Blog Award!

My first blog award... Thank you Lauren at Throne of Thornes, this is very fun!

As a recipient of this wonderful award, one must continue the rules of the award which are:
- Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
- Link to the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

And while I don't actually read 10 blogs at this point because I'm new to blogging, here are the blogs that I do read and am going to pass along this award to!

Chasing My Dreams to Disney
Knit Witch Blog
The Little Way
Musings of A Catholic Lady
The Funny Things My Kids Say

Jack's First Christmas!

We had an amazing day and got to spend it at home in our PJs. We all got lots of goodies and are feeling very lucky! Here are a few pictures of Jack's first Christmas!

Here is Jack and Matt... its probably the best picture I have of him in his Christmas outfit.

A view of the bottom of our Christmas tree after Santa came... my favorite thing Santa brought Jack would be his chair from Pottery Barn Kids! (Excuse the exersaucer in the background, he already had that... haha)

Jack under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning... I couldn't get him to smile, I think he was so distracted by the presents behind him. He's even grabbing them already in this picture.

We even got some goodies from our new neighbors, whom we haven't even seen much since we've moved in due to the holidays. They gave us some edible goodies (Chex Mix, Puppy Chow, etc.) as well as two Hallmark ornaments. One is a "New Home" ornament for the family and the other is a Classic Pooh "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. This was such a beautiful reminder of the fact that we got the right house for us!

In other news, I bought a new vacuum after ours crapped out right before Christmas. We desperately needed one after wrapping paper, food, and guests were in our house. I couldn't really shop around as much as I usually want to do when making a major purchase. I asked for suggestions from Facebook friends and everyone said Dyson. Well, I simply couldn't justify spending upwards of $350 for under 800 sq. ft. of carpet and ended up going with the suggestion of the Eureka Boss Smart Vac after reading some more reviews. I'll be sure to post a review after using it for a while but so far so good!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very merry and blessed Christmas! Tis the season for me to be very thankful for amazing family and friends.

Now I've got to go to sleep so Santa can visit our house!

Friday Fill-ins!

Yes, I know its Thursday but tomorrow is Christmas so I will be busy ;-)

1. My boots are super cute... I got new Uggs for Christmas.
2. Tomorrow might be my favorite Christmas of this century.
3. Imitation sugar is not even close to as good as the real thing.
4. Do you want to call and talk?
5. I'd like to celebrate a wonderful Christmas with my family.
6. Cry a river, build a bridge and get over it?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Christmas festivities, tomorrow my plans include visiting with a couple of aunts & cousins, an uncle and my grandma from Indianapolis and Sunday, I want to relax after the big weekend!

After All the Crying...

Comes sleep for all involved! That's my conclusion for all the "crying-it-out" we went through. In fact, Jack is feeling stuffy and yucky the past couple of days but tonight it didn't even take 7 or 8 minutes before he was sound asleep! Yes, it is normally not that long but since he's feeling stuffy again that is much better than the twenty minutes of screaming [every 45 minutes to an hour] when he was sick earlier.

I feel so much better after getting a lot of sleep for over a week now! I don't know that I've slept this good since before the 4th month of pregnancy, or maybe even before then (sleeping with 1st trimester nausea was not so much fun either).

Holiday Outings!

This weekend has been busy already! Just wanted to post a couple of pictures from out trip to the Columbus Zoo last night to see the Wildlights and from visiting Santa this morning! Enjoy!

Jack and Daddy in Santa's Holiday House at the zoo... taking a break from walking around in the cold to see the lights. His "snowsuit" says "Dad's Team" on it and Matt is really excited about it!

Jack and Santa at the Scott's children's holiday party! Its also a sneak peak of his Christmas outfit, but I don't think you can see it very well in this picture. I'll try and post a better picture after he wears it again.

In other happenings, the cry-it-out method has been going pretty well. Last night we had a bit of regression. I don't know if it was all of the excitement with going to the zoo or what, but it took over the initial 15 minutes to go to sleep and then he woke up again at 4:30 a.m.! We brought him to bed with us because we were both sleepy, but he did get 7 hours of sleep straight. Tonight has been successful though, he fell asleep in 3 minutes. Even through he woke up not too long ago, it didn't take any longer than 5 minutes before he was back asleep. Naps today were not good, he wouldn't sleep in his crib but slept on the couch while we did things around the house.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Good times: Are always with my husband and baby boy!
2. I am finally decorating for Christmas at my home.
3. Sleigh bells ring is a sound that reminds me of school Christmas programs!
4. I wish Jack would stay little.
5. When will this work day end?
6. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo, tomorrow my plans include taking Jack to meet Santa at Scotts and having the Vatters over and Sunday, I want to get some Christmas shopping done!