Christmas 2011

In an effort to try to catch up I'm just going to do a really long post with LOTs of pictures about our Christmas festivities. 

Christmas is usually pretty hectic for me and Ben.  You would think it would be so much easier since we are both from the same city, but sometimes it makes it harder because we want to be a part of every event and it requires a lot of planning, flexibility with our families, and a lot of traveling back and forth.  Luckily, this year it actually wasn't as crazy as it has been the past two years. 

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Huntsville to Ben's grandparents house.  Of course we had to take a quick picture first! We were so glad to have Courtney joining the family festivities this year and can't wait for her to officially be another Adams girl!

This was the first time for Mary Hyatt to meet several of Ben's aunts/uncles, but sadly I did a horrible job of taking pictures and didn't get a single picture of her with any of them.

This side of Ben's family hasn't had a baby in the family in a veerrry long time.  I think his youngest cousin is a freshman (?) in high school.  (I could be totally wrong..but he is somewhere around there!) So, Mary Hyatt definitely got the spotlight.  We pretty much left her in the floor in the middle of the room and everyone just watched her... haha

We recently found out that Ben's cousin is expecting so next Christmas will be lots of fun with the two babies!

After Ben's grandparents we headed back to Decatur to my grandparents house.  After we ate dinner, we had a special visit from Santa (aka my Grandaddy) to hand out all of the presents.  My little niece Abby was amazed!

She was so cute.  She thought he was the real Santa.  We had told her that my Grandaddy had gone to the store.  She kept saying "Santa, you have to wait for Grandaddy before you leave. He is at the store!" She never took her eyes off of him and just kept grinning ear to ear. 

We captured a picture of all of the grandchildren with "Santa"..

and I of course got one of MH with him by herself.. I just love that my Grandaddy did this! He sure is a great man to go through all of this to make Christmas a little more special for us.

We attempted to get a picture of all of the dogs with him, but it was kind of a disaster.  This is the best we could get.  Ellie is on the right in the Santa outfit, Sammy is in the middle, and Opie is on the left. Opie is Ellie and Sammy's baby!

We all gathered together to get a family photo.  I'm so glad we did this. I seriously can't tell you the last time we took a picture with all of us together.

After that we headed home and all went to sleep.

On Christmas morning, I woke up early and went to watch my niece and nephew open their presents from Santa. This is about the 10th year for me to do that, and I love it but unforuntately  I forgot my camera so I have no pictures to show of it. :(  By the time I got back home, my other niece had just started opening her presents so I got to watch her as well. Then it was time to get a shower and start getting ready for church since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year...

Our church had a very informal service that morning and all of the children attended the service.  Mary Hyatt did great throughout the service.  She never cried but she made several noises and squeals.  As we were leaving, the lady behind us said "I can't tell you the last time I've literally smiled throughout an entire church service."

After church we headed to my house to open our Santa presents.  Mary Hyatt slept through some of it but did make it down for a little while.  She of course cared more for the paper and boxes than her toys..

After my house we headed over to Ben's house and exchanged gifts with his family. By that point Mary Hyatt had pretty much had enough and was totally worn out. She took a good nap, but did wake up after dinner and enjoyed some good lovin' from them.

The next day we met my aunt (dad's side) and her family for a late lunch at Cracker Barrel.  Mary Hyatt sat in a highchair at the restaurant for the first time. But again, no pictures.

So, overall, we had a busy but Wonderful Christmas this year.  It was so much fun having Mary Hyatt and starting traditions with her. I'm sure next year will be even better when she starts to understand a little more!

Christmas at School

*I know these next few posts will be super late, but I've been so busy and haven't had a chance to post but want to have this for my record!

The Tuesday before Christmas Mary Hyatt's class had a little "Christmas Party" for the babies and parents.  Now, if you are like me, you are probably wondering what in the world are we going to do at a Christmas party for infants. Mary Hyatt got all dressed up in some cute Christmas attire and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures that morning...

 Oops...she hadn't mastered sitting up yet like I'd hoped....

 The party was at 4 in the afternoon.  It was actually such a great idea.  Instead of meeting in the "classroom," they brought a few of the bumbo's out in this big fellowship hall area and all of the parents sat around and watched the babies interact.

 I loved being able to see how Mary Hyatt "played" with some of her "friends."  I had never seen her around other babies before so it was cute! She looked like such a big girl.

I wish I had taken more pictures or had taken a picture of her whole class.  Oh well.

 Each of her teachers passed out individual presents that they had bought specifically for each child, and  we all gathered in a circle and read "The Night Before Christmas." I am so glad that they decided to have this little party for the babies and parents!

Friday was Mary Hyatt's last day at school before their Christmas break (They are closed for the week between Christmas and New Years).  They had a special visit from Santa (who was actually MH's teacher's husband).  Luckily, I was dropping MH off right when Santa got there so I got to steal a picture with my camera.

I am so thankful that Mary Hyatt goes to such a great daycare where I feel like they really care about each child and they really put forth effort to let the parents see that! Makes it a lot easier to drop her off every day!  Though it still hurts my soul daily....

Santa Came Early

*Warning:  There will be lots of pictures in the post!

Since Mary Hyatt is so little and she really wouldn't know the difference, Ben and I decided to celebrate Christmas early so that we could do it just the three of us before heading out of town and getting caught up in all of the hustle and bustle with families.  Ben has been off work all week and I took off on Wednesday to celebrate.  The night before we made sure to read Mary Hyatt "The True Night Before Christmas" story. Ben also tried to tried to read the version from the bible to her while she was in the bath tub but she was not interested at all. haha 

Now, just to keep it real and for my memory, although she does look so sweet and peaceful reading the story with me, after we finished she put up a good fight and did not want to go to sleep.  She has always been a great sleeper but for some reason over the last week, she has been fighting it and making Ben and I work really hard with her.  We think she must be teething. 

After she finally went to sleep, Ben and I went to work putting her activity jumper together..

and wrapped all of her presents..

The next morning we were all so excited for Christmas! 

Ben made this fabulous breakfast... you can tell Ellie is really wanting to get some herself! ha

After we ate, we finally let Mary Hyatt see/play with her jumper! She absolutely loved it!

We were so thrilled to see her so excited.  It was like she didn't know what to look at first.  She kept just moving all over the place grabbing the different toys on it and her little head was like wobbly/shaking back and forth with her eyes wide open like she was so excited.  She played and played and played in it.  Her mama and daddy were happy to have something to keep her occupied for so long too!

We then it was time to open the rest of her presents.  Yes, even though she is only 6 months old and we pretty much had to help her open all of them, I still wrapped every single present.  She did help a little with the unwrapping and of course loved putting the paper in her mouth!

She kept looking up at Ben like "what in the world are we doing?"

But once she realized there were toys under all of that paper, she really started getting in to it..

After a few presents, she quickly lost interest and spent the rest of time like this watching Daddy open all of the presents..

and of course Daddy pretended to be so excited with every present haha...

We mostly just got her things that she needed this year since she really didn't even understand.  She got clothes, bibs, sippy cups, feeding bowls, books and a few toys..

After such an eventful morning, she was totally worn out and just wanted a little cuddle time with Daddy..

And we let in her "sisters" to see what Santa had brought them..

We spent the rest of the day finishing up our shopping and we took Mary Hyatt to visit Santa.  It was such a fun morning and we are so glad that we were able to celebrate just the three of us! We are looking forward to the rest of the festivities with family now!

Christmas with GG

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with GG, Ben's grandmother. To Ben she has always been "Granny," but to Mary Hyatt and her other great grandchildren she is known as GG (Great Granny).

We all met and had a nice lunch at Valley Hill Country Club in Huntsville. This was MH's first time to meet her Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jeff, but sadly I did not get a picture of her with them, but I did get one of her with Lovie and Grandaddy.

After lunch, we headed to GG's house to open presents.  MH enjoyed getting some lovin' from her new soon-to-be Aunt Courtney!

And of course she loved playing with Uncle Jack and Aunt Sally..

It was fun to watch Mary Hyatt "open" her presents.  Well, she didn't actually open them. I had to help, but her eyes did get really big and she did reach for and grab her toys once she realized what was under all of the paper.  Of course, they all went straight to her mouth. It was a fun day and we enjoyed starting off our Christmas festivities with GG and the rest of the family!

The next day, Ben, MH, and I went to church and when we got home we spent the afternoon addressing Christmas cards, wrapping presents, and watching Home Alone.  I just love this time of year.

That evening we went to the candlelight service at our church.  It was absolutely wonderful.  There were over 300 people in the choir singing Christmas carols and at the end everyone in the choir and congregation lit and held candles while singing "Silent Night."  It was beautiful and such a great way to start off the week before Christmas!

Christmas Tree

Wow, it has been a while since I've posted. Life has been super busy for us lately! I feel like I can barely catch my breath. We have been trying to put up our Christmas tree since Thanksgiving, but seriously have hadn't a free moment to do it. We kept planning a time to do it and then something would happen or come up so we had to cancel. We debated just not putting one up this year since we really wouldn't be able to enjoy it for very long, but neither of us could stand the idea of not having a tree for Mary Hyatt's first Christmas. So, this past Sunday we finally had a free afternoon and we knew we needed to take advantage of it.

While Ben was growing up his family use to have a tradition to get a sack full of Krystals and then go cut down a tree. We have continued that tradition since we have been married. This year was no different, except that we brought the Krystals home and ate it so Mary Hyatt could sleep. After we ate, we were ready.

Mary Hyatt now loves to try to sit up everywhere. She still can't sit up independently, but she sure will try anywhere you put her. Her new favorite thing is to pull up in her carseat and hold her self up by holding the sides.
We knew it would be a little difficult to actually go to a Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree this year so we just settled on getting a pre-cut tree.

We came home and had some hot chocolate and apple cider while we pulled out all of the Christmas decorations.

When I was younger, one year I had asked for a singing and dancing Santa Claus (I know, not something most kids ask for haha I don't know what I was thinking.) We pulled it out and let Mary Hyatt look at it. It was so funny to watch her...she was mesmerized.

We ended up putting Mary Hyatt to sleep before being able to decorate the tree, but when she woke up the next morning she loved at all of the lights. I'm pretty happy with the way our tree turned out and I'm so glad that we didn't decide to skip doing it this year!