Lucy's First Christmas

Christmas festivities for our family this year started on Christmas Eve at my parent's house. We all opened our gifts and then had dinner together.

Here's Lucy opening her gift from Nana and Papa.

It didn't take long for her to pull all the tissue paper out of the bag.

It was a baby born "bath time" doll. (...a baby doll that you can take anywhere, even the bathtub)

Thanks Nana and Papa :)

Nana showing Lucy how to put the pacifier in the baby's mouth :)

Lucy definitely knows what the paci is for...it's so cute to watch her try and put it in the baby's mouth ( or her own, lol )

Since then I have put the baby doll in the bathtub with Lucy and showed her how to "wash" the baby. After watching me she wiped it's face with the bath cloth AND gave it kisses :) so cute!


After spending Christmas morning at our house (which I have NO pictures of because I left my camera at my parent's house the night before...boo) we headed to Chattanooga to spend the weekend with Josh's family. Friday night we sat down to open gifts.

Here's Lucy opening her stocking from Grammy and Pops

oo....this looks like fun

She got a container with goldfish in it and she had to stop to eat some...look at those chubby cheeks :)

Yay! "Goodnight Moon" ...this book is sure to become a favorite

She did a good job tearing all the paper off the presents...

...and loved the bows

So excited about the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn piggy bank that she got :)

playing with "Pops"

"here you go..."

She also got a Vtech learning laptop

Uncle Scottie and Aunt Boo opening their gifts :)

Josh got a Garmin GPS system and I got a iPOD nano from his parents...thanks guys!

Saturday afternoon we all took a walk in the woods behind their house. It was chilly...

all bundled up...

trying to stay warm...

Lucy and Pawpaw

Waving at the cars that are driving by :)

We love playing games and working puzzles when we are there...and Pawpaw loves giving Lucy ice cream :)

Before we left Sunday night we sat down to play some cards and Lucy wanted to play too :) It was so cute...she would pick a card out of Durie's hand and then put it in the middle of the table. It's like she was copying us.

Helping "Pops" decide which card to play...

We love spending the holidays with family. It's so relaxing...especially when your mother-in-law does all the cooking...lol
Thanks Durie and Debra for letting us spend time with you guys and thanks for all the gifts for Lucy :)

The Living Christmas Tree

Monday night Lucy and I went to the Living Christmas Tree at the Thompson Boling Arena with my family. Josh had to work late so he wasn't able to come. I wasn't sure how Lucy was going to do sitting through a 2 hour production but all in all she did great. Of course she loved the music and was mesmerized by the lights. She clapped her hands every time everybody else did.
( I keep forgetting not to take vertical videos because they always turn out sideways when I put them on the computer...sorry :)

She got pretty squirmy toward the end but she was such a good girl :)

Lucy and my sister Anna

At the end of the show they had a scene of heaven with Jesus sitting on the throne and all the angels surrounding Him. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Living Christmas Tree, the "tree" in the background is made up of 60 choir members who sing throughout the whole production.

Getting some lovin' from Auntie Lyssa before the concert. We ate dinner with my family at Salsaritas before the show.

Thanks Mom for inviting us!...we had a great time :)

Family Pics

For those of you who haven't seen the pictures we used on our Christmas cards this year...here they are. My sister, Rachel, took these for us a couple weeks ago at a park near our house. She did a great job. I love the way that these three turned out.

10 months old! ...and some catching up to do

Lucy turned 10 months old last Tuesday! Some of the things she has learned to do this past month is clap her hands, give kisses, stand by herself for a few seconds, and play peek-a-boo. She is such a joyful baby and we are so thankful for what a blessing she is to us. She loves this outside swing that my sister gave us. Josh just put it up a few weeks ago and she has had so much fun in it.

I tried to get some pictures of her in front of our holly bush but the lighting wasn't quite right. We just planted it this past summer so there aren't many berries on it yet.

...trying to get her interested in the pine cones

I think these are the only berries on the whole bush...lol
One of Lucy's favorite things to do these days is pull everything out of her diaper bag, my purse, the bathroom cabinet...(basically anything she can get her hands on). Here she is pulling all the socks out of my drawer...and having a blast :)

"Here you go Mommy..."

She also loves pulling everything out of the washer when I'm trying to do a load of laundry...

...reaching in for more...

...helping Mommy sort the laundry :)

Here she is relaxing in the highchair...

just taking it easy...lol

Lucy loves to "dance" to music. She will start waving her hands in the air anytime she hears music playing. It's so cute! I tried to get a video of it but she is a little distracted by eating and must think I'm pretty funny because she keeps laughing at the camera. Notice her twirling her hands around and raising them over her head.

For those of you that don't know we have 5 huge trees in our yard... which basically means we have a gazillion leaves to rake up in the Fall. I put Lucy in the swing one day and raked up half of the front yard.

Lucy loves this swing! Sorry about the sideways video...

I didn't get many pictures over Thanksgiving weekend but we had a blessed one with both sides of the family. We saw some wild turkeys on the way to my cousin's house in North Knoxville on Thursday.

Josh got Lucy out of the car so they could get a closer look at the turkeys but ended up chasing them off :)

We also made a big purchase over Thanksgiving weekend...a new truck for Josh. It's a 2007 Ford F150. Josh wanted to get something new enough that we wouldn't have to spend any money on major repairs for at least 5 years.

Even though this means it might be a while before we get a new family vehicle I really like the new truck and I'm glad that Josh is going to have a more dependable work vehicle.

Here's the 1990 F150 he's been driving for the past three years. It's been a good truck but has started to cost too much in repairs.

With the color of Josh's new truck and my green Civic it's going to look like Christmas in our driveway :)