Snow for Christmas

I'm pretty sure it has snowed more in Ansley's first year than it has my entire life in Georgia, and what is better than snow on Christmas? It started Christmas night in Dawsonville but after the day we had just had Diva was fast asleep before she could see any of it. So the next morning we got bundled up to play outside!



She wasn't too sure what to do, and she didn't let go of Daddy's hand. At all.





But she finally got the hang of it and started to enjoy the snow.





This round of snow came with a lot of wind so we didn't spend too much time outside, Diva's face was starting to get pretty red. After bundling up a 1 year old to play in the snow for approximately 20 minutes and see how much laundry it generated, I have a new found understanding/appreciation for my mom.

Merry Christmas!

It is amazing the difference a year makes. Not that Christmas last year wasn't special, but Ansley was so much more aware and involved with what went on this year. We woke her up Christmas morning so she could see what Santa brought her and, much like her mother, she doesn't love mornings much less alot of change to deal with that early. Santa brought her a ball pit that she was honestly, a little afraid of at first.



After we had looked at what Santa had left and opened our presents, we left to have Christmas breakfast at Gramp's. (I don't have any pictures of her Christmas morning because Josh was running the video camera instead) Ansley loved on her Aunt Lynn and probably remembered all of those desserts from Thanksgiving.



And of course Aunt Lynn let her open a present early :)



I told you she was a Diva.



And this picture captures the best of 2 worlds, cousin adoration and a love of baby dolls. Taylor got a doll for Christmas and was gracious enough to share with Ansley. (She also got a new American Girl doll that she shared with Diva as well. Such a good cousin:)



After a big breakfast we went to my parent's house for Christmas lunch. Nana has several ornaments that sing/talk to you that Ansley loves to push the buttons and then dance to the melody. Here she is dancing with her Aunt Shelley:



...and now dancing with mom...



After eating an amazing meal we opened presents. Ansley was a pro at this point so she really got into it. The first thing she went for was, of course, a baby.



She even took it with her to open presents with Nana.



Aunt Shelley giving her a hand...



And then when we weren't looking, she took my dad's presents and pulled them to side to use as a chair (baby still in tow).



Once we were finally home for the day, Josh and I crashed on the love-seat and Ansley, either amped from a jacked up schedule or sugar, went to work on her new toys.





Even though it was busy and slightly chaotic, as usual, Christmas was so amazing this year and I am once again reminded of how incredibly blessed we are.

Cousins

My cousin Amanda and I are exactly a year apart. In fact, mom tells me I thought she was my birthday present. Amanda and I are also the tall ones in our family, both coming in at 5'11". She has a sister, Tracy, that is 2 years older than I am and they lived next door our Mammaw. Needless to say, my sister and I spent a lot of time with them when we were in Tennessee. It's a fun time in my family now that the kids are having kids and new cousin friendships/bonds are created. Ansley got to meet Amanda's daughter, her 3rd cousin Ellie, who is 6 months younger, when we spent the weekend in Knoxville to celebrate Christmas.



Did I mention Ellie is 6 months younger? She is off the charts and my daughter is, well, on the small side of them.

Ansley also got to spend some quality time with her older 3rd cousins, Sydney and Jackson. (Caitlin, the oldest of the 2nd cousins, wasn't able to be there) A little family history: My mom is 13 years younger than her sister, so her 3 kids were the cool, older cousins to my sister and me. We got to spend the night at their house, go shopping with them, and pretty much thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread. Now that Shelley and I are older, we are the cool, older cousins to their kids. All that to say, we have come full circle again. My daughter thinks her cousins Sydney and Jackson hung the moon. And it is so cool to see how patient they are with her while she insists on doing whatever they are doing. I didn't take nearly enough pictures during out visit, but this one pretty much says it all.



I love my family and the awesome nature of cousin love :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to Josh's parent's house for a big breakfast, and of course to open presents.

Cousins: Anthony and Julianna



Ansley's stack of presents to open was bigger than she was but she went to work on it and actually did a great job ripping the paper off.





And of course the chosen present of the day was a baby doll. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a girl she is... not because I'm that way, she just innately loves her babies and will even kiss and rock them.



After a brief afternoon nap, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service. I was a little nervous about Ansley sitting thru the hour long program since sitting quietly isn't something she does... ever. Last year I'm pretty sure she slept thru the entire thing in her carrier. But I am happy to report that she was awesome! Granted it took an entire container of cheerios and some puffs that my mom and I fed her and there were a couple happy squeals but nothing too bad. I would put my finger to my mouth and say "Shhhhh", which she thought was funny and would then mimic me and tell me to "shhhh." Our church serves communion on Christmas Eve and my worst fear was that my dad would be assigned to our row because if Diva saw him I guarantee you there would have been a very loud, "POPPA!" Afterwards everyone commented on how great she did (which is something a mom loves to hear) and she got to run up and down the aisles to burn off some energy.

Keepsakes

Ansley's has received beautiful keepsake ornaments from her Nana and Poppa. Last year she received a Lennox "Pea in a pod" ornament with her name on it and this year it was only appropriate that Nana and Poppa get her this in honor of her 1st birthday:



The cover of the book actually opens and has a fuzzy white rabbit inside!

Tramatic childhood experience....

We all have those traumatic childhood experiences that form our adult psyche. I once told my dad that I wanted to be a singer when I grew up and he laughed. I have discussed this with him several times over the years (translation: given him a REALLY hard time about it) and he has no recollection of the conversation. He attributes his laughter to the fact that I wanted to be something different every other day and he probably didn't know I how serious I was or he would have never laughed. But he did, and to this day I refuse to sing solos or in any situation that allows my voice to be singled out. But those are my issues, on to my child's.....

We took Ansley to see Santa this year. She wore her Christmas dress, snowflake tights, and a big bow. We went to see Santa at Bass Pro (awesome reindeer, fun free activities, and free 4x6) and it was a Christmas miracle that we even got to see him. A girl, probably 13 or so, asked if we were going to see Santa on our way in and handed us her appointment card. The card was for 7:30 and since it was only 5:15 or so we thought we'd go in and get a better time. Imagine our surprise when we found out Santa had sold out 3 hours earlier! Suddenly 7:30 wasn't so bad. When we finally got to see Santa, this is what happened:



We eventually did end up with a good picture, one with her in a chair by herself and no idea that Santa was behind her, but this was our Christmas encounter with Santa this year. Hope there is no long term damage done.

Thanks dad...

Look at what Dad taught me this weekend:



Because that won't get her in trouble later.....

Bed Head

This is what happens when you take a 2+ hour nap...



She's going to hate me for that one day:)

Black Friday

My mom, my sister and myself have gone shopping on Black Friday for the past few years now. We don't go for anything in particular, we just like to be a part of the chaos and madness. I know that sounds strange but it's kinda how we kick off Christmas, we try to knock out a chunk of people on our list and it is a great opportunity for Shelley and I to show mom what we want as well. Last year my very sweet husband offered to forgo his annual hunting trip (he disappears into mountains with his dad and some friends for about 4 days) and keep our barely 1 month old so that I could get out of the house and go. So this year Josh went back up to become one with nature and Diva got to come shopping with the girls! I thought about finding someone to watch her but everyone I knew was going shopping and then mom and Shelley offered to help keep her happy if she got fussy. I am proud to announce that my girl is a trooper! Here we are at our fist stop of the day, Target.



(And yes, I am tired. We didn't leave mom's until 7:45 but because she's not used to spending the night at Nana's Diva was up at 5 am and ready to go for the day.)

And here is Diva around lunch. She napped for an hour with all of the madness at the Mall of Georgia going on around her.



We were done for the day a little after 2 pm and Diva was definitely starting to hit her breaking point. By the time I got her home she was stumbling tired. Needless to say she slept really well that night.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was full of family and food as usual this year. We had lunch with Gramps (Josh's grandfather) and his family and then we ate AGAIN at my mom's house for dinner.

The Morgan's Thanksgiving 2009



The Morgan's Thanksgiving 2010



It is amazing to think back to where we were just a year ago! I remember Thanksgiving being a little stressful last year. I had a new baby and I was still trying to figure out sleeping and eating habits as well as fit in the holiday chaos. Thanksgiving this year was just fun. She ran around with the kids, Aunt Lynn fed her at least 3 different kinds of desserts, and she sat in her high chair at the table with the grown ups and ate green beans.

Aunt Shelley got us this very festive bow for the occasion:



In between meals we went to play outside at Nana's house to burn off some energy and some of the pound cake Aunt Lynn had fed her.





My girl LOVES outside





After it was all said and done we had laughed, over eaten, and were reminded of how much we had to be thankful for this year. He blessed us with one awesome kid.

My chatty child

My daughter's communication skills never cease to amaze me, she is one verbal kid. Here is a list of her most common words:

Mama
Daddy (not Dada)
Nana
Poppa
Shelley (we're working on Kevin!)
Dodger
Kira
doggy
kitty
shoe
ball
star
puff (Gerber puffs)
star
turtle
diaper
bottle
hi
hey
bye bye
baby
Mo (for Elmo)

She can mimic words as well, we are learning the word "tree" since we put ours up for Christmas but they don't come up in our regular talks. And what she lacks in vocabulary she makes up for in antics :) If she walks to my pantry door and calls my name, she wants a cracker. If she says "shoes" and/or "ball" she wants to go outside.

I love my little chatty child... Even though it's a little repetitive sometimes, I love doing roll call in the car. She calls out a name and I tell her where they are, "Daddy's at work" "Poppa's at his house" etc. She even sings the B-I-B-L-E. Well, she actually sings B-I-B-I-B but it's still adorable.