It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like CHRISTMAS!!

I seriously can't believe that Christmas is in only five days!!! For some reason, I am super into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe it's because it's Fiona's first Christmas with us, coupled with the fact that Sam is finally old enough to sort of understand what's going on, and his joy and excitement is just contagious!

So everyone who knows me well knows that I am not a decorator, not crafty, not a baker, etc -- so my house is hardly a "winter wonderland" or anything like that. However, we have bright Christmas lights on the house, we hung balls on the trees out front, and the front yard is all capped off by an enormous inflatable Santa Claus in an airplane with propellors! Hey, if you can't be over the top and a little tacky at Christmas, when can you?! ;)

We also got a beautiful tree -- real, of course (see my post last Christmas for my feelings on artificial trees)! We have a very eclectic ornament collection, and it's been really cute to see Sam point to each and every ornament and ask me what it is. The conversation goes something like this:

Sam: "Mom, what's dat?"
Me: "It's a sock monkey."
Sam: "Mom, what's dat?"
Me: "It's starfish painted like Santa Claus."
Sam: "Mom, what's dat?"
Me: "It's a robot."
Sam: "Mom, what's dat?"
Me: "It's a hippo."

You get the picture. Below are some photos, so that you can see that I am truly not exaggerating about the tackiness that is my front yard, or the craziness that is my Christmas tree!!

So that's about all I have time to post right this second, since Fiona has been an angel baby for more than an hour now, and is finally starting to demand some of my attention! However, I will post more about our Christmas activities later, including the base-wide Christmas party we recently went to up at the wing, along with some new photos of Fiona.

More to come -- and may the spirit of Christmas be with all of you!!

Fiona is One Month Old!

It's hard to believe, but my baby girl was one month old yesterday! It has gone by at lightening speed -- most days are a blur of feedings, diaper changes, dealing with constant spit-up (which means constant loads of laundry), and trying to make it out of the house at least once, all compounded by complete exhaustion due to prolonged sleep deprivation!

Despite all of this, she steals our hearts more and more every day. So far, she's been very different from Sam as a newborn -- generally less fussy, but man, the girl can go from zero to pissed off in no time flat! She is loud, fiesty, fat and loveable. She is just now starting to really focus on our faces when we talk to her, and I can tell that she will be smiling in no time.

Here are a few photos -- doesn't her hair look a little red in some of them?? Who knows...maybe she'll be a little ginger baby!

My beautiful girl!

Making her opinion known!

Hey -- look at me!!

Mellowing out...

Chubby cheeks!

Say WHAT?!?

Sweet girl :)