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!