Jolly St. Nick

Charlotte got to meet Santa Claus for the very first time! Our church has an annual HoHoHo Breakfast for the kids and Charlotte and I attended.

The professional picture

My quick snapshot

It probably helped that she was tired from a very short morning nap. Charlotte sat right down and would stare at the camera, but wouldn't smile. When she finally turned around and realized she didn't know the person holding her, she started to get upset. Luckily we had already gotten the picture!

A quick one of Mommy and Char on Santa's sleigh

There wasn't much to do because the party was really geared towards toddlers and up. However, we were able to make one jingle bell ornament that Charlotte is really enjoying playing with!

Getting in the Christmas spirit!

We love our Small Group!

We love, love, love our Small Group from church! We meet together every Wednesday for a Bible Study at the Chamblees' house. In celebration of the Christmas season, we gathered at our home this past Wednesday for a Christmas party. We had food, fellowship, and gift exchanges.

Here is everyone squeezed into our tiny kitchen around the food. Isn't funny how that is where everyone always ends up?

Charlotte was so excited to find little Ty to play with!

Here are the "big kids" showing off their Christmas t-shirts.

The kids: Charlotte, Caroline, Mallory, Jake, and Ty

Char was so excited about her new pop-up book she got in the kids' book exchange.

The Gibbs minus baby Ty (who is being held by Haylee)

The Chamblees

The Ezzells plus Ty

The Millicans and the Morses

The Hammetts and the Bookers

We loved having everyone over! This group has been such a blessing to our family and we are so happy to share our Christmas joy and love with you!

Dancing to her own tune

8-months-old

Charlotte Ruth is 8-months-old already! I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. I am really enjoying watching her grow and learn, but the days turn into weeks and before I know it, she is another month older. According to our at-home estimates, she is about 19 lbs. She is a good eater and is not lacking for nutrition!
Charlotte is still quite the social bug. Now that she is mobile, when we are around a crowd of people she wants to crawl around and check it all out. She particularly loves being around other children. I just know we will have so much fun at Christmas with both our families and her cousins! She spends her days with a 15-month-old and a 3-year-old so she is used to the noise and chaos.
Here are some things about Char at 8 months:

- pulls up on everything. She will spend 10 minutes just standing holding onto our ottoman and checking everything out.

- has started to cruise on furniture but only sporadically and very short distances

- still crawls at the pace of a snail. She really makes me laugh. She is determined and knows where she wants to go, but she takes a while to get there.

- easily distracted mid-crawl by lint and fuzz. She will stop and check out the smallest speck on the floor

- thinks that anyone jumping up and down is hilarious

- doesn't like her changing table because she has to lay still and can't crawl around

- can go from crawling into a sitting position

- we find her awake in her beds after naps or in the morning either sitting or standing in her bed

- loves to say "da da da da" but doesn't actually associate it with her Daddy

- understands what "no tree" means, or at least seems to since we put up the Christmas tree

- thinks Oreo is her best friend - although he would disagree

- pretty much eats any veggie but hasn't like any fruit we have tried

- on a regular basis eats green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and oatmeal

- we have tried bananas, peaches, and pears but she hasn't liked any of them

- when she doesn't like a food she will make a gagging face like she is going to throw up and will clamp her mouth shut after about the third bite

- loves to play with the little puffs dissolvable treats but doesn't realize they're food

- doesn't understand the concept of what to do with a sippy cup

- has started to reach her arms out to be picked up, but not on a regular basis

I could go on and on. I am just so overwhelmed with how amazing it is to watch her grow and know that she is my perfect and amazing gift from God. On a daily basis, I can't believe how blessed I am. Praise God!

All girl

I wanted a girl and I got all girl! A roomful of toys and all she wants to play with are Mommy's shoes!

The Big Bad Teething Monster.

Over the Thanksgiving Holidays the teething monster paid a visit to Charlotte, and our whole family for that matter. Even the times she has been sick, Charlotte has still been a great nighttime sleeper. So, when she woke up crying at 3:45 a.m. Thanksgiving night and wouldn't soothe herself back to sleep, I knew it must be teething. I have had teething pain relievers and soothers of the sort on hand for many months now. I'm glad we were prepared so that Mark didn't have to make a middle-of-the-night run to a 24 hour store. I don't know why, mother's intuition perhaps, but I suspected that she was cutting both of her bottom two front teeth at the same time. About two days later I was able to finally start to feel and see them, and that was in fact the case. So, we had Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights that we all had very broken sleep because every few hours her medicine would wear off and we would have to give her more and calm her down so she could go back to sleep. Luckily, by the time we had to go back to work, Charlotte was back to sleeping through the night. The teeth are still just barely visible, but you can really feel them now! I seems that it will take a while for them to come all the way in, but I think we are through the worst part. Until the next tooth . . .`