So much to be thankful for

This year was by far our best Thanksgiving ever. It was the eighth one for Cliff and I to spend together and having Amelia here with us makes us realize that we only thought we were happy before. We are so thankful to have our beautiful, healthy daughter. It has been a big year for us, with lots of blessings in addition to our baby girl. We bought our first house and Cliff got a new job at Co-Lin. We are so fortunate to have our jobs, our health, our home, a wonderful loving family, lots of great friends, and a church that we love.

But enough of that! Now on to what you really want to see, new pics of the princess! She turned a month old yesterday. Where has the time gone? Look how much she's changed already.

Finally getting to meet her Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Josh on Thanksgiving:

Laid out in her Great Grandpa Fred's lap. She slept all day long on her first Thanksgiving!
Just hanging around the house in a cute outfit from Aunt Katie
First of many more Christmas pics to come!
Watching Mommy decorate the tree is exhausting!

Wearing the cute dress Aunt Kathryn knit for me

We have enjoyed having Cliff home for the last several days. Now it is back to just Mommy and Amelia at home during the day. I had really gotten used to having an extra set of hands!

Housewarming party and this morning's photo shoot

All dressed up but slept right through Aunt Katie's housewarming party

And a few from our morning photo shoot:

Still a little sleepy and kind of over me already

We call it the "stink-eye"
Finally a couple of decent ones:

Our first stroll

The weather was so nice today, so we decided to get out and stroll around the neighborhood. We both enjoyed it so much! I thought the stroller would put her to sleep, but she was wide awake the whole time.

Daddy documented us getting ready to go on our first stroll. He couldn't join us because of another dumb basketball game. Ok, I didn't mean that. We are thankful that basketball helps pay our bills! I'm just mad we can't go to his games yet and he can't hang out with us all the time.

We stopped in to visit our friend Tucker who lives down the street. He was born just 5 days after Amelia.

Amelia could not understand why he wouldn't wake up to play with her! Maybe next time. Oh and yes, I am aware that I finally posted a photo of my baby without a ginormous bow in her hair! We don't have to wear one everyday, just almost everyday.

3 weeks old already?

I had a few minutes at the tail end of a nap and had the choice of a) grading papers; b) eating lunch; or c) blogging and catching up on my social networking sites. Tough choice between eating and computer, but computer won, so I guess I will eat during the next nap!

It's so hard to believe Amelia is already 3 weeks old! (Ok, the nap just ended prematurely and she is now in my lap as I type, ha) At her 2 week check-up last week, she had already gained up to 9 lbs 1 oz. Usually they hope that babies will gain up to their birth weight by 2 weeks, so our little fatty is on the right track!

Here are a few new pics!

First time in jeans:

First real bath in the tub:

Resting up before our first professional photo shoot:

She placed her hands like that on her own! Loves to have that hand up by her face!

Just a swingin':

Las week we had a photographer come by to take her newborn photos for her birth announcements. Can't wait to see how they turn out and share them with you all!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Cliff's 27th birthday. Amelia and I helped him celebrate with pizza and an ice cream cake. We had such a great day, just lounging around the house. It was nice to spend some time together since it is basketball season and he has been gone a lot lately. I had the photo above framed for his office, so now he can remember that his biggest fan is cheering for his team when we can't be there.

Last night was our first night away. Well really, it was my first night away. Cliff has been gone several times for practices and ball games. Oh and he goes to work every day, ha. My parents came and stayed with her while we had dinner at Dixie Springs Cafe. We also got Coach Furr a few new coaching clothes at the mall. It was nice to put real clothes on and actually leave the house and have a nice dinner, but I missed my baby so bad! We were only gone a few hours and were actually home by 8:00! Baby steps...

My little baby doll

I am having so much fun dressing up my little princess in cute outfits everyday! She would fuss when having her clothes changed at first, but now she doesn't mind at all. And she just loves wearing big bows in her hair! Her Aunt Katie took the precious picture at the top today. Baby girl didn't even flinch during all the snapping! Glad she is getting used to our routine, ha. The others are from her tutu photo session with Mommy and Aunt Mar the other day.

She is almost 2 weeks old now and is already going longer between feedings which is giving me some much needed rest. I don't want to brag too quickly because things could change soon, but she is such a good baby!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, even though we probably won't even leave the house. Our hearts are just filled with thanksgiving every day to God for His precious blessing!

These are a little better

After the first shot, I decided that bow was just too small! Ha. I tried to capture a little smile in the last one. I'm sure it was just gas, but a smile is a smile! Can't seem to get the pic to rotate and no time to play around with it any longer. Yes, it is feeding time again! The time does fly by between those feedings!

Happy One Week Birthday, Princess!

Can't believe it's already been a week since we welcomed our precious angel! Time is a blur to me while I get used to my new life as a human feeding machine! I am proud of myself for sticking to it and not giving up on nursing, but it is so demanding! This little fatty loves to eat. I have begun pumping, so now Daddy is able to help feed her at night while I catch up on some sleep.

We are all doing great. We are just eating up every second we can with her. She is changing every day, and these pics aren't that great, but I wanted to show how she is growing already. In a week or so, I'm going to book her newborn photo session so we can get some good shots for her birth announcements.

Not much time, but just wanted to post a quick update, mainly for Uncle Chris and Aunt Kathryn, who I know want to see her so badly! Come visit us as soon as you can!

Welcome, Amelia!

Where to even start? This blog was a great distraction for me when I was constantly counting down to her arrival and obsessing over what she would be like. Now that she is here, I just want to hold and love on her, so the blog is not my top priority, ha.

Jut a little re-cap of the events of the last 3 days: Wednesday morning we went to the hospital to be induced. Of course I was so nervous about the unknown. It didn't help that some of those same people who loved to boss me around during pregnancy had been telling me all the horror stories of childbirth.

The labor itself wasn't bad at all. My silly husband kept me laughing and we had lots of company coming in and out to keep our minds off the waiting. Oh and the epidural helped a little, ha. When it was finally time to push, it was around 4 p.m. I thought we would be seeing her in 30 minutes or so, give or take. So when an hour had gone by and still no baby, we were all getting tired and frustrated. I am no quitter, but I came really close to giving up! I was just so tired and it didn't seem that we were getting anywhere, but after an hour and a half of pushing, Amelia finally arrived at 5:31 weighing in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces with lots of hair and big fat cheeks!

We got home yesterday and have been just enjoying every second of her. We've had a lot of company already, and we expect more today, so I need to take advantage of my sleeping baby now and actually get a shower and get dressed. More updates and photos to come!