Merry & Bright.

Baby's First Christmas. So much fun.

This little lady made quite the haul. Everyone went crazy and got each other too many presents but it was so much fun to watch Gracyn open and peek into her gifts. We have spent the days since playing and playing and playing some more with all of her new toys.

As my mom would say, we are now experiencing the post-Christmas letdown. Our family has all gone back home and we are enjoying our last day of Christmas Vacation snuggled inside. Of course it went all too fast but it was a wonderful few days having my parents and little brother in town.

As tradition would have it, we had a spaghetti dinner Christmas Eve followed by a few rounds of opening gifts. Santa came after Gracyn went to bed - she was definitely on the nice list this year. Lots of goodies. I did not get a family picture - I have a serious issue of forgetting to take a family photo and/or photos of anyone besides Gracyn apparently. 2014 resolution, I guess.

We are back to reality tomorrow - work and daycare - but this Christmas was definitely one for the books (or blog...).

Gracyn :: 11 Months Old

Another month down. Eleven months old. One month closer to this sweet girl's FIRST birthday! I ordered the invitations and party planning is in full swing via Pinterest. Even though I'm excited for G's birthday, I kind of want to pause time and keep her just how she is now. I'm loving this babbling, walking running, giggling eleven month old...

New this month:

Dancing. G likes to get down with her bad self. She will dance with her toys or when a commercial plays a tune. She'll stop what she's doing and start twisting back and forth to the beat. If you ask her to dance, she will gladly show of her skills as well.

She's obsessed with carrying her shoes around the house. Really, she'll carry anything and usually has something in her hands as she tears through each room. She'll also bring you things or "show" you what she has. I can ask her to go get something (stuffed puppy, toy cell phone) and she'll take off to find it, babbling to herself along the way.

She's started giving hugs and the sweetest, best open-mouth kisses you've ever seen. Slobber and all. They're truly the best.

i mean, seriously.

We are so pumped for Christmas this week. Gracyn has already tried to open presents under the tree and she's infatuated by the ornaments. She'll walk over to the tree and stare, shaking her head since we've told her 19292384 times "no-no" when she grabs for one.

Gracyn, you never cease to amaze us. Your daddy and I love you so much. Month eleven, you might be my favorite yet. 

{Virtual} Pajama Party

We're joining in on some festive virtual pajama party fun over here tonight. We totally missed out on the Halloween pajama party (we had a costume crisis on our hands…) so I was super pumped when I heard Darci and the girls were hosting another party. And yeah, I talk about these people like I know them. I don't. Never met them. But that's the beauty of the blogosphere - we I read about each other's their lives and I feel like I know them and they know me and we're best of friends. Or something creepy like that…

Anyways, back to the par-tay... 

Getting a decent picture of Gracyn is a daily challenge I like to bestow upon myself. One of these days she'll be "trained" to stand still for longer than .547 seconds so mama can get just one or one hundred 'cuz lets be honest, mama can't just take one…

This last pic just screams "Merry Christmas" right? Poor thing. She was not having it. Time for bed. Even when she's crying she's the cutest little elf. 

Christmas Eve is in TWO weeks! Woo hoo! I best get to finishing up my shopping and wrapping those presents. Justin and I both took the whole week of Christmas off to spend the days at home with our little family and I cannot wait. It is going to be glorious. Cannot wait.

Happy Holidays!!

Thankful

Gracyn's first Turkey Day was spent in Tulsa visiting Justin's side of the family. It's always fun to head down south to visit  his mom, siblings and all of our nieces and nephews that we don't get to see all too often. Gracyn's cousin Ruger is 6 weeks older than she is - it was so fun to see them babble back and forth and interact. Ruger's not quite walking yet and a couple of times G got a little too excited and would fall on top of him. She even sat on him one time. You know I got that on video. I 'grammed it, don't worry.

Between the 11 grandkids on that side, things can get a little CrAzY and of course we didn't get any good pictures. I totally failed and didn't even use my nice camera. Nor did I get a family picture on Thanksgiving day. Bummer. And I think I need a serious iPhone upgrade…the camera on my phone is so lame.

Without getting too sentimental and mushy on you, I really do need to take a moment and reflect on just how thankful I am this year. I mean, I'm thankful every year (every day, really) but this year takes the cake. I have a rock-star husband and one awesome baby girl. We are all healthy and happy. Life is pretty darn good and I couldn't really ask for anything else.