Holidays Part One

So far, the 2008 Christmas season has been fantastic! We've visited with friends and family and hosted our first holiday gathering at the new house. Amelia and Gabriel hit it off extremely well and Norah was such a sweet big cousin. Next up is a quick visit to Great Grandma and the relatives in Pennsylvania. Not looking forward to the car ride but we're excited for the snow!

Some Highlights of the Holiday Season so far:

1) The annual SoMd Xmas gathering. This year it was at Sue and Mondo's "new" and improved home! It was a blast to see all the kiddos playing. Last year there were lots of crying infants and this year lots of toddlers climbing up and down the stairs. Extremely cute. See photo of the gang below.

2) Grandma W teaching Amelia how to say "Ho Ho Ho". When we ask her what Santa says, she answers us with a big grin. I'm sure she also wonders how stupid we all must be for not figuring out what Santa says by now. We must have asked her 100 times :)

3) The cousins playing and goofing off and being silly. Gabriel and Norah taking turns sitting by Amelia at meals.

4) Norah screaming "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" at the top of her lungs during our Christmas Day walk through the neighborhood. A few of the neighborhood dogs joined in. It was great!

Really, all the time spent with friends and family meant so much to us this year. We hope to see everyone much more often in 2009.

Photo time:

The whole crew at Sue's Christmas party

The Stripe Cousins

Christmas Morning

The McFamily:)


Just a cute one

8 bazillion more holiday fun photos at www.sarahmcbride.myphotoalbum.com !!

Season's Greetings

The house is coming along, and we have even managed to make it feel a little bit Christmassy (sp?). I love this time of year, even with the endless to do lists and extra stresses. We have a busy but exciting few weeks ahead of us! This weekend we visit SoMd again for the annual Christmas party. There are now 11 kids in the bunch! Next week, the McGrandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins will be spending Christmas at our new house! We are so excited for them to see Amelia--she's changed so much since they last saw her. After that visit, we head to Pennsylvania to visit Great-Grandma and hopefully play in the snow! There is almost always a White Christmas in Pa:) We hope you are enjoying this festive time of year. More pictures to come soon! For now, here's our little cheeseball posing in front of the tree.

Not for the squeamish

I'm sure everyone can understand and relate to the hectic, craziness of moving and how it is amplified 100% with an energetic toddler running around. This past week our parenting skills have been challenged in many new and exciting ways. On the day we moved from the apartment to the house, I looked at Amelia who was (supposedly) playing happily on the floor, and I noticed 2 plastic pieces in her mouth. I immediately pulled them out and discovered that they were pieces of a broken hair clip. FOUR pieces were missing and I only pulled TWO from her mouth. Oh no. I called the doctor and confirmed that Amelia was breathing, swallowing, and acting normally and that I didn't need to panic. But, she nicely informed me that I was on poopy duty for a week, or however long it took for the pieces to pass. This means that instead of cleaning yucky, smelly diapers as quickly as possible, we have to INSPECT them carefully! Lucky, lucky us!

So far there has been no evidence of the offensive, foreign objects. I really don't think that she actually swallowed them, and they just went unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of the move. But for now, we'll hold our noses and search away. For some reason, I felt I needed to share this delightful news. I'm sure Amelia will thank me when she's older.

House Sweet House

We are in the new house! We actually closed on Friday and are officially homeowners again! We got our stuff this week too, so we are now surrounded by tons of boxes, but we are so glad to be in the house! Now it's time to turn it into a home. We hope you can visit soon!

A few exterior photos... When we get the inside fixed up, I'll post a few of the new paint job:)

Front/Side view. Not much of a front yard, but an awesome front porch!

Front view. Lots of trees block the view, but I kind of like that...

Holiday Decorating

I love decorating for the holidays, and I'm extremely excited to decorate the new house (hopefully sooner than later!) For now, I'll have to settle for decorating the McBlog.

I hope everyone is enjoying their own holiday decorations :)