Lauren's First Christmas

I am still learning how to load/transfer these video clips from my new camcorder to the blog...hope this works!

Lauren got a nursey rhyme CD for Christmas that is personalized with her name. Here she is rocking out to it and playing with some of her new toys. This is not the most exciting clip, but it's a snapshot into her first Christmas! :)

Christmas Morning!

We hope that everyone had a blessed, happy, and SAFE Christmas! Santa spoiled us all rotten this year. A big shout out to our family and friends from so far away...your cards, packages, and love have been flooding us for weeks now. You are too good to us!

I didn't take as many pictures this year because we were lucky enough to get a new video camera from Mimi and Papa Fish, so I spent the morning navigating the new camera. Lucky for all you blog watchers, now my video clips will have SOUND!!! Give me a day or two to figure out how to load them up and I'll share a few from Christmas morning.

As a bonus, here are some pictures from Lauren's first Christmas Eve:

We had the Huck Family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning, and opened the packages from my parents, Paul and Kelly, and Sarah. Here is Lauren trying on her new hat and mittens from Nana.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Triple Play

Todd and I got to experience life with a four year-old and essentially a set of 1 year old twins when we babysat our nephew and niece the other night. Lauren was delighted to see them and couldn't scootch over to Kaitlyn fast enough. For her part, Kaitlyn wanted "up" any time I had Lauren in my arms, and if I didn't she scrambled to be first on my lap. Jonathan is apparently the second funniest boy on the planet (after her Daddy of course!), as Lauren just giggles hysterically at his antics, and beams at his little "loves". We enjoyed having them, but man were we tired...and certain we aren't ready for numbers two or three (or twins!) any time soon!

We did give them a triple play bath. Who could blame us with only two sets of hands?! :)

She's Crawling...

Lauren is finally abandoning the army/snake/crawl/slither for a more traditional "up on all fours" crawl. She's enjoying all her newfound mobility and exploring a little bit of everything these days.

"Grown Up Time"

Todd and I had a chance to get away for a long weekend at the end of November. Our friends, Robert and Christy, were married in an intimate wedding in Charlottesville, VA. We got to explore the Thomas Jefferson house-- Monticello-- and the James Monroe farm -- Ashlawn. Our bed at our hotel (props to the Hilton Garden Inn- Charlottesville!!) was heavenly. We slept so well. We missed our little ladybug, but it was great to get away and reconnect...just the two of us!

Here we are looking out over Jefferson's gardens at Monticello (mont-i-chello for anyone keeping score).

Monticello decorated for the holidays. Truly an amazing American landmark!

9 month Photos/ Thanksgiving

Lauren turned 9 months the day before Thanksgiving. We took her to get her pictures taken in the cute dress made by her Mimi. Cousin Kaitlyn has a matching outfit. They were adorable together! :)