Day after Christmas Shopping with my Sisters

Camille, Mary Madeline and I met at 8 am to begin a fun day of shopping. How we mustered up the energy, I will never know. But I do think a little boost from Starbucks might have helped.....

Target was our first stop...we got a few deals, but nothing crazy good.

Then we headed to Belk because our good friend, or so we like to thank, Kelly from Kelly's Korner said it was a good place to shop. Boy was she right!!! Camille and Mary Madeline found some great deals. They don't carry maternity clothes so I had no luck:(

the infamous green dress.....

They both found the cutest boots at the best prices.

Then....off to do what we do best...EAT!!!!!!

mmmm...lettuce wraps and soup

We had yet another fun day, but missed Gianna. I promise there is a fourth sister:)

Christmas Day

We have so many traditions in our family. They start with Christmas Eve at my aunt's and continue the next morning. All of my brothers and sisters meet our my mom and dad's around 9am to start the day off. We again have a huge breakfast followed by presents and then a couple of games. We always do a five dollar "white elephant" type game and this year we added LCR to the festivities. If you are unaware of this extremely fun game you should look it up. It takes no time to learn and it involves a pot of cash in the end for one lucky winner. Because we were all screaming and jumping around so much, I never took one picture if us playing:(

this is all of the nieces and nephews at Nana's house


Nana and Pop opening their camera from all of us

To begin the day Corey, H and I have our own little Christmas before we head to mom and dads.

H reading her letter from Santa



Corey with his new Tech hat and H with her new Tech sweatshirt from her Yeh-Yeh and Pee-Paw...get your guns up!!!

H and her momma gave me the most beautiful lovey for baby Madeline. I was crying if you can't tell. We are so excited about her arrival.

God has already blessed us so much this year and we have so much to be already thankful for in the upcoming year. I wish I took more moments in my day to thank him.

White Christmas Eve

I cannot believe that we had our very first White Christmas this year. It was the most beautiful Christmas Eve that I have ever seen.

H out in front of our house

Every Christmas Eve H is allowed to open one gift, it is always her pj's that she gets to wear that night.

She is being her very sassy self.....

We had such a great Christmas Eve. We headed to my Aunt Prini's house for our traditional breakfast for dinner. It's always so good. Since it had been snowing the entire day there was a bit of a smaller crowd there. We also went to Christmas Eve Mass with Camille and Julianna. Jules was singing in the choir...so cute.

24 weeks

I cannot believe I am 24 weeks pregnant. The time seems to be flying by.

At this point I am not sure how much weight I have gained, but I am sure it is way too much.
She is constantly kicking and moving. It's the best feeling I have ever felt.

She weighs a little over a pound and is the length of an ear of corn.

We were at Gianna's house last night and Camille was sweet enough to take some pictures.

Here is what I am looking like these days.......

that little elf behind looks like he is trying to grab something....a little weird.

loving my sweet baby

I couldn't be happier than I am right now.

A Lubbock Christmas

We spent the last three days in Lubbock visiting Corey's family for Christmas. We had such a great time. It is always so great to see Martha and Perry, I am only sorry I did not take a single picture with them...I am the worst:(

here is H all bundled up for the long drive...so cute

H with all of the presents

H with her great aunt Lois, it was so nice getting to catch up with her





Our second day there, Corey started feeling very bad. We spent the entire day in our dark hotel room sleeping.

here he is trying to enjoy all the fun.

Our trip was quick, but we had a really nice time.

We miss you Yeh-Yeh and Pee-Paw.

Tiff's Graduation weekend

One of my best friends, Tiffany, from college graduated this weekend. It was wonderful. Christi and Scott came in from Austin for all the fun.

dinner at mi cocina

the beautiful garrett family

the graduate...we are so proud

we headed out that evening to watch the cowboys kick some booty

the copelands

We had such a fun weekend, I wish we could do it more often.

Love you girls.

Christmas and Crafts

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas decorations this year......

This is in our dining room...just a little something.

This is above my window in the kitchen.

In the kitchen.

Our mantle..yes, that is a stocking for Madeline...I couldn't resist:)

Our tree...for the 3rd year we still do not have a topper:(

Our beautiful nativity scene that my parents passed down to us from my dad's parents...love it.

The front entry table.

The coffee table.

And now my craft idea that I stole from Kelly's Korner.

Ornaments for the whole family.

Merry Christmas everyone.....love to you all.

Name Change...well sort of

Corey and I decided to change Madeline's middle name.
Since he was sweet enough to let me pick her first name, he had asked if he could pick the middle name. He decided he really liked Rose better than Marie and I tend to agree.
So...there you have it.

Madeline Rose will be her name!!!!!

So in love

I just never knew how much I was going to love this little girl.

I have found myself staring at my tummy to get a glimpse of her sweet, not so little kicks.

To this point it is the best thing I have experienced in this pregnancy.

Thank you Jesus, thank you for allowing me to be Madeline's mommy.....ooooo, how I love the way that sounds.

The nursery

My wonderful husband has been working tirelessly to get the nursery finished. And we are almost there. I have been documenting since we started.....here is what we have so far......

first he had to sand the walls, what a mess, to get them ready for the bead board to be applied

all the baseboards had to be replaced and here is the bead board going up

the bead board is up and the chair rail has been put into place....pretty

the walls have been painted a very creamy milk chocolate...delicious. Thanks kelly for your guidance in picking the color.

my very dusty husband taking down the ceiling fan that will be replaced with a chandelier

the crib with Madeline's beautiful bedding

the almost completed room

Corey did such an amazing job and we are blessed and lucky to have him.

I think some custom shelves are in our near future plans.