Christmas

I found a few shots I'd taken before we headed down south and wanted to post them since they're so happy.

Ryan insisted on capturing this moment on film - I guess it's something he used to do when he was younger (which explains a lot...). I have yet to see her do anything that I can claim as something she got from me - except for the way she arches her back in protest when you try to put her in her carseat. I have a feeling we've got a strong-willed child on our hands...

And although she looks tired in this picture, she's got the bluest eyes...

While visiting pre-Christmas in Anderson, I learned to take videos with my camera (not our videocamera which I'm still trying to figure out how to share) so that I can upload them. Here's our first attempt - although not monumental, you can see Phoebe in action.

I honestly don't know how people with multiple children get anything done, let alone those of us with just one. We're just exhausted! We left last Tuesday after work for Georgia on icy roads (praise the Lord we didn't have any problems!) and made it in around 1:00 a.m. Phoebe finally got back to sleep around 3:00 a.m.

Here's Ella (2 1/2) who powered through a double ear infection over the holidays. She was so fun to watch. Her Uncle Brent came in from Chicago and was certainly the highlight of her Christmas.

She shared her presents with everyone.

And oh the dogs! Between us there were two dachsunds and three pomeranians. Thanks to Mike and Carrie who left their two at home! We had such a fun time and even got to enjoy some warmer weather and sunshine while visiting.

We got back around 11:00 Sunday night and by 10:00 Monday morning we were at my family's home to celebrate Christmas with them. They'd refrained from opening any presents till we arrived so Katie was especially anxious for us to make it home.

Phoebe didn't quite get into the whole opening presents thing but still made out pretty well. Although her attention span is pretty short, we now have a plethora of toys to distract her longer!

Ryan got a new tripod for Christmas so we had to break it in with a family picture.

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays with family and friends. It's so hard to believe 2008 is behind us and we're facing a brand new year. May you all be truly blessed in 2009, may love and laughter fill your homes and true Joy fill your hearts.

Newell Get Together

We got together in Anderson this afternoon since we wouldn't all be in town on Christmas Day. What fun to have all the great-grandkids in one room! The youngest, Gabby is six months and the oldest, David, is six. What a crazy fun family we have! Here are a few pictures from the afternoon...

Hailey(3), Gabby (6 mos.), Bella(2) & Phoebe (8 mos.)

Cousin Kyle & Phoebe

YiaYia & Phoebe

GreatGrandma & GreatGrandpa with the GreatGrandkids!

And before everyone left, we took some pictures with Grandma and Grandpa Newell. Here are the Newell's from Phoenix:

Here are the Kirkpatrick's from Fishers, Indiana:

Here we are amazingly all smiling for the camera:

And then here are YiaYia & Papou:


We missed Cortney who had to work at the hospital - she would have gotten a good dose of babies during the visit! Hopefully I'll get some pictures from everyone else so I can add to the collection. Ryan was trying different things with the camera so the ones that showed the rest of the family didn't turn out. It was so fun to catch up in person with everyone! Hopefully it can happen more than once every 3 or 4 years from here on out. Love you all!

The Crawling Begins...

This is what we've been doing at our house recently...practicing our army crawl. It starts by zoning in on an object (usually one of Pita's toys) and scooting, pulling and pushing until the desired object is reached.

She's been such a fun baby and we're starting to capture some really great smiles. She's enjoying moving around more - so much so that she even got moved up to the next level at daycare this week. Tuesday was rough (probably just having new teachers, being in a new room and starting a new scheduled routine), but her last two days have been much easier. She drooled like crazy over the weekend and has had three blowouts in the last two days - we can't help but wonder if more teeth may be the reason? Only time will tell! Ryan caught this one of her entertaining herself in the mirror - how fun is that face?!

And here's one of the two of them doing some father/daughter bonding. Ryan thinks she's starting to look less and less like him and more like her own little person. A lot of people think she looks like her Nana - either way, they're both good looking so we're in luck!

He took this one when I got home tonight. She usually falls asleep on the way home and stayed asleep while we unloaded the car. She just looked so peaceful and snug - we gave up on a coat and are just using the Bundle Me blanket, even though it's a bit big for her right now. It works great, it just means we have to take the carseat in everywhere since she doesn't have a coat on.

Thanksgiving in Chicago

We made it to Chicago for another Thanksgiving - it's hard to believe my family has been making the trek for 21 years now. We arrived about an hour before everyone else which gave us just enough time to get changed before everyone started to arrive - I don't know how Aunt Mary does it - she had 61 in attendance this year! I don't think we could tell you half the people who were there - I can't believe how fast the kids grow up!

I'm pretty sure Phoebe was a hit - Auntie Kate loved getting to spend some one-on-one time with her too!

Katie's friend, Josh came since his home in Texas was a bit too far to get to for the short holiday. He hit it off with everyone, and had a special connection with Jessica.

Skip & Gayle's youngest daughter, Cassiday, became fast friends with Phoebe. We even got to go clothes hunting in her closet before we left - it's so fun to have older girl cousins and inherit some of their clothes!

Yanni and Alexi were able to come this year - their family lives in Greece so we don't see them very often - it was good to catch up with them.

Phoebe loves her uncle so much she wore a shirt just for him that said, "My Uncle Steve is kind of a big deal." It was hard to get a picture with all the words showing so you'll just have to take my word for it!

We also got to participate in Aunt Mary's birthday celebration. The kids made a cookie jar for their Michigan beach house and filled it up with love letters. What a sweet idea (I'll probably steal it when my kid(s) are old enough to write!).

Here's a picture of those two teeth that are slowly but surely making their way into Phoebe's mouth.

Saturday, we had to keep with tradition and make our way downtown before heading home. Josh had never been to the Windy City so we made a few of the main stops (Millenium Park, Garrett's Popcorn, Michigan Avenue, etc.). Here we all are at the bean:

The Wrigley Building:

We stopped at Portillo's for lunch and since Santa was there, we decided to give him a try. The last week or two, she's decided she doesn't care much for strangers...

So after Santa, we headed back home to Indy. We had to be up bright and early the next morning since the Wallis family was lighting the Advent Candle at church all three services. We took Phoebe in her pjs and got her dressed in time for the 8:00 service (she kicked over one of the candles, luckily not the lit one) and we breezed through the other two without a hitch. Lots of people came up to us afterwards to tell us what we already know, that we have a darling daughter. I can't believe it's December already - I need Christmas ideas, everyone!!!

Nana Comes to Visit

Phoebe turned 7 months on Sunday - I simply can't believe it! She's learning to entertain herself on a more regular basis and not require us to be right beside her all the time. I praise God for this new ability!




Nana came out for a long weekend from Georgia and we were SO happy to have her visit! Here's Phoebe trying on Nana's "all girls need red for the holidays" outfit. I have to say, our girl can wear red well!

Of course Nana didn't bring any warm Georgia weather with her for her visit so we had to deal with cold temperatures in the 30s all weekend. It gave us a chance to bundle Phoebe up - she's not quite sure about wearing hats yet - she barely let us get this one on her head to take pictures!

We did let Nana out of the house to go visit an old friend Sunday afternoon. It gave Phoebe and I a chance to take a quick nap, something we don't do together very often.

All in all, she was a very happy baby for Nana's visit. I'm pretty sure Nana doesn't believe Phoebe ever gets fussy. Honestly we're spoiled rotten with how good she is. Especially with her still dealing with this cough AND her two new front teeth. We're still working on getting a picture of them, they're not in all the way and everytime you try to see them, she sticks her tongue out.

Ryan and I got to go out for dinner and a movie on Saturday - something we hadn't done in a long, long time. Nana honestly spoiled me - I got to take showers without rushing and having an extra hand in the mornings was a HUGE help. We missed her today when we got up!

Reading & Eating

Here I thought we had a little reader on our hands...

Then I thought maybe we just had a little ham...

Then I knew what she really wanted...

She is putting EVERYTHING into her mouth these days. This may explain why when I took her to the doctor today, he said she had a mild case of croup. Phoebe probably coughed 100 times this morning when she woke up and each time, it broke our hearts. She's had a runny nose since last weekend and that's what prompted the visit to the pediatrician today. If it had been a medium or severe case, they would have given her a shot but they said no need. She's in the best of moods throughout this little sickness, talking up a storm and moving like crazy. I'll leave her on the quilt and then come back two minutes later and she's across the room by the couch. Watch out world! Still no teeth, but I'm ok with that, too. I have a feeling that our calm nights are about to come to an end - either because she's crawling or teething!

Halloween and Whatnot

Ok, so we're awful parents and didn't buy our six month old a halloween costume. We just couldn't decide and by the time it actually came around, we just couldn't justify it. Maybe the next time we have a six month old, we'll make more of an effort. We did however, make sure she had jack-o-lanterns on her socks and she got to borrow a wig from Daphne (who was with Scooby Doo) at the Halloween get together we went to. We did get to witness what kids who have overdosed on candy behave like and we are NOT excited about that!

Here are a couple of pictures of Phoebe in her high chair. Eager as ever to eat, I'm already excited to start her on stage 2 food - the limited selection has Mommy bored! She seems to enjoy each bite (we haven't tried peas again yet...).

And these are a couple of "lost" pictures from our trip to Michigan a few weekends ago. I thought the one of her with Uncle Steve and Auntie Kate was too cute not to post!

Pray for little Phoebe, she's had a stuffy nose off and on the last couple of days - she seems to be feeling fine, no fever or anything so I'm wondering if a tooth is on the horizon. Also pray she adjusts to the time change well...Ryan will probably stay up late to watch the end of the Colts game and I'm sure he's not planning on being up till 7:00!