Reindeer Shirts

A few weeks ago we had a girls craft night at church to make all of our little ones reindeer shirts. Last night at church some of them wore them and they were just precious! I'm thankful for the big girls that held Lainey so she could be in the picture. They did great. You can tell this photo session was a little hectic, but so cute! I'm thankful for the sweet friends Lainey will have growing up. What a blessing. 

Santa!!

Today we went to the library to meet Santa with Mrs. Jess, Kinley and Jaxon. We also got to see Mrs. Amanda, Jake and Seth and Mrs. Jessica, Julia and Jordan. It was quite an adventure. Santa put on a magic show, read all of the kids a story, had yummy treats for everyone and even took pictures with each kid. It was wonderful and such a fun first outing with all of Lainey's friends. I'm so glad she's getting to the age that we are comfortable leaving our house to go have some social time. We look forward to many more fun times. Here are a few pictures from today. 

She actually slept through part of it! 

I think I was more excited about seeing Santa than Lainey!

Precious girl!

Kinley did so great holding Lainey!!  

It's official... I'm going to stay home with Lainey!

Before Brian and I got married we decided that we would like for me to stay home once we had children. I admire moms that can juggle working and their families, but I've always known that would be a challenge for me. Since we found out we were pregnant I've been torn about this because of the financial struggle I knew we would face. I'm a very frugal person, but it's no secret that teachers don't exactly make a ton of money and with Lainey our health insurance will now be $650 a month. Yikes! Needless to say I've struggled to decide what would be best for us. After much thought and prayer I've decided that although it will be a huge financial challenge, I just can't leave Lainey with someone else in January. I don't want to ever regret not having this time with her so I am just going to try to live as frugally as possible for the next few years. I talked to my principal today and let him know that I would not be returning in four weeks as planned and he was so supportive. He obviously didn't want me to leave, but agreed to let me out of my contract which will allow me to work in Conroe ISD again if I want to in the future. I am very thankful for that. It's a bittersweet feeling because I do love teaching. However, at this point of my life I love my little one so much more and know that I will enjoy spending time with her as she begins to grow up. I may only get to be home for a couple of years, but for now we are going to soak up every moment!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I absolutely love this time of year. We always go get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and put all of our Christmas decorations out on Friday. We listen to Christmas music and watch whatever Christmas movie I want. I love it!! Yesterday we did just that, but this time we got to take Lainey along for the ride. She was a great sport while we picked out our Christmas tree and loved watching the living room be decorated. She has been staring at the lights since we put them up and I'm pretty sure she even loved the Christmas music. My mom got her a little pink Christmas tree for her room and she's loved looking at that too.

 I cannot wait for all of the holiday fun we will have this year. Today we enjoyed an afternoon with our friends Jeremy and Amanda and their sweet boys. Amanda was sweet enough to take a couple of pictures of us with Lainey's first Christmas tree. I'm sure there will be many more pictures posted in the next month, but here are the first. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Lainey's first Christmas tree!!

We love our sweet girl!

Brian is already wrapped around Lainey's little finger. We are in trouble.

This is pretty much the look we get every time we pull out the camera. :) 

Mommy's girl!

Happy Thanksgiving

God is so good! We are so blessed to have our little miracle in our life this Thanksgiving. There are so many things to be thankful for, but our sweet Lainey is at the top of our list. A year ago doctors told us we might never have a baby on our own. It was such a tough period of life. Now, we are loving every minute of life with our sweet five week old. She is one amazing girl and we are SO thankful for her. Today we spent the day with Brian's parents. It was the smallest Thanksgiving I've ever had, but it was nice. My parents also came by to see her tonight. Tomorrow we plan to put up our tree and Christmas decorations and enjoy the day. It's been so nice to have Brian off this week. We are enjoying our time with daddy. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

One Month Old!!

Lainey loves to read books while hanging out on her newborn lounger.

I get this bright eyed stare a lot! 

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One of Lainey's many crazy faces.

My favorite little curious look. She's always trying to figure out what is going on.

Today is Lainey's one month birthday. She is finally almost out of her newborn diapers and her newborn clothes are getting a little snug. Her zero to three month clothes are huge, so we are struggling to dress her right now. :) Lainey still loves to be held all the time and is very social. She sleeps anywhere from 2-6 hours straight at night, but will not sleep in her crib or her pack and play. She wants to be snuggled up next to one of us, so until she's six weeks old we are allowing it. We are really going to try to work on this over Thanksgiving break, but the poor kiddo screams if she's not with us so we aren't really sure what to do since we also need sleep. Once Lainey is awake in the morning she doesn't usually go back to sleep for about four hours. She loves to read books, look in the mirror, swing in her swing, play on her play mat and get ready with mom in her baby bjorn. She looks at everything and really notices sounds as well. I talk to her all morning and she loves it. Lainey is doing so much better about not screaming when she gets her diaper changed and we are very thankful for that. Baths are also getting better. It's been such an amazing month, we are still learning so much about her, but we have learned what her cries mean and that's helped so much. She is such a fun little girl and is so active. We can't wait to see what all she begins to do in this second month.

Loving Life!

Life with Lainey has been such a joy but also a challenge. Our sweet girl is not a huge fan of sleep or of any alone time. She wants to be held all of the time, which I love until laundry piles up or dishes need to be done. Everyone I've talked to has told me to enjoy every moment of time with her because she won't be tiny enough to snuggle with forever. So, rather than making her scream when I put her down I've been enjoying lots of time snuggling with our long awaited blessing. She may be spoiled, but she will also never doubt that she's loved. :)

At two weeks old we've made several trips out of the house to church, the grocery store and to doctor's appointments. However, most of the time we hang out here. There are so many germs and I think even though I've been careful she still may have a cold. If she doesn't sound better in the morning I may have to call her doctor. Lainey has slept for up to six hours at night and she's also stayed awake until 5:00am before falling asleep. It all depends on the day. She is very active and alert when she is awake. She loves to look around and examine the world. She also loves when people talk or sing to her and riding in her baby bjorn. Lainey does not enjoy getting her diaper changed or changing clothes. This is a shame because she has so many cute clothes that I'd love to dress her up in. We will continue to work on it, but for now she is not a huge fan.

Lainey LOVES her daddy and is always so excited to see him when he gets home. She knows his voice and calms down when she hears it. We've gone to visit him at work a couple of days that she was very unhappy and it's really helped. The poor kid has horrible tummy problems and has to take gas drops several times a day to keep from being miserable. Even with the meds, some days she still just screams in pain. It breaks my heart. We are having so much fun being parents to this little blessing from God! She is so fun and we can't wait to see how she continues to change over the next few weeks.

Precious girl!

It's amazing how much I love this girl already!

This captures everything about Lainey's personality! 

One of her quick naps!

Lainey was born on our six year and ten month anniversary. We are so blessed to have this long awaited miracle in our life.

She couldn't keep her eyes shut when she heard the camera gears turning. She is so curious about the world. I love it!

I'm so thankful for my precious family!