Sarah's First Christmas

What a fun first Christmas for Sarah!  I know she won't remember this Christmas, and I'm definitely looking forward to the coming years when Sarah really gets into it, but this year was still a lot of fun!  We kicked off the festivities with a Christmas Eve service at church.  There wasn't any childcare.  Sarah made it through one song, and then as Pastor John was saying, "Listen to the silence," Sarah let out a scream, and John continued with, "Except for maybe a baby."  That was our cue to exit.  I was thankful yet again to be able to just go to Robert's office to care for Sarah a bit.  We hung out, changed a diaper, and walked around for a bit.  We weren't the only ones out in the halls!  I really wanted to make it back in time to hear Robert sing a song he wrote.  I slipped in at the back, and Sarah fell asleep while her Daddy sang.  It was such a sweet moment.  I was able to make it back to my seat in order to partake in the Lord's Supper.  Sarah was cashed out and majorly slumped over after the service, so of course that was a hit with everybody.  

Sarah seriously loves Lamb Chop.

It's Christmas morning!!!  We started our day like normal with a bottle and cereal at 8:00.  Sarah enjoyed looking at the tree and watching the fire.  We didn't really go all out for her presents since 1. She won't remember and 2. We just bought a house, so...I re-wrapped a few baby shower presents Sarah received that we hadn't used yet: high chair, bouncer, convertible car seat.  We bought her a couple of new things: size 3 diapers, long sleeved onesies, and an ornament.

Overwhelmed as a bring out the high chair

Smiling at Daddy.  She loves him so much!

For me?

Love that little toothless grin

Carrying on the Christmas wrapping paper tradition

After opened presents at our house we hit the road to go to my parents' house.  While we waited for Jim & Taylor and Memaw & Pepaw to arrive Robert carried on the dad tradition of putting together toys.  This one was very easy!

Once everyone arrived we enjoyed brunch together - grits, egg casserole, potato casserole, eclairs, and coffee.  It was delish!  Pepaw read the Christmas story from Luke before we opened presents.

Sarah was spoiled big time in the present department!  She slept in my mom's arms for about 80% of the event, so it was a good time in her book.  We dispersed for a bit to nap and relax and joined back up with Memaw and Pepaw for chicken gumbo dinner.  Santa Baby made another appearance at dinner.

We really enjoyed our time with everybody, and we headed back home after dinner and games.  We went to sleep happy and content and ready for Ray and Terri to arrive the next morning.  Sarah seriously loves the tummy time car that Aunt Taylor and Uncle Jim gave her!

Ray and Terri arrive on Saturday night after Sarah was already asleep.  We chatted for a bit and hit the hay.  Robert was able to preach on Sunday since John was on vacation.  The church also had a pancake and sausage breakfast.  Yum!  We celebrated Christmas that afternoon, and Sarah enjoyed hearing two stories from Papa and Babi about kittens - her favorite subject.  One of the books was a Christmas present from my parents.  It was a touch a feel kitten book.  Does it get any better than that?

Ray and Terri helped us with some house projects while they were here - painting furniture, working on a step to our garage, organizing the garage, and working on our cars.  We enjoyed their visit here.  It was Terri's first time through Arkansas and Missouri.  She even got to go sledding in Kansas with Jason and Bethany!

We headed to KC on New Years Eve so we could see Serina and Mark, Grandma and Grandpa (June and Gary), Bethany and Jason, and Robert's cousin and family.  Serina made sure we weren't short on delicious food!  Appetizers for NYE, Mi Ranchito, lasagna.  Sarah slept in the guest room with us, and it went pretty well.  She's had a snotty nose from teething, and she woke up a bit early each day breathing in and out snot bubbles.  She's silly!  Moose was very interested in Sarah, and she actually seemed semi-interested in him.  They did pretty well together!  We got to see Robert's great friend Harrison and met his fiance.  They're a great pair!

This was seriously Moose every time Sarah was awake

While we were in KC Sarah had the funniest play date in the history of mankind.  Robert's cousin Todd and his wife, Ryan, had a baby on my birthday (September 8), about 5 weeks after Sarah was born.  Sarah and Estelle met briefly at their great grandpa's 80th birthday party, but this was their first real play date.  It was awesome!  They examined each other a lot.  I think it was so mind-blowing for them.  They even held hands on their own!

Okay okay okay, Sarah is Robert's twin.  There - I said it!

 Is there anything better than grandma snuggles?

What a fun Christmas and New Year!  Hope 2016 is off to a good start for you!

House Projects: Part 1

By no means would I say that we bought a fixer upper, but Robert and I would officially say that move in ready is only true if you've custom built a new house for yourself. HA!  There wasn't anything that had to happen in order for us to survive, but it definitely wasn't all to our liking, and it was fairly obvious that the previous owners hadn't been into taking good care of the home.  We found a lot of things where they just kind of took the easy way out to survive.  We closed on the house on December 8 and immediately went  to Home Depot to purchase some laminate flooring.  There was already laminate in the living room and hallway, and we were able to purchase an exact match to install in the three bedrooms and closets.

Robert removed the carpet, Dad removed the tack strips, and I removed the staples.  The sellers had two large indoor dogs and three kids (1, 2, and 3 years old).  Needless to say, the carpet was very worn and smelled awful.  Robert and Pepaw worked on the floors for a whole day together, and then Robert took it from there.  The two of them could barely move for several days.  It was incredibly time-consuming, and I couldn't help because I had to keep Sarah away from the loud sawing and hammering.  It was a tedious task, but Robert would say it was work it to save $1000+.

Next came painting.  We picked Magical for Sarah's room and our bathroom, Upward for everything else, except for Naval for an accent wall in our kitchen and an accent wall in our bathroom.

The lady at Lowe's was disillusion (and so were we) for thinking that we could get by with one coat and only 4 gallons.  2 coats and 9 gallons later, we were finished.  We had lots of good help with painting!  Robert painting the popcorn ceiling in several rooms.  Initially, I wanted to remove and re-texture the ceilings, but because we have a vaulted ceiling the quotes were very expensive and ranged from $2,500-4,000.  No, thank you.  The ceilings were dingy and not bright white.  Painting them stunk for Robert, but again, he agrees that they look so much better!  I think the ceiling took 4 gallons of paint.

See the difference?

The sellers had a small hood over the range and a microwave on the counter.  I wanted a mounted micro-hood, so we ordered one, and Pepaw was going to help us install it.  It was kind of time-consuming (notice a theme here?), and in the end they realized we were missing one little nut.  They went to exchange the micro-hood, but there wasn't another one in stock, so we had to order one and wait a few days for it to arrive.  Once we got the new one it was installed quite quickly.

The connection for the fireplace had been shut off, so Pepaw got it cranking for us again.  Sarah loves staring at the fire...and at Pepaw!

In keeping with the fact that the sellers liked to do things halfway, they had nice wood custom-cut blinds in half the windows, and the other half had broken, brown mini blinds, so we ordered more matching wooden blinds for the four remaining windows.  Love it!

Again with the halfway thing, there was a leak with the kitchen sink.  They fixed the leak but didn't fix the rotten wood under the sink.  Ugh.  Pepaw to the rescue!

This is how you get work done with a baby.

 Enjoying our new fridge!  This was the one easy thing to install.

We replaced the locks and door knobs on all interior and exterior doors.  No more brass.  Hello, oil rubbed bronze!

We did some big time furniture painting and painted a bedside table, end table, and a hutch.  I'm excited to finally have a handy place to store Robert's Mamaw's china so we can get to it more easily and use it more often.

Robert organized the garage.  I think the cold weather motivated him to clear up the garage so that both cars can be parked in it.

We also installed a new ceiling fan in the living room.  The old set up was a track light shining on some artwork, a fan with no light, and two brass recessed lights by the fireplace.  We removed and patched the ceiling where the track light was, installed a fan with lights, and replaced the brass cases on the recessed lights with white cases.

Other tiny tasks included:

• Switch fans in Sarah's room and guest room - We thought the lighter one would go better in Sarah's room.  One fan was also missing a pull to turn off and on the fan so every time you turned on the switch the light and fan both came on.  Pepaw and Robert remedied that.
• Fix storm door - It wasn't hanging straight so the door knob couldn't engage and fully close the door.  They had tried to fix it by gluing some stuff together, but it didn't work.  Robert and Pepaw fixed it.
• Close outside crawl space vents to prepare for winter
• Straightened out accordion doors on laundry closet so they open and close more easily.
• Draino all the slow drains.  I found a shoe lace in one drain!
• Wash windows - Inside and outside - They were beyond dirty.
• Install shower rod in Sarah's bathroom
• Attic ladder - shorten, tighten bolts - The ladder was seriously about a foot too long so it couldn't extend safely.
• Install kitchen sink light - The old light kind of looked like a ceramic seashell - picture something from a hotel lobby.
• Put up curtain rods and curtains in the living room, Sarah's bedroom, and our bedroom
• Hang pictures

The to do list never ends, right?  Here are the remaining projects for the winter:

• Chalk paint the tray ceiling in the master bedroom and write a quote or scripture on it
• Patch a hole in the garage wall
• Caulk around sinks and tubs
• Touch up some spots with paint

Spring projects:

• Paint front door
• Power wash and stain the deck and bench swing
• Install clothes line for cloth diapers
• Extend down spouts and do some grading
• Remove satellite - Anybody ever done this before?
• Landscape - Rake (I don't think they'd done that since they bought the house 8 years ago.  For real.), clear out the garden, trim bushes
• Clean the gutters

I'll do an indoor before and after at once we've done those last few things, and then I'll do an outdoor before and after this spring.

Christmas Parties

On December 1 we had Robert's work Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun.  Sarah enjoyed wearing her first Christmas outfit from Grandpa.

The party was held at a church member's house.  We all met at the church so we could caravan out to her house, about 45 minutes away.  The homeowner is a former architecture professor, and her house proves it!  Every room had a different theme: unicorns, peacocks, castle.  Dinner was delicious, and we enjoyed smothered steak, ham, hash brown casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn, rolls, veggies, and way too much dessert.  After dinner we played Dirty Santa, and we were able to come home with some new toys for Sarah - story book, rubber duck pool toy, and Jenga for Robert.  It was great to enjoy being with his co-workers and families outside of church!

I had my MOPS Christmas party on the 3rd.  Robert needed to go to a middle school orchestra concert for some of our students, so I had to take Sarah with me even though it was supposed to be ladies only.  She's one of the girls, right?  It was just my table group so there were maybe seven of us there.  We enjoyed dinner together, a game, and a gift exchange.  The other ladies were helpful with Sarah and held her while I ate, but Sarah was just on edge the whole evening.  She's such an easy going baby, and I am very thankful that these nights aren't her norm.  I had to leave the party early because that's just what Sarah needed.  Once I got her home she ate and went to sleep.  Maybe it's just me, but when I was pregnant I knew that becoming a mom would be very sacrificial - losing out on sleep, staying in more, doing things on Sarah's schedule - but I'm continually reminded of how many more sacrifices are needed than I ever dreamed about like leaving a Christmas party early, not eating when I want to eat if Sarah needs me, and saying Shh Shh Shh for 10 minutes straight to make Sarah fall asleep.

Last night was our final Christmas party - South Gate Youth.  It was so fun!  It was hosted by one of our seniors' family.  We had probably about 20 students and 30 people total.  We had a yummy dinner of spaghetti, salad, and bread and enjoyed Christmas treats after that.  We had a white elephant gift exchange.  Highlights included toilet paper, a plunger, and a paper clip.  The students are absolutely hilarious and very entertaining.  We also watched Charlie Brown's Christmas and played a game.  Sarah came dressed as Santa Claus.  Her outfit only lasted for a little bit, but it seemed to be a hit!  Sarah enjoyed being loved on by everybody, and I was very thankful for their voluntary care for Sarah while I enjoyed being with the students.

The Christmas parties are over, and we have done absolutely no decorating.  Last year, we didn't decorate for Christmas since we knew we'd be moving shortly after Christmas.  This year we're moving from our apartment into our new house at Christmas.  I'm not sure if we'll end up doing any decorating.  I think we can at least manage to put out our stockings.  It seems weird to not really decorate two years in a row, but it's also kind of a good reminder that Christmas isn't about the decorations or traditions at all.  Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, our Savior, who was born so that He could die to save us from our sins and provide eternal life and relationship with our LORD.  Sarah doesn't care about our decorations or lack thereof.  I don't need to put unnecessary pressure on myself to have our house settled and decorated for Christmas.  There will be many many more years to come where I can do that.  But even during the chaos of moving and having a baby we can celebrate and remember the birth of the Prince of Peace.