Merry Christmas 2008!!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas this year with our new baby! We attended a beautiful service at our church on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day it was so warm outside that Ben and I headed to the tennis courts while Grace watched from her stroller. (Ben has already started teaching Grace how to hold a tennis racket.) Later Christmas afternoon, my parents and brother Andrew's family all came over to open gifts, eat and play games. After everyone left, Ben and I stayed up to play Dominoes. The day after Christmas we headed to Hampton to celebrate with my Dad's side of the family. We created a hilarious video of my Grandpa and posted it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6jUoR0ywPc . We stayed the night with my Grandparents and then headed to Mt. Pleasant to celebrate with my Mother's side of the family. We sang Christmas carols and ate some more! I was so happy that Grace got to meet most of her extended family. I love my family very much and it was so good to spend time with everyone again. After several days on the go, we were exhausted and took a very long nap today!

The Christmas Photo

We took a Christmas photo of the cousins all dressed up this week. Lindsay and I were exhausted after it was over. Trying to get a four year old, nine month old, and a 3 month old to all look at you and smile was exhausting! We had to resort to marshmallows. We bribed Jude with marshmallows to get him to smile and poor Roman had to hold his cousin Grace (who is over 17 lbs). He kept saying "she's heavy Momma, I can't hold her". We begged him to hold her just a little longer. I thought it turned out great!!


This picture shows what you don't usually get to see in a Christmas photo. You can see Lindsay and I (in the reflection) working so hard to make them smile and not a single one of the kids is paying us any attention! Jude can only think about the marshmallow in her hand. So funny!

Another out-take. Grace is thinking "please don't drop me!"

Grace meets Santa

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving with Ben's family. We had a wonderful time sharing Grace with Grandma & Grandpa Hough. We are so thankful for our family!

Grace finally got to meet her Aunt Hannah "Fif".

We also enjoyed spending time with our friends the Picolets.

Grandpa Hough is teaching Grace bad habits.