Happy 1st Birthday!

One year ago today God fulfilled the desire of my heart by making me a mommy to this precious little girl! Wow, what a year it has been! My heart is just so full of thankfulness as I reflect over the past year of Lily's life - so much growth and so many changes. 

We celebrated Lily's birthday on December 18th because we didn't know when Levi was going to arrive and I didn't think I'd feel up to doing a party with a brand new baby. We had a small party with immediate family and a few little friends. It was lots of fun!

Watching for her friends to come.

• Lily started walking early in December. She is so fast now!
• She had double ear infections a few weeks ago and had to have her first ever antibiotic. 
• She's still eating pretty well - she's been kind of picky since she was sick.

 Opening presents - good practice for Christmas. ha!

She loved this mug from her Aunt Katie

 Oh how she adores baby dolls! I love how she's a little mommy.

 Cupcake time!

 She wasn't really sure what to think about everyone staring at her waiting for her to eat the cupcake.

 But she got the hang of it!

 Yum!

 I love this face!

 Tearing into her new toys.

Lily is doing great being a big sister to Levi. I can't wait to share pictures of them! Hopefully I can get around to it in the next few days!

Happy New Year!!

Levi Jackson Is Here!

:

Levi Jackson

Born 12/30/10

At 9:22 AM

7 pounds

18 inches long

Mommy and Levi are well!  We are so thankful!  

We were surprised to see that Levi has a very minor cleft lip.  But he is nursing like a champ, so we are okay.

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14

Glimpses of Christmas

Well, we have no baby news yet...except that he's still hanging out where it's warm! lol. I'm feeling really good and enjoying these last few days with my hubby and baby girl. I remember being so eager for Lily to hurry up and get here, and how dreadful those 4 days were that she was overdue - but this time is different. I don't feel in a hurry. I'm doing my best to cherish every moment as a family of three. 

Yes, I am ready for Lil' Guy to get here, and I certainly hope he comes in the next couple of days! Today we got our Christmas tree put away today, laundry done, baby clothes organized, and Christmas presents put away. Tomorrow I plan to clean the bathrooms and sweep/vacuum the floors then our house will be pretty much in order. I have this thing about wanting to come home to a clean house. ha!

I wanted to share a few pictures from our Christmas - all these pictures are stolen from my sister's facebook! I still need to upload all the pictures from our camera. Guess I should do that tomorrow too. ha.

Lily on Christmas morning at my parent's

We had a White Christmas in Alabama!!! It's the first time I ever remember it snowing on Christmas - the closest thing we ever had was an ice storm over Christmas that put our electricity out for 5 days!

 Lily loved playing in (and tasting!) the snow

Jacob, my three brothers, and bro-in-law built this huge snowman!! Not only do we "never" get a White Christmas, we "never" get enough snow to build this big of a snowman!

I will hopefully share more about our Christmas in the coming days! I'm planning to get my sister to update when Lil' Guy arrives, so you can be watching for that soon...hopefully.

Happy Due Date!

Yay! Little Man and I have made it to 40 weeks!! Now if he will just stay inside until after tomorrow! ha. Even though Lily was four days late, we didn't take a 40 week picture to compare this pic to. Oh well.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Photo Shoot

Warning - Picture Overload!! Over Thanksgiving break Jacob's brother (who is a cinema major in college) did a photo shoot for us. I just love how the pictures turned out! 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

39 weeks

39 weeks with Lily and Little Guy

Well folks, I am still here! I was actually 39 weeks on Friday...but failed to get a picture until last night. So we are 3 days away from Lil' Guy's due date! 

I'm feeling good, but I can tell I'm slowing down and not having as much energy. I'm still exercising and trying to eat alot - although I haven't gained any more weight. Oh well. 

We're almost finished packing our bags (yes, they were packed much sooner with Lily...but I guess it has something to do with subsequent babies...), our Christmas shopping is done (we just have a ton of gifts to wrap!), and I have a few more things to bake, then I think we can just sit back and enjoy Christmas and possibly have a baby!

Favorite Baby Item

This Portable Place Mat is my absolute favorite baby item in this season of Lily's life. It is so great to just keep in the diaper bag to use at restaurants, church dinners, or meals with family and friends!

As Lily is showing you (LOL), there is a place to catch extra food so you don't make too much of a mess on the floor. The place mat is easy to clean up and it rolls up for easy storage. It's great to protect little hands from germs on restaurant tables too.

We've found that the mat is fabulous for bridging the gap of time between when you feed your baby with a spoon and when they "get" a plate. For the last few months Lily's been feeding herself, but if we put her food on a plate, she usually picks it up and dumps it on herself or the floor.

PS - I was in no way compensated to write this review. I bought the place mat for Lily and loved it so much I wanted to share it with you!

Have a great Wednesday!