Christmas

We Had a great Christmas this year! We finally took the plunge and got a tree that was taller than 2 ft! It may or may not have fallen over a few times before Christmas due to a curious Hallie, and once because of a clumsy Liz.

We had a white Christmas and took Hallie out to play in the snow for her first time

Christmas Eve was fun, "Santa" really enjoyed setting up for Hallie the next morning!

Hallie didn't disappoint and got right to business investigating her gifts!

Hallie's favorite food is raisins, and she sure loved it when she saw that her stocking was filled with little boxes of raisins, just her size.

Daddy Had fun helping Hallie try out her new toys.

And I liked my new bag. A Lot!

Grant and Hallie talking to family.

We had so much fun spoiling this girl all day long!

We just played and played until bed time, it was great!

We had so much fun celebrating with our little family, and are excited for the years to come with Hallie. I have a feeling Christmas is just going to get better and better!

We hope you all had a great Christmas!

New Orleans

Grant and I were able to take a mini-vacation to New Orleans while we were visiting family in Mississippi. Da and Nik were so sweet and offered to watch Hallie for two days so that we could have a nice relaxing trip. They also helped me plan a surprise for Grant. Grant loves football , so I decided that for our anniversary I would surprise him with tickets to the New Orleans Saints' game while we were in New Orleans. Grant was definitely surprised! Grant in front of the Super Dome before the game.

The countdown clock.

The Saints' Santa

I knew we were kind of in nose-bleed country when I bought the tickets, but Grant and I both thought it was kind of funny once we actually sat down that there really was only one row higher than our seats.

Grant, so excited to be at a real NFL game!

The next day we went sight seeing around the French Quarter. We had breakfast at the famous Cafe Du Monde. Super Yummy!

It's a good thing that we can't eat the food there every day, we'd weigh 500 pounds!

We wondered the farmer's market, and bought this souvenir for Hallie. This man painted a picture out of the letters in her name in less than five minutes! I'm excited to get it framed for her room.

We had a great time, and are so grateful that we could leave Hallie and know we didn't have to worry about her at all, however we did miss her like crazy. We ate great food, wandered and took a carriage ride around the French Quarter, and went to our first movie since Hallie was born. Thanks Da and Nik!!!

Thanksgiving

In November we headed down to Mississippi to visit Damon and Nikki's family. They were gracious enough to host us as well as Nikki's family from out of town, 12 people, for the week of Thanksgiving and their new baby Kevin's blessing. We were so excited to spend a week with them and meet their newest baby, Kevin (who I somehow managed to never get a single picture of ). We could not believe what a sweet little guy Kevin is, and we are so glad that we got to be there for his blessing. We had so much fun spending time with everyone, and miss all those cute kids so much!

The first morning we were there, Hallie wore her pajamas that matched Sadie's. Sadie was so cute and excited to match her little cousin, so we had to get a picture!

For Christmas Grant's family exchanges names, and we had the Mississippi Campbells this year so we brought their Christmas gifts with us. I made the boys ties, and the girls skirts that matched the ties. It was a fun project, but I don't think I will be taking on any homemade Christmas gifts this next year. The work paid off though, and all of the kids loved their presents!

For Damon and Nikki we got a new griddle. I was shocked that with 4 kids they had never owned one. I hope they like it as much as we've loved ours. One things for sure, the box was a lot of fun for the kids to play in!

Hallie LOVED having so many kids to play with all week! Jack taught Hallie how to play with light-sabers.

I can't wait for Hallie to get a little bigger. I had so much fun with my sweet nieces in the kitchen! They were great helpers and helped make rolls and pies for Thanksgiving.

The weather was amazing while we were there. Hallie loved being able to run around outside. It was great watching all of the kids run around out there after Thanksgiving dinner. I could really get used to the warm winter in Mississippi!

Grant and I both agree that Hallie seemed to grow up so much while we were there. She tried so hard to keep up with all of the big kids all week.

Nikki's niece Ashlynn, let Grant practice his hair skill on her. Grant was so proud of his braid, and Ashlynn seemed to like it too because she slept in it and then wouldn't let any one take it out the next day.

It was great spending time with family! Every night we would relax and play games together. Some of us were better losers than others, Damon, as you can see from the picture.

We had a great time, and can't wait to spend time together again!

Happy Birthday Hallie

Hallie turned one on November 11th. We celebrated with friends and had a small party for her the Saturday after her birthday. She had sooo much fun. Hallie loves being around kids, especially big kids, so she was in heaven all night running around "playing " with all of her friends. We expected that Hallie would love her cake- she'd been begging for tastes of the frosting all day while I decorated her cake and cupcakes. She did pretty good at getting nice and messy, but really didn't do too much damage to the cake.

Happy Birthday to you sweet girl!

Finally digging in (I love that you can see her friend Kate longingly looking on)

Starting to get into it

What a difference a year makes! We cannot believe how much this girl has grown, and how our love for her just keeps growing and growing!

A decent effort. I was going to just give her a cupcake to eat, but someone (Aunt Nik) said that she needed her very own cake for her First Birthday. I think a cupcake would have been just the right size, but it was still fun to see Hallie digging in to her very own birthday cake.

Hallie's friends enjoying the food at her party. I was a little stressed in November, it's kind of a busy month for us. I had hoped to throw a really cute party with a theme and decorations, but when it came down to it there just wasn't time. We ended up serving Hallie's favorite foods; cheese, crackers, grapes, and guacamole.

Friends helping Hallie open presents

She had such a great time! We were so happy that she could share her Birthday with friends, and we're happy that these brave boys were willing to come to a girl party!

Trouble

Is there anything else to say about this?

Did we mention we love this girl?

Pictures, pictures, pictures of our sweet Hallie! Hiding in the closet eating shoes

First time with pig-tails

She's pretty stingy with her kissed, but when she decided she wants to give you a kiss, watch out!

She's still working on her form, we get a lot of open mouth kisses.

Yep, love him too

So cute!

Next time you run out of hair gel just try some banana, it works great for Hallie.

Trying out her new winter coat, it's so big it throws of her balance when she's walking.

Always so happy to see you when she wakes-up
If the basket fits, sit in it.

There are no words...