My 1st Christmas

And my 1st present I opened on Christmas morning.

What a great 1st Christmas!

T'was the night before our 1st Christmas

....and Mia went to see santa just in time.

A very special Christmas is in store for us tomorrow.

2 special babies

Mia and Fletcher. 2 so very wanted and hoped for babies. Both born after their sibling (Parker & Connor) died from undiagnosed vasa previa. 2 mommys sharing their babies and spending some much needed time together right before Christmas.

Snuggling in Fletchers bouncy seat--well, Mia was more interested in grabbing at his face!
Fletcher and I :) He seems so tiny compared to my chunk!

Giggles

So you can't see it very well, but the audio is what you want. These little giggles--ugh....Just love her to death.

Just 1 year ago

We got to see this special little miracle growing inside of me....

A year later, I get to spend my days adoring our little miracle.

To love something so much, you can't even explain it.....

I love you little Mia.

12/20

I may be biased....but my baby girl has some of the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen.

How sweet is this?

My mom and dad with their grandbabies at the carousel today. They had a "grandparent's day" that their friends hosted. SO much love here :)

6 more days!

.....until our 1st Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Mia with her uncle Norm! :)

Jeremy & I at our ugly Christmas sweater party!!
Cyndi & I enjoying ourselves at the Brandstatter's house :)

What a fun group of girls! Just LOVE them!

SO silly :)

AH!

So I totally didn't have time to blog this evening/afternoon as we had a very busy night! Deeter Christmas at the Legion and a tacky Christmas sweater party! I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Look What Daddy Teaches Me

Mia is learning new things everyday. This is one thing daddy has taught her. She does it non stop now. It always makes me smile.

Move over Rudolph..

I may not have a shiny, red nose, but Santa couldn't resist....he had to add this reindeer to make 10 :)

She makes me smile.

We stuck this cheeseball in the sink tonight to see how she would do. Not too bad, but I like her bath in the tub where she can practice her backstroke :)

Those big blue eyes continue to melt my heart....
Daddy taught Mia how to stick out her tongue....this is all she does now :)

Random

Daddy's other baby girl.

Mia will someday see how great it is to be a boilermaker!

Missing...

....you.

12/12

Lookin' cute wearing my Horton onesie from my Aunt Robin down in WARM, SUNNY FLORIDA! :)

Yummy fingers!

Reading a book with my mamaw Kim.

I think she's really into the story! :)

COME ON turn the page!!!!

13 days until Christmas!! AHHH!!! And I still have yet to start shopping!!!!

Sorry Papaw....

...but I think your granddaughter is going to be a backstroker :) --like her mama. :)

From the North Pole

Mia received a special letter in the mail today. It came from the North Pole, from a guy named Santa Claus....

He even knew this was her 1st Christmas!

He explained who he was and how good girls like her get presents!

I sure can't wait until Christmas morning....this is going to be so much fun! :)

Mia's 1st Christmas present!!!! It's from her buddy, Cooper!!! They are going to be pals forever! Maybe even prom dates :)

So call me crazy....

I have been working really hard trying to find what works for Mia. We went through a little rough patch where she was waking up 2 and 3 times a night. I tried swaddling, unswaddling, later bed time, earlier bed time. After much trial and error, we finally have found the perfect schedule (which I'm psycho about keeping it down to the last minute)

So here's what we do.

I pick up Mia at 3:30 from Christina's.

She takes a little cat nap while I workout at the Y from 4-5.

She gets a little snack (15 minutes of breastfeeding) at 5:15.

We play, sing, make noises, read and practice sitting up until 6:45.

She gets her bath, pj's and snuggled in her sleep sack from 6:45-7:00.

She gets 3 oz of formula starting at 7:00 and is done at 7:10.

She gets 10 minutes of breastfeeding on each side which puts us at 7:30.

7:30 is bed time. No if, ands or buts.

I may be kinda crazy and psycho about this schedule. But Mia is sleeping from 7:30 p.m. until 6:30a.m. It requires me being home A LOT more than I used to be, but I'm willing to be a hermit for the next few months while she grows like crazy! :)

If you need me, I'll be home. :) And that's just fine with me!

December 9th

.....and it's freezing out.

Brrrr.

Join me in a 2 hour delay dance for school tomorrow. Thanks :)

12/8 Daddy's home!

Daddy LOVES the smiles he gets from his sweet little girl when he gets home :)

7/7-12/7

HAPPY 5 MONTH BIRTHDAY MIA!

So many flashes!

I want to get crawling soooo badly!
Kisses from my Zoe!

Checking out the shiny ornament!

5 unforgettable months of being so happy and in love with this beautiful little girl.

Dec. 6th

It will be so funny for our kids to look back at our crazy, family photos. Thank you 1990!

For the past few years at Christmas, Jeremy and I (and the dogs) have gone out to Walton on Christmas Eve after the Tanguy family Christmas. We usually have a sleepover with Haley and Justin. On Christmas morning we would all go to my mom and dad's, unwrap presents, eat breakfast and hang out in our pj's the rest of the day!! Jeremy asked me if we were staying there again this year, and as much as I would love to (becuase we have a lot of fun!) it's time to start making our own family traditions! So this year, I think we will give Mia a present to unwrap on Christmas eve (her xmas pj's) wake up on Christmas morning, unwrap our presents, then head over to my mom and dad's to meet up with the rest of my family and celebrate our Christmas, THEN have breakfast and hang out!

YUMMY fingers :)

The look on her face explains how much she loves this thing!!! She jumped for an hour in it yesterday!

OH DEER!

Digging through old family photos......LOVE my sister and brother :)

OH DEER?! No...it was an elk. Being pulled in a trailer down 31 today in Carmel. I stopped in the parking lot to take the picture--this thing was HUGE!

My mom and I totally thought it was a reindeer! HAHA!

Dec. 4th

This is how I found Mia this morning when I had to WAKE HER UP at 6:30 this morning!!!!

(she went to sleep at 7:30!)

YAY for sleep :)

A video!

Woohoo! 3 for 3!!! Only 22 days until Christmas!!! Hopefully we will start and finish our Christmas shopping this weekend!

Day 2

I think I forgot to tell you in my last post that Haley challenged me to blogging everyday in December. I took it on, so here we are on day 2!

Kids say...... I had to share what one of my kids in speech was telling the rest of the group. It seems like the kids go in spurts about their curiousity with Connor. I have a very visible picture of him on my desk, and today one of the little boys asked me if he was sleeping. One of the other little boys jumped in before I could and he says... "no, he isn't sleeping. He died. He ran out of blood and needed to drink some water, but he wasn't strong enough. The other little boy said, "oh yeah, I remember!" And that was that..... If you could have seen the look on his face when he was telling the other little boy what happend.....it really was too sweet. Like he was taking responsibility so that I wouldn't have to talk about it again.

I think someone is super excited for their 1st Christmas--she's already sneaking into the package of bows!

Check out those chubby cheeks :)

Bouncing in the basement in my jumper!
Hi mom, this thing rocks!

25 days...

Until I get to spend Christmas morning with my own little family. I won't sugarcoat it...Christmas sucked last year. It was the 1st Christmas without Connor. It was sad and depressing for me. So you can only imagine how exciting it will be to wake up Christmas morning with Jeremy, get Mia out of her crib, and help her unwrap her first Christmas present--as a family. 25 more days...

Here is 1 of our 3 trees up--the other 2 didn't make it up as I was down for 2 days with the flu during my Thanksgiving break! We have our big tree to put up and Connor's little Christmas tree.

Did I mention how excited I am for the holidays this year? All because this beautiful miracle entered our lives just about 5 months ago....

But there's also a very soft spot in my heart that will ache for my sweet baby boy to be here to open presents with us.....


Oh the joy this little reindeer brings to her daddy and myself.....

25 days until MY 1st family Christmas. I cannot wait!