Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe its already our anniversary. its definitely been an eventful year! i went down to daddy's on fri, the 12th and spent the night with them. sat morning i left claire with daddy and lisa for the weekend. this was the first time talon and i had a night together without claire, so i was really excited! we just hung out during the day and enjoyed being lazy together. we had a late lunch and drinks at the garage, which i hadn't been to since before i was pregnant. their sandwiches are sooooo good!!! that evening, we went to rojo for a light dinner and drinks. rojo is very special to us since thats where we met and talon took me there for lunch the day he proposed. after dinner, we headed to the alabama theatre. the alabama symphony orchestra performed covers of led zeppelin classics. the show was awesome! i love the symphony since i was in band, but listening to them rock out was a thrill!

now, we had all night to do whatever we wanted without worrying about getting home for a babysitter or waking up early with claire the next morning. but we still got home before midnight. ha! i guess thats a for sure sign we are getting older :) the next morning we slept in together, which was the first time since before claire was born. talon got up to make me breakfast and he would not let me come downstairs until he was done. finally, he allowed me to go downstairs for breakfast. i was completely surprised by what he had prepared. talon secretly bought us 6 sets of the wedding china we wanted and had two sets out for us to eat breakfast on. my husband is the sweetest guy i know. he started buying individual sets at a time months before and hid them at a friend's home so i would never know. since we had a private & intimate wedding, we didn't get any gifts from anyone. we picked out this china before we were ever officially engaged. and since i've always wanted wedding china, talon bought it for me. i have the best husband ever. not only for buying this beautiful china, but for everything you do for us, babe.

later on that day, we picked up claire from daddy's. it was so nice to be alone, but we always miss her terribly when she is not with us. claire's 9 month bday was also on our anniversary. thats right, without any idea we said our vows exactly 3 months to the day before our sweet baby came into this world. later that evening, we put claire to bed and pulled out our frozen wedding cake. we also had a bottle of champagne that levy's gave to us when we bought our wedding bands. so we had our delicious cake and champagne to finish off our celebration. it was definitely a love-filled weekend!

Holiday Family Time

we didn't get to spend thanksgiving with daddy and lisa because she had pneumonia and i did not want to expose claire to it since she is still so young. so we invited them up to our house on dec 6th to have lunch and then go watch the mtn brook christmas parade. i was so excited to have them up because this was the first time i actually cooked a full meal for daddy and he had never seen my christmas decorations before. talon fried a turkey (which was sooo yummy!) and i cooked green bean casserole, homemade mashed potatoes and some espresso brownies. i decided to use nanny's china to eat on and it worked out perfectly! april also brought rich so we had exactly enough seats at our table and plenty of arm room since we had nanny's dining room table now. everyone enjoyed lunch and then we got ready to go the parade. we thought there would be much more traffic, so we decided to get there a little early. it was a beautiful day and felt very "christmassy" since it was so chilly outside. the parade was great and tons of people showed up right before it started. claire enjoyed a lot of the singing and it was nice to do something festive with our family. toward the end of the parade, the wind started blowing so it suddenly felt much colder. it definitely ended at the perfect time because we were all ready to get into a nicely heated car! after the parade, we went by april's apartment so daddy and lisa could see where she lives and meet her roommate. then we headed back to our house for some much-needed coffee and brownies. overall, it was a good family day and i look forward to hosting again very soon!

Let it Snow!

so its usually extremely rare that we actually get snow here in alabama - especially around christmas. but this year was an exception because it did snow during the holidays, on the morning of dec 5th. the night before, it started snowing around 11:30pm so talon and i spent some quality time on our back deck to enjoy it before going to bed. the next morning, talon had go to work but we both got up early so we could take some photos with claire since this was her very first snow! it was mostly a dusting of snow over the ground, but it was still snow in december! we got all bundled up and went outside to take our pictures. claire was so cute! she just kept looking around and trying to touch the snow-covered rosemary by our mailbox. i made a snowball and held it up to claire to see her reaction. she kept trying to touch it, but of course couldn't because she had mittens on. i held it up to my mouth and touched it with my tongue and then she did the same! it was so cute! we threw our snowball at talon and she even laughed! it was such a perfect holiday moment. it was really special to have her first snow this year because just a few months earlier, we had a nice snow when i was still pregnant. it was on march 1, which was 12 days before her arrival and i was very pregnant! so in a way, she had two snows in her first year! i can't wait until she is older and we can have a real snowball fight and make snow ice cream together!

Here Comes Santa Clause!

the morning of dec 3, we woke up excited to go see santa. talon came home that morning, so we had breakfast and then we hung claire's 1st christmas ornament together. her ornament is super cute and the first of a 5 yr series. its a baby bear in pjs with a paci and holding a bottle, while reaching up to the tree (which is shaped as the #1). it really fits claire perfectly!

later on, we all got ready to go see santa. i think that i was definitely the most excited out of the three of us! on our way to the mall, we picked up april so she could go with us. we were a little nervous about claire being afraid of santa and crying during the picture, but we were wrong! she did really well! they told us to place her in his lap with her back to him, without actually seeing him. she was laid back and just hung out with him. we never got much of a real smile out of her because she kept sticking out her tongue. but i'm glad we were able to get that in her santa photo since she loves doing it right now.

after seeing santa, we walked around the mall and stopped by hallmark to look at the ornaments. my mom loved hallmark christmas ornaments and it was always a tradition to get a new one every year. i sort of started this back up last year with talon, for our first real christmas together in our house. we bought an ornament for "our new home" and also a fireman santa for talon. this year, talon was super excited to get new ornaments for our tree. we went to a couple of hallmarks to pick out which ones we wanted to get. its so cute to see him get so excited about christmas traditions we are starting together. he loves our christmas tree and all the decorations i put out for the holidays.

this year, i had some of my mom's ornaments for the tree, which helped fill it up even more. and i also had nanny's christmas village, along with her porcelain christmas tree and some festive figurines. i use my mom's christmas carousel for the mantle too. even though i miss them more than anything, its nice to remember them during this time by using some of their favorite christmas decor and ornaments. every time i look at each piece, i have a vivid memory with both nanny and my mom. i look forward to sharing these memories and traditions with claire for many years to come!

Rub a Dub Dub...

tonight, we did our regular nightly routine...eat dinner, play, bath, bottle, sleep. it all went as normal, except for one thing - claire sat up in her bathtub and actually enjoyed her bath!! claire has never really liked bath-time. i believe she just felt awkward in the water and may have been a little afraid. well, tonight i decided to see if she would sit up in her tub since she has been sitting more now, and she did! i started splashing the water a little bit around her and within seconds, she started in on the fun too! she began squealing and laughing while she splashed in the tub. this was the longest bath we have ever taken, since we usually rush through it to finish before she starts crying. the best part was that talon was home to see it too. i'm actually looking forward to our next bath and now we'll have to start collecting bath toys!

until next time...

Shots-a-Plenty

we went to the dr today for claire to get her flu and dtp shots. she usually becomes very upset when they give her the injections. not this time. claire took them like a pro! she became a little upset at the very end, but was smiling again within seconds. i'm so proud of her and honestly, i don't know if i would have taken it as well!

Cupcakes & Baby Giggles

yesterday, we drove to huntsville to visit with my good friend, kim and her daughter sophia. the four of us had mexican for lunch and then we went to gigi's cupcakes for dessert. can i say "yummy!" i bought a box of 4 so i could bring some home to talon. they told us there should be a gigi's opening in 5 points in bham sometime next year. i don't know if this is a good or a bad thing for me. i love cupcakes and this probably won't mix well with me going to school at uab (which is right down the road) and my attempt to conquer the rest of this "baby" weight before claire's 1yr birthday. oh well, i guess we'll see how strong my willpower really is!

so back to our trip...after purchasing heavenly cupcakes, we went back to kim's home where it was warm, since the weather decided to turn cold on the day we make a road trip. we spent the rest of the day chatting about life as new moms and tending to our little ones. it was so cute to watch claire and sophia interact. claire is bigger and much more active than sophia since she is 4 months older. she kept trying to grab sophia's hand and it looked as if they were holding hands :) i so wish i had taken pictures, but of course i didn't think about it. i'm sad to say, but the photographer in our family is definitely talon, not me. later in the evening kim's hubby, brannon, came home and he helped out with sophia while kim cooked us homemade bbq chicken pizza. she even made the crust from scratch! and it turned out great! i have to say i was impressed. i've never attempted to make any type of bread from scratch, but she somewhat inspired me to try it.

i really love spending time with kim; i hate that they moved to huntsville. its so nice to have a close friend who also has a baby girl. it will be fun to watch them grow up together and maybe they'll be friends when they are older too!