Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Well, the holidays are over. I just dropped a tearful Charlotte off at daycare. I have spent the last 14 days with her and it has been wonderful. (ok, and a little tiring) Judd was off of work for a good portion of that time as well. We haven't spent that much time with her since she was 3 months old and it was wonderful to be together. Judd asked me the other night, "Do you really think you could be a stay at home mom?" I didn't have to think about it, yes I could in a heartbeat.

We even got a few things accomplished around the house. We finally decided on and ordered our new couch. We hung curtains in the living room yesterday! Our house is starting to look more "grown up" by the day. Yesterday we decided that 2009 was going to be the year of the house. Maybe a kitchen renovation is in the future??

I don't have any big resolutions this year. Of course I would like to get this flab around my midsection to go away, but I'm not going to put that on myself. If it happens, it happens. I would like to learn to be more patient, especially with Charlotte and Judd. I would like to continue to only say "yes" to the things I can handle - not get too overwhelmed. I would like to continue to develop my photography skills...maybe even try to take a client or two eventually? I would like to continue to blog, at least 4 posts a week.

Who knows what else 2009 will bring!

11 months

Look at that little girl! Who is that? I'm pretty sure it isn't my baby, she is way too big. Charlotte was 11 months on New Years Day. This is her last month as an infant. In one month we will have a toddler on our hands. I am working now on planning her first birthday.

She has begun to point at things she wants to bring attention to, whether it is food she wants or the Christmas tree. Over Christmas her grandparents discovered that when they asked, "Charlotte, where is the Christmas tree?", she would look at the tree and point. She will wave and say "Bye-Bye". She also will point to a dog and say "Dog". (Or something pretty close) She is doing pretty well with the sippy cup. I'm not sure if we'll be able to totally give bottles up at a year, but I hope so. She is eating 95% table food. I haven't purchased baby food in a while. No walking yet. She has taken a few steps here and there, but nothing to write home about. She seems to be pretty content with crawling. I'm not sure if she'll be walking by her first birthday or not. She seems to laugh a lot more. When she is playing, I'll hear her start to chuckle to herself.

Christmas 2008

I finally have had a few minutes to go through the over 450 pictures that were taken over Christmas. It was fun to look back over the past week and a half..it flew by.

The Monday before Christmas, Judd, Charlotte, and I headed to Cordele to spend the first half of the week with Judd's family. I had some work to finish up, but was able to bring my computer along and work during some down times. For the last two years, I brought gingerbread cookie dough along with me. It has become a tradition to roll the dough out, cut the cookies, and decorate them with my nieces, Katie and Lilly. The week prior, I had been really busy getting ready for Christmas, working, etc., so I didn't bring any dough with me. I had only been in the house for 5 min when Katie asked when we were decorating cookies. Oops! Judd's mom had the great idea to get some Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, so we rolled that out and decorated the cookies the day before Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve we headed over to Pam and Mike's house for dinner & dessert with the extended family. Judd's dad smoked a turkey all day. It was probably the best turkey I've had. When you add in good southern sides like fresh rolls, butter beans (lima beans for you yankees), black eyed peas, and dressing, you have a pretty fantastic Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner, we played Christmas Bingo and opened gifts. Charlotte was a really good girl, despite refusing to take a nap that afternoon. She crashed for a half hour about half way through the night, though.

We found out Christmas morning that Santa had gone above and beyond. There was a Wii console, razor scooters, and a princess castle for Katie & Lilly. Charlotte had a little pile as well :) It was a much smaller pile, but she didn't need much this year. It was such a fun morning. There is nothing like Christmas morning with children.

Christmas day night we flew up to my parent's house to finish out the week. We opened presents with my family on Friday evening after dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend Christmas both places. My sisters and I made presents for each other this year. While it was stressful getting them finished, I really enjoyed seeing what they had created.

My mom decorated a tree especially for Charlotte. She got a little live tree and decorated it with gingerbread men and dried orange slices. Then, after Christmas my dad planted it out in the yard to commemorate her first Christmas.

Of course, Charlotte grabbed a gingerbread man off of a low branch and bit his head off.

Judd headed back to Atlanta on Sunday and I decided to stay until Tuesday. I had a great time, but was glad to get back home and back into a routine of some sort. It was a Christmas to remember and I want to thank our families for making Charlotte's first Christmas so special.

What happened instead of naptime

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with great memories. I'll post more about that once I'm home.

Today, Charlotte refused to take an afternoon nap. What happens to babies that don't nap when they have mommies with new cameras? A photo shoot.

Merry Christmas

I'm going to take a little blog break this week while I enjoy the holidays with the fam. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

And because I don't like to post without a picture, here are a couple from bathtime one night this weekend.

Getting Ready to Party

Judd and I are hosting a little get together tonight. We have been hard at work today preparing. Charlotte has been very helpful.

First, she helped her Daddy find a pot to cook the pasta:

Then, she helped me clean the bathroom:

After lunch, she helped me empty the dishwasher: (She actually climbed onto the dishwasher all by herself)

Whew! What a tiring day. Time for a little nap?

Christmas came a little early

On Wednesday, I waited patiently all day. Then around 4 o'clock, I heard it coming down the street. I looked out of my home office window to see a beautiful sight, a big brown truck stopping in front of my house. I ran downstairs, opened the front door, and signed for the package. Judd made me promise to wait until he got home that night to open the box. When he got home, I finally was able to hold my brand new camera!!

My wonderful husband bought me a Nikon D90. I have been swamped with work this week, so I haven't been able to play with it too much. So far the biggest difference I can see is the ISO. I am able to bump it up a lot farther than the D70 and not see too much grain in the pictures. This will help me greatly with indoor pictures. I can't wait to try it out more outside this weekend.

Here are two pictures I took yesterday. The last one was taken of Charlotte in her pitch black room. The door was open just a crack to let a little light in. I think the ISO was at 3200!

Watch out Annie Leibovitz!