Throwback Thursday - Christmas 2012

I came across these in my drafts folder.  Never got around to posting them for some reason and in the spirit of Throwback Thursday, I now have the perfect opportunity.  LOL  Enjoy...

Both of my babies on Christmas

My seester and mama

I'm not even sure what to say about this photo....lol

I can't stand the sweetness.  

Hanging out with Aunt Marcy

Nana and her grandkids at Christmas

Crazy bunch

First family Christmas - Lance no smiling but baby's eyes are open

First family Christmas - Lance is smiling but baby's eyes are closed.   

Sick family & Birthdays!

Miss Rossleigh has been sick with her upper respiratory infection, but is getting over it, I suspect.   No more fevers, thank goodness!   Thanks be to God!  As I'm sure you mamas out there know, it's such a helpless feeling when your baby is sick. :(

In addition to Rossleigh, I have a sinus infection.   I rarely get these because with my asthma, infections usually like to settle in my chest and hang out for a bit.   I think I caught this one before that happened, thankfully!  

Ironically, I'm on antibiotics for a measly sinus infection while Rossleigh just has to "wait it out"  with her upper respiratory infection.   No sense!

Today would have also been my dad's birthday, so while I've had a moment or two of sadness today (he passed away 8 years ago), I've also experienced happiness because Rossleigh is 12 weeks today!!  :)  I think Daddy would have liked that if he was still here - his youngest grandchild experiencing a "birthday" of sorts on his birthday.  :)

Prayers please that everyone is well in time to enjoy Rossleigh's first Christmas!!

Photo Shoot

Agnieszka (one of Rossleigh's Godmothers) came over yesterday afternoon to spend some time with Miss Rossleigh.  She happens to be a wonderful photographer, so I asked her if she would mind bringing her camera over to take some family pictures of us, as well as some studio-type pictures of Rossleigh.  Boy, did we get some GREAT shots!!  She ended up taking 367 photos, so these below are just the tip of the iceberg!  :)

Here are just a few of the family shots:

And here are some of Rossleigh:

Which are your favorites?  I'll be posting more here and there over the next few days, but just wanted to show a sample of the poses Agnieszka captured!  How lucky are we to have her in our lives??  :)  

We love Ciocia Aga (Polish for Aunt Agnieszka)!!!  <3

Looking back...

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Rossleigh is just 9 1/2 weeks old.  When I look back at everything that she's been through in her short little life, it just doesn't even seem real.  It feels like it was almost like a dream?  Fortunately (and unfortunately), I have pictures to remind me of how far she has come...

September 26th, 2012 (just shortly before noon) - Happiest day of my life!!  :)

First time I got to see her - about 10:00pm
the day she was born. It was a LONG day!

First family photo - taken the morning of her surgery (5 days old)

Post-surgery in PICU/recovery.  Swollen, but rockin' the bow!  ;)

Post-surgery...Love the expression on her face!

Happy little bean pod!

Daddy getting to REALLY hold her for the first time after surgery.
  

First time for Nana, Pops, and Gigi to get to hold Rossleigh.  Such happy, happy grandparents!

First time to be able to wear CLOTHES!!!  ;)

Sweet, smiley girl

No tubes or wires!  Last night in the hospital.  Praise the Lord!

Finally at home in my own bed!!  :)

Rossleigh loves visitors!!

On their way back home to Houston, the Holland fam stopped in to see us (more like to see Rossleigh).  It was a brief visit, but so much fun to see them again!  I wished I had taken more pictures though.  :(

Aunt Elisa couldn't wait to get her hands on Rossleigh!!  :)  

Too bad that missy prissy wasn't in the best mood that day.  LOL

Getting ready for Christmas

Since I'm still not back to work yet, I didn't have to take part in the dreaded retail/Black Friday festivities (darn)!!  Instead we got to work on decorating our house for Christmas.  Nana and Megan came over to help fluff our...ahem, FIVE Christmas trees (but this year we're only putting up 3) and start decorating a bit.  While Nana fluffed the trees, Lance got everything out of the attic and put the outdoor decorations out, and Megan and I put away the Fall decorations, cleaned up a bit and decorated the big tree.

In the midst of decorating, Rossleigh needed a wardrobe change (and BATH) after an incident with a diaper (yes, again)...While I was getting stuff ready for her bath, Megan held her.  I absolutely LOVE these pictures!!

Rossleigh LOVES her cousin, Megan!!  Nana refers to them as the Alpha and Omega.  With Nana's grandchildren, the order goes:  Megan, Conner, Jake, and Rossleigh, so she started and ended with girls!  At one point in the evening, Megan was holding Rossleigh.  After a while, Nana couldn't stand it and wanted to hold her.  After she took her from Megan, RCD started fussing.  Nana gave her back to Megan and the fussing stopped!!  We found out that Megan is the BABY WHISPERER!!!  ;)


After the bath, we ate Thanksgiving leftovers and then decorated some more!!  We got a LOT done!!  Lance and I still have a ways to go to be completely ready for Christmas, but we got a very nice head start thanks to Nana and Megan.  :)

Relaxing in Daddy's arms

Rossleigh's First Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  We spent ours surrounded with family and wonderful food.  We started off at Nana's house in Watauga for a Thanksgiving lunch with Rossleigh's Uncle David, Aunt Marcy, and her three cousins.  After the meal, everyone decorated Nana's three Christmas trees.  Since Nana worked so hard creating the meal, she took a break in the backyard with her two youngest grandbabies.

She started out on the chaise lounge with Rossleigh.  Jake is used to being Nana's number one guy, so he decided that he would climb up into Nana's lap with his cousin.  :)  Rossleigh didn't mind sharing.  Nana didn't seem to mind either!!  ;)


Then we headed over to Gigi's and Pop's house in Bedford.  We ended up getting there later than we expected (hard to always make a "plan" with a newborn...lol), so we missed the meal.  That was okay because Rossleigh got to spend some time with her Pops, Gigi, Mimi (great grandmother), Uncle Randy, Uncle Paul, Aunt Jeanette, and her cousin.

So Rossleigh's first turkey day was fun-filled but we were all three pretty tired by the time we went back home!!  Hope your day was as fun as ours!!  :)

Prepping for Thanksgiving

As tomorrow will be Rossleigh's first "real" holiday (does Halloween count?), we went over to Nana's house today to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  Because of some little mishaps at home (more on this later in the post), we ended up arriving much later than we intended.  Nevertheless, we made it and were there for working on pies!  I learned how to roll how pie dough and tried to master the art of forming the dough.  I failed miserably.  Things like that really aren't a skill you just pick up; it really is an ART!!  I'll get it one of these days.  And Rossleigh?  Well, she pretty much slept through all of it...LOL

So the mishap...This child of ours is a little stinker!  I had planned on giving her a bath this morning, but delayed it due to...grunting.  Usually this loud grunting that our little sweetie does indicates that we are about to get an extra special present in her diaper.  ;)  So I waited and waited and received no "present".  I decided it must have been gas and foolishly proceeded with the bath.  She was undressed, placed in the tub, and I started bathing her.  All of a sudden the grunting starts again and I realize that the dreaded is happening - there was poop in the tub.  So I pulled Rossleigh out, cleaned her up and had her wrapped in a towel on the counter right next to me.  I got the mess out of the tub, did some disinfecting, got the child back in the tub, and we finished the bath.

Finally, I got her all dressed and smelling like a precious little baby...and the grunting starts again.  Really??  As I'm changing her "present" diaper, she peed everywhere - all over the outfit I had just put her in.  Soooo, I undressed her, got her cleaned up again, changed her clothes, and got her back to smelling like a precious little baby.  Whew!!  She wore me out!  Plus I still had to get myself dressed, get her loaded into the car, and head over to my mom's.  What a stinker!!  She doesn't do that sort of thing often (and the gift in the tub was a first), but it's actually a little - LITTLE - bit funny, so I thought I'd share.

After we got home from Nana's house, I started working in my own kitchen - Oreo Pudding Poke cake, Pumpkin Crunch cake, and Corn Casserole!!  Can't wait for tomorrow!!  :)