tuesday, and it turned out we got more than we bargained for. It was tagged as a 6'-7' tree, but turned out to be more like 8.5'! So, as is typical in the Vinson house, at about 9pm on Thursday we went to set it up and realized it hit the ceiling! Chris just pulled out his handy skill saw and fixed the problem! Finally he got it all set up. It's still in the process of being decorated, but we hope to have it finished tomorrow so that we can move on to the rest of the house. We're really trying to do it up this year b/c our house is on the neighborhood Christmas Home Tour. We actually were on the tour once before, but that was 5 or 6 years ago! Now that the renovations are all over we want to show off our hard work to our curious neighbors.

Is this child a doll, or what! I'm working on uploading a video, but it's giving me error messages.

4 Week Check-Up

Ella Kate had her 4 week check up today. She's up to 9lbs and 21.5 inches. That puts her in the 49% for weight and 61% for height. She had a nice screaming fit while we were there and made it a little difficult to do the exam. Once we finally got her calmed down everything went well. She must have been showing off her great lung capacity! The pediatrician says she has "spunk!" She's got good eye movement, head/neck control, and good skin. I guess that's about all, but next visit she'll start getting vaccines-- I bet that appointment's gonna be fun!

My 30th birthday gift.

Chris has asked me a million times what I wanted for my 3oth birthday. I hadn't seen anything I really wanted, so we went out today and looked some more. I love pearls, diamonds, and sapphires so I was thinking some earrings or a pendant. We saw this set as soon as we walked in the door and I just loved them!

Black Friday... says who?

I put on my best shopping outfit for the Day after Thanksgiving sales! I stayed at home with Gamma and Papa while Mom and Dad went out for a little shopping spree. What do you think they bought the most of? Clothes for me!! I'm so lucky to have a shop-aholic mom!

Mom and Dad posing me with one of my best friends, Abbey!

Sunday was Mom's 30th birthday. Slightly anticlimactic, though, having an infant takes some of the excitement away from a big event like that. Mom got to sleep in a little and actually take a shower in peace! Then we rented movies and chilled out. We didn't even take any pictures to remember the big day, can you believe that?

Thanksgiving Week

I love my Daddy! He's so silly, always trying to make me laugh!

I'm learning my hands, I love putting them up to my face. We got some rattles for my wrists-- a moo cow and a piggie!

Thanksgiving dinner; a true labor of love! Papa and Mimi did a lot of hard work to get that dinner served, and, Daddy did his part, too! He made the turkey and the mashed potatoes. Gamma set the table and made sure everything was in the right place. Mama tended to me all day, which included replacing that paci over and over.

Pops, Mimi, Papa, and Gamma. Ella Kate's biggest fans :)

Ella Kate doesn't have any biological aunts, but she sure does have some surrogate ones who are ready to spoil her rotten! The personalized picture frame is from Aunt Nicole and the monogrammed towels are from Aunt Amy-Chris. Thanks, girls, you're the best!

I am the cutest thing, I know, but my clothes are still too big! I'm still working on fitting into those "Newborn" outfits!

Oh, what an angel I am. I'm pondering the world (really, who are those two big doggies that are always sniffing me?). I have to put on my adorable face to prepare you for the potential screaming sessions at night!

I'm not really playing with any of my toys just yet, but I do reach out and touch them. Also, I like to listen to the fun sounds they make like rattling and squeaking. Mom thinks I may like mirrors, too. Who is that other baby?

Bath time! Since my umby fell off this week I get to take a bath in the real tub now! Daddy was super careful that the room was warm enough but the water wasn't too hot. He's a very attentive and protective Daddy, think I'll be a Daddy's Girl? Can you say spoiled?